Germania

[Caius]

Im playing as Germania small m/m

Things are going very good.I have destroyed the Britons, capturing Samaobriva A.S.A.P.

But it wasn't enough.I take Londinium, and the other two settlements.But they werent killed.
Build boats, then started to train troops.Everything was going ok.A pirate boat attacked me, and I was destroyed.Everyone was in the end of the sea.
I captured the zone of Hibernia, killing the Britons.
One problem of two.
The other problem was the Gauls.Those Gauls lost a settlement, which was mine in that moment.I sieged Alesia, but they wont let me win so easily.They attacked me twice.They foiled twice.I had a Heroic Victory, 5 generals vs. 1 general.They werent stronger.I had Condate Redonum, then I trained troops to siege Lemonum.They were so few.A Family Member came with lots and lots of troops.Lemonum was going to surrender.We had to break the siege.We tried it again,but the same member did the same thing.We did lost that battle.The new capital of the Gauls is Narbo Martius.We were going to lose the Gaul settlements, unless we do something faster.We captured Ludgunum.

Everything was ok.Then, we saw the Romans, but we didnt started the war...yet.
We captured Massilia and Narbo Martius.Narbo Martius was hard.We were attacked for the same family member who broke the siege in Lemonum, but this time we won, and we captured it.

So here I am.Winning?with the Germans

[BossMax05]

Campaign : VH
Battle : M
Scale : Huge

After reading that the provinces of Germany are poor, I decided to leave and march to greener
pastures. And I know that the grass is greenest in the Balkan Peninsula. So here's what I did.
I trained one unit of peasant in every province I own, then put all my "military" units in one full
stack. With my lone spy leading the way, I marched almost straight to Athens. Not marched fully
straight because I besieged, for two turns, and occupied Lovosice[spell?] because I am afraid that I
might not reach Athens in time before all my provinces are captured. It took 10 years for me to
reach Athens because of the long march and sometimes I waited for other armies to go out of my
only army's way. I don't want to start a war with either Macedon or the Greeks. With luck, Athens
was still a rebel town when I reached it. And with more luck, two family came out of age in my capital, Damme, so I immediately used them to capture Bordersholm.

I let Athens starve because I don't want rebel armies killing my ONLY battle ready army.
By the time Athens fell into my hands, only two of my original provinces were captured by the Gauls, Trier and the one in Germania Inferior. Bordersholm revolted because I didn't left any garrison there.

Brutii kept sending full stack after full stack in order to capture Athens. Good thing is I just left one
governor in Athens at parked my army at its gates so Athens was never besieged. The battles against the Brutii happened on the field. My formation was one long line of spear warbands, skirmishers behind, two extra spear warband to guard the flanks and family members behind those
two spear warbands. Regarding with my diplomacy, I sold my trade rights and map information to everyone I met and also sold and forged an alliance w/ Macedon, Egypt, Thrace, Dacia and Scythia.
Although the alliance with Thrace was now in tatters because they declared war on the Dacians.

To cut the story, I defeated everything Brutii sent. I think they now gave up because they haven't been sending armies to Athens for a long time now. I tried to avoid war to anybody in Balkan.
I made Athens as my capital. Before the change, its income was 1000++, after the change it rocketed to 3000++. During peace time in the Balkans, I went overseas to capture Kydonia.
The Greeks attacked my army in Athens so I had no choice but to fight back.....
Now, four years after committing their biggest mistake, I own Corinth, Sparta, Rhodes and Halicarnassus, which all were previously owned by the Greeks. Their faction leader must now be banging its head against the wall haha.

I've built up a defensive navy so that the greeks, brutii and gauls cannot blockade my ports.
I'm planning to have a defensive stance in my "economic and military center" and then start
marching up north to reclaim our homelands, to reclaim what is rightfully ours....
Damme, the former capital, is still standing w/ five family members and a sufficient garisson.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Nice "horde" campaign -- sounds fun.

