DarthMod Guides

[DARTH VADER]

Write comprehensive guides for DarthMod Factions and you will see it here for all people to read with links to the threads for discussion!
First One published is of Grand Duke Vytautas!

Germania guide for DarthMod 7.0 by Grand Duke Vytautas!(link)


Hi there fierce Germanic warriors wahaa *goes berserk*!:laugh4:

I'm playing as Germania on h/h v1.5 at the moment in my fav DarthMod 7.0.3 and would like to share my short experience :book: fighting as arguably best barbarian faction (imo among Britons and Scythians)

CAMPAIGN

Germania start with crapy economy so this is what I did:
1) conquer as much rebel regions as you can without overstreching too much
2) get money into your treasury via diplomacy: swap trade rights, map information, get aliances with first Dacia and Scythia (cuz I didn't want to wage war east) to secure peace on eastern front (ww2 hey? :skull: ). Send your diplomat wandering across the known world then and get as much denarii as you can.
3) aim for economy not military buildings first: build roads, farms, ports, mines, basic traders first.
4) Specialize your cities according to military units: germania is heavy inf faction so build few stables that cover some provinces, aim for barracks and archery buildings more.
5) Specialize your settlements according to temples: germans have
freyja (increase pop growth) - build it in low basic farming region
donar (grants chevrons and berserkers) - specialize according to situation
woden (grants exp and allows naked fanatics and later gothic cav) - my fav and most popular temple.
6) Aim your war machine west: the britons will be a real thorn in your side so make sure you take care of them first. I tried to make them my protectorate after taking Londinium but when they disagreed I completely crushed them muhahaha :furious3: After britons its gauls time to be anihilated haha, then comes julii.

BATTLEFIELD

EARLY GERMAN BALANCED ARMY (untill you reached 6000 pop)

Center inf:
Spear phalanx warband: these guys totally rock! :laugh4: they can hold units with their phalanx ability at a distance for your flanking forces to attack, plus they have bonus against cav, they are defencive unit (like greeks phalanxes). Usually I have 4-8 of these units in stack according to offensive or defensive situation
Missile inf:
Skirmisher warband: place them behind your spear center or on the flanks as if you wish. I have mostly 2-4 of these in my army.
Flanking fanatical inf forces: now we are talking about real germanic killers wahhaaa
Axemen warband basic flanking force use this when you have no better flanking units. 4-6 units in stack
Berserker gang : 2 units in army, they are totally crazy :burnout: make sure you unleash them when center is engaged and watch the fun lol~ They are vulnerable to cav and archers though, but in melee they can rout just about anything.
Naked fanatics - a substitute for berserkers, larger numbers can have almost the same effect as berserkers :skull: They go crazy too lol
Cavalry: you only have Barbarian light cavalry in early army so have 2-4 units per army and use them to kill enemy skirmishers, routing enemies or for rear charges but be careful of prolonged melee, cuz they are light cav

GERMAN LATE/ELITE ARMY (when 3rd class buildings are available)

Center inf:
Gothic infantry: same function as spear warband - holding center, but hugely stronger. Phalanx rocks! 4-8 units in stack
Missile inf:
Chosen archer warband: the 2nd best barb foot archers (after foresters) imo - long range deadly accuracy also can act as light flanking troops! have 2-4 units per stack
Flanking fanatical inf:
Night raiders better substitute for plain axemen, cuz they instill fear to enemy inf and better stats. 2 units in army
Berserker gang: good old crazy berserkers is always good to have unleash flanking hell with them muhahaha!!! :skull: Imo that's german coolest unit. 2 units
Chosen axemen oh I love this unit they are totally devastating with their 2 handed axes and effective against armour which means you can kick some roman armoured ass lol :2thumbsup: They are vulnerable to missiles and cav so be careful. 4-6 units
Cavalry
2 units of Barbarian Light Cavalry to chase routers
Barbarian Noble Cavalry standard barb heavy cav, heavy shocking charge, good melee 2-4 units
Gothic cavalry now these elite german horsemen totally owns :2thumbsup: They are probably the best barbarian heavy cavalry. Use them as a better substitute for noble cav.

Thats it! Hope I gave you quite good idea :book: how to kick ass as Germans lol
Wahaaaa! *berserker taunt* I feel like a real barbarian lol

P.S I posted this in http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showth...34#post1118434

[DARTH VADER]

Parthian Guide:Getting a foothold in Darthmod 7.0 by Byzantium!(link)

The very informative woad wearing and axe twirling Germania guide created by The Grand Duke Vytautas has spurred me to write a guide based on my own favourite faction Parthia.
Nowhere on the RTW map will you find such a clash of different fighting styles and mentality as in this region.Ok lets get started.

Geographical location

Parthia begins the game with a huge tract of land in the East.This brings it's own advantages and disadvantages as we'll see.It's main cities Susa and Arsakia are situated in the far East safe from immediate attack from our enemies.Palmyra and Bostra lie in close proximity to Selucid and Egyptian territory and will be where the early battles will be fought.
The distance from our capital and main population centres to the 'frontline' so to speak means that newer troops and reinforcements will take some time to get there.Our frontier towns dont have the population to create large armies on their own but facilities should be built there to retrain our weakened units and supplement our armies when possible.

Early forces at our disposal

Eastern Infantry I've fought against them before and they are the weakest unit in the game.Wrong!!
Cheap to build and maintain the Eastern Infantry will be your most versatile unit and the backbone of your early armies and because of how much longer battles last in Darthmod 7.0 over vanilla coupled with the mobile tactics we will be adopting their speed and stamina will be invaluable.Great bonus fighting in deserts and superb as garrison troops due to their numbers.

The Horse Archer The Jewel in our crown and the biggest Phalanx killers in the game in my opinion.Four units of these in a medium sized army will have Phalanx armies sweating like a Scotsman in a spelling test.No other units are better at turning or breaking up enemy formations than the horse archer.Deployed correctly they will be the key to victory in your campaigns early on and beyond.Should be used with 'fire at will' turned off to conserve ammo unless chasing routing enemies and targets should be chosen selectively.

Archers Another unit that has 240 men per unit on huge and used in conjunction with the horse archers can be devastating.I recommend turning 'fire at will' off and deploying them in skirmish order in front of the infantry unless faced with large contingents of cavalry,though you wont face this early on against the Selucids and Egyptians.Avoid firing at the shields of incoming Phalanx units but concentrate on units such as this that have turned to face your horse archers.At 240 men per unit they will decimate such units in a short space of time.Against lighter troops and cavalry they will be your biggest killers.

Early Moves

DIPLOMACY - Love thy Neighbour? Forget it.Selucia and Egypt will sign a treaty early on and that can only mean one thing,their eyes are looking East.Selucia must be your first target if you are to expand anyway and the sooner the better while their forces are dispersed.Egypt will attack you eventually no matter how nice you are to them but dont attack them first.Play for time while you attack Selucia but be ready to defend against them.You are allied to Armenia at the beginning and they will pose no threat and may even help you against Selucia.They will be mindful of Pontus and may even war with them and will generally only build up near you if you do.

Early military build up

Your long term goal must be to create 3 large field armies.This is financially possible early on due to your units low upkeep.Quantity over quality is key to securing your borders early in the game.I would say 4-6 units of Eastern infantry and 4 units of horse archers plus an heir if possible will be enough for offensive and defensive operations.These can be supplemented with cheap mercenaries if needs be.

ARMY 1 - Onto Selucia !! Strip Arsakia of as many troops as possible and move them with your heir South in the first turn of the game.These will rendevoux with the Eastern infantry you should create in Susa.Four units of Eastern Infantry should be enough with that Heir to take Selucia from its weak garrison.As soon as Selucia is taken you must create more units for that army and move on as soon as possible toward Hatra.This will draw their army toward Hatra to defend it and leave space for army 2 to threaten Damascus.The long term goal for Army 1 after Hatra will be Antioch itself.

ARMY 2 - Muster at Palmyra This army will be headed by your Heir at Susa Bagabigna.He should head toward Palmyra with four units of Horse archers from the Susa garrison straight away.He should meet up there with the units of Eastern infantry you should begin building there in turn 1.This army will both protect Palmyra and threaten Damascus.If Army 1 is successful in threatening Hatra then the Selucids will leave them alone.This will leave them free to aid army 3 against Egypt if required.Army 2's long term goal will be to take Damascus and then the Egyptian cities of Sidon and Jerusalem when war breaks out.

ARMY 3 - Checking the Egyptians Egypt will not war with you immediately.You may even have longer to prepare if they war with Numidia but eventually they will come and Bostra will be their target.Army 2's role here is important as they should play a holding role around Palmyra until such a time as army 3 is strong enough to hold its own.The Mercenaries in your city East of Bostra should be rushed there in turn 1 and Eastern infantry should be created here and in that Eastern City plus Palmyra as soon as possible and moved to the Bostra Region.Early on there will be no spare Heirs for this army so the next one available should move down to command it.This armies role will be to defeat the Egyptian armies moving up to reinforce Sidon and Jerusalem which should give Army 2 time to take both cities.Eventually when the situation in the North looks Secure it should move to threaten Egypts 3 main cities around the Nile Delta.

A good tactic - Cavalry Raiders

Used without Infantry small raiding forces of Horse archers can be used to great effect to attack smaller units of reinforcements moving around the map.They can move far into enemy territory and withdraw to safety if need be.This tactic can be used to good effect by army 2 around Palmyra to attack the small phalanx stacks Selucia will be moving around.

Early building I would recommend building the city upgrades that are required by most cites on turn 1 of the game.This will enable you to build Horse archers in places such as Palmyra for example.Markets are only worth building when money becomes more plentiful and then only for the population growth bonus as the extra revenue generated by them in the beginning is negligable.
Your main revenue will come from farming especially after Army 1 takes Selucia early in the game due to the Revenue increase you will get from the Hanging gardens.
Unlike most other factions you will have no Ports and therefore no huge trade income to rely on.Farming and conquest is the way to go.
The capability to produce archers as early as possible is highly recommended as they will be one of your best units.
Remember it should be units first buildings second where possible.
Roads will also be key for moving reinforcements and higher quality units built in your larger cities up to your frontier towns so build them as soon as possible.

Advanced Military I would resist the temptation to try and build the facilities used to produce more advanced units early on in the game as it's quantity you will be relying on initially.Units like Huvaka while superb are expensive to build and maintain and compared to Horse archers will net you a much lower kill haul in most circumstances.

After your initial objectives are secured.
Once you are in possession of Selucia,Hatra,Damascus,Sidon and Jerusalem Pontus and Armenia may become nervous of your new found wealth and power.It's always a good idea to have a few spies in the Northern regions to see what these factions are up to.Pontus,usually the stronger,will have their eye on Hatra if they decide to attack you so it's always an idea to begin creating a fourth army once your primary objectives are achieved.By this time the creation of a 5th army will be possible which i would place near Arsakia ready to move against the Armenians.Pontus will hit you hard if they have done well in their own campaign and will require a tactical rethink.The creation of your higher quality units should figure heavily in armies 4 and 5 and will be required to take on the Pontic chariots/Armenian Cataphract archers.

Battlefield tactics - Selucia and Egypt - Hold your Nerve

Your early enemies will be the Selucids and Egyptians both of which will be heavily phalanx orientated.Don't be frightened to take on stacks that look much larger than yours.Remember that many of their units such as levy pikemen have 240 men which swells their army size bar.The Phalanx,like other unit types are devastating if used in the right way in the right enviroment.Luckily for us the desert isn't such an enviroment.They can be twisted and turned in all directions by circling Horse archer units and caught in crossfires by fixed and mobile archery.Your main infantry line must be ready to retreat and reform and take up new positions so dont back them up against the edge of the map when you deploy them.Forget offensive and defensive formations and deployments,the strength of the Parthian army lies in its mobilty and speed.Judging when to throw your infantry in to the fray will be key to your success.Eastern infantry are quite capable of destroying tired phalanxes caught out of position.
Egyptian chariot archers will be your most dangerous enemy but luckily they arent deployed in large numbers.Though casualties will be high they must be pinned by your horse archers and threatened with Infantry and engaged if possible.Hillmen are good for this as they are fast and have a good initial impact.

Armenia and Pontus - Fighting people like us.

Fighting these factions,particularly Pontus can be a little harrowing as they will adopt the same mobile tactics as you do.Usually you will fight these later in the campaign and you can create armies fit for purpose.Again your horse archers will be key to breaking up their formation or lureing their chariots away from where they can cause the most damage.
In many battles against these opponents i will hold my horse archers back a little if possible and hope to bring their Horse archers into range of my archers which on ocaision depending on terrain i deploy behind my Infantry line due to them being more mobile and more inclined to rush me.Many of these battles are much more untidy affairs compared to fighting the Egyptians and Selucids.

Siege Warfare Not really an option for a Parthian army unless you have large numbers of infantry and even then you would need to get creative against Phalanx based defenders.The number of men in your Archer units can be key here both for the casualties they can cause and for the ability they have to sting defenders into attacking you or forcing them out of advantageous positions.When fighting in the cities against these units try to attack them on road junctions where you can attack from more than one side.

Obviously there a hundred ways to win with this faction,nothing is set in stone and any grand plan can be undone or enhanced by strokes of luck,misfortune and strokes of genius.
My little guide is intended for people who may be having problems getting started with this faction or who may be considering having a go with them and want a little insight into what it's all about.

Hopefully someone may find it a useful guide to playing this most fascinating of factions.

I'll sign off with a little quote i read made by an English historian when discussing English medieval armies,it may be apt for a Parthian commander.

*The English kings realised that while contingents of longbowmen could damage the enemy,massed ranks of them could destroy an army*

[DARTH VADER]

Carthage Guide by Grand Duke Vytautas!(link)

MY CARTHAGE GUIDE

Ave Darth Vader and all DarthMod 7.5 creators members players and fans!
Friends, countrymen , I, Grand Duke Vytautas, fan of DM am proud to present (tadatada) - My Carthage Guide (played on hard/hard) for this awesome and the best imo mod – DarthMod 7.5 for RTW .
May it be a BIG THANKS from me to creators of DarthMod.
Hope I’ll give you a basic grasp of how to master this great african maritime power, lucrative Mediterranean trade powerhouse and one of the greatest proudest civilizations of Antiquity – the mighty faction of Carthage!!!
Prepare to change history, turn the tide of the Punic Wars to your advantage, destroy the rise of the roman empire and give a new face and culture to the western civilization! This and more I hope you’re ready to achieve, you noblest and bravest of soldierz, NOW SOUND THE ADVAAANCCCCCE! (funny Carthaginian accent lol)

CAMPAIGN – the strategic part

I. Economy

Some cool quotes from in game:
“War is not so much a matter of weapons as of money”
“We should provide in peace what we need in war”
“The sinews of war are infinite money”

It means that you cannot win a war without a strong economy, so concentrate on it first. Well, in the beginning Carthage has already quite a good and growing treasury and money support, so this doesn’t mean that you should build only economic buildings - specialize your cities, build military structures that cover a region, don’t try to build everything in 1 settlement (I’m talking almost about civ4 lol). Control of taxes is also very important: I always set them to the max as much as I can, with exception to towns that haven’t reached 2000 pop.

