Why does everyone hates barbarian factions?

[Vincent Butler]

Egyptians are always exterminated, unless it is only a town or large town. Romans pretty much same way. Usually I look at happiness before deciding with others. I usually make my determination about temples at that time as well. Corduba, Londinium, Tanais, Tarsus, Patavium (usually), and Dimmidi will always get the public order temple. Not a bad idea to build it in Corinth as well if you are not Greek, to make sure you maintain the temple of Zeus at Olympus. That will help your public order with all other cities. However, I consider the upgrade to missile units from Artemis (or a Pantheion to Zeus, if I am that late) worth keeping. I have only gotten into Greece once as a barbarian. By that time, riots were killing my campaign.

[weejonnie]

Well my Spanish campaign (M/M) is about to enter Greece - have taken Appolonia (or whatever the city opposite Tarentum is called), my armies of Bull warriers/ long-shield cavalry are kicking Brutii butt and the Mediterranean Sea is Spanish controlled. Basically I put in Temples of ESUS everywhere there isn't already a temple of public order, since not only does it give you Bull Warriors, it maximises public order. It is about 225BC, so not sure if Marius reforms have kicked in. 33 provinces including Spain, Gaul (1 Province Left in Greece), Great Britain (they are down to a few ex-Germania towns), Italy, Carthage (not yet secure). I have no problems with rioting -most of my towns are now developed as much as I want, so expenditure has gone down (the smaller towns are on low tax rate to speed up development). (The Scipii control Sparta but as that is the only city they do control in Greece I'll probably take that next.) Have done some bribing - I think that the bribery rates are set by your budget at the start of each turn - so you have to bribe early.
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End of campaign: Scipii didn't attack Carthage until I got some reinforcements there - and then started wandering off to Egypt (So I took Tharsis). Got rid of Britannia but didn't invade Dacia. Cleared out the Greek City Areas. Numidia attacked Carthage - bad mistake as 4 turns later I had wiped them out, and took Byzantium as my 50th. The Brutii were a pain as their black-sea ports were churning out quinquiremes. I have a rule that whenever a navy dock for re-training, I always add another vesssel. It is amazing how quickly the navy builds up.

Basically once I had Carthago Novo and Corduba churning out bull warriers and my forces arraigned to stop the Gauls/ Julii this was a cakewalk - it did take until 200bc or so, so it was one of the longer campaigns.

[Vincent Butler]

My brother likes the Spanish, the Scutarii are decent. I personally don't like the use of Bull Warriors for my own because I question their historical reality. But that is just me, I try to factor realism in instead of just playing for fun. I don't use Druids, despite the fact that I have seen firsthand how useful they can be (I used to use them).

It seems Dacia does not get much mention, probably in part because you have to mod to get them, same as Spanish. It seems to myself and my brother that Dacian Warband seem to fight better than standard Warband, though I doubt that is actually the case. Then again, maybe since they are supplemented by Falxmen instead of Swordsmen, the battle goes better for them, so they don't rout as quickly. But Chosen Swordsmen and Chosen Archer Warband? That would make for a tough force, especially because they also get Barbarian Noble Cav, who are decent as well.

[weejonnie]

My brother likes the Spanish, the Scutarii are decent. I personally don't like the use of Bull Warriors for my own because I question their historical reality. But that is just me, I try to factor realism in instead of just playing for fun. I don't use Druids, despite the fact that I have seen firsthand how useful they can be (I used to use them).

It seems Dacia does not get much mention, probably in part because you have to mod to get them, same as Spanish. It seems to myself and my brother that Dacian Warband seem to fight better than standard Warband, though I doubt that is actually the case. Then again, maybe since they are supplemented by Falxmen instead of Swordsmen, the battle goes better for them, so they don't rout as quickly. But Chosen Swordsmen and Chosen Archer Warband? That would make for a tough force, especially because they also get Barbarian Noble Cav, who are decent as well.

I am doing Dacia at the moment - inspired by this comment. Headed south and then over to take Byzantium. Thrace was a doddle but Macedon took a long time (during which Germania kept asking me to become a protectorate.). When I eventually killed them off (and the Greek cities) there was virtually no one left alive in Corinth, Sparta or Athens - which is affecting my recruitment as I build the population back up (I didn't have anything to do with that). Have had various Julii stacks wander over. As I write the Brutii are down to Tarentum and Crete (under seige). Will leave one army up north to deal with German warbands and then concentrate on the Italian campaign. The overall campaign has taken a long time (for me) as I am only up to 16 or so territories and we are nearly into the 190s BC. I don't really want to open up a third front (Scythia) although the city is ripe for plucking.

[Vincent Butler]

I am doing Dacia at the moment

Dacia could be tough as a campaign, at least in my experience, though it seems not as tough as Thrace. With me, I attacked Macedon, Thrace attacked me. Right now I am doing OK, I took Bylazora and Thessalonica. Right now I am at a battle for Thessalonica, but both times I have tried to fight it the computer crashed during the battle. Too bad, the second time I destroyed both their ram and siege tower, leaving only two ladders. My Falxmen should then own their Phalanx Pikemen on the walls.

