Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

[Sleepy]

I had a loyalist revolt to my side - the rebel city in the north east (can't remember its name). Anyone else experience this. Was pleasantly surprised, especially as the Sassanids were seiging it.

Seems to be a constant in ERE campaigns, it happened to me and to the poster above you.

[Garvanko]

Damn hordes!

Had to give up Constantinople and Thessalonica. Basically i walked out before the Goths came in (huns and vandals were fast behind them). I did manage to shift two full stacks across into Asia Minor, and hope to use them to consolidate my growing powerbase in the east.

I can't get an Alliance with anyone. Im playing H/M.

[ShadesPanther]

Seems to be a constant in ERE campaigns, it happened to me and to the poster above you.

Well I completed a campaign and it happened and then in my latest campaign. It occurs when the Sassanids take the city

[PseRamesses]

Well I completed a campaign and it happened and then in my latest campaign. It occurs when the Sassanids take the city

It happens when they take it and can´t keep enough of garrison units to keep order. Kotais has a majority of christians and a shrine so it will take a lot of units to do that. The problem is that the AI doesn´t ever raise any buildings.

[King Ragnar]

Well in my campiagn money as hit an all time low and im having to withdraw all forces from the outskirts of the empire following a scorched earth policy, the Sassinids, Goths, Huns and ERE rebels are making this really hard.

[Furion]

Here is what I did with the eastern Romans...

First things first; the migrations. Build up forts to the danube crossing places so that the enemy will be slowed down by the fort, which the enemy has to besiege or assault in order to cross the river. Fill the forts with 2-4 units of limitanei (or more, I don't care) and then build a Comitatenses army (in the historical sence), which should be rather diverse in tactics (archers, comitatenses, cavalry). Also, build up highways to the frontier provinces so that your army can move faster to counter the migration (horde) that is besieging the fort(s) on the river crossings. I found this tactics to be highly, uh, profitable, since I needed only one army to protect the border, and I did so with relative ease. Once you've done this, you can center your resources to conquer the Sassanids.

Build up alot of trade facilities, education, docks, etc to increase your economy. If you have alot civil disorder, in Jerusalem or other cities for example, move your capitol more to the center, to Ancyra, for example.

The Illyria will probably revolt from the West, so take it.

[Magraev]

The Eastern Roman Empire have a very nice set of troops and excellent income. Very nice archers are a great asset backed up by lanciarii, comitanenses or even better plumbatarii. The cavalry are only worth it on the highest level, so make a city go straight for the Circus maximus - you won't be disapointed in the power of your heavy cav. The lower level cav are way overpriced (except maybe some dromedarii to fight clibanarii, but they'll drop like flies). Buy mercs instead - especially north of the danube. I'd advice around 6 archer-units in a full stack to fight the hordes - the same or a little less against the sassinids.

I started with the total disbanding of my navy except for the two unique ships (decere + corvus iirc). As soon as I could Limitanei were disbanded and replaced by peasants. Eventually several cities will need 20 peasants for garrisons - grr. Go fully christian immediately. As soon as the greek cities are under control move the capitol to Ancara - especially when you (hopefully) start taking the Sassinid towns.

Your success depends on two things - smashing the Sassinids and averting the hordes. Bridges are excellent for this task, but often a mountain pass will serve the same purpose. Try to ally with the vandals - they helped me beat the Goths north of Thessalonica. Don't expand in the balkans - leave that for the hordes and the WR-rebels.

In my game the huns pushed the sarmatians into horde and settled on the plains, the vandals pushed the goths into horde (and left for rome, but are too weak now to take it i think) and I exterminated the goths. The Sarmatians are fighting the germannic tribes now.

You should probably only use the emperor and his heir in your major wars. The other generals will get disloyal very soon with some victories and have to be put on ice. The battles against the goths turned a 4-loyalty trusty general into a 0-loyalty backstabber in a few years.

[Garvanko]

My ERE campaign is back on track. Although I lost Constantinople (Goths) and Thessalonica (ERER), it did allow me to focus fully on the Sassanids. Cestiphon has proved a tough nut to crack, though Im progressing well, having finally taken Hatra, and am currently sweeping through the Sassanids northern frontier.

Don't you just love Eastern Archers and Merc Alan Horse Archers?

