Dacia

[frogbeastegg]

This faction must be unlocked with game editing before you can play.

[Tzar Kaloyan]

Chapter 1: Prologue

Soooooo, you have decided to play the Dacians. That probably means you are either incredible stupid or incredibly adventurous. But let’s leave this psychological profiling to Dr. Phil and rather than treating your symptoms, let’s aid them. Just a word of advice: before you play them, have some familiarity with RTW and read Kosak’s wonderful RTW guide. When you start with the Dacians, you will see that they aren’t exactly your ‘mainstream’ faction. For a full effect, I recommend playing on vhard/vhard.

Ok, enough mambo-jumbo introductory stuff, let’s get to the bone of it. You start with two provinces/cities. Notice that you have 3 family members. What a great setup! As if the develops are hinting: leave two members to govern the two cities, take the third member to war! And that is what you should do.

Your first decision is who to appoint governors and should do the fighting. I would recommend you leave the faction leader as a governor – he is a better leader AND a better governor, but having good governors is more important to you now; if you haven’t noticed, money does not exactly grow on trees in Dacia! Similarly, this should drive what buildings you choose to build (my choice was Shrine to Bendis – later on you can destroy it and get something more geared towards war).

Your second important decision is where to attack. Macedonians are way too powerful for you, so think about an alliance with them. Thrace and Scythia are slightly easier, but are still a tough battle, particularly since you won’t be able to build good armies this early in the campaign. Thus, I recommend signing alliances with the major powers and concentrating on growing your empire to the west – plenty of easy pickings there.

Let’s do it!

Chapter 2: Early Expansion

The chosen path took me first to Aquincum. On the way, a rebel army was slain giving my general 2 additional stars and couple abilities. From there, Segestica is a stone throw away.

If you have followed my advice and gone west, your emissary should by now have talked to the Macedonians and the Thracians and should have signed alliance, given them maps and trade rights, all for about ~15k dinarii. Not bad, particularly this early in the game, lol! Pretty much the only source of money for buildings! Now take this emissary to the Scythians!

Back in my home cities, economic buildings are slowing coming to fruitions. Not that I am making money, but at least not losing as much every turn.

Onward with battles for Aquincum and Segestica!

[Tzar Kaloyan]

Chapter 3: Onwards to the Aegean

By now the battles at Aquincum and Segestica are but a distant memory, if you have done everything right. Both towns fall easily even to a small army. I took them with 2 units of archers, 1 unit of phalx, 2 units of warbands, 2 cavalry units and, by the end, an 8-star general (who started as a 4-star general). I took half the population of Segestica to slavery (before you attack the town, decide which towns you want to benefit from the new population – in towns, like your capital, where you don’t want more people, simply pull out the governor temporarily outside the city).

By now you should have also married some of your daughters to some decent candidates – I personally refused probably 5 or so before somebody with at least some management came along. I seem to have plenty of skull-drudgers but few with brains. That’s barbarians for you ….

Finally, by now you should have built watchtowers at every crossing alongside your firm borders – the last thing you want is for some vagabonds to interrupt your trade or for some large army to sneak in unnoticed.

Now is the time to take Salona and Lovisice. I took Salona one turn before a large Brutii army came in its direction. It was a risk, but I needed the trade income, as well as an outlet in the sea.

Lovisice was taken by a second army – 2 units of archers, 2 warbands and a general. I found archers to be awesome in city fighting – the AI simply sits at the banner soaking in my missile fire. No complaints from me.

Make sure you rush your diplomat towards the west – there are profitable deals to be had in this direction! I built a second diplomat and sent it to the north – let the chap talk to the Germans and explore the area. He is cheaper than paying factions for their maps!

Finally things are looking up. I am allied with Thrace and Macedon (the Scythe pig refused), the empire has gone from mere tow cities to six, and there is enough money in the coffers to support the army and build buildings every turn. Take a breather, consolidate your position, allow the diplomats to do their deeds, build a few army units and explore the rebel towns to the north. On to the North!

[TCon88]

I personally went south. I made an alliance and gained trade rights from Thrace and sent an army of roughly, 1 archer, 1 falx, 2 warbands, 1 barbarian cav and my general down towards macedonia. On the way you should see a couple of rebel armies who are easily despatched and help with the experience of your units/general. After destroying them i attacked Bylazora with this army, the macedonians outnumbered me by about 130 but their early armies dont seem capable of destroying you. There hoplites and lancers are easy prey for your units, especially when flanked with the falxmen. Take this city asap and execute the population, you need the money. Now send your army down to Thessalonica, which may be a tougher fight, by taking this city you have gained good sea trade routes out of Greece allowing all that money to come flowing in.
Now its up to you.

