Casse campaign report (long)
Don't know if anyone is interested, but this is the type thing I like to see, anyway. I would have posted this in another area - "writeup on current campaigns" or something like that. But I didn't see such a section. A mod is welcome to move this if it's more appropriate somewhere else. At any rate, this report is targeted at either a newbish type of player considering Casse, or the more experienced player who just wants to know how someone elses experience played out and compare it to his own. Also, I have no idea whether any of this info is available in a guide somewhere (haven't read any guides).
So I decided to give Casse a try, because of the "old fashioned" fighting style they were attributed, plus I had been playing several campaigns of "civilized" factions (Carthage, Rome, etc.) so wanted to play some wild barbarians.
A quick look at my starting position (VH/M) and two possible (of many, I guess) strats emerged. One was to take what army I had and attack rebel cities in Britania. The other was to take what army I had, use my boats, and attack in mainland Europe. I'm always a big-picture map strategist if nothing else, and it seemed to me that Britania would always be waiting there for me - you start out with a foothold there, and no other faction should be able to beat you to it. My choice then was to attack the mainland, and return to the island later.
I'd be interested in what strategic choices some of you made here at this juncture, why, and how it worked out.
After making that choice, three more choices (of many, I guess) emerged: 1) attack rebels, 2) attack Germany, or 3) attack Gaul (dark green, not puke lime green). Interestingly, it seemed that I was not at war with the rebels, so I decided to attack Germany or Gaul. I wasn't sure which was best, so I played both out in parallel for a short time - first saving the game and attacking Gaul (dark green, not puke lime green), then reloading and attacking Germany.
As far as Germany goes, the first thing I noticed was that it took forever to get my boats up there and dump off my troops. The second thing I noticed was, he had already taken a couple of cities and had full stacks roaming around, meanwhile I had a measly half to full stack or so, plus debt piled up. I decided to try Gaul instead.
I'd be interested to know what strategic choices some of you made here (Germany or Gaul), and how it worked out.
I attacked the dark green Gaul's coastal city with all the troops I had, including all generals (London was left totally empty). I stomped him in that battle and took his city (for all I know it was his capital city). Moving in towards his other province, I discovered that he had a lot more stuff than I did, and it was higher quality stuff too - swordsmen and such vs. my riff-raff (I think he had 2 stacks or more). I backed off and wondered how I'd be able to defend what I'd just taken. It didn't look good.
I had to put my army and starting position to good use, so I ended up taking 8 cities on the mainland in fairly short order, from all the way up bordering The Netherlands, all the way down to near Spain - all cities hugging the coast, about 2 cities deep in from the coast. When I got to German territory (Netherlands), I noticed the German was lying in ambush right on the bridges to his territory. As I was outmatched, I asked for an alliance and received one, however the entire time I was on my conquest with my rag-tag army I was waiting for an attack from Germany. Strangly enough, it never came. He has sat on the bridges the entire game thus far, waiting in ambush. I was also waiting for an attack from the dark green Gauls, which didn't come for a long while, except a few harassing attacks that were easily repelled. For one thing, both the Gaul and Germany had armies that dwarfed mine, and they were much higher quality as well (all I had were Briton shortswordsmen and levy spearmen for forever, with a very occasional Belgae spear thrown in; meanwhile they had swordmen stacks, mercenary stacks, etc.). Either could have wiped the floor with me.
As for the Gauls, I discovered with spies that they had their hands full with the puke lime green Gauls who kept trying to take the lone city I left them with this side of the Alps. Therefore, the dark green Gaul was forced to keep his stacks nearby his city to defend from puke green. As for Germany, I don't know his excuse. I guess he likes playing defensively and setting traps. He is enemies with dark green, but I've never seen them fight. In fact I've never seen him fight anyone.
Dark green eventually started sending full stacks of swordsmen and Gallic Nobles (footed and horseback) to siege my cities. It was a lot better quality than what I had, as I was still stuck on levy spears, shortswords, and an occasional Belgae spear; however by that time I may not have had quality, but I had lots of quantity and could produce my craptastic soldiers from eight mainland cities at once to repel his attacks. He'd get his kills and often get a higher kill ratio (unless I managed to engage defensively on a bridge), but I'd push him off my cities, and successfully defended all of them.
I'd be interested in how some of your games played out on the mainland.
At any rate I eventually realized that the best troops I had were buildable from my lone city on the island, however I COULD BUILD NO BOATS (and my starting boat was disbanded right after it was used), therefore I couldn't get troops built in London to the mainland! That's right - for all you newer folks out there, you can't build boats from London, nor the first cities you take on the island or anywhere else. You have to get all the way into the furthest reaches of Ireland, or on the westernmost French coast (of my empire, anyway), plus tech that city a level or two before you can build boats. What this meant is, I could never get any decent troops on the mainland and was stuck with shortswords and levy riff-raff for a long time.
When I was ready to build an army on the island and start pushing, I also realized it was unfortunate I diddn't leave a general there initally, as I figured I needed everything for my "Gaul blitz." Therefore I had to proceed to my first target leaderless. Fortunately, after taking that city (the one directly north of London), I realized I could build a Celtic Lesser King there, which upon a save and reload had turned into a regular Casse chariot general (either that, or he was that way all along and I didn't notice).