[Trithemius]

Well I completed a campaign and it happened and then in my latest campaign. It occurs when the Sassanids take the city

Mostly because the Sassanids aren't especially bright - when I played as the Sassanids I garrisoned the place heavily and had no problems, but in my ERE game its revolt made me go to war with Sassanids after I had fought them to a bloody standstill in and around Cteisphon.

I assume it is because the government building in Kotais is Roman culture that it happens; I guess the culture determines loyalty since I when I was playing as the Sarmatians and raiding, looting, and abandoning cities, a lot of them rebelled and went back to the WRE (which was a pain since it forced me to go to war with them and broke my lucrative trading deals). It's a pity there is no option to "install client rulers" in a city you don't want to govern (make it a neutral city).

[Afro Thunder]

Mostly because the Sassanids aren't especially bright

Obviously you mean that in the figurative sense of the word, not the literal meaning!

[Trithemius]

Obviously you mean that in the figurative sense of the word, not the literal meaning!

Yes, yes. :P

It seems the Sassanid faction leader is making his way past my border forts to Caesarea, alone.
I have been letting him amble along and kept my field armies out doing their thing; I have recruited some cavalry as "chasers" in case he actually besieges the city.

[Watchman]

The Sassanids really do seem to have a bit of an obsession with Caesarea. Personally, I just annihilated all those odd stacks they sent wandering through the mountain passes; not that I was complaining, all the guys mucking around up there were off the more serious fighting around Antioch, and with Highways to march on (and dispposable forts manned by an even more disposable 120 peasants to tie them up) I could pretty much handle the entire front with one and same field army.

It would seem that the line infantry of choice for fighting against the Sassanids would be the Legio Lanciarii. Sure, the Commies are overall tougher, but they're also hideously expensive to maintain, require annoyingly high-level Barracks, are total overkill against Sassanid bulk infantry (whom, at least one Medium battle difficulty, I could see off with the puny Limitanensis without much trouble), and not actually all that effective against the single biggest headache, ie. the Clibanarii. The Lanciarii are both cheaper to field, easier to retrain (lower building reqs), see off Levy Spearmen with minimal casualties, and seem to do pretty well against even Clib Immortals (Commies make a decent showing, but with an unacceptably high casualty rate given the retraining issues). Their lower armour compared to the Commies doesn't amount to much anyway against the AP maces of the Clibs, and their staggering anti-cavalry bonus of 8 means they can actually cause some real damage.

Once the Clibs are bogged down in nasty spearmen the proper way to dispose them is to Alt-doubleclick them in the rear with Household Bodyguards. Those mean bruisers have maces (albeit rather strange looking ones) as their secondary weapons, and in my experience a Lanciarii/Bodyguard tag team will tend to rout even Immortals inside about twenty seconds.

'Course, a converging attack by more than one Bodyguard unit at once will tend to put paid to any single Clib pile right fast...

Dromedarii work, too. They don't do that well against the Clibs by themselves, but throw in the Bodyguards and the Immortals will tend to break and run in about ten seconds. Plus the buggers are fairly easy to retrain, make a decent showing as (somewhat slow) medium shock cavalry, and I for one consider them the choice unit for chasing off those pesky Camel Raiders whom they can out-fight just by sheer better stats. Better than accumulating unnecessary casualties to the Bodyguards who have better things to do anyway, certainly.

As a side note, is it just me or does the Asia Minor region seem to spawn annoying amounts of bandits ? And often pretty tough ones too, such as several Mercenary Comitatenses in the same stack. One time all the assorted little bandit packs lying around up and joined together into a respectably large army in the middle of the region, and it took a bit of preparing to demolish the damn thing as for obvious reasons all the real combat troops were busy on the Sassanid front or keeping an eye on the hordes puttering about in the north.

[Trithemius]

It would seem that the line infantry of choice for fighting against the Sassanids would be the Legio Lanciarii. Sure, the Commies are overall tougher, but they're also hideously expensive to maintain, require annoyingly high-level Barracks, are total overkill against Sassanid bulk infantry (whom, at least one Medium battle difficulty, I could see off with the puny Limitanensis without much trouble), and not actually all that effective against the single biggest headache, ie. the Clibanarii. The Lanciarii are both cheaper to field, easier to retrain (lower building reqs), see off Levy Spearmen with minimal casualties, and seem to do pretty well against even Clib Immortals (Commies make a decent showing, but with an unacceptably high casualty rate given the retraining issues). Their lower armour compared to the Commies doesn't amount to much anyway against the AP maces of the Clibs, and their staggering anti-cavalry bonus of 8 means they can actually cause some real damage.

