Gaul

[Dutch_guy]

yes that would work , but keep good garrisons near Brutii holdings.
And I don't know the diplomatic relation with the Britons and germans , are they good ?
If they are, then you should indeed go for the spanish.

[gardibolt]

No, I'm under constant attack by stack after stack from the Britons, Germans, Spanish, Carthage, Brutii, Scipii and Macedonians. I think the Scythians have declared war on me too, but they're too far away to actually do anything about it. But I've got to start eliminating enemies, and Spain looks like the weak link to me. No one will even discuss ceasefires.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

If you have any way to create/finesse a crossing, taking out Britain might be a better bet. Spain may be the weak link, but Britain reduces enemies and the borders you need to defend. With 2 groups of romans and the Carthas after you, Spain is a lot of coastline to add to your defense. Sounds like you're wrasslin' alligators -- fun!

Seamus

[gardibolt]

I don't think a British invasion is in the cards; they took back both Samarobriva and Condate Redonum so I don't have a port on the north side. While I might be able to retake Samarobriva, there's a half stack of chariots in Condate that spells trouble.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Understood.

My idea of "clearing one flank completely" would really only work to shorten your lines if you could get the British Isles themselves without losing your posterior in the process. Your caution is understandable.

Seamus

[Dutch_guy]

Are the Spanish a threat to your current holding there in Spain ?
Is Carthage at war with you or Spain ?

If all you holdings in Spain are save , and your lucky enough to be at peace with Carthage AND Carthage is at war with Spain you should concentrate all your forces on the British / German invaders.
And only leave garrison forces in Spain

The attack in the North could be done something like this :
( keep in mind I have no idea what kind of armies you have , north where they are stationed , and what kind of troops your enemies have. )

Get your army from Alesia to take back the Holdings in the North , which I take it now belong to the britons ?
Take out the Britons in the North and drive them from the mainland, after that block the Engliosh Channel with your own ships, so that the Brits won't be able to make another attack on the Mainland of Europe, don't Invade the Brits just yet , focus on the Germans.

When you sent your Alesia army toward the BRits , send an army from Lugundum towards the Germans ,supported by an Army from either Meniolanium or Patavium . With your best generals.
try to attack simultaneously from the South ( Italy ) and West ( lugundum ) and your army that took back North Europe from the BRits.
Then keep on attacking the German Armies and major citys, the smaller ones you could keep as a buffer zone to the Scythians and Dacians.

After that you could focus on anhialating Spain or pushing South to Greece / Macedon

[gardibolt]

No, Spain is attacking me nonstop, and every now and then Carthage sends some troops. Things were on their heels in Iberia. I've seized Osca and Nova Carthago, and will be heading for Cordoba in a sweep next; I may send the main garrison in Numantia over to simultaneously hit Lusitania and keep them off balance. Then there's just that one more little Spanish village that I'll exterminate up in the northwest, and then they're gone for good. I'm hoping that this will calm things down and give me one front that's not a constant battleground so I can concentrate on the Germans and Britons. The Macedonians are besieging two of my cities so I can't ignore them either. The Brutii and Scipii are rebuilding so they're not on my radar screen at the moment; first things first.

[gardibolt]

Finally got back to this Gaul campaign (need to finish it so I can load BI) and decided to make an all-out blitzkrieg in Spain. Wiped out the Spanish faction heir and faction leader, wiped out the Carthaginian leader in Spain and am besieging the last cities in Iberia, so that should be no problem in the future. I got lucky with an assault team on the main German stack near Alesia, and the Macedonians have gotten distracted by the fact that when they emptied Patavium to attack me, it went rebel on them so they've gone back to deal with their problem children. Finally found someone who would trade with me (Greece and Thrace) so I've started having a couple thousand of income again, and we may yet be able to right this ship. If I can just hold off the British from moving farther south into France before I can conquer Iberia completely, this may work out after all. Oh, and while Macedon will probably retake Patavium, it seems to have mysteriously come down with the plague. Heh heh.

===

Edit 10/04/05: The plan worked beautifully so far. I exterminated Cordoba, Osca and Lusitania, getting me enough ready cash to put Alesia, Rome and Arretium on a good financial footing and build some much-needed market upgrades and a crop of Foresters--and incidentally keeping those rebellious provinces quite happy since they now have lebensraum. Now that I have peace in Iberia and trade working the cash is starting to flow and I have the Germans on the run. The Britons are still a problem (they seized Acquitaine, though I made them pay dearly), but I'm moving a half-stack from Iberia to go deal with them, picking up soldiers along the way. The former Spanish faction heir is parked along the way and I'm going to try to bribe him to head this stack. I anticipate driving the Britons off the continent in 2-3 years without much trouble. The Brutii kept attacking me in Arretium until finally they left Arriminium undefended, so now I've seized that and am looking at a move on the Scipii capital. The breathing room from the Spanish conquest was exactly what I needed. I've been able to go to Numidia and gotten trade rights there, which should help immensely--I couldn't before because of the humungous Spanish fleet, which seems to have evaporated.

