Roman: Julii

[frogbeastegg]

Guide.

[Quietus]

Here's the initial argument for Julii (very hard/very hard, unpatched): Two choices.

1) Strictly North (Gauls & Rebels). Easier but offer less denari in the future.
2) Go North and South (Caralis, Carthage, Thapsus etc.). It is a tougher campaign, involving more coasts and trading possibilities. It is more financially and geographically secure in the long run. Do it when you have enough denari to fund such expedition and make it coincide with a Senate mission to get the reward. One cautionary note: Carthage owns the sea early in the game.

Initial troop selection (Large unit size)(base cost/upkeep cost):
1) Hastati(80)(440d/170d) - will be the initial backbone of the army.(Only option against the Gauls).
2) Town Watch(80)(150d/100d) - will form half of the back bone (They are cheap to train and excellent fodder). You lose half of your Town Watch you only lose 75 denari.
3. Equites(54)(390d/110d) - These are your flankers and chasers. Spread them 2 ½- 3 ½ deep to cover.
4. Velites(80)(270d/170d) - These are special troops useful only when you outnumber the Gaul army. Use them with your Equites and hit the Warbands along the extreme edge. When they give chase, you can sandwich for an easy rout. Their loose formation makes them a liability and the upkeep isn't welcome as well.
5. You may receive an archer as start up troop. Preserve them! They are excellent when besieging Gaul and Rebel settlements.
a) Hit the troops behind the gates.
b) Hit the troops inside the city square, once you have them surrounded. That way, you won't lose too many soldiers when melee starts. You can also use Hastati to let lose with their pila. But make sure the enemy is noncommital to charging.
6. Wardogs (680d/50d) Two turns. I'm gonna try using some of them because of their cheap upkeep. I'll post some more about them later. So no comment yet.

General direction of attack: Segesta, Mediolanium, Patavium, Massilia, Narbo Martius, Lugdunium, Condate Redonium, Alesia....It doesn't have to be in this exact direction or order, but the point is don't spread too wide and utilize chokepoints. For example, you can defer the conquest of Rebel Lugdunium as a buffer against Gaul, while you take out Narbo Martius, Lemonium etc.

You can also go attack Caralis down south then Thapsus (because Carthage is heavily defended). Build your troops down there and send reinforcements if possible. Be careful, because Carthage has a large Navy. If the Carthaginian army leaves the capital and you don't have enough troops to fight. It is suitable to just bribe it (they will disperse). Bribe, ONLY when you have much disposable money and if convinient! Finally, you can attack with your army. However, don't bribe them once they are inside the city or else the city will revolt!!! I bought Lepcis Magna from the Numidians and they revolted after one turn. You have to conquer with your army.

City development:
1) Don't over rely on one province to supply troops you must spread them in deference to their relative population, population growth and distance from the next settlement cap relief upgrade.
2) Always construct trade buildings in coastal provinces, the port will increase trade dramatically.
3. Roads add to trade too.
4. Farm first if the farming profits are very high. Just assess for each province which you should prioritize: farming or trade
5. Build Shrines and Temples to keep you population happy.
6. Build public health buildings. This is the second most important when you conquered a largely populated province, after the shrine.
7. Walls and Enclosures also bring happiness and security, so build them afterwards

Others:
1. Destroy any heretofore Shrines/Temples of other cultures and replace them with your own culture's, so the population becomes converted over time.(edit: other temples oddly lower culture penalties too, however, they cannot be upgraded)
2. Use your selected Heir in battles, when they become the faction leader. Retire him to the Capital. Do the same to your selected Heir.
3. Use a spy to enter enemy settlements. They may open the gate when storm the city.
4. Use Spy or a Diplomat to scout ahead of your army to prevent ambushes.
5. Position at least one diplomat in the proximity of your roman allies. They may be useful in a tight situation. You can ask them to attack a faction, such as the Carthaginians in Lilybaeum while you assault their main settlements in North Africa.

That is all for now. I'll edit later as the game progresses.

[Morindin]

War Dogs are extremely useful against the Gauls I've found.

Currently I own all of France, Half of Germany, Caralis, Illyria + its neighbouring areas, and heading into Macedonian territory. The tricky part is that now I have quite a large space to defend (France + German territory).

Alliances are the key. Have one ally on your borders and spread the other way. This is easy if you ally with the Scythians or whatever because they box in Germany, and the other Roman factions never war with them. Im also allied with Spain to anchor that front.

