Franks (BI faction)

[Severous]

A Frank campaign here:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=77526

Didnt do much. Defended the starting region against all comers.

[rvg]

Personally, on my first turn as Franks I train my second spy in Vicus Franki as well as retrain my meagre garrison.
On the second turn I pack up and head for Rome, sacking everything along my path. Settling in Italy gives me rich, well developed cities that are acquired with absolutely minimal losses: WRE tends to have plenty of troops on the frontier, but its italian provinces are sparcely garrisoned.
With ROme as my capital, I Christianize the rest of Italy, make a whole bunch of paladins and, for the lack of a better word, kick everyone's ass.

[Chlodio]

I'm currently in 385 AD in my Franks campaign. I've taken all of Gaul, some lands in Central Europe as well as Ravenna and Rome. I'm in the process of taking Sardinia and the Iberian peninsula.

I started off by taking the rebel settlements north of my capital, as well as crush the Saxons early on. The fact that they don't form a horde was a nice bonus. Then, the WRE offered me an alliance in exchange for help against the Alemanni. Seeing as they had taken 2 WRE cities I gladly obliged, adding some nice income to the realm.

After taking the Alemanni down, I noticed a full WRE stack near my capital, as well as a captured WRE spy. I preferred not to wait for them to attack first, so I snuck an army of Levies and Axe/Sword Heerbanns around south to take Augusta Treverorum. Taking that city gave me access to the dreaded Francisca Heerbann units.

Another problem arose in the form a Vandal hordes, who seemed keen on taking the lands of the Lombardi. I forged an alliance with the Vandals, and managed to snag a Lombardi town in the process. But, the Lombardi formed a horde, and laid siege to my capital which was left sorely underdefended by a peasant army and some levies. Luckily I had managed to train some Francisca Heerbann, as well as recruit two units of fearsome Graal Knights. My faction leader and heir marched west, leading a poweful army. After some heated battled, the Lombardi were driven away, and shortly afterwards they drove the Goths away.

My attention shifted to the Romans again. The western barbarians and hordes were duking it out amongst themselves. I kept a stack near my border just in case, though, while I continued to drive back the WRE armies. In less than 10 years, I took most of their settlements, but instead of actively occupying all of them, I exterminated the big ones and kept the smaller cities to myself. Many WRE cities rebelled, which turned out to be a mistake, as the WRE rebels proved unwilling to live in peace. Fortunatly I had gained massive amounts of cash, enough to train scores of Francisca Heerbanns and capture the rebellious cities.

The backbone of the WRE was broken. Their empire was divided, and rebellious Romans expanded their lands in the Italian peninsula... so I went after them as well. In a few bloody dieges I took Mediolanium, Ravenna and Rome... and gained the ability to train Paladins and Paladin Bodyguards with silver equipment.

Soon, the WRE will be crushed under my bootheel. The Franks will swarm Iberia and Italy, Sicilia and Africa, and then it's back to the west to crush the Huns and Vandals!

[rvg]

I'd like to mention that Franks have really crummy archers. Hunters are not worth training except as wall garrisons (to burn rams and towers), and perhaps in the unlikely event that you have to face a Hun/Vandal horde in a field battle.
That's about it. Other than those two cases, Hunters are a waste of a unit slot, since their range is short and their arrows can barely scratch even the lowly WRE Foederatii. Commies and Plumsare pretty much imune to Hunter arrows. Levy Spears and Francisca Heerbann will provide Franks with more than enough missile power while shield wall does a very good job of protecting their spearmen from enemy arrows.

[Quintus.JC]

The Franks is one of the easiest faction in BI. The only barbarian faction with the ability to form horde, by the end of the campaign i had all of Gaul, Iberia, Britania plus some additional province in Germania. Rome itself was conquered by the Vandals. thought i'd never see that.

[gaiusmarius8]

When I played the Franks, I killed the Saxons, then took out Lombardi and Burgundii early into their pathetic quibbling. I then took out Alemanni but purposely turned into a horde by the WRE. I then struck hard at home and later shattered WRE all together by taking the Italian Peninsula, Gaul, Spain, Sardinia, and Sicily. I remained to rebuild but I have 2 enemies who are frequently trying to subdue me. Sarmatians who Im beating into my other enemy; Vandals.

[Quintus.JC]

The Franks have an excellent set of troops, very balanced and powerful.

[TKaz84]

I play a mod that allows the Saxons, Celts, and Alemanni to horde. Any suggestions as to handling them?

