Need advice on disbanding starting army & navy with WRE

[Mahrabals apprentice]

I am new to BI and need some advice on a strategy that I want to try with the WRE.
I plan to abandon most of the WRE to the rebels (after building Christian chapels in every city with doesn’t have one and razing all other buildings) and try to hold onto some of the juicier cities. In order to have a functioning economy I am going to need to disband most army and navy.
Initially I intended to retain Carthage (my new capital), Lepsis Magna (city east of carthage?) and Syracuse. However I have since decided that this idea may be over doing it. So I now also intend to keep:
1 city in Spain, which ever deal I can enforce Christianity on without rebellions (hopefully the city in the South East corner),
Ravenna, Rome and the Southern most Italian city,
Palma,
Sardinia.

I plan to evacuate all my useful Christian family members to Italy and Spain (and later into North Africa) as governors.
I intend then to get peace and trade rights with the rebels a.s.a.p. and have a stack invade Berber territory and establish a North African base of operations to retake mainland Europe. Pagan family will find themselves used as heavy cavalry (with little regard to whether the family members die, I doubt corpses will start civil wars).

Anyway to get to the question I wanted to ask,

How much military units do you think I can maintain with these cities without killing my economy?

I need as much military as possible to take North Africa and defend what I plan to keep in Europe, and would like a small navy to ship units between the 2 continents. So if I don’t disband enough I will have money troubles early on, but if I don’t keep enough I will struggle to defend/invade.

Advice please.

[TinCow]

It's possible to hold the WRE without losing a significant chunk to rebellion, though I think it's more fun to abandon some cities and let the WRE Rebels into the game as a significant power. General advice though:

1) Do not convert any cities in the beginning. You can't afford the discontent anywhere. Wait until later in the game to convert.

2) To get the most bang for your buck in disbanding, disband cavalry first. Especially Foederati (sp?) cavalry which costs far more than it is worth for you in the beginning.

3) Replace the garrisons of provinces that are not near your borders with peasants. This will save you a great deal of money. Move the non-peasant units to the front if you do not disband them; they are just wasting money if they are garrisoning a rear town.

4) Micromanage your starting family members and their retinues. Try to get the best possible combination to maximize happiness and income. Transfer the 'title' and 'artifact' retinues off of generals as they get old, since these can sometimes be difficult to replace.

5) While the whole empire can be held if done properly, do not be afraid to evacuate entire areas if it will make your job easier and the game more enjoyable. Iberia is a prime candidate here as are your eastern provinces, which will probably be sacked by the hordes anyway.

[The Stranger]

i agree with TC´s tips but i want to add a few

in italy u can better defend the choke points instead of the cities. this way u can keep massilia 2. cuz if U do or donot take massillia does not matter when defending chokepoints. this way u prolly need 3/4 armies and all the cities can have peasant garrisons.

make a limit of family members theyre very expensive though most definitly worth the price.

dont use cav use yur members only.

to gain money just raid towns and exterminate them.

compose borderarmies of limitanei theyre very effective if used properly and can fend of many early armies.

dont build to much and try to get as many traderights and alliances as possible

[aw89]

^^ Is it really that hard to spell "you"?

If you are not going to convert the regions to Christianity right away, it might be a good idea to take generals with the "pagan" trait out of the region and transfer in the ones with ”Christian" trait. These affect the amount of Christian\pagan people in the settlement.

[Kekvit Irae]

Personally, you only need one standing "army". The one with your best general (preferly your heir) should be the one taking the fight to the enemy. You can go two routes with this:
A) These troops should consist of mostly cavalry (cavalry and no infantry can transverse the land more quickly than infantry/cavalry can). The faster you can overrun the enemy cities, the more money you can make, which will lead to a more successful turnover of your profits.
B) All infantry will allow you to have a MUCH cheaper cost per turn than a cavalry army, but will be slower on the march. This is the standing army that is most popular by many players.

Most of the lesser grade cavalry (the light cav) you will see in your cities are horrible and expensive. Disband them, as their unit stats do NOT match their high upkeep. They are costing you over 300d each turn per unit, depending on unit size. To start out with, you need only peasants or lesser grade infantry to protect your garrisons, but dont forget that your cities will rebel if they dont have an adequet garrison, and they will be overrun by the enemy for the same reason.

Dont forget to exterminate any and all cities that DO rebel, as this will net you a lot of money, and the city's population will be reduced to the point where a small garrison is needed, not a large one.

[Oaty]

I intend then to get peace and trade rights with the rebels a.s.a.p.

Can you actually get a ceasefire with the WRE/ERE rebels as a Roman faction?

