Gaul

[frogbeastegg]

Guide.

[Poised]

(edit):Strategy deleted.
Nevermind, I started a new game up, and this time I managed to start out aggressively by attacking Massilia and Lugdunum, usually the Germans+Britts will attack you relentlessly if you grab Lugdunum, but this time Germany was busy somewhere else for many turns.
I now hold Massilia, Lugdunum, Osca and Asturica, and have more than 30k in the war chest + a connected empire.

I might write another one up for that approach :/

[Theodoret]

I've only played this faction on quick campaign med/med, but I had some success fairly early.

Immediately on starting the campaign you will note that the Gallic lands are split in two, two provinces in Italy and the rest on the other side of the Alps. First priority is to join these two together.

I raised armies in Alesia and Lemonum and sent them south to deal with the rebellious provinces there. Make sure that the army that will be heading through Lugdunum to Massila has a character with it, as you will need to build some watchtowers once you have taken Massila. Keep churning out units from Alesia to reinforce your armies and free your attack force from garrision duty.

Whilst this is happening send a diplomat to forge an alliance with Germany, and trade rights with Britain (perfidious Albion will always stab you in the back in the end, so I don't bother negotiating an alliance). Also reinforce Condate Redonum so that you have a force ready to attack if/when the Brits declare war. I also reinforced Mediolanum and Patavium, as the Julii are bound to attack you sooner rather than later.

I ignore Spain, except to beef up the Numantia garrison (the Spaniards kept on trying to bribe the city in my campaign), and negotiate trade rights with Spain and Carthage.

Before long the Julii will attack. Your newly conquered southern provinces should be bringing in a bit of money by then. I used Patavium as my military base, and sent an army from there to attack first Segesta and then Arretium. I use Massila and Mediolanum to supply Patavium with fresh troops. You have to watch out for the Brutii as well, so I sent armies to take Illyria and Dalmatia from them, and this kept them off my back whilst I was taking apart the Julii.

As sure as night follows day, perfidious Albion will attack you as you are fighting the Julii. Use a combination of diplomats and your army in Condate Redonum to push them across the Channel. I then raised a fleet using Numantia and Condate Redonum and used this to ferry my army across to Londinium. Once you take this city, the fight seems to go out of them. I ferried a garrison over to Londinium and used my conquering army to attack first Eburacum and then Deva. I didn't bother with Ireland.

Back to Italy. By now SPQR will have taken an interest in you. I first attacked Ariminium to finish off the Julii, and sent diplomats to bribe away Scipii and Brutii reinforcements. Then comes the attack on Rome. This is really tough, because the Senate have a very powerful army stationed near the city. I sent a full stack from Ariminium to attack the SPQR army which had moved outside the city. I managed to batter their army, but took severe casualties, so I retired to Ariminium, retrained, and then attacked again. Oh, I also blockaded Rome with a fleet I had built in Massilia. Second attack was succesful, so I sacked Rome. At this point I had my 15 provinces, so that was the end of the short campaign. Had I carried on, I would have finished off Italy, and then probably attacked Spain.

A note about the Gallic armies. These troops are utterly rubbish. You won't have much trouble fighting other barbarians, although British chariots can be a bit nasty, but the Romans are a different matter. I use as much cavalry as I can, and use warbands and swordsmen to pin the Roman troops whilst these guys sweep around the flanks. I also make a lot of use of wardogs - they are great for chasing those annoying velites. Whatever you do, you will take more casualties than you might be used to playing a Greek or Roman army. This is why you should set up a unit conveyor belt from Transalpine Gaul via Mediolanum and Patavium to the front. Because you are fighting the Julii and then the Senate almost from the start, you won't have all that many good troops. I did use Druids in one battle, and they were impressive, but realistically you should expect to be fighting with warbands, swordsmen, barbarian cavalry and dogs. Having a Temple of Tertullus (sp?) and a blacksmith in your troop producing towns will help.