[ThePianist]

Good overview D3tr. However, you left out a major unit... and the single greatest reason for ANY barbarian faction to convert to Christianity.

And, what other barbarian faction can convert to Christianity? Because I tried one other than the Franks, after destroying the pagan shrine I couldn't build a church.

[Quintus.JC]

I think the Alemanis are allowed to convert to Christianity. Although this prevent the trainning of the powerful Lambord Berserkers. The Saxon are a pure pagan faction. Celts, Burgundi and Lombardi are non-playable, could be played by changing the files. While Goths and Vandals are counted as Steppes. Although they should be Barbarian factions themselves.

[eliterun]

I started a campaign with the Franks before I'd played any total war...this was like 2 years ago, I forget exactly what happened, but I allied with the WRE and took the rebel cities around me, then gradually took the allemanni and the saxons...then I waited around for a little bit and the WRE cities next to me were as empty as tombs, so I quickly took Frisii, Trevorum, Vindelicorum.

So I started a new one today, remembered how easy it was to beat the Romans, and so I attacked the Saxons and Alemanni quickly. got two rebel cities (bribed one), then attacked the romans. only this time they had a bunch of stacks hidden in the fog of war. lesson....toggle fow off ;p

lol, no, just wait for the romans to be pre-occupied, I think I attacked them a little to early (368). Just wait until they're attacked on all fronts.

[Alerion]

Hi

I started a Franks campaign recently and it's fun. I took the army my faction heir had to attack the rebel town to the east (marcomanni) - the army is easily enough to take the town and it gave me income without building more units. I then moved north from there, taking chatii - unfortunately the saxons beat me to frisii. In the meanwhile I built up an army in my capital and when the first son came of age I took him to lead it against the Alemannii and destroyed that faction by laying siege to their town and keeping their faction heir (he had the field army) busy until they tried to sally, but couldn't break my siege.

In the meantime I allied with the burgunds, lombards, saxons and the WRE - none of them has turned their backs on me yet... I know the saxons will eventually have to die, but as for now they are busy, trying to invade britannia (I use toggle_fow from time to time to keep an eye on the world situation, which is great fun, watching the sassanids beat up the ERE and stuff like that ^^).

Then the Vandals arrived and started going after the WRE towns... they sacked the town in Pannonia (cant think of the name right now) and carnuntum. I took Pannonia but then they turned around, because they seemed to be discouraged by the larger piles the WRE sent through Raetia and I decided they were too big of a threat and attacked with my faction heir. Due to using him in almost every battle since the start (also for the occasional rebel slapping which I tend to do with the general alone most of the time (if the rebels dont feature nasty spear units in which case I usually take an archer unit with me) he had already night fighter, which made it a little easier. The vandals only had one general with 4 stars. I attacked him first of course and since I had a decent army by that time I managed to kill him and in the following turns reduced the vandal horde to some family members that tried to stay alive. all that fighting took place in pannonia... I actually wanted to destroy them but then their faction leader somehow slipped into italy and thus the fow and was never to be seen until now...

I sent my army to retrain (since the pannonia town wasnt upgraded enough I had to send them all the way back to vicus frankii) and then returned to noricum to capture the rebel carnuntum (the vandals sacked it, remember) - I thought: "Fine, in addition to my poor towns in the north this gives me a nice roman addition without ever loosing my alliance with the WRE" - well... the turn I laid siege on carnuntum the huns arrived... and the goths arrived... and the sarmatians arrived - idk... i think the huns horded the sarmatians and the vandals had already horded the goths before they went into my sight, but the goths tried to go a little ERE first... well but they came... I had allied the sarmatians while they were still stationary (they asked for it, sending a diplomat - they offered trade rights, map info and alliance - i asked for some money do agree and got it!) - well it seemes they didnt like me for that bargain and somehow they declared war, though they never attacked me (the little diplomacy thing came, telling me they were at war with me, but nothing happened - they went into the east again - just threatening me for my rudeness in the beginning I guess ;) ) - well the huns and goths weren't so nice... after they fought among themselves for the right to pillage my lands (they engaged in a multi stack fight in southern pannonia - the goths lost and buggered off into the south.... probably too beaten up to bother the ERE... we'll see) the huns marched north, ready to be met by my field army that had abandoned the siege of carnuntum... there I am right now - my faction heir full of scars, command stars and influence, sporting an Ego that would shame Elvis with a nice stack of troops facing these bad ass horseman... i fear for him... they have more than one general with night fighter it seems - after saving i tried to attack, but wherever I did, when I turned night on there were still enough reinforcements to outnumber me quite clearly... and I hate these nasty horse archers, especially when I have an infantry strong army... the problem is, the huns not only have them but also pretty nice close combat cavalry that could rip my battle line apart if I'm not careful... my tactic is to keep the battle line in place (using cavalry (my general, raiders... thats all I have for now) as support where the enemy concentrates) to keep my archers alive that could be my only hope to kill off the enemy horse archers - furtunately I have a good amount of these hunters in my army