[Quintus.JC]

Germany have the best army any barbarian faction could field. Spear Warband could form Phalanx, which is a great advantage over all the other nations. later on they'll get top-notch Axemen, including the fearsome Berserkers. and also they have one of the best cavalry in Gothich Cavalry. Their archers also have releatively good stats. overall the Germainan army looks very impressive. their early target should be Britain, conquer all Britain while the Gauls are holding the Romans at bay, ally yourself with the Dacians. after Britain you can gradually move your forces south into a weakened Gaul and then into Italy.

[Quirinus]

I read with great interest the unusual strategy The Witch-King put forth (abandon starting provinces, head down to Italy and Rome)-- it certainly sounds more attractive than slugging it out with Britannia and playing hostile takeovers with dingy rebel backwaters.

I have a question (two, actually), though-- wouldn't the culture penalty from all those high-tier buildings in Rome lead to intermittent riots without committing huge garrisons? And wouldn't that exacerbate Germania's chronic money problems? Or would Germania be no longer be poor due to Italy's wealth?

[mrdun]

I cheap shot way to eradicate that problem would be to make the temple of Juno availiable to the Germans. That halves culture penalty I think.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

An easy solution would be to move your capital to one of the newly conquered cities. That would ease public order in reference to the "distance from capital" penalty.

[whtdoesitmatta]

Wow, Germans are amazing.
Took me three tries to start a successful campaign... (VH/VH),(VH,H) :(
but now I'm rolling on H/H and loving it

There is nothing more fun, then taking a couple group of bezerkers and going rebel hunting! Bezerkers are the most fun I have had in this game in forever.

Key Points
-Spear Warband are the backbone of your army, and are amazing!
-Chosen Axemen are useful for ripping apart flanking roman infantry
-Gothic Cav is amazing, spend the turns and get it.
-Archers are nice, and very helpful, especially if they get flanked by infantry, as they fight very well.
-Night raiders are nice to have in every army to lower enemy morale.
-Naked Fanatics, Axemen, Skirmishers, barbarian noble cav, and screechers I don't find nearly as useful.

For defending have lots of spear warband. Sort of creating a little semi-circle in the corner of the map. Have Axemen and Night Raiders to cover the flanks (Don't forget to warcry before fighting). Keep Cavalry in reserve to hit weak spots in your phalanx, or on wide flank to attack enemy archers. In your little circle of protection keep your general, to rally your phalanx. When the enemy fully commits let lose your berserkers. When the first enemy troop routs release the hounds. If you have archers put them infront of the the Spear wall, to lure the enemy in and give you extended range. As they come close move behind the wall, and continue firing.
X-Spears, A-Chosens, N-Night Raiders,G-General,O-Rangers,B-Bezerkers
C-Calvary, W-warhouds
---OOOO
---XXXX
AX-BGB-XA
NA--C--AN
CC--W--CC

PS. Severous YOU ARE IN INSPIRATION! My next campaign, I'm defending with Macedonia(Taking Athens first xD) or Scythia(if it isn't too poor).

[Quintus.JC]

The Berserkers are too powerful to be true. They kill generals for fun. bring a few Berserkers and you're unstoppable. I first noticed their invincibility when fighting the Britons. they're down to their last city. against their factions leader and heir plus 1 warband. 2 units of Berserkers slaughtered them all with only 1 casulty sustained. amazing.

[eddy_purpus]

The best infantry in the whole game is in Germania . . .
The berserkers is the best heavy infantry unit in the whole game . . .
even fighting the romans . . .
those soldiers wont give up even fighting their Praetorian Guards . . .
only thing i had to say .
thanks




Edvard0

[Xipe Totec]

Always found the Germania campaign to be rather frustratingly slow because I play on huge and their starting lands start small and grow so slowly. Being inevitably at war early on with Britannia and then Gaul means you have to recruit armies of spears to defend yourself which rapidly depletes your populations. I have always ended up conquering Britain first whilst holding off the Gauls, and then you finally get going. Even then the economy can barely support enough troops.

