Lombardii (BI faction)

[frogbeastegg]

This faction needs modding before it can be played.

[Avicenna]

Well first of all, go to the 'descr_strat.txt' file in your Rome - Total War folder (it should be in [Wherever you installed it]\Activision\Rome - Total War\bi\data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion)

The Lombards will be under non-playable, so cut and paste them to be under playable. Save the file and you'll be ready to play the Lombards.

[Dt3r]

This topic seems saddly neglected...

I guess I'll give a Lombard campaign a try.

[Lorenzo_H]

lol

[Dt3r]

Well the start of my campaign certainly was interesting...

The Lombards need to take 2 provinces in the north of Italy (Venetia and Aemilia et Liguria) and 14 total provinces. They start right next to the Burgundians and the Franks, and uncomfortably close to the hoards. The starting province is poorly developed... it doesn't even have walls!

Since I don't like fighting horse archers, I figured it would be a good idea to pack up and leave. I hoarded and marched south, sacking any Roman towns along the way. Once I reached the provinces I needed I sacked them and kept going south along the peninsula, before turning around and conquering from the south on up. I had to siege the cities twice, but between the sacking and taking the city a second time the population was low enough to control and I had a healthy treasury. Also, one of your family members is Christian, so he can help keep order in Rome.


Unfortunately, just as I took my 3rd city and started to settle down the Huns entered my territory. They milled around for a turn or two, trying to decide if they wanted to attack the WRE or me. Guess who they chose... >.<


So the current situation is that there's 5 and a half stacks of angry Huns (are they ever not angry? ) around my city, and I have 3 cities with ~300-400 men each, a spy, and an assassin. Fun fun...

[Lorenzo_H]

hehe, Ill bet almost as fun as the WRE on V Hard/ Vhard. On the Second turn like 7 of your family members defect, your leader dies, the entire of Spain and Gaul defect and become the WRE rebels and like 3 of your cities get invaded. On top of all that your money goes to about -20,000 per turn. So you end up with about 4 cities that aren't rebeling and only about 5 units in each city with no money to make more.

[Avicenna]

You see, you don't just click on the building scroll, choose to make buildings and do nothing else before ending the turn when you're the WRE... precautions have to be taken.

So far I've only had 1 defection in Hard, and I've taken a half of the ERE and gotten rid of half the hordes.

[Lorenzo_H]

Eh? Yeah well I wasn't really playing with a heart intent on winning. I just wanted to a) Show BI to my older brother at the time and b) Check out the WRE. For that reason I didn't go around micromanaging.

I'll bet it still would be difficult even if you did micromanaging.

[Dt3r]

Okay, things are looking up. The Huns were a bit disorganized and only attacked my settlement with about half a stack. I sent a unit of Burgundian Lancers on a suicide run to try and destroy the battering ram, but they didn't do enough damage... however they did bring the enemy calvalry within range of my Lombard archers on the walls

I managed to run them off and break the siege. The Huns spent the next few turns wandering around my territory, as my assasin picked off a few of the weaker family members. In the end they just marched north, past my cities, past a WRE city and went over the Alps... guess I wasn't worth the trouble.

Then I send my Faction leader up north with an army to approach Aemilia et Liguria (one of the objectives)... and he dies in a flood.


So now all I have is my faction leader (christian) and an heir who is full of vices. Uh, can I have a pagan man of the hour... please?

[spong]

I have been playing as the Burgundii rather than the Lombardii but seeing as both they and the Alemanni have the same units there is little sense in splitting hairs, however, of some importance is the fact that out of these three similar factions only the Alemanni cannot enter horde mode which is an extremely useful feature for these barbarian factions and a good reason in my opinion to go to the effort of tweaking the game to make them playable.