===

Edit 10/6/05:

Mopping up the Germans and heading towards driving the Britons off the continent--the Britons are down to only Condate Redonum and I've been picking off the expeditionary forces it keeps sending down so its once-full-stack is no more than half a stack now. I have druids on the way from Spain but they may no longer be needed by the time they arrive. I eliminated the Brutii in Italy in spectacular fashion--the final battle was a very near thing, with my entire army routing except for 2 groups of foresters numbering 35 and 13--but they still had arrows and picked off the Brutii general, and then mowed down the rest of the army to the point that when they ran out of arrows and the remnants of the Brutii charged, the foresters were able to rout the entire thing fighting hand to hand! Alas for me, when I hit End Turn I got a CTD. I was so depressed I couldn't bear to reopen to see whether it saved before the CTD. I'd be in a bit of a difficult spot, since the nearby Scipii have three 3/4 stacks, but I really hate to lose what was such an epic turn of the tide.

EDIT 10/7/05:

Well, I finally looked to see if the save was good, and it was. Whew! The Britons were again expelled from the continent, though they just landed another stack at Samarobriva so after I deal with that it's time to pay a little visit to the British Isles. Macedon has gotten more aggressive and has started attacking me in Mogontiacum along with the oncoming German stacks (I thought I'd killed most of their big cities but apparently there's still something more tasty out there). Stupid phalanxes. Eat Forester arrows, Mac. The Brutii have been pounded into submission so I finally decided to pay some attention to the Scipii with my spy; I've been ignoring them for the most part with their one city in the boot. They just landed another stack from Sicily, and the damned thing is half onagers! I see I'm going to have to attack them pronto; 2 more turns of building cavalry and I should be good to go---assuming they don't assault me first. Ai ai ai! With any luck they're far enough apart that they won't be able to reinforce----not sure I can take on four stacks of Romans in the same battle plus whatever might wander out of the city. By then my diplomat should finally have been able to get to Egypt; an alliance or at least good trade should be a nice boost for me. I hope. While I'm at least keeping my head above water (5-6000 net income per turn), I can see that the next few turns are going to be muy critical. I wish I had an Esus temple closer to Italy; I could really use some druids there.

Edit 10/10/05:

The turns were not quite as critical as anticipated. I finally got my diplomat to Egypt, and got trade rights, though they were utterly uninterested in map information. The Scipii conveniently split their four stacks up, which is a good thing since they just got the Marian Reforms and I'm not sure my barbarians could handle a full army of post-Marian troops. One stack went after Tarentum to support their Brutii brethren (who keep coming in dribs and drabs from Thrapsus across the Adriatic) and they were quickly slaughtered in the open field. The second went to Rome and died before the walls on my first sally. I then sent the Roman army to Capua and seized it without too much difficulty, thanks to my troops being numerically smaller and thus the Scipii were encouraged to sally out and attack rather than give me a hard time besieging. They paid the price. The fourth stack was standing around and having a fair amount of cash handy I bribed the stack and took in their family member, since I only had one general in Italy and could really use another one. Those darned Scipii were a step ahead of me, though, because when I moved him into Capua, the Scipii sent an assassin with the plague in and infected BOTH my generals. Aaaaargh! They're not dead yet....we'll see whether they get over it. At any rate, it's finally time to start building a navy and assault Sicily. Mediolanum is building up to take the fight to Macedon, and the Channel has been successfully crossed and Londinium exterminated. Looks like pretty clear sailing in the immediate future, with about 24 territories yet to be taken. I'm hoping that once I've taken Sicily the Scipii will go about fighting with Egypt and Numidia and leave me alone.

The Spanish army hit on the idea of a naval assault on Palma, the last Carthaginian territory, and one that always generates lots of trade income. But what to do about the unbeatable full stack of Macedonian ships patrolling the straits? Misdirection. While I build my army on the promontory opposite Palma, I'm building little boats in Osca and Narbo to go out and attract attention, slyly pulling the Macedonian fleet ever farther away from my real target. Once they can't intercept me, off goes the invasion boat. So far, it has worked like a charm and right now the Macedonians are up fooling around on the Riviera sinking my decoy boats. Just need to keep them busy for the 2 turns it takes to get to Palma and Carthage is toast.