[Tzar Kaloyan]

Certainly an alternative. The exception to this is that your new ally, Thrace, goes either after Macedonia or Scythia, so you do want to give them some room. In addition, the Romans make an early appearance and the Greeks are right there, so you may have the displeasure to battle them fairly early on.

In my current campaign, I control most of the north, except Germania, which is neutral, and am fighting some pretty fun battles against Gauls and the Romans. Just recently started expanding south.

The Macedonians are all but wiped out in my current game, taken over by Brutii and Thrace.

As for money, the map exploit makes it way too easy to gain money. I have 70k+ dinarii in the bank, all the while producing units every turn.

[TCon88]

I have taken some of your advice and expanded very slightly westwards, taking segestica and aquinicum from the rebels. I also have trade rights and an alliance with the Brutii, who are pushing in on macedonia and the greek cities with me. Im assuming that thrace will eventually attack scythia and i then intend to attack them at their capital, so hopefully will destroy thrace and macedonia soon.

[TinCow]

The hardest part about playing Dacia is the economics. This is probably why it isn't a playable faction without a manual unlock. On VH/VH you start the game with 3000 dinarii in the bank and an income of -888. That means that even if you don't spend any money at all, you'll be flat broke in 4 turns. Guess what... you've got no prospects to be profitable anytime in the near future. Sounds like fun, eh?

The key to surviving the early period of financial hell revolves around windfalls and queing. Diplomacy and aggressive expansion are the only ways you can survive. First things first, check your starting generals and stick the one with the highest management in your capital and set it on Very High tax. Stick the next best management general in the second city. Take whoever is left and scrape together ALL of the forces that you can manage. In the beginning you can leave a general alone in a city without anything else and still maintain order just fine. You should be able to get about 3/4 of a stack with your starting troops. Take them ALL and head west towards the rebel held provinces.

Also on the first turn, grab your diplomat and make a b-line for the Thracians. This single diplomat is your only chance at survival. You should contact the Thracians and Macedonians very quickly. Make trade agreements with both and Ally with them if you can. Then sell your map for as much as you can. Do a lot of haggling to get as much money as you can. You should almost exclusively go for a single lump sum. If they do offer you a decent amount of tribute, you can take it, but ONLY if the tribute is over 2000/turn. If it isn't, you won't see a penny of it since it will be eaten away by your negative income. You need spending cash and you need it now.

On the very first turn, blow ALL of your money. I recommend queing up roads and markets and spending the rest on a small peasant garrison for the second city and a few warbands and/or archers in the capital. From now on until you are in the black, spend EVERYTHING you have on any particular turn. Anything you leave sitting in the bank will disappear. You may find yourself in a huge debt hole, but without spending the money you won't have the infrastructure or the military to eventually make yourself profitable.

Continue pushing on west with your army. There are about 4-6 rebel held procinces west, southwest, and northwest of your starting provinces. Grab as many of them as you can as quickly as you can. DO NOT ENSLAVE OR SLAUGHTER THEM. They are all small and will not give you much as it is. It is highly unlikely that you will have any ports for the beginning, so most of your income will come from farming and taxes. This means you need a high population. Grab a city, garrison it with a general (they should marry-in or Come Of Age regularly) and a couple peasants ASAP, set it on low taxes to grow population fast and keep your army rolling west. Proper use of archers will help keep your casualties to a minimum. This is a necessity, since you probably won't be able to replace them for a long time. Unexpectedly large casualties in a battle can have disasterous effects in the long run.

After your diplomat hits up Thrace and Macedonia, take him into Italy. Going this way will allow you to sell your map to the Gauls, Julii, Senate, Brutii and Scipii. That's FIVE major cash infusions to build economic structures (roads, markets, farms & farm bonus temples). When you have the money, also build a second diplomat. Dispatch this one to the Germans and Scythians, then take him east around the Black Sea and into the Middle East. This will be a long trip, but you'll be glad you did it when you get the cash influx from map sales there later in the game. Your Italian diplomat should head west into Spain after he's done with Italy. Try to contact the Brittons along the way, then trade with Spain and Carthage when you meet them. Keep in mind, spend EVERYTHING when you make a trade. Try and build up a second army of warbands and archers in your capital if you have the spare cash. Do not build any sizeable force anywhere else. You need the population to grow in the other cities and you can only spare a drop in your capital. You can use this second army to clear rebels out of your provinces. You'll have a lot of them, and they will have a negative impact on your all-important income due to devestation and trade distruption. Knock the rebels off quickly, you need every penny. It would be a good idea to invest in at least 2 archer units for your rebel clean-up group. Again, you don't want to take many casualties... so use the archers for long-distance pounding before you assault them.

