Britannia

[ajgundam5]

I expanded into Gaul and then took over Spain, by the time i was finished with that i was in a war with Germania. After wiping out Gaul,Spain, and Germania I focused on Italy. Don't start a war with Dacia bc you need all the help you can get. Wiping out all the Italian Factions will be tough but as long as u have some diplomats outside your cities ready to bribe you should be fine until you own Italy

[roman god's]

It's me again.

I've just went through 20 more turns and found that swordsman and warhounds are the bomb to use. They are the best before you get chariots and other good units. I've started a war with both the gauls and the germans.

So, far my conquests are a success. I've captured all of the german lands and most of the gaul territory. I've made alliances with both the dacians and the spanish. Because I know the julli and the other roman factions are not to be trusted.

I've got a little money and tons of land.

right later

[roman god's]

ohhhhhhhhh yeah i forgot anybody know how to get druids.


if you can

[ajgundam5]

yea i wanted to kno that too but i bet u have to get the best form of the temple thing that lets u make woad warriors

[Gallicflair]

I ain't played Britons yet, but for the Gauls you need the final Temple of Epona. There is a full temple guide in the guide section if I recall, so you can find out for sure there.

Edit - Of course I meant Esus, not Epona (knew it began with E, like many great things).
The temple guide can be found in Ludus Magna section and according to that you need the Sacred Grove of Brigantia.

[MajorFreak]

BRITONS

Brigantia (Healing)

• Shrine
  Public order bonus due to happiness 5%
  Population health bonus 5%
• Sacred Grove
  Public order bonus due to happiness 10%
  Population health bonus 10%
• Sacred Circle
  Public order bonus due to happiness 15%
  Population health bonus 15%
  Druids

Ancilliaries: Druid - healing type, Master Embalmer (Sacred Grove or greater), Physician (Sacred Grove or greater), Wise Woman, Witch

Britannia (Trade)

• Shrine
  Public order bonus due to happiness 5%
  Increase in tradeable goods 1
• Sacred Grove
  Public order bonus due to happiness 10%
  Increase in tradeable goods 2
• Sacred Circle
  Public order bonus due to happiness 15%
  Increase in tradeable goods 3

Ancilliaries: Freeman Clerk - trade type (Sacred Grove or greater), Idiot Savant (Sacred Grove or greater), Numismatist (Sacred Circle only), Wise Man

Andrasta (Victory)

• Shrine
  Public order bonus due to happiness 5%
  Woad Warriors
• Sacred Grove
  Public order bonus due to happiness 10%
  Experience bonus to troops +1
  Woad Warriors
  Head Hurlers
• Sacred Circle
  Public order bonus due to happiness 15%
  Experience bonus to troops +2
  Woad Warriors (Experience 1)[/b]
  Head Hurlers (Experience 1)[/b]

Okay, who's gotten the fancier retinue folk? i think the embalmer is a typo from egyptians. The others? dunno. Anyone else gotten the listed stuff?

[General Carnage]

It's me again.

I've just went through 20 more turns and found that swordsman and warhounds are the bomb to use.

right later

^lmao



Anyways, I find that chariots can be used very successfully. The trick is to break up formations with skirmishers and light chariots, then bring in the heavy stuff to roll them over then wipe them out with the main force.

[Kourutsu]

Can Britons get stone walls. And I mean in native lands, not a freshly conquered Carthage.

[Craterus]

Nope, just wooden.

Barb factions can upgrade to minor cities, but they don't have access to the stone walls that would commonly come with a city.

[Deus ret.]

Which would probably be slightly unfair, at least under some circumstances. Imagine to be able to man your stone walls in every city with, say, chosen archers ....it would take a lot to conquer such a barbarian empire.

[Craterus]

It's a shame, but I don't think there's any record of barbarian civilisations ever having stone walled cities, so that's why they don't have access in the game.

[jacked]

i gues they did that to make it more historical.

[grapedog]

This is only my second campaign, and my first full(50 provinces + rome) campaign...

What I've done so far, is basically cut a swath down the middle of Gaul countries. I took Condate Redonum first, followed by Alesia. Then hit Lemonum and Massilia because it was really lightly defended. Then Lugdunum and Narbo Martius. I also grabbed Tara pretty early on, but that wasn't a big deal.

