Need opinion on my Julii Campaign

[wizbode]

So, I'm thinking about finally finishing up a campaign. I always restart at this point because I like to manage everything and the things start to get out of control.



Well, as you can see, I have a well stablished empire. I control the hole Iberian Peninsula, plus Baliares and Sardinia. I also control upper Italy, of course, and the whole Gaulish territory (just finished them right now). And finally I have managed to capture Tingi before Scipii, and pretend to backstab them from here when Civil War explodes.

Britons and egyptians are my allies (but I don't really trust them). I don't really want to go in a war against Dacia right now, even though the Senate is pressuring me to do it.

I just captured Alesia and it is a City, so I can pump Early Legionaires and Archers Auxilias at will, which are the backbone of my army right now.

Well, what shall I do? I tought about capturing Ireland, and deploying an army in upper Britain, so as to backstab them. At the same time, I would blitzkrieg Lugdunum and fortify at Alesia to hold them down.

Or should I forget about the Britons and send an expedition somewhere else?

Some facts:
- Britons are pounding on poor Germania which are down to one settlement. I think Britons are allies with Dacia, so after they finish Germania they will probably go after me or Dacia, betraying one of us. Dacia is helping them against Germania, but I helped them against Gaul.
- Poor Greeks are down to only Rhodes.
- Egyptians are looking fearsome. They are eating Pontus and Armenia alive, but right now Scipii is sending some legions through Tripolitania to Lybia, so maybe they will have a challenge.
- That's the first time I saw Parthians get some Scythian territories. Maybe they will grow strong, as they have Armenia as a buffer against Egypt.
- Brutii is also very strong, they almost killed the Greeks and destroyed Macedonia and the Thracians.

[mrdun]

Keep the african provinces as a buffer to egypt, you dont want a long war with the civil war about to break out prettysoon. Yes I would say get you 35 or so settlements needed to provoke civil war in northern lands, Ireland, briton, germany etc. Your single african province is a bit excluded, consider giving it to scipii as a gift. Then you can concentrate up north.

[Caeser The III]

pretty good campain but like mrdun said i would perfer you give the african province to the scipii as a gift. it'll really help during the civil war.

[TruePraetorian]

I agree, but don't give it to the Scipii. Give it to (sounds odd) the greeks or germans. This way, you can build an alliance while preventing a southern assault by the Scipii in the civil war. Greece has only one province, so they will provide an excelent buffer without the worry of a major army assaulting you. Remember that the more power you have in the Civil war, the greater the chances of winning...i lost a civil war my first time playing and ill tell ya it's all down hill from there. Nice campaign though!

[Barbarian]

I play Julii too. Nice to see how others do it. I usually go after the Northern Europe and Greece first, and only then for the Spain and Africa. But you probably have a better strategical position than I had around that time, because all the cities are in a one side of the world (I had borders with almost all countries, as my settlements were dispersed).

About that settlement in Africa: If you have given it away already, then nothing. If not, consider it well. When civil war will start, you will need to get a foothold in Africa again, and it might be hard. Maybe, go the opposite way -if you can upgrade and garrison it in short time, that would be good. In that case, you should also transport at least one governor there, who could quickly hire mercenaries in a case of civil war.
You can give it to Greece, of course, thats a good decision. But don't give it to Scipii. Each city makes them much stronger. I do completely the opposite -buy roman settlements at the start, to make them weaker. I have often had a situation, where other roman families start the civil war with 2-3 settlements, while I have 30-35. The fate of the war decided...

I think you should start preparing for the war against britons. They are always treacherous. The last few times, I had no problem with them, because I didn't wait for their betrayal, but betrayed them first! A surprise attack - 3 briton towns besieged and taken in one turn. No answer for such a strike.

[Charge]

Britons is the way to go. Secure your flanks/rear, gain popularity and then prepair for civil armageddon ;)

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I would not really advise against giving any provinces away honestly. Every province is an extra flow of cash. The Scipii may take it later, but the main thing is that you've exploited its wealth for a period and have it contained in your coffers. It also may be useful, should you need to weaken the Scipii from that side later.

