A Comprehensive Guide to Swêbōz Gameplay

[athanaric]

I'm a little behind the guide I guess, as I doubt I'll be taking Carrodunum in the 260's, but it will probably be in 259-258, so pretty close to target. Right now I need to refit my army because I don't think I can take on Lugii swordsmen and Urodusios with what I have left (well, I probably could, but it would dangerous and might cost me some generals).

You'll just need some more Jugundiz and Medjinikos. The Lugii Swordsmen and the exhibitionists are very vulnerable to missiles, which means even Skudjonez are a real threat to them.
Make it a "Parthian siege" with shooting as many people as you can before entering.

Luckily, since Skutjonez have spears, disaster was averted because they easily covered my rear against the cavalry. They are much more useful than I expected, although that's probably because nobody wears any armor up here so arrows are absurdly deadly.

They are extremely cheap, which makes up for low range, ammo, and morale. Also the fact that their secondary weapon is actually useful makes them far better than, say, Toxotai.

I'm going to go ahead and nominate Dugundiz for the most versatile basic infantry unit in the game.

Their "regional" variants (available in factional MIC) are even better. The Chatti ones have very slightly increased morale and range, whereas the Chauci and Gaut spearmen have better shields.

As you can probably tell, I'm having a great time, although I'm getting a bit worried about the Romani, they already made the Aedui a protectorate and it's only 261 BC...

Just keep them covered with spies. If all else fails and they blitz the Gauls, raid their Italian cities. That's even historical.

Anyways, thanks to both of you, Macilrille and athanaric, for your guides. In fact, both of you have a balloon, the first I have given out I might add.

Thanks, glad you're enjoying this faction.

Edit: Should I be building Type II gov'ts in the Baltic regions, or will that make me miss out on any high-level regionals?

Type II is perfect for Baltic regions. All their units are available at regional MIC level 3, even those "Polish" swordsmen (who are quite useful, BTW. They are about equal to Botroas).
Just make sure to (initially) build a Tyoe III government in Carrodunum, for the insane swordsmen. I'll add some information on temples and recommended governments to the first post.

e: done.

[Macilrille]

Not much to add really, what you are also noticing is the high morale of Sweboz units, they very- very rarely break, perhaps even less than the Romans. In fact in my games the Polybians, at least, break more often than Sweboz, even crappy Sweboz. Get yourself some XP-adding temples and see them really kick behind. Ludens has a guide to them somewhere around here. There is in fact a Gallic Temple that equivalates the one that gives you 5 (I think it is 5) chevrons and the Gauls can build Huge Cities, and thus wondrous temples. I got one that way. Sadly it could only produce a few units.

Anyway, I am glad that our guides convinced you to come over to the Dark Germanic-barbaric Side. Just wait till you see what Slagonez does to armoured infantry :-D

[WinsingtonIII]

Not much to add really, what you are also noticing is the high morale of Sweboz units, they very- very rarely break, perhaps even less than the Romans. In fact in my games the Polybians, at least, break more often than Sweboz, even crappy Sweboz. Get yourself some XP-adding temples and see them really kick behind. Ludens has a guide to them somewhere around here. There is in fact a Gallic Temple that equivalates the one that gives you 5 (I think it is 5) chevrons and the Gauls can build Huge Cities, and thus wondrous temples. I got one that way. Sadly it could only produce a few units.

Anyway, I am glad that our guides convinced you to come over to the Dark Germanic-barbaric Side. Just wait till you see what Slagonez does to armoured infantry :-D

I'm already building temples to Deiwoz in all my unit producing settlements. What level of settlement am I limited to? Minor cities? Or am I stuck at large towns? That would be unfortunate...

As for coming over to the dark side, I've always been a "barbarian" fan (especially Getai of course), so I think I was already halfway there, I had just been meaning to start a Sweboz campaign for quite a while now.

They are extremely cheap, which makes up for low range, ammo, and morale. Also the fact that their secondary weapon is actually useful makes them far better than, say, Toxotai.

Yeah, the major complaint I have with them is low ammo. They burn through it so quickly that I find myself trying to make every volley truly count, so that none are wasted on shields. But, now I'm going to be able to field Medjinikos soon, so that problem should be resolved.

Their "regional" variants (available in factional MIC) are even better. The Chatti ones have very slightly increased morale and range, whereas the Chauci and Gaut spearmen have better shields.

I noticed this when looking through the stats, right now the only ones I could recruit are Gaut Spearmen I think, but my MIC isn't high enough in Scandanavia anyways. Either way, when I said Dugundiz are the most versatile basic infantry unit in the game, I was including their other varieties in that category as well.

Just keep them covered with spies. If all else fails and they blitz the Gauls, raid their Italian cities. That's even historical.

I actually already sent a spy down as soon as I saw the message pop up, and the situation isn't as bad as I thought. The Romani do appear to be focusing heavily on the North, but they still haven't taken all of Cisalpine Gaul yet, and the Aedui still have their one Cisalpine settlement under their control. Venturing over into Transalpine Gaul I found that the Aedui actually seem to have the upper hand over the Arverni (but it's still very close, the Arverni could easily come back), which was interesting, I was expecting them to have been badly beaten by Arverni in order to have become the Romani's client state. I'm not sure what I want to happen here. Arguably, if the Aedui win and the Romani actually honor their alliance for some time, it may force the Romani south and thus away from me. On the other hand, if this same situation occurs, it could mean that I would be facing a united Aedui and Romani, which is not what I want. But if the Arverni win, they will probably be too weak to resist Roman expansion and thus I will probably be dealing with Romans who control all of Gaul and Italy. I'm just going to have to what a bit and see where it's heading before I make any decisions I guess.

[athanaric]

I'm already building temples to Deiwoz in all my unit producing settlements. What level of settlement am I limited to? Minor cities? Or am I stuck at large towns? That would be unfortunate...

Large cities.

Yeah, the major complaint I have with them is low ammo. They burn through it so quickly that I find myself trying to make every volley truly count, so that none are wasted on shields. But, now I'm going to be able to field Medjinikos soon, so that problem should be resolved.

Indeed. 25 arrows is better than 15, and 184 m range is better than 143 m.

I'm not sure what I want to happen here.

You want one of the Gaul factions to come out on top, and not the Romans. Why? Because of cultural penalty. You see, the Gauls (unlike you) can build stone walls, level 2 farms, garrison quarters, universities, public baths, hospitals, festival grounds, and most importantly paved roads - of Barbarian Culture.
If that fact doesn't make you devise a wickedly evil plan for your campaign, concerning, er, the "cultural enrichment" of Gaul, I don't know what will.

e: copied this into OP.

[Macilrille]

Yes, let them build up and max out, then take them. And unless you play with the mod making expansion historical the Romans will at some point come knocking on your door. And Romans are the absolute worst enemy I have faced as Sweboz. Great fun :-) Especially when you ambush them.

[WinsingtonIII]

Yeah, I already figured Roman domination was the worst case scenario, but this makes me even more sure of that. The annoying thing is the Romans have no enemies now and as such are free to throw troops at the Central European defensive stacks. But luckily they've been losing hard for the most part

[athanaric]

Updated with some concise unit descriptions.