Alright, I've started on a Dacian campaign and I have some insights to offer. Firstly, going for Getae is basically a waste of time since your main army is closer to Tylis. Don't even waste time trying to attack Lovosice and Aquincum. They're so undeveloped and so low in population that they simply aren't worth the effort. Secondly, the Thracians start spamming peltastai quickly, and are soon coming up with falxmen in Getae, so your best bet would be to strike hard and fast for Tylis. In my campaign I only took Tylis after 10 turns OF manoeuvre to draw all Thracian forces into the north, around Campus Getae, and even after taking Tylis my debt didn't improve. Yes, that's one thing you'll note--the Dacian debt is the most annoying thing you'll have to deal with early-game. You can't exterminate, because then the tax rate would fall crazily for a one-off injection of cash, and you can't retrain even then, because you'll be in debt. It all boils down to casualty minimising, which is difficult. Eventually I managed to lock the sum of the Thracian army in Campus Getae (idiots) and besieged them until they gave up and sallied, upon which I shot them to pieces with my archers.

As Dacia you will not get any rest from Macedon once you take Thrace. In my game, the moment I took Campus Getae a large Macedonian army marched for Porrolissum, and was only drawn away from there by my storming of Bylazora. In my campaign, the Macedonians went a little crazy on light lancers, I'm afraid. You know something's wrong when the MAcedonians behave like the Scythians and send a 12-unit army with 11 of lancers. Well anyway. I drove straight for Thessalonica after retraining my depleted grand army (still the only I had, with my western frontier under threat from Macedon, who had Segestica, my northern one threatened by Germania, who had Lovosice, and my eastern frontier threatened by Scythia, which was building up menacingly.

I turned my faction heir into a military genius in the Thessalonian plains when he came under attack from two great Macedonian armies (all of which had 11-12 lancers) which he managed to beat off with combined operations from flaming arrows, massed family-member charges (I had 7 family members with me, the sum of my royalty) and falxmen in flanks. Nevertheless, I sustained seriously heavy losses. If I recall, in those three battles I lost nearly a quarter of my army (including 2 factioners), mostly in barbarian cavalry and gaesatae, in exchange for utter victory and 2 Macedonian family members killed, which is all in all not too bad a deal. Then I played a Napoleonic style campaign that drove apart three Macedonian armies (yes, it was frantic) trying to merge, crushed the faction heir's force, and attacked the largest element after that just outside Thessalonica, drawing out the garrison and emptying the town in my victory. Thessalonica was plague-ridden so I just sent two gaesatae in.

In summary of the rest of the campaign, I fought two more great battle which later emptied Larissa and Athens for my taking, signed an alliance with the Brutii, and took Segestica which turned rebel after my capture of Thessalonica. I also took Aquincum, having earned enough money to raise a new army exclusively of nobles, falxes and chosen swordsmen and archers. I'm poised for a two-pronged attack of the Romans after I finish off Macedon in Corinth.

I think Dacia has been the most challenging campaign I have faced so far. Even when I was playing Armenia and faced my first defeat, I do not think the situation was ever as desperate as mine... One grand army of mediocre troops facing three large armies of the deadliest light cavalry ingame, saddled with monstrous 5-digit debt... At least my Armenian economy never let me down.

What paths of expansion have you Dacians tried out? Any variation from mine?