Right now though I would advise performing the original action you suggested - attacking Britain from Ireland and then rampage through British controlled Europe. I do believe that the AI generally doesn't have as many troops wandering through their lands if there are no nearby foes/potential foes.

I would also suggest expanding into the Dacian lands as quickly as possible. Although you do wish to avoid this, the current Dacian border regions have some very easily defended river/mountain passes which can help keep the Brutii from expanding into Europe quite as easily when the civil war comes.

On a final note, in the future you may wish to send an expedition to Kydonia (the island of Crete to the South of Greece). Although it may be a little far from your current regions, occupying the settlement and then using it as a base for the conquest of the wealthy cities of Asia Minor (Turkey) can be a worthwhile tactic. Egypt's power, and the lack of defensibility of the regions can be a problem when over there though, so if you choose to take this route you probably will have to dedicate a fairly large military to the regions defense.

[mrdun]

About that settlement in Africa: If you have given it away already, then nothing. If not, consider it well. When civil war will start, you will need to get a foothold in Africa again, and it might be hard. Maybe, go the opposite way -if you can upgrade and garrison it in short time, that would be good. In that case, you should also transport at least one governor there, who could quickly hire mercenaries in a case of civil war.

I would say that is the best option actually. Just post a reasonable force on garrison duty and a spy on the scipii border.

[mrdun]

I would not really advise against giving any provinces away honestly. Every province is an extra flow of cash. The Scipii may take it later, but the main thing is that you've exploited its wealth for a period and have it contained in your coffers.

Right now though I would advise performing the original action you suggested - attacking Britain from Ireland and then rampage through British controlled Europe. I do believe that the AI generally doesn't have as many troops wandering through their lands if there are no nearby foes/potential foes.

I would also suggest expanding into the Dacian lands as quickly as possible. Although you do wish to avoid this, the current Dacian border regions have some very easily defended river/mountain passes which can help keep the Brutii from expanding into Europe quite as easily when the civil war comes.

On a final note, in the future you may wish to send an expedition to Kydonia (the island of Crete to the South of Greece). Although it may be a little far from your current regions, occupying the settlement and then using it as a base for the conquest of the wealthy cities of Asia Minor (Turkey) can be a worthwhile tactic. Egypt's power, and the lack of defensibility of the regions can be a problem when over there though, so if you choose to take this route you probably will have to dedicate a fairly large military to the regions defense.

Omanes was did not remove 'idiot' from his name for nothing

[Quintus.JC]

attacking Britain seems to be the sensible choice, although you don't want to fight a major faction when the Civil war starts. if you want to fight the Britz then strike at it's power-base first, aim for the minor cities. choosen swordsmen are a very competent unit, they are a match for the legions and will beat early legionaries. powerful armies will be needed back in Italy just in case the civil war starts out earlier than you're expected. you're gonna need the best troop you got to beat your Roman rivals, if you have any spare navy than use it to block their ports when civil war does comes, this will wear them down. good luck.

[wizbode]

Hey, thanks for all the opinions.

I think I'm going to risk a bit. I'm going to follow my original plan but with some modifications: Launch a powerful simultaneous attack on the Britons.

1) One army, consisted of Early Legionaires and auxilias, moving from Ireland to upper Britain and conquering the provinces there. After that, they will move by ship to Bordesholm (Tribus Saxones) and attack there.

2) Another army (an army of experienced pre-Marian reform units) will attack Lugdunum.

3) Another army of powerful Legionaires fresh from Italy will take the fight from central Gaul with the intent on taking Belgica, Germania Superior and Inferior, and after that moving forward.

The downside to this is that I will have almost no units in Italy, but I will be recruiting new ones ASAP. If the civil war starts in the middle of this, I'll probably be in a bad situation, rushing my armies back to Italy.

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Omanes idea about Kydonia is very nice. I will send an expedition there, and make it a nice base for surprise attacks at the Brutii when civil war starts!

Dacia however is kinda off my thoughs right now. I will only think about them if the civil war does not start after I conquer the Britons, or if they attack first. Then they'll know the fury of the Julii.

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About the African settlement. I'm very tempted to give it to Greece, but I fear they will be slaughtered by the Scipii. If I happen to give it to them, I would also have to give them a good sum of money to help them defend it and fortunately launch attacks at Scipii before the civil war erupts.