The Gauls never really gave me any trouble at all, only Germania has been causing any problems by attacking Alesia, Samarobriva and Lugdunum randomly. I threw up 2 forts in the Narbo Martius territory to cut off Spains easy access and one in Aquitania. Also one in the pass near Massilia that leads to Julii territory. The only Gaul outposts left it would seem are in Numantia and Mediolanium. I'm content to let them have them for now as my generals haven't been having many babies...so I'm going to call my forces home for a few turns and work on baby making and town building. I've got watch towers on the borders of Germania territory so I can see when they are coming and keep two generously garrisoned armies in Alesia and Samarobriva.

I have to figure out at this point whether I want to head east into Germania or West into Spain. I was thinking about taking out Spain first since it's a much smaller area to try and control and then I can work East towards Germania once I secure the penninsula.

Suggestions are welcome on what direction I should take, I've got 11 regions and 247 turns left. I have some good generals and thick armies and I'm ready to expand in either direction, I was just thinking Spain since it's a smaller area by far and it won't be so hard to defend.

[pezhetairoi]

I would say take down Germania if you want to have more diplomatic fun later on fighting other factions. Spain limits you. And if your spanish are still fortified mao in descr_strat, you're going to have a hard time with them anyway, so go for Germania. Somehow, they're always Britannia's traditional enemy, so play by that line. Since you've already adopted a defensive stand on Spain, complete it by fortifying the north-coast approach to Asturica via Numantia, fortify the approach from Numantia to Lemonum, as well as the pass at the southern end of the Pyrenees, and the pass in front of Osca. Defend from Spain and head into Italy via Germania. Once you take the German and Dacian provinces, as well as Segestica and Salona you will have a nice defensible frontier that you can fortify and stop behind. Scythia will never be a threat to you, and the salient you create with Porrolissum and Campus Iaazyges is easily defended because of the protection of the Carpathian mountains. After you get continental Europe you can then sit pretty while you take out Spain and West Africa, and leave Greece and Macedon and the Brutii to fight it out. Otherwise I would say Spain its really not worth your time right now, not until right at the end when you take Corduba-Tingi to get the trade that makes it all worthwhile.

[grapedog]

I took the plunge into Spain after reading this because when they declared war on me they brought all three of the main roman factions into it as well. So i figure it should be a quick conquest, then on to germania.

One thing I'm noticing, after playing the Julii...it seems that money is a lot harder to come by. Or I should say that the Julii have a lot easier time raking money in via the coastal provinces or at least thats the way it seems to me. I'm not pulling in hardly any money.

[Deus ret.]

Hmmm do you know that the British are potentially the richest Barbarians IMHO? Even if they more or less stick to their starting provinces.

1) in Britain itself, trade goods are ample. Thus, build roads and traders to exploit this.

2) the sea connection Londinium-Samarxxx in Belgium is your real cash-cow in early game. Be sure to build ports in both settlements ASAP and they will roll in the dough for you.
If you already conquered North Gaul, build ports there as well -- sea trade across the channel is very profitable in general.

3) conquer Ireland and set up a similar sea trade route as mentioned above. You will soon see results.

I never had less financial problems when playing Barbarians than when I played Britain...of course, compared to the Julii you might be on the downside because they get a lot of cash out of the Senate missions and can also gain some nice trade routes by conquering Spain.

[Mongerius Scarface]

I've played as the Britons for quite some time now and I must say they are much better than all the other factions I've yet played. Though I'm hardly using any of those cursed chariots though. I just took Bordesholm, Batavodorum and Tara at the beginning to get some money. Left big garrisons there, enslaved the populace and soon I was gettin like 6000-7000 denarii per turn. I built most of the trade buildings and the infantry-making buildings and when being able to produce chosen swordsmen (love them ) I took on against the gauls, leaving the germans for what they are. I easily conquered their whole territory and whiped them out. The Germans didn't attack me yet, apart from some little sieges on Trier and Batavodorum. Now I'm about to attack the Julii which were, up till now, completely crushed against my great swordsmen (love them ).

By the way I read somewhere on this forum that someone played his first campaign as the Britons. How is that possible, because you have to wipe the faction out first, isn't it? Maybe someone has an answer to this ?

By the way this is my first post on this forum

[IrishArmenian]

The Germans will be a treacherous sort, so watch your back after Gaul is dead, or at least confined to Spain. Most of the time, those Germans attack me from behind. With a group of midsize armies containing Light chariots, Swordsmen (Chosen preferably), Head Hurdlers, Woad Raiders, Warband and Various Calvary Mercaneries, I just ripped through them like paper. The Romans, of course were different. You should amass large armies of what I stated above, plus dogs, other mercanaries, maybe some druids. Make sure you have a lot, becuase I led five armies onto the boot. One came from the North West, one from the North East, One from the South East (by way of boat) and the biggest one of them all landed right next to the Roma, herself. Using my navies, I cut off the Roman's income. I made sure to attack before the Marius reform so that I may still put extreme hurt to them via Light Chariots, Slingers and Head-Hurdlers. I wiped those Jullii right off of the boot (and the planet) with my blitz from the North, destryed the Brutti's section of Italy (leaving a few useless cities in Greece) and in about three years, after starving most of their soldiers and sabatoging their barracks, walls, et all, I sacked the eternal city. The key to Briton is to have lots of resources, or conquer a lot of places, because you must manage you money.

