Winning with Roman Western Empire

**Marie Louise von Preussen** · January 21, 2006, 11:11 PM

The great question is how to win with this faction. Frequently a great part of my empire rebels and I face a giant deficit when playing. And soon these Steppe Hordes are attacking me, once the sarmatians came to Gaul and killed my weak army. All my generals have bad traits, including "Coward", "Corrupt" while the faction leader is 'blessed' with the "Uncontrollable Rage" trait. What's the best strategy to use with the Western Empire faction? I mean, of course it is going to be difficult. But is it possible to win the game with this faction????

**Badnercalabrese** · January 22, 2006, 12:08 AM

good question...wish i knew the answer

**Gogoas** · January 22, 2006, 12:31 AM

Set all taxes to low, so no one rebels. disband useless troups, like some cavalry, umm, well ya it's possible to win. As for general traits, uh...ya.

**Flotch** · January 22, 2006, 02:10 AM

keep your troops, you are not going to be able to build some for soon, then reduce the taxes on cities you can keep easily, exterminante some of your big cities, and be very aggressive

edit : for your crappy general, use them as an army (only generals in) as heavy cavalery, if they die, np, if not they are a powerful unit while they are not leading your army

(use them as reinforcement)
And yes it is possible to win very quickly (quickest faction to win btw) : i.e. : http://www.esprits.net/read.php?24,12294 (french)

**Krusoth_the_Plague** · January 22, 2006, 10:28 AM

Action must be taken quickly in the beginning to halt the conflagration of rebellion. These steps should be taken as speedily as possible, yet not necessarily all within one turn, as some will vastly drop the happiness of certain cities in the beginning. These will, with time, make them wholly stable.

Step One: Lower the taxes, increase the games where necessary. Do not go overboard with this-- cut your income only enough to prevent rioting. If you go too far and create a 'surplus' of happiness, your income is going to suffer.

Step Two: Create an Empire unified in religion! One immense problem the WRE faces at the beginning is the religious unrest that exists between Christianity and Paganism. As soon as possible (within the first few turns), I usually raze all the pagan shrines and prop up Christian churches in their place. This can most likely be done just as easily (if not easier) in the reverse, but I've never tried it ;p. With the entire WRE reforming, a united religious front will soon be formed. As you go through this process, you may notice yourself being short on building cash. Simply raze buildings in certain secure areas that are just not required, such as military barracks, etc. Build up more advanced shrines as needed.

Step Three: Trim the costs of the army. Much of your cavalry in secure zones needs to be disbanded. Foederati infantry and the likes needs to be replaced with peasant peacekeepers. At the beginning, your professional military is sucking you dry. Kick the soldiers back into civilization! Keep a 'conquering' army on the frontier, of course. The cities on the Roman peninsula are full of good offensive cohorts. Don't let them sit there and be paid a fortune for guard duty.

Step Four: Take out the Alemanni at the very beginning of the game. You've a sizable, wandering military force near their only city in the beginning. Run it and any other units you see fit over to the base, siege it, and take it over the next turn. Exterminate the populace for some fresh cash.

Step Five: It's a simple one, but often times people seem to forget about it. Send your diplomats all over to gain trading rights and what not.

Step Six: As you're obtaining a unification of religion and cheap garrisons, the happiness of your cities will slowly rise back. Start taxing more. Start building invading armies, an economic infrastructure, and continue from there!

You may, throughout this process, have a city that will inevitably rebel. If you follow the steps (especially the unification of religion) cautiously and wisely, without pressing too much, you really shouldn't have any large explosions at all-- only tiny ones. If any cities are going to rebel in the next turn... you KNOW they are, without a doubt... raze the military buildings, take your governor and troops outside the town, and then besiege it the next turn when it switches allegiance. By destroying the buildings, you are ensuring the rebelling forces will only have peasants to guard the town. By moving the general and forces outside the city, you are ensuring that they will not join it. Exterminate the traitorous scum when you regain the city (cash and a nice, tiny population that is easily oppressed ;p)!

Hope this helps! Winning as WRE is possible, even with VH/VH. Remember... use caution in following these steps! Do not go disbanding all of the expensive, non-frontier garrison troops right away! Slowly convert to peasant peacekeepers. Convert to a type of religion as quickly as possible and build up greater churches in problematic areas. Invade and exterminate for cash! Prepare for those damned Hordes to greedily look upon your lands. Whenever your large cities are attacked, do not attempt to hold them at the walls! Place all your units at the flag in a strategic line up. Let city defenses waste their armies away. By the time they filter into the center to fight you, they're tired and have taken a decent number of losses. Crush them!

A 'cheat' of sorts is to custom save your game as often as possible, especially before 'risky' events. That way, if your course of action brings about undesirable results, simply rewind and try something else!

**Darth Wong** · January 22, 2006, 10:41 AM

There's a WRE strategy guide in this forum which used to be a sticky, but got demoted to a regular thread for some reason.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34415