Franks (BI faction)

[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?

[Ordani]

Simple Consolidiation strategy for keeping Vicus Franki:

1: Ally with both Romes, set up trade rights. Ally with any local barbarians you can except either the Allemani or Saxons. Your primarly goal is pushing to the English Channel as soon as possible. I grabbed the adjacent rebel province then immediately turned on the Allemani, trapped their army outside the city and destroyed it, then seiged the town.

The Lombardi and Burgundii seem to want to fight amongst themselves and you can leave them till later. If you can ally with the Lombardi, you are clear to easily annihilate the Burgundii and use the Lombardi as your horde defense. The Burgundii Horde will probably go into Lombardi terrority after you finish them off.

2: Take Vicus Saxones and push east into Burgundii territory. Take the port west of Saxones if Rome doesn't get it first. You now have a huge cash influx from trade with WRE.

At this point you've probably already won the campaign. You can take your time and finished off the Lombardi and Burgundii, although you'll likely end up having to destroy at least one of the Hordes yourself. It's not hard, you have a lot of space to play with in Eastern Europe and plenty of mercenary cavalry.

3: Head into Rome or Britain, depending on who owns what. The Celts or Romano British will eventually attack you if the take Londinium, beat them to the punch and between Vicus Saxones and Londinium you will have all the trade money you'll ever need.

By the time you head into WRE's holdings in the old Gallic provinces, you'll finally have some real melee units in Fransisca Heerbaans, who are some straight up hardcore thugs (their unit response also comically comes out sounding like "X-men!"). Two lines of FH in fire-at-will mode will utterly destroy any opposing line infantry, and you can use the otherwise weak Levy Spearmen as a cavalry screen for your Fransisca wrecking ball. A proper axe toss can easily net you 40% casualties in an oncoming heavy infantry unit and god help any skirmishers.

Your only potential problem will come from armies with a concentrated heavy cavalry (in my campaign I finally encountere the Vandals in southern France and they took out two stacks worth of decent troops before I finally bled them out) but Rome likely won't have more than one of those. Your own Noble Cavalry is decent but simply can not match all the Imperial German Guard or Steppe Heavy Cavalry, which will likely be substantially more numerous if it shows up.

For the coup de grace on WRE, send one force south to Mediolatum (sp) and hold the mountain passes against Roman reinforcements while you clear out France with whatever is left. You have plenty of space to trade for time in the old Burgundii/Lombardi areas should a horde come calling, and while you may lose a lot of battles it's fairly easy to bleed the horde dry befor they get to anything important.

[teja]

Barbarian Invasion - meine HORDEN tipps

It looks that I did a complete different approach to the Franks than you guys did. Maybe because I used to play the Goths before (and won)?

The starting location of the Franks is pretty nice. Romans do not attend to attack you and so do the other German tribes around. I learned by using the Goths that it is only a matter of time until the hordes come and to qualify all the small victories you may get against the provinces around you. You may grow when you make a conventional strategy, but you will come into trouble.

I decided to turn into a horde after a few preparations. You are way ahead of the conventional hordes far in the east (Huns, Vandals und soon Sarmatians). You will invade lands FREE of any horde for a long time.
AI of Romans is to defend some key provinces. I did not figure out any of them, but here there are some:
Trier (Augusta Treverorum), Pannonia, Milano, Salona.. Okay, some are not in hand of WRE, but ERE do similar.

* What do you need to become a proper horde?
It is essential that you have eyes to see when troubles come at you. I started to make 3 additional spies and send them across the river Rhine into the WRE. Because I prefer to use archers (Frankish ones suck) and cavalry, I made 2 archers and 2 cavalry units too. I did not build ANY building, because I will forsake the city soon. While the last units will start to get build, I upgraded all of my units too. Do not bother with Rebels in you flat land, but do not expand the taxes that your city will become rebellious!

After that I made a HORDE and crossed the Rhine to fight WRE. Those meanwhile conquered Frisi and made some small army stacks between Treverorum and the Alamanni. Main goal of a HORDE is to make MONEY and to prevent WRE to fix their initial troubles and become a power once again.
I attacked some of the small roman packs and forced them back (they did not accepted the battle, so why should I?). I laid Siege at Treverorum, but I want to reach inner Gaul and loot whatever is possible!
Because defence around Treverorum is reasonable my leaders pack laid siege at Colonia Agrippa and took it by force (only 3 defending units). My first loot came into my pocked.
Having an eye on Romans packs at the Rhine, I went westwards into Belgie. Most cities behind the front line are only defended by 2-3 roman units. This calls for what I call Blitzkrieg. One important point is that you have to deal with your armies carefully, because with no city you cannot replace any losses.

