Org Mobile Site
Thread: Vandals (BI faction)
Only just started a game with the Vandals, the first thing i did was goin west. I'm just outside the WRE's border at the Danube. Since the amount of non-horde units is relatively small I've planned to cross northern Italy and southern Gaul, and possibly sack one or more cities on the way, but avoiding battles that I don't have to fight, and then settle in Iberia, which should hopefully be more quiet and defendable than Italy. After making sure I can defend myself there, I will first invade Africa, and take Italy last. I'll let you know wether it works.
Welcome Lofman!
Welcome to the forums Lofman!
My plan worked. I sacked Mediolanum and that town in Narbonensis on the way, and once in Iberia I managed with almost no trouble at all conquer all four cities. With an acceptable economy and a strong army, my invasion of Africa was unfortunately delayed due to an alliance I had with the ERE. When going the war against the Berbers, they and ERE signed an alliance before i could assault Tingi, forcing a peace, and I didn't feel like declaring war on them again so soon. Of the hordes the Sarmatians did come, but at that time all they had left was one almost full stack, and one very small stack, so they where promptly defeated. Currently fighting the WRE in southern Gaul, but I'm training an army that I will send directly to Carthage.
Thanks for the welcome. Odd thing, your posts wasn't there yesterday.
Started a Vandal campaign round littlegannon's house yesterday and continued it today. We will be playing it whenever I go round there.
Anyway, we went for a slightly different route. Allied with the Huns, and sacked the Roxolani. Roxolani horde attacked some of our hordes as we left the town. Those two hordes were killed against the 4 Roxolani.
We continued south into the Sassanid territory, sacking as we went along. By Hatra, we decided to cut in and take Antioch. Very poorly fought siege here and lost an entire stack of men. Decided that settling sooner than later would be a good idea. Sieged Alexandria and settled. We then marched the faction leader across to take Cyrene and exterminated the population. Then sent armies across to Crete and Athens. Couldn't make it to Athens cos of pirates and had to turn back. When we eventually got there, we sieged and massacred.
Alexandria rebelled back to the ERE (tried to enforce Paganism
). In Athens, we built an army and sailed it over to take Ephesus. Began to fight the battle, but then I had to go, I only hope that we won. By taking Ephesus, we have a nice little trading square.
By wreaking havoc in ERE, the ERE rebels have appeared and taken almost half of their settlements, and we have caused them amjor problems.
Roxolani horde finally settled in the middle of modern day France and the Huns settled in south France. Goths went for Rome but were beaten and are now standing around with barely enough men (including horde units) to make a stack. The Allemanni and Saxons were wiped out. And the Celts are taking over Britain. More to come...
EDIT: Forgot to say, ERE have been entirely kicked off of Greece, apart from Salona which is looking very lonely over there...
Constantinople is being heavily guarded by a "Thracian Rebel" stack.
Sassanids have more territory than ERE now. Pretty cool.
Anyway, we went for a slightly different route. Allied with the Huns, and sacked the Roxolani. Roxolani horde attacked some of our hordes as we left the town. Those two hordes were killed against the 4 Roxolani.
We continued south into the Sassanid territory, sacking as we went along. By Hatra, we decided to cut in and take Antioch. Very poorly fought siege here and lost an entire stack of men. Decided that settling sooner than later would be a good idea. Sieged Alexandria and settled. We then marched the faction leader across to take Cyrene and exterminated the population. Then sent armies across to Crete and Athens. Couldn't make it to Athens cos of pirates and had to turn back. When we eventually got there, we sieged and massacred.
Alexandria rebelled back to the ERE (tried to enforce Paganism
). In Athens, we built an army and sailed it over to take Ephesus. Began to fight the battle, but then I had to go, I only hope that we won. By taking Ephesus, we have a nice little trading square. By wreaking havoc in ERE, the ERE rebels have appeared and taken almost half of their settlements, and we have caused them amjor problems.
Roxolani horde finally settled in the middle of modern day France and the Huns settled in south France. Goths went for Rome but were beaten and are now standing around with barely enough men (including horde units) to make a stack. The Allemanni and Saxons were wiped out. And the Celts are taking over Britain. More to come...
EDIT: Forgot to say, ERE have been entirely kicked off of Greece, apart from Salona which is looking very lonely over there...
Constantinople is being heavily guarded by a "Thracian Rebel" stack.
