Theory on how to play as the WRE

[Pandora]

I would like to share my views on what i think about this issue and i would also like to know if anyone of you have ever had a succesful campaign playing as the WRE.

Here is what i believe must be done.
1. Abandon regions without strategic importance such as Britain and Spain, they are of no use to you from the beginning and only spreads out your forces on an even larger area.

2. Concentrate your heaviest troops around important cities such as Rome, this way you can defend these cities while you leave your frontier cities in the hands of cheap units such as peasants and the like.

3. Organize an army that can counter attack, when given the opportunity. This army can consist of any infantry type really, with cavalry as support troops.

These are the three steps which i suggest, but there are others which might work even better. So those of you who have better suggestions feel free to share them, any ideas are welcome

[guyyug]

ok gattin rid of none inportant cities everybody does and just disband all cav stops the money crises and take the cities back and exterminate em

[Pandora]

Exactly you read my thoughts to perfection, the republic shall once again rule the world and the whole world shall once again know Pax romana

[Imperator of Rome]

Yes!imperia Romana!Though you said not really garrison rome with good troops....your borders should be strong so nothing can get in and get to rome in the first place

[Pandora]

But in order to get near rome they have to pass through a huge area, an area where you can use your forces to ambush them, this way they will be very weakened when they arrive at the walls of rome

[Neb]

The WRE isn't really all that hard if you play to your maximum potential within the game's rules (not imposing rules upon yourself, like no peasants for garrison duty). My first BI campaign was the WRE on H/H and I found it actually rather easy past the first three or so turns.

Disband your navy, and move all troops to any cities with happiness problems in the first turn.. disband any troops that can't help with happiness on the first turn, or are too expensive to be worth it (cost more than what is gained by keeping the taxes at ahigher level. All of your financial problems can be solved by scrapping all buildings except those that keep up happiness, and those that generate money in cities not near your border (spain, most of france, anywhere else you don't plan to produce armies with). Use the money gained to build peasants in cities near revolt and any extra to produce buildings that help with happiness or revenue. Over the next little while, focus on replacing your garrisons with peasants and moving good troops up for defence.

In my campaign I only lost one city in the whole game.. one city in france rebelled.. and that was solved quickly by re-capturing and slaughtering the populus. Hordes can be a problem, but if you defend a bridge, river crossing or they assault one of your cities.. you can destroy most of the horde with less than a full stack.

Once you've stabilized your country, you don't need to conquer much more to win.. expand a few territories, then send a full stack through enemy lands and conquer Constantinople.

A real challenge is playing with self defined rules, like no peasants, or no razing your buildings.

-Neb

[Pandora]

How did you manage to quell the rebels in france and spain? They always rebel at least one time in every campaign. In the beginning you cannot solve this by building temples since your economy does not allow this. Did you convert these cities to christianity?

[Neb]

As I said, only one city rebelled. So there wasn't much to quell. I did convert my entire empire to christianity, but not at the beginning.. In the beginning I left each city at whatever religion kept it happy, and converted each of them leter on when I had afew characters that gave a huge boost to conversion.

And your economy isn't really all that bad if you scrap every building that doesn't benefit you (barracks in spain for instance).

-Neb

[Pandora]

where did you put your best troops then? In Northern Italy or on the frontier against germany? does scraping buildings really give such a boost to your economy? I have tried that but i have only been able to maintain y resources for about three turns. Do you have any tips on how to maximize your incomes per turn?

[Neb]

scrapping your buildings doesn't a give huge boost to your economy really, but it gives you the disposable income on the first turn to spend on temples and peasants to keep everyone in line. I kept 2 armies in mainland europe, one just north east of italy.. keeping the lower border safe and one up in the german area keeping it safe. Remember too, that your troops are both expensive and very good on the field.. so having a smaller army than the AI near you shouldn't make you worry. Bad AI tactics help a little too. Also.. make sure you scrap that fleet. Boats are a huge burden on your early-game economy.. if you must, keep a boat by briton as a ferry.

-Neb

[Pandora]

Ok then i understand your line of thought. i know that boats are quite expensive but i did not think that one fleet could be the cause of such a loss in resources. How did you act in Britain? Did you invade the Celts?

[Sher of Palu]

what i did was to leave all provinces exept sicily, carthage and caralis...i destroyed all buildings in all cities (and contructed a cristian shrine in every settlment so they are cristian when i return sometime) and disbanded the navy and most of the armies then all settlement revolted but they had only peasents in the citys then i exterminated all the citys in spain, italy and southern france...this gives you cash$$$$$.....then i rebuilded the cities....the only neighbour i had was the rebels wich worked as a great buffert...i crushed the berbers then moved my capital to carthago nova...this helped "distance to capital" alot.........now i am marching on the celts and the lombards...i just took out the last of the huns and vandals.....and o one tip is to garrison with peasants...i had never made peasant before but now i am forced to do peasants (even though it hurts) this until you have a really good economy.....and yes i know that leaving and destroy rome is sick one more thing everytime i play the sassansids take over all of the orient and move around the black sea and to dacia and sarmatia the celts always crush the romano british and the move in to the mainland and take the out the franks and saxons.....

[Pandora]

sounds like you are doing just fine, what level of technology have you reached? are you able to build the best troops that WRE are capable of constructing?. How is your position of power compared to the huns? do they pose a threat to your plans of expansion?
Have you converted every province in your realm to christianity?

[Sher of Palu]

level of technoly is different depending on if the settlemnt grows fast or not....but i try to put more resources on some cities...like i have done in carthage, massilia, ravenna and corduba....these cities are huge cities but only carthage has all the military bulidings...but the technolgy level is good enough to provide me with good troops like auxila palatina, equites sagittari, comitianses (wrongly spelled)my field armies is strong.....the huns are destroyed.....they reached massilia where they got crushed then i took mediolanium wich they had captured thus putting an end to the huns...........and yes all my settlemts are cristian.....but so i did with every city before i left them in the begining even the settlemnt in brittain are cristian even though i left brittain after two round

[Pandora]

Sounds like you have managed the impossible and survived. Have you begun retaking what you lost in the beginning? and if so how many provinces?

[Imperator of Rome]

Ive took all my areas back and destroyed celts and soon franks...vandal horde is nearly dead and i kick the huns out=).I found it too easy so i started playing attilas mod

[Sher of Palu]

it is not impossible pandora.......i have managed to retake the settlments rather fast beacause the garrison was only peasants)because i had destroyed all buildings)....i have retaken 10 provinces....( spain, southern france and italy.....)

[Pandora]

Then it must be something wrong with my managing skills :-) i quess i have to train more in order to reach your level

[Imperator of Rome]

I never lost much as wre most is prolly 2-4 settlements

[Neb]

You'll get it eventually.. just come up with a plan (pull back to italy, move to britain, try and hold on to all your land, whatever) and spend 20 minutes making sure all the fat (every last ounce) that doesn't help you maintain your plan is cut from your empire.

-Neb