Franks (BI faction)

[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!

[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.

[Vincent Butler]

Alemanni aren't worth going after, one more target for Romans, can't really retrain units, not in good money spot.

[PseRamesses]

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

That´s usually my first priority. Take the Alemanni capitol will eventually spawn one of the three "dormant" factions - hopefully the RB´s or Slavs.
I start my WRE-war by taking the city south of the Alemanni capitol and then move north to take A.T and C.A etc until all of "France" is under my rule. From my capitol I send new units in the same trail as my original army. This way I can reinforce my fort in the alps and hold off any WRE incursions.
With all of France under control you can easily stop the Saxon incursions at the three river-crossings bordering them (if you let them take the two rebel towns south of them). At this point I hold the three river crossings north, the three mouintain passes towards Italy so the only opening is the eastern front but that´s not a worry. With 6 archers in both C.Franki and C.Alemanni you can soak up any incursions fron the east. Now I usually take Iberia and get my empire up to 14 provinces. Pushing the Saxons out of the two former rebel towns in Germany plus taking Italy will get you the 20 provinces needed to win.
I´ve played the Franks both as pagan and christian but prefer the later since I cet the uber-unit: paladins.

[Craterus]

That´s usually my first priority. Take the Alemanni capitol will eventually spawn one of the three "dormant" factions - hopefully the RB´s or Slavs.

I don't think the RB's will appear by something happening over there. I thought it happened if/when the Saxons go to Britain

[PseRamesses]

I don't think the RB's will appear by something happening over there. I thought it happened if/when the Saxons go to Britain

You´re right. I meant the Ostrogoths and Slavs. Thx for pointing that out. RB only emerge as a result of any faction taking Eburacum and Londinium.

[Craterus]

You´re right. I meant the Ostrogoths and Slavs. Thx for pointing that out. RB only emerge as a result of any faction taking Eburacum and Londinium.

I believe that the Ostrogoths emerge during a Goth civil war, like the ERER/WRER. Goths are the only other faction where generals have loyalty, and are therefore capable of civil wars.

So it must be the Slavs. Maybe someone could check this though?