===

Edit 10/24/05:

Taking Palma was definitely the right move; income jumped from 2000 per turn up to 6-8000 by this one stroke. Macedon made it a little more difficult than it should have been, since one of its fleets didn't take the bait and what should have been a 2-turn excursion ended up being a 5-turn trip instead. So I've started building large boats at every single port to start cleaning up the navies.

Germany has been destroyed, and their allies Dacia made the mistake of helping just before they went under so I'm now eliminating them too--they're down to one province, Domus Dulce Domum and that won't last them long since I greatly out-tech them. Macedon has given me endless grief in this game, so I've started pounding them one city at a time. I ended up losing the battle for Thessalonika, their capital, however, due to the 15 minute timer--only the 2nd time that has ever happened for me (the first was when I was still trying to figure out the siege equipment). But playing on medium unit sizes I slew over 2500 of their best troops so the return engagement shouldn't be too difficult. Even though the Greek Cities are at war with them, they refuse any sort of alliance, even after modest gifts.

The Scipii are reduced to just Lilybaeum on Sicily, and that's not long for this world. I built a diplomat and parked him in the middle of the island, and whenever they send over a contingent of troops I bribe it away. So what was a fearsome full stack of Legions and Urban Cohorts is now just a handful of men that will quickly fall before my Foresters. Six provinces to go for the victory condition, and now it's really just a matter of deciding which six they will be. This has been a very tough campaign till just recently (seizing Spain and then Parma was the key to turning it around) but a lot of fun and intriguing.

I've always wondered why some people seem to find they have too much money as Gaul, and recently I've figured it out: there's nothing to build above level 3, so you're not doing much construction in the late game and have nothing to spend money on. The cultural differences are great enough in the Macedonian cities that I routinely exterminate as a way not to tie up troops in garrisons, and so cash flows in and little flows out.

[Chimp]

Thanks to this thread, the Gauls have gone from a lackluster snoozefest to a fantastic game experience for me!

I'm one of those guys who like to compose armies based on the strength of each civilization rather than having more generic solutions that can be adapted to every civilization, so for the Gauls I've been experimenting with ways to really put the focus on the Forrester Warband. Here's my favorite army so far:

8 Forresters
6 Chosen Swordsmen
3 Druids
1 General, 2 Cavalry

Pretty unorthodox, eh? I originally had 6 Cavalry, but that turned out to be overkill so I replaced 3 with Druids. I line up two rows of Forresters in 4x2, one close to the enemy, the other further to the back. Further back still, preferably on a hill or somesuch, I place the Druids and the Swordsmen on the wings along with the Cavalry either on the flanks or hidden somewhere secret.

Battleplan is simple. Let the enemy march towards you and once they get going, start chanting. Since the only thing within Onager ranger is 4 lousy archers - which are of course hidden in plain sight - he has no other options, cuz I ain't moving! As he marches, the Forresters in the front start their rain of death, and once the enemy is too close and they need to skedaddle further towards the back, the second band takes over, and now they benefit from the Druids as well. Once the enemy gets close to the second band, the first group has long been lined up to take over yet again. The last stand-off is right in front of the Druids, and finally everybody scurries behind the Swordsmen, as they do their warcry. Then the Swordsmen charge, the Cavalry swoops down on a flank and 4 Forresters go fire arrow and the other 4 normal ammo for better kill ratios while the Druids chant along. Othertimes I go all fire.

It's not unusual for a line-up of 10 Urban Cohorts to simply melt away before they reach the Swordsmen in this setup - and this is in Custom Battle without upgrades. I can't wait to get my campaign going so that I can get the bennies of the temples plus experience plus a general on top! Once the biggest wave breaks I let the Druids loose to join the slaughter. I don't really worry about friendly fire, but if I get the chance to do prefer to move the Forresters to the flanks, and the back of the enemy, of course. Depending on the terrain it's sometimes best to arrange the Forresters in 4x2 right in front of the Swordsmen, but the principle is the same.

Those arrows are just dynamite!

I've also experimented with armies with 8 Warhounds apiece, but there's no way in hell I can get that to work with Gaul.

[NeoSpartan]

Gaul almost imposible in VH/VH in Version 1.3 I still have to try it in Version 1.5.

I have re-started the Gaul campain about 4 times now and the last time I gave up when the Greek Cities started attacking me with thier Armored Hoplites. I was already having a hard enough time with the Germanian Spear Warband.

