Hail to the Druhtinaz - A gameplay guide to Sweboz (for beginners & advanced players)

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

So that I conquered the Chatti my leader is already Allatheudanaz. So it's not necessary to conquer Skandza and Gotland? I'll conquer them anyway due to baltic trade and mines. But now I'm going to punish the Lugii first.

Btw I was a bit surprised that the Druhtiz Habukisku are skirmishers. They are on skirmishing-mode by default and have the bow-symbol for ranged attack instead of the javelin. Is it a bug or a feature?

[AngryAngelDD]

1. Skandza and Gotland are not necessary....

2. Druhtiz Habukisku:
noticed that too, but anyway a nice feature (although the Bow-symbol is somehow weird, even for skirmishers)
buti believe they are "Spearmen", not "heavy infantry" as the other spear warbands

i don´t know if this whole thing is WAD, or if it´s a bug....

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Just suffered an "average defeat" against the freaking Lugii, although I had a slight advantage of 8:7. And I'm not used to it. It was full stack against full stack, the one of Rhesus the wanderer in the Lugii forest. They slayed 2500 of my 3500, and I slayed 2000, including Rhesus. My Druhtinaz was cut down by those Lugii Twohanderbearers. A true hero's dead. Another family member performed much worse... a coward soon to be sacrificed in the bog. I wish that was possible...

The next turn btw the Lugii army was totally replenished, as if nothing had happened, and, best of all, Rhesus came back from Walhalla into the mortals' world... Now is that a bug or a feature as well? In case it's a feature, and I could manage to annihilate them totally, will they be re-spawned the turn after?

[AngryAngelDD]

unfortunatly...yes they will respawn....

they are there to prevent the AI from rushing. but i think the AI will rarely have a chance to take a province, as they AI forces are pretty much undetermined to follow a goal persistently.

indeed these stacks are quite of a problem for the human sweboz player as well.


but i don´t want to judge early on....im 226 BC now......

i´ll see how the campaign is running in 150BC, 100BC etc.....especially the performance of the AI factions.

have a nice weekend
AngryAngelDD

[konny]

Complete different approach: Go North! There are mines Skandza from the start (it is one of these bonus towns like Pergamon, Tingis or the one in Northern India).

I had started a new Sweboz campaign yesterday and used my usuall approach:

- Disbanding the horsemen in Swebostrautesheim
- Gathering the armies and move West: the three towns in the West have walls but the weakest defence and largest population.
- After those battles my army was "a little" reduced, inculding the loss of the king in the last one. So I toggled fow off to check which more of the homeland settlements I might be able to take and so discovered the mines in Skandza.
- I am now moving north. If I cannot get Kimbrolandam and Skandza with this army (battles are somehow more difficult for the Sweboz in EB 1.0 than in EB 0.8) I will start a new campaign, and go North in the first turn.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Skandza is indeed my next goal.

[konny]

So, did it.

First of all, that was a beast of a battle what costed my another family member, who somehow managed to get in the middle of a Scandza Warband alone.




But it was worth the way. My economy did recover immediatly thereafter and I was in the green two or three turns after my generals had returned home:



In the lower part of the image is what had remained of the starting army, save for one unit of archers per town as garrison.

[konny]

Complete different approach: Go North! There are mines Skandza from the start (it is one of these bonus towns like Pergamon, Tingis or the one in Northern India).

I was mistaken in this point: the mines are not placed by the descr_strat but built by the AI very, very early in the game.



So, that would be my advise for playing the Sweboz:

1st Disband all the cavalry in your capital. They cost you 696 mne each, making 2,784 mne every turn. You do not need them either because in the next ten or so years you will hardly be fighting anything but assaults on towns; save for occasional students' revolts (they must be students because they keep shouting commands in Greek to annoy my illiterate warlords).

2nd Raise four units of archers at once. They do not cost more than one of the Ridnaz unit and will be a great help in the comming siege battles. Later they can form the first little garrison. Since you won't have any money left after turn #1, you should build them all at once and not wait for the first to be finished. Set taxes to low to encourage population growth.

3rd Move West. The three Eastern towns (Skandza, Rugoz, Silengoz) can have mines; but as long as the AI has not build any, that won't help you because you can't do so for the next ten or so years. So, wait with the conquest of these lands until the AI had built the mines - or until you would be able to do so. The three Western towns have wooden walls but the weaker garrison. Don't leave any garrison behind until the last archer is build. Send your diplomat to the Arverni and Aedui and ask for peace.

4th Take the three Western towns. Either move from North to South or South to North, but don't start with the one in the middle. Always leave one unit of archers behind, drafting the four new built in your capital to the army. Set taxes to low until the town has reached 2,000 souls and do not install goveners. Use your FM as heavy infantry and let them do most of the fighting; accept any new FM that is offered to you by adaption or marriage for the same reason.

5th Send your spy to the Eastern towns (or toggle_fow) to check if any of these has allready mines build. If so, go and take it; if not attack the Kimbroz. If none of the three mine-towns has build any after that, you might as well disband the army, distribute the surving FMs on your settlements and start building up economy.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Can you recruit Apeleutheroi? The description of the governor's palaces say yes, but they don't appear in the browser. The Eleutheroi do so (I saw them and killed them in battle). Any advice?