1. Your initial lands

I’ll start with Iberia:
Corduba – this is arguably the most important settlement in Iberia imo, it’s the key city for defending as well as launching attacks and expanding into Spain. It has a huge growth rate, so is very good for military recruitment, but quite underdeveloped in the beginning, you’ll have to rely on mercs, esp transport them from north african city Tingi. Corduba is very important, you must defend it against Spanish at all costs! To do this build watchtowers wisely to track the movement of Iberian armies and place forts in strategic locations (mountain passes, bridges) to slow down the enemy until reinforcements arrive.
I suggest build Baal temple here, cause it gives nice public order bonus and later it will provide you with Sacred Band – a very powerful unit. This settlement has yet to reach 6000 pop so develop build main economic structures: ports, roads, farms (but don’t go over that magic 8%), mines. Then you can add secondary economic buildings that are traders, etc. When you reach 3rd city level build 3rd level barracks immediately and concentrate on military. Cavalry support should arrive from Tingi. Corduba is also ideal place for academy buildings to cover Spain and western north Africa governors
Carthago Nova – 2nd important settlement in Iberia, but usually Spanish go for Corduba more. Develop this city likewise Corduba, but build milquart temples here, it adds to trade more. Early it will get good ranged support from Balearic Islands – balearic slingers, very cool units. Use transpot navy alot to maintain military support for your cities in Iberia. Carthago Nova can be defended well using bridge passes, so build forts (which also lower rebel brigand spawn chance) and 3rd level archery range as soon as you can to get descent ranged support and block those brizges. You can win quite impressive victories, even when hugely outnumbered.

Balearic Islands: Palma – famed for Balearic slingers, this settlement should be specialized in economy and navy, but build stone walls and have a good transport and support connection in case someone (usually Julii or Spanish) will want to invade your beautiful and lucrative island.
Build Tanit temple here, cause it provides growth bonus.

Next – across North Africa (from west to east), the home of true Carthaginians lol:

Tingi – this particular settlement is in relative safety and should be specialized in economy and merc/cavalry/elephant support for Iberian cities imo. Worship Milquart here to get that nice trade bonus.
Cirta – also economic powerhouse, hire many mercenaries/aim for cavalry buildings here and provide naval power for the western Mediterranean. Praise Milquart for trade. Place watchtowers and forts, so you can comfortably control these lands.
CARTHAGE – the city of cities , your capital and the best city in your empire, crazy economic powerhouse and already advanced to 3rd level. Build Baal temples to get Sacred Band. Develop it for economy, military and navy. Specialize in infantry and if you can in elephants, cause you’ll get support from other regions. Defend it well of sneak roman naval invasions! This city should provide elite units and navy for your war machine. Also aim to build academy buildings.
Thapsus – closest settlement to Numidian lands, you can plan their conquest from here, good connection and support to Carthage. Build towers to see what Numidians are up to. Develop mostly for economy and build ships here, but also specialize in archery or cavalry. Mercenaries are also plentiful in this region, so hire them many especially in the beginning and when Numidians threaten you.

Sardinia: Caralis – this town is vulnerable against roman naval invasion, so you need good navy controlling seas here. Develop Caralis for economy and navy and have good transport connection, so you can bring reinforcements from Carthage if this town is in trouble. Worship Tanit here and aim for stone walls later for better defence.

Sicily: Lilybaeum – your frontline settlement, and your fortpost for conquest in Sicily. Aim both for basic economy and 3rd level barracks. Reinforcements come from Carthage here. There’s also good greek mercenaries in this region. Navy is vital around Sicily, so build a powerful fleet.

2. The great importance of navy

Carthage being a maritime power must control the seas in order to:
1) protect your vital lucrative trade and port blockades
2) protect your islands (Sicily, Sardinia, Balearics) from roman naval invasions
3) destroy enemy naval power
4) disrupt enemy trade and blockade their ports
5) transport troops to spearhead your naval invasions
I suggest you use 1 bireme to cover troop/agent transport in a certain region (e.g. in Carthage port you can quickly in 1 turn transfer troops/agents to Sardinia and Sicily).
While naval fleet should consist of at least 4 stacked ships, this way you can win decisive naval battles, control the seas and effectively blockade ports. Build best available ships of course.

II. Diplomacy and expansion

Having many possible enemies at your gates that envy your riches in the beginning of campaign it will be essential for Carthage to use not only powerful armies and mercenaries as well as strong navy but also cunning diplomacy if you want to survive and build an empire for western civilization!

1. Initial neighbors

“We did not seek war, we are the lovers of peace and prosperity” – well yeah right, everyone says that before they go to kick some roman armoured ass lol.
So in the beginning of campaign your mighty nation has roughly 4 different fronts/possible enemies:
Romans (4 roman families: SPQR, Scipii, Julii and Brutii) - who are and will be your #1 and of course the most hated biggest threat, fielding powerful legions throughout the course of campaign so prepare for tough defence, powerful offensive or sneak raiding of those “puny” romans. Especially Scipii and also Julii will be unrestful to annihilate you, so guard your islands (Sicily, Sardinia, Balearics) well. “Roman eagle is a roman chicken :laughing: , the enemy cooowards run, driiive ‘em from the battlefield” muhahaha
Spanish :inqusitio (Spaniards, Iberians, Celtiberians you name it) – although you are now mutual allies against Rome the Spanish could be (you betray them) and I’m sure will be (they’ll betray you anyway cuz they aim to unify Iberia) your enemy in Iberian Peninsula. Couple of diplomatic strategies here: 1) you may be able to prevent war if you can make spanish fight gauls or romans, which will be advantageous to your long-term economy; I haven’t achieved that 2) you can defend against romans while conquering Iberia, although 2 front war is always risky; that’s what happened to me lol 3) or you maybe able to subdue Spanish via protectorate, but it can be really hard to achieve it (you must at least beat the crap out of their forces and siege their capital) and esp maintain it, conquest of Iberia is way better than protectorate imo.
Briefly, the Spanish are “civilized” barbarian or semi-barb faction capable of fielding light-medium civilized infantry + aggressive barbarian inf + light/medium cavalry, so they can be a problem in the early stage of campaign, but later when your military machine will become extremely powerful and Spaniards should be easy meat for your armoured eles!
Numidians – they are of the same culture (Carthaginian) as you are and your allies at the beginning, btw they are at war with Egyptians. Eventually they may betray you also and you can end up fighting on all 4 fronts, so watch out for that! Numidians are quite hard to conquer because their settlements are long distance in the deserts of africa from yours and it takes much time to get your army there, better choose naval transport. I also find Numidians can field even more descent desert armies in DM. They can be quite a threat, so use your dark force well lol. I suggest dealing with your #1 enemy romans and #2 Spanish first. You can avoid war with Numidia if you can make them fight someone else – Egypt is perfect for this maybe Greeks.
Greek Cities – the only border you have with them is in Sicily, Syracuse (the legendary siege city ), they are your allies against romans in the beginning (although earlier in history they were Carthages’ constant rivals over the rule of Sicily) and I suggest that it should stay that way - you should support them whenever you can, esp defend their Syracuse from romans. They may betray you, so never be too kind, this is not Rome: total diplomacy, this is Rome: TOTAL WAR .

2. Carthages’ diplomats, spies and assasins

Diplomats – you need at least 1 in Iberia, 1 in Carthage, 1 in Sicily and 1 roaming diplomat in ship in the beginning to acquire as many trade rights as you can, sell/buy maps make wise diplomatic agreements (alliances, ceasefire, etc.) and in this way boost your treasury esp in the beginning of campaign they are very useful indeed.
Spies – I use them for a couple of reasons: 1) scouting ahead of my army in order to find the composition of enemy armies 2) infiltrating rival settlements/causing unrest and maybe even rebellion  3) counterspying in your own territory, keeping rival spies out of your major settlements. I suggest having as many spies as your treasury can afford, information is never a bad thing.
Assassins – those guys rock! :fighting: Their unkeep is high though so only use them to cover a specific region, e.g. place 1 in north Africa, 1 in Sicily, 1 in Spain etc.
When these 3 agents are close by they can cooperate this way: send a spy to find out information, then send assassin to kill the most important target and at last send diplomat to bribe.

3. Conquest/expansion strategies

“Take up your spears; drink the last of your wine for fate awaits us!”
So you have 4 possible fronts: romans, spain, numidia and greeks. Which way to expand you say?
Well romans are of course your #1 enemy (you’re fighting punic wars right?) so I’ve thought roughly 3 strategies against them:
1)go on the blitz offensive: take your army on Sicily, hire as many mercs as you can transport reinforcements from Carthage and conquer Scipii settlement Messana in Sicily, this way Scipii are only down to 1 province and are in serious trouble. That’s exactly what I did. You can then go blitz Brutii cities (cuz if you go for Scipii, SPQR will arrive and you’ll be surrounded), but I think it’s too much to hold, you’ll be overstretched quickly, I prefer slow but sure expansion. “Quick decisions are unsafe decisions”
2)defend against them until 2nd front is done: this means having defensive armies in Sicily, Sardinia and a powerful navy blocking roman ports while you concentrate your military machine on the 2nd front in Spain or Numidia. After the 2nd front is finished, conquer first the Brutii then Scipii all the way through Italy or first launch Hannibalish surprise attack on Julii lol. This is a quicker strategy imo if you want to finish 2nd front than raiding.
3)raid and tire the romans: very good strategy if you want to build up a very lucrative economy. Concentrate on building main economic buildings (ports, roads, mines, farms), depend on naval supremacy and mercenary armies (quite historical cuz Carthage used many mercs), destroy roman navy, block their ports, hire as many mercs as you can and transport them to raid roman settlements. If you capture a town, exterminate it, destroy every building you can, leave some crapy depleted unit (so that romans cant recapture that town in 1 turn and raid on! This is the strategy I used in my campaign with excitement while I was busy conquering Spain. It’s just so funny watching romans so ****** and weak . I feel like Hannibal lol.

After you’ve won the Punic Wars, congrats you’re the most powerful faction in the west! Your war machine is free to go to finish Spanish (if you haven’t done that already) and also Numidians. By that time I’m sure Greeks or Egypt will become your main rival. But you’ll be very close then to winning your campaign (30 provinces). “So fight with honour this way you are remembered with honour!” “Great empires are not maintained by timidity”.

THE BATTLEFIELD – the tactical part :devil:


“A battle’s never an easy thing to face; it is a testing ground for men, for noble men! And even the lowest of us are ready for this test! Look to the enemy, shout your battle cries cuz fate awaits us!!!” *soldierz cheer and shout*

All that I’ve written would be useless, if you couldn’t win battles, balance and use your great Carthaginian army. You have to put theory into practice, so here goes:

Carthaginian troop lineup – very balanced toops types + powerful mercenaries + even more powerful elephants lol. Carthage has the widest troop choice than all RTW DM factions imo.

Infantry – should consist at least half of balanced army

Missile infantry – your supporting troops for heavy infantry (1/2 of your inf force)

Skirmishers – good early ranged unit, similar to velites and peltasts, but of Carthaginian blend, effective against armor, but vulnerable in melee, use it cautiously, you may want to turn skirmish off and command them yourself cuz sometimes they get into trouble. Include 2-4 units in 20 unit army of these guys.
Peltasts – greek mercenaries, way better than skirmishers.
Libyan skirmishers – cool cheap mercs imo better than plain skirmishers, cuz they have more men in unit and also bonus fighting in deserts. 2-4 units as a substitute for skirmishers.
Slingers – arguably better than skirmishers because of longer range and more ammo but they don’t have that cool armour piercing ability. 2-4 units if you use them instead of skirmishers
Balearic slingers – better than ordinary slingers, a very cool merc unit.
Archers – an arguably better substitute for slingers, although the stats doesn’t differ a lot. 2-4 units
Moorish archers – a merc unit which I like to hire very much, very great archery skills in deserts, so use them in North Africa mostly. (2-4 units)
Armoured archers – your factions’ elite foot missile troops, very cool looking, sharp and accurate (2-4 units)

Light/heavy infantry – the anvil of your army (1/2 of your inf force)

Iberian infantry – early very light and unarmored but fast moving unit; quite crappy to be honest. Maybe good as a cannon fodder or for flanking duties. Use them if you really have no better troops.
Medium spearmen – early spear defensive unit, capable of holding the line for a bit, place them in center. Good vs cavalry, short phalanx ability, quite good early unit. Also good for city garrison. (roughly 4 units in army)
Scutarii – equivalent, similar to roman hastati. Place them on flanks, while your medium spearmen hold the line, then flank, release missiles and charge, this way you do the most damage imo. Quite cheap for city garrison. (2-4 units)
Spanish mercenaries – a bit weaker than scutarii, but performs the same function. Cool looking unit btw. (2-4 units)
Garamante warriors – now these merc guys totally rock in deserts, they are fast, don’t tire easily and have many missiles. They are like skirmishers. Very great addition to your desert army (4 units)
Carthaginian Lancers – haven’t used these guys a lot, cuz they cost a lot and have quite weak stats.
Libyan spearmen – a better substitute for medium spearmen, more powerful spear unit, kinda like triarii-looking (4 units). Early campaign infantry backbone with scutarii.
Phalanx merc – available in Sicily
Poeni infantry – better substitute for Libyan spearmen, medium campaign backbone of infantry center.
Carthaginian Pikemen – similar to Macedonian phalangists, quite cool, although costs a lot. Center holding duty.
Armoured Scutarii – an improvement over plain scutarii, great medium campaign flanking troops while your poeni inf hold the center.
Early Carthaginian Legion – effective copies of roman warfare, superb at flanking enemy inf while sacred band hold the line.
Secret police enforcers – cool name, right, these “cops” are a good substitute for early Carthaginian legion.
Sacred Legion – best legionairy Carthaginian inf imo. Very nice looking, love seeing them killin romans muhahaha.
Sacred Band – a true Carthaginian military elite, skins are fabulous!

Cavalry/Elephants – the hammer of your military machine (should consist ½ army)

Light Cavalry – early campaign

Round Shield Cavalry – your early choice, fast moving, best at pursuing skirmishers and fleeing enemies, but very weak in melee, they’ll die like flies.
Long Shield Cavalry – better than round ones, uses spear for charging, falcate sword for melee. Your standard good cavalry.
Numidian mercenary cavalry – you gotta love this unit, it’s such a unique light cavalry!

Heavy cavalry – late campaign choice

Carthaginian armoured cavalry – well yes they are armoured and good in melee.
Sacred Band cavalry – very effective flanking shock cavalry, superb in melee also
Carthaginian heavy cavalry – my most favourite unit of Carthaginian cav, they are like elite civilized Numidian cav lol.

Elephants – ultimate fear, shock ancient tanks haha! (up to 4 units)

Elephants – these are little sized elephants
War Elephants/Merc War Eles – your standard tank
Armoured Elephants – ancient Tiger tank haha lol.

Arty
Onagers and heavy onagers. Great for sieging and defending. 1-2 units in an army

Early campaign Carthaginian balanced army
1 good general
2-4 Skirmishers/Peltasts/Libyan merc/Slingers/Balearic slingers (according to your taste)
4 Medium spearmen/Libyan spearmen holding center
2-4 Scutarii/Spanish Merc/Garamante for flanking operations
6 Round/Long Shield or Numidian cavalry for flanking and harassment
2 Elephants for shocking flanking and bulldozering

Medium campaign army
1 general
1 onager (if needed)
2-4 Balearic Slingers/Archers/Moorish archers
4 Poeni infantry
2-4 Armoured Scutarii
6 Round/Long Shield or Numidian cavalry
2 War Elephants

Late campaign elite-uber army

1 general superb general
1 heavy onager (if needed)
2-4 armoured archers
4 Sacred Band
2-4 Early Carthaginian Legion/Secret police enforcers/Sacred Legion (use the best available)
6 Carthaginian armoured cavalry/Carthaginian heavy cavalry/Sacred Band cavalry (according to your taste)
2 Armored Elephants

So that’s it! If you have any ideas or feedback for DM Carthage guide, plz post them!
Txs again Darth & CO for this awesome mod – DARTHMOD 7.5 Cheers!

