I'm still playing my first BI campaign as the Saxons, M/M to get the feel of the game. Default unit sizes also.

The Saxons begin with one lone city, Vicus Saxones, near modern-day Denmark. Nearby is the thinly-stretched Western Roman Empire, Franks, Burgundii, and a very close Rebel town to the SE (Campus Chatti, I believe). Moving on this rebel town within the first couple turns is a good idea, as the Burgundii will likely move on it as well. You have to get there first.

Fortunately, in BI in general you start off with rather advanced facilities. It will take awhile to tech up to your killers: Chosen Axemen and Saxon Hearth Troops. For the first stage of the game you'll depend on Saxon Keels, Levy Spearmen, Hunters, and Saxon Sea Raiders.

Levy Spearmen are a little weaker than Keels but have a larger unit size and another neat attribute: they can throw a javelin before melee. In melee, both the Levy Spearmen and Keels are, well, spearmen, but I haven't had any problems with them: spears seem to stand up to all kinds of units better in BI. Hunters are your archer units, and they come in handy for obvious reasons. Sea Raiders are a lance-armed light cav unit; useful for flanking and rear charges. They can get into trouble though, so don't depend on them for too much. Remember: the Saxons are an infantry-heavy faction. Though they may look like Riders of Rohan, don't use 'em that way.

Once you have Campus Chatti under your belt, you need to decide where to head next. I try to make friends with my neighbouring barbarians. These alliances seem to work much better in BI than in RTW, where the Britons could NEVER stay allied with the Gauls or Germans, and vice versa. I have yet to be backstabbed by any of my barbarian allies so far.

Obviously, the Western Romans are your big adversary. This is where much of your lands will come from. The question is, do you conquer down the coast toward Brittany, or immediately set sail for England? In my campaign I opted for the latter (I was impatient to see if the Romano-British would appear), and I built the first boat I could make, trained up some Chosen Axemen and Hearth Troops (taking 7 turns), and sent my 23-year-old faction leader out to sea from Vicus Saxones.

Now, this is important: Rebel boats are thick as flies in the north sea/English Channel, and these pirates are *Very* dangerous. Especially when you face them in dinky little Boats. Halfway to England, my faction leader and all my bright, shiny new troops were sunk to the bottom of the sea.

So if you want to invade England quick, watch out for those pirates. March your army down the coast and send a boat to meet up with them to ferry them across the channel quickly. Even better, conquer the closest West Roman town to the SW (between Samarobriva and Vicus Saxones) and stage the conquest from there.

Although the WRE doesn't seem to have a large standing army, they do tend to bulk up their garrisons when feeling threatened. Once my Saxons took London (exterminated the extremely unhappy populace), I set my sights on Eburacum and started training some fresh troops. I also allied with the Celts in the hopes that they'd help me out. But the WRE quickly began training in Eburacum: they went from 1/4 of a stack to more than a full stack before I felt my troops could handle it. Quite the arms race! Expect to see the AI "bulk up" like that when it's afraid you'll assault its town.

By the time I sent my army north, there were numerous single-stack parties surrounding Eburacum and the woods nearby. I simply punched my way through these, forcing them to retreat, until I lured the WRE garrison out of town (the full stack showed up as a reinforcement army when I attacked one of the tiny parties). Chosen Axemen and Hearth Troops against Foederati and Limitanes(sp.) is basically no contest. I was able to crush the army and move into town.

Of course (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!)


this is the point at which the Romano-British faction emerges. When Eburacum fell, a blue stack appeared halfway between that and Londinium. I was expecting a bit more, and probably will see more units at a higher difficult level, but these were enough to cause me a headache. My only general in Britain was in just-conquered Eburacum, which had hardly any troop facilities. The small garrison I'd left in Londinium was led by a captain. Londinium fell when the Romano-British assaulted it 2 turns later. Watch out for these guys: they've got some nice heavy infantry and usually quite a few warlord-type cav that can give your footmen a headache. Fortunately I was able to retake Londinium with my general and wipe out the faction next turn.

At this point you'll be wondering: should I continue pushing north/west and wipe out the Celts, or drive south and finish off the WRE? The Saxons need to hold Vicus Saxones, Londinium, and Samarobriva in order to win; but they also need 18 provinces. Since you're already at war with the WRE, it might be a good time to consolidate the lands in France before other barbarians get greedy.

In my game, I fussed around a bit too much and before I knew it the Goths and Vandals had relocated to southern France, and the Sarmatians were knocking on the Franks' door. Those hordes can move! So be ready for it and try to grab as much land as you can before they show up.

Sometimes you'll get lucky. I had a general with a half-stack parked on the mainland, waiting to ambush for several turns, when I noticed that the WRE had left Colonia Agrippina COMPLETELY abandoned! I took my hidden army and was able to march it in through the gates and take the town without a fight.

Unless you want to fight your fellow barbarians, you'll probably be taking over much of France and a bit extra in order to get your 18 provinces. Even if you act fast, you'll likely be at war with more than just the WRE to do this. That's where I am in my game now: I grabbed 4 towns off the WRE on the mainland, but the rest of Gaul is split between the Goths, Vandals, and who knows who else. My endgame scenario, once I take out the Celts, will involve fighting lots of separate factions and dealing with hordes in my push to northern Italy. Not the cleanest way to do it, but you don't have much choice.....

Will write more when I finish. Just wanted to get things kick-started!

CountMRVHS