Blitzkrieg
In Blitzkrieg you do not want to face big enemy armies. You will only fight them when they urge you to do so. If you have a chance you avoid them and destroy enemy cities (and money).
Make a fast vanguard out of 1 family member and 5-6 cavalry units. All infantry of yours is in other armies. Then advance like a caterpillar. The slow armies take care for enemy forces and lay sieges until the end. It is a good idea to safe a bridge from time to time when enemies are near with such infantry armies too. The top of your trek is always the cavalry army.
It works like this:
1st Your spy checks the next city. When defension is small, the city will becomes target.
2nd Using a second spy to check the next city if you think you will need your first spy to take the actual city by storm.
3rd Run to the city with your cavalry army and lay siege at it. This way they cannot build more units in there, what will happens if you need many ticks to arrive with a normal army. You can build some siege improvements, no matter that you have only cavalry. Meanwhile send a normal army that is able to take the city over.
4th When the new army arrives, replace your cavalry army with it. Best way is to add one unit of the new army into your besieging cavalry. In the same tick you move your cavalry army to the next target like told in under 3rd. Move the rest of the infantry army into the old position of your cavalry army. The siege time you used with your cavalry army and the entire siege improvements you had build are safe this way.
5th Continue with the next city.
6th Bring the besieged city down. Either by awaiting the result of your siege or by attacking with forces. Remember: As long as you own no city, you cannot replace any LOSSES. Fight when required, but pass by when possible

I did not bother in making a new home for my people before me getting enough money and bring down any potential enemy around. This way I pillaged ALL Gaul, Spain and Italy. The WRE had only 1 province left (Frisii) at the European continent. In the year 396 my fat purse had more than 200000 Denari while all the areas I pillaged where in the hand of rebels. Finally I made a new home in Italy (like I did with my Goths in the game before).
This had 2 reasons: I handled Italy with care. I was in front of all other Hordes and with my big armies there at any way into Italy they turned north and left me alone. I managed my sieges, so I took all 3 cities at the same tick and my Horde armies disappeared with this. My new home was:
Ravenna
(Temple with 3 veteran points, fully improved city, full barracks and stables)
Rome
(Complete improved city goodies, maximum smithy, maximum barracks, maximum far distance units = Onagers. No longer endless sieges)
Milano
(Temple with 3 veteran points, lots of good improvements, no matter that I plundered it some years before)

This gave me a great position for the upcoming normal build up and conquer phase. I was able to build the best units while having enough money to pay for all needs over a long time. I made some forts at the entrance gates into Italy. This kept enemy Hordes away until I was ready to fight them. Southern Italy in Rebels hands was an easy match. My expansion was into Gaul mainly. If you focus for the south and Spain, you will not meet many enemies first. Only the Vandals I had to kill there.
Using this strategy gave me first a lot of money and keeps WRE most out of my way. Then I found a new, really good improved home (thanks to WRE) for the best units. Due to my pillaging before I had no big enemies close to me over a reasonable period what I used to become a big and proper power.

Check it out, it works!
Sorry when my English is not that great.

[Sand]

Im shocked at how handy it is playing the Franks. Its easier than the Huns position! I just played a fast Frank campaign there, VH/M but autoresolving all the battles just to see how it played out.

I horded straight away and across the bridge smack into Augusta Trevorum. One turn later sacked and split up, two stacks going left to Sambrovia, two taking a detour north to Colonia Aggrippa (?). By turn 3 Colonia was sacked too, and Sambrovia was under threat. I now began a very lucrative operation - blackmailing the WRE for peace. I made 10K for a ceasefire. Next turn I broke the deal, seiged Sambrovia and sacked it. Then we headed south en masse to Avaricarum. Blackmailed the WRE for another 10K. Broke the deal next turn and seiged Avaricarum. Sacked it. Blackmailed the WRE for another 10K (Theyve given me 30K now in 3-4 turns and show no signs of running out of cash). 3 stacks are heading for Burgilda whilst one stack stays to seige Avaricarum.Once Ive sacked Arles and Burgilda Ill take Avaricarum and make it my capital, though who knows, things are going so swimmingly I might as well keep going.

Ive currently got something like 92K in the kitty, and expect to ratchet that up to at least 120K by the time Im ready to settle and more than a few rebel cities between me and my erstwhile barbarian cousins that I can expand into later or use as a buffer zone. Iberia and Italy will soon lie open to me, and and Roman armies from either can be bottled up in the respective mountain passes.

I guess my advice with the Franks would be dont waste time, horde and sack the WRE from turn 1!