[wipeout140]

Armenia Guide by Narakir!(link)

I wanted some real challenge, playing armenia VH/H in Darthmod and to make a small guide that'll prove usefull... If I succed as I'm writing it as I play. Sorry for my mistakes, english isn't my main language ^^.

The begining :

Playing armenia is like playing the 300 spartans at thermophile, you're surounded by Pontus at the west, Pathia est, Seleucids south and Scythians north. You have some quite good ressources and a potentialy powerfull army if you can survive and affort it . But first the main objective is to survive heh...

The campaign map :

Keep an eye on your borders.
Your land is moutainous and it's your main advantage to defend it if you manage it well. First of all you need to watch were your ennemies are comming and estimate how many turns they'll be there ect... so build watch towers at strategic points of your montainous land. Now you've your watch and you'll see the ennemy comming few turns before they reach you land giving you the time to gather your forces to the attacked point. Your strating spy is usefull to for this duty.

Enconomy : need of balance
At start you've a quite good economy but if you get the taxes to the maximum your cites your popultation will begin to decrease... lit it be for few years and try first to build roads and ports then you must be able to recruit horse archers and basic spear infantry everywere they'll be your main force for the start. Then when you're okey with this you can start to build some markets and enchance your economy, avoid buying expensive buildings except the stables and barracks.

Fighting and strategic moves
You'll have to divide your forces, a defensive army divided in two betwen Kotais and Artaxtara first to not concentrate your forces and to maitain order in your cities, dividing into two assure you'll have at least one mobile force if one of your cities is undersiege and one city where your harassers can retreat and recover thier loses.

- The harassing force, an army composed only by horse archers and a general. Their main duty if to haras the ennemy and kill much as possible to weaken them before they reach your mainland and the retreat. When you haras the ennemy your main target would be ennemy cavalry and archers.

- In your normal armies for defense and attack sould be composed by a heart of infantry (spears mainly missiles are optional) with horse archers.

Defense... defense... but the best defense is attack !
You've four neigbours, Pontus will not move at you in the first years if you are lucky and their cites are quite far and close to each other. Same for seleucid. You can beat the scytians but... is it realy good to travel so far for some poor settlements ? I don't think so. So your last choice is Parthia, they have a city near oriental border very close to pharaaspa, they'll quickly come to attack you. If you manage to do it first with a good attacking army leaving some defenses in you mainland you'll be able to rush them as their city has no wall and secure your west, and they'll have to cross the mountain to the south to eventualy take thier revenge, and that plan can be disturbed by the Seleucids if they break thier alliance.

Your bosphorian city : You'll surely lose it to the sarmatians, but you battle well you've be able to keep it as I've done, try to build a stable there as quickly as possible if you succed in defending it so you'll be able to recover your loses and build a better force there to keep this city that can make you earn a nice pack of money, if you manage a trade pact with thrace and greece :original: .

The battlefield :

Very important part, a good disciple of the dark force never fails there... never ! first step is to use the terrain well and make your horse archers the lords of the field. Armenia is a hilly and moutainous land, excellent for ambushing tactics and very bad for the seleucid and pontic phalanxes, use it well with your infantry and horse archers and prove that phalanx power died with Alexander.

Stay alert : when you play horse archers it's in a way harder than an ordinary battle, because your forces are often more dispatched among the field to don't hesitate to often hit "p" for a better micro managment of each horse archer unit. If you aren't alert you can lose entire units of horse archers who've reached the map border and being blocked and killed by ennemy cavalry.

Speamen and infantry :
Deploy or move your infantry on hills and let the ennemy tire to reach them, use them as a wall and a screen for your retreating horse archers. Use them also to destroy tired units by surounding them when your horse archers have done thier job and are out of ammo.

Horse archers :

Your main power, thier only weakness is to being blocked on the corner of the map or between ennemy units and of course when they're out of ammo. Deploy them hiden in forest to set a nice trap for the ennemy cavalry.

- Autofire : You sould cut it in big and long battles to keep your ammos, firing infantry from the front is a total waste. Use it only if your cavalry is escaping other cavalry.

- Main objective : Cutting the ennemy legs and head, kill thier cavalry by diverting it from thier main force, suround it form everyside with 3-4 units of horse archers if you can, or better... I call this "the mongol trap" (beaucause the first time I used it was to win thier historic campain in MTW) just let them run after your horse archers and grab them in the forest where your spearmen are hiden and watch . The general is often mounted and sometime the only cavalry unit of the ennemy force...

- Second : Cut thier arms, now the cavalry is gone concentrate in killing every unit that is still able to kill your horse archers, foot archers and peltast, try to divert them from the main core and charge them with your general or heavy cavarly if you have it, with the general dead they'll flee quickly. Or you can kill them using the cantabrian circle they'll lose a lot of missiles in the center of your circle.

- Third : Finish them ! The easiest part try to suround the remaining infantry with your horse archers (2 units), they'll move to attack one, the horse archers who're facing the ennemy never shot, those from the back does and kill quickly a lot of them, if they're fleeding I suggest to put autofire on and move toward them, your horse archer will follow them and keep firing them in the back.

- Ennemy horse archers : surely your worst problem, use the same thing as with the ordinary cavalry but use the cantabrian circle to attack, but There is an other tactic...

- The "Armenian charge" That's how I call it, "The armenian charge" very risky but deadly in horse archers vs horse archers combat if well managed. The purpose is to make your horse archers charging the ennemy horse archers with autofire on and rout them quickly. It also works with weakened units but it's up to you to chose the right moment. If you fail you'll lose a lot of men, but succeding in it will allow you to destroy ennemy horse archers quickly with less loses. Charge horse archer units who are standing, if the begin to flee they'll fire at your charging guys and this is not good a at all as you surely guess . Using this charge as a faint and retreat can be nice too.

I'll write more soon as I've time to advance I hope this can be usefull for anybody.

Thanks to Narakir for the guide

[wipeout140]

Hun Guide by Grand Duke Vytautas!(link)

MY HUNS GUIDE


Cheers DarthMod playaz and fans!
I’ve just finished DM_BI 7.5 amazing adventurous Huns campaign (on h/h difficulty, skins are fabulous!) and would like to share my experience about this dark force faction, the dreadful, most feared, the finest horse archers of the period, the “scourge of God”, THE HUNS MUHAHAHAHA! It’s like run to the hills cuz I’m bloodthirsty and I’m coming for ya!


Short Introduction

The Huns

Easily some of the fiercest and most ruthless warriors of their time , the Huns all but lived on horseback and were superb bowmen. Powerful, capable riders, the Huns are more than a match for any other faction.
The Huns originated out of the Russian Steppes and launched a mass invasion of Europe under their powerful leader, Attila. They rampaged across Europe for years, displacing many a tribe with their new method of warfare. They were possibly the most feared soldiers of their time . In campaign, they will start in the extreme East portion of the map, without any settlements.
They must conquer both Rome and Constantinople. They start as a horde near the Roxolani and Alan tribes. The Huns have some of the best horses in the game and have very skilled horse archers. They have limited infantry but their cavalry is superior. (“Weee’re going to killl youuu!!!” ; “I’ll sliiice your neck!” “Stinking raaats!” – barbarian taunts)
Also you can read more about key things of Hun campaign here: http://rtw.heavengames.com/bi/info/f...sg/index.shtml
For you all Huns history fans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huns
And finally the most amazing superior article I‘ve ever read about horse archery and Huns: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=49318
“Now let the slaughter begin muhahaha, take no prisoners, kill ‘em ALL!!!”

I. THE CAMPAIGN – the strategic part

1.The life in the Hunnic Horde

Starting position. So you’ve just wandered with your huge uber horde and tribes from the steppes of Asia into yet unknown world to you. Your starting position is near the Roxolani tribe, first to feel the true might of your ferocious warriors!


Campaign objectives. You must hold Rome and Constantinopole + 13 other provinces in order to achieve victory.

Reorganization of your army. After a long journey through Asian steppes, you must now divide your forces into 2 parts: your elite horsemen (who will be your main striking forces) led by brave generals; and peasant armies (steppe horde spearmen) which will advance behind your superb horse armies and help in sieges.

Advance in 1 big group of stacks. I advice not to separate but advance in 1 big formation keeping stacks close together, this way you’ll be very powerful, almost invincible. 3 front line stacks: your elite horsemen armies with best generals available, which can move farther, spot and annihilate the threat. Behind them in the middle ordinary peasant armies (consisting of steppe spearmen) and keep 1-2 stacks (if possible with commanding general) in the back of your horde with mixed troops to protect your rear.
The path/direction of your horde. After having finished playing as the Huns, I can come up with these basic horde wander directions:
1)Straight to Constantinople (sacking and turning into horde Roxolani, Sarmatians and Goths) and settle there – imo this path is the most straightforward, short termed but also the most risky one, very good for blitz or seeking big challenge playerz, cuz you’ll have hard economic time, whats even worse hordes may come after you and they’ll be bloodthirsty and hungry of your treasuries. Hahaha good luck with this one!

2)Sack Constantinople, Greece and move on to WRE sacking all the way to Rome, then sack the eternal city itself and after 1 more siege settle in Rome. This strategy brings more long term benefits, cuz you’ll have more spoils of war (money in treasury) and the hordes are farther away, yet still they’ll come for you soon, but you’ll have more time to prepare.

3)“The eastern path” – that’s how I’d call this one: from starting position you go straight for Sassanids and ERE and slice their throat by total rampage destruction annihilation in the Middle East and possibly Egypt, sacking all the way. It could even destroy both Sass and ERE. Once you’ve done enough and are filthy rich settle somewhere possibly near Constantinople in Anatolia, Levant or best in Jerusalem lol (funny history – huns in Jerusalem lol ) If you survive in the middle east, this strategy is the most safest, cuz no other horde will trouble you (they go west always) and you can then easily collect those needed provinces

4)“The funny way” I found out this only when I had finished my campaign (silly me ). You can settle (you’ll loose about 1/3 of your whole horde) in high tech and esp populous settlement, tech-up your troops, destroy all buildings and then horde all the way again. Using this you can become horde-monster (many many stacks lol) and can win campaign in a cool way.

5)“My way” – my own original path that I’ve chosen in campaign


Those cool-looking mercenaries. While you’re in horde, you pay no unkeep to your army, but if you hire mercenaries, you’ll see your treasure suddenly drop+mercs take huge chunk of money for themselves when you sack/plunder a settlement. Thus I find it good hire little (best ones) or no mercs at all, when you’re in horde. Of course if your horde has become quite small, mercenaries are essential. When you settle, then mercs will be a different matter.

The power of night battles. The Hunnic leader starts out with the night fighter trait (and you can get this for other generals when you reach certain amount of stars – 5 maybe?). That's a total advantage when fighting couple of enemy stacks cuz enemy (although friendly too) reinforcements can't take part in the battle unless the commander also has the Night Fighter trait. So you can beat armies 1 by one with your night fighters.

Sieges. „The cowardly enemy have lost their walls. Now the streets will run with blood! “
They are quite a problem for Huns, who are mostly HA and heavy cavalry based faction and have rather crappy infantry. Nevertheless if you‘re impatient as I am and don‘t wanna starve ‘em out then waste your cheap steppe horde spearmen in sieges or buy strong merc heavy infantry such as merc veteranii to scale the walls.

Other tips.
1)avoid unnecessary battles, unless you really wanna be seen as a bully. Your horde, although super huge at the beginning will constantly lessen in size, so be careful who you fight. Especially try to avoid fighting other hordes, let them rampage to WRE, later it will be easier for you.
2)Some settlements (like Salona, Sarmatian capital, wre in northwest alps for e.g) block way for armies, try to avoid this and find another way which you can escort your horde in 1 tight group.
3)Automerge your horde troops after battle with M hotkey. This tip was very useful for me.

2.Time to settle down

Here’s how the known world looked (using toggle_fow) just after I settled in Rome (it had all buildings built lol!) and had over 100,000 denarii in my treasury:

Look at all the destruction and chaos I’ve caused ; love to see such a barbarian invasion ! Also you can see WRE has been their asses handed back to themselves, but not totally, while ERE is a monster faction in the east - tough battles waiting ahead!

Economy. Once, you’ve settled your treasury will begin to melt away quickly, so you have to stabilize that decline. As usual build basic economic structures, such as ports, roads, farms and traders. If you’re really short on cash, try disbanding mercs and/or decreasing your army unkeep or if you’re really really in red consider hording again. In my case everything in Rome was built so I just hired some mercs and secured Italy. Rome is the most high-tech city in the game imo. Troops trained there are uber powerful.

Your possible rivals.
Well it could be anyone, but mainly:
Other nomadic horde people – mainly goths, sarmatians and vandals; they are the toughest rivals imo, cause they use mainly the same HA tactics, but you have an edge in sheer cavalry units size.
WRE and ERE – they field infantry heavy armies so the only threat your HAs face is the enemy archers and light cavalry.

II. THE BATTLE – the tactical part

“Look at ‘em! Everyone fears you! Fear gnaws at their gizzards, fear eats their hearts, fear of me, fear of you, now fight and gut them like a fish WUHAHAHAHA! Chaaarge!!! ”

I just love listening CC light music during barbarian battle, it’s so heroic and there’s music from MTW too *remembers the good old Viking times* .

Hey guys I found very great guides to revise horse archery tactics, which are essential battling as Huns. Here are the links:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=38464 - how to use horse archers in RTW
http://forums.rometotalrealism.org/i...howtopic=13381 – many cool battle tactics guides + horse archers guide

Let’s start with Hunnic troop lineup:

INFANTRY – the supporting role for heavy cavalry, a shield for a general and a must in sieges (should consist maximum ¼ of an army, roughly 4-6 units)

Runaway slave spearmen
the crappiest of spear units, quite weak morale, vulnerable to missiles, use it if you really have no better alternative. (4 units)
Steppe horde spearmen/Steppe spearmen (max 4 units in army)
The backbone of your horde early infantry and good for garrison duty (quite cost effective), better stats, morale than slave spearmen, mostly defensive unit against cavalry esp as they have schiltrom ability.
Steppe Swordsmen (2 units)
Your infantry flanking troops, guard the flanks of your spear comrades; useful in sieges, weak against cav charges.
Steppe Heavy Spearmen (4 units)
The best infantry Huns can afford although they look down on these men from the saddle. It’s your center infantry

Hunnic infantry tips: In battle use them as a cover for your general (if needed, but mostly general rides along heavy cavalry) mainly hold them far back from the enemy while your real killers HAs and heavy cavalry do their job. Inf are like your final reserve in open battle. But in sieges is where they shine!

Mercenary Infantry – if you have additional cash or need them for siege

Merc Bucellarii – cool looking early crossbowmen, good for defending hunnic settlements, but I don’t hire them for field operative armies, cuz that’s when Has really shine.
Merc Foederati – kinda even better than your steppe spearmen, have ranged attack. Good vs cavalry and in sieges too.
Merc Golden Band – great flanking troops, although their skins are in doubt imo
Bosphoran mercs – heavy spearmen a good substitute for your steppe heavy spearmen.
Merc Veteranii – similar to roman commies lol, an all around inf great in open battle as well as in sieges.

CAVALRY – the backbone of your army, “the bread and butter” (should be ¾ in an army)

Hunnic army has mainly 2 parts of cavalry:

HORSE ARCHERS – the harassing and annihilating force, arguably the most versatille unit in RTW and BI, they can mostly win battle en mass alone (10+ more units in an army)

Hunnic Horde Horsemen/Hunnic Archers – this will be your standard killing machine until you’ll be able to train Hunnic elite Warriors. (Darth, just wanted to note that HA skins look kinda strange holding sword and bow in hand while firing at the same time; they should use sword as an alternative weapon)

Hunnic Elite Warriors – now that’s the MIGHT of Huns, they are absolutely invincible though take 2 years to train and are costly, which means you wont able to mass train many of them (4 + more if available units in your HAs group)

Merc HAs: Merc Hippo-Toxotai, Alan Horse Archers but they are no match for you Hunnic horse archery skills only Merc Sarmatian Archers are worth to try imo.