The Gaul citys are quite poor and under populated but they hardly ever give me any problems with revolts etc due to this.
In general the Gauls are easy and can give you over-confidence.
The Germans have spearmen cable of beating your Histari and even Principes in a front on fight, and the British have chariots that scare the heck out of your troops.

[d6veteran]

Hard/Hard

I am going to increase it next time. I think I lucked out starting with the following strategy as it has been easy going:

Quickly took the two Gaul settlements in N. Italy and then built 3 forts along the mountains to block the Gauls from coming in. I really thought I would have to fight to sustain these forts but they have never been attacked. I think that might be a bug. Why would they attack settlements with 100s of men and not a fort with a small garrison?

I then pushed west, leapfrogging with my navy and secured some of the islands in the west med. I got lucky with a windfall of Senate missions to blockade ports in the west med.

I then used the following tactic to assist in subduing the Gauls -- park my largest army on Gaul settlements and then use a diplomat to demand tribute. I didn't attack but kept demanding money and then just built up a second and third large army.

Then I moved those through Gaul in a counter clockwise motion and used to lots of assassins to kill off faction leaders ahead of my attacks. It was a spy who actually ended the Gauls as a faction.

To manage all the settlements I had taken I used my family member with the highest management rating and took him on a tour of conquered settlements, which allowed me to make detailed adjustments on each settlement he visited. To get a really good governor, build academic buildings in one of your core settlements and leave a selected family member there to have his management abilities and retinue increased.

After killing off Gaul, I launched an attack from the forts in the alps and east from Gaul against a large large Germanic army positioned in a settlement. I used Ballistas to knock four holes in the wall and then switched to flaming bolts to drive them away from the breaches. I find that Ballistas are much more effective against wooden walls than battering rams, plus you don't have to stall a turn to build them. Once I poured in through 4 gaps I was able to put my Principe in bottlenecks and run my cavalry through the streets to flank. I massacred 18 Germanic units with a smaller sized Roman force.

After the Germans lost that army I was able to begin demanding payment. Plus I clogged up the forests with forts to funnel any attack they tried to make to my large army ... which they would withdrawal from.

Using the money I extracted from Gaul and Germany, I built 30 units of ships in the Med. With the help of the Senate fleets I was able to defeat the Greek and Carthage navies and then blockade their ports.

I've had a generous amount of families members through the last 20 turns.

I am now at 222 BC.

I think these things are key:

Forts in bottlenecks.
A roaming Governor skilled in management.
Coupling a large army with a skilled diplomat and demand tribute.
Use spies and assassins as the vanguard of your army. They not only trip up the movement of the enemy forces, but act as scouts. Assassins in small groups will wreak havoc on enemy family members.

++++++++++++++++++++

Tonight I begin my invasion of Briton. After reading all of Simon Scarrow's novels how can I not? :)

[Quietus]

Julii Campaign Part 2: Second Phase – Western consolidation.

The campaign has only begun. But by know you would have chewed a sizable chunk of the Gaul realm. In North Africa, you should have already taken Carthage and Thapsus. It is time for the next operations.

Sign trade agreements with the Britons and the Germanic tribes. If you can, sell them map information for a nice profit too. NEVER accept alliance with them. It is time to pay attention to the Iberian peninsula to fight Spain and the last of the Gauls. Target provinces: Osca, Carthago Nova, Numantia, Scalabris, Asturica, Corduba

In North Africa. It is the Numidian’s turn. Depending on where they are strongest, that’s where you first strike. Now that you have a strong foothold in N. Africa, striking big is now doable. You have to take out the Numidian’s power base first This is opposite the Carthaginian approach because you have really weak troops at that time. By now, you would access to more units.

Second phase unit Selections

1)Principes(81)(490d)(170) – This will be your stiff frontline. Three to six units will suffice defending on the enemy and size of battle.

2)Hastati – They cheaper by 50 denari. You can still bring 2 to 3 of these units with that price difference.

3)Town Watch – It is now more difficult to fight with these units. They are now more appropriate for garrison. Against the Numidians, bring just enough to start garrison immediately.
4)Archers(80)(250d/170d) – Each army of yours must now have an archer. You can use them to bait the AI into charging and decimating defenders during sieges. Be careful with friendly fire. Once the melee start, halt them immediately (disable autofire and put on guard mode in prebattle setup). Shooting any missiles behind your troops in now discouraged due to extremely excessive friendly fire, resulting in your own soldiers routing first. However, you are still free to shoot enemy troops that are not engaged.