My current plan though is keeping it. I can train a good army of legionaires in Corduba and transport them there in no time. I guess I'm going to start training them now, although it will make a hole in my coffers, but the income from the war with the British will probably make up for it.

[wizbode]

I was also thinking about expanding the original Kydonia expedition (which is a Rebel settlement) to Rhodes.

This would destroy the Greeks, but the income improvement from the Colossus would be very handy to train the stacks needed to win the civil war, specially against Brutii.

My only fear would be to anger the nearby Egyptians, which currently are my allies. If this happens, I would have another front of battle with a very powerful enemy. But, thinking in another direction, this would also be a good base of attack on the same egyptians.

I guess the only way to destroy the Egyptians as they are would be to launch three attacks, one to Egypt itself or Siwa, another from Asia minor and another right in it's heart in Jerusalem. But I'll let the Scipii and Brutii worry about them for now

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Really the civil war isn't something you need to worry about until you/one of your fellow Romans has a Popular Rating of approximately eight, or you/one of your allies have a senate popularity rating of approximately two. From a look at the status your current map, I feel that the civil war may be a fair distance away, so shouldn't be something you should be too concerned about yet.

Senate Popularity increases with fulfillment of senate missions and conquest of additional provinces up to a total of approximately thirty-five. Increases can also be gained by having family members with senate popularity increasing traits.

Senate Popularity decreases at its fastest when about thirty-five provinces are gained. Further conquest, even when following senate missions, is harmful to your popularity rating which will fall more and more rapidly as you gain more land. Further ways the rating can fall is when mission requests are not obeyed, and when family members have senate popularity reducing traits.

Popularity with the people isn't quite like senate popularity, and continues to climb the more provinces you successfully conquer - unlimited! It does fall though if you lose provinces though. It also can be lowered by family members with senate popularity reducing traits.

There are two ways that the civil war may be declared. You can either reach a low senate popularity rating and refuse their demands for suicide, or you can declare the war yourself when the people consider you worthy.

For the former to work, you typically, as stated above, need either two or fewer senate popularity shields.

When the senate decide they hate you enough (about three shields), they will first start making missions which come tied in with penalties. These penalties include investigations, which usually come along with large fines, and exposure of secrets, basically a nasty trait for your faction leader.

If your senate popularity drops any further, then the senate will demand that your faction leader commits suicide. Refusal will result in you becoming classed as a outlaw (the senate and, usually, the other Roman factions declare war upon you), while acceptance provides you a few more turns to up your rating before they ask you again.

Bear in mind that this can occur to the AI, and, if it does, you have a choice over who to support. You, and the other Roman factions, can also, if this does happen, declare war upon any other Roman faction personally thereafter.

For the latter to occur, you usually require eight or more people popularity points.

When the people consider you highly enough, you will receive a message, informing you of a chance to take power. This should allow you to declare war upon any other Roman faction by attacking one of their cities or armies. By doing this, the senate will outlaw you, and the other Roman factions typically declare war against you (although sometimes the AI does choose to side with your faction).

Bear in mind that this can also occur to the AI. If it does, you will asked who you wish to support. You, and the other Roman factions, will also gain the opportunity to attack any other Roman faction if you so wish.

[Quirinus]

Hmm, not really sure if my opinion is still needed, but I'd say, take out the Britons, from the south. As it is now, should the Brits choose to attack you, an invasion of Massila or Narbo Martius will cleave your empire in two and cut off supply lines. Not to mention, that province right in the middle of Gaul (is it Alesia? I'm not sure) could potentially threaten many provinces. Take it, and you save the costs of garrisoning three settlements with expensive troops.

The map is looking pretty good. Both the Brutii and the Scipii have borders with Egypt, which should occupy them for a bit and check their exapnsion while you bring civilization to the unwashed barbarians. ;)

[Spartan198]

Do not trust the Egyptians! I cannot stress this enough. They'll turn on you shortly after you take Rhodes. On the good side,though,you might be able to neutralize the Egyptian navy if you have ships to spare. Either try to take their coastal settlements if possible,or keep their major ports permanantly blockaded.