So, some questions:

1. will shield wall reduce or add to the chance my battle line resists the cavalry charge? I heard that there are cases where it does more harm than good...
2. fire or plain arrows? fire should make those horses run faster, right?
3. I agree the spearmen do their job, but will they have any staying power against huns chosen warriors? (heavy cavalry) or will they simply be crushed, making my archers vulnerable? (I tend to turn skirmish off, since I prefer my archers doing their job instead of running around follishly... if they are in danger I can micro them away myself)

any experiences, someone?

oh yes I also wanted to ask, how I could convert the franks to christianity but since there were a lot of suggestions in this thread already I'll try those out :)

[Quintus.JC]

1. will shield wall reduce or add to the chance my battle line resists the cavalry charge? I heard that there are cases where it does more harm than good...
2. fire or plain arrows? fire should make those horses run faster, right?
3. I agree the spearmen do their job, but will they have any staying power against huns chosen warriors? (heavy cavalry) or will they simply be crushed, making my archers vulnerable? (I tend to turn skirmish off, since I prefer my archers doing their job instead of running around follishly... if they are in danger I can micro them away myself)

any experiences, someone?

oh yes I also wanted to ask, how I could convert the franks to christianity but since there were a lot of suggestions in this thread already I'll try those out :)

1. Shieldwall in theory should have better effect resisting cavalry charge than normal formation, but as you said the result tend to be different sometimes. Shieldwall is essiantially a defensive formation, try them in custom battles and see for yourself if they're reliable or not.

2. Fire are less accurate, but more deadly if hit. I normally stick to plain arrors except when there are elephants around.

3. Some spearmen are weaker than others, from memory I think the Franks gets a relatively poor selection of spears. Their archers are quite useless as well. Their main strengh is their powerful swordsmen and Axemen.

You can convert the Franks to christianity by destroying the local Pagan shrine, then you would be given the option of building a Christian chapel on top of it's ruins.

[Roslagii Keel]

Faction Overview: Franks
A Roslagii Boredom project. This faction has obviously been discussed in detail already, but since I'm doing this for fun I'll write this anyway.

General Overview
The Franks start the game with their own little "Tribus" in germania, crammed together with the Chattii, Lombardi, Allemanni, and the others. The Franks, however, are not content fighting against their neighbours and raiding the romans. They dream of other things, of straight roads and mighty kings, of a realm that will last long and replace the romans as the major power in the west.

The Frankish Army
Franks fight on foot in close formation, and are known for their valor and durability. With the franks, your favorite battle scenario look like this: The enemy are forced to come to you. Your warriors are deployed in a shield wall on a hill. As the enemy charge up the slopes, a hail of javelins and throwing axes further weaken their momentum before battle is joined. After several failed attacks against your shield wall, you unleash your light cavalry on the flanks and paladins in the center, routing the enemy.

Infantry
The franks, like the saxons, train their Levy Spearmen to defend against other infantry rather than form a schiltrom against cavalry. While this makes them relatively steady and reliable fighters, it poses a significant disadvantage to the franks since they have no other spearmen. While durable, levy spearmen often need help from another unit to deal with cavalry. Axe and Sword Heerbanns are steady fighters that complement each other nicely. The sword heerbanns are good all-around fighters while the axe heerbanns are at their best fighting against other units of heavy infantry. In shield wall formation and with decent flank protection, these units are difficult to break. The Fransisca Heerbann is a great supporting unit with many uses, but always coming down to the throwing of those incredibly damaging axes. Compared to the rest of the frankish infantry, fransisca heerbann is an offensive unit that can use warcry before charging home.

Cavalry
Raiders are good for doing the things that only cavalry can do, and very little else. They are on the field to support your infantry, not play heroes. The Noble Warriors are your standard barbarian heavy cavalry - slow moving, headstrong, and deadly. They are best sent at the enemy to distract them when they try to regroup after yet another failed go at your shield wall. Paladins are a special case - tricky to unlock, but fully the equals of the scholae palatine on which they are based. I tend to use them as general troubleshooters so that my general can remain with the infantry. When only the second best will do - send the Paladins instead.