Once the Clibs are bogged down in nasty spearmen the proper way to dispose them is to Alt-doubleclick them in the rear with Household Bodyguards. Those mean bruisers have maces (albeit rather strange looking ones) as their secondary weapons, and in my experience a Lanciarii/Bodyguard tag team will tend to rout even Immortals inside about twenty seconds.

And whatever is true of Sassanid clibanarii being tough, the clibanarii immortal bodyguards for their family members are worse. It's well worth using a lot of assassins to thin out the numbers of these guys (or at least to spread them out a little thinner). I faced a stack with three and half (one was a bit mauled, but escaped!) of these bodyguard units and they mutilated my comitatenses until I was able to use my bodyguards and some equites auxilia to pick them off one by one.

[acambria]

Unlike the WRE which is usually destroyed, has anyone ever seen the ERE get wiped out by the AI yet?

[kataphraktoi]

I started a new ERE campaign recently and decided to see what 7th century Byzantium was like. I withdrew my troops from the rich Eastern provinces except Anatolia and Cilicia across to various parts of the EMpire. I abandoned Sirmium and the Danube border to hunker down and build forts in the mountain passes.

It is quite an interesting challenge to fight the Sassies and EREbels while reducing your army ranks to make sure ur not in the red.

So far, I've defeated a few Sassies in the mountains of Anatolia jsut like the Byzantines did taking advantage of the mountainous passes that can hold up enemy advances. Right now I also have an army besieging Antioch. I hope to establish an outpost in the Crimea soon as well. Most importantly, I have to build up as many trade relationships as possible and develop my Empire into a tough little nut to crack.

[Braden]

I dived strait in on an ERE campaign when I got BI and although I’m a seasoned Rome player I’ve found even this “easier” campaign challenging. My experience does not appear to have been duplicated that often here though as my struggles have come from the fact that within the first 20 years I’ve been hit by THREE hordes – the Vandals, Huns AND Goths have all gone “horde” and struck out against me. The Samatians also went “horde” but only took a region I had just lost to the Huns (thankfully).

Thessalonica has been taken and sacked Twice so far but since this initial rush (and the Goths and Vandals settling North of Thessalonica and Constantinople) I have succeeded in gaining trade with them at least. I just couldn’t hold the hordes at the choke points purely due to sheer weight of numbers! Each horde had 6-8 full stacks where I could only muster perhaps 2-3 stacks of low level troops at the time. The Goths were the worse and included some nasty high level infantry (is it Chosen Warriors?), masses of horse archers where I had none and spear-bands etc. Although I managed to cull thousands in the battles, all I could do was give ground. Gladly though, they decided to “Settle”.

All this meant that the first attacks by the Sassinids were also a hard hit. Although they didn’t manage to take any settlements it has set my economy back by decades whilst I had to concentrate on building troops rather than money.

Now having dealt with the Sassinids finally (although experiencing a Roman rebellion continuously in the province in the far South East), I have started to focus on Money after all the really hard times before.

I only have a tenuous foot-hold on the edge of Europe with Constantinople and Thessalonica. So it’s a matter of building the economy to suit the long-term war against the now large WRE (we are nearly equal for land).

Relations with the WRE had been very frosty and broke out into sporadic fighting through the years I have managed to get back in with them and although I’m allied with some of their enemies (e.g. the Berbers).

I would like to know how to deal with Hordes though. I tried just about everything and although I managed to slow them down AND inflict casualties that would destroy any normal army I just got steam-rollered! I’ve managed to run out of arrows in battles as there are just so many targets (and this was with 8 units of archers on Large size).

It’s also all well an good defending bridges BUT if most of the horde can swim………this is what I’ve been faced with. However, and with luck, I won’t have to face a horde again as I’ll be able to crush their combat units in the field normally and the only “horde” left will be peasants.

I’m currently pursuing a campaign against the WRE as I have finally secured the East. I have had to disposes the Vandals of their single territory so I could secure my Western borders before starting completely.

What I am experiencing is poor loyalties in my Generals and now a lack of family members since I’ve suddenly lost 5-8 in quick succession. Some good news was that since a battle against rebels last night I did manage to adopt a Captain but I’m still waging a war in Europe without ANY Generals. To help keep troublesome Eastern provinces in line, what family members I have are having to say put in places like Jerusalem so I need to work on both Loyalty AND Happyness in the East.