Fortunately, I found that your neighbors aren't TOO aggressive. You've got some time before anyone goes after you, and you've also got a lot of potential allies around. Thrace and Macedonia will eventually go to war. If you get the chance, side with Macedonia and take the Thracian ports. They will help a great deal. The Macedonians will be dealt with by the Brutii eventually anyway. In my current game, the Gauls launched a surprise attack upon my western provinces so I was unable to exploit the Tracian/Macedonian War. However, by this point I had 6 provinces (4 captured from Rebels) and I had just managed to turn profitable at about +300/turn. Whoever you end up going to war with, expand aggressively until you become profitable. Once you do, play defensively for a little bit, taking only those provinces that are strategic locations that allow you to defend your borders with fewer armies. Use your slow trickle of income to increase your populations and your income. Tech up to Chosen Swordsmen and Chosen Archers. These guys are fabulous and will stand up well in combat against most anything.

Once your economy is healthy and your armies are stable, the game is all yours. Time to start ruling the world, Dacian style. North, South, East West... go which ever direction strikes your fancy. If you've survived long enough to become financially self-sustaining, then you're probably good to go.

[edit]
After playing one for many more turns, I have yet to achieve the self-sustaining point. Chosen Swordsmen and Chosen Archer Warbands are necessary for survival, but they are simply too expensive to maintain in large numbers with finances in the black. I keep dipping into debt on a regular basis and have only managed to sustain myself by sacking large cities and selling everything that's not nailed down through diplomacy. I have even sold myself as a Protectorate twice. If anyone else has played Dacia and achieved financial success, please post how in here. Next time I play them, I plan on trying to go south into Greece. Those large cities and ports should significantly help income. As it stands now, I only have one province that is even on the water! Farming and tax simple isn't good enough to maintain a military.

[TinCow]

Your ultimate objective is to tech up to Chosen Swordsmen, Chosen Archers and Barbarian Noble Cavalry. Chosen Swordsmen are excellent infantry who can are superior to all pre-Marian Roman infantry and can fight toe-to-toe with Early Legionary Cohorts and regular Legionary Cohorts. Add in the warcry bonus and the bonus in forests or snow and you have a VERY formidable unit. Chosen Archers could very well be the best foot archers in the game. They have long-range arrows and are so heavily armed and armored that they can hold their own in melee combat as well, even against Hastati and Principes. The Barbarian Noble Cavalry is weak for a heavy cavalry unit, but it's good enough to get the job done. Combine these three units in a conventional infantry wall-archer backing-cavalry flanked formation and you should be able defeat anything but the most advanced Roman cohorts in a straight fight. The Dacians may be the only barbarian faction that can go head-to-head with the Romans in an even matched fight and win.

That said, it will take you a while to get to these units. In the early game, you will be limited mainly to warbands and archers with the occasional addition of barbarian cavalry and warhounds. Your foes will slice through these weak units with ease. As such, bring superior numbers and make good use of archers. Soften up the enemy from long range as much as possible before moving in... especially against phalanx style units as used by the Thracians, Macedonians and Germans (all on your borders). Your warbands will take huge casualties against these troops, even when flanking them (on VH/VH). If you can afford some Falxmen, they can help a great deal in flanking maneauvers, but you will probably not have a lot of these to spare.

So... fight rebels and get your generals good command ratings. Combine this with masses of warbands and archers and the occassional well-armored mercenary and you should be able to hold the lines until your elite units arrive.

[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...

[Nowake]

Because in real history the dacian cavalry never remarked through anything. The dacians relied mainly on pedestrian units. Of course, we're not including here the getae who lived in Skythia Minor and in the lower Danube basin.

[Craterus]

The Dacians sound like a fun campaign, but really challenging. Maybe too challenging even for me. Especially as it sounds like rushing is the only way to stay alive and I tend to sit back..

