Franks (BI faction)

[frogbeastegg]

Guide.

[Craterus]

I'm going to start a Frank campaign as my first, would anybody like to join me?

Oh yeah, I got BI!!! Should be installing later, or tomorrow.

[Theodoret]

Perhaps not a definative guide to the Franks, seeing as I only got hold of the expansion a couple of days ago. More a starting narrative.

The Franks have a starting position both good and bad in equal measure. On the up side, they are some way off the beaten track for Vandal and Hun migrations. On the down side they are close to the heartlands of four Germanic tribes (Saxons, Burgundians, Alemanni and Lombards) which sets the stage for early conflict.

A quick look at the appendices of the game instructions told me that the Saxons are going to be aiming for more or less the same lands (France and the Low Countries) as I am. Therefore I decided that the Saxons were to be the first to die.

I reinforced the army I began with and waited for the Saxons to send an army away from their capital. At the same time I began setting up agreements with my other neighbours to try and discourage any attacks from them. Its worth investing in better walls for the Frankish capital early on as it is fairly exposed.

Once the Saxons were merrily laying siege to the settlement in Frisia, I sent my army north to attack their capital, and took it before their expeditionary force could return. A few turns of consolidation and the Kingdom of the Franks had expanded to contain Saxony, Jutland and Frisia.

Meanwhile the Burgundians and Lombards were engaged in an indecisive conflict, so I began to plot the downfall of the Alemanni. Unfortunately, some wannabe Caesar posted on the Rhine decided to send the Roman Legions to attack me, causing a sharp shift in policy. I had hoped to absorb the weaker Germannic tribes before driving westwards. As it was, I was forced to set my armies against superior Roman numbers.

The Roman army isn't what it once was - think Hastati backed up by archers and town watch. The Frankish host on the other hand is rather effective. The Frankish levys by themselves are no match for Commitates, but they make an effective anvil. Their javalins combined with spears make them rather dangerous to cavalry, and they are very durable formed into a shield wall. The other key element to the early game Frankish army is raider cavalry. Okay, they aren't cataphracts, but they are cheap enough to take in quantity.

Fighting the Romans proved easier than I had feared. They had no cavalry to speak of, so I was able to outmanouvre them break up their battle line and defeat them piecemeal.

Sieges however, are a different matter. The Romans seem to have been continually adding layers to their city walls over the last 363 years, and the Franks don't start out with much in the way of siege troops. Augusta Vindelicorum was my first target. I hired some vetenary legionnaries to give my army some assault punch and used these to scale the walls and tie up the defenders whilst I rushed levy troops through a sapped breach in the wall and to the town square. The main problem with Roman cities in Gaul is the size. It takes ages to get to the town square, all the time being peppered by arrows. In later sieges I used swordsmen and axemen, but I am coming to the conclusion that levies are the best choice to assault as most of your casualties will come from the arrow towers and they don't seem to distinguish much.

What surprises me about the Romans is that once you have crossed the Rhine, its fairly easy going. I made sure that I kept on advancing, as the Roman cities are big enough and advanced enough to produce pretty decent armies if given the time. Gaul is full of mercenaries, so reinforcements are not so great a problem as you might expect. I suspect that if things got more exciting on the Eastern front, then defeating the Romans might be more difficult. I was lucky as the Burgundians and Lombards were at each others throats all the time, and the Alemmani had problems with migrating Sarmatians.

I currently hold all Gaul, along with my Germannic possesions, and I'm preparing my invasion of Britannia. I also need to evict some Sarmatians who seem intent on setting up home in my lands.

Quick summary:

Thin out the ranks of your neighbouring tribes at the outset.
Fortify your cities.
Use levy/cavalry combinations to smash the Roman frontier armies.
Expand rapidly into Gaul before the Romans can pump out new armies.
Use levys to do the fighting in sieges.

[Craterus]

Well, you started out much the same as I did. I've got the stone wall queued in after Weaponsmith, Hall of Heroes and Cavalry Stables (not sure of exact name of the cav suppliers)

Anyway, my plan is to take the Saxons, and then launch an invasion through the land-now-known-as-Belgium (a la Schlieffen) and maybe send an army or two over the channel while I take Northern France.

Hearing that barbarian alliances tend to hold strong, I have made an alliance with the Alans, and I hope they'll keep to it as I have sent most men up to deal with Saxons. After 3 turns, I came to a battle, and then the CTD. So no more play for a while

[Garvanko]

Interesting to see you both go for the Saxons straight away. I took a different track.

