I fear the Germans!

[NorthHammer]

I've been playing as Juli and have been pretty successful fighting against the Gauls. I've lost only one battle to them. I reached a point where I had to stop and reinforce my troops, when Gaul was at its weakest.

Well, the pleasant old Germans decided to come to the aid of their comrades. I see them right outside a castle of mine, and I say, "Screw them, I'm not going to wait for them to siege my castle, I'm going on the attack. I'm going to send those damn Germans across the Rhine so I can finish off the Gauls."

I took a look at the German rescue squad. It was being led by a captain, not a general. There were about 4 units of chosen axeman with 2-3 silver chevrons each. It was a full size army of about 3000 units, and they had about 300 units of reinforcements.

I looked at this group and thought "who are these little bastards think they are toying with? I've taken on 9 star Gaullic generals with no challenge. These leaderless wimps are going to be slaughtered."

I was attacking them with my Faction leader. My faction leader was either a 9 or 10 star (whatever is the highest). I had 6 units of Hastati, 4 units of Principes, 4 units of Triari, 3 Velites, and 2 units of Equites. All units were maxed out in numbers and 1-3 orange chevrons.

Well, I set my battle formation as I typically do. Hastati up front with shield wall and hold formation, fire at will. I had my two lines of backup of Principes and Triari to back them up. The Germans charged at me and my Hastati held the line. I reinforced them with principes, and later the triari. I was confused because the Germans weren't running. They were not dying either. I broke through in my middle left line and began to swoop around to the right. My left flank was heavily engaged and on the border of triumph until the enemy reinforcements arrived. The line enemy line that I had broken through earlier, gained inspiration when their backups arrived. All of a sudden my left flank looked like it was going to fall. Most of the heavy combat was occurring on my middle right side, but it was a meat grinding festival. I knew that if I lost my left flank, i'd be doomed.

I took my two cavalry units and taunted the enemies coming after my left flank to keep them away. Fortunately they took the bait. My left flank finally took over, but my middle right line was looking really bad. I had already committed my velites to the front, and they were being slaughtered. I sent my left flank to encircle the middle right line, in addition to the equites that were running around. I figured out why my right side was struggling, they were engaged against 3 units of those damn chosen axeman.

I finally got the rest of the Germans encircled, and they finally broke and ran. I mopped them up accordingly, but everyone minus my general was so exhausted that they were running like lard-asses. I ended up winning the battle, killed over 95% of the enemy, but lost 65% of MY MEN!

The reason I write this is, I never expected a challenge from a CAPTAIN. If this is what the Germans are capable of with a captain against my 10 star general, i'm terrified what they can do with their own 10 star general.

Maybe I blitzed the Gauls too fast? Maybe the Gauls would've been this much of a challenge if I had gone slower? It's 240bc and I've taken abot 8-10 provinces from the Gauls. Am I moving too fast, or are teh Germans just that tough?

If this is what is to be expected in the future, I'm so excited. This game just got so much more entertaining after the Germans reminded me that I'm not the master of the world.

Settings: VH/M Huge

[Revan The Great]

Well my friend, Gauls to the Germans, is like a house cat to a Lion 100x more kickass then the one Hercules/Heracles wrestled.

-Revan

[NorthHammer]

Before I attack the germans, I'm going to make a custom Warcry sound mod to make them even more terrifying.

I've also changed the battle horn of the barbarians to the battle horn that you can hear in pelenor fields in LOTR ROTK, blown by the elephant riders. It's quite intimidating.

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

oh yes, the Germans........

I've been playing Brutii so have come up to the Gauls from the South and am facing huge Gallic armies of Chosen Swordsmen, and they eat hastatii and principes for breakfast. But the Germans.......

I'm starting to get armies of them heading south with 10+ Chosen Axemen in them. The only way I have found to defeat the little buggers is to fight them at a bridge, and even then you take 10-15% casualties using principes only.

I need Marius to get to work!

[lt1956]

Well before Marius no one play with the Germans. lol So having them be tough on Pre marius is accurate. :-)

Germans are tough but so can the guals, but the gauls arent as tough as the germans. For some reason the germans use Chosen Axemen alot and cavalry. This tends to give them the edge. Not to mention the Berzerkers and Night raiders! I never mess with them until I have MR and after kill gaul.

Lt

[Savage_Swede]

Before I attack the germans, I'm going to make a custom Warcry sound mod to make them even more terrifying.

I've also changed the battle horn of the barbarians to the battle horn that you can hear in pelenor fields in LOTR ROTK, blown by the elephant riders. It's quite intimidating.

ooohhh... sounds good, can u make it available for download? along with some instructions, as i dont know a :wub: about modding

[Freddie]

Instead of using Velites use archers instead. When the German line is fully committed send your archers round the sides then around the back of the German line and get to fire a will from point blank range. This seems to inflict death at an alarming rate plus it has a massive demoralizing effect on the enemy.

You see in your battle your Velites ran out of ammo and you ended up using them to reinforce your line. Well it is very unlikely your archers will run out ammo in the course of a battle


Also don't commit your second and third lines to quickly. If your Hastati start to rout so what? They can be retrained at the nearest town. That way you wear down the Germans as much as possible. Think about it, you have just beaten one line of troops but you are now tired not to mention hurt, you now have to do it two more times. Hell, even with PM auxillia spear units they have managed to hold up a German line until it broke!

