The Britons...

[Brittanicus]

I am a newbie trying to come to terms with RTW. I was running a Julii campaign and keep being hammered by the Britons. I am not yet great with the battles, but have managed to do my bit slaughtering the gauls and so on.

Once I get to the Britons though, I can't beat them on the battle map. When I played a quick battle and played the britons vs the Julii I kicked the Jullii butt. When I use auto resolve, (because I am not yet too comfortable with handling big battles), I find my 'post Marus event' full flag armies being crushed by armies of Britons half their size.

The numidians, scythians, germans, dacians, spanish, carthaginians I know how to beat by deploying overwhelming force at the right moment and crushing them, but the Britons just keep kicking my butt.

the only similar problem I had was trying to take a couple of Pontic cities late in the game, but I didn't really deploy enough force. With the Britons I spent 30 years sending armies into Gaul and being chewed up. I even created an assassin who reached level 10 (or whatever the top of the class is) by killing their family members, captains, diplomats turn after turn to no avail.

As an example, I deployed 2,000 post Marus troops with two 5 star family members who had won some other engagements against the Britons against half their number of Britons lead by a 2 star family member. I auto resolved it because of the size of the armies and got an average defeat.

What is it with the Britons? Historically I don't think the Britons were any more difficult to subdue than the germans, yet the AI lets you knock them over with half the troops.

When fighting the battles myself I get mashed by their chariots.

Any advice appreciated!

[Rapidly]

Hmmm, I found that, despite their chariots chew up some of my hastati, they rout off easily. What difficulty levels are you on?

[drone]

Auto-resolve vs. Chariots = Baaaaaaad.

Google worked!
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=45103
EDIT - fixed link

[Oaty]

Ahh yes the dreaded chariots

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=45502

That topic has some hints. Also if you go east you will have problems with chariots. On top of that Briton chariots are cakework compare to those easterners chariots

[The Stranger]

i would think you would have no problems with chariots as rome. my big problem in my campaign are the bloody thracian onagers. the damn bitches keep kicking my butt. maybe one porblem is that i'm almost always outnumbered by 1500 men. but back too the point. save your pilas fpr the chariots and you'll kick but.

a tip lure them into a attack and then use this formation



/S/[P] [P] [P] [P]\S\
/S/ [P] [P] [P] [P] \S\
[A] [A]

P = LEGIONARIES/ PILUM THROWING INFANTRY
S = SPEARMAN
A = ARCHERS

the rest can be filled in by yourself. put you soldiers on guardmode and turn fire at will on

[Brittanicus]

Hmmm, I found that, despite their chariots chew up some of my hastati, they rout off easily. What difficulty levels are you on?

I am on easy. I read in another thread suggested here that archers and spears are the way to go so will give that a try. I also guess it would be good to get my troops onto a hill.....

Thanks to all for the replies!

[Craterus]

Elephants beat chariots, try the oliphaunt cheat if you want some yubtseb elephant mercs. They are 40% larger than regular elephants...

Select a settlement and make sure you have the army part open as opposed to the town buildings part at the bottom centre of the screen. Type oliphaunt into the cheat thing and you'll get a unit of 52 men.

[The Storyteller]

First of all, are you playing strategically enough? If you can suck the enemy into attacking a force holding a bridge over and over, then the enemy won't have many armies left to fight with.

Secondly, have you tried using onagers? At least four per army help immensely, since the Britons can't build anything of that range.

Thirdly, again using onagers, try to attack as many of their cities as possible. Chariots are not as useful in cities. Use the onagers to break down sections of the walls, and your archers to lay down covering fire while your men enter. The Britons will take a lot of casualties from your missile fire. Slowly advance into the city with your archers providing covering fire. You should be able to squeeze them into the central square where all that being jammed together will stop a lot of the manouverablility of the chariots.

I also suggest as much micro management as possible for missile units. Whenever you see chariots, get your archers to fire on them. That way you can eliminate them as soon as possible in battle.

[PseRamesses]

Once I get to the Britons though, I can't beat them on the battle map.
What is it with the Britons? Historically I don't think the Britons were any more difficult to subdue than the germans, yet the AI lets you knock them over with half the troops.
When fighting the battles myself I get mashed by their chariots.
Any advice appreciated!

Britannicus, your frustration is understandable since all chariots IMO are quite overpowered. The key is flanking and patience. This is how I manage quite successfully to take them out:
Pre-Marius you have hastatiis and principiies as your main infantry force and you might have gotten enough developed to get archers who can soften the Brits chariots before engaging. My earliest lineup looks like this:

--I-I-I-I-I-I-I--
-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-
-C-C--G--C-C-

Infantry put in two solid tight lines on guard mode which means they won´t stray after engaging. Also toggle the "fire at will" mode which will soften the Brits who always charges en-mass. Now, the Brits will charge hard and the charits will either slam right into you but most often hit you flanks - don´t counter attack with your infantry - stand still and embrace until they are fully involved them swiftly move your cavalry around your flanks and hit them in the rear. Counter attack with infantry that has run out of javelins. Belive me, the Brits will break.
Later, when you have archers my line-up looks like this:

--I-I-I-I-I--
-I-I-I-I-I-I-
CCAAGAACC

Same strategy but now the archers can hammer the assault before engaging and with patch v1.2 they will target all enemyforces that are not engage thus working on those units that will try to outflank your flanking manouvre.

Remember, facing an all out barbarian charge will reults in casualities on your part, that´s their key-strategy. Stand firm and good luck! Oh, almost forgot, NEVER EVER auto-resolve. Any human, whatever skills, are better than the AI.

[Jambo]

Chariots may be slightly overpowered, maybe, but Chariot Generals are the weak point. They don't for whatever reason seem to get the HP bonus over the rest of General's unit like the Horse Generals do. So, you'll find that the Briton and Egyptian Generals are relatively easier to kill as a result. If you're playing a faction with phalanxes, chariots are fodder for phalanxes!

[vastator]

Strategically speaking, try to hit the Britons early on before they can field any of those chariot archers. In my current Julii campaign on H/M I've found the Brits a bit of a pushover. They hadn't expanded beyond Samarobriva (the Germans seem to have fought a successful defensive campaign), and once I'd kicked them off the mainland I just blockaded Londinium. They dont have any other ports, and with no trade income I can just sit back and watch them starve.

Guess where my Senate missions have me involved now, though? Pontus! Oh joy, more chariots...

[Fist of Brutii]

I play as the Brutii (as my name say) and when i face the chariots, no matter witch team they are from, i just make sure that my infanteri stops them, cause as soon as they are standing still, they die like flyes!

[tibilicus]

I see what people mean by chariots in auto resolve. I use to be a pathetic remoursfull auot resolver. When ever i came up against 1 unit of chariot generels it would take 3 full stack modern roman armies to bring it down just because he had 2 gold valour. it was really the most annoying thin ever !!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!