Sassanids have more territory than ERE now. Pretty cool.
Vandals are pretty good if you like strategy burn everything to the ground.
I send my diplomats to Sarmatians and sighn alliance and same I do with Goths. My armies moved to the south (on Constantinepoles). In 3rd turn Huns destroyed Roxolani (who became horde) and Roxolani then destroyed Sarmatians (who became horde) and Sarmatians attacked Goths. I choosed Sarmatian side. I had lucky because Huns attacked ERE in Caucaus in 6th turn and in 7th they attacked Sassanids (I can't imagine what they did them).
I send spy forward and with diplomat I bribed few more diplomats. Assasin went with my faction leader. Armies movement - two went forward, two guard rear and faction leader and heir in the middle. Always put armies on bridges. My armies came to Thrace and I blackmailed ERE - 20 000 denarii in two turn. They refused. Faction leader besieged Constantinopoles, heir guard rear, one army was on border (because Roxolanii moved around) and three went to Macedonia and Achae. I sacked all three cities and earned 40 000. In way I destroyed few ERE armies. Then I sacked WR Rebels in Salona and besieged Sirmium with my best troops (ERE had full stuck in Sirmium but they waited 9 turns). I had 60 000. Whole Balkan held Rebels...
I hired few mercs units, sighned alliance with Sassanids and Roxolani who sacked WRE (Noricum and Pannonia) and invade Italy. Rome, Ravenna and Mediolanum are under sieges. WRE seek truce (4 000 denarii in 3 turns)...
I send my diplomats to Sarmatians and sighn alliance and same I do with Goths. My armies moved to the south (on Constantinepoles). In 3rd turn Huns destroyed Roxolani (who became horde) and Roxolani then destroyed Sarmatians (who became horde) and Sarmatians attacked Goths. I choosed Sarmatian side. I had lucky because Huns attacked ERE in Caucaus in 6th turn and in 7th they attacked Sassanids (I can't imagine what they did them).
I send spy forward and with diplomat I bribed few more diplomats. Assasin went with my faction leader. Armies movement - two went forward, two guard rear and faction leader and heir in the middle. Always put armies on bridges. My armies came to Thrace and I blackmailed ERE - 20 000 denarii in two turn. They refused. Faction leader besieged Constantinopoles, heir guard rear, one army was on border (because Roxolanii moved around) and three went to Macedonia and Achae. I sacked all three cities and earned 40 000. In way I destroyed few ERE armies. Then I sacked WR Rebels in Salona and besieged Sirmium with my best troops (ERE had full stuck in Sirmium but they waited 9 turns). I had 60 000. Whole Balkan held Rebels...
I hired few mercs units, sighned alliance with Sassanids and Roxolani who sacked WRE (Noricum and Pannonia) and invade Italy. Rome, Ravenna and Mediolanum are under sieges. WRE seek truce (4 000 denarii in 3 turns)...
Hey all;
Started a Vandal campaign as well; so far it is great fun.
I first moved west to attack Iberia and sacked a cluster of
Barbarian cities east of Vicus Franki for extra coin, and thrust
directly past the WRE barrier past the Pyrenees. They naturally
sent a detachment to follow the Horde, but I served them a
sweet defeat east of Arles. Then I laid siege to Tarracco, Corduba,
and Carthago Nova. Tarraco fell, and then I met a reversal sieging
Carthago Nova. Corduba fell, but the populace was not pleased.
I was getting low on coin, so I moved a stack north, and sacked
Arles, leaving those poor folks in the bronze age. WRE sent an
emmissary seeking a ceasefire, and I argued the fall of Carthago Nova.
Fortunately, I received some elite units, and ~10000 gold. I redoubled
my efforts, abandoned Arles as per the treaty, and attacked
Samarobriva. WRE sent their lapdogs the Berbers to attack Corduba,
but their reversal left a condition of ceasefire as well. FF>> I am
allied with the Sarmatians inhabiting the Aquitane, and I have
taken Aquincum as a base to retake "the horn..."
Oh, I love the smell of a Horde in the morning.
Started a Vandal campaign as well; so far it is great fun.
I first moved west to attack Iberia and sacked a cluster of
Barbarian cities east of Vicus Franki for extra coin, and thrust
directly past the WRE barrier past the Pyrenees. They naturally
sent a detachment to follow the Horde, but I served them a
sweet defeat east of Arles. Then I laid siege to Tarracco, Corduba,
and Carthago Nova. Tarraco fell, and then I met a reversal sieging
Carthago Nova. Corduba fell, but the populace was not pleased.