[Revan The Great]

Of course, what if they outflank your first line *cough*. I don't have too great of problems beating Germans, but Gauls are such push-overs in comparison.

-Revan

[makeshift52]

Good point Freddie,

Northhammer,

Just try and avoid reinforcing until you have to. Try and focus your pilum on Chosen Axemen - it will kill them!

[NorthHammer]

Thanks for the advice. I think I reinforced my front line too quickly.

Question, I place my front line of hastati as long and thin, with shield wall and holding formation. My second and 3rd ranks of principes and triari are not as long and thin, plus I have them set to standard formation. Do you think I should change my second and third rank formation?

Freddie, I think I'll try that archer trick. My archers barely do crap when facing straight at the germans, but I'll try shooting them in the back.

Savage, I'd be more than happy to share. Give me about a few more weeks. I'm trying to get some really good recordings before I do my WarCry mod. As for modding, the funny thing is that I only know how to modify sounds and music. I'm going to do my WarCry with three basic different sounds.

Heavy Infantry will have individual screams. Medium infantry will have taunts in foreign languages. And light infantry i'm unsure of at this time, maybe a few cool taunts in english (not "stinking rats" or any of that stupid crap)

[LuiSius_ScutaRuS]

Before I attack the germans, I'm going to make a custom Warcry sound mod to make them even more terrifying.

I've also changed the battle horn of the barbarians to the battle horn that you can hear in pelenor fields in LOTR ROTK, blown by the elephant riders. It's quite intimidating.

stop showing off man!!

joking.

ok, that sounds good, now why wont you give yourself a min of fame by making a little "sound-mod" and share with us?

[NorthHammer]

I won't share it until I have it completely tested and completed. I just figured out last week how to modify the sounds. It takes a long time to search in the text files to find the pathway trigger for the sound I want.

Sorry, I'm not trying to sound like an a*s, its just that it'll take a while as I have a lot of other things going on right now. I'd look for it to be done in a couple of weeks.

[makeshift52]

Will it just be for barbarians?

[LuiSius_ScutaRuS]

good good.
let us know when its ready plz

[NorthHammer]

Will it just be for barbarians?

Yeah. The other factions do a taunt, but its only in prebattle loading. I'm focusing on in-game entertainment.

[makeshift52]

I see.

[NorthHammer]

trust me, it will be cool.

[lt1956]

If you give me the sound I will add it for you for 5.0 because unless you use SPQRs files it will overwrite SPQR sounds like Shieldwall etc. I know where to add the sound if you think its good. I am always open to make SPQR better. ;-)

[makeshift52]

Sound like a good idea.

[Centurion-Lucius-Vorenus]

Germans werent that tough for me.

While my forces were bogged down by Gals in southern Gaul the germans attacked Luvamun and then Aquilea. They took these tow towns, at my current state i wasnt in a strong enough position to launch a counter-attack.At first i dissmissed thier forces as a serious threat as for 5 (after they took aquilea)years they werent really doing anything, but then around 235 B.C. they invaded Northeastern Itally. The last straw was when they took Patvium. "These Germans are on Rome's doorsep i cant overlook this !" i taught to myself. I quickly took my Triarii (Who i was gonan ship out to south Gaul but i decided the germans were more of an immediate threat) to Fortify the bridges while i train Princpies.

I had 2 Roman full Armies ready(1 was 15 principes 4 equitites and general, the other was 6 triarri,10 principies 1 equities and general), and another ar 8/10 strength From a Recent Gaulic army attack from the north, they were ready to take on the 3 Full stack german armies(plus the 3/4 garrison art patvium) in the area.

I sent them all in at once, my 2 full armies in front and my 8/10 in back. They attacked my Army (Just principies,eq's and general caius Julius) with another full stack for reinforcements, and i had my 8/10 army as my reinforcements. Both were delayed, and it was just me and the german army against thier 5 Star general Seithacus. I dont quite remember thier full army strength, i do remember they had about 4-5 chosen axeman, who had decimated me in my previous engagements with them.

My plan was simple, 2 lines of Principies and 2 eq's flank from each side with general on the middle. The Germans attacked my main lines with 2 chosen axemen on the left flank, 3 on the right. I send my Reserve principes standing on the flanks in immediately as i know they're gonna need help.

I had my calvary ready to Flank, however in what i think was my Crucial decision in the battle i abandoned the Flank from both sides idea as i pulled my 2 eq's and generals cav over to the right flank immediaterly.

There was rougly 380 Calvary in the force, when they charged they routed the chose axemen in about 10 seconds, they proceded to rollup the german line with minimal casulties. I kileld thier genreal seithacus and i proceded mopping up thier army, then thier reinforcemtnes arrived, Mine was still not in sight. I quickly got my Principes into thier two line formation again. And my Calvary into the back of the line.

Same strategy, when the enemy reached tired send in the reserves and place Calvary on the right flank, then when they reached "Very tired" i send in my calvary. With little help of my reinforcements (Only 3 hastati and thier general were really used, and mostly to clen up routing germans) i anhilated the germans (while not using shield wall mind you)with little casulties to my forces.