Britannia

[Biggles20]

Hello All, this is my first post on this forum so Greetings from me!

I only started playing RTW recently (though I havent played in about 6 months because I've been away from home at Uni and without a desktop for some time).

Anyways, it seems I'm at odds with most on this forum as I seem to remember struggling on my Brittania campaign (my first ever RTW campaign). I remember that I had conquered the British Isles, as well as all of Gaul, Spain, Dacia and some of Germania and even some of North Africa, all without too much difficulty.

However, I have a few major problems. Firstly, I remember being at war with the Juli, and seem to remember having a serious man-power shortage trying to ward off their seemingly endless stream of full stacks (unfortunately they've just had the marius reforms I think) around the top of the Italian peninsula. I just can't seem to make any gains without losing them again to those damned Romans.
Secondly, I have a huge problem with my fleet of ships as even in stacks of 20 ships, the Roman ships are still far superior to mine - how the heck is one supposed to beat triremes, let alone better Roman vessels?

Thirdly, I dont seem to be able to build Woad warriors or Head Hurlers - do I have the wrong temple(s)?

On one sure and positive note that I can't believe no-one's mentioned, I solve the Britton's inherrent lack of heavy cavalry by hiring mercenary Bastanae (spelling?) cavalry. While initial costs are steep, they seem to have better morale than most units and are almost unstoppable against all but the most heavily armoured infantry - Bastanae infantry are also good if you can get ahold of them! Does nobody except me make use of them?

Anyways, yeah - please advise on how to beat Roman armies as I'm really struggling against them.

Although I won't be home for a few weeks, the time spent learning useful tips on this forum will hopefully allow me to blitz the enemy and perhaps even march on Rome...who knows???

Sorry for the looooooong post - I'm pretty tired so cant word it any better right now!

Cheers for the advice,

Biggles

[pezhetairoi]

Hi Biggles, and let me be the first to welcome you to the Org! Trust me, your thread isn't long... you should look at some of mine ;-)

Okay, firstly. The Julii full-stacks. You will have problems beating their legionary fullstacks, that is true. I will advocate plentiful bribing to remove those armies you can't fight. Assuming that by Marian times they will have 7-8 provinces (assuming, because no Roman faction has ever survived till the reforms before in any campaign of mine) it will be easy to take down their peripheral provinces to drive them into debt. If they don't, then their home provinces are there are, and if you defeat enough of their armies they will run out of population to raise any more new armies. That happened for me as the Julii against the Gauls. They kept sending 20-stacks, then slowly it dwindled to 15-stacks, then to 5-6 stacks that I just irritatedly bribed away. So it will be for the Julii. Bribe. If you've conquered so many places you must be making at least 20k a turn with full economic infrastructures up and running. Denarii were earned to be spent, so make them well-spent. Save your game before bribing any family member of the enemy, because once you fail he will never be bribable again. If you can't bribe him, then the price is simply not high enough. Save up more. You must be patient with the Julii. Don't try to make gains; just sit back and make Mediolanum-Patavium your frontier, building forts at every Po river crossing. The AI never sieges forts, so your frontier will be safe while you subtly undermine their capability for war. Meanwhile, expand elsewhere to get more money for ever more ambitious bribes. Don't fight the battles you can't win. To quote, 'Infinite gold are the sinews of war.'

If you really want to fight the Romans, lure them into bridge battles whenever possible. I recommend the one just west of Rome. For that, though, you will have to undertake a risk in transporting a full-stack army by sea behind the Julii lines. As long as you stand -on- the ford itself and allow an army to attack you, you will have a considerable advantage in merely defending the ford against any comers. When fighting that battle, simply mass your troops in a semicircle on the other end of the ford. If you cannot fight at a ford, then your battles are sure to be high-cost, but still winnable. In this case you would keep your chariots in the rear, all massed at one spot on the line. You must take the offensive even in a defensive battle if your troops are to stand up to the enemy. Stretch your line to match the length of the Roman line, and engage them along the entire length. Then, when all are engaged, hurl your chariots at weakest point in the enemy line, charging right through the enemy. Since Romans are sword infantry they will not have any bonus against cavalry/chariotry, so you can burst through them. Chariots can frighten infantry, so use that effect to the max. Charge and charge again. If you have light chariots, rain arrows. If you have heavies, then use them for their god-given purpose. After one unit routs, devote your tender loving care to the ones next to them. The more units rout in a short time, the better since the higher the chance the rest of the army will rout. Your chariots will take great maulings, but they are your decisive arm and since in one-to-one combat you cannot beat legionnaires, the only way to kill them is to make them run. After a victory, retreat and retrain your chariots. Then return for more. After you destroy a few of their stacks and you can see there are only one or two left, begin the besieging of their settlements. Keep using bribe if you can to make your life easier. Remember your objective isn't to win every battle, but to capture provinces. So if you can avoid a fight, well and good.

My strategy against the Romans is, despite all that typing, only theoretical, because as I said, I have never faced legionnaires except in the Roman civil war. Otherwise, I make Rome my first priority for conquest so they cannot get Marian reforms. Furthermore I have never played Britannia before, but I have fought them in many campaigns and squared up against Romans as Gaul, which is pretty close I daresay.

