Goths (BI faction)

[Sebastian Seth]

I tried few turns with M/M...

I tought I try to keep Dacia and took Tribus lazygens for money.

1st game
I managed to build 4 x goth spearmen, 4 x goth raider, 3 x goth lancer and I got 2 bodyguard units form faction generals and 1 alain mercenary archer.
The huns came and attacked with 4 stacks. I placed the goth spearmen in sculthrum formation to block 1 road and the raiders around the flag to arrow down to all directions. Then I used cavarly to draw them to that plocked road and charged them there. After the battle I had 7 from 458 man left but I won. The huns lost 1976 men. Faction leader gained 6 experience but died and got healed and then reseted. Faction heir got 6 experience and 391 kills with 13 man. I was so exited that I decided to give it another try.

2nd game
I managed to build 4 x goth spearmen, 4 x goth raider, 4 x goth lancer and I got 3 bodyguard units form faction generals. This time it was the vadals and they attacked with 3 stacks. I changed my tactic a bit and used the spearmen and the raiders to hold the other road and charged the other road with cavarly. I managed to get 2200+ kills but was under 100 in man streight again. Next attack finished me.

The spearmen dont actualy kill so many but they are needed to hold the road.
The raiders are really lethal but they get runned over easy.
Lancers where really effective but they seem to get tired easy.
The bodyguards are the key element because the hordes are scared of em.

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I think I try to build fortresses to hold the hordes next time. But It seems really hard to hold Dacia at start.

[Roman_Man#3]

in my game, i built 6 spearmen, 3 raiders, probably 2 lancers, and 5 general units, along with merc vetenarii, bosphorun mercs and 2 alan , 1 armoured sarmation HA. plan went pefectly, i gaurded the town square. 2 spearmen in each alley way. HA to slow their advance, raiders to shoot and kill them from town square, vetenarii and bosphorun mercs to throw in where we were losing, lancers to also throw in and the generals as a last ditch effort. i killed basically everyone but about 100 from thier two full stacks, and i didnt lose very many at all. goths can really hold kick some hunnic buttocks. wow, that las remark sounded so laaaaammeee!!!!

[MerlinusCDXX]

I milked campus lazyges for mining cash until the hordes came knocking, then horded up and headed for Greece, settling in Thessalonika, Athens ,and Constantinople. Stayed quiet for a few turns, built up (specializing my provinces for 1 troop type per helped to save me cash and let me build econ buildings, cav from thes,inf and missile from the two closer ones), took sirm off the rebels, and let the hordes do my dirty work in the west. came in after and took Ravenna. WRE R back stabbed me (were allied), so I kicked em off of Italy and uot of the Balkans. more than halfway to victory and sitting pretty with 4 full stacks, and have my reqiured specific settlements. currently at war w/ the settled Huns. will march again tomorrow and make another report.

[MerlinusCDXX]

Have expanded back up into the original territories again (a good move, as mining income from both Dacia and campus lazyges is substantial), took Aquincum to connect Greece and Italy, and Carnuntum (to keep watch on the WRE and the Germanic barbarians), have the King's Army operating in Italy, the Heir's in Pannonia, and am building another in Greece to defend from the eventual attack from the Slavs, as they seem to just head straight towards Constantinople. I am using the forts at river crossings (Danube) trick that some ERE players like to use, except I have a two-layer version of it (also using it at the river line north of the Danube) this lets one stack defend a lot of territory without having to lose settlements. Was attacked by horded Burgundians (Aquincum), faction heir had night fighter, so i fought them at night one stack at a time, wiped em out in 1 turn ;-D. The war with the Huns never amounted to much, I whupped one army as they reinforced a seige, they came offering peace next turn, I accepted after charging them some cash. Sarmatians pulled the same trick as Burgundii (in Mediolanum), King has night fighter, pulled same trick as faction heir -result-yet another one turn wipeout, this time King gets a trait increase for Night Fighter. am now in the process of cleaning up WRER in the Med, getting ready to take a lightly defended Kydonia from the ERER, and spawning the Ostrogoths in Sarmatia to keep everyone north of me busy (and they will make a nice shield against the Slavs). am only like 4 settlements shy of victory, who knows, tomorrow, maybe Carthage. (am trying to have a reason to be at war... the WRER started it, so it is my pet project to make them as weak as possible)

[supeerme]

what i done was i horded myself and went east. and i fought the rebels and settled there. i later attacked some more rebels. (i made a LOT of allies when i was a horde. ) then set my eyes on the homeland. i got that and then went down fighting the ERE. It was easy-peasy! (well to tell you the truth i play this on easy ) took Greece then started to think...what sholud i do? well i chosen to covert my pagen to the teaching of Jeuses! (it made me say it as well.) that wasn't a very good idea AT ALL! some of my regions rebelled and i kicked them out faster than you can say"hello and good-night!" but i was ok.


The moral of this story is this:don't try to follow the pagen ways AT ALL!

[Vitellus]

All right, I hadn't actually planned on posting here (I like lurking just fine), but my recent experiences as the Goths have convinced me to make an exception.