[Empedocles]

Ok, I'll edit this latter, this is my early version of the story.
Raise two armies and send them south to conquer those rebel provinces that separate your provinces!
Now that you have a continued empire, build forts at the fords of the Po River in north italy so you can keep romans at bay! They are soy difficult!! you should ally with all the roman factions so the Julli see you with better eyes (they will attack you in the future)
After you conquered the mid-france rebels and secured your south frontier, move north because the brits are going to attack you almost from the first time.
Move a diplomat east to ally with germany and try to make them attack the Brits.
Fighting the Brits it's not a big issue because their armies are made of warbands mainly. But you should build a navy in the english channel to keep them on their island.
After you have maintaned your income then you should hire some mercenaries (specially cavalry) and take the fight to their own lands.
They have a huge army near my northern city and started to siege it, but when I took London they retreated and know seems to have lost their path.

Get used to use Warbands, you will not have another unit for many years and they are good fighters if usen properly. Try yo upgrade their armour and weapons with blacksmith and shrines in Milan and Alesia

Diego, from argentina

PS: one tip: raise mercenaries units and use them to face the enemy while your warbands flank them. After the battle you may want to disband them cause your financial situation is bad.

[Barbarian King]

MY best strategy is to rush into the roman provinces as fast as possible. Your units are very cheap and eventually you will overun the romans.

[Owen]

Since I'm now the dominant game power as Gaul in a medium/medium game and this guide is still so short, I thought I should write something here.

Here's what I did:

Build ports where you can and traders elsewhere to increase income. Roads or farm upgrades might be more suitable for the first turn, thinking about it. Condate Redonum and Narbo Martius need palisades no later than about turn 4.

Turn 1: Build diplomats in Numantia and Alesia. Build warbands in Mediolanium and Patavium. If you don't build troops elsewhere, your towns grow quicker.

Put the army outside Patavium into the city. Send out all troops in and around Narbo Martius except a single warband towards Masilla. Move your boat near Condate Redonum to discover Samarobrivium and afterwards use it to scout for British forces about to attack Condate Redonum. Move your spy to scout around Italy and prepare for an attack. Move your current diplomat to sell maps to the Romans over the next few turns, but don't chose to receive "regular tribute" any time after turn 4.

Turn 2. Build barbarian cavalry in Alesia ready for the British attack. Continue building warbands in Patavium and Medolanium.

Besiege Masilla with your army from Narbo Martius and build battering rams. Send your diplomats west from Numantia and east from Alesia to meet the Spanish and Germans. Negotiate trade rights and an alliance, exchange military access and sell your maps to them both. If you attack the Romans before this point, you may not get military access, in which case they may break the alliance. You will probably actually enter negotiations on turn 3. After this, these diplomats should be selling maps to Carthage, exploring and bribing rebels armies.

Turn 3: Continue building troops as before. Build a warband or two in Condate Redonum.

Assault Masilla then build a garrison unit. You should occupy, not enslave so that the populations grows enough to remove the culture penalties quicker. Build roads first in Masilla. If you have been building those economic improvements and selling maps, you really shouldn't need to exterminate.

Turn 4: Keep building troops as before.

Send Masilla army towards Lugdunum. Move all units out of Mediolanium and Patavium except a warband in each, merging the two armies on your border with the Julii. I may have actually left this step until a turn later, I forget.

Turn 5: Keep building troops as before.

Besiege Lugdunum. Besiege Arretium. You should be selling maps to the Carthaginians in Corduba about now.

Turn 6: Keep building those troops.

You should now have roads, a trader and land clearance in Mediolanium. Build a stables there to help the push into Italy. IMHO, massive cavalry superiority is the only way for Gaul to beat the Romans. Keep building improvements in your other cities, as long as you can afford it.

Assault and occupy Lugdunum. Build a garrison unit and roads.

If the Julii haven't just attacked your besieging army, you now need to assault Arretium. I just occupied, since many of the Roman cities have populations of about 5000 at this stage of the game and hitting 6000 will allow you to reduce culture penalties as well as building Barbarian Noble Cavalry, Chosen Swordsmen and Foresters. Retrain all the units you can back to full strength.

Britannia will now be moving on Condate Redonum, thinking you're weak because of war with Rome. Move your Alesia army to within striking distance of Samarobriva, leaving your faction leader, a warband and a unit of cavalry behind. You should be building another unit of cavalry for the next turn. You may find this should happen one turn later.

Turn 7: Keep building improvements.

