Tips to save the West

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Here's a tip - out of the gate use your first-turn cash to assign governors to your most profitable provinces, you'll want to hang onto these and any governor is better than no governor, it will improve your financial situation greatly.

Another - your starty armies suck, really badly, unlike the Western Empire you get no free archer units so you'll want to drive that tech as hard as possible.

A third - try not to go bankrupt.

[I_damian]

My tactic so far has been to slowly build up 3 armies with troops while the rest of the empire crumbles around me. The logic here is that when I've got 3 large armies I will launch 3 large offensives and crush the enemy. General Hilarius will sweep all hairy stinkers from the German border, General Aetius will clear out all hairy stinkers from his area and Wenck will sweep in and save the day.

Unfortunately this tactic is getting me nowhere. What's clearly needed is the abandonment of one or two areas at the very start of the game so that armies can be combined. You need a large army FAST to deal with the marauding stinkers all over your empire. There's no getting around it. I'm gonna start again, abandon Britain and combine those 3 armies in Britain/Gaul in to one large army and go on the offensive. By offensive I mean... an offensive defence. Offence against all stinkers in my borders.

[Paradigmatic]

Another - your starty armies suck, really badly, unlike the Western Empire you get no free archer units so you'll want to drive that tech as hard as possible.

Hire units from neutral hordes. They're really cheap and usually complement your troops with cavalry and slingers (few archers). You can also get pike units from the visigoths.

try not to go bankrupt.

I build local industry and sheep flocks with all my cash turn 1. Forget public order, forget sanitation and especially forget religion (except for priests who get better over time and are mobile). You need to shore up your income to 3000ish + in the early turns or you're dead in the water.

What's clearly needed is the abandonment of one or two areas at the very start of the game so that armies can be combined.

My strategy was to combine the army in Spain with those in Gaul and follow around the Suebi without engaging. You can buy a few units off of them and they're not too aggressive at the start (and if you engage them later on, when the Vandals are fighting someone else, the Vandals may just leave you alone).

In Britannia, I build up a large stack and subdued the 2 minor celts in the north (the irish where friendly). With 2 puppet states on the island, I could then move my army back to the continent and they would defend against Saxons, Jutes and Franks trying to land. Camulodunum does get sacked now and then however so it might be worthwhile to station a small troop to defend it.

When inside the borders of a puppet state, you can hire units as if from a horde. Very useful if you get the Quadi or the Marcomans to be your puppet (they're situated where your armies will be anyways).

Also, get rid of useless generals standing around with no armies! They cost 320 per turn for no good reason.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I have to say, after a while boredom really does set in - I can only play a turn before having to give up, what with needing to fight all these siege battles.

[Hooahguy]

Ive read that crossbowmen are vital to your survival as they pack quite a punch against Hunnic cavalry.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

So, any thoughts on actually catching these hordes and engaging them in battle?

I'm beginning to think I should split this big 20-unit siege army in half and plant the two parts in cities, let the hordes just batter themselves to pieces, because trying to get a good field battle going here seems to mostly be a non-starter.

So much grind guys, so much grind.

I'm actually going "screw this" and quitting mid-turn at the moment on the second turn, all these pokey little siege battle, every turn, that you have to fight because the autoresolve will always lose.

[I_damian]

Here's how my western empire game is going so far:

*Combined the two armies in Gaul and one in Britain together to create a full 20 unit army under one general, disbanded 4 units of light skirmishers that were left over because they're ******* useless and a total waste of money and disbanded the two now-redundant generals. This army, led by general Hilarius, is responsible for the defence of Gaul and Spain. Britain has been abandoned and was lost quite quickly to native British and Western Roman rebels/separatists. Hilarius's army defeated the Suebians and checked a Hunnic army, shadowing it everywhere it moved but never engaging in battle, thus preventing them from entering Gaul. Eventually they got bored and retreated back in to Germany to murder babies and stuff horse manure up their arses or whatever it is the Huns did in Germany.