HEAVY CAVALRY – the flankers, chargers and finishers of HAs weakened enemy
Herdsmen
Well actually they’re light crap peasant type of cavalry , good for hunting archers and attacking light infantry, cuz they are huge in unit size. I kinda like when they report: “Yesssssss!” in a barbarian funny accent, makes me smile everytime, cuz I remember peasants from RTW tapping their asses and the next second being shot by an arrow lol. Also they are cost effective to raise thus very good for garrison.

Tribal Cavalry – although they are not originally Huns themselves, they are your quite reliable early flankers and chargers.

Hun Lancers – one of the greatest chargers in BI (such a huge charge rating), fast moving for a heavy cavalry, an improvement over tribal cav without a doubt. Quite good in prolonged melee also. Not a chance for weakened or unprepared infantry when these guys go nuts charging at them.

Hunnic Horde Chosen Warriors/Hunnic Heavy Cavalry – the best Hunnic melee cavalry, when you want to batter the enemy into submission, good in siege street fighting too. This unit is best deployed for melee after Lancers have just charged and retreated for another charge.

BASIC HUN BATTLE PLAN

1)Horse archers approach the enemy from left (more men cuz of shield protection exploit), center, right (3 groups)
2)If any units (usually light cav) chase after them retreat, encircle and destroy them (with the help of heavy cav too), then again approach the main army, rinse and repeat. Sometimes you can kill enemy general this way cuz “he’s too eager” .
3)After enemy’s light/heavy cav has been destroyed set your HAs to loose formation and aim for eliminating their ranged troops.
4)Always try to keep connection between your HAs don’t let them be separated and pressed to the edge of battle map
5)Encircle the enemy from all sides with HA harass them and waste all arrows on them; usually the battle is already won then and the enemy is routing, but if not then retreat your HAs and
6)Send your heavy cavalry charging from all sides, this should totally break the enemy if not bring the rest of your army (infantry and retreated HAs) and destroy the remnants.

I’ve also found a good guide about eastern armies’ troop composition and why cavalry is the backbone there, enjoy:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?p=640574

Hunnic balanced early/medium army
1 general
2 steppe spearmen
2 steppe swordsmen
9 Hunnic archers (3 groups of 3 units)
6 Herdsmen/Tribal Cavalry/Lancers (best available)

Hunnic balanced late uber army
1 general
4 heavy steppe spearmen
9 Hunnic elite warriors
4 Hunnic Lancers
2 Hunnic heavy cavalry

So that’s it! Hope you enjoyed this guide, don’t hesitate to give feedback. Txs and good conquering !

[IMG][/IMG]
ATTILA RULEZ! ONWARDS TO VICTORY MIGHTY HUNS!

Thank Grand Duke for another great guide

[DARTH VADER]

Greek Cities Guide by Grand Duke Vytautas!(link)
MY GREEK CITIES guide :original:
greek lambda flag, honour it
vanilla RTW greek flag, respect it
greek phalanx hoplites (including Spartans) - the backbone of greek army

Cheers DarthMod players! I‘ve finished my Greek campaign (on h/h) and here‘s the guide I‘ve writen for ya to share my personal experience while playing Darth Vader‘s personal favorite faction. Now that RTW Alexander is out I‘m interested in greek factions more than ever .
Before I start here‘s a couple of useful articles/guides concerning the Greeks (I used some ideas from these sources)
all factions mini cool guide+some tips
RTW greek cool description
short greek campaign guide
great greek guide by vercingetorix
totalwar.org greek guide section

Introduction

RTW Greek intro
„The Greeks could rule the world. Alexander did. He took a Greek army to the far Indus. There was nothing left to conquer. The world was his. But Alexander is dead. His empire is gone. And so we live in evil days. The free men of Greece have turned on each other, instead of their proper enemies – those who envy all that Greeks have done. Alexander must weep - if the dead weep. I would weep in his place. But I would also hope. The world turns. What was may come again. The Fates still spin the web of men’s lives. So now, perhaps, the Gods wish Greeks to be great again. Perhaps a new Alexander will take up the sword. Bring order where there is chaos. Remake the world of men to a better plan. Perhaps... “

The Greek Cities
The Greeks have a right to be proud. They are the fathers of democracy and reason, bringers of civilization and culture to the lands around the Mediterranean. There are few corners of the known world that have not felt the tread of a Greek army, or been graced by the magnificence of Greek architecture. The world is only the way it is because Greeks fought off the despots of Persia (in 1 of the greatest battles in history – Marathon), and because Alexander led Greeks to the ends of the earth!
Greece, a land dominated by sea, was made up of cities, called city states. These city states were spread out around the Mediterranean sea, the most famous of them being Athens (home of democracy, philosophy and arts) and Sparta (mighty military city, home of the toughest soldiers in the world - spartans). Greece had some of the finest poets (Homer, Pindar, etc.) and philosophers (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle etc.). They also thought that the body was a fine work of art, especially the man‘s. Their most useful and mainstay military unit is the hoplite and greeks use phalanx tactics perfected over the ages. This faction lies in present day Greece.
Now, however, the Greeks are reduced in power, and largely confined to their original homelands. A loose confederation (The Achaen League) of city-states and petty kingdoms, held together by a need for mutual protection, is what remains. But there could still be greatness within Greece. The same blood that once defied Xerxes still runs in the veins of Athenians, Thebans, Spartans and the rest. The men of Greece still value their independence and civilization, and could still take this back to every corner of the world.
Perhaps now is the time for the Greeks to be great again. Alexander’s heirs still fight amongst themselves for the spoils of empire. The rising power of Rome has yet to break out of the confines of Italy – they face the Carthaginians as rivals. To the north, the semi-civilized Dacians and other barbarians are surely no threat to civilized men, and Greeks have never bowed the knee to Eastern despots! So you have unified the greek city-states into one faction, can you defend the foundations of western civilization, defeat those upstarts romans and become the new Alexander again? It‘s up to you, DarthMod player, to change history! Lets get started...

CAMPAIGN – the strategic part

I. The starting campaign location and objectives




Geographical position
As you can see from the pics The Greek Cities starting position has both it’s advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
1) your faction is located in the heart of Mediterranean which means you‘re in the center of intense/very lucrative trade and it‘s 1 of the most wealthest regions (along with middle east and carthage imo) in RTW
2) you start with 2 world wonders: the statue of Zeus (public order bonus) and the Collossus of Rhodes (cashcow naval trade), besides there are 2 more wonders nearby in western Asia minor .
3) the strategic position is quite defensive (in mainland Greece you can block chokepoints and islands are relatively safe for now) with exception of Syracuse and Pergamum. Your main worry should be the enemy naval invasion therefore a big and powerful navy armada is a must for a greek player.
Disadvantages:
1)you border many factions/have many neighbors which is not very great as they envy your achievements, wonders and huge lucrative trade and may become greedy and gang on you. You will possibly have constant wars on 4 to 6 fronts which is crazy so „A wise man in times of peace prepares for war“
2)everyone for some reason (hardcoded?) hates your faction so diplomacy and finding allies will be tough
All in all, I think pros are more important than cons considering greek geographical situation .

Campaign objectives. Hold 28 settlements including your own initial lands + bruttium, ionia and lycia, roughly you’ll need to control all of Greece up to Danube (great for defence), western asia minor, sicily and italy + some couple regions in order to achieve campaign victory
Your objectives conflict with seleucids’ so war with them seems inevitable , same for brutii who will be backed by all roman factions, imo it’s impossible to reach even ceasefire not speaking about peace with these factions - constant bloody warfare awaits - that’s what RTW is all about. Other neighbors’ (Carthage, Pontus, Numidia, Macedonia) objectives (the land needed to control that Darth has modded) don’t conflict with yours as far as I know, but I’m sure you’ll have many betrayals and enemies so be ready for it. I guess The Greek Cities possibly have the most available fronts of war than any other faction. Everyone will gang up on you sooner rather than later, that’s why this defensive-dark-forced-darthish faction is so cool and interesting to play.

II. The economy „We should provide in peace what we need in war“
In the beginning of campaign you already have quite a developed economy; your treasury balance is positive and will certainly grow in the future. It means that you shouldn’t concentrate your building projects entirely on economy like other factions must; it allows the development of an early military machine also. Still much needs to be done in economic matters, especially naval trade should be a priority as it gives the best profits .

1. Your initial Greek city-states

SYRACUSE (south eastern Sicily) – the legendary siege city , homeland of wise Archimedes, this is the settlement that you’ll have to defend well esp in the beginning. The romans – Scipii, Brutii – will relentlessly try to capture it, not to mention Carthaginians (which are your allies at the start) on western Sicily - who knows they might get greedy in ruling all of Sicily and betray you, as Greeks had conflicts with them centuries ago in dispute of controlling rich Sicily Island. Although Syracuse is in an isolated position you must hold onto this city at all costs as it’s the foothold in future possible Sicily and south Italy conquest, btw it allows you the training of Spartans – red cloaked perfect soldiers feared throughout the Mediterranean.
Syracuse is a developed city, it has 3rd level governor palace, port and most importantly stone walls which is invaluable against roman sieges, but “Brave men are a city's strongest tower of defence“. Imo you should stress this city in military facilities and training, cuz it has huge population and growth; maybe upgrade the port in more peaceful times. Don’t build paved roads, you’ll be constantly at war with your neighbors on this island, you wont get much trade here and only help your enemies. Worship Nike, the Goddess of Victory, as her temples give public order and experience bonus, which is a nice addition to fresh trained troops. I advise you build 3rd level barracks asap to upgrade your trusty hoplites and unlock Spartans (yay), also rely heavily on mercenaries in this region esp the missile ones – merc peltasts and balearic slingers – they can save the day when defending your stronghold. Next aim for building a stable to get couple units of militia cav a very useful light cav, then build archery buildings to get some ranged support. Later you can even build academy if you like. Syracuse will be your all-around and best upgraded city in Sicily.
„The true contempt of an invader is shown by deeds of valour in the field - Hermocrates of Syracuse“
Now about the warfare: aim that Scipii and Carthage wear/tire/kill themselves, but mostly those upstart romans will want your city more. Let them come to you and attack you in siege (don’t sally if you don’t have to) you’ll beat them back from your high walls (this is sounding like from the movie Troy). Here’s a very great guide of defending settlements in RTW: http://forums.rometotalrealism.org/i...ic=13381&st=60
After you’ve crushed those Scipii many times, Carthaginians will betray you, do the same in siege defenses for them too. Aim for the right moment when you have good balanced army to capture Messana and cut-off Scipii from pretensions to Sicily, then again defend defend defend (greeks are a defensive faction right?) and maybe your strategos will capture all of Sicily. Btw Syracuse will do even better if you support it from the mainland Greece: if you have any spare units, ships, bring them along. Oh and btw NAVY will play a huge part in the conquest of Sicily.

SPARTA (south Greece, Laconia) – your capital (although you may want to move it to Athens for better trade) and mighty legendary military city-state, home of the finest soldiers Spartans (“To brave men, the prizes that war offers are liberty and fame - Lycurgus of Sparta“ ). At the start build basic structures such as walls, port, then completely specialize in military matters: build Nike temples for exp, then barracks, specialize mostly in hoplites and cavalry (as here you can also recruit mounted spartans, yay they look very cool). Give attention to blacksmith buildings also. Btw there are some quite good mercs in this region namely Aetolian cav and cretan archers.

CORINTH (the Peloponnesus region) – another great city-state of yours, it will support you financially and provide foot missile troops and naval fleets. Honour Hermes, build ports and economic buildings for max profits.

ATHENS (Attica) – one of the richest, greatest and civilized cities of the ancient . („Men of Athens, there is not much time for exhortation, but to the brave a few words are as good as many – Hippocrates“) In my campaign I made Athens my capital. It will be your all around city providing both economic, naval, educational (academies) and military (hoplites) benefits. What and when to build will be up to you to decide according to circumstances, my advise would be - concentrate on economy first, don‘t forget to build academies and postion governors here to get good traits and ancilarries, before sending them out to govern another city, build Athena temples of course – she’s a patron of Athens, goddess of war and wisdom (public/law order + great retinues). If you want soldiers to upgrade exp and armour swap them between Athens and Sparta. Athens is your border with Macedonians so guard it well, cuz otherwise if Macedonians smell that you have a small garrison you can bet they will betray you. Keeping large forces near your border, I found, is a good way of preventing a war.

KYDONIA (Crete island) – a wealthy island, this is where ancient Minoan civilization once flourished. Specialize it in trade and naval support + hire the famous creeeeeshian archers (they are certainly 1 of the best mercs for me) and cilician pirates (yay!) and transport them in your cool city-state greek empire. Worship Hermes for improved trade, in the future build stone walls to feel comfortable about the defence.

RHODES – a superb trading position, this settlement should be stressed in economy even more, it is also great for naval fleet building and unit + merc recruitment. It is really hard to tell in what to specialize here, imo it should be a generic city like Athens. Just donno what temple should be dedicated here – Hermes, Nike or Athena. You can launch invasions of western Anatolia from here in order to capture those precious wonders.

PERGAMUM (western Anatolia) – a superb trading center, your foothold in Asia Minor. This settlement is in a similar isolated position like Syracuse. Pontus but mainly Seleucids are potential rivals here. I must admit I lost Pergamum in my campaign (later after many battles recaptured it - great AI) cuz I didn’t pay much attention to defend and support it from the mainland Greece. So defend it at all costs, cuz Seleucids will attack with full stacks in the beginning trust me !

2. The great importance of greek navy

“If a man does not know to what port he is sailing, no wind is favourable – Seneca”
“It is pleasant, when the sea is high and the winds are dashing the waves about, to watch from the shores the struggles of another – Lucretius”

The Greek Cities are a maritime power just like Carthage and Egypt. Greeks are proud professional seamen and have long traditions in naval warfare – battle of Salamis is one of the greatest examples.
So Greeks must control the seas in order to:
1)protect your vital lucrative trade and port blockades
2)protect your lands from naval invasions
3)destroy enemy naval power
4)disrupt enemy trade and blockade their ports
5)transport troops to spearhead your naval invasions
I suggest you use couple of biremes to cover troop/agent transport in a certain region (from mainland Greece to Syracuse and Pergamum). While 1 naval fleet should consist of at least 4 stacked ships, this way you can win decisive naval battles, control the seas and effectively blockade ports. Build best available ships of course.

