Romano-British (BI faction)

[frogbeastegg]

This faction requires modding before it is playable.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
You need professorspatula's BI Extra Hordes and Unlocked Factions Mod in order to play the Romano British. It makes them available in a different "provincial" campaign, on the same map complete with all factions.

I've been playing it on M/M with large unit size.

You start with a single settlement, Londinium, with a few family members, a spy, a diplomat, an assasin and rather competent troops; with Eboracum to the north in rebels; and already at war with the Celts and Saxons.

Read professorspatula's gameplay suggestions in the readme file. They are life savers.

Without delay, take Eboracum and garrison with just enough force. (Enslave the population.) Hire Sarmatian Horse Archers and mercenary gallowglasses. The SHAs are very precious units as you will soon realize and the Gallowglasses make good killers that you can expend if need be. A Celt army will most probably be coming towards your direction so don't waste any time and counter them.

They have two powerful units to be wary of: Hounds of Culann, which cannot be effectively countered by your infantry, and Pictish Spearmen that are good against almost anything but seemingly weak against heavy cavalry compared to other spear units.

Use your SHAs (in game named Sarmatian Archers) to get rid of the Hounds of Culann, which is virtually defenseless without armour against missiles. Use them also against the well armoured and shielded Pictish Spearmen, who can form that weirdly named special formation, which makes them near invulnerable to ordinary archers unless they're using fire. Once the spearmen are decreased in number with patient pinning, you can throw away some peasants or Gallowglasses to break their formation and flank them with your heavy cavalry.

Upon taking Dal Raida (shouldn't it be Dal Riada?) I preferred exterminating the population.

In two or three turns, you will have secured the British main island. Now it's time, as professorspatula points out, to get rid of all units with high upkeep. Disband your Sarmatian Auxilia (NOT SHA), Coastel Levies and other high upkeep units such as legionaries. Keep your archers, SHAs and Foederati Infantry.

The Celts will not give up easily so be ready for invasions. As soon as possible build a couple of Biremes to sink their inferior vessels and blockade their port in Ireland. Don't, at this time, invade Ireland. (See Appendix.)

At the south, Saxons must have already disembarked invasion forces so, once Scotland is secured, concentrate your forces in Britannia Inferior and Britannia Superior (Mercia and Wessex in good old MTW ). The invasion forces will be small in number and not too strong to worry about, if not totally trash. After repelling the first two or three invasions, the Saxons will have depleted their resources to back up another one. In my campaign they demanded ceasefire. I knew they were going to attack again soon and got prepared accordingly. Try to keep a fleet of one or two Biremes in the North Sea as well, which will save you from a lot of trouble if you, like me, sink their transport fleets.

From now on, a major strategic element of your campaign will be keeping an eye on the two ports of the Saxons and sinking whatever ships they produce as soon as they spawn. That way, your faction's heartland will be secure from invasion. With their only port blockaded, Celts will go bancrupt and yu won't need to worry about them anymore. (Don't blockade the Saxon ports, which will lead you to bankrupcy because of prevented trade.)

You have secured Britain and disbanded your costly units. All along this time, as professorspatula says, you should keep an eye on building profittable structures; trader and up, roads, ports and up, farms in BS and BI. In Eboracum and Dal Riada, gradually replace the barbarian buildings, even if they are on higher level, with yours. It's more efficient than waiting for the town upgrades and provides urgency resources. Don't rush; watch your finances closely and you will be on high profit in about ten turns.

The pirates, until relatively late, weren't that big of a headache in my game. The brigands, with their Pictish Spearmen, were. They made good stat-uppers for my generals and captains.

Now, it's up to your decision to invade the continent immediately or wait. I waited and, as I expected, waves of hordes literally wiped the WRE, which you don't want to take on early, from the map. The Vandals founded a surprisingly stable empire where Franks should have been (Gallia ) and Huns painted the entire Italian peninsula to black. (Alas, I'm afraid I waited a bit too long and it's already later than 410. Modded the ending date in order to be able to play. )

Since no good guide would be complete without eye candy, here are a few screenies:

As I am keeping to the policy of having a pure Christian faction, I exiled the only pagan family member (after using against Celts, Saxons and brigands) to a godforsaken fort in the midway of London and York. He seems to have had too much time to think there:



Did I say pirates weren't much trouble? Well, I did but that was before this:


Appendix: Eliminating a horde faction

professorspatula made Celts hordable. That's why I left them blockaded, isolated and bankrupt in Ireland. At one point I realized that the AI was keeping all but two family members out of the town with the false hope of invading Britain, which was preventing them from breeding. Sent my spy and verified that only the faction leader was in the town.

That set me waiting and once in a while checking the guys' ages. As expected, after reaching their 60s, they began to fade off. Finally there were the leader, the heir and an apparently adopted family member. That was the time when my mass assasins subcampaign was launched. I spammed Ireland with assasins trained in London and York and sent them onto the targets amass. A few of them were slain but finally came the happy news:



The formula is: Defeat, isolate and assasinate!

The guide will be updated/cleaned up as I advance into the campaign.

Thanks to frogbeastegg for opening the thread and professorspatula for the great mod.
.

[Upxl]

nice thread Mouzafphaerre.

Was wandering if the Romano-British was a more barbarian faction or can they build advanced city improvements?

Also,what are the unit's like?

[Upxl]

wandering

*Wondering

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Thanks. It's your typical Roman faction with extra unique units. The namelist includes Roman and Welsh names. You can build plumbing systems, game areas (you can host games and races), markets, anything you can think of up to the maximum level. Battle speeches are Roman but always two liners.

As for unique units, you have British Legionaries (heavy infantry), Sarmatian Auxilia (heavy cavalry) and Levy Spearmen (spearmen), which are unfavourable over Foederati Infantry imo.
.

[GrimSta]

i find that KScotts Pax Britannia X mod is better than Proffesorspatula's as it makes the game harder, reskins the RB and adds more provinces to Britain. It also puts a fairly large celt army outside Eboracum(York) which you have to get rid of, as well as giving the celts more units, more family members and more money....its a pretty good way to play the Romano British imho, you can find it
at
http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=741

And there is an interview about it here
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=37939

After that shamless piece of plugging here is what i did to take Britain and Eire

It does make that stratgey differant:

Start off by recruiting the merc gallowglasses, sarmation horse archers and merc vetenarii then take all the units you can spare from London.

March down to Alpins army and attack it, this is quite hard for your small army with only 3 legionaire units but it is doable.

Sarmation Archers kick ass against Pictish Spearmen when the spearmen form a schiltrom they become more vulnerable to archers, Hounds of Culaan and Gallowglasses are what you really need to worry about.

Once this army is beaten, stay in York and raise a bigger army to go and take Dal Riada, once that is taken (and its not easy :p ) stay in Briatin and clean up the Celtic armies, once they are out of the way head to Ireland and take the two cities their, and that will earn you the land of Britain and Eire :D