In the North, sally from Alesia if attacked there. Besiege Samarobriva. Ignore Condate Redonum, since Britannia will turn back to relieve Samarobriva and you will be able to hold them off with your warbands anyway if they do try to assault.

In Italy, do not attempt attack the Senate army until you have built up more troops, including cavalry from Arretium, and until you have taken Segestica and then Ariminium. By this time, your army that was taking Lugdunum should be about to arrive as reinforcements, and you should have about 9 full units of barbarian cavalry on the field. After I started to besiege Rome, I was attacked twice in one turn by the senate, leaving me with Rome, but most of my barbarian cavalry units with only 10 to 20 men. All those Roman generals and principes in one stack are unbeatable if you don't have enough cavalry to counter, as I found out when I got too cocky after taking Arretium the first time around.

After you take Rome, it's easy, just watch out for amphibious landings in western Italy, particularly if the Julii are still left in Caralis. Don't try to compete with the Roman navies, just hop between your new ports and take their cities. The only other important tip is to make sure you don't leave it too late to take Iuvavum (in the Alps) from the rebels.

You might like to shift your capital to Italy once you take Rome. I chose Arretium. At this point, you should only have about 36 cities to go for victory.

[Claudius Maniacus Sextus]

An word of advice if you r playng the gauls.
1)Strike in roman lands and iberian one.dont bother with germ. or brits.
2)ever played with egypt and tested those Pharaoh"s bowmens??no?what about against them?you did?and they were like super-wariors?gues what gaul has Forester Warband.Almost better.Develop a town quick so you can mass them early.
3)Useing flanking properly is ESSENTIAL against the romans.
4)DO NOT forget about iberia send an army and clean those lands of iberian filth.
5)After conquerd the iberian and the N and central part of Italy,use the iberian towns for econ. boom.
6)Concentrate on taking the rest of Italy.
7)After wiped out the roman scum,conquer modern germany and England
8)After that you could expand into Dacia,Greece or Africa for the rest of the 50 plan-to-conquer province's.I sugest if gone for Greece to move your capital to rome,same as for africa,for dacia just use one of your N italian cities as capital
9)You could go for the hole world but that IS imposibile.
10)ENJOY!!You'v beaten the game!

[RollingWave]

My take:

Gauls are arguablly one of the hardest playable factions ... they start with crap economy seperated lands, extensive borders and 4 potential enemies (2 of which will attack you very quickly) they have 1 unique unit that is pretty good but also comes very late.

The key is to
a. push the britions off the mainland ASAP : use ur leader from ur capital.. you might want to wait ill ur stable is rdy there but no later than that.

b. start hunting the juliies but don't rush too soon: if the Jullies want to hit you from land, they will have to fight a bridge battle with you, hold the 2 bridges into ur city and send the spy you start with into their land ( i didn't put him into cities as i wanted the whole picture) wait till the jullies seperate their army and/or have very poorly defended city then strike home. have one city build stable ASAP and mass dogs + barb cav while the other build up to swordsman asap. these 3 unit are very very crucial to ur early game... with all 3 u can beat the julliess in most equal siutations.

c. DO NOT get into a serious conflict with the Spaniards or Germans until you push the britions off the mainland and killed the jullies. ally them if you can, the Spaniards are much more prone to ally you cause they have the Carthiginians on their back

Here's a few general tips.
1. sell ur maps to everyone early on for 2-4k gold, it will help seriously in acturaully building up some infrastructure and army. sell to all 4 roman factions and sell to anyone u come across... that's easily over 10k gold in the bag in the first 2-3 turn. note you can do this to the same faction every once in a while too... but faction u are at war with are less likely to buy with good price and instead threaten u more often.

2.U must realize that ur infantry CAN NOT SAP, only ur peasents can. if that's what ur hoping to do (which is possible if ur going to storm Rome ) remember to bring 1 unit of peasent or at least some mercenary that can sap. (though it might be wiser to just go up the walls with them.)

3.Dogs are pretty much ur counter to everything early on (and later on too anyway but early is much more crucial) build them or die.

4.you move much faster if ur army is all calvary, so you might consider sending all cav army into roman lands to kill one small bach of unit then get out.