I was inspired by recent posts to try a different approach, and send most of the starting armies south to Rome and leave the starting lands to defend themselves and forget about growing or developing much. I took Patavium and Mediolanium quickly thanks to my spy opening the gates whichg helped to boost the army enough to quickly wipe the floor with the Julii, Senate and take Capua from the Scipii. Meanwhile I haven't lost anything I started with despite war from the start with Britannia and Gaul as usual. The extra cash from butchering Roman cities has funded the war up north as well as keeping them from rioting. So far most has been achieved by spear warbands with cavalry support from family and much barb cavalry. As always near Rome I find the best way to fight the Senate is to force them to attack you. The Julii were no problem but the Senate killed most of my army: those triarii are a nightmare. The good thing is you can retrain the survivors when you take Roman cities cause they have big populations and good buildings even early on in the game.

This has been a campaign where its all gone right so far but I've still had many very close large battles so its stayed interesting and Germania has a great set of unique and effective units I can look forward to using. Berzerkers are especially great fun if they don't get shot up by archers or javelins. Funniest thing I ever saw in RTW was when I met Carthage's elephants with some of these whirling maniacs!

[The Wandering Scholar]

Relocating to Italy is one of the best options for any faction, except maybe Egypt or Greeks/Macedon.

[Quintus.JC]

I just played slowly, first vanqishing Briton then Gaul. After that it's the Romans, even with their legions + elites they were no match for my superb axemen (chosen ones) and berserkers. Germanian cavalry is awsome and their archer is also class.

[BetterDeadThanRed]

A word on berserkers:

Besides just being a really cool unit, they are simply outstanding fighters and well worth the price. Why people don't seem to like them, I really don't know, but there is definitely a technique in using them. I always try to keep at least two of these buggers in my front line armies, sometimes more. Especially when fighting the Romans, battles tend to get into a giant mass of men pushing at each other until the other line gives: here is where the berserker shines.

Keep them held back for just such a scenario, and once the enemy is committed to a frontal attack, hit them hard on the side with the berserkers and watch the line crumble and rout. There is no other unit that thrives as well in the thick of it as the berserker can, and the moral penalties dealt to the enemy are harsh to say the least.

The only possible threat they face is a cavalry charge, but a little foresight can negate this threat all together.

[Praetor Rick]

A word on berserkers:

Besides just being a really cool unit, they are simply outstanding fighters and well worth the price. Why people don't seem to like them, I really don't know, but there is definitely a technique in using them. I always try to keep at least two of these buggers in my front line armies, sometimes more. Especially when fighting the Romans, battles tend to get into a giant mass of men pushing at each other until the other line gives: here is where the berserker shines.

Keep them held back for just such a scenario, and once the enemy is committed to a frontal attack, hit them hard on the side with the berserkers and watch the line crumble and rout. There is no other unit that thrives as well in the thick of it as the berserker can, and the moral penalties dealt to the enemy are harsh to say the least.

The only possible threat they face is a cavalry charge, but a little foresight can negate this threat all together.

Personally, I love Berserkers. They're what the term "shock infantry" is all about - nobody does better when the weapons are swinging and the blood is flowing and the body parts are getting severed willy-nilly than berserkers.

Of course, I also like Chosen Axemen for much the same purpose, and I've had some luck with Bastarnae mercs when no other shock infantry is easily recruited near the battle zone - Germania's campaign against Dacia is prone to boring, casualty-ridden slugfests over desolate mud-holes in the middle of nowhere. The provinces don't even qualify as fixer-uppers, some of them need a level 3 population growth temple just to stay above 6000 population, it seems like. Assuming you can ever get them up that high.

Still, if you can get a tier 3 temple of Donar going somewhere convenient to the fight, your Berserkers won't let you down.

[Praetor Rick]

The Berserkers are too powerful to be true. They kill generals for fun. bring a few Berserkers and you're unstoppable. I first noticed their invincibility when fighting the Britons. they're down to their last city. against their factions leader and heir plus 1 warband. 2 units of Berserkers slaughtered them all with only 1 casulty sustained. amazing.

Not so amazing as all that - a single unit of Spear Warband could do much the same, although it would probably suffer worse casualties. Mostly because chariots apparently burst into flames and explode the minute a phalanx-capable unit deploys on the battlefield.

Seriously, it's almost comical watching a dreaded unit of chariots just disintegrate as it barely brushed the spearheads. Especially if you read your spearman's attitude after and it says "frightened by chariots." If I hadn't faced chariots as Romans, I'd be thoroughly mystified as to why they're supposed to be good.