Merged my Heirs army with the Leader (and retrained them to +3 exp) and went straight across the bridge for the WRE (well I waited till their full stuck went AWOL down south) - I think there was an early rebellion so that helped matters. Quickly took the city then, even more quickly, struck a ceasefire, which the WRE held, while I built up my forces for two other surgical strike on their fortresses up north. Waited again for their full stacks to wander off before I attacked first with my spy at the city above, then with saps on Sambrobriva. Both fell within four turns.

I should mention that I allied with Allemani early to keep my southern border at Vikus Gothi (My starting city) protected. Since Barbarian Alliances hold, it was a necessary strategic decision.

Sambrobriva fell on retaliation, but I wiped out most of the invading army, and was able to retake it a turn later with a relief force I sent up just in case. On the way I recruited a unit Graal Knights for a whopping d2k. I now hold 4 settlements.. I'll probably consolidate up north into Saxon territory and Britain, before I strike south again against the WRE.

The Franks have an excellent upgrades, and their starting city produces exp 3 units. Very, very handy.

PS. Those Comits... Damn them!

[Craterus]

Hmmm, strange that no-one went for the Alemanni, or is it that everyone else feels they aren't worth bothering with?

My reason for not going after WRE is because I want to see it crumble without the help of a human.

I'm playing without pause (wherever possible) and no "toggle_fow" except maybe to see how the Sassanids are doing etc.

[Garvanko]

Romans in my campaign are really taking a beating. ERE has lost Constaninople to rebels. Heaven knows what the Sassanids are doing to them! WRE is struggling against the Brits, Berbers, Saxons, and my Franks.

Saxons just upped the ante a bit on my northern frontier..

[The_Doctor]

I started the game by building a christian temple to upset the population.

Then on the next turned my people into a horde.

On the second turn the Lombards took tribus franki, only to discover a rather angry population, they lost the city and a large stack of rebels appeared to protect it. This was a part of my plan.

I then destroyed the Alemanni and Saxons, and sacked all the cities in Gual. I then took Burdigala, Arles, and Massila(sp), all fleshly sacked.

The Roxolani took Avaricum and Samarobriva.

I was attacked by the Huns, but because of the stupid AI I killed ~4000 of them in seige. Fried Huns.

The Burgundii took Tribus Franki, and the city revolted, again. But this time the rebels joined me. So I rebuilt the pagan temple to stop the happiness.

I have now built a large army and am invading the Burgundii, who rule the Frisii, Saxons and Chatti.

[darsalon]

Hmmm, strange that no-one went for the Alemanni, or is it that everyone else feels they aren't worth bothering with?

Haven't gone after the Alemanni myself to my huge regret. Tactic I have used is to hold on to Vicus Franki (sp?) and go after the WRE myself. I think the Romans were distracted by something else going on as I was able to walk into the majority of the cities almost uninvited after defeating 2 minor field armies in Gaul. Saxons have proved to be treacherous swine after breaking an alliance but, considering their target aims that didn't surprise me.

As for dealing with hordes well, I haven't had to really until late game as they simply passed through for pillaging the romans. In a couple of cases they've sacked settlements and I've mopped up after them. For me it's dealing with the hordes of Alemanni that are set on my blood. I have them bottled up in the Italian peninsular at the moment but given the riches there it's going to take a while to get them down to a level to make any progress

Franks, as expected, have decent infantry units that are able to hold the line against most other nations except the saxons possibly where I had a couple of close battles and, shock horror, a defeat against them before just overwhelming them with a comparitive tidal wave of people. Even your basic levy spearmen are reasonable with a little bit of backup. Oh yes and get the noble warriors as well as they're pretty good against most of the other barbarian style cavalry you'll meet. Just don't rely on them as your primary attack.

[The_Doctor]

Welcome darsalon

I discovered that the Franks have to convert to Christianity in order to get paladins. They are availabe at the monerstary and get an experience upgrade at the abbey.

[Garvanko]

forget it.

[Garvanko]

ditto.

[Garvanko]

forget it.

[Garvanko]

again, forget it.

[Garvanko]

Wow! My franks campaign has turned into a real dogfight. The Saxons have been throwing stack after stack at me with no end in sight, and all their armies have units full of 6xp infantry and sea raiders. Battles have been fun, but the balance has been tipped by my newly acquired noble cavalry and heerben infantry.

