Western Roman Empire (BI faction)

[Mithras]

I've found an effective and cheap method of crushing the early revolt/s is to sepertate your empire into five areas: Italy, spain, france and Briton. Abandon the south eastern provinces (put the emperor there if you wish to revert to paganism: suicide mission). Then pull all good (Foederati Infantry and above) troops in each region to the command of it's most loyal general while disabanding all Foederati Cavalry. Wait for the 'hit' to occur and then move on the most prominant cities in each area. Once these are taken systematicly retake all cities in each province and exterminate/enslave the populace. This will make it easier to convert them to your chosen faith as a bonus as well as providing nice meaty injections of cash to your struggling economy this should help beat the empire into a shape in which it will be able to realisticly oppose the hordes. The fact that your army generals and legions will now be battle hardened halps as well.
The north eastern provinces must be protected at all times The gaul army instead of being used to put down the revolt should be used to defend the borders. Have the spanish army move into Gaul once spain is consolidated and put down the uprisings with that. Always have a large army or crack troops in Nothern italy at all times. The barbarians will pour into nothern italy, my map is doted with major battle markers is a testement to this. After consolidation have a small siege army in every sub-section (3comitares, 2 archers and 2 siege engines) to put down any further revolts
The south eastern provinces will fall. However if you let them revolt then that will mean that their will be a miltary presence in the area when the horde comes buying you time to beat your empire into shape.

Quick tipes
-obliterate the Burbers and saxons quickly, if you can't hold their cities simply obliterate the faction and then move on they won't horde so their demise will lighten the load for you without hording.
-primary building targets are economic ones: Roads, harbors, trading posts


from the writtings of Augustous Maximus-the butcherer of christians and small kittens.

[Mithras]

I've found an effective and cheap method of crushing the early revolt/s is to sepertate your empire into five areas: Italy, spain, france and Briton.

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Minor correction- the fith region is africa You, only really need to hold on to carthage as a waypoint for the latter african invasion for trade

[Crian]

In general, when playing as the WRE the idea is to be able to get yourself out of your initially disastrous position while maintaining most (if not all) of your provinces. This in itself is quite a challenge and requires quite a bit of skill to pull off, even in M/M.

I've decided to play differently though, and instead play pre-republican style: pulling back to Italy and expanding again once my position has stabilized (LestaT posted about a similar idea and I was encouraged more when I saw someone else talk about it ), essentially "rebuilding" the empire. I had an old M/M game playing this way and I was successful with it. I didn't finish it and decided to start a new one on VH/VH. I'm really enjoying this method right now and I'll post a more thorough guide about it in a couple of days once I've progressed significantly (with screenshots ).

OK I know this is a worthless post but I'm so excited I had to put it in, please bear with me.... ... ...

[Crian]

It's been two weeks since my last post , and I was trying to do the earlier idea of disbanding everything outside of Italy and trying to conquer the world from there (like in the Republican campaign). I had moderate success with a M/M game but it wasn't the same in VH/VH.

I played, overall 4 WRE campaigns on VH/VH and disbanded everything and tried to conquer from there. The first one I was sucessful, but it wasn't until 450 AD until I was able to conquer the cities NEAREST me. The second one was also successful, but it wasn't (again), until 450 AD when I began conquering. The next two I tried to be more aggressive, but I utterly failed. When hordes started knocking I was barely able to keep them out, and then another set of hordes started coming, it was crazy .

I wanted to create a more comprehensive guide (I said I'd do it in a couple of days ), but until I get a satisfactory outcome I'll postpone it. Overall, this is NOT a recommended way to play. It is a huge chore to do and it's probably better to micromanage your way into keeping your empire intact from the beginning (unless you want things even harder). I'm starting my 5th game and hopefully I'll get it right . Cheers all!

[Keba]

After getting BI, naturally, the first campaign was the WRE, on VH/M.

So, instead of the historical route of conversion to Christianity and an attempt to maintain the entire Empire, I decided to retreat back to Italy, disband all forces outside it, and attempt to restore my Empire once the core has become stable.

First thing ... I razed all buildings in all cities outside Italy. The new border went through the Alps. The Emperor wrote a nice, heartfelt letter to the rest of the Empire where he said: you're on your own.