Secondly, Large Boats, buildable at shipwrights. They are your only answer (if an inadequate one) to Triremes. Don't get yourself into a naval battle if you can help it. Build only what ships you need to accomplish your transport objectives. That is the lot of a barbarian navy. They are simply -not meant- to engage civilised fleets. Not at such a late stage when they have good ships. Alternatively, if you -really- want to sink a few ships, use multiple fleets. 3 20-stack fleets of large boats will certainly be enough to destroy one 20-stack fleet of triremes. To ensure the enemy does not live to fight another day after his defeat, place each of your three fleets on one of the 8 red squares surrounding the enemy fleet, then put one ship into each remaining square. Being completely surrounded, an enemy fleet once defeated will sink and never surface again. That's the only naval trick you can use without naval battles being played out.

Thirdly, I think you have the wrong temples. Try the one for the god of war or something to that effect. Reading the long description of the temple will give you some good clue to what they can build, since it is not apparent from the description of shrines at the beginning. Alternatively, just google 'RTW + temples list' or something to that effect, and download whatever spreadsheets and PDFs come your way. I have one that is really very good--tells you all the traits, effects, bonuses, and buildable units come with each temple all on one excel spreadsheet which is a little hard on the eye at font size 7 but tells you everything.

Fourthly, there is no such thing as Bastarnae cavalry. I assume you mean Sarmatian cavalry? That's the only heavy cavalry mercenary unit I know of. Sarmatians are good starter troops for shock cavalry-poor factions like Thrace and the Scythians. But after you develop your own cavalry capability they will almost surely be outclassed by your own buildable models. Bastarnae infantry are good mainly because of their 2HP, and I regularly use them in tandem with their brother mercenaries the Thracians, as general-hunting forces. I attract the general to charge, then position them in depth right astride the enemy general's path. They can cut a bodyguard cavalry into pieces in no time.

Hope this has been useful, cheers! Take two bridge battles and see me in the morning. ;-)

[Franconicus]

Hello All, this is my first post on this forum so Greetings from me!

I only started playing RTW recently (though I havent played in about 6 months because I've been away from home at Uni and without a desktop for some time).

Anyways, it seems I'm at odds with most on this forum as I seem to remember struggling on my Brittania campaign (my first ever RTW campaign). I remember that I had conquered the British Isles, as well as all of Gaul, Spain, Dacia and some of Germania and even some of North Africa, all without too much difficulty.

However, I have a few major problems. Firstly, I remember being at war with the Julii, and seem to remember having a serious man-power shortage trying to ward off their seemingly endless stream of full stacks (unfortunately they've just had the marius reforms I think) around the top of the Italian peninsula. I just can't seem to make any gains without losing them again to those damned Romans.
Secondly, I have a huge problem with my fleet of ships as even in stacks of 20 ships, the Roman ships are still far superior to mine - how the heck is one supposed to beat triremes, let alone better Roman vessels?

Thirdly, I dont seem to be able to build Woad warriors or Head Hurlers - do I have the wrong temple(s)?

1. This is a problem we all had to deal with. I guess you hold these two Gaulish towns north of the Julii. Defend them and gather your armies there. Once you cleared the suroundings go south. You should have three independant corps and some smaler cav units as well as spies. Try to attack the Julii towns simultaneously. If a field army comes to free the town - retreat. Only fight if you are sure to win. Watch all their armies and keep them busy with your cav units. Use spies to take the towns at once. Block all their ports.
2. Avoid the sea. Might be hard for Britons but you can fight them at land.
3. Take a look at post No 62
Good luck!

[pezhetairoi]

Yeah, Franc and I have the same way of thinking. Great minds think alike, way to go Franc!

But a question. What are your views on the Britons leaving Gaul alone and expanding into Germania as the campaign AI always seems to do?

[Franconicus]

Pez,

haven't tried that. There might be some difficulties:
- You can form a lasting alliance with Germania; you cannot do this with Gaul.
- Gaul will attack Sambarovia. If you do not want to bother you have to give it to them.
- Germania is so damned poor. You will not make enough money. Gaul pays.
- If you are at war with both, Germania and Gaul, this will effect your seatrade.

Good thing is that in my last campaign Gaul never tried to cross the channel.

I think you can reach the Med going through Gaul as fast as by going through Germania.

If you do not want to attack Gaul first you can chose a more British way and attack Spain. It takes some time to bring your army there.

Another idea would be to leave even Spain alone. Ship all your armies to the Med and attack Carthage, Sicily, Rhodes or whatever you like to. Takes time before the fighting starts, but then it will be fun, I'm sure.

[RTW King]

I've heard lots of people complaining about British chariots and Generals Bodyguards. I agree that they are dreadful against infantry, so as part of a MOD I call the realism MOD, I have given most chariots around 20 attack and charge bonus, and increased the attack of the swordsmen on them. This makes them capale of actually defending themselves against infantry. I used to lose tons of chariots fighting against rubbish infantry like Warbands. If anyones interested in downloading my realism MOD, it should be in the download section of RTW Heaven fairly soon.

[pezhetairoi]

Hardly. I realise that it's the mount defence and mount armour that kills most of the time, because a lot of my test chariot battles show that it's the chariots that are destroyed first, not the swordsmen. You need to increase the protection on the chariot because once the chariot goes, so does the entire crew, and so what if they have 3-4 HP? It'll be run down in a moment with such crappy armour and defence.

[RTW King]

I increased the Swordsmens attack and armour. AS WELL as that, I increased the chariots HP. British Heavy Chariots now have 5HP, and light chariots have 3HP. Along with the increased chariot attack, this made chariots decent against infantry.