The Lombardi have broken alliance and attacked Vikus Franki. Full stack. My garrison is full of 3xp peasants, so I hope it can hold in case they attack next turn before my big army can arrive to support.

toggle_fow has revealed a roman empire crumbling in the face of huge vandal and hunnic hordes. The ERE has been kicked off Greece, and are heavily involved in a murder-death-kill scrap with the Sassanids. The WRE can't seem to stop the tide of Berbers, Vandals and just about everyone else. Indeed, all the barbarian factions seem to be doing well and expanding, which should make the later game very interesting. The Vandals look like they'll be passing my way in about ten years. Unfortunately, Im piss-poor, and in no proper shape to take them on alongside the Saxons, WRE and the Lombardi.

Bring it on.

[Franconicus]

Started my campaign last night and here are my first impressions.
You have the Romans on the other side of the Rhine and you have all the other Barb factions on the other side. As far as I see there are three possible strategies:
1. Attack and unify all Germanian tribes. This is the nationalistic approach. However, Germanians were not nationalistic then. And you may have to deal with many wandering tribes including Huns. This may cause a lot of fighting but small gain.
2. Attack the Romans. Their cities are big and rich. And your final targets are in Gaul.
3. Pack your bags, move the complete tribe and invade Gaul.

I chose number 2. (Maybe 3 is more fun. I'll try next time.) I attacked the Roman town right in the west of my home (I guess it is what we call Trier today.) I started the attack as soon as most of the garrison had left the town. They came back and I took the town. Great city with stone walls. Then the Romans came to me and begged and payed for peace. All right! So I turned and attacked the Allemani. I also strengthened the walls of my home town. Now I am ready to start a new attack against the Romans.

What is new?
The towns are bigger than in the old Rome game. This gives you a better start. However, there are so many barbarian competitors that it will be challanging.
Is AI smarter? Maybe! When I attacked the Roman town ther was only the FM inside the town. Several spear units and one archer unit were outside. The gates were open and I started to dig a tunnel to get another entry. The troops outside the town marched to the town but turned before they entered to face my right flank. I had to stop the digging to build a defensive line. I send one levy unit through the gate. They managed to reach the centre, although they lost 100 men in arrow fire. I placed the at the corner of the place and expected the FM to attack. But he withdraw, the place was mine. When I thought that they all run their infantry from outside came in and entered the city centre. I send all the rest of my army to attack them. To my surprise two spear units left the place and tried to hide in the narrow streets. When I attacked the place they tried to flank me. Never saw such thing before. Nevertheless I took the town. There were no Roman survivors.

[Franconicus]

double post!

[Franconicus]

double post!

[Franconicus]

[Alexanderofmacedon]

I'm not even completely finished with my un-expansionized version (I know it's not a word)! I really need to get going, and I need to save money for new computer parts anyways.

I need new computer parts and BI, but not enough money!

[g3n]

I was impressed with being able to use the Paladins and Paladin Bodyguard with the Franks, gave me a taste of the Medieval times during a Dark Age setting .

[Franconicus]

[Dub]

Hey All,

Read these posts with great interest. Got BI just a few days ago and, for some reason, chose the Franks as my first path to glory. It's going well.
Currently it's about 395, I hold 15 provinces stretching from Vicus Franki outwards to the west and south, and I just took the first of the three "homelands" that I need for ultimate victory. Bulgirida and Arle (hmmm, don't have those names right, but perhaps you know what I'm talking about: the central and southern home-cities for the Franks) are next up to go down, though they are guarded by large-sized Roman armies and I'm stretched a bit thin.

Anyway, I started off by going slowly and carefully: made an alliance with the Allemani on the first turn, then over the next few turns poked around to the east and took the two rebel towns (Vicus Marcomanni and... the one just south). At that point, apart from sending out diplomats and getting everybody and his brother to give up trade rights (and I got a few alliances along the way too: with the Lombards and Huns), I just looked around... plotting... planning... I watched the Allemani and Western Romans go at it...then eventually struck Vicus Treverorum and Colonia Agrippa while the Romans were distracted... I also took Conuntrum to the south... Note that nothing much was happening north and east of me: the Burgundii and Lombardii were duking it out, the Saxons were beating up on rebels, the Huns and Vandals and Sarmatians kept finding and losing homelands (I was never threatened by any of them, though thought I would be -- I turned off fow on occasion to check on their progress and look around elsewhere: it's an amazing sight to see those multi-stacks wandering around!).

I next moved west to Samarobriva and north to Frisia (the coastal city in Belgica) and then eventually into modern Denmark, because the Saxons had decided they could take me on...but couldn't. I also moved into the Italian peninsula after securing alliances with the Vandals and Sarmatians (who had both found homelands by that point). For better for worse, I turned next on my allies, the poor Allemani, whom I basically surrounded at this point, thus they needed to go. (Couldn't have them stabbing me in the back, now could I?) To my credit, I sent a diplomat the turn before I attacked them, cancelling our alliance. The next turn their only two cities were mine.