I also have a good Germania going. I wiped out Britain, and Spain and Julii combined to take out Gaul. I was allied with both Spain and Julii. Julii betrayed me quickly, as I expected. Spain just recently did. Right now I am at an impasse with Rome. Right now I only have one main army, for financial reasons, but I can't really deal with all the Roman armies who are around northern Italy (I have Patavium and Massilia). Dacia is a buffer between me and the Brutii, but I don't like letting them just sit in Greece uncontested. However, Spain can be lucrative. I think I will try to take Italy, I think my units can easily deal with Spain so I can probably take them slowly, maybe create an army and just not move them as quickly, to save money. I think my main focus should be dealing with Rome.

[weejonnie]

Dacia could be tough as a campaign, at least in my experience, though it seems not as tough as Thrace. With me, I attacked Macedon, Thrace attacked me. Right now I am doing OK, I took Bylazora and Thessalonica. Right now I am at a battle for Thessalonica, but both times I have tried to fight it the computer crashed during the battle. Too bad, the second time I destroyed both their ram and siege tower, leaving only two ladders. My Falxmen should then own their Phalanx Pikemen on the walls.

I also have a good Germania going. I wiped out Britain, and Spain and Julii combined to take out Gaul. I was allied with both Spain and Julii. Julii betrayed me quickly, as I expected. Spain just recently did. Right now I am at an impasse with Rome. Right now I only have one main army, for financial reasons, but I can't really deal with all the Roman armies who are around northern Italy (I have Patavium and Massilia). Dacia is a buffer between me and the Brutii, but I don't like letting them just sit in Greece uncontested. However, Spain can be lucrative. I think I will try to take Italy, I think my units can easily deal with Spain so I can probably take them slowly, maybe create an army and just not move them as quickly, to save money. I think my main focus should be dealing with Rome.

The funny thing about my Germania campaign is that I never really got to use beserkers - it was mainly spear warbands. Put them in phalanx mode and you would kill just about everything (on M/M). (Great fun watching the british chariots become horse kebab). Off-hand I would suggest you leapfrog italy and hit the Greek cities or the Brutii in Southern Italy - the Brutii army is probably a long way away and if you can take 4 or 5 cities very quickly i.e. in 3 or 4 turns then you have sufficient money and quality troops to rapidly expand your military capacity. You will need to create a couple of armies on the Greek mainland and consistently retrain depleted ones, but you can afford to do that and wear out the Brutii there. Be prepared to slice off weakly defended cities wherever you find them (often you can use your navy to get a good idea of the garrison without risking a spy) - especially Palma and Corsica. And Blockade, blockade, blockade. Kill that Mediterranean trade to hurt the Brutii, blockade Sicily and Africa to prevent the Scipii from bringing back troops to Italy (Also watch out for a chance to take carthage as the Scipii move their forces haphazardly around the African coast). In all my games the onset of the naval battle marks the middle game - at the end of it your opponents are seriously weakened. Patavium is a good port city (boats/ large boats), but is some way away from the Mediterranean Sea conflict - one good reason why taking out the Brutii down there is a good idea (another advantage is that I don't think SPQR can break a seige in one turn - so you should be able to take them out in two turns.)

I am not sure why you are having financial problems - yes Germania isn't exactly the strongest economically but once you take the rebel provinces you start earning some money. The best income generator in NW Europe is the sea trade across the English Channel, so if you haven't the town opposite Londinium I suggest you take it. Similarly if you can hit Cordoba - it may be weakly defended as it is some distance from the front lines (I know it can be rebellious, but it can be controlled by switching temples and gradually replacing all the eastern facilities you have there). I didn't find Spain that rewarding (other than Cordoba) when I played them - it depends on how well developed the Eastern Ports are.

It will pay to have some towns/ large towns on low taxation for a while - the compound interest of population explosion really kicks in. Look for towns relatively close to upgrade - it may be worthwhile moving peasants to them - and ensure you have governors in them so when you do hit a large town in Greece/ Italy you get the big population boost. Obviously once you have minor cities you hit them with as much taxation as you can.

You can always try and bribe the armies I suppose - With Spain I had D210000 available and one army asked for D169000!, but small armies can go for D2000 - D5000. (I lost a town to bribery in my Dacia game - fortunately I had the only army nearby and was able to re-occupy it).

[Vincent Butler]

The Romans in my Germania just have a bunch of small armies running around, but the Scipii, Julii, and Brutii are all running around there. None attacking me, but enough to where I don't want to attempt to besiege Patavium or Segesta, which are full. Also, since Rome can make siege weaponry and I can't, I am not using my standard phalanx tactic of goading an attack at a bridge. Realistically, I could probably get away with it, as once they engage my troops their siege weaponry stop using flame, and stand just as good a chance of hitting their guys as mine.

I really think I will strike Italy, but I may have to launch an amphibious invasion so their troops can't get there in time. Now, in one campaign I besieged Ariminum, but the Senate came to their aid and I was forced to withdraw. The Senate left their army there, so I promptly sent my army to Rome and took it while the Senate's army sat by their ally's city. I may try that tactic again, but first need to see what kind of armies are actually in Italy who could reinforce them. My Spanish conquest will be slow.

I do not like letting the Brutii sit in Greece, and really want to attack Patavium as a springboard, but will have to wait for the right moment.