Britannia

[Raizen]

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]

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]

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

[wanderingblade]

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]

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.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Chariots. A Mini Guide.

Hmmm. After such an impressive title, maybe I should think of some nice stuff to write, no?

Notes: the information I am gathering/have gathered is a compilation of my experiances and the experiances of others as recounted on these great forums. Please feel free to point out an errors I have made/left standing. Also, I am playing Rome: Total Realism (v 2.2), a very nice mod that can be found in many places. It edits out and/or modifies units to more realistically reflect the history of the time period in Rome: Total War. Therefore, this guide may be less useful than you may or may not have hoped. I also generally play on hard/hard. Enough notes.

Chariots in General
A chariot is a cart, usually with two or four wheels pulled by one to four horses. For this guide, I will refer to the chariots that the Britons have in Rome: Total War, and not other chariots. British chariots are very cartlike, according to RTW. They are boxy and have two to three people on them. They are drawn by two horses.

A chariot's value is in its maneuverability and speed on the battlefield. It moves much faster than a normal human being (ie, not RTW infantry). It is also much heavier than a human being. This gives it a strong shock value. A chariot crashing into a human body can be quite detrimental to said body. This is pretty much true in RTW, though maybe less so than in real life. When a chariot drives into a group of men, the men will probably be sent flying or just crushed. The same effects apply for women, you politically correct snobs.

And less on theoretical, dusty stuff on to... no, not the individual units yet, just more general stuff!

British chariots do not perform as well as Egyptian chariots (that don't even exist in Total Realism). I have found (at least in the Realism mod) that the general's chariots - and presumably heavy chariots, too - are not of much use. Yeah, they send troops flying, but they don't actually kill them. This may seem at conflict with my previous remarks. Well... actually, that is at conflict with my previous remarks. And so I find general's chariots to be just about useless, except for applying general pressure to an enemy or mostly harmlessly chasing routers.

Anecdote: One time, I was fighting some rebs in some woods. I had a huge advantage in [general's] chariots. They had a couple more warbands and peasants. But my general was quite good (faction leader and all). So I come into the battle thinking, "Well, time to kick trousers with my shiny chariots." But when I told my chariots to charge the enemy warbands, they would run up to the enemy dogs and... stop. Then advance a little further and... stop. They finally walked into the enemy, immediately getting bogged down and killed. Maybe because this happened in forest... but it left a bad taste in my mouth regarding heavy chariots ever since. [Lost the battle, faction leader, and two family members, by the way. Had to bribe them rebs... humiliating.]

Moral of Story:
Don't let your soldiers die. Or, use chariots wisely. Like, don't use them.

Light Chariots (Breton Light Chariots in Total Realism)
This is the first chariot you can get, besides generals. They are actually very good. They can form Cantabrian Circles, a must for skrimishing cav. They have a good stock of ammo, and are deadly accurate, and can fire while moving. Use them to harrass an enemy unit, then hunt down routers or flank the enemy. I find them very useful.
Realism Note: Breton Light Chariots haven't had their charge reduced, like the other chariots. This may contribute to their effectiveness.

Heavy Chariots (Breton Heavy Chariots in Total Realism)
Haven't gotten to these babies.... suspect they will be utter crap. Please tell me if otherwise... and then I will form my own opinion.

General's Chariots (Or whatever you call them)
As I may or may not have conveyed to your, dear reader, my opinions of this unit, let me iriterate:


They.
Are.
Useless.

Realism Note: This may be because the charge bonuses have been lowered for most chariots. Don't actually know, because I am not a numbers man.


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This concludes the written part of your SATs.

Uummm. Never Mind.

Hope this helps people with questions about British chariots. I may or may not come back and append to this, depending on how loudly the masses complain about it. If I insulted or bored you to death...

I dunno, try playing outside or something.

[Shottie]

The Britons dont have archers do they?

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Nope. Though I really like their slingers, the Brits substitute for the archer.

[The_Emperor]

One thing I dislike about playing the Britons is the lack of any Cavalry. You end up relying on Cavalry Mercs to fulfill that role... (Why oh why didn't you include at least 1 Brit cav unit CA??)

Heavy Chariots I find are best used to disrupt a formation with infantry charging in to take full advantage. But they are not tanks. Generals are too valuble to waste and charging into a dense infantry formation with them is a good way to get them killed.

Your main infantry line needs to be made up of Woad Warriors and Swordsmen to start with. The basic Warband is too weak in my opinion to be of much cop. Once you get the "Chosen" Swordsmen you'll really be able to give the enemy something to worry about.

Head hurlers (despite my reservations about them as a game unit) are quite effective and dangerous. Train these guys up and hold them behind your main battle line to create a hail of sickening trophies into the enemy while your infantry charge. Slingers are also of use out in front of your battle line to harass the enemy, just remember to take them off "fire at will" mode when you put them behind your lines as the enemy closes, or you'll take extra casualties.

Warcry and Chant usage

Both of these abilities are a must for the Britons. It makes you into a very rowdy and noisey sight on the battlefield but really has a shock on your enemies.

When the enemy approaches, just before you are ready to give the charge order. Get your entire infantry line to warcry. This really pumps up your infantry with combat bonuses. Then when they are done immediately charge them in... The shock of the charge should be a severe blow to the enemy battle line.

Druids should always be placed behind your line as support, as like Screeching Women they are not as good in combat as your main infantry. Their chanting helps to bolster the morale of your own units at the expense of the enemy and will make your battle line harder to break.

The one thing I cannot stress enough is Buy CAV MERCS!! Trust me you need them to fill a role that your heavy chariots cannot do very well... Chasing routers and heavy charges into compact infantry formations.

[Fridge]

I've just finished my first campaign with the Brits, and found the light chariots the most useful unit I've used in the game...

I like to stick them in front of my infantry, and send them straight into attack using Cantabrian circle. They have several advantages over normal archers, and though I'm not too hot on horse archers, I expect over them too. F'rinstance...

1 They carry so much ammo, for most purposes you can consider the supply unlimited.

2 They're quick, so can escape any attack apartfrom a cavalry charge. They can also draw enemy units away halfway across the battlefield, then leave them to return to the fray

3 Their Cantabrian circle sends a non stop rain of arrows down upon your enemies, according to the game this is a big morale sapper (not noticed that particularly myself)

4 After I'd dealt with the Gauls and Germans, faced the Romans and their General's heavy cavalry, and found that a unit of light chariots could usually stand against a Roman general, and usually start him routing. Against infantry as well, if your chariots do get caught, they'll usally set any light inf to routing, a vast improvement on yer normal archers!

5 And this may sound like a minor point, but due to their skirmishing nature, and the fact that I always sent them to soften up the enemy before the fight, and so caused a lot of casualties, I found that most of my chariot units gained about one experience 'chevron' about every other battle, or more. Very soon I was fielding units with silver and gold experience, by the end, I had one army with three (I found having more than three light chariot units meant too much micro management and stress) units all with three gold chevrons. And those boys were awesome! (Oh, and Tthanks to the bug in the game of course, even having one chariot left with one gold chevron means you can retrain a whole unit with gold exp) The only battle where I managed to use up all my arrows, the three-gold unit killed over 400 Gauls each. That's 1200+ dead gauls using just three units - and no friendly casualties.

Mmmm.... light chariots....

Also, head hurlers rule. They do massive damage - in my experience the most kills per man than any other skirmishing unit - and sap morale quickly. They're also fast and never rout, so don't dismiss them...