I was getting low on coin, so I moved a stack north, and sacked
Arles, leaving those poor folks in the bronze age. WRE sent an
emmissary seeking a ceasefire, and I argued the fall of Carthago Nova.
Fortunately, I received some elite units, and ~10000 gold. I redoubled
my efforts, abandoned Arles as per the treaty, and attacked
Samarobriva. WRE sent their lapdogs the Berbers to attack Corduba,
but their reversal left a condition of ceasefire as well. FF>> I am
allied with the Sarmatians inhabiting the Aquitane, and I have
taken Aquincum as a base to retake "the horn..."
Oh, I love the smell of a Horde in the morning.
Although billed as "moderate difficulty", the Vandals IMHO have an easier time than most other factions except maybe the Sassanids. The reason is that the Vandals can get into a position where they only have to fight 1 enemy for a long time (the WRE), and that enemy's options are limited to predictable courses. Thus, it's possible to stick with a grand plan and get into a strong position before things get crazy, by which time you should be able to deal with the changes.
My grand plan had 3 stages, as follows:
1) Create Festung Iberia and grow strong
2) Create a strong navy
3) Conquer my way along the North African coast and eventually take Rome by amphibious assault.
To do this, I immediately marched west, fighting as little as possible. Every time I crossed a frontier, I got the "transgression" message but nobody wanted to fight 6 full stacks all keeping adjacent to each other. I allied with all the Germanic tribes I met along the way, plus the Huns because they came to me, and only sacked 2 rebel villages (Vicus Vandali and Campus Chattii). Plus I fought some brigands who were in the way, and once to help my friends the Alemanni. This was mostly to get a little money and some experience for my princes. This was all accomplished with negligible loss, thanks to overwhelming numbers of horse archers against pretty much infantry-only armies. Important travel tip: Go through Tribus Chattii instead of Tribus Franki, to avoid a bad ZOC chokepoint that can slow you down several years.
Now you're in the WRE. Turn SSE and walk across Gaul. The WRE won't like you, and won't sign any deals due to all your Germanic friends, but also won't attack your imposing horde. Too bad for them, because now is when you turn on them. Divide into 3 columns of 2 stacks each, each column having at least 1 family member, and sack the following places simultaneously: Massilia, Arles, and Burdigala. This not only makes you tons of money, it creates a nice buffer zone between your main target, Iberia, and the rest of the WRE. Then send each column into Iberia along each of the 3 land routes: around both ends of the mountains and through the pass in the middle. As you do so, build forts to block these routes behind you. The best places are where the path leading to them is only 1 lane wide, but there are at least 2 places on the Iberian side so you can always have more reinforcement stacks than the enemy can bring to the assault. Leave some of your non-horde units in each fort, usually the foot archers, so the garrisons won't vanish when you settle down. Which is what you do now.
As you're building up your new Iberian home, things are fairly predictable. The WRE has no bases close to you, thanks to your devastation of SE Gaul, and now has other problems with various Germanic tribes. Thus, land-based incursions are infrequent and limited in size, so you should have no problem holding them off at the forts in the passes. OTOH, the WRE navy totally surrounds you, so you have to worry about amphibious landings everywhere (and forget getting any money from sea trade due to constant blockades). Fortunately, these too generally don't amount to much, more like suppressing brigands than real invasions, so you should be OK against the WRE. However, it's hard if not impossible to stop the war with the WRE. This really isn't a big deal, because it's not that much of a problem, and you're going to be invading them again in the future. But no matter what you offer them, they won't take a ceasefire. This could be due to some alliances still remaining with Germanic tribes, but it also seems that Vandal diplomats are depressingly prone to being "tactless" or worse, so have 0 or even negative influence ratings.
The really interesting thing about Iberia is that it has 4 provinces and you can only settle in 3 before your horde's all gone. So which one do you leave, and how do you deal with it? It depends on what's going on. You need Cardoba eventually, and it's too big a threat to be left intact with the WRE, but it's too big to be occupied profitably. Best to sack it before you settle anywhere, then let it stay rebel while you hold the other 3. I've sometimes lucked into WRE rebels owning, in which case I've allied with them and taken the other provinces. Eventually, however, Cardoba will revolt back to the WRE, and then you have to deal with it. But by then it's much easier to swallow, and your other cities will be well in the black and pumping out troops.