Missile
Hunters are decent archers, but not nearly the equals of lombard archers or the hunters of the saxons (who can often rely on the temples of Ull to equip them with top-notch bows and arrows.) Like the raiders, hunters are on the field to support your infantry. Ballistae and Onagers always come in handy.

Buildings/Technology
This is one of the major advantages of the Franks. Of all the barbarian, steppe, and hun factions only franks can build paved roads. They also have access to all five tiers of farming, and all three tiers of hermitages. The franks are a very efficcient, well fed, and organised faction who can still form a horde when need be. Their tech tree is otherwise the same as most other barbarians.

Diplomacy
Because the franks must control southern Gaul, they often have difficulties making alliances. Southern gaul tends to be the "thrash can" were all steppe hordes end up sooner or later. If you decide to take on your germanic neighbours early in the game the WRE are very interested in any alliance offers, as they will want to take the allemanni out rather than guard the entire border. If you go to war with the saxons or lombardi, and the burgundii have not yet horded, they are usually more than wlling to become your allies. The Allemanni tend to be weak and easily destroyed in AI hands, but if left to grow can pose a significant threat as their armies are more balanced than yours and frequently smart enough to exploit it. In the late game when you control several ports on both coasts, you may be forced to seek trade rights and alliances with such distant factions as the celts and berbers because you are at war with all your neighbours

Campaign Advice
This seems redundant considering the length of this thread. It might be worthwile to not horde early and let some other faction deal with the hordes in gaul before you head for your victory requirements. Because of the neghbouring regions bonus, it is sometimes better to christianize most of your empire all at once. Just make sure there is a lull in the warmaking and that you have decent armies in every city, since you will have to siege, retake and exterminate the populations before you can begin to consolidate christianity. This is the quickest and most bothersome way to christianize the franks, but when it's done it's done and you can focus your attention on traning paladins and other more important issues. Be sure to have a lot of spies out because if you suffer a major horde incursion in the middle of this process you're in a bad spot!

[Thermal]

Nice overview, very good for a new member to do

[Quintus.JC]

In my Franks campaign I just horded on turn 2. Set my direction to Iberia and sacked any city along the way. Got my base at Carthego Nova and started to expand later, found the campaign rather difficult without hording.

Nice overview though.

[Roslagii Keel]

In my Franks campaign I just horded on turn 2. Set my direction to Iberia and sacked any city along the way. Got my base at Carthego Nova and started to expand later, found the campaign rather difficult without hording.

Nice overview though.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it

Taking Iberia sounds like a very smart tactic considering the victory objectives (why didn't I think of that?) I'll definitly try that next time I play the franks. Did you have to chase the Vandals around or did they get bogged down somewhere else? Their hordes can be pretty nasty if they show up with the almighty "bad timing" on their side. In my first campaign I was laying siege to my own cities (hear the word of the Lord!) when the vandals showed up and claimed southern gaul before I could halt their advance. Then I had to spend many turns retaking my cities and drive the vandals into Iberia. At least the citizens were pretty darn christian by then (and a lot fewer...)

[Quintus.JC]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it

Taking Iberia sounds like a very smart tactic considering the victory objectives (why didn't I think of that?) I'll definitly try that next time I play the franks. Did you have to chase the Vandals around or did they get bogged down somewhere else? Their hordes can be pretty nasty if they show up with the almighty "bad timing" on their side. In my first campaign I was laying siege to my own cities (hear the word of the Lord!) when the vandals showed up and claimed southern gaul before I could halt their advance. Then I had to spend many turns retaking my cities and drive the vandals into Iberia. At least the citizens were pretty darn christian by then (and a lot fewer...)

After taking Carthago Nova I started to expand rapidly around the Iberian penisular. After conquering the surrounding provences I decided to consolidate for a little while, building up the backward economic structure left by the Romans, convert all my settlements to Christianity and getting myself a couple stack of army. I pushed upwards into Francia, the Roman garrison was weak and the settlements fell pretty easily. It is then I noticed the massive hordes located around centre Europe; Visigoths, Vandals, Lombards. Vandals pushed themselves into Italy and are pratically eating the WRE alive, Visigoth is wandering aimlessly around Northern Italy, the Lombards occupied all the former Germania. I decided to avoid them and went north and captured Britain; where the Celts still hasn't managed to push the Romans out, both factions were swepped away by my army. Heavy infantry formed the bulk of my army, Swordsmen Heerbaan formed the backbone, Francisca and Axe Herrbaan formed shock infantry, Paladin made the cavalry, spearmen and missile were redundant and unessary, and weak. Lombards and Visigoth eventually pushed into France, forcing me to engage both. I held against the Visigoth while made the offensive against the Lombards to recover my home lands, after capturing Campus Franki the victory condition was met and campaign finished.

