Dacia

[Maltz]

Dacia is poor to start, but due to their location, rich days are not far away. There are plenty of easy preys early on, so Dacia will look healthy soon. I've just played a little bit (10yrs on Vh/Vh) of it, and I have 15 provinces and a turn gross income of 30k. Hope my experience is useful to you.

1. [Macedon]

I ignored all the rebel towns, and pour all my armies south. There are four Macedon cities plus Athen, which brings quite a lot of wealth just through taxation. (I didn't exterminate any of the 5 cities.) The Macedon capital allowed me to mass produce good troops.

2. [Greek Cities]

My 2nd goal was kicking the Greeks off Balkan. Armoured hoplites + Spartan hoplite are a huge pain at the town center (and they are almost arrow-proof), but once Sparta is taken I can immediately produce Chosen infantry/archer and onager in Sparta. Good stuff! I have never used Onager so early.

3. [Rome & Thrace]

Then it was time to invade Italian pennisula. Thrace also broke the alliance with me, so I sent my 3rd army to deal with them. Brutii was soon destroyed by my 2 strongest armies, but there was a plague in Croton welcoming my best general. Just for revenge, I sent a plague spy to Rome and just arrived in Julii.


***

Dacia is a very battlefield-friendly faction. While I only played 10 years, I have already about 10 cross-swords on the ground. Warband archers are quite powerful. Basic cavalry are fast enough. Warbands die slowly and is very great to mob anything up. You can retrain them immediately anyways.

Dacia has a poor tech. tree that only goes up to 6000 (minor city), so all the best units come early on.

Rush and burn; crazy expansion is the way to go!

[TinCow]

I have finally cracked my enemies and I am the dominant power, having Taken all of Britain, Gaul, Germany, Eastern Europe, Northern Italy and the Adriatic Coast. The Romans are on their last legs in Europe and the final offensive to wipe them out in Italy is about to begin, with Greece and Sicily soon to follow. The Brutii will be left to rot in North Africa while I take Spain and push east into the steppes to get the rest of the 50 provinces to win.

I have recently realized two things which are worth relating here.

First, the Dacian poverty is due to a lack of port provinces. It is simply impossible to make sustain a military off of a land-locked economy. Once you acquire ports, you can easily become profitable. Unfortunately, the easy pickings early in the game all lie west and north, further inland while the coastal provinces are held by very strong factions which will be much harder to defeat with your primitive early units. If you are able to take greece and defeat Thrace and Macedonia you should not experience the financial difficultes for very long.

Second, Chosen Archer Warbands are your units of choice. Produce these in massive numbers and you simply cannot lose. Place them in a long line with skirmish off, guard on, and fire at will on. If on defense, remain this way. If on offense, advance in line until in range. In both cases fire away for as long as the enemy remain out of melee. When they close, let them hit your lines. The usual tendency is to pull back your archers behind your infantry, but do not do it. Your Chosen Archers are very good infantry and can hold the line for a significant time as long as they are not flanked. If your line is charged, at more than a few isolated points, take off fire at will and guard and use the archers to melee attack the enemy line. Keep Chosen Swordsmen behind the archers. Once the archer line is engaged in melee, use the Swordsmen's warcry, then charge right through the archer line into the melee. Flank where able and the enemy will almost always rout. Unless there are significant reinforcements coming, chase the enemy off the field in massive numbers... let the archers and swordsmen swarm after them to prevent a regrouping.

Also, if possible fight big battles in the winter where your troops can get their snow advantage. Always use warcry before engaging in melee. It is often easier to defend the village streets rather than the walls. Wood walls are too easily breached to be defensible unless the enemy has only one or two rams (unlikely).

[Rikdemedici]

I am playing as the DAcians in a RTW competitin at school, and after beating the Seleucids we now have to fight a team using the Greek City States. I was wondering about tactics, and what we should buy with our 1000 denarii
cheers

[The Witch-King]

Greeks=Hoplites. Get lots of Chosen Archers, blast away and laugh while watching the slow, cumbersome hoplites drop like flies. Get some Noble cav too for some nicely timed charges in the back of their phalanx formations.

[Rikdemedici]

Yay! we beat the Greeks, unfortuunatrely we now have to take on the Parthians. What in the DAcian armoury is good against elephants and Horse ARchers !

[Maltz]

Elephants & Horse archers... against cavalry you might want to use spears (an ocean of basic warband, with some morale boost so they won't rout easily? ) Chosen archers are excellent against HA because they are long-ranged, so you can attack HA before they even touch you. You really need to protect your archers, though.

[Rurik the Chieftain]

Yeah, against those elephants, you're going to want to drown them in flaming arrows, or use your onagers. Its quite interesting that the Dacians have access to onagers etc. while the Gauls, Germans, and Britons do not. But anyway just go by the maxim:
If it's on fire, it will frighten Pachyderms

[CrashTestED]

Thank God they included the Dacians in this game. I am glad to be able to play with my ancestors. We do have some historical problems though.... The Dacians are known as "barbarian cavalry" who fought only on horses. Every man had to have a horse, sword and armour. When war came, he took his stuff and joined the army. In RTW the Dacians have one of the poorest cavalry in the game... do not konw why...

[pezhetairoi]

I am playing as the DAcians in a RTW competitin at school, and after beating the Seleucids we now have to fight a team using the Greek City States. I was wondering about tactics, and what we should buy with our 1000 denarii
cheers

Damn, i want to be in your school. Over here the only people who've heard of RTW are my fellow classical 'scholars' (counted on one hand) and those whom I've recommended successfully to the game (also counted on one hand). Hardly enough for a gaming competition... :-(

Oooh Craterus, Littlegannon, how in the world do you co-play a campaign? O_o

[Craterus]

We live in the same town, just. When littlegannon visits, if you will, my house we play the co-campaign..

We are about to blitz the Romans, playing as Spain.. Well, when he next comes over

[pezhetairoi]

ah, i see. Dacia looks awfully tough though their armies are decent. I prefer Germania. ^_^

[katank]

They aren't so bad. Attack Byzalora immediately and then Thessalonica. Don't even wait to merge all your troops into one army. Just build roads on the first turn and move everything south in two armies. The first does the attack and assaulting while the second reinforces in case of disaster or garrisons conquests.

Some luck with the spy is necessary. Exterminate to get the cash. Sell maps/Trade rights to Thrace can net you some cash.

Thessalonica is great. Build a hero hall and you can get chosen swordsmen on turn 7-8. Those buggers are tough as nails and comparable to early cohorts in melee strength. This early in the game, they are hard to stop. By that time, you should already be at Larissa and knocking on the gates of Athens soon.

Send an army of chosen swords west to deal with Thermon and then the Brutii.

These Dacians also get ballistas which is weird for a barbarian faction. Archery ranges are must-haves. They yield CAW, onagers, and ballistas for an incredible unit selection with just 1 building!