5.you can't upgrade ur town pass the 6000 pop lvl, so if you capture bigger cities early on enslave and later on exterminate, or else ur gonna be stuck with huge squalor... be ware of that and properly adjust tax rate and mass units etc.

Well i now beat the britons off the mainland and has killed the jullies and the senate... taking the rest of italy is a obvious no brainer but where to go after that i'm still considering... with only normal roads being buildable it seems hard to mount longer campaigns :(

[Claudius Maniacus Sextus]

b. start hunting the juliies but don't rush too soon: if the Jullies want to hit you from land, they will have to fight a bridge battle with you, hold the 2 bridges into ur city and send the spy you start with into their land ( i didn't put him into cities as i wanted the whole picture) wait till the jullies seperate their army and/or have very poorly defended city then strike home. have one city build stable ASAP and mass dogs + barb cav while the other build up to swordsman asap. these 3 unit are very very crucial to ur early game... with all 3 u can beat the julliess in most equal siutations.

2.U must realize that ur infantry CAN NOT SAP, only ur peasents can. if that's what ur hoping to do (which is possible if ur going to storm Rome ) remember to bring 1 unit of peasent or at least some mercenary that can sap. (though it might be wiser to just go up the walls with them.)

3.Dogs are pretty much ur counter to everything early on (and later on too anyway but early is much more crucial) build them or die.

4.you move much faster if ur army is all calvary, so you might consider sending all cav army into roman lands to kill one small bach of unit then get out.

i told about where to strike but not how........RW str. was almost what i used,but had an warbands+swordsmen+4cav(2dogs/2barbcav).and as i said upgr. one town to max for forrester and chosen and druids.

c. DO NOT get into a serious conflict with the Spaniards or Germans until you push the britions off the mainland and killed the jullies. ally them if you can, the Spaniards are much more prone to ally you cause they have the Carthiginians on their back

dont go for german lands as their not very money-producing.if the brits attack drive them back to their island.have one exp. army for julii and one into iberia because their towns are money-making.That means that to control iberia you must go to war with carthage too,soo conquer palmira?that near iberia island too.then finish the romans,having the financial suport of the iberian peninsula and one town that by now must build those elite forresters and chosen swordsmen.u r unbeatable.


PS:nice str. Rolling Wave.i sugest you go in africa or greece.

[RollingWave]

I'm thinking bout tanking the Iberian first (liek u suggested) and then taking the British isle to get the thorn off my back... but the Germans keep hit and run on me now (they and the British... they seige a city... my army comes... they run and sue for peace and then rinse so i decided to ambush my main northern army near my starting captial (since moved down south into Rome ) and gave the germans a little surprise when they tried that PLAYSTATION again so now i'm at war with them but i don't think i want to continue fo too long as you said... war with Germans isn't very profitable, not to meantion Dacia is winning against them on the other front anyway.

[Gallicflair]

After many false starts, I think I am finally getting somewhere with this faction.

Here some of my experiences, and general observations of playing on hard/hard.

General - I decided to go for a defensive strategy; I really wanted to plan for a later invasion of the Italy so that I could give my lads a crack at some post-Marian cohorts (crazy I know - but I am sure my boys will be able to handle it, when I get there ).

So to start with I made a descision to abandon the two Cisalpine (or are they trans-Alpine, I get confused) cities in northern italy. Infact I went one better and instead of simply abandoning them, I gifted them to the Germans who were more than happy to take them of of my hands.

I made an alliance with the Carthys and set up a trade deal with the Brits and Spanish.

All the units of Warbands were moved West and North to either disband at Lenonum, my soon to be capital, except for a few which I moved to Alisia, for the imminent declaration of war from Briton (which came much later than I expected as it turned out). All disbanded warbands were replaced with two barbarian cavalry units. Naked fanatics were also enlisted.

I quickly attacked and overan the two rebel cities, leaving me with a unified france.

I averted war with all factions for the first 8 years and gained trading rights form just about everyone. This way which allowed me to stabilise the economy and start making enough money to slowly upgrade all my cities, and streamline the two armies which I had decided upon.

Then war, with of course the Britons. Luckily - well, more by machiavelliean design actually - their allies, the Germans, had to sit the war out due to a small problem they were having in northern Italy with the Julii and some other roman factions .

