Germania

[Deus ret.]

Yes, they're fearsome. Even when the AI controls them. When I played Greeks and encountered them, the hoplites (not the armoured ones, though) had real difficulties in dealing with them, mainly because they are oversized. Oh, and did I mention that the AI had actually built a lvl 3 Woden shrine....those spearbands kick arse. especially in greater numbers which are easy to obtain even for the AI.
Germans are one of the strongest factions despite being Barbarians. The only perceptable challenge consists in playing on huge unit size: with all your crappy little settlements, it will take a while to level them up as long as you fight on all sides at once, even more so against opponents who don't have similar handicaps.

[katank]

But if you do something like blitz into Italy while crippling Gaul at the same time right at the beginning, then there is no handicap.

Dare I say overpowered?

[Deus ret.]

Dare I say overpowered?

mmh you're right. they should've been made somewhat weaker or at least more vulnerable, as the HRE in MTW was. very nice faction, back then. ok, Romans never conquered a lot of Germany, but outside their lands the Germans were not really up to them, either.

[katank]

Actually blitzing in general seems a bit overpowered.

Germania in blitzing gain the particular fast population necessary. By the time you hit Italy while blitzing, most places are already cities, thus giving you your best units in less than 10 years' time.

[Franconicus]

mmh you're right. they should've been made somewhat weaker or at least more vulnerable, as the HRE in MTW was. very nice faction, back then. ok, Romans never conquered a lot of Germany, but outside their lands the Germans were not really up to them, either.

Germania was never united. It was always a collection of tribes. But nevertheless - it were Germanians that destroit and conquered western Roman empire

[katank]

True, the widescale coordination of strikes makes the humans overpowered. Maybe we should make random AI mistakes like having armies wander aimlessly to simulate German disunity?

[Mightypeon]

Well, in regards to Blitzing: its 14 turns into the game and my Thracians are siegeing Athens after having killed Macedon-.-
For fun you could try the "Völkerwanderung", take all you germans and go for rome.
It could be that you have to do some linehugging against the Senate but it is possible to conqeur rome something like 12 turns into the game.
Oh, and the rest of the world happens to be in deep XBOX because you can now pump out High End german units like nothing.

[Marquis of Roland]

Man, I should have read this guide crap before I started Germans......

These guys are the poorest bastards I've yet to play (I haven't played Parthians but even if they start out poor there's a bunch of rich Seleucid provinces ripe for the taking). I've been trying to play this faction historically and so I left the Gauls and the brits alive, and so they still have all their richer provinces.

Plus these guys have the slowest growing provinces EVER. Compiled on top of this I built way too many units in the beginning so I ended up having to put most of my cities on growth build policy which made my money situation even worse. Its 234 or something and I barely just got a city into minor city category. I captured all bordering rebel provinces though, but it seems like they're just sucking more of what little money I have.

Spear warband was a pleasant surprise, their battle performance is pretty good. Definitely arguably the best in the first tier. Axemen are superior to Gallic swordsmen one on one and can take out hastati relatively easily as well. One thing I don't like about Chosen axemen is that they take too many casualties; the only way I will let them in my army is if they had considerable armor upgrades otherwise their survivability is too low. Therefore I plan to use night raiders as my main battle line. Judging from the stats of Gothic cav, they're even better than companions and cataphracts, if I remember the stats correctly (gothic got 17 attack and 23 defense I believe, cataphracts have similar defense but only 7 attack, companions have comparable attack but only like 15 defense or something), putting them as the best cav in the game??

Yeah, I probably should have rushed Rome, or at least Alesia, Patavium, and/or Mediolanum. This money situation is getting out of control. Capturing Samarabrovia from the brits helped out a little, but I need more, I can only afford 1 field army at a time and I have 3 borders to defend.....

Whoever said the Brits were backstabbing bastards was right. They betrayed my alliance three times and I even offered them peace after their armies were completely destroyed. I've had it with these blue people, I am going to invade and exterminate.

Gauls must be wiped out ASAP too; I didn't realize they made enough money to send 1 1/2 full flag armies at you every turn.....quite tired of fighting these weaklings....need those damn Romans to get Marius reforms so I can start fighting legionaires....

[katank]

Chosen axes are invaluable against legionnaires. They can even take urbans provided you time warcry properly.

Gothics will probably lose to catas in a straight fight due to armour piercing secondary of the catas.