I'll get back to once I am in the mood.... Gc Wall

[Goalie]

At first I didn't think the Gauls were any good. After thrashing them with the Juili. But they are a pretty cool faction to play with. Their Forester Warbands are amazing and one of my favorite units in the game. Barbarian Noble calvary and chosen swordsmen are also pretty solid units to fill out the rest of the army. Their pretty easy to play with in campaign. (I played medium campaign and hard battles) The Germans and Spanish can easily be cut down with Foresters and Noble Calvary. The Britians can be a little tricky with the chariots, but foresters with flaming arrows can be affective. The Romans can also be tough, but if you strike before Marius you can overpower them. One huge downside that ticks me off is that they can't construct stone walls. Another disadvantage is no artillery, so that means no assualts or massive artillery bombardments. Overall the Gauls are great in the begining and towards the middle of the game, but Marius and the Romans can overwell them with superior units later on in the game.

[Ludens]

The Britians can be a little tricky with the chariots, but foresters with flaming arrows can be affective.

Actually, flaming arrows are worse against British chariots: they give a morale penalty but are less accurate so you shouldn't use them against higher-tier units like chariots. They are effective against the scythed chariots however, because these, like elephants, can run amok. Otherwise, I agree completely with your assessment of the Gauls.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Question:

Has anybody tried the following:

Defend the Padus valley until the communities have built up a bit, but then allowed the Jollies and/or Brutes to conquer them just long enough to get you stone walls ampitheatres and the like and then take them back?

I would think you'd end up with a border that consisted of 2 bridges, 2 stone-walled cities, and three mountain passes in succession. This should allow you to hold against rome and expand elsewhere (the Steppes, Spain, Northern Dacia) while bleeding the Romans and honing an incredibly experienced army in Northern Italia. Then when the end-game approaches, you should be close enough where a campaign down the Italian peninsula is enough to finish for the win.

Thoughts?

[gardibolt]

That sounds pretty clever---to encourage them to retake the towns, after you abandon them you might give the Julii map information to make sure they know that they're free for the taking. The main problem would be stopping them from making further incursions before they actually get around to building the stone walls; the AI is kind of stupid about doing that. Or even better, I suppose you could offer to give the two provinces to them in exchange for a ceasefire and trade rights, which would encourage them to not attack you for at least a few turns and make it more likely they'd improve the cities.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

That sounds pretty clever---to encourage them to retake the towns, after you abandon them you might give the Julii map information to make sure they know that they're free for the taking. The main problem would be stopping them from making further incursions before they actually get around to building the stone walls; the AI is kind of stupid about doing that. Or even better, I suppose you could offer to give the two provinces to them in exchange for a ceasefire and trade rights, which would encourage them to not attack you for at least a few turns and make it more likely they'd improve the cities.

I like that, but so far I can only give away cities -- every effort I have made to sell one, under any circumstances, has been met with a "no way, we think you'll retake it immediately" reply.

[macsen rufus]

I'm also finding Gaul (H/H) a lot more fun to play than I expected after thrashing them so badly in the Julii campaign! Those Foresters from Alesia (teched up to gold weapons) make a huge difference. I've only got one centre for Druids so haven't had much experience of those yet (my starting unit got wiped out by a Brit assault in the early game, in which my faction leader was about the only survivor from a full stack - grrr.)

I've been trying a four-line set up - Foresters in front, then skirmishers, then standard warband, with swords behind. Cav on the wings. This sorts out most charges, even British chariots - foresters make a mess, then skirmish back through the javelins, who make more of a mess before retreating. By this point most enemies that manage to reach the spear line just up and run back to where they came from, with more javs and arrows in their backs. Most times the swords just stand there polishing their armour. If it gets sticky, the swords go forward and cavalry in the flanks usually turns the tide.

I'm also getting to like the dogs a lot more than their Roman equivalents. I've found them to be an excellent pinning unit for bridge defences! A pack of dogs on a bridge can hold back an entire army long enough for your skirmishers to run out of ammo. Besieging Rome from the ford on the Tiber left me with just two river battles to eliminate the entire SPQR forces thanks to "relieving" forces from the Scipii. Although with 6 SPQR FMs in the first stack it did come down to a long melee, but not a single warband routed!

Since taking Rome, the Bruts and Scips have been taking turns besieging me every turn, but easy sallies with 4x foresters on the ramparts and 1 unit of dogs to provoke the besiegers into arrow range means I can pull my inf and cav out of the gate to make a target and the Romans usually rout without my melee troops having to do much at all apart from looking hairy and brutish.