[Private Clark]

well...i never could get off that accursed island you start on, those rebels kicked my .

[Seamus Fermanagh]

well...i never could get off that accursed island you start on, those rebels kicked my .

I do recall losing a lot of chariot generals to rebels on that contentious island.

Trick was running the economy lean enough while still having an army good enough to play "whack-a-mole" with the rebels. Involved quite a lot of micro-managed sorties from Samarobriva while I slowly knit together the 4 island provinces -- and Ireland took quite some time to get to.

[Mookus]

I played Brittania on Hard/Hard and found that keeping my mainland city was very hard v. the Gauls and Germans. They both continually insisted on war despite my diplomatic efforts.

To counter this I retreated to the British Isles and then conquered Ireland. Then I set up two major armies with two fleets. The Gauls and Germans don't attempt to control the seas around the British Isles so you'll have free reign of the seaways. With that I would send my fleets up and down the Gaulic and German coasts, raiding any city that was poorly defended. As Gaul and the Germans begin getting into wars with Rome this becomes much easier.

Once a city was conquered I would enslave the populace to send them back to the British Isles to beef up my tax base and increase city size. The sooner you can get to chosen swordsmen the better, and every person in the population helps. Then I would wreck/sell all the buildings and retreat back to my navy. Sail off to another city and repeat, the larger Gaul/German armies who are travelling by land won't be able to keep up with your raids. Once you've done enough damage to their economies they'll be unable to raise large armies. You on the other hand will be rich from pillaging. Then I moved in and began to take mainland settlements.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I played Brittania on Hard/Hard and found that keeping my mainland city was very hard v. the Gauls and Germans. They both continually insisted on war despite my diplomatic efforts.

To counter this I retreated to the British Isles and then conquered Ireland. Then I set up two major armies with two fleets. The Gauls and Germans don't attempt to control the seas around the British Isles so you'll have free reign of the seaways. With that I would send my fleets up and down the Gaulic and German coasts, raiding any city that was poorly defended. As Gaul and the Germans begin getting into wars with Rome this becomes much easier.

Once a city was conquered I would enslave the populace to send them back to the British Isles to beef up my tax base and increase city size. The sooner you can get to chosen swordsmen the better, and every person in the population helps. Then I would wreck/sell all the buildings and retreat back to my navy. Sail off to another city and repeat, the larger Gaul/German armies who are travelling by land won't be able to keep up with your raids. Once you've done enough damage to their economies they'll be unable to raise large armies. You on the other hand will be rich from pillaging. Then I moved in and began to take mainland settlements.

I've thought of trying this strategy, but there is one down side.

Your constant diminshment of Germany and Gaul is likely to create a lot of success for the Julians, who you will then have to face off with to get anywhere. That's a lot of Romans -- probably post-Marius -- with no long range archers to counter their arc-aux units. Tough fight.

[Empirate]

If you can't outgun them, outrun them. Archer Auxiliaries are good troops, but they can't carry a battle all by themselves. I've never seen the Romans bring many archers, they tend to be very melee infantry heavy. But if they do bring archers, concentrate on bringing more melee troops, preferably cavalry (or, in the case of Britons, chariots). You might lose some troops against the Arc-Aux, but after all is said and done, chariots are a decisive weapon, while all kinds of missile troops are more the "nice to have" support kind of thing. Besides, isn't facing powerful Romans the point of playing a barbarian game?

[lot]

Besides, isn't facing powerful Romans the point of playing a barbarian game?

So true. I just started playing the game (skipped the roman campaign altogether and began immediately with Britain as that was my favorite Medieval TW faction). The first time I met Rome on the field I was nervous prior to the battle, and my heart absolutely sank to my feet once I entered the battlemap and saw them, an entire stack, in their ordered rows before my uncouth barbarian horde.

I littered the field with Romans that day. I think I lost 60 men compared to their 900+.