[RLucid]

Seriously, it's almost comical watching a dreaded unit of chariots just disintegrate as it barely brushed the spearheads. Especially if you read your spearman's attitude after and it says "frightened by chariots." If I hadn't faced chariots as Romans, I'd be thoroughly mystified as to why they're supposed to be good.

And if the Romans deployed Velites, and spearmen correctly you'ld still wonder. I had 2 Town Watch hidden in a wood (reinforcements) and they saw off chariot unit by themselves.

All units have some weakness, it's the combination in an army that really becomes formidable.

I doubt German Spear warbands would enjoy heavy archer fire from Forester Warbands, or chariots standing off, with mobile skirmishers, some infantry and cavalry to finish them off.

[Praetor Rick]

And if the Romans deployed Velites, and spearmen correctly you'ld still wonder. I had 2 Town Watch hidden in a wood (reinforcements) and they saw off chariot unit by themselves.

All units have some weakness, it's the combination in an army that really becomes formidable.

I doubt German Spear warbands would enjoy heavy archer fire from Forester Warbands, or chariots standing off, with mobile skirmishers, some infantry and cavalry to finish them off.

No, Germans don't like missile heavy armies at all. Chosen Archer Warbands are adequate to deal with them, but come fairly late in Germania's (admittedly front loaded) tech tree. There aren't many good solutions for a German army facing horse archers, especially not well played horse archers.

Generally, by the time I can recruit tier 3 stuff as a barbarian culture, assuming I haven't blitzed Italy or Greece, it's almost more economical to defeat my enemies by drowning them in the blood of my slaughtered tier 1 units. Eventually attrition wins the game, and I rarely reach tier 3 without also having a massive empire well able to weather a war of attrition.

As for town watch, I honestly never noticed them dealing well with chariots - but the only chariots I ever faced with them were Pontic, and the town watch were admittedly outmatched in numbers by the opposing army. Not a lot you can do with Town Watch who are already routing by the time the opposing cavalry is supposed to charge into them.

[RLucid]

In the Vanilla Play Balance Mod, Phalanx option is removed from German spearmen. I'm actually disappointed, as I love facing Phalanx armies, if they spear warbands become normal light infrantry their higher speed will make it hard to eliminate them without taking casualties.

[Praetor Rick]

In the Vanilla Play Balance Mod, Phalanx option is removed from German spearmen. I'm actually disappointed, as I love facing Phalanx armies, if they spear warbands become normal light infrantry their higher speed will make it hard to eliminate them without taking casualties.

Well, German Spear Warbands out of phalanx mode seem to move about as fast as any other normal 120 man unit. Now, against the AI, yeah, phalanx mode makes them easier to game around and slaughter without taking many (or sometimes any) casualties. The AI is mind-numbingly stupid on so many levels it makes my teeth hurt sometimes.

[Praetor Rick]

OK, I give up.

I can't win a short campaign as Germania. Scythia starts so big, with 5 provinces, each of which is huge, that it takes forever just to physically send armies to each of its provinces. Further, their archery heavy (and horse archer heavy especially) unit roster is murder on the early German armies, which tend to rely on generally slow moving Spear Warbands. By the time I can recruit enough Chosen Archer Warbands to really do well against Scythia, Egypt has already won because the Seleucids shrivel up and die from being attacked by 4 or 5 enemies at once.

Is there a good solution for Germania to conquer Scythia quickly? Holding the Britannia/Gaul front with minimal investment of money and units is pretty easy, and taking out Dacia is simplicity itself, but even being able to focus my efforts on Scythia, it takes forever to conquer them. My best efforts have been blitzing Italy and gifting the Seleucids with an extra province somewhere far from Egypt - it's even worked sometimes - but it feels cheesy, and sometimes the Seleucids refuse. My most recent effort looked good until Scythia took the Crimean peninsula away from the Seleucids after I gave it to them. In retrospect, I should have made the Scythian province just north of Crimea a top priority in my campaign, but I was trying to reach their furthest province in the east ASAP.

Any advice?

