Goths (BI faction)

[Rodion Romanovich]

Looks like my very, very long post here just disappeared... I'm too lazy to rewrite all that, so here's a shorter version:
1. conquer Campus Iazyges on first turn. Don't invest too much in it, as you're going to give it up soon. Only build level 1 walls and perhaps a trader. It's supposed to be a money maker for you for a little while
2. try to get many alliances early. Most will probably be broken. Also try to ally yourself with one of the hordes if possible. That may delay them. I allied to the vandals, and it had that effect, but they eventually backstabbed me of course.
3. attack the ERE as quickly as possible. Use at least 4 goth spearmen, 3 raiders, some mercenary (alan) horse archers, some general's units and a unit of mercenary bucellari. The latter is hired merely for it's sapping ability, makes assaults easier. Your first target is the city of Sirmium, then move on to Constantinople. Exterminate both cities, or low loyalty might lead to the appearance of the ostrogoths. Their appearance can sometimes be good for you, as they'll, once you retake Sirmium that they appeared in, move west and weaken the WRE, but not making them appear at all is IMO a wiser thing to do. If you conquered Constantinople and Sirmium quickly enough, you should be ready before the hordes arrive at your starting cities. You can then even train a good defensive garrison in Constantinople and Sirmium and then conquer Thessalonica and then move the main army back north to deal with the hordes, and in the meantime have trained a nearly full army (if you use mercenaries too) in your starting city. Now you only have to choose between two strategies:
a. split up your army in Provincia Dacia between that city and Campus Iazyges, and make the huns and/or vandals assault, then do as much damage as possible to them during the siege defenses, but be prepared to give up the settlements.
b. give up one of the cities by putting peasants only and no good troops in it (preferably Campus Iazyges), and have your full or nearly full army in your capital, and try to manage to completely repel the assaults of the horde/hordes, if they'd attack there. The hordes may ignore the city instead, and instead capture Campus Iazyges, so it's not a safe thing to do if you don't want to lose Campus Iazyges.
c. combine a or b with sending your main army from the south, perhaps reinforced by troops from the Sirmium garrison, to relive any sieges made by the hordes. But this is risky, as you may lose this important main army in such a fight. I recommend using a or b, then letting the hordes exhaust themselves in the assault/assaults, and move in the main army from the south to strike only if the hordes are weakened enough by the assaults.
d. don't care about the north, and continue conquering in Greece. The hordes will bother your capital and Campus Iazyges, but most likely continue westwards and fight the WRE and others, and thus help you in a way. But it's hard to predict exactly what they'll do, so this method can result in a risk losing Sirmium. Constantinople they'll probably not succeed in taking, and if they assault Sirmium they'll take huge casualties, so it's not a strategy that'll lead to a risk losing the entire campaign.
4. once you've dealt with the hordes or have let them pass, you can go on the offensive. If you're short of money, exterminate some cities, but it's probably not necessary at this stage to do so with more than perhaps 1 or 2 cities. Your economy should be so steady that you can train all the armies you want, so the rest should be easy, especially if you weakened the hordes. Remember to keep armies to defend your homelands while going on the offensive, and you should be fine.
5. the following campaign could be played in a number of different ways. There are several things to consider
a. Sarmatians - attacking their city would wipe them out as a possible future threat, but make them a horde that'll probably try to settle in your other home provinces. Not attacking them could make them a huge threat in the future.
b. ERE - should you cross the Bosphorus and hunt down the last of them? I suggest not, it would only result in getting a border to the sassanids or other difficult opponents. Instead the ERE should be made an ally or protectorate if possible. If they aren't dealt with, however, it's necessary to maintain armies in the Constantinople area and so on to defend against counter-attacks. I'd suggest punitive expeditions and then making them a protectorate. They're a good buffer zone. Perhaps one province east of the Bosphorus could be a good base to have.
c. the WRE - it's necessary to attack them because you need Rome. They'll have plenty of trouble from all their wars, so they should be easy to strike, and methodically conquering their settlements one by one should be possible. The problem might perhaps be if they're so weakened that the other barbarians are strengthened and end up threatening you. I suggest conquering mainly the eastern parts of the WRE, and not touching the rest of their empire. In order to get the needed 16 provinces, you can go into the Switzerland area late in the campaign if needed.

