Spain

[pezhetairoi]

crazybastard, I'm playing Spain now and I'm making 10k a turn in profit. What I did was, after unifying the peninsula, build one ship at carthago nova port and just move straightaway to the Julii territory and beat them to pieces. Ignore Narbo Martius. After taking Numantia, send Segovax to Gaul and sell them map info for big big tribute, they will ask you to become a protectorate in return for even bigger bigger tribute. The fools. Agree, and immediately cancel military access. Clever you :-) Then, build forts at the approaches from Gaul into Spain (there are 4 of them, two right next to one another in the north, one next to Osca, and one on the south coast). Garrison each with one town militia and bingo, the gauls'll never bother you again. Then, have fun with the Romans :-) In quick succession I took down the Julii (who hadn't even had time yet to send their first invasion of Osca, or their invasion of Caralis) and then Rome after a brilliant battle in which I forced the Senate grand army to fight a river crossing battle against me ^_^. Took a breath while building sacred circles of Esus in Rome, then pushed on to Capua and Croton. Not Tarentum, because in my game the Brutii had a nasty 19 unit garrison, so I hit poorly defended Croton and they predictably came out of Tarentum so I could trash them in the field. Then it was Tarentum, and now I have the biggest army in the Italian Peninsula about to cross to Greece, a three-quarter size crossing Palma-Caralis-Sicily to wipe out the Scipii, and another one of the same size advancing on Carthage to annihilate it. If I play it right in another 10 turns at most I will have taken down Carthage and all the Romans. But it's slow going, I'm almost at turn 30 already. Still remember at this time as the Greeks I already had 40 provinces. Oh well. I've come up with a more open formation of Spanish deployment for attacking Romans with as little as Iberians--will share it next time I have time! It's worked like a charm, so i daresay it works for any occasion.

[katank]

That is great speed. Did you go after Numidia?

[pezhetairoi]

I immediately raced for Cirta after Tingi, then took a detour to down Carthage and Thapsus. Now I have an army headed for Dimmidi, and nicely bribed another Carthaginian one consisting mainly of Iberians and Roundshields headed for Leptis Magna

[katank]

That's the expansion route I took.

Dimmidi isn't worth much and can wait. I ended up taking Siwa before Dimmidi.

[Garvanko]

You truly are a Legendary Commander, pez.

[pezhetairoi]

why thank you for the compliment. :-) I've ended my spanish game (burnout, my game crashed (see thread in Colosseum) and I want to try Egypt once I get it restarted) with about 30+ provinces. I own all Italy thanks to that preemptive strike, I've annihilated the Brutii, having had to chase them with two armies and two diplomats all the way from Apollonia to Vicus Marcomannii to down the last factioner. I own all lower Greece (Sparta, Athens, Corinth). This was due to a stroke of luck as my spanish swordsmen are incredibly crappy against hoplites, so I used diplomats as the shock troops. I managed to bribe 4 greek factioners (IN ONE ARMY) to my side, and recruited enough mercenaries to lay siege to and storm Sparta with their own greek troops. Now preparing to crush Macedonia in 3 turns flat. In the west, the Gauls have fought 3 major 20 vs 20 stack battles with me, and gotten trashed. I now own all western Gaul up to Condate Redonum, as well as southern Germania. In the south, I own all western Africa, and Cyrene. In the east, I own Kydonia and Rhodes and I actually owned Pergamum but gave it away to Pontus in return for alliance and an attack on Seleucids. The Pergamum army is now en route by ship to Antioch, which is the real prize. I've an army on the sea on a 20-large-boat-navy that surrounds and trashes any any in its way en route to Alexandria while the Cyrene army heads for Siwwa and Thebes. Altogether now army deployment are as follows, 3rd Army currently recuperating in Athens, 4th Army at Nepte en route to Lepcis Magna tp take ship to Chersonesos (I know, it's quite a long way), 5th Army en route to Antioch, 6th Army at Trier about to descend on Alesia and the two Gaulish rebel provinces, 7th Army at the border of Armorica (so much for indomitable Gauls) moving for Samarobriva, 8th army at Vicus Gothi laying siege, 9th Army at Cyrene, 10th army moving by ship to land near Thessalonica from Sparta... btw the numbers of my armies tells you the order of their formation.

[katank]

Are you playing 1.2? Using diplomats as shock troops, lol.

I did that a lot in 1.0 and 1.1 but not so any more. The hapless AI often have nearly full captain-led stacks running around which are perfect prey.

That's a lot of armies. Guess you must have conquered fast and furious. How much upkeep does all of that cost?

I've never maintained more than 5 armies in my games but then again, I don't go for much of a blazing speed endgame.