Once I started taking northern British and Ireland cities, I also realized that it seemed the campaign was "set up" for me to do this first. I got access to good troops through foreign levies and what not, plus scripted events took place. I guess I'd like to hear from folks who took the island first before embarking on the mainland, and see how it played out.
To green or newbie-types who are entertaining thoughts of having a go...
- Your best (meaning cheapest upkeep) garrison troops are british shortswords or militia skirmisers, either of who's cost/capita rivals that of a hellenic skirmisher.
- On the island, you can go far with hoards of celtic slingers, and also militia skirmishers. When you see the slinger's stats, you'll laugh. I believe they do a damage of 1 unupgraded (maybe 2). But get enough of them (like half a stack) and let them sit there outside of the city walls firing at the troops within, and they will do serious damage to the lightly-armored opposition. And they seem to level up quick too. A lot of your militia skirmishers sitting just on the other side of the wall (either before you assault the gate, or while you are doing it) do a lot of damage too.
- The shortsword seems fairly craptastic to me (in a non-garrison role), but it's all I could afford or build on the mainland for the longest time. The only thing I can say about it is, they were cheap to build and mass, at least ostensibly. I haven't done any calculations, that's just my gut assessment, but perhaps someone more of an expert than me will chime in and say they have good bang for their cost, or are efficient in some other way. They are good garrisons, though.
- The levy spears don't seem anything to brag about on the mainland either; the Germanic levies I saw were better at around the same cost, and probably whatever the Gaul was fielding too, but again someone more of an expert can chime in and give his take.
- The Belgae spears are the best troop you can build on the mainland for a while (I haven't been able to tech anything else there yet). They have better stats than rival spears in the area I've seen thus far. Problem is, I can only get them out of two cities or so as of yet (can build them in England also, plus Belgae swords, but the swords don't seem to be available in Europe, at least not as of yet).
- In my opinion, the chariot is craptastic, and my family tree right now looks to be about 80% dead (KIA), with the 20% remaining alive being exclusive governors. It seems to me that you do anything substantial with the chariot in any way, it dies and you can't even pull out if it gets stuck in battle or a charge doesn't work out. However, see my other thread on Celtic Chariots, because apparently others put them to good use and swear by them, at least in the right circumstances (chariot enthusiasts are welcome to comment below).
- Your best troops (at least thus far in my campaign) are recruitable on the island. For one thing your London city starts out rather advanced. For another thing, you get additional faction-specific troops as you conquer into northern England, Ireland, etc. There is a skirmisher recruitable in northern England better than your generic militia skirmisher. There is a spear levy recruitable in Ireland that is better than your generic spear levy. There is an early sword unit in Ireland better than your generic sword. And as far as London goes, there are celtic spears, celtic naked spears, Belgae swordsmen, etc. available from the get-go, which are all good. You can also tech to celtic axemen within short order. Problem is, you don't need much of the good stuff to take out what's in England (I used craptastic stuff because that's all I could afford at the time). The good troops in England are needed in Europe, but you need boats, which I didn't have for the longest time.
So it seems to me that if you blitz the island, you'll have access to your best troops to do it with; however this will mean a delayed push on the mainland, as you won't have any boats because you'll need to disband the boats you start with eventually, and the opposition may be entrenched by the time you get to the mainland (then again, we are talking about the AI here - it may be slow to attack rebel cities). But if you blitz the mainland like I did, you'll be able to conquer a lot of cities pretty quickly if you get lucky, but you'll be spread thin, and you'll only have craptastic troops to defend with for quite a while (you won't be able to get your good troops to the mainland), and your island push will be delayed. I'd like to see how others see this playing out.
In parting, I believe this campaign is advertised as one of the more difficult ones (if memory serves). I'm not finished yet, but I've found it to be very easy. Sure, not as easy as Carthage or Rome, either of which is a stomp-fest, but the next easiest after, and nothing compared to Pontus, Saka, or Koinon Hellenon. However the easiness I experienced could have been somewhat luck, because as I said Germany never attacked me (thus far), and the dark green Gaul was busy with puke green for a long time. I'd be interested in hearing some of your assessments on the difficulty of your own campaign.
Where I'm at currently: All of England except one city in the very southwest, all of Ireland, just got access to boats (southern Ireland) and built one, at least 8 cities in coastal France running up to The Netherlands, and about to besiege the last remaining dark green Gaul city this side of the Alps. It should be more than he can handle (although I've thought that before). It will be all levy spears, Belgae spears, and some slingers (still can't build anything else on the mainland), but it's a lot of it. He's got elite swordsmen and nobles, but I believe he's down to his last stack, in these parts anyway.
After that I'll probably attack into Spain. I'll be interested to see what kinds of elite troops I can build (if any, heh) after taking out dark green and teching up. Either way, at least I can transplant decent troops from Britania down to the mainland now. The best I can build in London now is some kind of swordsman better than a Belgae, and celtic axemen, but I'll be teching more. Funny, about 10 seasons ago I got a report from the game telling me I was the most advanced faction in the world, which caused me to spray coffee on my monitor. All I've used to attack anyone are levy spears, miliia skirmishers, short swords, etc. although I did use a few axemen and celtics and a naked in england.
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