Iberia-Bloody Impossible

[SpawnOfEbil]

Well, your capital, Numantia is losing 4000+ a turn. The other city isn't much better anyway. The two cities you have to take are both heavily defended. All your units are really expensive in upkeep.

Sounds like a fun challenge!

[PseRamesses]

Well, your capital, Numantia is losing 4000+ a turn. The other city isn't much better anyway. The two cities you have to take are both heavily defended. All your units are really expensive in upkeep.

Sounds like a fun challenge!

It is!
I´m fiddeling between 1. blitzing my way out of the situation and 2. turteling: disband all units and recouperate my economy. Test runs for 10 years. It seems this is the general approach in EB. The devs leaves you with this option in the beginning of each faction which I feel is great since there´s a lot of people that just go on the rampage and would like to conquer all while there´s others, like myself, that roleplay my games.

[Forgus]

It is!
I´m fiddeling between 1. blitzing my way out of the situation and 2. turteling: disband all units and recouperate my economy. Test runs for 10 years. It seems this is the general approach in EB. The devs leaves you with this option in the beginning of each faction which I feel is great since there´s a lot of people that just go on the rampage and would like to conquer all while there´s others, like myself, that roleplay my games.

Nope. Don't disband anything. The units you have shuld be enough to conquer everything except carthagininan lands, raise taxes, send diplomats everywhere possible, sell map information, and in 3 years you are earning money and in 5 you can start building.
Guys, this is not hack and slash. It is ment to be a challenging game for the mind. It can be done on VH/M. I have done it. So can you.

[Count Belisarius]

Despite lingering recruiting irregularities (this IS a beta, after all), Iberia is very much a fun faction to play. Their infantry is some of the most effective and versatile in the game: fast, decently armored, mostly well-shielded, many carrying javelins, plus a war cry? It is almost unfair. You think Hannibal recruited Iberians in the tens of thousands by coincidence?

Sure, Iberian income is low at the outset. Iberia is a small, poor, semi-barbaric faction, and army units are expensive as hell to recruit and maintain throughout EB, which I personally love. It holds down army sizes and keeps the game from degenerating into a RTW:Vanilla hack-fest suitable only for 12-year-olds.

Disbanding your units, turning turtle, and gradually building your economy is slow and relatively boring (even a non-12-year-old like me likes a good bloodbath). It works, primarily because you are almost surrounded by non-aggressive rebels, and the Carthaginians are too few to pose an immediate threat, but it is not much fun. The alternative is to go on the offensive. As a matter of pure personal preference, though, I refrain from "blitzing" because I feel that it takes away from the game experience. The choice is up to you.

First thing, put as many trade/transportation/farming buildings in your queue as possible with your starting funds, because you will not have enough money to build anything for quite a while, no matter what you do. Suck it up, go into debt, and set about conquering your rebel neighbors. Given the lack of roads in Iberia, and the composition and size of the rebel armies, this might present a surprising challenge. At the very least, it will take some time.

Resist the temptation to cash in your conquests by extermination. "Barbarian" population growth is slow, and you do not want your provinces to be stuck as Towns forever. By the time you have united the peninsula south of the Pyrrenees (whatever is not owned by the Kart-Hadastim and/or the Avernii), you will have a nice, tidy little empire going, and will be pulling out of your economic slump. Pick a fight with somebody worthwhile, and you are off to the races. I always go after the Kart-Hadastim. Any people who have Hannibal Barca on their side - and lose - are too stupid to live.

[SirPoot]

The whole of Spain can be easily conquered with your starting armies...just make use of your general's bodyguards well. Once you do, just build mines everywhere in Spain and you'll have a huge surplus of income every turn. In fact, the city directly north of Tingis earns me 3k Mnai every turn...

Now the problem comes with expanding my territory beyond iberian lands. I've just snatched Africa from Carthage, and it proved easy enough, with one huge stack of Caetratii and the help of some mercenaries. What is worrying though, is that outside iberia, I simply cannot recruit any of my backbone units anymore. It implies that if I intend to expand my borders to Rome/Gaul/Greece, I'll either have to keep recruiting mercenaries along the way, or keep send stacks of iberian units out from Spain. Unfortunately, the first method is expensive, and mercenaries cannot be replaced easily and quickly. The second will take a very long time, especially when my empire gets too large, and can drain out my Spanish populations rapidly. The natives that I can recruit are not that strong either.

The most threatening point is when I expand to Scythian, Armenian or Parthian lands, if I managed to do it. All my units are at most, moderately armoured; they'll ripped to shreds by horse archers...

Finally, the highest level of settlement that the iberians can achieve is the one with 6000 population. It'll be a pain to manage when I take very advanced settlements like Alexandria, where the population simply explodes every few turns...

Can anyone give advice on how to play Iberia beyond their homeland?

[NightStar]

I gave Iberia a half-hearted try and it seems to be a faction with a tough starting position. Especially after I conquered most of spain, leaving the southern provinces well enough, I disbanded most of my troops to get out of 50k debt.....what happens, uber rebel stacks pop up everywhere and start to besiege my cities and I had no money to hire troops.....and the scattered forces I had had no hopes of reaching the besieging cities in time.

One thing about Iberia is their troops are ridiculously expensive, even the milita has upkeep of 303 mnai each turn which is higher than princeps