Germania

[Spartakus]

Germania is great battlewise. Once you have managed to build a nice army, that is. Losses do not have to be heavy, just avoid autoresolve most of the time, as already pointed out by Magraev.

The key to victory, in my opinion, is spearmen and chosen archers. Form a solid wall of phalanxes, position some units of chosen archers behind these, and some cavalry on the sides to make sure they don't get any nasty surprises. The spearmen can be reinforced with night raiders and berserkers, great units for making the enemy rout. This makes them particularly useful against your neighbours the Gauls and the Britons, as these guys rout at the drop of a hat. I have yet to see this strategy fail.

Where to go? In my opinion every Germania-player's duty is to plunder Rome before Alaric. Which gives you hundreds of years, so no need to hurry, conquer Britannia and Gaul first.

[Mightypeon]

Well, I have something to add to the German Phalanx:
Add one unit of Axes or Barb Merc and one unit of screaming Women.
Let both use their abilites when the enemy gets close.
The combined effect of the scremaing + the warshout is almost enough to "shake" some units, and certainly enough to make the pesky romans run earlier.
It also gives you the edge in Phalanx vs. Phalanx as their Phalanx will run before yours does.
Always keep 2 units of Cavalry, the other germans arent that good in chasing routers and german cavalry is good in protecting flanks.
Oh, I noticed that some well defendet border forts can occupy the Dacian/Thracian/Skythian mongrels with very little troops while your guys spank rome.
Does anyone have some tips on Naval warfare?
I am unable to put any kind of dent into the roman navys, which is quite pesky, I cant even get a diplomant to africa for getting an Alliance with Cartage/Egypt...

[Mightypeon]

Well, I have saved the problem with the roman navy, by killing them all.
their navy is nto that scary if they dont carry any troops because soemone just spanked italy.
On hindisght, it was significantly more easier than anticipated.
The Julii armies were unxeperienced, my tpyical 4 Spears, 2 chosen Archer 1 general one gothic 2 Light Cav on Axemen on one screamer armies beat them up pretty well.
5 Star Spearman can still hold up Legions, mainly because they posses a bigger size and get a morale advantadge (well, you did use the scremaing women eh?)
I have engaged the Dacian/Thracian (the latter have absorbed Macedon), the Falxmen are somehow Cannon fodder (my Cav runs through them, they dont even get close to my spears and my Archers are shooting them up anyway.)
however the Thracian Pikes are pretty nasty, alas their small front size will mean their doom, in addition the AI cannot really use its Phalanxes.
I am doign a "Sitzkrieg" with the Skythians, pretty small garrisons (one General + 2 Spears +1 chosen Archers) are sitting in some border forts and protect the irver corssings, the Sykths dont even try to siege.
My Spy recently found out why the Skythies are so boring, the Scythies lost their leader + main army against the Amazons, however I dont have enough troops to garrsion the land which would be ripe for taking.

I have to confess that I dont like Berserkers, the require that you build a temple to Donar, however, Donar is inferior to Wotan in most respects (Wotan get more units and a better bonus) in addition, the priests of Donar help you helaing your wounded which I think is one of the best skills ever, the +2 command while using infantry is even better.

I can only recommend chosen Axemen coming from a level 3 Wotan temple city with a nice armour smith. Want to go toe to toe with the urban cohorts? Well, chosen Axes can do the trick, in additoon they are propably one of the best one turn units.

[Spartakus]

I have to confess that I dont like Berserkers, the require that you build a temple to Donar, however, Donar is inferior to Wotan in most respects (Wotan get more units and a better bonus) in addition, the priests of Donar help you helaing your wounded which I think is one of the best skills ever, the +2 command while using infantry is even better.

But they look SO cool!

Seriously, Donar may be inferior to Wotan, but the berserkers do cream enemies in battle. I have seen these guys chase away Roman units many times their size. With the hitpoints, they don't go down as easily as you might expect either.

On the side, it's worth noting that the germanic god Wotan and the norse god Odin are one and the same, just a variation in the spelling from old norse to saxon. Same with Donar/Thor. So these fellas are actually the predecessors of the berserkers in Viking Invasion.

[The_Emperor]

Ok I started off a game as the Germans last night to have a bash at them.

Theya re hard on the battlefield with those spear warbands... To be honest I thought they would have been higher upt he tech tree than they are. I was really amazed that while the Britons and Gauls get the default "Warband" the Germans got a Phalanx... Still they do need it more than the Britons and Gauls do, their lands are so dirt poor you have to Blitz the map to avoid early game stagnation. Especially with the Britons and Gauls.

For my part I ended up at war with both of these factions very early on. I got agressive and took Alesia from the Gauls (it is their Capital after all)... Then the Britons joined in sending an army to try to besiege Alesia from me right afterwards.

So I scraped an army together and attacked their Gallic foothold. Fortunately the moment my army got close to their city, the Big Briton army lifted the siege to rush back to defend. It was a big mistake and I took the town while they were stuck on the road... That army was later destroyed in a heroic victory near the town.

My eastern flank though is extremely weak due to the dirt poor nature of Germanic towns, fortunately I am allied with Dacia and am pursuing an alliance with Scythia, to hold them at bay.

[MadKow]

I also started a German game. I play on medium so dont expect some genius insight from here. My very first target was the briton foothold which was promptly dispatched.
As soon as that was taken care of, i went for the gauls. At this point i still have to conquer the two mediterranean cities. In the mean time a full stack of brit troops lead by a 5 star general crossed the Channel and is menacing their former posession.

My biggest problem is population growth. The German cities grow VERY slow. Temples of Freya(?) may help there, but if you want berserkers and Gothic cavalry you have to please the other gods. The East so far is not a problem. I was slow taking the Helvetii town and lost the Tyrol to the Dacians. However my Eastern most provinces are providers of very interesting mercenary forces, namely Scytian Horse Archers and Samartian Cavalry. HA are useful as most of you can imagine, and Samartian Cavalry has an outstanding Charge bonus. Haven't used them yet, though.

The German spearband caused my very first defeat in RTW while playing the Julii and overconfidently assaulted a German settlement.
So far i've only used spearmen, cavalry and a few screaming ladies, besides the ocasional mercenary barbarians, when facing big numbers.
It's been quite fun, playng the Germans.

Oh.. watch your leaders... they can get some nasty vices from drinking too much ale.

[Spartakus]

I also started a German game. I play on medium so dont expect some genius insight from here. My very first target was the briton foothold which was promptly dispatched.
As soon as that was taken care of, i went for the gauls. At this point i still have to conquer the two mediterranean cities. In the mean time a full stack of brit troops lead by a 5 star general crossed the Channel and is menacing their former posession.

I can imagine. Conquering Britannia before heading southwards solves this problem. Less men in the north equals more men in the south, and of course, you need everything you've got to deal with the Romans.

My biggest problem is population growth. The German cities grow VERY slow. Temples of Freya(?) may help there, but if you want berserkers and Gothic cavalry you have to please the other gods.

Freya's correct. The key to this one is balance, I would suggest building the temple of Freya in about 1/3 of your cities (more or less). Which cities must be decided according to location, the safe towns which are (or will be) in the center of your empire and far from the line of battle would be my choice, as you wouldn't want to recruit your berserkers and gothic cavalry from these places anyway.

Now go get Rome!