III. Diplomacy and expansion

„After the war is over, make alliances - Greek proverb“
„A bad peace is even worse than war“
„We make war that we may live in peace“
„Let him who desires peace prepare for war“

1. Initial neighbors and strategies against them

Romans (SPQR, Scipii, Brutii, Julii) – those upstarts and new-way thinkers have insulted Greece and now you are at war with them, I think it’s time to teach them a hard conservative Hellenic lesson . The only land border is with Scipii, but soon you’ll find that brutii is invading you, Julii can pose a naval threat only I think as they are busy with gauls as usual. Mostly you’ll be on defensive in this war until you build good infrastructure and grow strong enough to invade Italy itself. Just be careful with the senate army, it can be a nasty surprise. The phalanx vs manipular formation will show who’s the master. Navy is the key in this war too. Try to ally with roman enemies, namely spain, gauls, carthage, Macedonia, if you could keep those alliances romans will have big problems. "The roman leader runs all the way away - perhaps to his pitiful catamites" I almost fell off the chair when I heard this CA has some good sense of humour lol
Seleucid Empire – your 2nd potential enemy and biggest threat in the east to Pergamum. Phalanx vs pikemen mastery will decide the victor, navy as usual is darned important, impoverish those untrue greeks by blocking their ports. Stay on the defensive against them until they are weak enough for you to counterattack. Try to ally with Pontus and Egypt in an effort against Seleucids to get them crushed on all sides. Taking 2 wonder regions is a primary goal in this theater of war.
Pontus – a possible enemy, they may try to attack Pergamum or Rhodes, but try to ally with them if you can against a mutual effort vs Seleucids. Pontus uses a lot of missile tactics+chariots+some pikemen so it’s wise to defend in woods against them or bring your own cretan archers. Try to avoid war with them – you already have too many enemies.
Macedonia – your initial allies, but be suspicious about their plans. They betrayed me in my campaign, I crushed them and unified Greece up to Danube river. Imo if you keep large force in Athens (border) you may be able to keep alliance with them, but always be ready for TOTAL WAR.
Carthage – although they are allies for now, expect a bloody betrayal. It is better avoid war with them and let them fight romans instead, but if they insult you revenge with all your might
Numidia – they seem to attack Rhodes sometimes, better ally with them (if it wasn’t possible with Egypt) to make a good trading partner and if you’re at war with Carthage they may be useful if you fund them with cash.

2. Greek diplomats, spies and assassins

Diplomats – you need at least 1 in Sicily, 1 in mainland Greece, 1 in Anatolia region and 1 roaming diplomat in ship in the beginning to acquire as many trade rights as you can, sell/buy maps make wise diplomatic agreements (alliances, ceasefire, etc.) and in this way boost your treasury esp in the beginning of campaign they are very useful indeed.
Spies – I use them for a couple of reasons: 1) scouting ahead of my army in order to find the composition of enemy armies 2) infiltrating rival settlements/causing unrest and maybe even rebellion  3) counterspying in your own territory, keeping rival spies out of your major settlements. I suggest having as many spies as your treasury can afford, information is never a bad thing.
Assassins – those guys rock! Their unkeep is high though so only use them to cover a specific region, e.g. place 1 in north Greece, 1 in Sicily, 1 in Anatolia etc.
When these 3 agents are close by they can cooperate this way: send a spy to find out information, then send assassin to kill the most important target and at last send diplomat to bribe.

3. Diplomacy strategies

I used some diplo strategies in my campaign from diplomacy guide that most of you probably know: diplo guide
My favourites are: the Caesar maneuver, Cleopatra strat and Robin Hood maneuver :wink: . Although sometimes these diplo strategies just seem not to work well for me, best kill all of your enemies haha .

BATTLEFIELD – the tactical part



Greek troop lineup: many phalanxes (including Spartans)+good missile support+superb mercenaries but minimal cavalry.
„Today, we look for a victory worthy of Hercules himself! This is a mighty task, but we are men enough to do it!“
„Now trouble begins. We did not seek war ( ), but now we are facing battle, and we will not stop until our dead foes fill the field!“

HOPLITE PHALANXES – the backbone/mainstay of your greek army (10+ more units in 20 stack)

Militia hoplites – the lowest of hoplites, but great for garisson duty
Hoplites – your bread and butter in early campaign, also good as garisson too (reasonable unkeep), cool looking top of the helmet (donno the right word) btw like Mirmidons‘ unit :wink: in Troy movie. At least include 10 units of hoplites in your early armies
Traditional hoplites – a classical hoplite with a shorter spear, I find them extremely good at flanking (phalanx off, guard off), they play a hypaspist unit role for me. 2-4 units
Armoured hoplites – an improvement over hoplites, the backbone of your late greek armies, their helmet alone should instill fear to the enemies ha! Nothing (excluding pikes) can touch these guys from the front, they are esp great in tight/shield formalion. 10 + more units
Armoured heavy hoplites – a better substitute for traditional ones, they fulfill the same role. 2-4 units
Goldshielded guards – these hoplites come from the parthenon of Nike, they are extremely gold looking and I LOOOOVE GOLD! You may have a chance to use them late in the campaign but they are rare.
Spartan hoplites – „The Spartans do not ask how many but where they are – Leonidas“ that‘s right even the thought of 300 should scare the enemy , not to mention the intimidating red tunics of spartans. Spartans are simply perfect soldiers, men dedicated all their life as warriors from the childhood. Spartans are semi-gods to be exact, they are given the honour of carrying greek lambda banner on their shield, this is truly an awesome and inspirational unit . They take 2 turns to train so you‘ll mostly have max 4 units in your armies, buto n the field they pwn/own just about anything lol. Btw they can be trained only in Sparta (guess why) and Syracuse. „Come home with this shield or upon it“

MERC INFANTRY – flanking support for your hoppies (a substitute for your short speared hops)

Barbarian Infantry -- your very own rental warband! Not really a good fit with the Greeks, but you can pick them up to do the nasty parts of your siege assaults if you want. Available near Ankara only.

Thracians - a breaknecking light barbarian infantry. Reasonably hard hitting, but likely to take losses pretty quickly too from archers and cavalry. Available all over Greece, Thracia, Macedonia, the islands, Asia, Illyria, and Dacia.

Bastarnae -- same as the Thracians BUT they have 2HP and better morale, so the survivability is much better. Available in Macedonia, Thrace, Dacia, and occasionally Asia.

MISSILE INFANTRY – the supporting/screening troops for your hoplites (should consist ¼ of an army imo)

Peltasts – fast and accurate at harrassing slower moving heavy inf, good in defence behind the main line, vulnerable to missiles and cavalry also don‘t expect them to be in melee. Screening/ambushing and pursuing fleeing enemy is their main purpose. (2-4 units of 20 balanced unit stack)
Heavy peltasts – a huge improvement over peltasts – larger shield better armour and stats, but you wont have many of them as they are available only in 3rd tier archery (should be in 2nd Darth correct this plz), also merc peltasts and illyrian merc are plenty to hire so heavy peltasts are kinda useless when they become available. (2-4 units)
Archers – plain greek archers, „bows of Artemis“ are good to have as garisson - cheap unkeep and great at defending cities. You can include some of them in your operating field armies, but they are no match for cretans. (2-4)

RANGED MERCENARIES – a great addition to greek missile regiments

Merc Peltasts/Illyrian mercs – superb mercanaries filling the much needed peltast supporting role in greek army, they screen and guard the flanks of your heavy hoplites and are good flankers too, although expect many casualties against cav. (2-4 units)
Cilician Pirates – a very cool-funny unit :wink: . Acts as skirmishers and light infantry, peasant formation, but their javelins are armor piercing and they have a high attack value and morale. They'll take losses, but they're fun to use. Surprisngly good wall assault troops. Definitely fun at parties. Available around Tarsus and on Cyprus.
Rhodian/Balearic slingers – great long range missiles, certainly better than your plain greek archers. Cool-looking btw. Enemy cavalry LOVES to hunt them to extinction (2-4)
Creeeeeeeeshian (ehemmm Cretan ) archers – now we‘re talking about one of the best archers in RTW (among forester archers, archer aux, chosen archers, syrian archers) and superb mercenary unit. These guys are very useful to your early, bow-starved armies. Cretans have extra range, they‘re sharp and accurate, can decimute light unit within seconds plus they can act as light flanking troops, just get them away from cavalry. (2 to 4 units)

CAVALRY – minimal role in greek army (max 4 units including general)

Militia Cavalry – your own Numidian cavalry! A very unique abilities both as ranged and light cav, I wonder why greek cav is available in 2nd stables. It should be contrawise. Functions – harrassment, intercepting other light cav, chasing light troops and fleeing enemies.
Greek cavalry – good charge, good light anti-cav and anti HA unit too. Just dont stop movint with them, otherwise they‘ll be cut to pieces.
Aetolian merc cav – better than greek cav imo it‘s kinda medium cavalry, very useful indeed.
Greek Noble cav – late campaign greek heavy cav unit, perfect for charging and breaking formations, good in melee too as any heavy cav, bad vs spearmen.
Spartan Hippeis – how cool is that a mounted spartan, the skins are fabulous, they‘ll be like your second general unit. 2 HP!

BALANCED ARMIES (imo)

Early Greek balanced army
1 best available general
1 ballistas (if needed)
10 hoplites
2 traditional hoppies/thracians/bastarnae/spartans (use best available)
2 peltasts/merc peltasts/illyrian merc
2-4 cretan archers
2 Militia cav/Aetolian cav/Greek cav

Late-uber greek army
1 best available general
1 onager/heavy onager (if needed)
8 armoured hoppies
2 bastarnae/armoured heavy hops
2 spartans
2 merc peltasts/illyrian merc/heavy peltasts
2-4 cretan archers
2 Militia cav/Greek noble cav/Spartan Hippeis (use according to your taste)

Greek Battle Tactics
Maybe someone could add, I‘m rather lazy .
In short on attack I use Greek-theban formation where skirmishers and archers are deployed on the left flank with light cav and general just behind them to watch over. Center is made of massed hoplites with some flanking forces the left flank being stronger than right
In defence I use schiltrom phalanx formations, where all hoplites make one or two big circles and in the center is my general and missiles, if you‘re heavily outnumbered and lack missiles, try deploying in the woods.
Here‘s 1 tactics guide that you may find useful: http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=46099

Extras
Movies about ancient Greece that I know
Troy (2004), Alexander (2005), Hellen of Troy, The Argonauts, The Odysey, the 300 spartans (1962) donno more plz write me if you know

DM 7.5 my customized greek music for max epic experience
1)the great CC light music mod (“Hellenic: A proud independant people who forged a massive ring of cultural control over a large span of the earth, we felt a heroic style blend of music with a seemingly balkan touch and a pinch of eastern was called for.”)
2)RTR 6.3 greek music – great campaign track by V. Kuryluk, couple of other beautiful soundtracks for tension and mobilization in battle.
3)The soundtrack from the movie “Alexander” – awesome soundtrack and so fitting for Hellenic culture in RTW that really adds smth unique to the atmosphere.
4)Rise and Fall: Civs at War demo game soundtrack – couple of very cool soundtracks for battles.
5)Vanilla RTW music – there are some quite nice tracks also.

„And remember this above all: the Gods are watching from Olympus! Make sure they are not ashamed!“

P.S. Cheers I hope you've found this guide useful, any feedback is welcome and good luck playing DarthMod!
P.S.S. Sorry for my english mistakes, it's not my first language you know :wink:

[DARTH VADER]

Grand Duke's guide for DarthMod 8.0

MY GAUL GUIDE

Hello Dark Lord Darth Vader and all his followers! Dark force be with you!

I’m honoured to play DM 8.0. Thank you Darth Vader for your amazing effort of improving AI and gameplay, truly magnificent work of yours! May this guide be a thanks from me for your DM 8.0! Having campaigned as barbarians only once in DM (that were fierce and ferocious germans), I decided to try out barbarian culture once again in order to revive my inner barbarian bloody rage and go berserk once again muhahaha! This time my choice is Gauls – one of the best barbarian
representing factions (imperial campaign, played on h/h, large unit size). Here are some interesting sources about Gaul, just before I start:
great Gaul guide by Vercingetorix
totalwar.org guide section – Gaul
barbarian fear tactic
Gaul opening moves
Gauls in wikipedia

“Arghhhhh!!! Brave Celts and Conans , Asterixes and Obelixes – time to shed the blood of sissy romans! Wahahahaha Chaaaaaarge!”
:tooth:

RTW Gaul-Barbarian Intro

Before my grandfather’s grandfather was born, this was our land. These are good places. Our Gods live here, in the trees and rivers. They watch over us. We are happy. We hunt. We love. We have families. Homes. A good life . But sometimes, we must fight. The Romans disturb the Gods. They burn the forests. They take what is ours: wives, children, land. And the Romans talk of how they will help us, and protect us. They put us to sleep with golden promises. When we wake, all we had is gone – stolen! They take our sons and turn them into little Romans! Gahhh! So we fight to keep what is ours, what must STAY ours! There can be no peace. NO PEACE with Romans - men of stone and iron and lies. There can be only WAR!

Vanilla RTW Gaul flag – wild boar symbolizing strength, stout resistance and stubbornness
DM 7.5 Gaul flag – Kaweh’s piece of art; more polished flag
DM 8.0 Gaul flag – unique flag for Gaul

Gaulish story link

Gaul was made up roughly of the areas encompassed by today’s France. Gaul, during the time that Rome: Total War takes place, was home to a variety of Gallic tribes, some more advanced than others. Cities were not uncommon, but most Gallic tribes had not achieved the same level of political and technological achievement that the Romans had by the 1st century BC. By that time, the Romans had conquered much of Gaul in response to the actions of just a few Gallic tribes, who terrorized other weaker tribes and pushed thousands of Gallic refugees into Roman territory. Julius Caesar had led an expedition into Gaul to not only stop the Gallic incursions into Roman territory, but to make Gaul part of Roman territory.
The chief clan leader against the Roman invasion was Vercingetorix, leader of both the Averni tribe and a loosely, temporarily united group of weaker Gallic tribes. By 52 BC, Vercingetorix’s army was the largest ever fielded by Gaul, comprised of close to 80,000 soldiers . ‘Army’ may actually be too kind a label for this group, as they were a motley collection of all types, with loose organization, basic weapons, and rudimentary training that paled in comparison to the Roman legions. They did, however, have a respectable cavalry force , in addition to fighting on their own territory and were skilled in defensive tactics. Against Roman siege engines, Gauls would use tallow and fire, and burn almost all of their own towns to the ground in a scorched-earth campaign that would leave little, if anything, for the conquering Romans (and surviving Gauls) to use. Towns and farms were burned by the hundreds, leaving the Roman army to scavenge in a desolate countryside.
This desperate situation, for Roman and Gaul alike, came to a head in the spring of 52 BC. Caesar pursued the Gallic force to the town of Alesia (near present-day Dijon), where the Roman army began to lay siege. The Romans used a variety of siege artillery, in addition to tunnels and towers. The Gauls put up a hearty defense, using their own towers and counter-tunnel systems. The siege went on for weeks, as the Gauls continued to fortify Alesia and improve their defense with ditches, moats, and spikes, and the last townspeople emptied out of the town walls .
A Gallic relief force, allegedly 5 times the size of the Roman besieging army , finally arrived to relieve Vercingetorix and his exhausted troops, but, by employing masterful maneuvering, Caesar’s army overcame it. In the ensuing chaos, the siege was broken and the Romans poured into the town, capturing and killing almost every Gallic soldier left . Most prisoners were sold into slavery, while Vercingetorix himself was shipped off to Rome and alternately put on display and imprisoned for years. He was finally beheaded in a public execution in 46 BC, as Gaul became assimilated into the Empire.

I hope DM player that you can save Gaul from such a fate! Teutatis be with you!

RTW Gaul description

The Gauls are a confederation of many tribes which you united and successfully expanded their territorial range over centuries of migration. Their culture is vibrant, aggressive and proud, valuing courage in both their warlords, warchiefs and warriors.
Do not mistake the Gallic people for simple barbarians. They are far from a simple people. Their culture is ancient. They have kings, coinage and developed trade. Their metal working skills are superb, easily the equal of their so-called civilized neighbors. Their towns are well organized and prosperous. Their culture is rich and they have Gods aplenty to keep them from harm. They have warriors aplenty to do harm unto others. They may lack the writing of the Greeks or Romans, but this does not make them savages.
They are from the same robust Celtic stock as the Britons and indeed many of the same tribes can be found in both Northern Gaul and Britannia. The sea has been no barrier to their expansion. Like the Britons, the Gauls have a proud warrior tradition and are not people to lightly accept conquest or setbacks. They will fight, and fight hard, to preserve what is rightfully theirs, and to take new lands that could be rightfully theirs. A certain degree of bloody-mindedness also colours their druidic religion and warfare which many outsiders find deeply intimidating - headhunting does that to other people!
The Gauls are a people with a great future, if they can find the space to expand successfully. They face many threats, from both ‘civilized’ people namely Romans and other ‘barbarians’ such as Germans, Britons and maybe Iberians but these threats can equally be seen as opportunities for greatness and glory .
So the Gauls are a barbarian faction, who became notorious for almost conquering Rome in 4th century b.c. and later for their stout resistance (parallel between brits vs scots and romans julii vs gaul) to the invading romans. Historically Gaul was conquered and finally subdued by Gaius Julius Caesar in 49-46 b.c.