For my current Burgundian campaign I did not enter horde mode at the start - the starting location as with many of the central germanic factions provides a very turbulent and dangerous setting but also offers plenty of political potential.
Making allies with any of the Alemanni, Burgunii or Lombardii depending on who you are playing is a very good idea as their alliances tend to hold and they provide a good buffer against other nations - one thing i noticed about these tribes is that as with the Franks they are very active in terms of agents - lots of spies and assassins roaming the map.
In my experience the Franks and the Saxons cannot be trusted - nor should they be allowed to expand because they are hugely dangerous as potential enemies - these are early priorities - an early alliance with WRE can be a sensible precaution - though they may not hold it - if all goes well it should allow you to wage war on the Saxons and Franks with little interruption - one difficulty is that the Franks are rather more difficult to stamp out because they have a tendancy to horde and are highly expansionist from the start so finding all their family members and eliminating them can be difficult - in my current campaign I have taken Vicus Frankii but there must have been a Frankish heir out in the Fog-of-War because despite slaying all the family members in Vicus Frankii they have somehow horded and are currently ransacking the WRE and Lombardii - slippery buggers.

The Alemanni/Lombardii/Burgundii forces are very diverse and very powerful when used carefully. How you organise your forces will of course be down to personal preference - i've started using a very odd method to see if it works that I don't recommend you use unless you fancy something a bit different - it does work but it has some setbacks in the early game.

My system is simply that I try to replicate a basic early fedual system in the sense that I will have a character with a personal retinue of at least household archers (lombard archers or chosen archers) and a fedual levy of spearmen (spear warband) depending on a number of factors the basic force might then also comprise of some specialist troops (usually in small quantities = 1 or 2 units) such as night raiders, wardogs, berserkers, light cavalry, artillery and mercenaries of various types (of particular use are Horse Archers) - later on the basic force might also have a unit of chosen axemen and/or golden band - in its most basic form this setup largely means a character will have in his retinue archers, spearmen and berserkers which seems quite limited - however I then expand on these basic armies by adding units of barbarian nobles who will not only add their benefit of heavy cavalry but also bring their own retinues to the army with the basic archer, spearmen setup plus any extras that seem appropriate - this gives a very flexible force that, in appropriate situations can be deployed as series of independant 'battles' on a single field.

I'll talk now about the specific unit types available to the Alemanni/Lombardii/Burgundii factions.

Spear Warband: Spear warbands will provide the basic unit for these armies they are fairly average fighters who can expect to do well against other spear armed troops especially with some support, they will destroy light cavalry and can be effective against some heavy cav - particularly lancers - but may suffer if pitched alone against chosen warlords or paladin bodygaurds - particularly the latter - their main role is to protect archers as part of the battle line and to pin enemy forces while heavier infantry or cavalry move in from the flanks or rear - their speciality is that they can form schiltron which can be useful in desperate situations or when facing a superior cavalry force but I have not found the need to use it often.

Lombard Archers: These are a good solid archer unit which can also be used as half-decent light infantry in a pinch - use caution though as they will quickly suffer against anything much better without support - flaming arrows come as standard

Chosen Archers: Similar to the Lombard archers but have some decent armour which makes them more useful as emergency light infantry and for some added durability in lengthy exchanges of arrow fire - the combination of increased accuracy and effeciency as well as durability from the armour means these are ideal troops for sieging enemy settlements - few shots are wasted so they can succesfully thin enemy concentrations on battlements while faring better than lombards when under return-fire - flaming arrow ability is on these guys too. (Note: this doesn't affect gameplay but one thing I have noticed with these chosen archers regardless of which faction you choose is that some kind of skinning bug seems to occur - the archers are all weird colours in the wrong places - you can see livery on their face and skin on their helmets! something for a patch i believe )

Barbarian Cavalry - Typical light cavalry - good for flanking and screening maneuvers but don't expect them to hit heavily and survive long against anything more than peasants and archers - anything else needs outmanevering and battle-line support

Wardogs - these are handy additions to your forces - they are rather innefective on their own but released in conjunction with a charge from other forces can be devestating in breaking up and scaring the enemy formations - when used in this way they can be useful against infantry or cavalry but they do need the support or they will suffer quickly - the weapon of fear is important here as they will help a melee turn into a rout and will do a good job of chasing routers down - they can do quite well on their own against light infantry or archers. They are a one-shot weapon in the sense that the dogs cannot be recalled once released but usually you won't have to and their persistance can be a boon - also regardless of how many dogs you lose as long as handlers remain at the end of a battle the dogs will reappar next battle.

