Quintili Vare, legiones redde! - or Varrus, give me back my legions!

[athanaric]

Ouch. Such a defeat would terribly irk me as a player... But it's nice to hear that the AI hires Worgozez.
Suebi are perhaps the second most underestimated faction, after Saba.

[Macilrille]

Ouch. Such a defeat would terribly irk me as a player... But it's nice to hear that the AI hires Worgozez.
Suebi are perhaps the second most underestimated faction, after Saba.

By who? They definately have a large following here and is the most popular Barbarian faction to play.

I do not think I have ever suffered such a defeat BTW, it must be the Scare units, I find that when I use them- or especially using the large Stone Projectors as Rome my enemies rout almost on contact. Which is annoying for the lack of cavalry in Roman and Sweboz armies disallows me from hunting down a massive enemy force.

[anubis88]

The AI has gone crazy in my campaign.

I attacked the Royal lusottanan army and won, however i lost 80% of my army!!!! Thankfully the Luso General decided in the middle of the battle that he and a few units should retreat, when i was almost broken and fled, so i could win the battle.
I guess it's really hard to fight against these chevron-up armies... Especially if their full of Elites. I almost lost another another battle now against the Arverni near Massilia, they had 5 generals in the stack and i lost about 40% of my army. They will soon attack me again, as another huge army is nearby.

On a more releated note, i DESTROYED the Sweboz army that kicked my ass. I was a little more prepared this time, and didn't let the AI surprise me.

Now i must concentrate on the other two fronts, since i cant bring reinforcements so far away in time...

The campaign has definetly become awesome. I guess it will become boring if i don't stabilize my borders soon. Also i don't have much money since Carthage keeps building ships so i need to sink them that they don't land on sicily...

Though, though campaing....

[Scutarii]

Chevrons make a massive difference.

On a whim I decided war with Rome as Quarthadastim would be a good idea.

I brought my Iberian vets down to Sicily and invaded from the south upwards.

One stack, mercs and some boats to retain stuff and I conquered the Romani pretty quick.

The stack I used had 6 units of 7 exp Liby-Phoenician Infantry. The AI ALWAYS runs its entire army into my flanks and placing three of them on each flank meant that they just took the charge and ground through whatever came at them. Elite Africans and Sacred band need retraining more often than the Liby-Phoenician vets did...

Chevrons matter.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Chevrons do matter. The toughest units with lots of chevrons are elite phalanxes. Playing as the Arche, I built my royal army under a two star commander replete with the typically well balanced Seleukid elite force. My general, 1 TAB, 1 Hypaspistai, 1 Peltasti Makedonikai, 1 Argyridaspidae, 2 Pezhetairoi, 2 Kleurochoi Phalangitai, 1 Armored Indian Ele, 1 Prodromoi, 1 Hetairoi, 1 Lonchophoroi Hippeis, 2 Kretan Archers, 1 Thorakitai, 1 Theurophoroi, and a unit of Merc Hoplitai and Merc Celtic Swordsmen. I decided to test this uber army against Pontos which had been losing a war badly against the relocated Arverni/Galatians. They were down to Pergamon and Nicomedia although the Galatians had been throwing armies against that town for some time now unsuccessfully. I decided to take this army out first to ease my conquests.

Well as I approached Nikomedia the army came out to attack me. 10 star Pontic faction leader with 2 units of gold chevroned Chalkaspides, silver chevroned Anatolian Hillmen, silver chevroned skirmisher units, and silver chevroned Pantodapoi Phalangitai. Well, I almost lost the battle... The Chalkaspidae would not die and butchered my phalanxes. The hillmen hit my armored infantry hard. The skirmishers made my elephants nearly irrelevent since they couldnt approach the rear of his line. In fact the skirmishers beat back my cavalry several times. The only reason I won the battle is because I set my Hypaspists oh his general and they finally pulled him down from his horse. Even then most of the phalanxes refused to break and the Chalkaspides fought to the last man.

In the end, my royal army which probably cost 30000 a turn to upkeep had to retreat from Anatolia without taking a single town.

[athanaric]

By who? They definately have a large following here and is the most popular Barbarian faction to play.

By numerous people who claim that "Barbarians rout easily" etc. Anyway, I bet these guys are all on your ignore list, so you probably didn't notice them...


Regarding the chevrons, there's nothing better than bribing a few depleted gold-chevron guys for a low amount of mnai and retraining them to full strength. Doesn't work all the time though.


