Ostrogoth Campaign

[Bramborough]

Finished up an Ostrogoth Campaign last night. Normal Difficulty. Took it to Minor Victory conditions.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So this is how I finished up territory-wise. The Dacian territory was extremely late; just the last couple of turns after Huns were destroyed. Note the widespread allies by which I obtained the 30-settlement requirement; continuous agent and military actions against the Huns provided enough diplomatic goodwill to overcome Great Power and other diplo-nerfs.

Pretty conservative approach. Captured Sirmium on Turn 2, and expanded from there. Some fighting involved, but primarily colonized desolated areas. Consolidated Pannonia/Dalmatia/Dardania. It's a pretty good 9-settlement chunk of land. 3 resources (lead, fur, orchard). A port for commerce & trade routes. Pannonia starts at Rich fertility, and so doesn't go completely infertile in late-game. Militarily, the settlements are fairly close together, enabling defending armies to respond quickly to threats. The Danube and its tributaries provide an effective obstacle along the northern edge of the area, especially near Sirmium/Sopianae.

Developed these provinces up to Level III/IV, built a strong enough economy to support 5 high-quality stacks. Was more than adequate to fend off the multiple waves of Huns. Used spies to continuously harass their stacks, assassinating any Hun general with multiple stars. Whacked Attila himself at least 5 or 6 times. When odds were favorable, would pick off a stack or two to get my armies/generals some skill points & influence, as well as foster diplomatic bonuses; was able to eventually forge military alliances with a majority of northern European factions (Franks, Thuringians, et al) as well as ERE and some of the Roman offshoots. The continuous anti-Hun activity was enough to overcome the Great Power and cultural/religious attitude penalties (at least in many cases). Once the Huns were done, resettled desolated Dacia and continued squeezing development out of Dardania, was enough to meet the remainder of Minor win conditions without having to fight anyone else.

I don't know if such an approach would work on Hard and above. It was reasonably challenging on Normal; the Huns kept me on my toes. My defensive scheme worked, but it was repeatedly tested with some seesaw battles, some of which could easily have gone the other way. I enjoyed the Ostrogoth unit roster, with its blend of Germanic and Roman troop types; the latter were particularly prevalent in garrisons, which played well into the defensive scheme. I also liked running Arian Christianity; provides strong Edict options. I found myself situationally switching between Edicts throughout, far more often than I did in Saxon campaign (or in any R2 campaign, for that matter).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Ostrogoth garrisons incorporate Roman melee infantry (even the barbarian settlements, not just captured Roman towns). Cohors (and later Legios) in testudo are defensively strong, especially in a position like this at top of a ramp with protected flanks. In this Level II town defense, the garrison alone beat off a 16-unit Hun stack (although I must admit, this was early, before the Huns started lugging around 2+ onagers in every stack)


Cheap Gothic Pikemen proved quite effective in the early game, when Hunnic stacks were primarily cavalry. Later Hun stacks (say, Chapters III-IV), of course, bring a lot more quality infantry and artillery...

Uploaded the campaign records to the Chronicles; link below, if anyone has the inclination to wade through it. I dunno, I think they need to tinker a bit more with the Chronicles. It's a mass of data, but hard to pick up the essential storyline...to "see the forest instead of the trees". Especially for a whole campaign.

https://chronicles.totalwar.com/Bram.../chapter/14417

One of the best things about Attila is the return to the Family Tree, the political system, and character longevity. I really care about these characters now...whereas sometimes in R2 GC I had to look in the Politics page just to see what my FL's name was. In this game, however, I was genuinely upset when Saphrax was blinded...and he wasn't even in my family. I'm strongly tempted to continue this campaign and take it on to a higher victory condition, just because I don't want to let go of Geberic, Ammius, and their "supporting cast".

On the other hand, I've been chipping away at this campaign for a couple of weeks, and ready to try something new, something "non-Barbarian" after two campaigns as Saxons and Ostrogoths. Maybe ERE or Sassanids. lol, I'm just not masochistic enough to saddle myself with WRE...

[Slaists]

A nice one.

For some reason, whenever I play a migratory faction, I feel compelled to move to Spain and start building from there, lol. Didn't save me from Sassanid invasions in my Visigoth campaign though.

[Paradigmatic]

A nice one.

For some reason, whenever I play a migratory faction, I feel compelled to move to Spain and start building from there, lol. Didn't save me from Sassanid invasions in my Visigoth campaign though.

Sassanids in Spain? Ouch!

[Slaists]

Sassanids in Spain? Ouch!

Yup, they got dragged into the war by some minor faction who had attacked an ally of mine. Then, some 30 turns later, Sassanid armies appeared in Spain, LOL.

The painful part is, everyone on the map seems to like Sassanids (and would not want to join me) and the war with me is the only one the Sassanids have.