5)Ballista(24)(?/100d) – The RTW ballista is now an effective weapon. They have tremendous range and power. Use them during bridge battles to create fear and confusion amongst the enemy. With a ballista in an army, you don’t have to wait a turn to construct a siege weapon, you can attack right away, since they ably break down gates. One downside to this is that they move slowly in the strategic map, bogging down your whole army along with it. You might have to abandon them when you have long ways to travel.
For quick or surprise attacks, for example in attacking an island town such as Palma, they are indispensible.

6)Cavalry Auxilla(54)(?/110d) – Much like Velites, the C.A. is a special unit. It is weaker than the Equites. But it can distract enemy heavy cavalry and other shock troops. Against the Numidians, you can position them along the extreme edges of your army and distract some of their heavy cavalry on Cantabrian Circle mode, while you take out their weak infantry with your regular units and Equites. They can be a problem in forced melee due to their unnecessary, squiggly volitions. So watch out!.

7)Triaarii(80)(500d/210d) – You may get access to these heavy spearmen troops on a limited fashion at this point of the campaign. They are tough enough to hold off barbarian shock troops and cavalries, thus they are best put at center. You can put one in the side with conjuction with cavalry and barbarian mercenaries for a sweeping flank. But more on them later.

Mercenary Units: You will likely encounter these units during your campaign. Mercenary units are very useful. They may be expensive but they shore up your weaknesses and can help you when you need them most.

1)Barbarian Mercenaries(120)(800d/200d) – these shock troops will help you fight with much needed counter attack against the Gauls and the Spaniards. When stacked with fearsome shock troops, the only measure you can do is counter attack. They will charge nearly simultaneously, thus your only option is to hold the middle and counterattack with these mercenaries. When used to flank they are able to quick rout the flank the AI just in time to save your middle from breaking down. One other option is to fight headon while the fast cavalry does the devastating flanks. Thus, it depends on your army composition.

2)Balearic Slingers(80)(800/200) – They substitute for archers if you don’t have one or you need a second one at once.

3)Libyan Mercenaries – Similar to Velites but more susceptible to routing

4)Barbarian Cavalry – A mix between Equites and Cavalry Auxilla. Can be used for flanking and harassment.

There are other mercenary units that you will encounter during the campaign up to this point, but these best supplement to the roman army.

General Strategic Map tactics:

- Build Watchtowers to in between your cities to monitor AI enemy movement
- Use your Spies and diplomats to scout upfront when in foreign soil (you can’t build watchtowers).
- Parking your army between a bridge is ideal. This is a necessity when your army is much weaker than your opponents or when you are still waiting for reinforcements and expecting an attack. This way, you can defend the bridge. I’ll post a bridge defense scheme later. In essence you, you have to hit the enemy units from all sides to make them rout. It is a much different than MTW.
- Switch retinues with an intermediary to best fit your Governor and Army commanders.
- Split your army to trap the enemy. Drop a calvalry or two and a couple of infantry behind your enemy, then attack with your main army. In the battlemap, they will appear as reinforcement, behind the enemy’s back.

Economics strategy:
- Use roaming diplomat/ships to secure trade agreements in other lands.
- Delay farm upgrades in smaller cities, to reduce squalor. When you run out of structures to build (aside from military ones), that means you are ready for the next tech level. At that point, you do the farm upgrade to increase your population for the next tech level.
- In larger towns with governors, they can supply the military force for your army. Use this in conjunction with Enslaving the Population. Enslaving disperses people among the Governor cities ONLY, ensuring steady supply of soldiers.
- Chase off and destroy rebels that are sitting in your trade routes.

That’s all for this edition. Next will be against the terrifying Dacians and the pullout from the Iberian peninsula and N. Africa to open a new front up north.

[Inuyasha12]

Im currently at war with thrace, after taking much of the gallic cities. If Thrace becomes powerfull, try to let the brutii fight them for awhile. Shadow brutiis armies with yours and let them do the fighting. Once there worn down u can take the cities from the thracians. This also denies the brutii access to the balkans and russia. Try not to spread yourself too thin, i did and i had revolts everywhere! After some hard campaining try to look for a way to get money out of your enemies(offer alliance and ask for tribute) when you've build the captured cities up a little attack again!!

