Germania

[katank]

Into debt immediately? It's quite possible to avoid that.

Go for Alesia ASAP and I believe you can siege it on turn 2 (build roads to make it marginally faster, you need the very last couple of movement points). They will sally and get trashed. You will have it during the AI's turn. You can exterminate it for cash. Alesia army goes for southern sweep and sacks Lugundum, Massila and then Narbo Martius.

Leave all your towns empty on the first turn and queue temples and peasants.

After that, build traders whenever you can and have taxes on very high.

I expanded into Denmark with my faction leader's army and then went south.

Easternmost army went towards Northern Italy and sacked rebel towns along the way. Everything else went south.

I marched into Rome in 263 BC. Glorious days of Germania.

I personally did not war upon the Brits until they stabbed me in Alesia with a siege. A relief force was sent led by a lucky adoption candidate with 5 stars and only 18! He was a promising general who with help of spearband, puppies, and screechers became a great hero and the conqueror of Brittania.

[pezhetairoi]

Ah, I accumulated units into two armies and went south into Italy immediately. In debt from Turns 3 to 9, but after capturing Mediolanum it was all good. It is now turn 263 winter and I'm slightly slower than you (you're the master of katanking, after all :P), but I'm at most 2 turns away from marching into Rome. Could've been faster if not for the fact that I didn't have enough money to build roads in the Alpine provinces... I know the Brits were going to attack me anyway, so I decided to surrender my settlements to them if they attacked. I don't war the Brits until I cripple the Gauls. Meanwhile, I'm concentrating all efforts on a speedy conquest of Italy. Cities are falling about one every one to two turns.

[Viking]

After I read about all your insanely effetive expansions, I decided to try some blitz krieg myself.

The year 261 BC. I own 14 provinces, with Luvavum to join my migthy empire the next turn.

The Gauls are so weakened that I can just march into their lands without resistance, and that have never happened to me before, this is kinda freaky

Maybe all of my next campiagns will be blitz krieg campiagns. `cause this campaign have made RTW alot more funny.

But you guys never said anything about how many provinces you got, maybe I`m not that bad after all?

[katank]

Meh. I think my province count was something like 18 by 263. Blitzing was a strat that I found back in the days of MTW.

People used to complain that the MTW Turks were the hardest faction in early. I showed a blitz strat that would more than triple the treasury on the second turn (on expert mode, comparable to VH in RTW).

I did blitzing ever since. I've frankly found every faction to be fairly easy as it's quite possible to double or even triple your empire in the first 5-7 turns. The AI just cannot deal with blitzing.

Also, due to how little it is into the game, you can plan for exactly how many units you will come up against as starting armies are fixed.

The strat is a bit too effectively however. It really takes the challenge out of games.

[bubbanator]

100th reply to the german thread

Anyways, I don't like the whole idea of giving up your homelands to other tribes.

What I did was I took Sambrovia as soon as I could. This kept the Brits at bay. I allied with the Romans in exchange for me attacking the gauls. I took their capital first. They allied with each other in a pathetic attepmt to save themselves. I had decided that I would wait to take out Rome until they were strong.

In the east, I went as far as Domus Dulcis Domus before setting up forts to keep the Scythians out. I sent a diplomat to get an alliance to free up my eastern front when I found that they were in an alliance with britian and gaul. I was considering attacking them when I realized how much like WWII this was like. The Gauls(French), Scythians (Russians) and Brits (Brits) were allied together but I was still at peace with Scythia. I was allied with the Italians. Hmm...

I was determined that my empire would end like the it did in WWII. I immediately invaded Britian with 2 armies and took London first turn with the help of my spies. I quickly took the rest of England when I realized they weren't dead. They had taken Tara. I had never, ever seen the AI take Tara before. I took the city and the Brits were dead. I got a ceasefire from Gaul and allied with the Scythians. With the British out of the picture, I have moved my armies back to the mainland. My next move is to take an army down into Dracia, break my alliance, and take their 3 towns in northern Greece. From there, I will wait until the Romans are strong enough to think they can beat me and attack. I will not start the war, but I will finish it. When they attack, my armies in the old Dracian provinces will attack the Brutii in Greece. My main attack force will come from the north where I am now producing Chosen Axemen and Gothic Cavalry with 3 xp. I will drive down, wipe out the Julii and plunder the Roman capitals before taking the Scipii towns on the Mediteranian Islands starting with Sicily. I will let them keep their African province if they ever get them to begin with. The Cartaginians just defeated a stack and a half of Scipii beseiging Lilybaeum. The Julii haven't gotten past Patavium, and they lost at Mediolanium. However, their full stack army is coming to finish that job now. The Brutii are doing about as I expected. They have Apollonia, Salona, and Segstica and are besieging Thermon. They are allied with Macedon who has the rest of Southern Greece.


A few things about the Germans:

Like it was said before, population growth is painfully slow. That make's it very difficult to get some boats to hop the channel into england. I had 2 full stack armies waiting around for a port to be built.

Economical, the germans aren't too great, but they more than make up for it with their superior military. You can go and take all of the towns around you without much struggle. Once you get your cities developed a bit, you get Chosen Axemen which can cut up the Roman Legions fairly easily. Also you get Gothic Cavalry which is most likely the best cavalry that you will encounter in your game unless you go to the far east. Berserkers are also nice shock troops, though they just don't have the numbers that you need to effectively fight the Romans.

Strategy Against the Romans:

I have found that if you have an army of mostly spear warbands, 4 or so groups of Chosen Axemen, around 4 Gothic Cavalry, and around 4 Chosen Archer Warbands, you can beat just about any roman army. In most cases, let them come to you. Have your spear line with Chosen axemen on the flanks and the Cavalry all together on one side. Have your archers behind your line with flaming arrows on. It is quite obvious what to do now. Have your spearmen engage when the enemy gets close with your Axemen cutting them down on the flanks. Have your archers focus their fire on A) any missile troops the enemy has B) if they don't have any, concentrate fire on the center of their line. Your cavalry must run to the rear of the enemy, and take out the enemy archers before they can destroy your Axemen. After the archers are dealt with, have them smash through the very center of Roman line. This lets your axemen kill more and more importantly lets your cavalry mash the enemy against a literal wall of sharp, pointy sticks. It is Alexander the Great's "Hammer and Anvil" Strategy adapted for use by the barbarians. The enemy line will soon rout and your main line will be saved. The whole line of the enemy will soon collapse, letting your Gothic Cavalry chase down the routing soldiers. Works like a charm.

[Franconicus]

bubbanator,

very good job and excellent report. Glad you were not one of Hitler's generals

[roman god's]

Let's not lie the germens suck. They get attacked by everybody. Dacia, britannia, romans (later), and the gauls. They also get no money coming in. So you got to be good with money and have some bad ass generals( with tons of luck). I'll finish this post later.......