[RLucid]

Have you tried luring the Scythians into a town without the military recruitment buildings they need, and then immediately re-besiege it, so their cavalry are forced to fight to death in a confined area?

Might need a chain of forts to avoid attrition, which may be too expensive.

[Praetor Rick]

Have you tried luring the Scythians into a town without the military recruitment buildings they need, and then immediately re-besiege it, so their cavalry are forced to fight to death in a confined area?

Might need a chain of forts to avoid attrition, which may be too expensive.

That is better than a field battle, and is how I've been dealing with them - fight them in sieges where their horse archer mobility is gutted and my shock infantry can destroy them. The problem comes from the size, both of their starting empire, and of the provinces themselves. The big provinces don't just mean that I have a lot of marching, they also mean that I have to spend extra cash to fort up every turn because I'm out in the field where their archery heavy unit roster will crush me. I have lost a few big armies that way until I started using forts, and Germania isn't a wealthy nation by any stretch of the imagination.

My goal, ultimately, is to win a short campaign without having to blitz Italy or prop up the Seleucids or Carthage. If I weren't a purist, I'd change my victory conditions to elimination of Gaul and Britannia, since those are the enemies I actually have to fight by inclination. Dacia and Scythia are uniformly peaceful neighbors until I attack them. Not sure why, either - Scythia, at least, never has anywhere to go for expansion other than Germania's extremely squishy eastern frontier. Dacia is usually pounded by Macedonia and Thrace, so I can see why they usually don't bug me.

[RLucid]

When I looked at the victory conditions I found them hard to believe. It seems ridiculous to expect the Germans to take out both Dacia & Scythia. I like the idea of Germania having to take out Britannia, as the Germans did become Dominant in England post Roman abandonment. Whilst their kingdoms in Spain, Africa and Italy all seem to hardly leave a trace.

I think the answer to the conflict points is that the strategic 3D AI has some ridiculous line of sight issues, which determine it's targetting. Picked it up from thread in the mods forum, and their model of game behaviour seems to fit quite well.

Dacia, heads off for Aquincum, and from there it sees Losice, and finds Luvavum, but it only explores southwards later on, and appears to respect strong factions, willing to trade with them and not attack southwards towards Segestica & Salona. The only non-Roman besiegers I've had of Segestica (excluding Gauls in early part of game), are the Macedonians, who appeared to find the weakly defended Salona invisible, due to mountains.

When the Germans go south of Danube, they eventually see Luvavum and that appears to be the trigger for conflict. I don't understand why the AI, given the victory conditions, appears to prefer moving westwards & south to Lugdunum, over rapid eastward expansion into rebel held territory (which would cause earlier clash with Dacia).

Presumably you're picking up the HA mercenaries (Northern) and Sarmation HC mercs available in Dacian heartland, to bolster cavalry arm. Hard to think what else you could try, as the LI missile element should be necessary to ward off Light missile cavalry, when you have a deficiency. The open steppe terrain is going to make setting an ambush with spearmen rather tricky.

[Praetor Rick]

I'm more-or-less resigned to just racing things as much as possible and hoping for the best. Scythia is even more dirt poor than Germania, so there aren't that many big armies. My next plan is to try out an army of all or nearly all light cavalry, which comes quite a few turns earlier than Chosen Archer Warbands. The missile-heavy Scythians seem like an ideal foe to face with such an army. When I don't have to tech up to tier 3 before I can get a well-suited force to fight Scythia with, I might be able to beat Egypt to victory conditions.

Basically, I'll sweep up field armies with my light cav, and bring a heavy assault brigade along to take down settlements. Luckily, Scythians are barbarians, so no heavy assault lifting is going to be needed to deal with their city walls. Simple axemen should be plenty to do the job.

[RLucid]

Had a look at one of my Bugfixer/Vannilla PBM games, and due to the play balancing, the Seleucids seem to be doing rather well in my Julii game. Actually at one point, they were the "Most Advanced Faction". That might make it doable to take the whole of the North, before another faction makes the short victory conditions.

