Casse anyone?

[Javolenus]

Hi There,

I consider myself an EB novice, as I'm still playing my first campaign (Romani). But playing EB has got me reading stuff on the period.

I recently started reading Tacitus's account of Roman campaigns in Britain, and that got me wondering about the Casse faction in EB.

I wanted to ask if anyone regularly played the Casse faction, and if so, what views/experiences they had of playing that faction? I guess I'm curious to know more about the Casse faction and how the campaign develops for them.

I was also wondering if the Casse faction is - or will be - voice-modded?

[Gebeleisis]

about casse, have you checked the oficial site?
https://www.europabarbarorum.com/factions_casse.html

on the other questions i dont know the answer :)

cheers

[Ludens]

I haven't played the Casse faction since 0.8, so my account may be a little out of date, but I found them fun to play. Militarily, they are weaker than the continental Celts and they have got a rather tense start, but once you've defeated the rebel stacks you are safe and can conquer Britain to turn it into an economic powerhouse.

As the Casse you start out with one city, a small army and peace with the Eleutheroi. You'll need it because you've got only one other trading partner and your army is probably not strong enough to defeat the two stacks (yes, two!) of Eleutheroi lurking in our near your borders. You are also allied with both Aedui and Averni, but they have only one port between them. My strategy was to turtle and build up my treasury. This required me to disband most of my army, but I kept one or two units in addition to my charioteer generals. I also built a larger harbour and a school to improve my generals. The Eleutheroi stack may attack, but I found this could be somehow countered by occasionally moving the majority of my troops in and out of the city. Once I had accumulated a considerable fortune, I recruited an army of Iasatae, Botroas and Gaeroas and conquered the three Midland towns. Strangely, the Eleutheroi stacks, who had previously shown a modest inclination to attack me, did nothing once the war started. I simply defeated the Eleutheroi one by one. Be aware though, those Balroa are though and don't rout quickly. Then it was simply a matter of conquering Caledonia and Ireland and building a strong economy. I waited until I reached the first Celtic reform and then invaded the mainland. Unfortunately, I chose to conquer Germany for betraying our alliance (they seem to be rather untrustworthy allies), which was a bad idea with hindsight. Few of their provinces generate much income, and the only recruitable German unit is the mid-level spearman and the German mercenary general. I should have developed Belgium and simply kept defending against the Germans. Then I could pick sides in the Gallic civil war. It's probably important to intervene early, because else the Romans are going to gobble up both parties, but I'd recommend to wait at least until the first reform.

Military, you are rather weak. Your basic infantry, the gaeroas and botroas units are unarmoured, but make good close-combat fighters and will form the bulk of your army. You also have access to Iasatae, which were deadly in 0.8 but have been toned down since. Still, they are quite cheap and useful missile troops. This is pretty much all you will get, but once you conquer Caern-Brigante and Caledonia, you will get access to Midlander heroes and balroa respectively. Midlander heroes are still poorly-armoured, but they give a morale boost to your troops and can be used as shock troops. Balroa are though skirmishers. Once you hit the reforms, you will get more armoured infantry. Unfortunately, these are all hero units, so they will be expensive. You need the heroes, thought, because they can can keep your gaeroas and botroas from routing when fighting stronger units.

To make things worse, your cavalry is awful. You have no heavy cavalry, poor light cavalry and your generals' chariot bodyguard is of limited value. That said, chariots are not useless: they should be used for harassment and morale support (their presence scares enemy units). They do carry a large stash of javelins and their multiple hitpoints do allow them to last a while in melee though, but you should avoid this. You can also use them to break enemy charges by moving them through the enemy unit and following up with infantry. I find it advisable to have them charge in or at least pursue routers once during the battle, as it will prevent your generals from gaining "coward" vices.

Things get better once you conquer Belgium. The Belgian provinces have upgraded versions of several of your units, as well as the best Celtic cavalry unit available. You also can recruit Milnath (also available in Camulosadae), who make good shock infantry. Unfortunately, these only become available after the first Celtic reform. Ireland also has it share of useful units after the first reform, including one of the best-armoured infantry units in the game, so perhaps I am being a bit too harsh on the Casse here. They do have good units, but you'll have to wait until the first reform to get the heavy stuff, and they are mostly found in only a few provinces. But once you've got the British isles developed, you've got the economy to build a powerful army or two, and use them to conquer Gaul. Just don't make the same mistake I did and get bogged down at the Eastern front.

The Casse use the Gallic voicemod, as they are ex-pat Gauls and not Briton Celts.

[Javolenus]

Many thanks for these replies.

I'll check out the EB website and, having read Ludens' excellent summary, I'll probably play a Casse campaign after I finish the present game.

That's good advice Ludens - many thanks!

[Strategos Alexandros]

A word of advice: Keep one unit of infantry and disband the rest to get out of debt. Keep one unit or you may be defeated by a bunch of Caledonian skirmishers on turn 3. My earliest campaign end on EB so far.

[Javolenus]

Hi Strategos Alexandros,

Thanks for this reply. I just started playing EB recently and began with a Romani campaign. But it seems to me that playing a 'barbarian' faction might be more of a challenge. Maybe the Casse are one of the harder factions to play?

I'll remember the advice about Caledonian skirmishers!

[Redmeth]

I noticed that the rebels won't attack you until you build roads, as soon as the roads got completed they always attacked me.

[wumpus]

Yo Ludens. I tried playing Casse (my very first choice), but I accidentally attacked an Eleutheroi village somewhere in modern Denmark, which was also besieged by the Sweboz (I know, I know--a blunder in picking the wrong side, and a very bad place to be in(what was I doing in Denmark?) so far from home), and of course got drubbed and was losing money fast too, so I abandoned the campaign and erased it then started a fresh Casse campaign, this time following the advice of the Guide (disband some units, get the emissary across the Channel, look for trade partners, disband the ship), but I soon was again on the road to bankruptcy. At the moment, I can't think of what to do next. But I like your advice here--it could help me a lot. Hawooh.