[Dubius Cato]

My strategy as Goths is quite different, although it has its own complications. Because I cannot build ports as Goths (?) I started a great trek east, then went south into Armenia, through the Sassanid lands, through the Arabian desert and into Egypt, and finally to Carthage and into the Berber lands. I decided to forge an Empire in Africa, with carthage as its centre city. On the way, I avoided conflict until I entered Egypt and sacked Alexandria. AI avoids war with a four stack horde too, and they didn't dare to attack me on the way. It was quite eerie to see the ERE "escorting" me with full stacks through their southern lands (it was like they knew what I was up too ;) ), but I managed to block them at a bridge and forced them to take a southern ford over the Nile. At that time, I struck Alexandria.

After that, I settled in carthage and attacked the Berbers. During all the time I spent trekking around, the Franks managed to conquer a sizable Empire and already have Rome.

My strategy was: Conquering the Berber cities while at the same time going searaiding undefended cities from east and west empires. With that money, I take on the ERE in Egypt and maybe the holy land/Levant area. The Islands are a target too, as is Iberia. When I had enough provinces, I wanted to go for Rome and Constantinople at the same time and win!

Now I think I will try to attack Italy first, to keep the Franks from winning.

As BI seems to have a completely different balancing than RTR (what I played before) even the Berbers seem to be a challenge now as a Goth horde. I suffered a sizable defeat against them, and lost many horde units and all of my precious foot archers. In the end, I won with a second stack through sheer numbers.

I have the impression that christianity is a must for the goths, as they are short on happiness/health buildings. Which is a pity, as I wanted to go for human sacrifices one more ... maybe I mod the health buildings in.

[teja]

Gothic Way in BI

I did very well with my Goths. I like their units well. My main experiences are that you have to turn into a HORDE after a few ticks. I used the main tips I made for the Frankish fraction which can be found here:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...458#post955458

The key to my strategy is what I called Blitzkrieg above.

It was my goal to avoid the main Horde way west like Vandals, Huns and Sarmatians did. No wonder that I went into Greece. First I plundered Salona and besieged Thessalonica. Some times I travelled apart of enemy Hordes, and plundered some cities several times. I think that I did this with Salona 4 times during the game.
Well behind Macedonia there is not much resistance. It is easy to plunder Athens (I thought about settling in there and move across the water into Italy, but that does not work. Your navy sucks, Rebels rule the sea and you cannot improve navy installations!). So I turned against Constantinople and got a lot of money there.
Meantime other Hordes had overrun the Danube Rivers defension of the WRE and Illyrian. I marched through that lands and plundered the Rebels here and there on my way to Italy. Here the WRE defends Milano very hard, but has only small garrisons in other cities south of it (compare with my Frankish thread). While go into position at Milano, the Vandals came in there too. They fought some WRE units and suffered some losses. I helped them to manage the big WREs packs there too and allied up with them. Finally I was the one that could lay siege at Milano first and the Vandals started unwilling to move to Gaul.
I did not trust them and got right. While I besieged Ravenna, they declared war at me but did not approach me in a reasonable way. I decided to force them out of Italy. I stormed the bridge in the Alps between Gaul and Italy under Vandal fire and took position with an army there. My force was bigger, but the coming Vandal attack used much more men I had at this location. But I defended this bridge well. Due their losses against others and me they had only 2 small packs left. I used a proper cavalry army to pursuit them into Gaul. In several battles I forced them over the Spanish borders where I knocked them finally out.
The war with the Vandals changed my plans. I started to siege Ravenna, Rome and Tarentum while I fought the Vandals. Because I could not make a new home and loose my armies during a hard war. So I delayed this besieging operations several times (breaking the siege and start it again in the same tick). Because I went into Spain pursuiting the Vandals I pillaged Tartassos, Arles and Marseille on my way back, while other small forces pillaged Augusta and Carnutum in the north.
This way I had around 170000 Denari when I finally took Rome, Tarentum and Ravenna in the same tick, starting immediately to build forces.

Huge stacks of farmers and some good units scared away the Sarmations and Huns that tried to come into Italy while I build up. Easy to sack other cities like Milano, Arles and Marseille from the Rebels. This time my initial province Dakia made a rebellion to my favour, but I was not able to keep it and moved my forces out into Macedonia. A rebellion there established the Ostrogoths in Dacia.
Because nobody took the once pillaged areas of Greece and Macedonia I did it with my forces out of Dacia and some reinforcements. Later I took Constantinople with them too, but there was often a problem with Rebels and other tribes at the Balkans.
To improve my purse I made a few ships and snaked into Sardinia and later Sicily to made them become my own. This was a very good move. This helped me to establish trade routes to the Berbers who owned all northern Africa but Egypt and filled my now absolutely empty purse again. I made peace with ERE now, because they had left nothing in Europe. To trade with Berbers and ERE made me strong again. To get the missing provinces for my victory conditions I only had to take over some provinces at the Balkans and Gaul mostly from Rebels, but also from Langobards and Ostrogoths. Nastiest moment was when the Huns tried to come into Italy. Fortunally they fought long and hard before this against the WRE in northern Gaul and kicked the Alamanni out of the game. So their forces still where dangerous but no match for my generals and their proven forces. All my field armies where made in Ravenna, Milano or Rome and had at least 3 veteran points and or silver shields/weapons or both while building. So I killed the Huns Horde and won the game ;)