Brave Brave Sir Robin: How come you weren't able to shoot the Hillmen and skirmishers with your Kretans? Usually they get massacred by archers, especially the axemen...

[IrishHitman]

German barbarians don't rout easily.
Luckily, they die easily, so I don't find it a significant problem.

The only massive defeat I've ever had was a siege against Massalia.
When I finally got inside their walls, I suffered massive casualties to break their forward defence troops, and ran out of time before reaching the city centre to finish off the rest.

Luckily, all the units survived with tiny numbers each, and returned to Rome to retrain, just in time to catch the start of the Macedonian War.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Brave Brave Sir Robin: How come you weren't able to shoot the Hillmen and skirmishers with your Kretans? Usually they get massacred by archers, especially the axemen...[/QUOTE]


I did target the skirmishers with my Kretans hoping to get rid of them so my elephants could reign free. Unfortunately he had about 4 units of Peltasts which fare relatively well against arrows and about 4 akontistai as well. Just too many warm bodies for the arrows.

[Macilrille]

By numerous people who claim that "Barbarians rout easily" etc. Anyway, I bet these guys are all on your ignore list, so you probably didn't notice them...

Anyway, I find Gauls rout easily while Getai and Zweboz are much tougher. At least as Romans. Carthaginians rout easily as well, while AS hold firm for longer.

I seem to notice though that as any faction loose more and more battles to me it starts routing easier, even with same unit type and more experience on them. And even against new Marian legions with no XP yet.

Is this;
Just me?
Coincidence?

[bigmilt16]

anubis, what did you ever do about those germans? did you ever push them back.

[anubis88]

anubis, what did you ever do about those germans? did you ever push them back.

Yeah I did... The po basin is safe for now... I have 2 legions patrolling the area, and i kicked the bastards out... They keep coming back for more, but i won't let them surprise me anymore...

They gave me quite a scare though...

Now i've also somewhat pacified the South border of Hispania so things are going back to normal...

[Macilrille]

I just esxperienced the dreaded "9-Chevrons-plus-another-XP-=-0-XP"- bug :-(

[athanaric]

Anyway, I find Gauls rout easily while Getai and Zweboz are much tougher. At least as Romans.

Hardly surprising if you check morale and discipline of their units. Getai and Swêboz are actually among the strongest factions in this respect (especially morale).

I seem to notice though that as any faction loose more and more battles to me it starts routing easier, even with same unit type and more experience on them. And even against new Marian legions with no XP yet.

Is this;
Just me?
Coincidence?

Perhaps you've refined your tactics without noticing it yourself? As time goes by, one gets better at timing charges etc..

[Macilrille]

I know, I am a big favorite of Sweboz morale and the Sweboz in general.

[ziegenpeter]

I know, I am a big favorite of Sweboz morale and the Sweboz in general.

Ain't we all?

I wonder how the chevrons thing will be used in EBII

[Atraphoenix]

Anyway, I find Gauls rout easily while Getai and Zweboz are much tougher. At least as Romans. Carthaginians rout easily as well, while AS hold firm for longer.

I seem to notice though that as any faction loose more and more battles to me it starts routing easier, even with same unit type and more experience on them. And even against new Marian legions with no XP yet.

Is this;
Just me?
Coincidence?

I can support these but I think when you keep winning the generals or royal court get some negative traits. At the moment AS keeps sending endless armies although I like early blitzing It is not the time for mesopotamia I am just starting to reform gov.
after I finished in all cities in persia then I will overrun mesopotamia, AS never stops attacking until you capture or sack Antiocheia. after this Ptolemies does the same.
But I got tired of They siege I wipe out vicious circle. in every turn they siege at least one of my city. I send my HAs and they run like children . I missed my first battles where they were about to fight to death.

[athanaric]

after I finished in all cities in persia then I will overrun mesopotamia, AS never stops attacking until you capture or sack Antiocheia. after this Ptolemies does the same.
But I got tired of They siege I wipe out vicious circle. in every turn they siege at least one of my city. I send my HAs and they run like children . I missed my first battles where they were about to fight to death.

I'm experiencing exactly the same thing. I'm already at Egypt's door though.

[Atraphoenix]

Just look at this...

If I finish Seleukeia, Yellow death is waiting for me.
I think after I conquer mesopotamia, I will FD with AS to keep them as a buffer state between me and Yellow Death.
Also to give Carthage some money would keep my tired army at bay for a while until I manage to get reformed gov.

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