Gaul

[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.

[hlemmur]

An word of advice if you r playng the gauls.
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.

+1 Forester Warbands are good; Forester Warbands with 6 or more levels of experience are lethal - both at range and in melee; that's why I would recommend going after Albion as soon as you have connected your lands, partially to get some strategic depth, partially because they will stab you in the back anyway, but mainly to get those Forester Warbands plenty of experience fighting troops that are no better than yours

[wugui]

After many years i reinstalled RTW and decided to play as the Gauls. I only play VH/VH.

Havent finished yet but doing well so far. Exterminated Britania, juli and senate. Germania down to 2 towns and currently laying seige to both Bruti settlements in Italy. Its 252 bc. Havent used forresters and elite swords yet, only barb cav and swords.

In the first turns produced diplomats on all three fronts and got alliances with Germania, Spain, Carthago, Bruti and senate. Sold trade rights and map information to all except juli and Germania. Later in the game used diplomats to prevent wars by simply buying off any foreign army on my lands before they could declare war on me. With the Alesia army blitzed Britania and exterminated them. Narbo Martius army unified the country taking the two rebel settlements. Mediolanum and Patavium built for swords and cav (including temple and blacksmith). Stationed the Patavium army on the bridge. After getting three full stack armies mainly of swords and barb cav blitzed juli. With one stack sieged rome on the river passage tile. Defeated the senate army on this bridge battle. Most settlemenst i chose to occupy but the more far away ones, including rome i sacked.

Dont know but it seems the trick to win as Gauls is diplomacy, to prevent 3 front wars.

[Ludens]

Welcome (back?) to the .Org, Wugui . Sounds like you are having a fun game.

[Vincent Butler]

Is Numantia worth keeping, or should taking Spain be a priority. Obviously taking Italy is so you can eliminate Rome before Marius, and then spring into lucrative Greece. If you are astute in a battle, even Warband can be used against British Chariots. Forester Warband are awesome, too bad it takes so long to get to them. Warhounds will do well against Britannia or Germania, but not so much against Rome. Swordsmen should be the core of your army, with a Druid to help. It seems that swordsmen beat spearmen (excluding phalanx) in hand to hand combat. Just personal observation, definitely so on walls. Most elite units are swordsmen, only Rome and Carthage have good non-phalanx spear units (Auxilia, Triarii, and Libyan Spearmen are nothing to sneeze at). Naked Fanatics provide good shock infantry, and I believe are the same temple as Druids (Esus), though I could be wrong. Also, temple to Abnoba gives gold upgrade to missile weapons. Gaul's main problem is money, which taking Italy and Greece will solve.

These be the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time. 2 Samuel 23:8 KJV

[ReluctantSamurai]

Is Numantia worth keeping, or should taking Spain be a priority.

Depends on where you locate your capital I generally don't jump into N. Africa as Gaul...Italy becomes the primary target after Spain is conquered.

so you can eliminate Rome before Marius

If you are referring to the S.P.Q.R., then taking the city has no bearing on when Uncle Marius shows up...at least in my experience. I've taken the city with a Royal Palace intact (more than once) but no Marian Reforms had occurred. It's usually Carthage that drives the Reforms, and occasionally one of the Greek cities like Athens.

Never recruited a Druid unit, and can't see me ever doing so. Their stats are weak, the 32 man unit is too small, and I honestly don't see their benefits being better than 'War Cry'

Gaul's main problem is money, which taking Italy and Greece will solve.

Yep. But don't overlook the financial benefits of Spain....every province can have a port, and there's one or two mines to be had, as well.....

[Vincent Butler]

Yep. But don't overlook the financial benefits of Spain....every province can have a port, and there's one or two mines to be had, as well.....

Agreed. I think that was why I had to abandon my latest Briton campaign, when I should have gone after Italy and Spain, I went after Italy and Germania, suspending my war with Gaul so it was one less thing to worry about. Really, as a Barbarian, if you take over anything city or larger, it is a good idea to kill population growth right off the bat, you can't advance the city anyway. And is enslaving a totally different culture better or exterminating? I know the exterminating is good financially for the looting, but the city will take a while to recover. Just looking for advice on that, can probably apply it to my Greek campaign as well. As barbarians, the exterminating seems inviting because it is hard to make money, but that may not be the best choice.