The war was still young when the Spannish decided that they would also like some of my land. Alas. For the Spanish.

In the North the war was going well - many victories against sometimes overwhelming odds and the British hoards seem spent. I captured their only holding on the mainland and neutralized the British fleet, gaining control of the channel, building a small yet seasoned fleet, blockading British trade. They sued for peace - though I refused them trade rights.

In the south things have been very chaotic. Depsite many notable victories, and seiges withstood, I have been hard pressed in actually launching a definitive couter strike, mainly due to lack of man-power, and currency. Then after several against all odds - heroic victories I finally took Osca, when...

The Jullii come a calling. Seems they had some surplus troops left over to spare after beating the germans out of my former cites. They attackied suddenly and I marched a quick force of left-overs south to meet them. I quickly helped the Julli with their surplus troop problem and they fled the field less a faction heir and two family member also.

Then a weird thing happened - The Julii offered me a protectorate, which I humoured them by accepting. This lead to a cease-fire being declared with all other roman factions and trade was restored just in time to save my coffers from hitting the red.

The year is now 234 BC - I have been attacked by the Julii every other year for about 8 years now - each time they arrive I dispatch them with heroic effort and send them packing, so that they can offer me another protectorate which allows me to do a year of trade with the roman factions (I have a diplomat stationed in Italy).

The spanish have just been depleted trying to assualt Numantia in vein (again, and again). I shall move on their capital soon I think.

Numantia is now pumping out barbarian Noble Cavalry and Alisia has provided Forester warbands and is now replacing the Swordsman with Chosen Swordsman.


Tactics - Nothing original but worth a mention.

Cavalry - cost less to upkeep than warbands, get rid of most of your warbands asap and replace them with cavalry units. Gaul is big, has terrible roads, and you need to be able to repsond to threats quickly. Have garrisons of cavalry and some in forts (depleted units are great for this), by watchtowers etc. Basically just create a network of cavalry stations covering key hotspots that can be shuffled around to give good coverage.

Javelins - Skirmisher warbands are awesome units if used correctly. They are cheap to produce (147 Dinari) and, especially with the upgrades, can do some serious damage.

Armies - I usually have roughly equal amounts of Warbands, Naked fanatics, Swordsman and skirmishers in a stack. Usually about two of each. The rest is cavalry, 2-3 in the stack (excluding general) and whatever I can shuffle along the line from network of cavalry garrisons (typically another 2-3 cavalry).

Battles - If there are any trees, long grass or cover I will almost always opt for this over taking the high ground.

Warband centre in long thin formation, Swordsman to either flank, back a rank or so and slighty under-lapping the warband (to bolster their line if they start to waver). Skirmisher warbands (preferably in cover/long grass), set to stand, disable fire at will, but on the left flank ALWAYS. Naked Fanatics, one behind the warband in the centre (deep formation) and the other behind the Skirmishers (again, preferably in cover). Cavalry, equally split on either flank or hiding in some nearby woods. General - usually centre-left.

How to kill the Brits - Those chariots can be quite disruptive and hard to kill when first met, especially when the whole British family show up. I lure them to my line with a cavalry and then hit them with a javelin volley which always seems to get their attention. I then run my Skirmisher through my Warband, who are frothing at the mouth after a good warcry. The chariots will usually just plough on through in pursuit - the moment of impact I place the warband on gaurd, but only momentarily, I leave the skirmishers where they are to get massacred, and then charge in the underlapped Swordsman to help slow down the chariots. Once the chariots are slowed a little (and your line looks like a big mess) it's time to send in the Naked Fanatics, Hoorah. They usually break, pretty quickly, especially if you happen to have aby druids chanting as the Fanatics hit home. When you come to look back at your skirmishers you will see that they lost barely any men ~10 -15 usually at worst (the swordsman always seem to take the bigest beating, but hey, they are hardcore imho so can take it), and they are ready to go bait the next unit of chariots .

Killing Romans - Too easy - bring on the reforms Marius, you need it.

Did I mention that I love Skirmisher Warbands and that they have been decisive in ~ 50% of the major battles I have fought?