Since then, it's been a gradual move west and south: I've taken Ravenna and am laying siege to Roma. My homelands are within my grasp, as I mentioned. A great first campaign, which has gone easily, I'd say.

In sum, here's my advice: lay low, be opportunistic, move south and west -- the riches are there.

Cheers, Dub

[Dub]

Some other information that would be helpful, I s'pose:

I'm playing on M/M difficulty. I've mainly utilized Levy Spearmen and Raiders throughout my campaign, with a healthy dose of Hunters, though am starting to replace the former with a mix of Axe and Sword Heerban. Noble Warriors (advanced horsemen) are too expensive for me to make much use of yet. I've done a lot of assassinating to good effect, cutting down most of the diplomats and all of the assassins that wander into my countries. Spies have opened many of the city gates for my attacking armies. I typically exterminate the populace of captured towns. It's bloody, I know, but it's lucrative, and I'm a barbarian, after all.

[Craterus]

Hmmm, in the turns before I needed to battle I went for the rebel provinces to the north, but was beaten by the Saxons and the Lombards.

So, at this point, I went towards Colonia Agrippa (?) but that was guarded by a full stack (including Comitatenses) and so I went for the one south and laid siege. Then a stack and another half stack appeared from nowhere. They attacked so I withdrew, only for them to chase me. So it was a stack, a half stack and the garrison vs. my half stack.

At this point, I got the CTD, but I assume I would have won/marginally lost that battle because the odds were apparently even (the half stack and garrison are poor troops).

But anyway, I been enjoying this campaign so far, I just hope I can sort the problem out.

[Garvanko]

For some reason Vicus Franki is an magnet for Spies, Diplomats and Assassins.

[Craterus]

That could be why the public order is so low. And I am really low on cash and I need to take a town. But I can't 'cos of the all-knowing Romans.

Oh yeah, and my second son is a Christian?! Should I build a church in Vicus Franki? My two starting characters are to the west.

[Garvanko]

Horde and move west. Otherwise you'll be seiged turn after turn by Romans, Lombardi, Saxons, etc. The Franks starting position is strategically weak. Vicus Franki is a death trap.

[Franconicus]

I invaded Gaulat once (+ the Allemanii). I played strategy: vh and battles: m because that seemed to work best on ROME. It was too easy to beat the Western Romans. One or two field battles where I easily bate bigger armies. Their towns are usually defended by a family member only. Only thing that slowed my conquering down was the (un)happiness of the population. Do not have a perfect solution for that. After having conquered half of Gaul plus Augusta Vindelicorum I almost quit, because it was far too easy. Then the Saxons attacked my home town. I coul beat them! At once there was an Burgund army trying to do the same. My army from Augusta Vind. had just reached Mediolanum when I saw the first hord (Vandals). I took Med at once and then they hit me. Two armies with 2,000 - 3,000 men each tried to attack my new town. For haeven's sake I had stonewalls and lots of archers so I could destroy the ram and tower they had and killed thousends of them. But the game is really beginning to challenge me.
What is your experience?
Arghhhh! Made a terrible mistake. My setup is without time limit. Now Mediolanum was sieged by three Vandal armies with 8,000 men in total. Only one army had siege equipment (two towers and two rams). I still had lots of archers and managed to destroy the rams and one tpwer. However, the remaining tower could not be damaged by my fire arrows, regardless how many I fired at it. So one unit of Vandals after the other climbed up the latters and was killed by my guard or sword ban. Then the next one came. Due to the number of Vandals and the distance the units had to go this was a never ending story. After 2h I broke up (it was 12:pm and I had to go to bed). So I lost this beatiful town.
Ergo: Always play with time limit!

[PseRamesses]

Arghhhh! Made a terrible mistake. My setup is without time limit. Now Mediolanum was sieged by three Vandal armies with 8,000 men in total. Only one army had siege equipment (two towers and two rams). I still had lots of archers and managed to destroy the rams and one tpwer. However, the remaining tower could not be damaged by my fire arrows, regardless how many I fired at it. So one unit of Vandals after the other climbed up the latters and was killed by my guard or sword ban. Then the next one came. Due to the number of Vandals and the distance the units had to go this was a never ending story. After 2h I broke up (it was 12:pm and I had to go to bed). So I lost this beatiful town.
Ergo: Always play with time limit!

Happened to me too. I just left the game, went to sleep and in the morning the battle was over. My 4 inf units, 2 on each side of the siege tower drop off and on guard-mode had killed 3.300 men!!!