An independent Sweboz overview

[Mightypeon]

Hi there,

while this is not a real AAR, or a gameplay guide in the strictest sense I would nevertheless like to share my thoughts about the Sweboz campaign.

Preword:
First things first, I must confess I was utterly amazed by the amount of detail of the German provinces. The Amber route, the various sacred place and the individual tribes with unique units added a lot to my game.

1: What I did:
The Swebok stat with 1 province an a healthy amount of Men. Without changes, the economy will be dry after one turn.
Considering the fact that I am nearly completely broke, I intended to have as view casulties as possible.
I grouped my men into 3 armies. One conquering eastward (Gawjam Rukoz, Auscalis, Githaras Oscan, Seljum Pilis).
My second group quickly took Gawjam Silengoz. It then joined with the troops in the capital to take Gawjam Habukos, Gawjam Heruzkoz, Gawjam Hattos, Gawjam Kimbros and Gawjam Skandoz.
The fights went pretty smoothly after each of the amy reached a number of 3 family members. I usually let them take charges. They regenerate, the other unit do not. My Archers and Spearmen conserved themselves for a while, while my Cavalry number quickly dwindled.
Anyway, The German horses seem to be the worst bar none.

Going onwards, I conquered a large amount of neutral land, including Belgicae to the west and Tribus Basternae to the east.

I managed to get peace treatys with both Gaulish factions.

The Romans attacked me like 2 turns after I signed an Alliance with their Epirote enemies. I found this behaviour to be a refreshing change from the seemingly random AI declarations.


Another great thing I observed throughout the gme is the fact, that rebel brignads appear signiicantly less often than they used to in vanilla.
Considering that I hated fighting 3-4 rebel stacks per turn in Vanilla, this is a change I applaud to.

What I did not like is the lack of knowledge.
When I start building regional or general warrior homes, I have no idea what kind of units I could actually get later.
Some kind of help here would be very nice.
Would it be possible to give a player an overview on the units he could build in a province?
I think this would significantly increase the gaming experience.


And now lets start with some less founded criticism.
To put it simply, the next part is about internal balance of the German units.
This is more an idea than a complain, considering the incredible amount of units, I was amazed by the level of balance achieved by the team.

I also had some problems with what I perceive as internal imbalances in the German army.
I found that Klumbakarlos (German Club Man) are completely redundant.
They cost about as much as Fraemeharjoz(German heavy Spears), and are worse in every single aspect. Lower stats, no Spears, even lower unit size.
The other units had clear and defined roles (levy Spears for Garrison duty, Skirmishers for Ambushing, Archers for ehm Shooting etc.) however, Club man cant do anyhting that heavy Spears could not do better.
My suggestions would be: A) increase size, B) significantly decrease cost and upkeep C) Maybe bring back war cry.
I would also like to see some High end German units.
Right now, my endgame armies look like my early game armies with some Mercenary riders thrown in and better weapons/bonus chevrons etc.

What I think is historically incorrect is the pathethic german Cavalry.
Historically, Caesar made great use of German mercenary Cavalry units in his Gaullish wars, where they proved to be significantly better than their Gaullish equivalents.
Especially the Uebian Cavalry was famous for that.
If a general Tier 3 German Cavalry is impossible, than what about adding them as special troops in noawdays Baden-Würtemberg (Should be around Vendilicopodus)?
Maybe make them a Medium Cavalry that causes fear in horses.

[Orb]

I think a new German cavalry unit is being added, but that's a 'wait-and-see' issue ;)

The ridoharjoz aren't actually bad, they're just lighter than the hippophiles among us would like.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Glad you're enjoying it. I'll tidy up the title if you don't mind. You didn't by chance download EB from the latest Gamestar issue, did you?

[Mightypeon]

I am currently starting a new Sweboz campaign.
5 out of 6 factions close to me (Aedui, Averni, Casse, Lusitanians and Dacians) have not conquered any provinces. So my perception of the game is propably spoiled.

[JeffBag]

Displayed stats aren't everything; for more detailed information look at the Germanic unit sheet in the trading card thread. As you can see from there, clubmen have 14% chance of killing with an AP attack, while Frameharjoz only have 12.5% chance of killing, and without AP. Taking this into consideration, clubmen still suck badly with only an armor value of 1, and since almost every single unit in Germania and Gaul are pretty much unarmoured, their main use is quite redundant. Maybe you can bring just one unit per stack just to flank and kill generals, until you can get Merjoz.

[ElectricEel]

I agree, the Klumbokarlaz are inferior to the spearmen until later in the game, when you are fighting factions with heavily armoured units, such as the Romans. Even then, they'll suffer far worse from missile fire, do not get bonuses against cavalry, and will not have access to the tighter formation of the spearmen. I'd like to see them made two or three hundred mnai (that is the unit of money used in EB, right?) cheaper to recruit than they are now - maybe then they'd get some use.

Another thing - the Scandinavian Warband is very expensive, considering its limited effectiveness. I understand that being able to recruit them from the 1st MIC level partly justifies their cost, but considering they are still weaker than the significantly cheaper Germanic Spearmen, I don't see why I would ever recruit them expect in very desperate circumistances.

EDIT: Turns out that the Scandinavians (and the Chaucii warband) have the 'Fast Moving' attribute. I guess they could be useful for chasing routers before you have cavalry, but I'm not sure that justifies their cost.