Germania

[andrewt]

I'm currently playing the Germans after a long layoff from RTW. My broadband was down so I played RTW the past week.

I took out most of the troops from Germany then went after Britain then Gaul as well as the rebel tribes. While waiting for my cities to grow I hired tons of mercs to help conquer Gaul, Britain and some rebel cities. You should conquer Londinium and Samarobriva ASAP. Building a port in both cities will get you around 2000 denarii every turn via two-way trade. Conquering Alesia also weakens the Gauls a lot. Tara-Deva also has decent two-way trade.

The fastest way of growing cities is the destroy and replace strat which I remembered after a years of my campaign. Build shrines to Freyja, wait, then destroy and replace with Woden or Donar once your cities are large enough.

The phalanx warband is powerful but I'm frustrated from all the phalanx bugs I encountered in my previous Pontus game that I don't use them as much during my German game. They have this stupid tendency to keep switching to knives or stop attacking an opposing unit so I have to keep pressing attack to make them start attacking again then stop so they'll attack with spears instead of knives. Also, they take forever to get their formation, especially in sieges. One unit out of 121 gets stuck somewhere while sieging and they'll never form a phalanx.

[pezhetairoi]

Well observed, andrewt. I think you're the first one I've seen besides me who's observed the trade pairs, of which Corduba-Tingi and Athens-Kydonia add to the number.

Do not worry about the phalanx warband, and use them all you want. They do not have secondary knife weaponry, they only have that spear which does an above-average damage of 9. Which actually makes the Spear warband superior to any other phalanx formation save the elites since they will always maintain their spears which is their best bet for survival.

[Craterus]

I've always known about the Tara-Deva trade, and I know it brings in a nice income for Britain. Check back in the Britannia thread, I've mentioned it a few times there.

I think Germania are the "best" barbarian faction, and one of the easiest if you use the blitz at the start. They have the Spear Warband that can beat almost, if not all, first level units. They have great infantry later on, and Gothic Cavalry to sweep up. They're also one of the most unique factions, as they have a fair few unique units (Beserkers, Chosen Axemen, Spear Warband etc.)