[Roslagii Keel]

Nice. I agree that the frankish hunters could use a sympathy hug. Hey I just got an idea! What if I take Vicus Saxones and instead of razing the Sacred Grove/Sacred Circle of Ull located there turn that settlement into hunter training camp!!

[Quintus.JC]

Nice. I agree that the frankish hunters could use a sympathy hug. Hey I just got an idea! What if I take Vicus Saxones and instead of razing the Sacred Grove/Sacred Circle of Ull located there turn that settlement into hunter training camp!!

You can certainly do that, but I might the Franks best stick with what they're good at, suprem heavy infantry and cavalry. What's the point of trying and failing to shoot your opponents full of holes when you can just ran them over with your supreme heavy infantry?

[Roslagii Keel]

Yeah, that's probably true. In TW games, it's easy to go overboard and micromanage yourself back into stone age. Perfectionism is not always to one's benefit.

[Quintus.JC]

Its about balancing the game, few factions in the game could have a perfect unit roster; Saxons are infantry supreme, but lacking in all other areas. Huns are Cavalry supreme, but doesn't fare as good in the infantry bit. With the exception of the two Roman faction and perhaps the Sassanids, all the other factions are either good at this or bad at the other.

[coalition]

Its about balancing the game, few factions in the game could have a perfect unit roster; Saxons are infantry supreme, but lacking in all other areas. Huns are Cavalry supreme, but doesn't fare as good in the infantry bit. With the exception of the two Roman faction and perhaps the Sassanids, all the other factions are either good at this or bad at the other.

What about the Berbers?

[Roslagii Keel]

Yeah, the Berbers are supreme all-around. They could take the Huns without breaking a sweat.

Read my Overview if you don't belive it! The Berbers are my favorite faction in BI, no competition. I'm pretty sure I could take any frank army 1:1 with the berbers... unless they're all paladins.

[coalition]

Yeah, the Berbers are supreme all-around. They could take the Huns without breaking a sweat.

Read my Overview if you don't belive it! The Berbers are my favorite faction in BI, no competition. I'm pretty sure I could take any frank army 1:1 with the berbers... unless they're all paladins.

Well what I enjoy about the Berbers is that there are 300 years ahead of everyone else. (They are Muslims already) I also enjoy watching my own troops getting slaughtered. The Berbers have a strange building roster though, with Militia Barracks been the highest. I doubt the Berbers would win though, the Berbers wear no armour.....they would get crushed in hand to hand.

But seriously it's because they speak like stereotype Arabs.

[Roslagii Keel]

Well what I enjoy about the Berbers is that there are 300 years ahead of everyone else. (They are Muslims already) I also enjoy watching my own troops getting slaughtered. The Berbers have a strange building roster though, with Militia Barracks been the highest. I doubt the Berbers would win though, the Berbers wear no armour.....they would get crushed in hand to hand.

But seriously it's because they speak like stereotype Arabs.

You force me to describe in detail how I would go about defeating a frankish army with the berbers.

First things first, the berbers really are christian! Actually I think only the berbers in Tingi were christian, the rest were still worshiping their desert-spirits and whatnots, but since they're not supposed to be playable CA didn't bother with that.

I also assume that the forces are of equal strength here, as they would be in a custom battle. First, I would deploy my force in two equally large groups: The first group is deployed in the back of my deployment zone, and consist of my general and all the infantry; 2/3 of which are axemen, 1/3 hillmen. The second group is deployed further afield, 1/2 moorish raiders and 1/2 desert cavalry.

As the battle starts, I approach the most cavalry-heavy flank of the enemy with my cavalry vanguard. As the arrows start to fall down on their ranks, the franks will be forced to send out their cavalry since a frankish hunter couldn't hit a desert horse archer even if he was stuck to a wall 20 metres away. I avoid combat and fan out, drawing the better part of the enemy cavalry away from the main body of their army, which I assume consists of heavy frankish infantry. Now i turn my cavalry regiments, including the HA, and charge the enemy cavalry from all directions. Even if there are nobles or paladins among them, outflanking, outnumbering and the surprising effectiveness of moorish raiders in prolonged melees WILL rout and kill the frankish cavalry.