[Charlevan]

- Build Watchtowers to in between your cities to monitor AI enemy movement

OK, please how do you build Watchtowers . . . ? I have seen some them on the Campaign map, but how did they arrive?

[Charlevan]

Quickly took the two Gaul settlements in N. Italy and then built 3 forts along the mountains to block the Gauls from coming in. I really thought I would have to fight to sustain these forts but they have never been attacked. I think that might be a bug. Why would they attack settlements with 100s of men and not a fort with a small garrison?

How do you build a fort along the mountain?

[Quintus.JC]

How do you build a fort along the mountain?

Just like RLucid said, but I'd like to add that forts are NOT permanet structure. It is only a termpory walled garrison which are used best to hold strategic positions such as mountain choke points or river crossing. If no units is in the fort for more than one turn the fort itself will disappear from the campaign map.

[Charlevan]

How many units of each type do you use to make a larger army (full stack)?

You mentioned to use Hestati troops against the Gauls, Ive tried that, but it does not seem that the H can hold their own to the Guals . . . Only when the Gauls are outnumbered can these troops get the upper hand . . .

[LestaT]

Still haven't finish with my first campaign yet... Har... Har... Har... Replaying Julii for the 3rd time...

One question, when I sacked Britons & Germans cities I usually destroyed all buildings (which can be destroyed ) and rebuild with Roman works. Anyway I realize tavern aren't replaceable (or am I wrong ?)

Should I leave the taverns or those are the place that breeds rebellion ( got happiness bonus there if not mistaken ).

Cherioo....

[econ21]

I am not sure you need to destroy British and German buildings. In my campaign, the cities were pretty small and so were not that unhappy. I think you can "overwrite" them with your own buildings when they expand in size anyway. The only building I have heard about destroying is the Temple - doing so reduces the culture penalty, although even there I don't rush and often only destroy it when I want to upgrade it to a bigger Temple of my own kind.

[jjnip]

Roman Factions: Julii

Pre Marius

Peasants Gov. House O pop
Town Watch Barr 0 pop
Hastati Mil Barr 2000
Principes Leg Barr 6000
Triarii Army Barr 12000

Velites Prac Range 2000
Roman Archers Arch Range 6000

Equites Stab 2000
Cav Aux Cav Stab 6000
Roman cav Cav Stab 6000
Leg Cav Hippodr 12000

Wardogs Stab

Post Marius

Peasants Gov House 0
Town Watch Barr 0
Auxilla Mil Barr 2000
Early Leg Leg Barr 6000
Legionnairy Army Barr 12000
Preatorian Imp Palace 24000
Urban Cohort Urb Barr 24000

Light Aux Prac Rng 2000
Archer Arch Rng 6000

Roman Cav Stables 2000
Cav Aux Cav Stab 6000
Leg Cav Hippodr 12000
Pret Cav Circ Max 24000

The above is a breakdown of the minimum population you need in a city before you can A) make the appropriate governor house B) make the appropriate military training facility. Once you have the population then you can make the governor house then the military building then the unit.

So your strategy and consequently armies are built around your cities populations. You have to keep in mind your best cities by the nature of their high population are your main factories for units, but you do not want to be too handicapped by fighting with your armies to far from your factories. Why? You need to be able to retrain these units once they take casualties in combat. So keep that in mind when you have Principes that require a Leg Barr and consequently a 6000 pop city before you can retrain them. Off in the wilds of Gaul, Dacia, Brittania, Germania you might not find such good pop cities.


Pre Marius lasts from around 279bc to around 240-220 bc, wich is when the reforms take place. So for these first 40-50 years you will be using Pre Marius units. During this time you will probably get about 25-35 provinces. You will probably have 4-5 cities near about 12000+ in pop.

Mostly you use Peasants and Town Watch to keep civil unrest down, they perform garrison duty.
Hastati, Velites and Equites are your main fighting force during this time.

Hastati Mouse/Key Commands for Combat

With Hastati highlighted right click once on the enemy and the Hastati will walk until close enough then throw a pila and then charge to attack.

With Hastati highlighted double right click or right click and hit "r" on the enemy. The Hastati will run to distance needed, stop throw pila, and then charge for attack. Difference is "walk" vs "run".

If you want the Hastati to attack/charge the enemy quickly without throwing pila, then hold "alt" and right double click on the enemy.