Their Aux-Archers fell to my Light Charriots. As Rome was defending (I was sallying from a besieged fort), they awaited my attack. I drew their archers out with my charriots, who ran circles in front of them, dodging arrows, while pelting with a barrage of my own. The archers fell back and my two units of light charriots turned to weakening a weaker force in their center. When my troops advanced, I was able to flank certain positions in their front line. After a brief skirmish, the Romans broke and ran; my light and heavy charriots kept them running, those who survived.

Everytime I've faced them since then, I've used my charriots to weaken their missiles, and it hasn't failed.

I've figured out the Romans. Only things I'm worried about now are elephants and the cavalry-based armies of the east.

[Empirate]

Concerning cavalry-heavy AI armies: The only ones I've ever really seen were, strange to say, Macedonians. Full stacks of Light Lancers and Companions. The "horse archer factions" rely on their few kinds of infantry a lot. I've seen Pontus and Armenia fielding stack upon stack of Eastern Infantry and whatnot, only occasionally supported by three or four horse archers. Same goes for Parthia. The Scythians seem to love Axemen, but they'll also field a lot of horse archers alright.
The only thing I ever had to worry about with these factions is the super-heavy Cataphracts or Cataphract archers. But these will come in small numbers, so never fear.

Elephants are a similar matter: I've never seen the AI field a lot of them. Fire arrows and swamping with massive numbers work like a charm to set them into panic mode. After that, just keep out of their way if you can. Still, a nuisance, I must admit. Try luring them with light chariots.

To be honest, my beloved rush strategy that I employ with all factions I'm playing whenever possible may make me a bit biased on these topics. I've yet to play a campaign that takes a hundred years...

[gaiusmarius8]

Hello Im quite new but am a very good player of Rome: TW and BI. I beat the game with Britannians. So lemme tell you how it is done.

When starting the game, I took 3 warbands and held them towards Tara on the Britain Side. I left them to also clean up rebellions until I got a navy. I concentrated on building the Temple for Woadies first and getting Light and Heavy Chariots. Gaul was rash in sending armies after armies to Samarobriva, my idea. Sneak behind with 1 chariot unit, while they readjust, I took another unit and cut up their generals then they would always rout ane leave. I concentrated on Germania because they had more cavalry per army than gaul and Rome. I took them out simple by concentrating warbands as a trap so Woads can cut at flanks in often fought in forests of the Germanic tribe Area. Gaul was still repelled by my chariots and now Head Hurlers. Rome though got into war with Gaul and eased my annoyence of these Barbarians. I then took sight in rebuilding my defenses. Bad Time! My economy was awry, Rome took Alesia and now I just received word of an attack on Lemonum which was the only Gaul town I was wanting to take. Rebel Pirates arised from Spain and attacked my ships worsening my situation. I decided to take Sun Tzu's proverb into consideration "You will only be victorious if you know yourself and the enemy". I sent spies to sniff out the game plan and received each attack defensively and kept going good. Now Spain was getting washed up and Thrace had gone to the west fighting Dacia. I decided to go east once again and took out the Cavalry stressing Dacians and Scythians. Now I had 2 enemies. Thrace and Julii were boring in so I decided to send assassin's to kill their people and I took out Thrace with the help of Macedon (weak though) and Brutii. Carthage was still in trying to resist Julii power which they pressed on them. I took this chance to steal Masillia, Arretium, Ariminum, and Segesta. They repelled on me and Carthage took southern tip of Spain. I set out for the biggest siege for me, to take Narbo Martius! Triarii and Principes versus Slingers, Woads, Warbands, and Chariots. I won luckily. My chariots were wiped out by Triarii but I managed to break the main line with my Woads and infected them to chaos with my Slingers and Woads. I killed their general (8 star) with my (3 star) chariot general. I took Narbo Martius soon after with little resistance and their cities started to defect and I eventually killed them. Carthage was also out by Scipii. So I had Spain to Lovosice avoiding Scipii (dealing with Numidia and Egypt) and Brutii (Dealing with Greeks and Pontus ) I then took on a harsh enemy... Armenia!

[Quintus.JC]

Never fancied Briton, chariots just weren't my cup of tea. plus the lack of cavalry was really a pain in the rare-end.

[The Wandering Scholar]

Hello Im quite new but am a very good player of Rome: TW and BI. I beat the game with Britannians. So lemme tell you how it is done.

a little bit cocky

my idea. Sneak behind with 1 chariot unit, while they readjust, I took another unit and cut up their generals then they would always rout ane leave.

Is it?

[gaiusmarius8]

WanderingScholar, I didnt mean to be "cocky" and try my idea, it works 80% of the time.

[The Wandering Scholar]