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....