Sometimes a good thing to do is highlight a Hastati unit and make it run at a 45 degree angle to the enemy then have them turn around and attack the enemy in the rear and flank. This is easier if they enemy is already pinned in action. The angle is for distance and also to get the Hastati completely unengaged.

If you are being attacked, it is often good to put Hastati on guard mode. Guard mode seems to increase their defense at expense of attacking power. When Hastati are in guard mode and you are on the defensive then it is good time to have Hastati "fire at will". They will throw their pilas as soon as the enemy close.

Velites

Some people like to put Velites out in front and let them be on Skirmish mode, some like to put them out front and use them as "Arrow fodder" and "bait". I like to put them in "2 deep" stretched left to right formation, with fire at will behind my Hastati. If you are concerned about friendly fire you can pull them back and away once the enemy engage.

Sometimes when the battle is almost over and I sense the enemy route coming I position my velites on my left or right in a position to attack the fleeing enemy. Once the enemy start fleeing, highlight the Velites and hold "alt" and double right click on the enemy, to get them to run/attack draw their daggers even if they have javelins left.

Equites

I used Equites alot, they are monsters, very powerful. The trick is too "not" commit them to early. Do not let them get stuck attacking a unit out in the open, especially a unit you did not want them to attack in the first place, that is the beginning that you did something wrong.

Basically the enemy attacks, once the infantry forces are good and engaged, its kind of like 1-2-3 ok I sense I am winning, I see a clear path to my left around the enemy and behind them. I could attack their enemy in the rear with my equites. So you highlight your equites and right click on the ground at a 45 degree angle as necessary to avoid getting into combat at the main line and hit "r" so they run or just double right click. Its kind of out, up and back.

During my Julii Long Campaign pre Marius I usually had a Army consisting of
4-8 Hastati
2-4 Velites
1-3 Equites
1-2 Merc troops
1 General

Marius Reforms happened for me around 241 bc.

Post Marius

After the Marious Reforms recruit Early and Leg and better Cav. Always good to have a few Archers, Mercenary troops to round out the force.
Early Leg Leg Barr 6000
Legionnairy Army Barr 12000

Around 230-220 bc when I was finishing up my long campaign I had almost 2 cities near 24000+ to give you idea.

221 bc for top 5 Cities:

Patavium 23,216
Mediolamium 22,076
Arretium 15,956
Arriminum 15,442
Corduba 15,212

After I had about 35 territories I attacked Rome and continued down Italy and exterminated every city in Italy and used the money to build my armies to finish off Brutti and get my last 15 faction territories. In fact I exterminated every faction after 35, I needed the money badly.

If I had gone slower, put more money in my cities, waiting a few turns before I attacked I could of built probably a better infrastructure, had a fewer higher population cities and eventually gotten the better units, but that would of pushed me back to probably around 200 bc for endgame and of course everyone else would of been stronger.

I had the money so I spend it and built armies, of
15-18 Hastati, Early, and Leg
1 General

By the time I got into position to take Brutti on after taking Rome I noticed they had about 7-8 full stacks. So I was like give me legion and early and its all I recruited. Any Hastati I had left were from pre. So from then on it was 90% early and leg. It would of been more cost effective and prob more effective to have had:

9-12 Hastati, Early, Leg
2-3 Roman and Leg Cav
3-4 Archers
1 G


There is so much I am leaving out I am sure, for example how could you mention a Roman Julii Campaign without mentioning Barbarian Mercenary Cavalry. These guys rock and I found them to be most effective.

I also found Barbarian Mercenary the ones with the shield and spear (not the peltasts), to be most effective at holding their own, especially in guard mode. The Barbarian Mercenary Peltasts are good too, effective javelin throwers and decent attackers.

The Reforms
One thing I wanted to point out is after the Reforms you cannot retrain your Hastati, that facility now trains Auxilla which is a pretty decent defensive unit. So any and all Hastati you have left will now get merged by you to keep them at full strength, because you cannot retrain them.

So where as before you were pumping out Hastati when you needed them with a Mil barracks, now your next decent unit and brunt force of your army requires a Leg Bar and a 6000 pop city and is called a Early Leg unit. You can win the game with Leg Units but you will want to make Army Barracks in your 12000 pop cities so you can make Legionnair Units. Leg Units are a little better than early leg units.

Only thing better than this Inf unit are Praetorian and Urban Cohorts but they require a 24000 pop city, Imp Palance (praet) and Urban Barracks (urban). You can win with just regular Legionnair units.