*Combined the two armies in Noricum and Pannonia with the army in Spain to form one full 20-stack army, again disbanding the 4 leftover units of light skirmishers and two redundant generals. This army, led by Stilicho, was originally responsible for the defence of Italy and Dalmatia, but due to the sheer amount of rampaging hordes in the area of Pannonia and Dalmatia I abandoned any dreams of holding those provinces and Stilicho is responsible for the defence of northern Italy. In the mountain passes to the north-east of Mediolanum Stilicho's army blocked the advance of two Vandal armies. They attacked together and by defending on a forested hill and making masterful use of the 3 units of light cavalry in my army I managed to almost wipe them out. They brought over 2000 men to the battle and escaped with less than 100, though their king was among the survivors. Illyrian barbarians attacked straight afterwards but I saw them off in a close victory. He now sits in Ravenna and all is quiet on this front, more or less, despite the eastern most city in the Venetia region being desolated by godless scumbags.

*Africa is basically indefensible, it's too large an area and all spread out on a long coast. I have one small army sat in Carthage and one small army in the capital city of Libya. Those two cities shall be defended to the last man but the rest have to fend for themselves, I can't spare a full stack for a campaign because it would leave Gaul or Italy open to marauders. The Irish landed in Gaul and desolated one of the cities there. Seriously, why do the Irish have the desolation feature? As if they'd ever sail to Gaul in the 5th century AD and desolate an entire region. It's outrageous.

*Managed to stabilize the following regions entirely: Magna Graecia, Italia, Liguria, Venetia, Narbonesis, Tarraconesis, Acquitainia and the three islands (Corsica, Sardinia, Balearic). This is the core of my empire and where all my money comes from, between 4,000 and 5,000 solidi per turn. The rest are either in open rebellion or close to it. I stabilized these regions by building sanitation buildings, churches and creating a small army in a couple of them such as Sardinia.

I think the next step is to create another full army in Africa and try to subdue the desert tribes there. It will drain my economy almost to breaking point but it's the only front where I can see a chance for overall victory.

[Paradigmatic]

Here's the WRE on Hard after 22 turns. Attila has just been born. Things are swell, I have 3 full stacks (2 retaking northern Gaul, 1 in Venetia), one 12 unit stack in Baetica. A 10 ship fleet going around Spain and a 15 ship fleet in the Adriatic.

Treasury varies from 5000 to 2000 depending on army/fleet size. The loss of northern Gaul cost me a bit (the region had been relatively stable until various vikings decided to invade 300 years ahead of time).

Pannonia/Dalmatia was lost to hordes/rebellion.

Africa went down in rebellions. Only 1 of the african minors is at war with me.

Britain was swell until Jutes and Geats and vikings of all ilk started wrecking havoc. I wasn't expecting them there at all and had moved back the army to Gaul.

All of this was done mainly in auto-calc. Very, very few battles fought. So it was all tactical planning on making money, stabilizing core provinces (Italy and Spain) - Gaul is too open in the north.

Pannonia will always be the buffer of the WRE. I doubt anything can be done to save it. However, now the Vandals, Ostrogoths, Suebi, Iazyges are dead. The Visigoths sued for peace after being reduced to nearly nothing. The Saxons are about to be crushed by the Franks. The Franks and Allamans are my super-buddy allies. Only the various vikings are still particularly troublesome and the Quadi keep coming back to try and raze settlements as far as they can get from there lonely province. They've even managed to reach Mediolanum at some point.

No barbarian army is actually any strong. The Huns are still in the no-man's land north of the ERE.

From here on, the plan would be to stabilize Gaul and retake Britannia. I am thinking, however, to replay more slowly, fighting every last little siege. It would probably allow Britannia and Africa to resist longer, sparing Gaul much of the fighting. I'll probably also move on to VH in preparation for Legendary