The game appears to be coalescing into a number of larger empires, but not the same predictable ones as in RTW 1.5. The strategic position, actually looks like it might be interesting enough to take through civil war, with the Brutii doing rather well in modern Greece, and no obvious way to slow them up. The Seleucids have started fleet building and patrolling the Aegean.

[Stephen B.R. Keller]

Yes, Praetor Rick, you can win the short campaign as Germania. I have just won two, the first at H/H and the second at VH/H.

But you need a game plan. Mine has two phases. The first or Expansion Phase has three objectives, 1) grow your empire to meet the 15 settlement requirement - I go for at least 16, 2) stabilize your finances and defenses and 3) get some level three cities so you can build high-end units, esp., Gothic cavs and chosen archers. The second or Blitz Phase has one objectivre - to search out and destroy (not necessarily hold) Dacian and Scythian settlements.

So, in the Expansion Phase you start with 5 settlement in Northern Europe. Set all taxes on very high and build roads, temples (all to Freyja, except for Mogontiacum and the "special cases"), traders, and farms. In Mogontiacum build a Wotan temple, upgrade it to level 2 and build a blacksmith as soon as you have built a trader. Build spear warbands only in Mogontiacum and only after you have competed the second level Woptan temple (that it, from turn four on). And, upgrade all of your spears after you have completed the blacksmith. Your strategy depends on complete dominance on the battlefield which you will have in the early game with spears with two legels of experience and a blacksmith. You don't have a lot of money so you cannot affort a lot of spears at 200d a trun each. So, go for quality, not quantity. Don't build other military buildings until the end of the Expansion Phase.

There ar four early game special cases. In Trier, from the start, train peasants and disburse them in Mogontiacum. This will off set the training of spears in M and allow it to grow. In Damme, have Arminius take the spears north and a little west and take Bordesholm. Train a unit of peasants there to keep order, build roads, a Freyja temple, etc., and bring Arminius and the spears back to Damme. In Vicus Marcomanni, build a temple to Wotan and train a unit of peasants on the first turn. On the second turn, train a unit of spears and retrain the unit you already have. On the third turn, train another unit of spears and have Hariulfus take two spears south towards Lovocise. Train spears in VM for the next three turns. Take L the next turn, after which, leave the two spears there, and bring Hariulfus tack to VM. Build a warrior's hold, a temple to Freyja, roads, etc., in L and, when you get several free spears in VM replace the spears in L and retrain them in VM. In the meantime, have Hariulfus take two spears from VM north and a little west, and attack and take Vicus Gothi. Train a unit of peasants there to keep order, build a temple to Freyja, roads, etc. (don't forget the mine - good money) and bring Hariulfus and the spears back to VM. There retrain the spears and send Hariulfus, with the separs, off to the east and a little north to take Home Sweet Home. Finally, in Mogontiacum, when you get three free level two Wotan trained spears ("free" means that you don't need them for the war with Britain - did I mention that the Brits will attack you five or six turns after the gane starts?), take them with a general, maybe Vanius, south and east and take Iuvavum. You will be there for a while and it will be a key defendsive post later - so reinforce from M after you have blacksmit/level 2 spears. If you keep a general and five or six spears there, you will be able to defend against Gaulish or Roman armies several time that size.

These "special" cases will allow you to double your empire to ten provinces. But, they will not solve your cash problem and they will not get you a level three city - at least not right away. For that, you need to turn west to the rich North Sea trade and the developed cities of Gaul and Britain.
`
As I mentioned, Britain will attack you within five or six turns. You defend with a smaller army in the north and a larger army in the sourth. In the north, build a unit of peasants and city walls in Batavadorum and take all of the other units and Richburgis and join Arminius in Dame, when he returns from Bordeshold. The old gentleman will die soon - to be reborn in 260 years to win the battle of the Teutoberger Wald and change history. But, for now, transfer his retrainers to Richburgis, a worthy successor. This is no insult to Arminius as history has great plans for him. You may wish to retrain your spears at Mogontiacum while you wait for the Brits to attack. In the south, build a unit of peasants in Trier, and bring Ariogaisus and his army to Mogontiacum. Retrain, build spears, and wait for the Brits. By the way, treat Ariogaises with respect - he will be your faction leader for may years and, like Hariulfus and Richburgis, has 10 star potential.

