Britannia

**Darklight1138** · 10-05-2004, 10:50

Sooo, ya figure with that Island up in the corner yer safe eh?

Not quite.

Here is what I do to get started with Britannia. First off, move a few extra troops onto the mainland to defend your only city there. Ignore ireland for the moment. It's tempting, but you need the troops elsewhere in the beginning. The Gauls will attack. In every start with this one, the Gauls attacked me every time so be prepared. The germans will be open to diplomatic solutions in the beginning. Build your towns towards swordsmen as quickly as possible, then light british chariots. These two units should form the backbone of your early armies and if used correctly they can be devastating to your neighbors. I generally fight all my battles, but if you prefer to automate some make sure you have good generals fighting the battles. I'm certain you can read up about generals/family members somewhere else here.

With the practically destined conflict with the Gauls, you may have to forgo a large and expensive navy and rely on subterfuge to keeps a few ships running to ferry troops to the mainland. Once your lone city on the mainland is secure and you can afford to retrain your armies defending the area, attack Ireland. It's only a few bandits in Tara, but once yours Tara is a valuable resource. From there you can build an army in peace specifically for invading the north coast of europe while using your home island to supply the mainland during the ongoing struggle. I suggest building a temple for creating Woad warriors, as these are powerful units very early in the game even though the temples to Britannia can really help trade. Extra unit? More Trade? Better missiles? Temples will play an important role in your strategy in my opinion. If you are having trouble keeping a navy in the water, use short hops to transport troops across dangerous waters. Move ships up to Tara when it's clear. Wait till next turn. If they are still alive, move troops to Britannia in one move. Then walk the troops down to the south coast and use the same process to move to the mainland. Clever use of your navy is essential in the initial stages.
I cannot stress the importance of the Warcry in battle. The warriors of Britannia are fearsome indeed.

And ta-daa. You have a basic plan of action. I've played Britannia on a medium and hard (I ran into financial problems, my weak point. heh.) and both times this was a successful plan to start. It's my later decisions and lack of patience that cost me.

**Boudicca** · 10-06-2004, 10:48

Using the chariots and swordsmen is a good idea. According to your advice, I didn´t wait for the Gauls to attack me, but struck them immediately at Alesia. This led me into a more than 30 years war with the Gauls, who stood firmly against my forces, Spain and the Julii and conquered all of Spain and the North of Italy.

During my conquest, I experienced it to be the best tactics to have swordsmen or warbands advance, leading the chariots around the flank of the enemys forces and striking from behind, after hand to hand combat had started. This usually set the enemy on the run.

I´ve also been starting to use stone slingers recently, as they can significantly reduce the numbers of barbarian infantry...especially if it does not dare to attack due to the war cries of my forces.

The most important thing to me still remains the use of an experienced General in combination with highly experienced troops.

P. S. Don´t use your light chariots in city assaults...they will get split up in the roads and surely lose their way...

**Raizen** · 10-09-2004, 01:29

On my first turn, I dragged every spare person I could and headed over to the mainland, and took that city on the northwest coast (Concave something). It put the Gauls on the defensive, and I got a good coastline from which to strike at Tara pretty easily. I left a governor and a warband there and immediately moved back to the mainland. I ignored my navy and just used the one boat to ferry over the channel and head back into port.

Afterwards, I took Lemonum, Lugdunium, and Alesia (in that order), and got trade agreements with the four Roman factions. It's only 30 or so years in, but my money is coming in faster than I can spend it, and I can easily bribe armies out of the way so I can take provinces quickly. The Gauls are basically finished, and I have a good base to strike Germania and the Julii.

**DojoRat** · 10-18-2004, 15:59

As Britain you should be able to handle the Gauls and the Germans but defeating Rome is a challenge. As stated above, ally with Germania and sell trade rights and map info to Gaul before you attack them in Brittany. You'll fight a lot of battles around Aleisa but you should be able to defeat them in detail. Keep your diplomats moving out to sell Alliance/traderights/map info. Aim high. I sold an ATM package to Carthage for 9600 dinar (hard/hard) and it was my first offer! Use this cash to bribe Gauls or rebels and life will be easier.

After the initial Gaulish attack I went back an took Tara. I concentrated on trade there as well as the north of England and my unit production in London and the Continent. Make sure to build the right temple. One increases trade, one produces Woad Warriors then Head Hurlers, and the third Druids.
Trade for the home front/coastal areas and a mix of the other two on the continent. Keep your fleets on "skirmish mode" the gauls have too many to start with and so it's more efficient to ferry troops and family members across the channel and run up north to hide.