[Claudius Maniacus Sextus]

I'm thinking bout tanking the Iberian first (liek u suggested) and then taking the British isle to get the thorn off my back... but the Germans keep hit and run on me now (they and the British... they seige a city... my army comes... they run and sue for peace and then rinse so i decided to ambush my main northern army near my starting captial (since moved down south into Rome ) and gave the germans a little surprise when they tried that INTERNET again so now i'm at war with them but i don't think i want to continue fo too long as you said... war with Germans isn't very profitable, not to meantion Dacia is winning against them on the other front anyway.

5 warbands in city center can handle any army.also cap. the S of Iberian pen. Numidian City Tingi?.also cap. one german town(they have good beer ),just joking.
PS:I use as garison naked fanatics.....low upkeep and pretty good stats(for garison).
PS2:as iberia i did exactly the oposite,conquerd Gaul and then some of africa.

[RollingWave]

The easiest path is probably killing the Romans FAST (ok.. it's also somewhat difficult due to the fact that ur basically 2 city vs 7 ) have at least 2 field army run around roman lands, use smart strategies, attack when u have the advantage, run if ur too vastly out nubmered, face them if they are seperated, avoid them if they are together.

When you fight remember to use war cry to ur biggest advantage, make sure when u charge u war cry and do all out charge. with barb cav you should usually have the flank advantage.

Priority of build ups... 1. stable : at least 2 city that can mass barb cav and dogs. 2.forester 3.swords: after playing more i find that unless ur gonna fight on walls swords really don't do anything that warband can't do (unlike say barb cav, dogs and forester... their power is irreplacable) warband have a better charge too and have more number... when doing all out warcry charge seriously warband do just fine if not better than normal swords and are far easier to replace.

I managed to get all of Italy except 1 city as the Bruttis agreed to become my protectrate, the Germans also give in , the Jullies and Senate is long gone, I'm not begining my conquest of Britian and slowly pushing against the Spaniards. will probably land on Sciliy soon to destroy the Scipiies.

[scipio the even younger]

gauls r actully preetty hard, you may notice your empire is split in 2 (alps seperate).well the first job is to join these and your gonna need a pretty big garrison to hold off roman attacks.so thats first.

second you need to ally with spain or germania or brits.also you are gonna need a big garrison in the north 2 as the britons and germans attack. they hit hard and they hit fast so alliances are key.
romans will never ally with you so concentrate on holding out till the others r dealt with.
you need to weather the attacks from the north and east while you build an army in the center of gaul to go and deal out some pagan justice to germanians and brits.romans will noirmall stop when they get your places in north italy but somethimes they just keep coming so hold them off for as long as possibl' . once you either conquer or force a cease fire out off the germams concentrate on the romans.its better 2 forc a cease fire from the germans as it doesn't tie down your forces 4 that long.
the britons will be a pain in the but unless you control the channel. also to safe keep your territry from spain put a fort in the middle of that passage between your land and thiers. now go deal with the julii.
if you kept up your defense and only lost1 or 0 then you will have probaly have ground down the julliis forces so att\CK WITH OUT DELAY...
you are going to have to assult pretty nfast as the bruti,scipii and spqr will be send their respective armies so so have to choose the ground to stand a chANCE.
for the senate theres only 1 bridge north across the river so plant a army there and wait,maybe build a fort. bruti you should have a ambush ready witha diversonal force in front to draw them forward.
the scipii come in turn 2 or 3 after you invade italia so you need to have ground the others to a pulp.
if you lose severly to the bruti retreat from the senate or they will sandwich u.
you should win against the scxipii if youy held the bridg as that is the way they all ways come.
if you hold your ground you can capture the rest of italy with ease as you will have kicked there armies all the way back to there makers.
now yoyu have virtully taken rome out of the game earlie on.
then you go back to the germans and brits.

the hardest people youll play are the romans and greeks and macedonians and sellucids and egytions.