Chosen Axemen - Excellent heavy infantry which when you get them can form a significant element of your battle strategy - their only weaknesses are arrow-fire and heavy cavalry - they will carve through most anything else unless hugely outnumbered and unsupported - with support i have even seen them destroy heavy cavalry during a gate bottleneck in a siege

Burgundiian Lancers - I have yet to find any real use for lancers other than as a cheap alternative to noble cavalry - but then they die ALOT easier - flanking maneuvers are a possiblity but they are not as fast in pursuit as light cav. - if anyone has any tips on using lancers then post them here I would like to learn

Night Raiders - Light infantry that can be useful for screening, flanking and ambush tactics in the early campaign - I don't tend to use them much though.

Onagers - same as with everyone who has 'em - mainly for sieges to obtain a breach

Lombard Berserkers - these troops are amazing - my favourite - they're cool just from a stylistic perspective as they are hulking great dudes with massive swords who spin around and send people flying - great stuff! Seriously though these are battle winning troops and hugely significant in the early game - they can be built with a Shrine of Donar (why build anything else?). They come in relatively small units and have almost no armour so keeping them away from arrow-fire is a must - they only become truly effective when in their berserker rage activated either by getting into combat or using their warcry ability - they are something of a one-shot weapon as once enraged they are ucontrollable and will run to attack any enemy unit in range - much like wardogs only far more dangerous - if you're lucky some may survive the battle allowing you to replenish the unit - they are extremely useful for breaking an enemy battle line and causing fear - especially effective if supported and are also superb (if a little unpredictable) for attacking and defending walls in siege actions - simply put - point them at the enemy and watch the carnage - use them as a spearhead for your broader battle plans but keep them protected until they can be used effectively and if you want them to be most effective give them support as they will survive longer and the attack will have more weight to it.

Barbarian Noble Cavalry/Chosen Warlord - very solid heavy cavalry for charging heavy infantry, other heavy cavalry, archers and any light cav foolish enough to get caught - the chosen warlord unit is slightly better than the nobles as they represent the cream of the crop but the nobles are still very good - they're quite durable in an extended melee due to their use of swords and shields rather than spears or lances - despite all of this they're not quite as good as the Frankish Paladins or Paladin bodygaurd so when engaging these will need to outflank, have superior numbers or have additional support such as spears, light cav or lancers, chosen axes, berserkers or wardogs


That's pretty much it for me until I progress in my campaign - I hope this proves useful to some of you.

[Mr Frost]

...Night Raiders - Light infantry that can be useful for screening, flanking and ambush tactics in the early campaign - I don't tend to use them much though...

Night Raiders cause fear to enemy infantry , Warcry {another fear hit} , have reasonable stats and armour piercing .

Thus far with the Allemanni {same units if I'm not mistaken} I have been doing the following in battles :
I put spears in the first line , Night Raiders in the second and Lombard archers behind them with war dogs after those ready to charge and cavalry ready to flank .
The Archers first soften the enemy a bit , lowering morale with fire arrows and this can often cause the enemy to attack which speeds things up , then when near charging distance I warcry the Night Raiders , loose the hounds , charge the spears and Night Raiders both at the enemy line whilst cavalry does the sensible thing .
The reason for spears first is to more cheaply absorb the enemy counter charge {cheaper to replace those soldiers} and especially from enemy cavalry but also it creates a localised numerical superiority Vs the unit engaged which is yet annother fear hit {boo !}.
Roman armies crumble and rout almost instantly before this charge with minimal losses and those night Raiders are key . Even on static defense their warcry can fear Cavalry and their mere presence scares enemy infantry , and that is allways a good thing .





As for the Burgundian Lancers , they are built purely for the charge {so charge and withdraw or have Nobles follow them in and simply plow right through and out the other side whilst the Nobles finish the job} and can be built in half the time meaning if you only have one turn you can still raise hard charging cavalry in time for the battle .