Quote Originally Posted by professorspatula
Heh, those factions relying on the old style of celtic warfare are pretty fun to play against the more advanced Saxon factions. Although your highlanders can defeat Fyrdmen and spearmen (line 'em up 1-2 ranks deep) if you're up against heavy Huscarles led by a good general, you need a bloody miracle to defeat them! My Welsh faction ended up facing a Mercian force that couldn't even churn out Huscarles yet, but the enemy's massive armies and large number of 7-8* generals made every battle a foregone conclusion. And celtic warriors are better than highlanders! Although truth be told I only faced a couple of battles before playing something else. It's one of those campaigns I've been itching to get back to but never got around to it. Daft thing about the welsh campaign though - I only played it so I could use the Welsh bandits, but the reality is you'll have the campaign sown up before you get to train them. I also started an Irish campaign but lost interest. I love the Gallowglasses, but I find skirmishers a bit hit and miss, though mostly miss.
My Welsh Campaign (on Expert) was much more of a success. At the start I almost immediately invaded Mercia and had taken their capital within a few years. This left them without the ability to build Huscarles and I dealt them a death blow pretty handily. This allowed my economy to grow as I gained some rich territories. By this time the Saxons had a decent number of Huscarles, and I waited for the Welsh Longbowmen before attacking.

Here I picked my battles carefully, sometimes attacking and withdrawing with a group of longbowmen, where I would rain down arrows on the Huscarles. Eventually I would build up an entire stack full of Longbowmen, which I intended to use for more hit-and-run attacks. However, the Saxons ran away from every engagement, even when they outnumbered by more than two-to-one! I eventually caught the Saxon king in a pickle, and he was captured and executed without a single battle! The Saxons were destroyed, and after this I quickly lost interest in the campaign.