Germania

[DojoRat]

Rome fell with a whimper. You know Rome is weak when the Brutii and not the Julii have control of Massila in southern France. \

It was more a matter of logistics than tactics to take Milan and Venice (still Gaulish!) and the two Julii cities. I was surprised to see the "faction destroyed" flag when the Julii cities fell, usually they own Sardina/Corsica and survive till you get around to raising a fleet. The Brutii sent a few stacks out of Illyricum but they had little to guard their cities and they quickly fell. I besieged Rome until they emerged at the end to fall on MY swords. The Scipii but up a good fight and even brought troops over by boat to try to raise the seige. The second battle must have killed the last of their line because when Capua fell they were gone.

My anti Roman battle plan is a simple, one sided end run.

(OOPs wrong button.)

The side will change depending upon the terrain/circumstances but I find one overwhelming envelopment works best against legions. 4-5 spearbands with 4 archers, 1 screamer, 1 general, 3 lc 2 hc and the rest axemen and wildmen. I set my spears/archers in the center but only a few covering forces on the weak side and mass the rest on the other. I use my cav to keep the velites at bay because they can cut you up if you get bogged down fighting some experienced legions. They will also provide a final straw, if needed, to crack the Roman battle line.

Dacia is next, followed by Macedon. I wonder if Macedon will be tough.
I hope so.

[Dragoncrusader]

A guide to the Germans

Troops
Type No /Experience /Attack /Total /mele/missil /Charge /Weapon Type /Defence Total /Armour /Skill /Shield /Hit Points /Recruit Cost /Upkeep /Special factors
Barb Peasants 120 0 1 1 light 4 3 1 0 1 150 100 Woods Snow
Skirm Warband 80 0 6/9 4 missile 3 0 1 2 1 220 130 Woods Snow
Chosen Archer 81 1 12/14 5 Missile 13 8 5 0 1 560 180 Flaming wod/snw
Spear Warband 121 1 10 8 light 12 3 4 5 1 510 200 Phalanx Wod/Snw
Screech Women 80 0 11 7 heavy 1 0 1 0 1 320 130 Woods Snow
Hounds 40 0 14 4 light 3 2 1 0 1 612 60 Woods Snow
Axemen 81 1 12 7 heavy 10 3 5 2 1 450 120 Warcry Wod Snw
Chosen Axemen 81 1 20 9 heavy 7 0 7 0 1 522 200 Warcry Wod Snw
Beserkers 24 2 22 8 heavy 7 0 7 0 3 756 120 Warcry Wod Snw
Naked Fanatics 80 2 16 6 light 9 0 4 5 1 430 130 Warcry Wod Snw
Night Raiders 80 1 16 8 heavy 11 3 3 5 1 486 130 Warcry Wod Snw
Barb Cav
54 2 11 9 Light 12 3 5 4 1 400 90 Wedge Wod Snw
Noble Barb Cav 54 0 11 10 light 15 6 5 4 1 600 160 Wedge Wod Snw
Gothic Cavalry 54 3 17 10 light 23 10 9 4 1 632 190 Wedge Wod Snw
Generals 24 0 14 10 light 14 4 6 4 22 940 92 Snow
Hastiti 80 0 8/12 2 heavy 14 5 4 5 1 440 170
Equites 54 0 8 7 light 12 3 5 4 1 390 110 wedge

Tech Tree

Town Large Town Minor City
Govern Warrior Hold (Peasants) Warlords Hold (Diplomat) High Kings Hall (Gen Bodyguard +1)
Walls Wooden Palisade Stockade na
Barracks Musterfield (Spear Warb) Meeting Hall (Axemen) Hall of Heroes (Chosen Axemen)
Stables na Stables (Barb Cav, Hounds) Warlords Stables (Barb Noble Cav)
Rangesna Practice range (Skirm warb) Archery Range (Chosen Archer)
Smiths na Blacksmith needs trader (weapons +1) Weaponsmith needs market (Weapons +1 Armour +1)
Port na Port (1 trade fleet)(boats) Shipwrght (2 trade flt)(large boat)
Farm Land clearance (food +1) Commnl farming (food +2) X
Roads Roads (trade + travel) x x
Tavern na Tavern (Public Order +5%) Bardic Circle (Order +10% Nightstalker)
Trade Trader (populus + 0.5%) Market (populus +0.5% Spy) Great Market (populus +0.5% Assassin)
Freya Happy +5% Populus +0.5% Screeching Women Happy +10% Populus +1% Happy +15% Populus +1.5%
Donar Happy +5% Happy +10% Experience+1 Happy +15% Experience +2 Beserker
Woden Happy +5% Experience+1 Happy +10% Experience+2 Naked Fanatics Happy +15% Experience +3 Gothic Cavalry


Short campaign set at medium/medium. Objectives 15 provinces and outlive Dacia and Scythia. These factions are very similar to Germania but the Dacians have some armoured infantry and the Scythians lots of horse archers but neither have any spears.