[mikoyan]

Sorry for the lame Q. I can't destroy the pagani temples. In fact i can't destroy buildings at all from the construction browser. Please, help....

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

In RTWBI, the Eastern Roman Empire may seem extremely vast and unorganized at first glance but this isnt the case

wow if you think that the ERE large and disorganized then you should look at the WRE

[jhhowell]

I noticed something interesting - it appears that horde aggression depends in part on whether they can see you. I had a diplomat visiting the Ukraine a few years after the start of the game, and he found the Huns in Sarmatia. When I chose to have him keep going and head through Dacia, both the Vandals and the Huns declared war and started moving their huge scary stacks my way. Having the diplomat run back out of sight towards Roxolani territory led to just the "Transgression!" message and DoW from the Vandals, with no visible movement in my direction (two turns later, one Hun stack just reached the edge of my watchtower field of view; I'm guessing they'll attack soon...). Lesson learned - don't screw around with diplomats up in Barbaricum!

I also have a completely unrelated question - why are limitanei and legio lancarii type "missile" rather than "light" or "heavy"? I find that very odd. Is this an error, or a deliberate gameplay decision to nerf them as much as possible (preventing blacksmiths from upgrading their attack)? I'm also unclear whether the fact that they're classified as "spearmen" on the battle map actually gives them any benefit against cavalry, considering that the unit description lacks the "bonus against cavalry" note one normally sees. Anyway, for supposedly elite troops, the lancarii are kinda lame... :)

[Biggus Diccus]

I also have a completely unrelated question - why are limitanei and legio lancarii type "missile" rather than "light" or "heavy"? I find that very odd. Is this an error, or a deliberate gameplay decision to nerf them as much as possible (preventing blacksmiths from upgrading their attack)? I'm also unclear whether the fact that they're classified as "spearmen" on the battle map actually gives them any benefit against cavalry, considering that the unit description lacks the "bonus against cavalry" note one normally sees. Anyway, for supposedly elite troops, the lancarii are kinda lame... :)

I was puzzled by this as well, so I checked in the unit_descr file. Legio Lanciarii get +8 attack bonus against cav with their secondary weapon (which is spear), and Limitaneii get +4 att vs. cav.

[jhhowell]

I was puzzled by this as well, so I checked in the unit_descr file. Legio Lanciarii get +8 attack bonus against cav with their secondary weapon (which is spear), and Limitaneii get +4 att vs. cav.

Thanks, good to know! With that and the nice pilum attack I guess the lanciarii are actually better than the WRE foederati spearmen. It appears that my anti-clibanarii approach of using comitatenses (or the Emperor's bodyguard) was not ideal; should have used more lanciarii in the Persian campaign. The last two Sassanid faction members (who were also their last two soldiers!) nearly repulsed my assault on the town square all by themselves. I probably would have lost had I not thrown the eastern archers into the meatgrinder as infantry, and I did lose my general, most of my regular infantry (no units lost, but most down to single digits), and all but one man from my hippo-toxatai.

On the plus side, I'm thinking a Sassanid game sometime would be a lot of fun, abusing these insanely powerful clibanarii immortals.

Is there any way to get back a title, if the person holding it dies? This particular general was the magister peditum...

More circumstantial support for the "horde attacks what they see" theory - the Huns DoWed the Goths as one might expect, rather than charging immediately towards the Danube as in that one save game with my diplomat standing right in front of their stacks. Still no sign of those Vandals who are theoretically at war with me.

[muresanhd]