Now I can safely return the cavalry to my infantry line and await the remaining franks. As you said berbers are a joke against franks but now:

1) I have the advantage on the flanks.

2) My axemen ignore the franks' heavy armor. So does the frankish axe heerbann but I have none to ignore!

3) By now the enemy units are a lot more tired than mine.

...but that's just against the computer. Against a human victory can never be certain.

[coalition]

You force me to describe in detail how I would go about defeating a frankish army with the berbers.

First things first, the berbers really are christian! Actually I think only the berbers in Tingi were christian, the rest were still worshiping their desert-spirits and whatnots, but since they're not supposed to be playable CA didn't bother with that.

I also assume that the forces are of equal strength here, as they would be in a custom battle. First, I would deploy my force in two equally large groups: The first group is deployed in the back of my deployment zone, and consist of my general and all the infantry; 2/3 of which are axemen, 1/3 hillmen. The second group is deployed further afield, 1/2 moorish raiders and 1/2 desert cavalry.

As the battle starts, I approach the most cavalry-heavy flank of the enemy with my cavalry vanguard. As the arrows start to fall down on their ranks, the franks will be forced to send out their cavalry since a frankish hunter couldn't hit a desert horse archer even if he was stuck to a wall 20 metres away. I avoid combat and fan out, drawing the better part of the enemy cavalry away from the main body of their army, which I assume consists of heavy frankish infantry. Now i turn my cavalry regiments, including the HA, and charge the enemy cavalry from all directions. Even if there are nobles or paladins among them, outflanking, outnumbering and the surprising effectiveness of moorish raiders in prolonged melees WILL rout and kill the frankish cavalry.

Now I can safely return the cavalry to my infantry line and await the remaining franks. As you said berbers are a joke against franks but now:

1) I have the advantage on the flanks.

2) My axemen ignore the franks' heavy armor. So does the frankish axe heerbann but I have none to ignore!

3) By now the enemy units are a lot more tired than mine.

...but that's just against the computer. Against a human victory can never be certain.

Overwhelming the A.I is one of the ways to achieve victory, providing your troops are above Militia level. Your stragety appears to be effective against armies made of Infantry (That's not to say that there is no cavarly). Berbers do have sucky cavarly too, I mean look at their General stats!
Look closely at the names of the Berber characters, you will find out that they have Muslim names.
Also in a city battle, your in big trouble seeing you cannot use the Cavarly charge advantage.

[Roslagii Keel]

I see you are quite adamant in your conception of the Berbers as a "sucky" faction, so I will not labour further upon the subject. Regarding the fact that Berbers have muslim names, I think it would be quite difficult to find written sources mentioning authentic north african names from the 4th to 5th centuries AD. If the game was historically accurate, the berbers wouldn't be organized enough to constitute a faction. I think they are there to make north africa more challenging for "real" factions to conquer, not because they were an organized nation at the time (which they weren't.) Now I suggest we end this before the moderators find out we're discussing berbers in the franks thread

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Well from what I did read (which isn't much, its like midnight and its all blurry, sorry if this offends anyone) most people seem to have either horded and moved out of Germanica, or tried to go north for the Saxons or south to the WRE. I did things slightly differently. First things first, build up an economy. I took the two rebel cities near me, then stopped to regroup. Then from my capital, I struck down at Alemanni, and wiped their armies out within the first turn. Pop goes Alemanni.

The next thing I tried to do was search for anything that wouldn't get me bogged down in an expensive war. I looked and found several things. Firstly, a WRE city gone rebel south of the river, two rebel cities in northern Germanica, and of course other German tribes. I was also inclined to build up forces around my most eastern cities and strike the Burgundi and the other tribe up north, considering there are no stacks in sight and a poorly defended garrison, easy pickings. This is how far I am so far, only a few cities, but my expansion has been fairly rapid considering my old turtle tactics. I never really gave BI a chance when I got it, but I'm really starting to like this game

[gollum]

A Frankish campaign can be the most boring ever if one hordes immediately and proceeds to Gaul. This is however the quickest route to victory as well. On the way one should take out teh Allemani and the Saxons and then settle in Avaricum or Samarobriva from which he can re-conquer all the cities he left behind including Vicus Frankii, not forgeting the ludicrus Londinium just a short ferry trip accross the channel.

The real enjoyment playing the Franks however (as with other factions that can horde) is to play with the iron man rule, not to horde unless one is really taken over in his last settlement by an enemy.

Then the Frankish campaign can be lots of fun, topsy turvy and occasionally even lost.