I expected the lack of artillery to be a drawback (and I love my artillery usually!) but with a bit of planning, siege tower assaults can be a lot more devastating than an artillery-led assault. You just have to know how to use possession of the walls to best effect.

My wars and diplomacy don't seem to match anyone else, and I reckon these campaigns are all highly variable -- those guides that say you have to take on faction x before faction y etc will just guide you into replaying someone else's game. I also think the AI adapts to your play style (I don't bother much with the diplomacy/subterfuge, and find the AI doesn't much either compared to other people's games. And I've NEVER had a bribe work for me -- all attempts refused!)

Currently allied to Carthage, Scythia, Greeks; have eliminated Britons, Spain, SPQR, Jullii; at war with Germans, Bruts and Scips. Expecting Macedonians to have a go at me soon - one of their spies has been causing havoc in Patavium (which I've never given up to retake at any point!), and the alliance with Carthage can't last much longer now that I have just killed off the Spanish royal line. I hold all of Spain except Corduba (Carthaginians) and Asturica (Rebels). Britannia fully garrisoned with about ten units - no doubt I'll need more as the population level recovers.... And my family's surname seem to be "the Conqueror". Next step is to take Trier, so I can hold off the Germanics at the Rhine. Finish off Italy once the Bruts and Scips have exhausted themselves at the foot of the walls of Rome (oh, will they ever learn???) and no doubt by then either the Macs or the Carthaginians will have attacked and opened up a new front... Or maybe the Dacians, who are being suspiciously quiet whilst lurking in the Alps and allied to all my enemies.

[AwesomeArcher]

Actually, flaming arrows are worse against British chariots: they give a morale penalty but are less accurate so you shouldn't use them against higher-tier units like chariots. They are effective against the scythed chariots however, because these, like elephants, can run amok. Otherwise, I agree completely with your assessment of the Gauls.

What is the diference between scythed chariots and regular british chariots? I agree with Bettkicker19, i too was surprised by the gauls. I too ran over them with ease in campaingn. And i would assume it would get hard for the gauls later in the game with the powerful post-marian roman armies. And forrester are pretty darn cool. I think i am going to start a new campaign with gaul now.

[Lorenzo_H]

Which city in Gaul is the best?

[AwesomeArcher]

Which city in Gaul is the best?

Probably Alesia, as it is the capital and starts out with the most buildings and units to recruit.

[Lorenzo_H]

Probably Alesia, as it is the capital and starts out with the most buildings and units to recruit.

Does it have good growth, fertile land and economic potential? (right click on the surrounding land to find out the fertility)

[AwesomeArcher]

Does it have good growth, fertile land and economic potential? (right click on the surrounding land to find out the fertility)

Arent you able to do this on your own? I am a school right now in Speech class and am done with my speech so i am messing around on here and cant really play the game right now.

[Lorenzo_H]

Arent you able to do this on your own? I am a school right now in Speech class and am done with my speech so i am messing around on here and cant really play the game right now.

Sorry, but I am also in school! I can't play it either, as it happens. Whats more I haven't even unlocked the Gauls yet.

[Craterus]

I'm starting a Gaul campaign on RTR Gold (as soon as I can get a mouse with a scroll button) so maybe we could have another forum-wide campaign where everyone plays the same faction and shares their tactics and strategies.

Anyway, I'll update soon.

[AwesomeArcher]

Sorry, but I am also in school! I can't play it either, as it happens. Whats more I haven't even unlocked the Gauls yet.

You could just go and tweak the game a bit to unlock gaul without conquering them.

[Lorenzo_H]

You could just go and tweak the game a bit to unlock gaul without conquering them.

Naaa I want to do it the fair way.

[Avicenna]

Take the simple route and complete a short Roman campaign to unlock all factions.

[Lorenzo_H]

Take the simple route and complete a short Roman campaign to unlock all factions.

So I've heard, but I am soon going to complete the real campaign. Will this also unlock all factions?

[Ludens]

What is the diference between scythed chariots and regular british chariots?

Well, for one thing: scythed ones can run amok. British won't: they rout like any ordinary unit. Otherwise, British generals and heavy chariots are pretty similar to scythed chariots, but the British light chariots are an excellent skirmisher unit, the western equivalent of the horse archer.

[gardibolt]

So I've heard, but I am soon going to complete the real campaign. Will this also unlock all factions?

All the unlockable factions, including Gaul; to get the nonplayable factions you'll have to do a mod.

[Avicenna]

@Craterus: If you're interested in a forum-wide mod, why not join the new PBeM led by econ, here.