I'd never played as the Goths before, and I didn't look at this strategy thread until after. So, I planned to hold my capital and just take over the Balkans. I knew I was right in the way of the hordes, having played as the ERE prior to this, but I guessed that I could hold them at some stone-walled cities, and push them west into the Romans to soften 'em up for me.

Things started out pretty well. Campus Iazyges fell to my initial army, which would later become the only experienced troops remaining in the empire after the coming onslaught. Aquincum and Salona rebelled, and I nabbed them, as well, before the Romans could retake the buggers.

Now, disaster struck. The Huns and the Vandals at last entered my lands after a few squabbles with each other. My nwo veteran army raced back to the capital to defend it, while I prepared garrisons in all cities. I managed to shadow the Vandals around the Carpathian mountains, and they went on to settle in Thessalonica and Athens without fighting me.

The Huns, however, stormed Campus Iazyges. My garrison of peasants and slave spearmen proved ineffective at holding the walls (I had never used the spearmen before, didn't know what they were capable of), and that general was killed. The menace swept on to Aquincum, but I had had time to prepare. 2 Gothic Spearmen, several minor units of cavalry, and 3 raider units awaited the Huns. The first three hordes only brought ladders, and only one unit at that. The raiders killed thousands while the spearmen were met at the walls by my own men, grinning and shoving a pointy stick in their face as they came over the wall.

The next several stacks united to completely surround the city, and attacked a corner with 2 ladders and a siege tower. Here, the archers were able to fire across the corner into the backs of the men on the other wall, supporting each other and my spearmen. The battle lasted nearly the full 45 minutes, but at last the last Hun dropped from the ladders, dead. My men had slaughtered all their infantry before the walls of Aquincum.

In the meantime, the Western Roman Empire had decided to reclaim Salona and drove my minor army there out (the army that had taken it was off keeping the Vandals out of Dacia). With Iazyges and Salona gone (with 2 of my family members, as well), Aquincum besieged, I made a desperate strike at the rebel Constantinope (the Sarmatian horde had razed the city a few years earlier). I managed to take the weakly held city, dragging me out of the red (I had been at -8000 denarii before, trying to garrison all cities against the Huns), then raced back to relieve Aquincum.

I never made it. The city's brave defenders starved to death after a sally attempt failed against the multitudes of cavalry. I was fairly desperate now - all my conquered territories had fallen. Most of my garrison armies had been destroyed, and my family tree was virtually wiped out in the losses, leaving only the original king's eldest son and his two boys. I was left with 1 major army, 2 provinces, 3 family members, and a massive debt.

Somehow, I survived. The Huns headed north and messed around with the barbarians for a while, while I retook Iazyges and started a war with the ERE by taking Siriminium, I believe it's called. With that victory, the purples were driven out of Europe, due to my efforts and those of the Vandals now settled in Greece, Macedonia, and Salona. A second full stack army was trained, though it strained my resources to the limit to support them, and arrived in Iazyges just as the Huns reappeared.

The war that followed was the longest, hardest fought one I've ever had in Rome: Total War, and I've played as nearly every faction. Each turn, the several stacks of Huns would besiege Iazyges. My two armies, led by my faction leader, the same general who had originally taken the city 20 years before, and the heir, who was governing Dacia but was more needed at the front, dashed around the fringes, picking battles where the odds were nearly even. Gradually, I whittled them down. One of my armies was wrecked in a near defeat when I lost cohesion against the numerous horse archers, leaving me with 1. This one, commanded by my faction leader, met that of the Hunnic faction leader one cold winter's night. In the battle that followed, the Huns were completely routed in hard fighting, though my king was slain achieving the victory. Two Hun full stacks remained, hwoever, and my last army had been devastated achieving this much.

However, I had learned how to fight the Huns. Before, my armies were primarily spearmen and raiders. Experience with the horsemen in black, however, convinced me to train an entirely new army. This one was composed of a spine of a few spearmen adn archers, with a strike force of nearly ten lancer units and numerous horse archers in support. They arrived on the field just as my original two armies could fight no more. In the next two years, both Hunnic stacks were utterly destroyed by the new army. My king, and the lost provinces, were at last avenged.

In the meantime, I had managed to storm Thessalonica and Athens against weak Vandal armies. After the defeat of the Huns, I at last retook Aquincum and Salona, also Vandal territories, and made them a horde again, aimed at the WRE. Now, my seasoned forces will be flung into Italy, to take Rome and achieve final victory for the Goths!

So, basically, this lengthy post is just to show that hording is not the only way to have a fun game as the Goths! The battles against the Huns in this one were the most fun I've ever had, simply because they were the most desperate, with the most riding on them I've ever had. So, Gothic strategy? I didn't have any real one - just picked my battles, fought where I could win, avoided them if I couldn't win, and studied my enemy for a weakness. The Goths are uniquely suited with their versatile armies for this style of play, so I recommend someone else try the defense of Dacia sometime! Quite honestly the best Total War experience I've ever had.