[Kekvit Irae]

Gaul starts with a large portion of land, but are at a strategic disadvantage. The primary one comes from the Julii to the south. Unless you capture Massilia and Lugdunum quickly, your northern Italian cities will fall from lack of troops pouring in from mainland France. The second one comes from the Britons and the Germans to the northeast. A quick paralyzing strike to the Britons on the mainland will cripple them temporarily. Keep them out of Gaul. The Germans, however, if unchecked, will steamroll through your cities like it was 1940. An alliance with Dacia and/or Scythia will prove benefitial in dealing with the Germanic threat. The third disadvantage is you are going to be backstabbed by Spain, and, to a lesser extent, Carthage. Hold Numantia at all costs, but if you see the Carthage steamrolling heading your way, you may as well raze all the buildings in the city and abandon it. You might get lucky with a rebellion.

Logicistally, Gaul is poor. Thankfully not as poor as Germania, but it will not get you the gold needed to raise armies on three fronts. Conquer Italy as fast as humanly possible to get the gold needed for your armies.

Tacticly, none of your low/medium-level units stands out. They are, at best, mediocre. However, what they lack in power, they make up for in sheer numbers. The main advantage you have is your proximity to Rome, and the fact that the Senate refuses to garrison Rome with its army. You can easily destroy the Senate with your north Italian army and a LOT of luck from the gods for your spy to open Rome's gates. If he is unable to open them in the first turn, be prepared to be whipped back to the stone age by the massive army of the Senate waiting just outside of the city. If you ARE able to open the gates to the city, charge in en-masse and let nothing stop you from securing the town square.
Congratulations, you just killed the Senate without dealing with the huge-arse army waiting just outside. Now you are able to train your best units (Barbarian Noble Cavalry, Chosen Swordsmen, and Forester Warbands) MUCH earlier than Alesia. You have now destroyed the Senate, but there still stands the problem of the Scipii, the Brutii, and the Julii (if you kept them alive on your push to Rome). The closest city to Rome is the Scipii's capital of Capua. Build up your army and take it. Now that you have two high-level cities close together, raze the temples in both and build the maximum level temple to Epona in one city (I use Rome), and a maximum level temple to Anobea in the other. Build mass amounts of Forester Warbands in the city with the Epona temple (to get them +3 experience), and them move them over to the city with the Anobea temple and retrain them (for gold weapon upgrades). Dont forget the Weaponsmith for an armor boost as well.

From this point on, it's all up to you, but the choice is obvious, you need to kill the remaining Roman factions before Marius can screw you over. Your next target should be Syracuse if the Scipii have taken it. Cities with stone walls are at a premium, and you need as much defense as possible. If the Scipii have not taken it, ignore it for now. No sense getting into a war with Greece or Carthage right now. If you are already at war with Carthage, and they own Syracuse, go for it. Your choice now becomes more complicated. Do you want to fight toward the east in Germanic and Greek lands, or do you want to fight to the southwest and destroy Spain and steamrolling through Numidia? Alexandria and Memphis is a grand prize, but so is Athens and Corinth. The choice is yours. However, if the Brutii have already taken a foothold in Greece, the choice is once again obvious.

[Craterus]

I was just mucking about and looking at all the factions and their objectives (objectives for short campaigns) and I saw the Gaul. They got a really tough deal. As you said, they got the Germans and Britons to the north and the Julii to the south. And the spanish on another front. And they have to destroy/outlast Julii and S.P.Q.R. . That campaign looks like a good challenge and definitely one that I'm going to attempt soon.

[cunobelinus]

craterus me and u can have a go at t if u wont i though they would be a good challange to i havent completed it yet.

[Craterus]

Littlegannon, use the PM system for personal messages.. (but yes, i was going to suggest that for our next joint-campaign)

Gaul starts with a large portion of land, but are at a strategic disadvantage. The primary one comes from the Julii to the south. Unless you capture Massilia and Lugdunum quickly, your northern Italian cities will fall from lack of troops pouring in from mainland France. The second one comes from the Britons and the Germans to the northeast. A quick paralyzing strike to the Britons on the mainland will cripple them temporarily. Keep them out of Gaul. The Germans, however, if unchecked, will steamroll through your cities like it was 1940. An alliance with Dacia and/or Scythia will prove benefitial in dealing with the Germanic threat. The third disadvantage is you are going to be backstabbed by Spain, and, to a lesser extent, Carthage. Hold Numantia at all costs, but if you see the Carthage steamrolling heading your way, you may as well raze all the buildings in the city and abandon it. You might get lucky with a rebellion.

kekvitare ^^^ This sounds like a brilliant strategy to begin with for the Gaul!