[CXA]

I have only begun, but have been lucky enough to Horde on turn one and march my way to Rome. I sacked a couple fo cities on the way. I currently own all of Italy and am moving slowly west. Other then the Oster....(sp) I have had no real threats. They have taken over most of WRE and have attacked me with some pretty huge armies. While taking them on on my own land I have taken a smaller army west into their heart and exterminated some weak cites. Use the next turn to repair my whole army then sell ALL buildings. Then march to find the next victim (city). This is slowing them down and I will soon go for their throat. I have been lucky as other Hordes have shown their faces but have yet to march into my land. I really like to keep a good network of towers and spys to keep a good eye on all my neighbors. Money and happiness are good. Waiting to see who the next real threat will be!!

[Franconicus]

I started several tries but was not very successful so far. Maybe s.o. can give me a good advice. You all seem to perform sió much better than I do.

I play vh/vh.

1. I stayed at home building new troops (bandits and speers). The hordes came and went without attacking me. So i took my army and invaded ERE. However, now they had really ugly garrisons and I did not come very far.

2. I attacked the rebel town in the east. I trained new units in my home town for about 5 turns. Then I left both towns and hroded south. I stormed Thessa and layed besiege on Constantinopel. Won both and I settled both. However Cony rebelled and I lost my garrison and peoples there. With only few men and little pop in Thessa I gave up.

3. Next one: I took the rebel town at once. I built wooden walls (advanced at my hometown) and trained some new units. I built a fort at the valley in the east to stop hordes. It worked. They finally came from the south but I gained time. I took my army and attacked the Roman town in the southwest. They sallied and I slaughtered them. They tried to take the town back and I fought another big Roman army. It was not a big deal. But then my home town was attacked by the Vandals. Though I had 4 archers, 2 spears, 1 peasant, one merc HA and two FMs there I could not stand the attack.

So can somebody help me. I am willing to have another try this evening

[Haudegen]

2. I attacked the rebel town in the east. I trained new units in my home town for about 5 turns. Then I left both towns and hroded south. I stormed Thessa and layed besiege on Constantinopel. Won both and I settled both. However Cony rebelled and I lost my garrison and peoples there. With only few men and little pop in Thessa I gave up.

So can somebody help me. I am willing to have another try this evening

When your horde settles down for the first time, the culture penalty in that city is reduced to zero. Therefore it would have probably been better if you had taken Constantinople first, because the cultural penalty in such a huge city can hardly be lowered in any other way.

Bastard Operator

[Vulcano]

My strategy is always horde up turn one. Leave for Rome, sacking everything along the way. Rome is ready for your use when you get there, and there won't be much resistance. Let the other hordes duke it out in eastern europe while you get settled in Italy and Gaul. Since it is mostly steppe hordes you're "fleeing" from, when you get back there won't be much culture penalty.

Goth armies are insanely powerful very quickly. As has been stated, their spears are excellent. Their foot archers are the best in the west. And Goth lancers are pretty good light cav. And here's the thing: you only need a large town to retrain them all--which is pretty much everywhere you're going to fight. This is the key to their power. A balanced force of spears, archers, and lancers can defeat an army with better troop types as long as your tactics are sound. You will almost always outnumber your opponents because of rapid production and retraining. Later in the game, you're going to want some warriors (decent swordsmen), especially for sieges, but I wouldn't bother with horse archers (Goth Raiders have longer range, more firepower, and can stand in melee pretty well). Goth heavy cav is nice, but you'll neeed a huge city to retrain them. I usually don't bother there.

You have to win rather quickly because their building tree is pathetic, otherwise, you will have unrest problems. But given the cheap combined arms forces you can rapidly produce, it shouldn't take long at all, and it doesn't take long. Against other hordes, your foot archers can mow down horse archers with ease, your spears can go toe to toe with any horde spears or cavalry (and screen the archers), and your lancers can crash the sword infantry from the flank. And unlike the other steppe peoples, you can train peasants for heartland garrions, which means more money for more real troops.