Hmm, I don't think what I do qualifies as a blitz. I think blitzers literally go on a non-stop rampage and massacre everything everywhere no matter the odds. On vh/vh. In contrast, I actually like to take my time, develop my economy and get a balanced army out, but if you just sit back the AI bloats up stupidly and with no regard to the rules, turning the conquest into a repetitive chore against endless doomstacks of crappy troops.
With Germania, unless you go full banzai against the romans right from the start (a popular strategy if you look through the topic) it is imperative that you strike first against Gaul and Britannia. Alesia is a lovely city that can serve as the capital of your fledgeling empire as it expands wesward and south. Samarobriva is usually guarded by a huge brittish force but you always have a great advatange when attacking from the south: the area is heavily forested, so if you lay siege from that direction and a relief force attempts to break it, you will always have a thick forest where to lie in ambush. This is how I prevailed both in the gaul and german playthrough. A good ambush not only breaks the morale of their superior numbers like a domino, but the thick forest bogs down the chariots, making them easy pickings even if you don't have spear warbands.
Now, with regard to spear warbands, I don't like them to be honest :(. I think that if you put 20 stacks of spear warbands in phalanx and line them up in column formation, a roman general can moonwalk through all 20 of them stright through the spears, that's how bad they are. I've literally seen big general units trash three phalanx formations in quick succession through frontal charge right into the spears. Given that they are the closest thing to balanced infantry that these guys can field, the rest being shock troops and flankers, I think I will actually have to adopt a different strategy from my usual playstyle if I give up on spear warbands entirely and hence on the idea of a strong core to fix the enemy: strong cavalry charge with archer fire cover to break the first ranks, followed by withdrawing the horses and crashing a tidal wave of frenzied axemen, berserkers and whatever other maniacs may be available. Hopefully, this will be enough to score a rout. Otherwise, there's no way to win a drawn-out fight given that these guys have 0 defense.
As for the economy, I'm actually doing fairly well. As long as I train troops efficiently, not oversizing your garrisons or training too many elite units, I can build up my infrastructure forward and still get a small profit. When money starts pilling up I usually spend it on buildings. There is no need to hoard a vast treasury and get bad traits for your generals. Also, I keep my tax levels quite low. Very low for towns and normal for large towns. I crank them up when I get cities, even if it means throwing a few extra units for garrison.
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