Cntr-l S
I kept a copy of my saved game, at some point I will probably go back and load it up to make some Praet and Urban and conquer the rest of the world. Just do a cntrl-s during the video with you marching to victory in the senate to save it for later. Load it up and save it under a new name, like finalbattle something.

[lukezter]

"One thing I wanted to point out is after the Reforms you cannot retrain your Hastati, that facility now trains Auxilla which is a pretty decent defensive unit. So any and all Hastati you have left will now get merged by you to keep them at full strength, because you cannot retrain them."

Uhm, how do I merge the units? I have a bunch of Hastati and Principes left in half-strength formations with varying degrees of experience...

Thanx in advance,

Lukezter

[Garvanko]

Highlight the units you want to merge, then Ctrl + M.

[LestaT]

I am not sure you need to destroy British and German buildings. In my campaign, the cities were pretty small and so were not that unhappy. I think you can "overwrite" them with your own buildings when they expand in size anyway. The only building I have heard about destroying is the Temple - doing so reduces the culture penalty, although even there I don't rush and often only destroy it when I want to upgrade it to a bigger Temple of my own kind.

I destroyed the building only for economic reasons. I terminate all population and building to recoup all the war cost unless while 'liberating' other Roman cities. It's easier to manage from scratch anyway.

[LestaT]

I've finish the campaign with many years spared. Is there a way I can continue the campaign because the Brutii still exists.

[YAKOBU]

LestaT: see my comment on this thread:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=39568

[Avicenna]

I've finish the campaign with many years spared. Is there a way I can continue the campaign because the Brutii still exists.

there should be the option of continunig after you complete it..

[13th warrior]

The Guals at first may seem a unstoppable force, that you would need many armies. But i found a cheaper faster way of takening them. its very simple looking at their units, you can see that, there isn't a single unit that can stop even the lowest cavlery units . so use this to your advantage. In the starting the senate will tell you to take the town of Segesta, which is an easy target to attack. you should have one army already outside the cities. take some from the cities into that army and go siege the town. Now that you took that town, you build your real army. build stables in both your starting towns. when they are finished, make all the Equites that you can buy. now during this time the senate may ask to do random missions. i personally don't do them because they waste to much time, for to little of a profit. But thats your choice. now when your army is done put all of them together with all your left over generals and march them into gaul. when it comes to seiges just buy some mercs and leave them in the city after. for battles just run right into them. they won't stand for long. Some would say that goeing for gaul will stretch you, but haveing a calvery army, they can move twice as far. Gaul should be yours in no less then 40 turns if you do it right. By this time the Senate loves and the people adore you. So start your march to rome, this is when you can build a proper army of infantry and archers. your two starting cities should be huge, making it easy to overpower the other romans . From there it is in your hands.
PS tell me what you think

[McDoogle]

Gauls is easy to conquer, cavarly isnt everything, Rome's early infantry slaughters the Gauls. cavarly you have constantly charge to get a good effect.

You take the towns near the alps, then you block the hill passes and build up your armies. what i find a good and easy way is you build on main army that attacks and lays siege to the gaullic cities and always have a general with four units of town guard come in and take over the city right afterwards.

Luckily for me the Germans were already at war with them and i managed to con them into furthering their expeditions, and they took alesia, however they had lost some of their provinces to Dacia which i had taken and thus a nice trade was made.

I tend to then moveon to spain and britain, get them over with and there you go. you can turn your attention onto germany. however in my game the sciipio had taken all of Dacia and most of the sythians lands.

However i was given the choice of attacking rome, i used a force of 18 thousand legioners. ha, i must say i won that. didnt bother commanding it because it would have destoryed my pc.

Romans are probably the easiest faction but because of the senate life becomes hard. all other factions you can take a settlement and exterminate then leave to rebels, which always helps slow down a war. but the senate demand you take it back and if you dont they will keep demanding it.