I love to play ROME Total War and I just finish ERE campaign. I follow some of this posts, but I guess a I was lucky. I found out soon it isn’t a good idea to fight a horde in a classic battle. So, I reinforce Constantinople and Sirmium fast and I raised two full armies (main force of heavy infantry (commies, limitanei, later replaced with legio lanceri, lot of eastern archers, few light cavalry units, heavy mercenaries units). This armies was placed on the northern bridges and the hordes have something against it. The hordes attacked every turn this bridges and I won most of the battles. Remember this: YOU HAVE RESERVES, THEY DON’T. After many turns the barbarian were out of heavy troops, the only remains was horse archers and generals. Now I detached the cavalry units, I make a single army and go after them. Soon, I destroy the Goths, the Vandals, the Sarmatians and, finally, the Huns. I was lucky when at the beginning the hordes battle each other. I make an alliance with the Goths and destroy the Sarmatians. The Vandals were decimated by the Huns and I hunted down the remaining forces. The Huns were the hardest one to battle, but I have already experienced units at my disposal and a take fewer casualties as at the beginning. At the same time, I have to deal with the Sassanids. I applied the same “bridge tactics”, but the main Sassanid armies were a joke. The Clibinari was responsible for 90% of the causalities suffered in the battles. I was able to purchase 2 Ballistae and I go on the Clibinari hunt. The Sassanids were easy to conquer, but hard to keep. I have revolts in all the settlements and this blocked my eastern army for the rest of the game. The Western Empire was disintegrated in to several Rebels towns. Rome, Salona, Carthage and others was this kind of towns and I go and besieged them without going to war with WRE. After I conquered Rome, WRE attack me, but it was to late for them. With two huge and full armies (Onagers, repeating ballistae and others “goodies”) I take the rest Italy and several others towns.
For military purposes I upgrade Constantinople, Sirmium, Antioch and by mistake Alexandria. With the army of Alexandria I take Carthage and go to Rome. One of northern armies landed in Italy at the same time and Game Over.
For the rest of empire I make money.
Use Assassins to kill enemy diplomats and generals. Make alliances with the Hordes but don’t let them pass the bridges in your territories. Blocked them with the armies.

[Gizmo04]

Hey all, I just got the game about a week ago, due to my "underestemating games cloud" I didn't play it for a few days because I thought it was a rubbish buy, however now I realise its the part of Roman history I love. No offence to the Romans, I just simply love them guys! , but the fall of the West peaks my interest and this game allows you to play it woo!!! Oh from a few of the posts, much appreciated people!! the forts idea at all entries to your empire really helps in the East! Anyway I thought I'd play as the Eastern Empire, but I'm not too sure now... the West looks good but so does the East... can anyone give me advise on who to play first? and is Testudo formation in the game?
Thanks

Also, any advise on handling hordes? I put too much effort on bettering the economy and hordes run through the armies posted in the forts... A real head banger that is, as Yoda would say lol.

[Plebian#10]

I am playing ERE H/H and I find it to be challenging and rewarding - money is no problem with some adjustments - defend the northern frontier and kick the Sassinids right off the map. I have just eliminated the Sassinids from the game and I am in the process of moving three large armies to staging points for my move westwards. The hippotoxi are awesome as mobile artillery and very effective at wearing down an enemy - I typically have about 4 units of them with each army stack. The cities with ports are now building a few boats that I will use to move my armies across the Mediterainian and poor old WRE is not going to know what hit them. Great fun and lots of free time spent playing this game.

[c4stigator]

mornin all. need a little bit of advice on my ERE campaign.i might as well go through how ive played it so far, to give you guys a better idea.

I started the game, making all the towns christian ofcourse, then i spent some time getting to grips with the game. After a decade or so, i had achieved little, and the hordes descended on Greece and i lost most of my territory there, including Constantinople. This basically forced me to concentrate on my Asian offensive. I used Alexandria as my main troop-producing facility, and sent one or two legions (full armies/stacks ect.), into Asia, wiping out the Sassanids in quick measure. Then, after producing another 3 legions, i descended into Europe, where i took back Greece and managed to secure a good foothold in mainland Europe. I also took carthage and Italy, thus completing the game.

This, believe it or not, was the highpoint in the game. After securing this beachhead in the mainland, i fell victim to a horrible financial crisis. I lost one hundred and sixty million dinarri (160 000 000!!!) in around a few decades and went bankrupt. I managed to recover (a process im still "enjoying" to this day), but it took a long time. After i could afford to purchase another Legion, i renewed my European Crusade. I invaded the closest settlements, hoping to establisha defensive line before i could concentrate on wiping out the Berbers in Africa, who were begining to become annoying.

I seized Carnuntum, Campus Quaddi, Campus Marcomanni, Campus Lombardii and Campus Burgundii. I fortified these towns, and then established a supply line (a strategy im rather proud of).



(Purple line : supply line
Black circle : fort)

If any of the towns were seiged, and won the battle, but took casualties, the nearest twon to them, would send 5 units over to compensate, and the next town would send 5 to that, all down the line, to a total of four troop producing facilities behind the front lines. This allowed me to allways keep a large army at the fortress towns.

However, before i could complete this, the celts invaded. The bloody celts and twenty full strength armies.

