This is Total War! Achievement

[Sociopsychoactive]

Hey guys.
Has anyone actually managed to get this yet? I've tried a few times now and have got the formula for the best start down, but as I usually play on vh/vh I'm finding it really quite a challenge.
The best set up for this, IMHO, is the Iceni. Declaring war on the while UK and slapping them around is a very achievable goal, one you will aim for without this achievement most of the time, and you are usually safe from major incursions untill you have a solid power base a reasonably built up recruitment province, which them lies over a navigable stretch of ocean giving you at least one turns warning if the enemy invade. When I've tried for the achievement as other factions it's been the first few decades that have proven most difficult as even if yu carve out enough land to form a power base your neighbours are growing stronger, and killing them off just brings more neighbours.
The +1 PO from all neighbouring tribes is usually enough to keep most provinces reasonably happy and the next big hurdle (for me at least) was when I started taking lands owned by different cultures and had to leave armies parked their untill the provinces were closer to my culture, forcing me onto the defensive and allowing lucky enemy factions to grow in strength while my attention was diverted. On my second attempt the Averni reached 6 settlements while I was still establishing a foothold in Germania, and while I won out in the end it cost so many troops and so much time that I was weak enough for other smaller nations to start taking settlements from me.

The next major hurdle is money. With a constant PO problem from conquest and the need for more military provinces than other games I found myself struggling to pay the bills and build anything all the time. As you cannot trade at all you end up having to limit your army strength to what you can afford with a decent surplus and again, that made me vulnerable to my enemies building well-funded trade empires out of my reach so by the time I come into contact with them they can match me for soldiers and laugh at my pitiful income.

Still, I soldiered on and managed to win out in the end by focusing almost entirely on conquering every celtic province followed by germanic and then others like nomadic, and hit the victory conditions without ever reaching africa of the far east. Only then did I realise I must have missed one 'faction encountered' message as I still didn't get the achievement. I'm trying again as the Iceni, again, and it's going well, but I was wondering how others have got on?

[Kamakazi]

im actually trying to do this achievement with the iceni atm and im having a hell of a time

[Sp4]

Haven't tried it yet.

[Myth]

I think it works on any difficulty. If so, I'd go with Rome or Macedon and just steamroll everything on the easiest setting.

[Sociopsychoactive]

After yet another failure I've switched down difficulty to get this now, but Rome of Macedon were extreamly difficult due to the number of enemies nearby early on. As Rome you end up fighting Carthage, all of Iberia and all the greeks straight away without even having conquered all of Italy, and as Macedon you need to kill off Sparta and Athens almost immediately and can't as your bogged down by other local small factions. I found similar difficulties with all central meditteranian factions, hence going for Iceni.

[Myth]

As Rome you are supposed to fight them anyway. Your troops should be superior. Also, I would try it with the Massagetae. Horse archers and quality shock cav give the best value when predominantly leading battles (and that's what you have to do to stay efficient when in constant war on multiple fronts). Actually HA's alone would allow you to win a number of heroic victories that would fix your early game.

[Sociopsychoactive]

I appreciate the suggestions, Horse archers were always too much work for me to use effectively but for Rome and the like, yes you need to kill them soon anyway, but having to fight them all at once immediately cripples you. You just plain can't support enough armies to war on that many fronts that early, you need to be able to build up a solid core first as you would in any other campaign, just with Rome at war with everyone the nearby nations will be sending fleets against you long before your ready for it.

I'll stick with Iceni.

[Beskar]

I had a game where I was doing this as Germany. I admittedly gave up due to the tedium, but the most annoying thing in hindsight was not able to form a confederation.