Tactics early on are rather basic. Use light chariots to disrupt their formations, they will chase you, and then attack with war bands center and Woads and Swords on the wings. Use the war cry and overwhelm them paying particular attention to killing their leader. War hounds are good to chase routers/disrupt missile units as are barbarian cv.

After you have taken greater France you'll have to make a strategic decision. Where to? In my game I had three options. The Julii were fairly weak and had taken only Segesta and the northern Spanish province. So I could take them on, or continue after the Gauls in the Po valley and Spain, or attack the Germans before they hit me. I was tired of the Gaulish fleets harassing me and figured it would be good to take Milan and venice before the Romans did.

WRONG. As I went for Milan the Julii came north and the Germans got in on the game. With 20/20 hindsight I should have really knocked the Germans for a loop and let the Julii take the Po valley. I used a lot of cash bribing Roman armies but my dinar would have gone farther in Germany. Take out the German capital but anything east of that loot and leave it to rebel, you can always get it later.

After Germany its on to Rome. A whole other story.

**TimDogg** · 10-18-2004, 21:22

That is the part of the story I want to hear! (Cause this is where Britania gets really difficult imho)

**wanderingblade** · 10-19-2004, 12:54

I've mainly been using the tactics above. After a quick start at it, I'd say taking Alesia should be your first priority, as elsewise the Gauls reinforce it and its a hard battle to take. From here, Condate Regenum in Brittany should be easy to take - send it two armies, one to hold the bridge and prevent reinforcements while the other sieges it into submission.

I did it the other way around and am slightly regretting it at the moment.

I slightly delayed my rush to Swordsmen to get some boats out of London, as I found the Gauls were slightly too keen to make friends with my boat and I couldn't shake them off. A simple fleet of two boats on Seek and Destroy should keep the channel fairly safe and open. Besides, it feels wrong to be British and surrendering sea power :p

I've also found a few units of slingers are a good investment (well, its already made for you). Not only do I find the Britons with their chariots work naturally defensive against their fellow Barbarians, which means another missile unit is never a bad idea but they clear out town squares nicely as well as killing anyone too chickenshit to charge your lines.

btw - How do you people use Warcry and the Druid's chant ability? So far, I've yet to find out how to use either effectively.

**DojoRat** · 10-19-2004, 15:02

I took all of Italy lat night except for the toe and unfortunately it had more to do with AI failures than my strategy. The Brutii still have massive armies in the Balkans but failed or were slow to either ferry them across to relieve their cities or land behind my line in the middle of the peninsula. I built a fort on the border of Dalmatia? and Venice and this slows them down and allows me to defend against their attacks in the open. I also have assassins taking out their captains (and family members if I'm lucky) and diplomats bribing little stacks.

I exterminate the cities I capture and knock down there temples and build my own. This makes cash not a problem but bribing Romans is expensive so i do it sparingly.

My tactics vs. the Roman armies rely on strategic movement to put my self in a threatening position so they will attack me. (Of course this army has the best troops and leader). The AI often attacks without combing groups before hand so I can often defeat them in detail. Even a unified army has trouble keeping together when I send out missile troops, light chariots and slingers, to harass their flanks. Often they send their cv chasing after them which is fine because they won't be around to flank my rush.

As the Romans advance I position my infantry in one line for the charge. If I have a druid I start him chanting and select the inf group and have them give their war cry. While they're pumping themselves up I send my barbarian cv/heavy chariots along the sidelines so to speak to be in position to double back on the Roman line or pesky skirmishers. By this time my boys are ready to go so I double click the whole group/line to a point behind the enemy line. The Roman units defend in depth in an open grid pattern so my swordsman rush smashes into and around their units. Their is a lot of feverous clicking as I send those units not engaged into the rear or flanks of a nearby unit or the enemy general if he's close. I then pick the best targets for my nonmissile cv and that usually does it. My leader I might sent in to mop up but usually I keep him close.

Again, this tactic assumes you have experienced chosen swordsmen with upgrades as the core of your army with a balance your most experienced inf chariots and barb cv. Non missile cv is essential because your swordsman can't rundown their skirmishers and they will decimate your lightly armed inf. Heavy chariots are decent flank shock troops but are too slow to be effective chasing skirmishers. I use head hurlers as well and send them in behind the rush to where resistance is strongest use them to crack the line.

Pretty soon its mop up time. The above tactics will work on the offensive but you really have to use your skirmishes to pull their formations apart. Also maneuver your inf and try to catch their line out of formation when you charge.