Germania

[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.