I had completely underestimated the celts. I thought i was facing the Vandals, who i had bested in Russia during the first crusade, and i thought the celts were holed up in Britain. I was wrong. the celts came at me with loads of armies, all taking advantage of the horrible pagan experience bonus, thus besting my untrained troops.

I tried to hold them off, but the supply line wasn't finished, so i couldn't reinforce my towns in time. All of the fortresses fell in quick sucession (only Carnuntum remains), and the celts lead a spearhead into Russia and Greece. I lost everything i had worked three hundred years for in just a few turns.

I attempted to send my Legions off to combat them, but, since i was still recovering from the massive drop earlier on, i couldnt afford to send more than one legion. So, my untested armies were destroyed peacemeal (I use a strong core of lanciarii, backed up with lots of mercs and generals), and the celts continued.

Now, theres no way i can stop their advance. I falling back to my last ditch defence plans. Im fortifiing Constantinople with comitatenses (a very rare purchase for me) and bolstering my remaining towns in Russia.

I've developed a last resort plan, where i let the towns of Kotais, Artaxarta, Phrsaspa and Arsakia rebel, thus forming a buffer between me and the celts so i can build up some armies behind in Antioch, Ctesiphon and Hatra. I see the celtic advance into Asia inevitable, and if i lose my holdings around the mediterainian, its game over. I'll never recover withouth the trade they bring in. So, i need a little bit of help. Am i right in my plans at the moment, or should i try something else? Much appreciated. c4st

The map at the moment. All the celtic land used to be mine. Note, the vandals dont control all that territory anymore.



ps. its around 660 AD.

[Boyar Son]

Rome was meant to fall dude.


But if you still think the world needs Caeser, and if ur short on money, take half the garrison of EVERY city you have and put them on the border and form armies. Trust me, ur in for a real slugfest, no way this is gonna be easy.

Also, attack from ur bases from italy, attack that barbaricum province (the north russian province). and surround their lands.

[Phoenix]

I think the problem is in the type of infantry you're using. Legio Lanciarri are an excellent choice for fighting the light infantry/heavy cavalry armies of the hordes and Sassanids but they're no good against heavy infantry. Start replacing them with Comitatenses or preferably Plumbatarii infantry; the Plumbatarii are similar to the Comitatenses but carry longer ranged javelins with more attack and ammo so they'll be able to kill more of the Celtic infantry before they reach your lines...their only downside is that they need an Army Barracks in order to be recruited. As long as the Plumbatarii/Comitatenses infantry are supported by Eastern Archers and Cataphracts/Clibinarii (or Scholae Palatinae if you can't afford the other heavy cavalry) they should be able to beat any Celtic army they face. You could also build Foundries in some of your cities if you can afford it since units trained/retrained there will get a +2 bonus to Armor and Attack which will cut down on casualties by alot.

Btw, if you have any Urban Barracks then you can also train Comitatenses First Cohorts which are similar to the Comitatenses except they are bigger units, better at melee fighting, have somewhat higher defense stats, and raise the morale of nearby units. I always have 2 of them in any of my armies when I can but they are generally more of a luxury unit than anything else and cost quite alot.

Hope this helps.

[c4stigator]

It's about 750CE now things have gotten worse, but contained. I've lost all my settlements in Europe, including Italy and Greece. Constantinople still stands, the last beacon of Roman glory in Europe. I reinforced it with about 15 Plumbatarii, which are now all silver experience. The Celtic offensive managed to breach Asia at Kotais, but i managed to resist. I fell back to my "buffer-state" strategy, sacrifising the four towns there, though im moving to recapture them currently.

At the moment, the Celts are preoccumpied trying to take Constantinople, though ive won every siege so far. Also, the berbers have launched a push into Africa, taking Carthage and besiegeing Ludgis Magna (?).

I'm still suffering from financial problems and have around 70k atm. I attempted to build a large cavalry force to re-take Europe but i lost loads of Denarii.

Overall, im holding the Celts back in Europe and am begining to fortify Alexandria for a possible berber invasion.

Will try an post some maps later.

(also, any idea when/if the game ends? I've come so far now im actualy the Byzantine Empire )

[c4stigator]

I also adopted a very effective "scorched-earth" strategy, where i demolished all the buildings in a town which looked to fall halfway through a siege. This lets me take all the denarii from a town (usually around 10k) and let the Celts deal with it. So, if i ever get round to re-capturing them, they will have already built it up again.