I never could convince the WRE rebel as the WRE for a ceasefire.

[Mahrabals apprentice]

I started a game last night (didn’t have as much time as I had hoped)
I abandoned all the areas I said I would above, and I have smashed the berbers (as well as several WRErebel peasants stacks). My treasury is making a small lost each turn but as soon as I peace the WRErebels I reckon I will be making a profit.
My pagan family members have laid seige to the WRErebels capital and beat off several attempts to end the siege, and they will exterminate the city in the next turn.
In britania I disbanded my entire army and my only family member went north to fight Celts, he lost and ran back towards eburacum, the Celts bribed the city, family member (with 5 bodyguards) walked into the undefended city and exterminated for 15K dinarri

Now I need some advice on how to proceed.

I want to spend a few years building up my settlements (mainly economy and happiness) before I begin my re-conquest of Western Europe.
I plan on sending my berber army to invade Iberia. Apart form that I am unsure what to do.

I could send my Northern Italian army to invade the Balkans or Gaul, but that would leave Italy vulnerable from the direction I don’t attack.

I assume the Balkans is a rich area?

I also assume if I go that way I will have to face horde incursions into my territory?

I could make a second army in Africa and use it to invade Egypt. I assume the Nile delta is a rich area?

Which would be more profitable, invading the Balkans or Egypt? Which would be easier to hold onto?

Could you recommend other areas that will be able to generate cash and be (relatively) easily held?

Advice please

[TinCow]

Once you feel that you have gotten your borders secure and you are no longer at risk of losing settlements to rebellion, I would suggest that you take the time to finish converting the empire to Christianity. In order to win as WRE, you really don't need to conquer a whole lot more territory than your starting provinces. As such, the biggest challenge is simply stabilizing the empire. Conversion is a major part of this.

Having a single religion everywhere will vastly decrease unhappiness problems and thus increase income and stability. The best way to do this is in areas like Gaul is to convert several settlements at once. This way they all convert faster due to the adjacent province bonuses. You need to have strong forces in the area though and secure borders since you will probably experience several turns of unrest before enough people are converted. Don't forget to move Pagan family members out of provinces you are converting. They make excellent front-line generals.

[Mahrabals apprentice]

I started a game last night (didn’t have as much time as I had hoped)
I abandoned all the areas I said I would above, and I have smashed the berbers (as well as several WRErebel peasants stacks). My treasury is making a small lost each turn but as soon as I peace the WRErebels I reckon I will be making a profit.
My pagan family members have laid seige to the WRErebels capital and beat off several attempts to end the siege, and they will exterminate the city in the next turn.
In britania I disbanded my entire army and my only family member went north to fight Celts, he lost and ran back towards eburacum, the Celts bribed the city, family member (with 5 bodyguards) walked into the undefended city and exterminated for 15K dinarri

Now I need some advice on how to proceed.

I want to spend a few years building up my settlements (mainly economy and happiness) before I begin my re-conquest of Western Europe.
I plan on sending my berber army to invade Iberia. Apart form that I am unsure what to do.

I could send my Northern Italian army to invade the Balkans or Gaul, but that would leave Italy vulnerable from the direction I don’t attack.

I assume the Balkans is a rich area?

I also assume if I go that way I will have to face horde incursions into my territory?

I could make a second army in Africa and use it to invade Egypt. I assume the Nile delta is a rich area?

Which would be more profitable, invading the Balkans or Egypt? Which would be easier to hold onto?

Could you recommend other areas that will be able to generate cash and be (relatively) easily held?

Advice please

I appreciate the advice I have had so far but would still appreciate some advice on the above points

[econ21]

Well, I am totally opposed to your premise - abandoning any part of the WRE at the beginning - but given you are where you are, I would advise going for Egypt rather than the Balkans. You'd be fighting on a narrow front - mainly against the ERE - and so it should be fairly easy to dominate with a single army. There are not that many provinces in the Balkans and it always seems to be a cauldron for conflicts with various hordes milling around there as well as the ERE. It's a scarey place even for a non-retrenched WRE, so I would not be keen to rush back in there.

I also think you should be able to retake the lands in the West that you abandoned fairly easily, but then I don't understand why you left them in the first place.

[EDIT: Rory_20_UK is probably right and no doubt you are doing this to get a little variety. I don't mean to appear critical.]

[rory_20_uk]

IMO seems he's trying to basically fight from a different starting position. Decent idea if that's so but a very longwinded way of acheiving that if you ask me!!

Balkans is the place to LOOSE money not gain it. Little to get money from and as previously mentioned there's circa 5 powers duking it out in the area. If ya want send a spy to watch, but anything more is going to end in tears.