Can you change the course of history, stop the roman invasion and defeat them at their own backyard as it was done couple of centuries ago? This DM player is up to you!

“Woe to the vanquished muhahahahaaa! Kill ‘em all!!!”

CAMPAIGN – the strategic part
:hmmm:

I. The starting campaign location and objectives



Geographical position: pros and cons

As you can see Gaul’s controlled territory in the beginning of campaign is split into 2 parts: the vast Gaul itself and the northern Italy or Cisalpine Gaul. What separates these two major parts is the high Alps Mountains and rebel settlement Massila. This situation has both its advantages and drawbacks:

Advantages: Your starting area is vast, quite rich and potential. Do you know that Gaul is one of the strongest factions in ratings scale at the start? Since you already get a descent income your big territory allows you to focus not only on economy, but on early military development as well, so you can plan to blitzkrieg those pesky romans once and for all.
Gauls also have great diplomacy standing – many allies and their only enemy are the romans, but as we know life is full of surprises, so this situation is due to change.

Disadvantages: Your barbarian empire can be overstretched if you’re not careful and you have hard geopolitical situation - many borders: north (Britons and Germans), east (Dacia), south (******* romans) and west (spanish). Try to concentrate on fighting with 1 faction at a time and defend from the rest.
Your 2 northern Italy settlements are isolated from the rest and it can be hard to defend and reinforce them. You can only build simple roads (no paved ones), so your armies move slower. Also barbarian navy is weaker than civilized nations’.

Still I think Gaul’s geographic starting position has more pros than cons.
Note: don’t forget to move your capital to more central position later in campaign, cuz this can really help you to rule your Gaulish empire, haha! :tooth:

Campaign objectives. Hold 25 regions including your own lands.

You can mainly achieve this, if you unite your lands by capturing rebel Massila; then destroy romans, thus conquer Italy; also I suggest the conquest of Spain, cuz it’s better to let Britons be your allies and leave them battling with germans for a while. Besides Iberia is also very filthy rich. The important thing for Gaul also is time: time is your enemy as neighbors around you will continuously grow stronger, esp romans. Try to achieve domination of western Mediterranean before the marian reforms if possible. But if you prefer more challenge then you can hold onto more defensive slow build-up and allow the AI to grow into monster lol. It’s up to you to decide but I prefer blitzkrieg as Gauls!
Note: you can change/edit victory conditions in descr_win_conditions file if you want.

II. The economy

Gaul has quite good economy compared to other nations and don’t need to focus matters entirely on finances, but can also develop good early military machine, since you already get a descent profit at the start.

Basic tips for a start:

1)connect your lands by roads as soon as possible
2)build next level government buildings where needed
3)establish order in your lands by building watchtowers and forts so you can spot the annoying rebels, see your whole kingdom and what enemies are up to.
4)Population growth: you wanna reach 3rd level (6000 population) asap so try lowering taxes a bit when you gain additional money later on
5)When you’re concentrating on military, build troop training building and only then temples and blacksmith, so that you can train best of your factions troops asap while upgrading them later.
6)specialize your cities: make ones military (near borders, esp in northern Italy - Patavium; northern Gaul - Alesia and south - Narbo Martius), others – economic powerhouses (the ones near coast and deep in your lands, e.g. Lemonum). Of course build the basic stuff such as roads, muster field (for garrison) and ports in all your towns.
7)Economic buildings order imo: dirt roads; port or farm (see in town details which gives you more benefit); trader; 2nd level port or farm; mines; market. With barbarian culture economy is rather simple. One word: specialize.
8)specialize your military cities on what units you produce according to temples. Since Gaul main strength is fanatical barbarian light and heavy infantry with best archers in RTW, foresters + little cavalry support, decide which settlement you dedicate for continuously churning out loads of that chosen unit and reinforcing your operating field armies.

The important Gaul religious temples

Gaul had a warlike religion historically so it’s no surprise their temples are oriented for exp and weapon upgrades plus temples themselves allow training of powerful units (like fanatics, raider cav, druids). Imo Gaul has some of the best temples of all the factions in the game. Imo it does make sense cuz Gauls have fewer troops than most other factions and are in tough geopolitical situation. Darth, good balance well done!

TEUTATIS – probably the best of Gaul’s temples this one is dedicated for battleforge, which means it’s an exp and weapon upgrades temple + it allows the training of crazy and powerful Naked Fanatics. Also it adds many good courage and bravery traits to the governors. Very valuable indeed. It’s the most popular “infantry temple”. Build it where you train the core of your light and heavy infantry. Certainly Gaul is one of the best exp and weapon upgrades gaining factions.

ABNOBA – the temple of every archer’s dreams. That’s right, it upgrades your missile troop weapons, which is great cuz by the time you build Abnoba sacred groove, you can upgrade your foot missiles (esp foresters yay ) to golden weapon type (think about when they are also upgraded in weaponsmith for armour lol), which is awesome as they can kick (hmmm shoot lol) the butt of enemy really hard lol. Plus Abnoba gives ambushing traits for governors. So build it where you specialize your military town in foot missiles.

EPONA – the goddess of horses. This sacred place grants you exp and allows the training of very freaking scary and powerfully looking axe armed Raider Cavalry (yay). Build it in cavalry producing town. Since cav is not the biggest strength (infantry is; cav – secondary but also very important role) of Gaul faction build this temple covering wide areas. E.g. in my campaign I built 1 in Gaul region to supply it with cav; 1 in northern Italy and so on to supply a vast region.

ESUS – my least favourite temple of Gaul. It’s dedicated for justice and so improves public order and law. Don’t underestimate it by not building it at all though cuz still this temple can be very useful as it allows the training of Druids, a great inspirational unit, which can turn the tide in battle many times with their taunting. Plus Esus gives good ancillaries and justice traits for the guy ruling the town. Build it in similar fashion as epona to cover a specific large region and then trade ancillaries between governors of other temples – choose 1 family member for this duty link to breeding family members.

Your starting Gaul settlements:

Gaul (modern France) territory

CONDATE REDONUM (in northwest Gaul) – interesting name huh? This town is near border with Britannia and Germania, but lies in rather relative safety, cuz Britons or germans would go for your capital Alesia in the first place. Make sure you have enough garrison in this town to battle small bands of bandits though. I dedicated this town to Esus and specialized it for economy in order to sea trade with Britons and it seems I made a rational decision, cuz this town gives my treasury additional boost. Also I advice to start building a navy in this region to secure your trade from hungry pirates and possibly naval conflict with Britons, you never know. Also this is a good place to train spies and assassins. Support this town with military units from Alesia.

ALESIA (northern Gaul) – your starting capital (although you may want to move it later to a more central position like Massila) the legendary battle site between G.J. Caesar and Vercingetorix. This city borders with Germania so always stay on alert here, have a good big border defending army (1 stack of balanced troops should be enough imo at least on h/h). This will be your military center. I built Teutatis temples here and specialized it in infantry. Try to build hall of heroes and forges here to get best of your infantry and make your units rock. From this settlement you can also raid german towns if at war capture them destroy what you can, massacre population, then give the crappy town back to them - kind of Viking style. This way border will be safer.

LEMONUM (western Gaul) – economic, naval and cavalry supplying settlement. Epona temple here is great. The rebels like to spawn around here so make sure you teach those scum with your Night Raider Cavalry ahahaahahaha muhahaha!!!

NARBO MARTIUS (southern Gaul) – this will be kinda generic settlement for both economy (esp naval trade) and military. It borders Spain so don’t fall asleep, place watchtowers to see what Iberians are up to. Speaking about military, I found it good to train infantry here, hence built Teutatis temple. Try to build a naval fleet here too, to secure your luxurious naval trade in this region. Also think about building blacksmiths.

LUGDUNUM (central/eastern Gaul) – this town was dedicated for foot missiles in my campaign. It supports entire Gaul territory (esp Alesia) with skirmishers and later foresters. Abnoba temple is a must here giving huge upgrade bonus for your foot missiles. When you’re already churning foresters here, you can develop economy more.

Try to conquer Massila asap to unite your lands.

Northern Italy (Cisalpine Gaul) lands

These lands are the biggest problem in the beginning since they are separated from the ‘mainland’ of your kingdom. Forget about economy here (well at least build roads) concentrate entirely on military, train troops every turn, defend and counterattack against the romans, cuz you’ll be fighting for the survival of these towns. Still try to reinforce them ‘hanibalishly’ through Alps if available.

MEDIOLANIUM – build forts across the river side to use it to your advantage. I specialized in missile production here and thus built Abnoba temple.

PATAVIUM – great city for economy but not in the early campaign. Romans need to be dealt with so concentrate this town on infantry and cav production. Personally I built Teutatis temple. Blacksmith and later Weaponsmith are a must here – they turn your troops into true hairy gaulish monsters believe me. Try to build Hall of heroes asap to get your faction’s best pre-marian infantry. Beware about Dacians or Brutii on the eastern border though. They may get greedy. In my campaign Brutii have caught me off-guard, I’ve almost lost Patavium, so always try to keep good defending force.

III. Diplomacy and expansion


1. Initial neighbors/rivals and strategies against them


Romans (SPQR, Scipii, Brutii, Julii) – well of course they are your #1 and biggest threat/enemy esp Julii since you have land border with them and as the intro movie tells – “there can be no bloody peace with romans, only WAR” – this is definite truth. Don’t even think about asking for ceasefire lol. They’ll attack you no matter. This is total war, right?; ok then. Your diplomatical objective against puny romans is to make sure they are at war with as many factions as they can be. In the beginning this is done, but you have to try maintaining that big coalition (Carthage, Spain, Macedon, Greeks) against romans. This way they’ll be in serious ****. Time is against Gaul so try to blitz Julii asap, cuz they will relentlessly grow stronger and stronger.

Germans – imo your possible enemy #2. Even if they are at the strange war ( with Britons, they may assemble an army to capture Alesia. Make sure you defend that border well. Block the german ports in North Sea. Sometimes it’s possible to ask for them to be protectorate if you beat the crap outta their armies in a couple of straight battles. So far I didn’t manage to make germans my protectorate.
Raid german towns if you’re at war, but try to make ceasefire with them to concentrate on the roman front. In my campaign after I crushed germans in 1 battle, they even asked for ceasefire and I made those cowards pay tribute wuhahaha! Ally and trade with Britons and let them tire themselves against the Germans instead, so you could later crush them both. Try allying with Scythia to keep germans more spread defending their woodlands.

Britons – a possible enemy, but until they’ve captured some german lands you can be sure they won’t attack you, well relatively lol. They are a good coalition against germans and great sea trading partner. Make sure you use that alliance to benefit yourself.

Iberians/Spanish – good ally at the beginning, they often try to battle carthage and unite Iberia instead backstabbing you since you trade with them. But after they’ve united Spain be prepared for betrayal and find allies (Carthage or Numidia) against them. Eventually you’ll have to conquer Spain to fulfill your campaign domination, but try to finish the bloody business with romans first before Iberians get too greedy. When you’re preparing for war with Spanish, I found it a good diplomacy strategy to support Carthage with cash (say 1k or 2k if I have spare left) esp if it still has land in Spain and ask to attack Iberians. This way the conquest of Iberia will be easier imo. Divide and conquer.

Dacia – possible enemy on eastern front. They always like to ally with germans against you. Try to get alliance from Scythia and Macedon or Greeks (whoever unite Greece) then and support them with cash so they fight those berserk Dacians instead of you. Try to avoid war with them, you really don’t need additional front it in the beginning.

2. Gaul expansion in my campaign

In the first couple of years I built roads, basic, infrastructure, started to speacialize my military, captured Massila easily (low garrison) and built as much troops as I could in Northern Italy. Then stationed them at the Po river bridge/crossing.
The Julli have captured Segesta, but were afraid to attack me, they too assembled a huge offensive army in the meantime. Then they tried to go around to siege Mediolanium town but their huge army was defeated and so I began a huge counterattack and eventually after many skirmishes and big battles taken their capital Arretium. The Julii where basically doomed. pic That was a good blitz against them.
But suddenly Brutii arrived unexpectedly on eastern front lol. Seems they’ve been quick enough to conquer Segestica. I had to recall my army from near Rome to deal with this threat – I almost lost Patavium. Then I avenged Brutii real hard by sacking Segestica and giving it to Dacians, which soon became my enemies too lol.
Meanwhile on norhthern front Britons were battling germans repeatedly for that mainland town. This situation was good for me, cuz brits were my allies and great trading partners. But germans soon turned more attention on me too. Fortunately I had good defending army with decent general to push them back. In huge counter-offensive I even sacked their town (Trier) then exchanged it for peace. Germans were quiet for a while. My attack seemed to cut off german reinforcements and Brits finally captured that coastline town.
Next thing I did was conquer SPQR in couple of epic/large battles.


Then swept all across Italy. After that strengthened my lands, built large fleet and invaded Spain with 2 elite armies. Spanish soon fell to my superb experienced forces and it was only a matter of time before I reached victory conditions. It was an adventurous and awesome campaign I had in a long time.

BATTLEFIELD – the tactical part

"Warriors! Take up the sword and the axe, the bow and the knife! We come for glory and honour!"



Gaul unit lineup: strong close-combat barbarian light and heavy infantry + some missile and cavalry support

LIGHT/HEAVY INFANTRY – the backbone of gaulish army (10+ units in stack)


Early campaign inf

Warband – spear and shield armed light infantry, your early bread and butter. Great for garrison (because of their number) and holding the front line for a bit. Good vs light cav. Fast moving and have great stamina which is a great advantage of outmaneuvering and flanking the enemy.

Barbarian Mercenaries – roughly the same stats and role as warband, that comes at a higher price, so think long-term whether you need these cool barbarian looking pointy spear guys.

Swordsmen – a bit better stats than warband. Their war gear is sword, shield and bloody mind madness wahahaha! They are good flankers or front line charges, but vulnerable to quick cavalry charges. Also good for garrisons (cheap). Fast moving too compared to romans.

In your early armies and garrisons use a rather equal mix of both warband and swordsmen, cuz they fulfill each other. Also you can use these units in quantity vs quality wise situation, when you want to field huge army in medium/late campaign.

Naked fanatics – your own berserkers. In fact only these 2 types of units can go berserk. They take 2 turns to train, which means you wont have loads of them, but in battle they kick puny hastati ass really hard. They are way better than plain swordsmen and are both good on front offensive and flanking. Also fast moving.

Medium campaign inf (when you reach 3rd level barracks imo)

Heavy spearmen – the ultimate substitute for early spears. These guys are heavy armoured and can leave light as well as heavy cavalry dead in it’s tracks. They also fight quite well against other infantry, which means they are ideal for holding center line or guarding flanks (whatever your strategy is) against cav.

Chosen Swordsmen – a better unit in all the cases than your previous swords, fulfills the same role but at increased efficiency. Great for charging head-on or for smooth flanking attacks. Truly a chosen heroes’ unit.