Overview
Your starting position is good because you have five provinces in Central Europe and these are surrounded by rebel ones. But you are going to need it because you have a small population, low population growth and low level technology (Germania can only build up to Minor Cities) and this can present a challenge in a long game. So the plan is to expand widely and fast before the other factions can get established and to challenge the Romans early as possible.

Development
You have 2 large towns Damme and Mogontiacum with 3000 souls and a technology goal of 6000 and these should be developed first into your troop producing centres and you should aim to get at least one of them up a tech level to Minor City. I had Mogontiacum, as a cavalry and missile troops centre for Noble Cavalry and Chosen Archers so that there was less of a drain on the population and built it first into a Minor City. I built the temple line to Woden to get Gothic Cavalry. Damme became the infantry centre and had the temple line to Donar and developed more slowly. Develop the other towns with level 1 items such as a palisade, farm, roads, trader and a temple to Freya for population growth. Have a garrison of 1 Peasant in each and 3 spear warbands on frontier towns. I doubt if there will be enough spare cash or people to develop any of the Towns into Large Towns early in the game but if you can, build a musterfield in Batavadurum and use this to supply extra warbands. Later you can build a port here when it grows into a Large Town. You only get four family members so have a governor in each of the two large towns and two armies. In the early game I make it a rule only to spend the PROFITS from each year and to leave the balance as an emergency fund. You will have to more population into the three towns that you are developing and you can do this by recruiting peasants, sending them to the developing town and then disbanding them.

Economics
Normally your low tech level, would be offset by trade income and you would have plenty of money. Not Germania. You will be short of cash all the game and I only managed to keep two 20 unit armies in the game with a 10 unit reserve and three frontier garrisons of four units each. About 65 units in total and about 10 diplomats and spies. Your farm income is low at between 300d and 450d a province and less than 200d in internal trade (due to poor roads) and you only get one mine in Vicus Gothi another 200d. External trade is difficult to get as you only have a port onto the North Sea and can only trade with Britannia and Gaul, both of whom are at war with you most of the time. My trade with Londinium was worth around 700d when it got going. Trade does build later when you capture the Black Sea and Gallic Mediterranean ports but by then you are facing the Romans, so you are going to need it. I kept two diplomats full time selling map information, one in Italy and Spain and the other in Greece and Anatolia. At between 5,000 and 15,000d a time this was a major source of revenue.

Tactics
Your troops are some of the best barbarian soldiers and the spear warband in phalanx formation is very powerful. Coupled with some Barbarian Cavalry to run down missile troops and routers and some axmen to cover flanks of the phalanx that is your early game army. It will defeat all the barbarian opponents, often when you are heavily out numbered. Just roll the army forward into the enemy and watch their centre crumble! Later you can add Noble Cavalry to crush the enemy’s cavalry and their flanks. When besieged just roll a phalanx into the breach and wait for the enemy to kill themselves. I normally have just three spear warbands so that I can cover all the breaches and a missile unit to keep off their missile units. I have seen just such a force kill an entire army of besieging Britons.

Against the Scythians, you will need to take armoured cavalry to destroy their cavalry and infantry (and survive the arrows) and as many Chosen Archers (guarded by 4 spear warbands) and Mercenary Horse Archers as you can muster. You will suffer casualties but your firepower should keep the Horse Archers at bay and they are not a strong faction.

Against the Romans, you need to guard your flanks but again you just need to roll the phalanx forward to destroy their centre. A single unit of spear warband is on a par with a unit of Hastatii so try and get all the armour and weapon upgrades that you can. Keep your units tight in a line so that you get local superiority when the Romans are more spread out trying to outflank you. What I find odd is that the recruitment cost of the Spear Warband is 70d greater than a unit of Hastatii and the upkeep 30d more. They have about the same combat power but you have a lot less money and population than any Roman Faction so these are relatively expensive units. You will need to fight every battle yourself so that you do not lose any men that you do not need to.

