Started my first post-BI Briton campaign a few days back and I'm having a blast. I think my first Briton campaign was with 1.1, and although I won the short campaign (on M/M probably), I was EXTREMELY disappointed by the weakness of the generals' chariots. It seemed like their chariots were made of balsa wood. It didn't seem right for a barbarian warlord to be sitting back out of the action, so I can tell you I lost a ton of generals in the most pathetic melees. My very first test of the chariots was with a tiny rebel force, and when my main force got the peasants to rout, I sent in my general to mow them down. I was horrified to watch the chariots running around in the mob of peasants, flipping some peasants over but NOT KILLING ANYTHING.

Happily, this all seems to have changed. Playing H/H, I am now well into my 1.3 Britannia game, and the generals have performed admirably! They usually get the most kills in my after-battle stats (well, probably because I always make sure to send them after routers ), and I've only lost 2 generals - both to those damn German Spear Warband...after charging them in the *back* .... but I digress. The generals' chariots are very effective against almost all infantry, they hamstring cavalry, and they actually *kill* things now. Sometimes they hack down at guys with their swords, sometimes they literally just run them over with the horses. Either way it's great! I find they're best used in combination with infantry (of course): send in the infantry first and follow up with a chariot attack from the rear/flank or just plow through everything and head straight for the enemy general. Sure, you'll knock over your own guys, but they'll get back up and they won't be as horribly demoralized as the enemy.

The Heavy Chariots that you can train at the Weaponsmith are working nicely, too. They're more expendable than my generals, so I usually put them right on the flanks of my main force along with some light chariots, and send them to attack flankers. Once I get enough of them in one army, I plan to put them in front of my infantry and charge them straight into the enemy, head-on, following up with some Chosen Swordsmen and Woad Warriors (for their speed & tattoos ). The infantry should make short work of the chaotic mob of enemy infantry my chariots have just hacked through. Add some wardogs and head hurlers into the mix, with a unit of druids chanting in the background, and it's almost too easy.

My strategy so far has been to turtle up. I took Tara and built, built, built. I made alliances with Germany and Gaul, and Germany was the only one so far to outright betray me. Gaul dropped their alliance but stayed neutral -- they're being slowly ground down by Spain and the Julii. I wanted to keep my kingdom small and let the Julii get strong so they'd be something of a challenge; plus I didn't want to spend the whole game just fighting barbarians. I worked my way through Germany when they betrayed me, sacked Bordesholm, assassinated many family members and whittled down their armies. When I exterminated Mogontiacum and Trier I was pleased to find that the Germans had already built those towns up to the highest level, so I decided to stay for now. So that's where I am right now -- 7 modest provinces, over 60000 in the bank and rising, and the ability to train any & all units. Just waiting for the Julii to come knocking...

CountMRVHS