Late campaign inf – after Marius reforms imo

Druids – an awesome inspirational/morale boosting unit, unfortunately comes late in campaign (you need 3rd Esus temple), therefore preserve your starting druids unit in Alesia. Druids boost your units’ morale with their taunting/chanting and often turn the tide of battle. Place them in the center, behind your front line and watch the enemies run on sight ha-ha! Try to defend druids from hand to hand, cuz they are not intended to fight.

Cinget – sword armed young Gaul warriors, they are a good substitute for swordsmen, but weaker than chosen swordsmen imo. Post marian unit.

Celtae – great substitute for chosen warriors, these are veteran Gaulish warriors

Gallic Warriors – the best/elite heavy infantry Gaul has imo. It’s kinda a copy of roman legionnaires, cuz this elite unit throws javelins in roman fashion before closing-up.

FOOT MISSILES – supporting role for infantry (4-6 units of these guys)

Skirmisher warband – the only early campaign foot missile unit. They are good to place:
1) in front skirmishes-ahead of main line (to unnerve enemy cav like in Braveheart movie lol) on offence (make sure you command them yourself – turn skirmish off - cuz they’re always too late to retreat behind);
2) behind your front line on defence peppering the enemy with javelins as they approach; beware of archers though;
3) on flanks so when the front line is engaged run these fast guys behind the enemy and shoot them in the back hahaha! Doing the last better have cav support nearby, you always don’t want them to get involved in any hand to hand. They are skirmishers and their job is to …well (you guessed) skirmish.
Btw they are good and fast enough to chase fleeing enemies.

Gaesate – the improved skirmishers (bigger shield and stats) fulfilling the same role.

Forester warband – the best archers in RTW hands down. These guys are the ancient longbowmen for sure (and they even have spears for close combat as a secondary weapon cool). What can I say, you want to be able to train these guys and get them in your armies asap. They can shoot the **** out of anything and devastate everyone. Long range, best stats of archers, can hide anywhere and even role as a light infantry (other archers would run on sight). Their disadvantage is of course cavalry and prolonged melee with armoured troops. Try to be able to train these guys asap in your missile town.

MOSTLY LIGHT CAVALRY – scouting, supporting, flanking, harassing, chasing role (4+ units)

Barbarian Cavalry – a very cool light cavalry, spear and shield armed (warband on horse if you imagine). Good for protecting your line from those annoying velites, chasing routers, charging into the back, ambushing. Bad vs spearmen (like triarii) of course (will be cut to pieces within seconds) and in prolonged melee (cuz they’re light cav). Good anti other light cav (like roman equited) and guarding the flanks

Barbarian Cavalry Merc – about the same stats and role as barb cav, but increased cost and unkeep, which mean you should hire them in tough troop lack situation or where you don’t have enough cav support; or when you have plenty of cash. Darth made merc cost and unkeep higher in v8 and that is really good cuz it’s realistic (mercs were always expensive troops). Now you must think twice about hiring mercs.

Raider Cavalry – fear instilling axe armed cavalry (very cool). Surprisingly quite good in melee for a while. Use them to spread terror and mainly do the same functions as barb cav.

Barbarian Noble Cavalry – the only heavy armored cav the Gaul has, available in 2nd stable. Great for flank and back charging and good in melee against almost anything but spearmen. Not so great catching skirmishers cuz heavy slow cav (use light cav instead). Good for sneak attacks on enemy generals lol. Comes late in campaign though (you need 6000 pop and 2nd stable asap in cav training town). Best cav the Gaul has, make sure you use it effectively making life for infantry easier.

So to sum this up:

Early balanced Gaul army imo (20 units stack)
1 good general (you need him like air in DM lol or you’re screwed)
4 skirmisher warband
5-6 warband
3-4 swordsmen
2 naked fanatics
2 barbarian cavalry
2 raider cavalry

Medium campaign army
1 good general
2 gaesate
4 forester warband (they really kick ass)
4-5 heavy spearmen
4-5 chosen swordsmen
2 barbarian cavalry
2 raider cavalry

Late campaign uber Gaul army (maybe you’ve already won campaign by then)
1 best general available
1 druids (they are not meant to fight but to keep up morale with their chanting)
0-2 gaesate (you can use more archers or heavy inf if you need)
4 foresters
2 raider cavalry
2 barb noble cavalry
8-10 Heavy Spearmen/Chosen Sworsdmen/Cinget/Celtae/Gallic warriors (use the best available mix)


Basic battle tips that every Conan of Gaul should know… arghhh

1)fight in woods and/or snow. Your troops will turn into monsters believe me;
2)avoid fighting romans on open field and in summers. That’s when romans are at full strength.
3)the importance of warcry. Always don’t forget to use it in battle-just before you charge, your troops will gain additional morale and strength which is a big difference. It’s this unit ability that really turns on the barbarians for berserk and thunderous charge. Sometimes the low morale enemy troops will run on sight when all your army is taunting lol.
4)Use lots of ambushing in campaign as well as in battle. That’s what barbarians were esp famous for, right? Enemy always gets a morale hit when your troops appear out of nowhere suddenly.
5)Many of your troops are fast moving and have great stamina (compared to armoured romans) – abilities that shouldn’t be underestimated – your troops tire less and can flank quicker than the enemy.
6)Raiding: when you’re fighting 1 enemy (lets say Julii) and defending (cuz most of your war effort is concentrated against the romas; you can’t risk fighting on both fronts) against the other faction (say germania) it’s a good strategy to defend and counterattack – penetrate deep into enemy territory and raid/sack their towns (massacre pop, destroy all buildings) and then quickly retreat (or give them back the settlements in exchange for smth) leaving enemy crippled and not dangerous for a while.

Barbarian battle formations

Barbarian flanking onslaught formation


As you can see from the pic, this is an early Gaul army vs Julii manipular formation. This is my customized formation for more flanking, if enemy center doesn’t brake. Barbarians kinda don’t have defensive formations, cuz their best defense … well is attack lol (barbarian unit stats are oriented to attack so you see). Remember to use war cry, just before charge.

Barbarian Onslaught formation - Darth Vader’s TM


Medium campaign more advanced units, Gaul army approaches Julii manipulars in onslaught formation.
You can organize your units into this famous formation by grouping and clicking “barbarian onslaught formation” in the formations section.

Quote from DV: “Barbarian Onslaught Formation: This is perhaps the most straightforward tactic for the AI to use. And that is the reason it is effective. It mostly resembles the heroic and simple way of barbarian fighting. No strategy here, the strongest wins. A powerful central AI attack is created that if human survives it can wipe out the AI army. But in most cases the AI concentrates so much in the center that Human army breaks in 2 and it is uneasy to control it. The human general must support the center with his command radius or else it breaks.

The AI cavalry never really flanks except sometimes from the right. It is always gathered as a mob near the infantry and attacks most times to gaps created in the formation. This formation will trouble human in most cases because AI can control it easily and in 1-2 moves it decides the battle. Its weakness is the increased probability of barbarian commander to die in battle as he controls his army in the heat of the battle. But that is also a benefit because all the morale bonus that he gives creates easy center attack win. Also the formation creates a “barbarian” mob that is a mixed force with no discretion of infantry-cavalry. They will fight together and disorganized. It has one main section, the center”.

It’s a very great formation for barbarians in RTW imo.

Plz suggest your own customized formations for barbarians, I’m eager to know them.

My customized DM v8 music for Gauls (barbarians)

First I wanna tell you that you can mod the music to listen to whatever mp3s you like link

1)awesome CC light music mod. Quote: “Barbarians: We envisioned nobility and grace, but also power and savagery with the barbarians. You will find a unique blend of inspiring songs that will touch your inner barbarian ”
2)RTR gold soundtrack – great music for barbarians, esp campaign
3)some Medieval 1 tracks for mobilize and battle (that music is awesome)
4)Lord of the Rings (all 3 parts) soundtrack. Chosen the best I like. Also for campaign and battle music
5)Braveheart movie soundtrack – so fitting for Gauls, fighting for their independence against romans (in comparison to scots vs britons)
6)a track or 2 from Matrix:Revolutions for battle (feels so epic)

That’s the end of my guide for this great barbarian faction Gauls! Hope you've found it interesting May inner barbarian be always with you muhahaha!

P.S. Plz don’t hesitate to add your suggestions and ideas. Feedback is always welcome
P.S.S Sorry for my English mistakes, it’s not my native language.

“And remember this above all: our forefathers watch from the afterlife! Make sure they are not ashamed! Chaaarge!!!”

[wipeout140]

ERE guide by Grand Duke Vytautas

Ave Darth Vader, DM players and RTW fans!

Having played only as Huns in DM BI, I‘ve decided to give a go for BI once again – this time I chose to test my generalship as the mighty Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantines) – faction both popular in Rome as well as in original Medieval!
Just before we start bringing Constantinople and the heritage of hellenism to it‘s glory here are some very interesting and informative sources about Byzantine Empire :

totalwar.org guide section for ERE
basic info about ERE
ERE in wikipedia
ERE army composition
Byzantine units
Byzantine army in wikepedia
Byzantine army tactics - enjoyed reading this one, esp about Cataphract tactics

ERE flag symbolizing Christian Rome imo (letter “R” with cross)
ERE Catafractii (often called “catas” or Katapraktoi) – the military power symbolizing unit of Byzantine Empire (similar to as legionnairy was in Roman Empire)

ERE BI description

Constantine the Great remade the Roman Empire to suit his own ambitions. He established a new capital in the East at Byzantium, renaming the city Constantinople in his own honour . He established Christianity as the new state religion and, by force of will alone, ruled a united Roman world. Since his death in 337 AD few have been up to the task of ruling the world on their own. The Roman Empire has, by default, been split into two unequal halves.
Centred on Constantinople, the Eastern Roman Empire is rich and powerful, although largely Greek rather than Roman in character. Unlike the West, trade has remained strong and the tax income of the Eastern Emperors has been sufficient to pay for an efficient military machine. This is just as well, because the Eastern Empire has a border with the Sassanids, a powerful successor to the Persian empire of old . It has not, however, suffered too much from incursions by noisome northern barbarians. It is entirely possible that an ambitious Emperor in Constantinople could one day rule in Rome as well, and reunite the Empire beneath his banners.
Historically, the Eastern Empire survived the fall of Rome and its armies marched 'For the Senate and People of Rome' for another 1000 years. The renamed Byzantine Empire finally fell in 1453 AD for Ottoman Turks at Constantinople .

To sum up, when the Roman Empire became too bloated to be ruled by one Emperor, it was divided into an Eastern and Western half. The East encompassed the extremely wealthy provinces, including most of the Aegean sea, Anatolia, Egypt, and part of North Africa. Though extremely rich, the Eastern Empire was plagued by internal instability and foreign invasions. The Eastern Roman Empire will start off with a large number of provinces, but will be on the verge of collapse. Heavy legionary infantry and heavy cavalry will be their greatest asset, and vital to the success of the Eastern Empire .
Can you become the new Augustus Justinian? Can you defeat those treacherous easterners Sassanids, save your empire from the nomadic hordes and make Byzantines the most powerful empire in the world once again? Can you recreate history? Strength and Honour be with you in your conquests Emperor!

CAMPAIGN – the strategic part

I. The starting geographical position



Advantages: 1. you start out in one of the richest regions in the known world – with the help of collecting rational taxes and stimulating lucrative sea and land trade Byzantine Empire can become one of the wealthiest factions and an economic powerhouse .
2. Your initial economy can support your standing army, so you can focus further on developing your military forces (particularly uber heavy cavalry catas and legionnaires)
3. You have more stable inner and outer situation than WRE and less enemies at the start.
Disadvantages: 1. Your empire can be overstretched and weakened from inside (religious breakdown and unrest) if you’re not careful;
2. Future/relative danger of hordes invading your northern lands
3. War with Sassanids on eastern front may weaken you.

Overall imho, ERE (Byzantine Empire) has far superior starting position than WRE, potential ‘cashcow’ economy and superb military prospects in the future; You need to eliminate Sassanids and defend against hordes until you begin your counter-offensive on western front and be victorious!

II. Campaign objectives



Hold 34 regions including Constantinople, Alexandria, Rome, Carthage (quite historical objectives)
I find it best to deal with Sassanids first while defending my northern Danube border against fierce hordes constantly reinforcing that border with fresh troops. After the Persians are destroyed you can then turn your attention to expand into Africa and western lands to crush those barbarians and foul romans for good and reunite Roman Empire under your mighty leadership!

III. The economy

In BI most factions start with already quite developed economy so you can concentrate on the military side more. Nevertheless if you want more armies to support your empire, good sea as well as land trade routes and strong economic infrastructure is a must.

Basic tips for a campaign start

1.Convert to Christianity: in all your settlements destroy pagan temples and build Christian churches; you may want to convert to the old religion for more military bonuses, but I liked to go more of a historical way in my campaign.
2.Organize your settlements as military, economic and generic . E.g. Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria can be your all around (generic) cities (very advanced) providing you great military, navy and esp economy. Cities deep inside your empire (relatively out of danger) can be great economic centers, esp those with access to sea trade. While those settlements near borders should act as military.
3.Aim to build ports and roads to establish lucrative sea and land trade early on . That really helps developing early budget and keeping large and expensive army. Basic ports in the beginning is a must, I realized.
4.Specialize your military settlements: your army’s best lineup is heavy legionary infantry (backbone) and heavy cavalry plus some archer and light cav as support; so plan accordingly.
5.Garisson cities; deploy your armies and organize border defenses : since you’ll mainly have 2 major fronts (Sassanids in the beginning and hordes later on), try to bring as many troops as you can to your frontiers; build forts in 2 chokepoints near Danube (historically this big river was a great natural defense for Byzantine empire) and reinforce them constantly with fresh troops trained in nearby Greece settlements, so that you could stand a chance against hungry hordes when they arrive. Same fort strategy goes for Sassanid front. There you may choose a more counterattacking style of war. Garrison cities with limitanei and simple archers based on ratio 1:1 (they’re the cheapest units you’ve got and historically limitanei were great garrison troops too) and bring your better/elite troops out of your cities to your ‘limes’. This way you can save a lot of money.
6.Loyalty and generals: choose generals with high loyalty (best choose faction leader and heir or generals with titles) to fight on your fronts so that you won’t loose loyalty so quickly. Award your frontier generals with titles to further boost their loyalty. Get rid of unloyal ones (suicide missions, etc., you’ll be imaginative I know) and place low loyalty characters to govern towns and not fight. Constantly check the loyalty of all of your generals in ‘army’ tab to prevent rebellions.

Your initial settlements

Greece and Balkans

Sirmium (border with WRE and Goths) – this will be your military center, since it’s located near dangerous border and doesn’t have access to sea via port (so not so good for economy anyway). I decided to specialize in heavy legionary infantry and archers for support here. This city also has stone walls which are great for siege defense. Don’t forget to build forts behind bridges (one near Danube and the other near Sirmium behind that river to the east) to slow down possible enemies

Thesalonica (northern Greece) – already has 1st stable (will provide you with light equites cavalry early on), but I opted this settlement for infantry and archer training. Aim to also develop economy here: build ports, traders, mines, etc. Build watchtower near the west border and forts in mountain passes to guard this city.

Athens – economy and cavalry training settlement for me. Don’t wait too long – go straight for Circus Maximus (4th cavalry stables) to get the best and nastiest of your cavalry. On the economy side build ports and roads when you can.

Constantinopole – the starting capital of your empire, very advanced developed city. It will be your generic city providing both economic and military benefits. On the military side, I tried to get the best infantry and cavalry from it. You just got to love 1st comitatenses cohort or equites catafractii (sp?). Remember to build watchtower to the east to see all territory and forts by Danube and along highway.

Kydonia (Crete Island) – purely economic and navy providing settlement cuz it’s in relative safety. You might build 1st barracks to have troops (limitanei) to garrison it.