On the first few turns, I had to micromanage Italy to prevent rebellions. Keep one army in Italy (preferrably an elite one, but any can do in a pinch), fill the other cities with pesants (or Limitanei if you feel that pesants are unrealistic ... like I do). If any city seems close to rebelling, level the military buildings, retake it, and exterminate the population. Also, concentrate on building up trade, as well as happines buildings.

Within a decade, the core provinces should be rich, powerful and stable. At this point I decided to convert to Paganism. Several turns of nail-biting and Christianity was officialy gone in the WRE, as was the old Christian Emperor. The new Emperor was Pagan, one of my best governors.

The Western Roman Empire soon became a power (again), and the WRE rebels were no more than a nuisance, usually being broken on the walls of Massilia. Around this time, my main field army policy was switched from being in command by a General to being commanded by a Captain, after one General decided that he was the better Emperor than the current one and joined the WRE rebels. He immediately departed for Gaul to gather more troops for a march on Rome itself. Around that time, the Vandals invaded Gaul for the first time, thus saving my skin, and buying me time to recruit another field army.

Since that time, I have driven back the Alemanni, and taken their cities north of the Alps, securing my northern flank. The western flank was secured after my forces took another province, relieving the pressure from Massilia. The Vandals also helped, as they settled in Gaul and took to battling the WRE rebels.

On the east however, the ERE has been wiped out, holding on barely to Egypt, the islands of the Mediterranean and a scattering of other provinces. The Asian parts of the Empire were taken by the Sassanids, the European by the Huns. In an effort to aid my old allies who still held the western coast of Greece, I marched on Salona. The city fell easily, but the Huns managed to take it within several years, while my main army was busy in Northern Italy.

By now, the Saxons have been wiped out (by the Slavs), the Sarmatian hordes were crushed in Northern Italy (by me in one huge battle) and the Alemanni are now fighting the Huns and Goths in Pannonia.

The Romano-Britons have not appeared yet, as the WRE rebels seem to have an alliance with the Celts. The Celts have three full stacks waiting around in their territory, faced with only a few hundred WRE rebels. Kept me quite confused when my spy reached the province after a very long boat trip.

One of my most entertaining campaigns, ever.

[Avicenna]

Is there any way to keep hold of the provinces and not abandon them? While getting some income. Or is the income so bad that you MUST abandon Europe and disband units in order to protect yourself sufficiently without going thousands into debt?

[Keba]

You can keep all provinces. It's tricky, and your treasury will go into the nether regions ... but it offers a greater base of power should you succeed. To attempt to restore money in the treasury, you must adopt an agressive policy toward barbarians ... take their towns, exterminate, raze all buildings, leave. Also, destroy buildings you don't need in your provinces (such as barracks in Hispania, etc.).

You won't be able to keep all of your provinces ... it is likely that at least a few will rebel ... take the towns and exterminate ... it will bring in money, and you will teach those rebellious scum a lesson.

It is likely that you will be overrun in at least some areas ... North Africa and Brittania are the most likely candidates. Leave them be, they can be retaken later.

Use the money you've made with your raids to build up roads, ports, traders, and other buildings to improve income. Once you do these things ... you have a steady income and can begin retaking lost areas ... and unifying the Empire once again.

Once you have stabilized the Empire and have a steady cash flow coming in, you can get to converting your Empire to either Christianity (it offers some impressive bonuses, but the population growth it offers is problematic, you have too much population as it is) or Paganism (Mythra offers some advantages to military units, Sol Invictus has exceptional bonuses to happiness). This will likely cause unrest, and possibly, revolts. You cannot allow these religious fools to destabilize the Empire, capture the rebelling cities and exterminate them to teach them a lesson (plus, it makes conversion go more easily).

Afterward, you really shouldn't have much of a problem ... once you get past the initial problems, you are easily the most powerful faction around, as the sole opposition to the West are inferior barbarians (watch out for the hordes, once they come, you are in deep, deep trouble, and they will come if you attempt to keep the entire Empire intact), while the East will likely be busy with the Sassanids and the Huns (if not completely overrun). The only civilized faction likely to oppose you are the Romano-British, but they can easily be subdued.