[Sas_Legion]

in my game with Julii I blocked the passes in N. Italy and take massila holding the bridge with a sutable army .. the famely member leading that one gain about 10 stars and senshorial position in the senete so this bridge train your generals keep that and you got nice famely members .
another idea I have found that compagining in Gaulia will be a strong adventure for a good famely member . So I build an army of about 4 equites and 10 hastati and 1 roman achers and 2 velets then enterd Galia with that army lead by a 2 star general and fortfiy in Gaul's land demanding money and when they refused I made THE HELL ON THE EARTH destroing thier armies , killing thier famely members and blocking thier ports finally agreed and I took 15k den for the cost of that war and a general with a 10 star and nice retinu
finally u can consider Gaul's land as practice battlefield but don't take any city becuase of the old-idiot men ( yah the senete ) well make life hard demanding retaking that city if u left it
I blocked all threats for the Brutii and Scipio by deplomacy and war ??
by deplomacy like allying with mecedonians and preventing any possible war with them even from the senete is there a mission taking a mecedian city I ignor that another thing by bribing any real force for the Brutii , Scipii and the senete itself so u gain a freazing setuation until u prepare for compagining in Greace and sicely also for example I positoned 3 deplomates in sicely and S.Italy and near the senete .. any force going to take the cartheginan city in sicely should be bribed specilly if they had exp. bonus and say thx Scipii .. the same for Brutii . a good idea taking some nice famely members for u cities from them so the Brutii will have only 3 cities ( 2 starting cities + Apollonia ) and Scipii had only his starting cities .
Next I prefer taking Greace then Iberia and heading the Egyption lands and Selocidia also
( sorry for my bad English language ) any reply is welcome .

[General Carnage]

Gaul is not that hard to conquer. The trick is to take the first few towns rapidly, then consolidate by building guard units such as town watch just to prevent a takeover with no opposition. This leaves your legions free to take more towns.

I realise that a few units of town watch could not repel a siege, but it gives you time to raise a large army to break the siege.

[matias]

hi all,
i've seen that often the gaul's faction heir is in the town of Mediolanum, just crossing the river at the north of your cities (the Po).
Is there a way to capture him and use it at your advantage?? maybe to ransom him or use him to force a treaty?

it would be cool, right?

thanks,
regards

matias

[oompalumpa]

hi all,
i've seen that often the gaul's faction heir is in the town of Mediolanum, just crossing the river at the north of your cities (the Po).
Is there a way to capture him and use it at your advantage?? maybe to ransom him or use him to force a treaty?

it would be cool, right?

thanks,
regards

matias

No, sadly there is no kidnapping or anything. You could assisinate him with an assasin, but it would take a while to tech up to that level. If you are really desperate to kill him, bring an army with like 5 equites and as soon as the battle starts charge them all at the general. You will loose the battle of course, but you have a very good chance of killing him.

[pezhetairoi]

I always thought there really wasn't a need to go straight for the family members like that. Forgive me for sounding completely daft, but what's the point? If you kill him, you kill him. (And the AI most usually ensures you kill him, since he charges straight for you eventually.) And if he escapes, well, he escapes. So what's the fuss? If you play Julii you're eventually going to sweep the map clean of Gauls anyway, so why worry? Besides, I always found it more fun to let him escape... family members always come back with armies so I get to fight some more, kill some more :-D Bloodlust is not exactly a Julii characteristic, but it's useful when you can't help but win every battle you fight ;-)

[matias]

I always thought there really wasn't a need to go straight for the family members like that. Forgive me for sounding completely daft, but what's the point? If you kill him, you kill him. (And the AI most usually ensures you kill him, since he charges straight for you eventually.) And if he escapes, well, he escapes. So what's the fuss? If you play Julii you're eventually going to sweep the map clean of Gauls anyway, so why worry? Besides, I always found it more fun to let him escape... family members always come back with armies so I get to fight some more, kill some more :-D Bloodlust is not exactly a Julii characteristic, but it's useful when you can't help but win every battle you fight ;-)

Hi ,
i thought that since the game is so realistic, maybe i could do something like kidnapping a family member, and then ransom him ($$$) , or use it to rise your influence when negotianing with that faction, like "i demand xxx town and i offer your little son" ... jeje
in medieval you could ransom nobles and get some florins...

anyways...
thanks and regards,

matias

[pezhetairoi]

well, you gotta realise, CA has its limits. Not -that- realistic. I mean, after all, which faction would send armies of a few thousand men at one another in real life? THey were all 5-digit armies in reality.

[Craterus]

There were battles on all scales but battles were generally larger, like 5 digits, but not always.

[pezhetairoi]

true, true. But in gaul at least they were on an epic proportion (eg 200000 gauls involved at Alesia), but heyhey, who's to say, eh? CA has to make a game that's easily controlled and won't be played with an incredible lagtime.