[Kekvit Irae]

kekvitare ^^^ This sounds like a brilliant strategy to begin with for the Gaul!

All I really did was take my strategy from Germania and convert it to a Gallic campaign. However, you are able to take Rome much more quickly with much less troops than the Germans if you get lucky with the spy. With the Germans, you pretty much have to abandon your settlements to muster the required army, and still need several turns to consolidate them into one army and march on Rome.
With the Gauls, the required army is right there above the Julii territory. Just bring a few more warbands from the nearby two settlements, and you are good to go. This prevents you from having to abandon your other settlements to the Britons. Unlike the Germans, a war with Briton and Germans, and a war with the Romans is quite feasable because you do not have to take the resources from France to try for a push on Rome.
Of course, taking the Julii's cities instead of going for an all out blitzkrieg against Rome will allow you to replenish your armies in case your spy fudges up.

[RollingWave]

You can beat the Romans early on, the key is you need a lot of barb cav and dogs, swords are helpful but warband will also make do, the thing is early on Romans don't build many equities, and in equal numbers barb cav >>> equities anyway. while they also don't have many triariis, the thing is you beat their flank first and then charge ur infantry with warcry, while ur flank cav and dogs join the charge, the Hastati/Principles will fall apart like rotten wood against such a attack.

[pezhetairoi]

Wardogs aren't given enough credit, and too few people know how to use them. I was most amazed at the effect they had when I tried out a custom battle against Roman principes with a handful of warbands (only half of which eventually joined battle), about five units of wardogs and four barbcav. Wow. I'm definitely using more warhounds in future. Sending wardogs in, then charging your warbands after them straight at the beleaguered enemy units is an almost instant rout.

[Craterus]

Wardogs aren't given enough credit, and too few people know how to use them. I was most amazed at the effect they had when I tried out a custom battle against Roman principes with a handful of warbands (only half of which eventually joined battle), about five units of wardogs and four barbcav. Wow. I'm definitely using more warhounds in future. Sending wardogs in, then charging your warbands after them straight at the beleaguered enemy units is an almost instant rout.

I think warhounds are given the credit they deserve. They were an option in the "Most annoying unit" poll because when they attack one of your units, your men tend to defend themselves and if you tell them to attack the dogs they target the handlers.

I like warhounds, any advice for me because I hope to use them when I attack Rome.

[tibilicus]

I never really use them in seiges Craterus. If i use them i normaly send them in to a nice piked line of men and them suport that with a wave of swords men. ~d Compleatly gets them every time in battles.

[Craterus]

By Rome, I mean the Roman Factions, apologies, my post was unclear.

[cunobelinus]

i find that charging dogs in to pikes just kills them and charging into pikesmen is not a very good idea i find hold them with men and then hit in flanks or round the back is one of the only way to beat pikmen u can fload them with men but u lose quite alot of men

[tibilicus]

I tried something against Carthage once. I charged wardogs into the lybian spearmen and they got absolutley miced. Maby it might work for swordsmen aswell........

[Craterus]

Dogs are a nice, niggling unit and enemies can't do much about them but the porblem is that once you set them off, you can't get them back.

[pezhetairoi]

doesn't matter, if they work well you'll get them back at the end of the battle anyway :-) Wardogs are nasty... just used my first unit of Scythian warhounds just to see what it would be like, on the Brutii :-D

[RollingWave]

The key to wardogs is not to send them in alone... except maybe against chariots or cavalry, against infantry they should always be send along with ur own infantry and/or a calvary charge.

[katank]

Hounds are best used as flankers or rear attack troops. Also, hold a few hounds in reserve and unleashing them at the right time can stop a cav or chariot charge cold. Then, you infantry can wade through the friendly puppies to cut down the enemy's hapless immobile cav.

One tip is to send cav to run down what ever the puppies are chasing quickly so the puppies can turn to other juicier targets.

Germania and Scythia have +25% more puppies in each pack. Producing them from +3xp temples = really mean puppies. They can tear up unarmored targets like warbands and missile troops nicely.