When the Brits attack destroy their armies, retain and go for Samarobriva. They may have bigger armies, but nothing that will stand up to level 2 Wotan spears trained with a balcksmith. From there, it is on to Londinium and the rest of the British Isles. You will need 8 or so spears and two generals when you go to the British Isles.

Often, after you take Samaro, the Brits will come to you with a cease fire offer. They will pay at least 3500d for it. You might accept and use the money build you cities and prepare your invasion of the British Isles. This would also be a good time to reduce the taxes on Damme, Mogontiacum and Samaro to help them build to L3.

At some point, Gaul will attack you, too. Not to worry. Your spears will fininsh them off. But, and this is important, all you want from Gaul is Alesia. It will probably be at or near level 3 when you get there, so build to level three, and then buld a level 3 Wotan temple, a Weaponsmith and an archery range, retrian your spears and start cranking out chosen archers and Gothic cavs. But, don't do anything more to the Gauls - make peace, if you can. Their elinimation is a victory condition for the Julii and they serve as an importand buffer aginst the Romans. Londinium will also be at or hear level three, so build up and start cranking out high-end units, there, too.

Establish defensive garrisons in Alesia, Mogontiacum, Iuvavum and Vicus Marcomanni - and you might build some watch towers to see what is coming.

This compeltes the first phase. In my last game, I got there in 243. I had 16 provinces. Alesia and Londinium were at level 3 as were Damme and soon Mogontiacum. The trade/total income figures were as follows:

Samarobriva 1354/1913 Londinium 2576/2271 Vicus Gothi 595/1384
Eburacum 430/889 Deva 1039/1722
Tara 417/697 Batavadurum 580/1095

All that was left was to search out and destroy the Dacians and Scyians. I recommend an army heavy on chosen archers and Gothic cavs: 6 spears, 6 chosen archers, 2 chosen axemen, 5 Gothic cavs, and your general. I also recommend a small "trailer army" with, say, 3/4 spears, 3 gothic cave, 3 chosen archers, a couple of chosen axemen, and a couple of generals. The extra cavs are important because you will not be able to retrain Gothic cave along the way., Extra generals are necessary if your general dies. The others can be important, e.g., to hold a city while you train locals.

Finally, you need spies to locate cities. The idea is truly to seek and destroy not hold - at least hold only long enough so that the Dacians and Scythians don't retake them.

So good luck.

SKeller

[Stangler]

A couple of tricks I used to great effect with Germany.

1) Waiting for Britain to attack me when I just happen to be hanging around on a bridge. Britain destroys itself trying to attack me and is easily conquered after suffering major losses and levelling up my family members. This works against the Juli too.

2) Cavalry. Lots and lots of cavalry. Using a lot of family members early is a common tactic but against Gaul, Spain, and Julli barbarian cavalry is enough. Especially when you have almost a full stack of them. The more family members the better but 2 or 3 will do fine. Cruising through Spain with a full stack of cavalry is fun. Easy but fun.

3) Population control. Don't go crazy making those awesome German phalanx troops. They are great but they take 120 people. Also use slavery to boost a city or two so you can make gothic cavalry and berzerkers.

4) Don't buy everything you see. Show restraint when spending your money and grow those cities. Once you conquer some better cities your production will ramp up. You can take your time a bit and build up your economy and armies.

I found this faction to be easier than Bruti. The reason for this is because there are so many easy targets for you to attack, you don't have to worry about those marian reforms, and you don't have to worry about Egypt (the only enemy that has ever really given me any problems). You don't have the money of the Bruti but you don't really need it as much.

[dark@hunter]

germania is the most powerful faction in the game becouse they have barserkers

[Quintus.JC]

germania is the most powerful faction in the game becouse they have barserkers

Germania is one of the most powerful faction in the game, and its not only because they have berserkers.

Germania's got some fearsome units alright; Berserkers, nigh raiders, Spear Warband (Phalanx), Chosen Axemen, Gothic cavalry.... These units even come to rival the Roman Legions, and with a good commander, conquering the Ancient World shouldn't really be a problem.