The rest of the game requires naval might. You at least have to cross Gibralter, even if you satisfy the balance of your victory conditions by marching to Rome overland. However, even just crossing to those straights requires considerable naval might. The WRE has a strong navy and there are TONS of powerful pirate fleets out there, too. Thus, you can't transport and maintain an army to Morocco unless you have a strong navy yourself. Thus, build that up before you make the attempt. Don't just build 1 or 2 ships and go for it, because you won't stand much of a chance.
My grand plan had 3 stages, as follows:
1) Create Festung Iberia and grow strong
2) Create a strong navy
3) Conquer my way along the North African coast and eventually take Rome by amphibious assault.
To do this, I immediately marched west, fighting as little as possible. Every time I crossed a frontier, I got the "transgression" message but nobody wanted to fight 6 full stacks all keeping adjacent to each other. I allied with all the Germanic tribes I met along the way, plus the Huns because they came to me, and only sacked 2 rebel villages (Vicus Vandali and Campus Chattii). Plus I fought some brigands who were in the way, and once to help my friends the Alemanni. This was mostly to get a little money and some experience for my princes. This was all accomplished with negligible loss, thanks to overwhelming numbers of horse archers against pretty much infantry-only armies. Important travel tip: Go through Tribus Chattii instead of Tribus Franki, to avoid a bad ZOC chokepoint that can slow you down several years.
Now you're in the WRE. Turn SSE and walk across Gaul. The WRE won't like you, and won't sign any deals due to all your Germanic friends, but also won't attack your imposing horde. Too bad for them, because now is when you turn on them. Divide into 3 columns of 2 stacks each, each column having at least 1 family member, and sack the following places simultaneously: Massilia, Arles, and Burdigala. This not only makes you tons of money, it creates a nice buffer zone between your main target, Iberia, and the rest of the WRE. Then send each column into Iberia along each of the 3 land routes: around both ends of the mountains and through the pass in the middle. As you do so, build forts to block these routes behind you. The best places are where the path leading to them is only 1 lane wide, but there are at least 2 places on the Iberian side so you can always have more reinforcement stacks than the enemy can bring to the assault. Leave some of your non-horde units in each fort, usually the foot archers, so the garrisons won't vanish when you settle down. Which is what you do now.
As you're building up your new Iberian home, things are fairly predictable. The WRE has no bases close to you, thanks to your devastation of SE Gaul, and now has other problems with various Germanic tribes. Thus, land-based incursions are infrequent and limited in size, so you should have no problem holding them off at the forts in the passes. OTOH, the WRE navy totally surrounds you, so you have to worry about amphibious landings everywhere (and forget getting any money from sea trade due to constant blockades). Fortunately, these too generally don't amount to much, more like suppressing brigands than real invasions, so you should be OK against the WRE. However, it's hard if not impossible to stop the war with the WRE. This really isn't a big deal, because it's not that much of a problem, and you're going to be invading them again in the future. But no matter what you offer them, they won't take a ceasefire. This could be due to some alliances still remaining with Germanic tribes, but it also seems that Vandal diplomats are depressingly prone to being "tactless" or worse, so have 0 or even negative influence ratings.
The really interesting thing about Iberia is that it has 4 provinces and you can only settle in 3 before your horde's all gone. So which one do you leave, and how do you deal with it? It depends on what's going on. You need Cardoba eventually, and it's too big a threat to be left intact with the WRE, but it's too big to be occupied profitably. Best to sack it before you settle anywhere, then let it stay rebel while you hold the other 3. I've sometimes lucked into WRE rebels owning, in which case I've allied with them and taken the other provinces. Eventually, however, Cardoba will revolt back to the WRE, and then you have to deal with it. But by then it's much easier to swallow, and your other cities will be well in the black and pumping out troops.
The rest of the game requires naval might. You at least have to cross Gibralter, even if you satisfy the balance of your victory conditions by marching to Rome overland. However, even just crossing to those straights requires considerable naval might. The WRE has a strong navy and there are TONS of powerful pirate fleets out there, too. Thus, you can't transport and maintain an army to Morocco unless you have a strong navy yourself. Thus, build that up before you make the attempt. Don't just build 1 or 2 ships and go for it, because you won't stand much of a chance.
Single Sign On provided by vBSSO