[cunobelinus]

maybe craterus it could be our next challenge wen we finsh our spain campiagn so we could have a very challengin campign and i think togther we could do it an win a campagin with them

[Craterus]

Maybe, I thought we were considering Gaul? I'm fine with either but we can discuss that some other time.

As for the Dacians, what are their elite units?

[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!

[Craterus]

It's definitely a campaign I look forward to doing.. when I get round to it..

[pezhetairoi]

haha, same here. But Spain first. Then the Greeks. Then Dacia :-D

[Craterus]

Spain is easy.. I'm doing Dacia before them but after the Greeks..

[Dromikaites]

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!

Historically Dacians used first Greek and then Roman engineers both to build and to siege fortresses. Their refuse to dismiss the Roman engineers in their service was one of the casus beli (reasons for war) invoked by emperor Trajan for the second (and final) Dacian war of 105 - 106 A.D. It makes sense therefore to have access to siege weapons (and also building simple stone walls would have been accurate).

[Dromikaites]

Because in real history the dacian cavalry never remarked through anything. The dacians relied mainly on pedestrian units. Of course, we're not including here the getae who lived in Skythia Minor and in the lower Danube basin.

Well, actualy they did make themselves known to everybody living around them, those Dacian cavalrymen. For instance in August 48 BC a Dacian cavalry-only army sent to reinforce Pompey arrives too late to be of any help (Caesar had won the battle at Pharsalos). So the Dacians have fun plundering Greece (which was now in Caesar's hands) down to Athens, before returning to their home country. This means that whatever troops Caesar had left behind to secure the newly-acquired provinces were not good enough for the job.

Also one reason the Romans got so pissed off with Dacia and decided to finishit it off were the repeated cavalry raids over the frozen Danube, during winter time. In the winter of 105 - 106 AD the Dacian king Decebalus tried to force the Romans to withdraw from Dacia by means of a joint Dacian - Sarmatian massive cavalry attack against the Roman supply base, the province of Moesia (nowadays Bulgaria).

In 106 AD the Dacian capital Sarmizegetusa fell to the Romans and king Decebalus, failing to organize further resistance, committed suicide soon after that. Romans only occupied the Western part of Dacia, a region coresponding to nowadays western Romania and eastern Hungary. The rest, that is the eastern half of Romania, the Republic of Moldova and western Ukraine remained outside the Roman control. The so called "Free Dacians" (Dacians outside the Roman-occupied area) together with their allies, the Germanic tribe Bastarnae and the Roxolani and Alani (Sarmatian tribes) raided the Roman provinces south of Danube several times. Acording to contemporary sources the raiders were mainly cavalry troops (which makes sense, since their main intention was to hit, plunder and withdraw back home, not conquer and stay)

Lastly, in the 3rd century AD the Romans had to put up with the Carpi, a Free Dacian tribe which had allied to the Goths and was again devastating Moesia. Emperor Diocletian finaly defeated them in 297 AD and gain the title of "Carpicus Maximus". It is worth noticing that he was not "Goticus Maximus" which means that at that time the Dacians were still the dominant partner of the alliance. The Carpi army of 297 AD was dominated by cavalry.

RTW doesn't provide the Dacians with horse archers (which would have been historicaly acurate) but compensates by giving them easy access to the [expensive] Scythian mercenaries. People familiar with the monument erected by Trajan after defeating Dacia (Trajan's Column, still standing in Rome) might get the impression that Dacian armies were indeed infantry-based. However on the column there are scenes of Dacian and Roman & Moorish (Roman auxiliaries) cavalry clashes. There could be 2 reasons for the aparent infantry-mainly Dacian army carved on the Column: first the main battles there are sieges, mountain or forest battles, where cavarly is inapropriate. We can understand the second reason by looking at the armies of the medieval Romanian states of Moldova and Walachia. They were using a very peculiar tactic, diferent from what was typical for the peoples around them: their mainly light cavalry army was actually a sort of mounted infantry: marching on horseback and fighting mostly on foot. The reason for this behavior was the nature of the terrain where the Romanians chose to fight: difficult terrain, where the technical (heavily armoured Polish or Hungarian knights) or numerical superiority (Turks and Tartars) were negated. Now, back to their ancestors, the Dacians, this was exactly the same defensive tactic adopted by them against the Romans. I would therefore side with the players who want a better selection of Dacian cavalry (too bad in RTW we don't have the "dismount" option like in MTW).

[crazybastard]

Why won't my Dacian towns grow profitable?????????
maybe it's the lack of costal port trade kinda thing
any advice??