Strategy
You have a central position and will have to fight a war on two fronts using your interior lines to mass your troops against any threats that develop. Luckily you have the Alps to the south and if you can capture Iuvavum you can put a fort in the Alpine pass to the south to stop the Gauls/Romans coming that way. That leaves Gaul and Britannia in the West and Dacia, Macedonia and Thrace to the east. My strategy was to keep an army in the West and fight a slow war against Gaul and to neutralise Britannia through diplomacy – in the end they fought the Gauls instead. In the East, I sent every spare unit (about 30) to capture Dacia with Macedon and Thrace as allies and then sent a two pronged thrust into Scythia, one prong going along the Black Sea coast and the other through Pripet. I had just finished that in 243bc when the Brutii attacked from Pannonia but I was able to bring the army back from Scythia and Gaul to stop them. Game won. Continuing the game, I will take Greece to improve my economy and population and then southern Gaul and finally move into Italy.

Starting Strategy
270 BC Mass all your troops at Mogontiacum and your spy as your Eastern Army and send them to capture Lovosice, Vicus Marcomanni, Vicus Gothii and Bordesholm from the rebels. Move south to capture Iuvavum and built a fort in the pass through the Alps garrisoned by 3 spear units to stop forays from Italy. 263 BC Use Lovosice as a base to build up and retrain the army and then move into as much Dacian territory as you can before the Brutti get there. Capture Dacia by around 245 BC and then strike into Scythia using Vicus Marcomannias a base. The distances in the East are huge, so split up into small armies and try to capture as much of the Scythian hinterland in the first strike. It is not well defended as the Scythian army is at Campus Scythii facing the Thracians. Concentrate again at Tanais and destroy the Scythians in the province of Scythia around 230 BC. You are then positioned to move into Greece or against the Brutii as you wish but you have now won the short campaign.

270 BC In the West send the diplomat to Alesia to get an alliance with the Gauls and sell them map information and then onto the Britons for trade agreement and map information. Build an army Batavodurum as the Britons will attack soon. When they do, counter attack and capture Samarobriva which should finish the Britons on the mainland for a while. If the Julii fight the Gauls, you may get peace there for a long time but if they go into Spain then the Gauls will attack you. They attacked me around 263 BC and I captured Alesia and sent about 1,500 of its population to Mogontiacum which finally became a minor city in 253 BC. The Gauls kept sending small armies up to Alesia which were easy to kill and kept the Britons under control with a diplomat. Around 240 BC having destroyed the bulk of the Gallic armies, I captured Lemonum and the British re-appeared on the mainland, got a bloody nose at Samarobriva and so went off to besiege Condate Redonum- a Gallic town! Captured Massilia around 230BC but kept other Gallic provinces alive as a buffer against the Julii.

Gave up trying to control rebel armies, as I always seemed to have four and I could never seem to bribe them, even family members.

I quite liked playing the Germans but got fed up with the lack of money and always having to scrape together units to get together a decent attacking army. Also the task of taking on Scythia was very dull as the distances were so huge and you were vulnerable to an attack back home. But they have the best barbarian army and can take on anyone. Am now going to try this emigrate to Rome strategy. Sounds like fun!

[HopAlongBunny]

Nice units but no cash.

I thought ppl were kidding when they said sell trade rights and maps for 10k or more...omg! it works

The Scipii refused my deal for map info for 10k (5k had been my highest attempt up til then) the counter offer was 1925k/turn over 9 turns What could I do but (begrudgingly) say yes?

A common theme here, and something I have seen as well. The Romans seem to make no headway against Gual while you are fighting. My diplomat in Italy does not see many troops, perhaps the best plan IS the Roman Blitz detailed above.

edit:Lol, the only thing worse than your cash position is your population. It's now 230'ish and I have yet to see a city of 6000. When do these guys get archers? The Guals are spamming archers/foresters and chosen sword; despite losing every town outside Italy...none of which can produce archers btw

Also, I have been enslaving everything I get my hands on and the pop. in my main towns is still tiny.

[Mr Frost]

...edit:Lol, the only thing worse than your cash position is your population. It's now 230'ish and I have yet to see a city of 6000. When do these guys get archers? The Guals are spamming archers/foresters and chosen sword; despite losing every town outside Italy...none of which can produce archers btw

Also, I have been enslaving everything I get my hands on and the pop. in my main towns is still tiny.

Pick which towns you want to become your top production centres and don't build anything there unless you absolutely need to {ie , you need Cav and non is available for hire and no other town can build them} . Your spears are the workhorse , but at 121 men per can drop a small population fast , use your secondary towns to produce these .
You might try building peasants in a town you don't mind depopulating , and sending them to your chosen towns in a steady stream {disband them when they get in their new home and increase that towns population by 120 per unit} .
Try getting the spearment to mate with the screaming women