Roman: Julii

[Bartholemew-Varath]

Well this is what i would probably do, it mainly covers Innsomnni's points towards the start:
Notice that i play on Medium/Medium

Expansion
Towards the start, you have two armies, one with triarii and the other without triarii, use the one without triarii to attack Segesta, i believe there are two units there, some barbarian peasants and a warband. Just send in your hastati, shower them with pila from both your Vetilites (missile) and Hastati (light infantry), then rush into them locking them in place, then flank them with your Generals bodyguard (heavy cavalry) and you should be able to take Segesta with minimum casualties.

You have an army with Triarii (spearmen) in, and it also has your faction leader in it, Flavius Julius, attack Patavium, which i think has 2 units of warbands in it (light infantry) and a unit of barbarian cavalry (light cavalry) Adjust your tactics to deal with them.

Next, you will need to focus on kicking the Gauls out of Italy, to do this you will need units from your captial (i would suggest building Hastati and whatever other units you want from turn 1) Then bring a general (at the time you decide to attack, with me a family member came of age so he led the attack) Take it as quickly as possible, and remember to never end the battle, kill them all!

Now you have a few choices to make, you can attack the Gauls, go for the riches of Carthage, go east to the rebel cities and Dacia, Scythia, Thracia and Macedon and the Greek Cities, you can go north and attack Germania, or perhaps you could attack the Spanish.

Decisions
The only choice i personally have done is the Gauls, as they become a pest sending their heavy cavalry, which can litterally tear apart an army of 1000 soldiers by themselves (just take the advice, i wouldnt try it out). Well first you will need a defensive position to lauch your attacks from, i personally chose Massalia, which is on an island and lightly defended. (I wont go over the unit stuff again, ill just go over town and stuff)

Then i suggest taking Narbo Matius, which might be highly defended, it may not, it depends on the diplomatic situation of Spain and Gauls.

From here, i wouldnt bother with the town in Spain just yet, i would instead go for the town the Gauls have in western France, which is ususally lightly defended.

Then i suggest attacking the town in North West of France, which is usually defended be half a stack.

Im not sure about this, but i think there is another Galic town next to the first Britannia town in Belgium. Take this, i cant remember anything about the garrison.

Then take the Galic capital, and if the Spanish or Carthaginians havent taken it, the Galic region in central Spain.

The Rebels
You might consider taking Segestica, Salona and the other two rebel cities near Dacia and Germania. These dont give much in the way of economy, but they provide training for generals, as they mainly have pila throwers (i think theyre called Samenite infantry?)

Carthage
Havent done this before, im too afraid of those elephants to go anywhere near Carthage. I suppose you could attempt to steal Syracuse and the other city in Sicily from Scipii and then move into Carthage itself, taking the islands as you go along too.

Germania
I havent really been into central Europe that much, so im not entirely sure what you would do here.

Spain
Havent got that far in my Julii campaign yet, perhaps you might just attack the east and move onto the west?

Breaking Alliances or Keeping them?
If you had already allied with Spain, now is the time to break the alliance, as i didnt, and got attacked by three full stacks of Spanish soldiers at Narbo Matius, which was guarded by half a stack. Luckily i had some Hastati, Principines and a general on their way to take over Spain, so i diverted them and managed to slaughter the Spanish troops.

If you have allied Germania, (i reccomend you do) they will probably help you kick Britannia out of Belgium and whatever else they have conquered.

An alliance with Dacia is ok, as they probably wont attack you, they are busy fighting off attacks from the Thracians and the Scythians (maybe Macedon too)

Economy
I would suggest building ports, roads and farms in every town you conquer, perhaps mines too. I tend to have my taxes at high if i can, but with starting cities that it is not possible to kill them all, i would usually have it at Normal or low. Also newly conquered Barbarian settlements i usually keep on low taxes for a few turns, so they can get used to it.

Tactics

Towards the start of the game, with the majority of your armies being extremely light, and your only heavy units being Generals Bodyguards, your tactics should always be to attempt to flank your opponent and hit them hard on the front at exactly the same time, causing them to rout. Im not sure youll encounter many horse archers as you fight the Gauls, so i would suggest building solely infantry, missles and adding a Generals Bodyguard to the army. Some of the Mercenaries are ok, expecially the Warbands, which can provide support or have an increased change of defeating Warlord Cavalry as they have spears...

I agree with this statement, your starting armies are exceptionaly light, so flanking is a must, and spears as scarce, so you might want to hire some phalanxes or bribe some spearmen.

Also, since your Hastati throw Pila, you might consider ambushing, i find it useful when being attacked, they just run straight into your hastati, and if you have fire at will on, you might be able to rout a few units before they even reach you.

[RLucid]

If you think "Economy of Force" and "Maximising Effect" is important then consider :

Segesta can be taken with Quintus + Velites unit, then garrisoned by TW 2nd turn. So you can take all the Vet. Hastati units together, and go attack Gaul immediately, without producing more units. The over-powered Archer unit plus similarly over-powered General's cavalry, will break opposition and win the battle.

The problem I found, with the immediate thrust N. attacking the Gauls, is what direction then? You want to go both ways, taking Segestica & Salona for the mining resources, but the Senate may divert you off to Caralis, and you still need to weaken the Gauls. The trouble is, you can't move both ways at once without diverting forces, and the Gauls can still raise large armies which can overwhelm understrength forces.

Then you have a fleet first turn, which doesn't do very much. Later on 2 ships need re-inforcing, because of the strong liklihood of running into a 2x50 Pirate fleet.

Perhaps a solution, is to take Salona & Segestica, later on, hiring some mercs to pad out a family general plus Town Watch force. That requires a port and ship early on at Arrinium, if you don't weaken the main force moving overland SE from Patavium.

Taking Massilia asap, and the Illyrian mine towns, allows moving W re-inforced with Illyrian missile troops and Merc spearmen, fighting the main Gaul armies out of town, to reduce losses to Hastati, and keep momentum up; with a balanced less Hastati based army. Because you don't move against Gaul right away, the Senate 2nd mission tends to be Mediolanum, Patavium or Narbo, to get you involved with the Gauls. That fits in nicely with the main gameplan.

The idea is that with sufficiently low losses, once rolling you don't have to pause the attack to regroup, losses can be made up by a couple of follow on re-inforcement units. Any ceasefire against Gaul is for strategic reasons, to allow actions against Carthage or the Greek Cities; but you extract tribute and trade to bolster economic development.

Once the Gaul provinces in N. Italy are cleared, behind the natural defensible border on the Rhone, the main army can now ship West to take Narbo, move to Spain, the Peloponese, or go South on the seas to take Caralis & Carthage.