Asia Minor

Ephesus (western coast of Asia Minor) – financial (what an income from naval trade!) settlement for the most part; build watchtower to the east and couple of forts to minimize raiding and brigand bands.

Ancyra (near modern Ankara) – a military city, train heavy legionary infantry here and reinforce with it the Eastern Sassanid front.

Sinope (north eastern Anatolia) – a border settlement but in relative safety cuz you can block 2 bridges with forts. Good for sea trade. I aimed for developing archery skills here (kinda like Medieval Trebizond region haha!). Those eastern archers are gorgeous.

Caessarea – economy and cavalry all the way here, to support the war effort against Sass.

Middle East and Egypt

Tarsus – purely financial city, nothing else to say about it.

Antioch – kinda like your second Capital (and you may even want to move it here once you destroy Sassanids for more central position in your empire), advanced and generic settlement. Great profits from naval trade. Militarily I trained legions and heavy cavalry here.

Salamis (Cyprus Island) – economy all the way, just ship some garrison from mainland.

Sidon – economy and archers.

Philadelphaea – undeveloped settlement, best go for improving it’s economy and population growth.

Jerusalem – finances and heavy infantry + cavalry for me here. It is a very rioting and hard to maintain public order city, keep a larger force here in case of rebellion so you could exterminate those rebellious scum! Esp using that “let them revolt and kill them all” haha. Cruel but effective .

Alexandria – like your third capital really . Generic advanced city. Train all types of military here, depend on camel mercs and reinforce Jerusalem and Cyrene with your armies.

Cyrene – African border with WRE, bring always reinforcements here from Alexandria; build watchtowers across the desert.

IV. Rival factions and expansion

Sassanids – the enemy #1 and expansion target at the start of your campaign. They must be dealt with asap (while defending only your northern front from the hordes) or they grow very tiresome and powerful. Only after you’ve destroyed them completely you can turn your attention to the western offensive. The Sassanid’s infantry is no match for your legionnaires; what you must take care is their early heavy and HA cavalry and long range desert archers. Use lots of cav and missile units against Sass.

The Hordes arrive…

Huns, Vandals, Sarmatians, Roxolani, Goths – nomad tribes/people who will come at you in massive powerful hordes. The only way you‘ve got a chance to defend against them is use your natural defence – Danube – fortify/block the bridge passes and station armies on bridges bringing reinforcements from Greece constantly and reinforcing them. Use lots of foot archers and HAs acompanying your legionnaires to win bridge battles; also take advantage of night fighting trait.
The hordes‘ main weapon is HAs and their „hit and run” tactics; like I said make sure you‘ve got plenty of archers defending the bridge (6+ in 20 stack)

WRE – the final enemy – when you have conquered those Persians and defended successfully against the hordes, there‘ll probably be one major enemy left for you (to fulfill your objectives) and that is the old Roman Empire itself! They use almost the same legionary tactics as you, but your main advantage by then should be your heavily armed and armoured “catatank” horsemen to battle them into submission and reunite the roman world under Byzantine banner! Onwards!

Expansion in my campaign

Stabilized my large empire, converted to christianity everywhere and focused on war with sassanids while building up my military and economy infrastructure. On the northen front I only fortified and chosen defensive strategy. Then all of sudden Sarmatians were turned into horde by Huns and appeared in my lands (wtf?) can you believe me (mysteriously crossed the Danube – is it a bug?)
Thank God they didn‘t attack me but marched westwards making life hard for WRE.

Later on when I was battling with Sassanids the Hun horde headed to my border and declared war on me. Fortunately I was prepared for this and fought many bridge battles. Stupid AI send at me 1 stack at a time. This way I was able to defend, but what if they attacked me all at one time? Fighting against Huns was bloody for me.

Finally after long and tiresome battles I finally defeated those nasty Huns, but many of Byzantines didn’t return home from this bloody war.
Oh, I still had the unfinished “bloody business” with Sass, so I made many “crusades” to their land and it was only a matter of time until they were crushed (although they made strong coalition against me with Goths)

Then come the time to march westwards... and you know what will happen – I'm gonna reunite Roman Empire muhahahah! Will write more once I finish campaign.

BATTLEFIELD – the tactical part

„May the spirit and strength of Belisarius – one of the best Byzantine generals – be with you My Lord!“

Byzantine lineup: strong mixture of troops, few weak units; Heavy legionary infantry acts as an anvil, heavy armoured cavalry as a hammer with light and ranged cavalry and foot archers in support.

HEAVY LEGIONARY INFANTRY – the backbone/anvil of your army (10+ units in 20 stack)

Limitanei – („limmies“ as I call them) your early basic infantry. Great for garisson and cost effective troops. They wear good leather armour, helmet, carry descent shields and are spear armed. Btw they have that unique legionary feature – throwing pilas before charge; also can form shield wall, the things that shouldn‘t be underestimated. They were intended for garisson duty and settled near borders to slow the enemy down untill mobile forces can be deployed and reinforce them according historically to Constantine reforms.


Legio Lanciarii – („lancies“) the first/early mobile field legionaries you have – it is their function to meet enemy on the field rather than performing garrison duties. They wear good quality mail armour, helmet, cover themselves with big shield and are spear armed. Also can perform shield wall and throw precursor weapon before closing in. Surely better troops than limitinei, these guys will fill the ranks of your early legion.


Comitantenses („commies“ smile) – your ‘bread ‘n butter’, the standard killing machine, your widely used legionnaires for the most part of campaign imo. Commies are mobile forces, it’s their duty to crush enemy on the battlefield (Constantine reforms). They are armed in standard fashion of legionnaires: wear mail coat, helmet, defend with shield, have pilas and sword spatha (longer one than gladius, which was outdated due to more use of cavalry in those times – romans always adjusted their army to the period).


Plumbatarii – (“plumbies” for short) better legionary heavy infantry than commies (armed in the same manner) due to slightly better stats and have more dart missiles. This is your late standard heavy inf unit (only weaker than 1st cohort) which will hold the line bravely.


Comitantenses 1st cohort – the best heavy infantry you have; a true elite – unit big in number and very courageous skilled legionnaires. Unfortunately you won’t be able to quickly mass-train them (takes 2 turns). You’ll need mostly 2 units of this elite in a stack to inspire your plumbies and commies.

HEAVY CAVALRY – the hammer of your army (minimum ¼ of your army – 5+ units)

Scholae Palatine – the first heavy cavalry unit you will use in battle; it‘s indeed a very solid and reliable unit fighting at flanks near your trusty legionnaires and helping them. Of course every cavalry unit is at disadvantage fighting spearmen. Heavy cav’s role: intercepting other cav; defending flanks; charging flanks and rear of enemy; being in melee longer to batter the line. (This unit should be available in 3rd cav stable – I fixed this bug by editing EDB)

Equites Catafractii – (“catas”) oh yes, now we’re talking about what the Byzantines were famous through ages – the fearsome “cata-tanks”. Armoured from ‘head to toe’ with finest armour and armed with lances for charge and maces for combat - it’s the unit symbolizing the military power of the ERE (like urban legionnaire was in Roman Empire). What can I say about this unit? I absolutely love those guys when they charge. They are almost unstoppable when they crash into enemy. It’s one of my favourite units from BI and favourite from Byzantine Empire. Unfortunately catas aren’t armed with bows too as they were historically, then you’d have a monster killa – super versatile unit. No wonder that middle ages mounted knights developed in a similar fashion to Katapraktoi.
Available in 4th stables. So make sure you build circus maximus asap in such cities as Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria to get these guys into your armies.


Equites Clibinarii – (“clibbies”) same as catas, but these iron-men are with maces for close-combat rather than charge (that’s why I like catas more). They have a better defence and are awesome in melee though I prefer catas more (my opinion)


LIGHT AND RANGED CAVALRY – the supporting and harassing force

Equites Auxilia – the only light cavalry you have. Well it performs the functions you espect of light cavalry that is: harassing light ranged troops, harrying skirmishers from your main force, chasing routers, charging in the back of engaged infantry, chasing HAs. Their weakness is fighting against heavy cavalry and spearmen, as well as being too long in melee. It’s their charge and mobility/speed that is most valuable.


Dromedarii („drommies“ as I call them) – camel mounted light cavalry, performs the same functions of light cav as equites, but better in desert regions. Those camels are cute!


Hippo Toxotai (‚medium archers“ or „hippes“ as I name them lol) – medium ranged cavalry, your own personal HAs (although no match for nomad ones). The Byzantine response to massive hordes of nomad horse archers (very great roman adjusting of foreign military ideas). These HAs act as mounted skirmishers and can even fight hand-to-hand with weakened enough opponent. But their main strength is mobility, distance when showering enemy with arrows. They‘re armed with composite bow, arrows, sword and have mail armour and a helmet. They use the basic HAs hit and run tactics (Read my Hun guide for more on that). In the early stages of campaign you wanna have as many of these guys as you can in your armies.


FOOT ARCHERS – support for your legionnaires

Archers – the cheapest units you‘ve got. Excellent for garisson, crappy in melee. While in the field use their missiles only against light troops, they‘re weak unit esp terrible in melee (will drop like flies lol). They need a lot of experience to make them effective against more heavily armoured troops. And dont even expect to hit any more heavily armoured inf from the front with them lol! But against HAs they can pose some challenge. Also quite good defending stone-walled settlements. Their role is mostly like limitinei, try not to include them in mobile army rather garrison (esp if you have eastern archers)


Eastern Archers – best foot archers you‘ve got, armoured with mail shirt, armed with composite bow, long range arrows, dagger and a helmet plus trained for long range firing, these guys are very valuable in your field mobile army as they make life easier for legionnaires before they enclose by softening the enemy with arrows.


MERCENARIES

Your army is very powerfully balanced so I find mercs are only good in the early campaign and I hire mostly foreign Horse Archers (esp sarmatians).

Infantry

Bosphoran Merc – decent spearmen, heavily armoured, great vs cav, can be good for defending flanks from enemy cav to make life easier for your legionnaires.

Merc Veteranii – basically these are comitantenses working as mercenaries; no need to hire them (hellava expensive) if you have commies (lol) of your own.

Merc Bucelarii – early crossbowmen; popular in WRE. Quite good, but I prefer eastern archers more as they can fire in an arc stationed behind your troops while crossbowmen have low trajectory and must be stationed as skirmishers in front. Nevertheless they are effective against armour.

Cavalry

Camel Raides – cost effective mercs and they are big in number; good to hire these doodes in desert. Great substitution for drommies when you are unable to train them.

Armoured Camel Raides – expensive mercs, but their armour more than pays for their skill.

Merc Equites – hardly hire these since you have plenty to train of your own.

Merc Hippo–Toxotai – same here

Merc Alan Horse Archers – a little better than hippo-toxotai imo; good substitute esp if you‘re lacking HAs.

Merc Sarmatian Horse Archers – the best merc HAs that you can hire imo, cuz they are armoured very well.

Merc Sarmatian Nobles – heavy steppe cavalry, costly though; good if you have plenty of money and lack heavy cavalry esp early in the game.

Balanced Byzantine army

To sum up, here‘s balanced according to my fighting style Byzantine army compositions

Early campaign

1 good loyal general
4-5 Equites Auxilia/Dromedarii (if in desert)
4 archers
10 limitanei + legio lanciarii (use the best available composition)

Medium campaign

1 good loyal general
4 eastern archers
5-6 Hippo toxotai (and can include couple of light cav in this according to your taste)
1-2 Scolae Palatinae
8 comitantenses + legio lanciarii (best available cost-effective mix)
1 Onager if needed

Late campaign – elite army

1 good loyal general
1-2 first comitantenses cohort
7-8 plumbatarii/comitantenses
4 easten archers
2-4 Catafractii/Clibinarii (according to your taste) or more Hippo-Toxotai for a more ranged orientied army.
1 Carriage Ballista (sp?) if needed

„The Imperial Cataphract was a heavy cavalry horse archer and lancer, who symbolized the power of Constantinople in much the same way as the Legionary represented the might of Rome .“


-Byzantine Formation DV tm

DV Quote: “This is almost identical to the formation that Byzantines mostly used and it was mentioned in the “strategikon”. (Something like Sun Tzu’s Art of War in the middle ages). It is perhaps the cleverest of all the formations because of the interaction that I have forced the AI to have with its units. When it defends, it produces decoys to the left and when the human army approaches it rains shower of javelins against him. Cavalry has a super role in this army because it is seldom isolated and almost all the time supports the attack in various positions of the battlemap. Center and flanks are supported and the AI cavalry interacts to any human try to win the iniative in cavalry charge. A really cunning formation in which the AI general has very high survive ability and Byzantine heavy infantry use shieldwall to protect him at all cost with unique discipline. The weakness of the formation is that sometimes cavalry can be tricked by human and lose 1-2 units as sacrifice and also it is slow in development. The benefit is the discipline and cohesion of the infantry involved. It has 3 sections. Top-center-Rear”.

My customized music for Byzantines

1.Awesome CC light music pack – amazing Gladiator soundtrack really makes the atmosphere battle-hot and roman.
2.Kingdom of Heaven soundtrack – superb music that has christianity flavour and fits to the campaign and battles so well.
3.Vanilla RTW music – some of the tracks for campaign and battles are really great (esp mobilize_soldiers_chant.mp3)
4.EB music from their 2 previews – roman and western greek tracks suit so well for Byzantines.
5.Matrix: Revolutions couple of tracks for an awesome battle atmosphere.

So that's it I hope you find my guide interesting; plz tell me your thoughts/ideas about it and how could I improve it

Ave Justinian and Belisarius! Cata-tanks will soon be upon you

[wipeout140]

Seleucid Guide by Narakir

Introduction
Seleucids is they greatest empire after the death of Alexander, they've rich territories and an incredible choice of troops. But when you starts the empire is vulnerable, extended and surounded by multiples ennemies, this guide will help you (I hope) to rebuild Alexander's empire. The main difficulty of a seleucid campaign lies in your starting choices and how you deal with all your agressive neighbours as you often have to fight on two or tree side at time. Once you're sorted with this you'll be unstopable, that's why this guide is quite short. I like to play a camp as long I've a challenge and I often give up if it's becoming too easy.

Like in every campain, don't hesitate to use a lot of spies and watch towers to see the moves the ennemy, it's crucial. I also recomend you to train yourself to play a phalanx army supported by cavalry in custom battles just to train yourself at maneovering this slow but deadly infantry force. I also appolgy for all my horrible english mistakes, it's not my main language.

Good starting choices :
Your starting economy is very good but your situation isn’t, you’ve got many neigbours the Greeks, Pontus, Armenia, Parthia and Egypt. You’re allied with egypt but don't except to keep them away for too long. Pontus will not bother you in the early game and often ask for an alliance, same with Armenia. The greeks are weak in asia minor so they're you first target. Finaly prepare to hold the parthian assault.

Economy :
As you've a lot of money you can build what you want in each city. At first build ports an roads to enchance your economy but don’t forget baracks to be able to construct better pikemen than the levies who aren’t very efficient on the field. As you've a good income don't tax to much your cities, let the population grows this will give you access to better units faster.

Army :
Your strating forces are is mainly composed of week phalanx units, milita hoplites and light javelin cavalry, not very impressive especialy when you have to face parthians cataphracts and horse archers or greek hoplites. Hopefully you've access to a wide selection of mercenaries : arabs, persians, cretan archers, thracians, cilicians ect...

As you know the seleucid army is phalanx based and has to act with the alexander anvil and hammer tactic to be efficient.
You basic army sould be composed by a good cavalry force, a massive phalanx on the front and some lighter units to support the flanks supported by archer/peltast fire. Peltast can aslo be used on the flanks to rain a shower of javelins in an already engaged ennemy .

You must gather your forces to protect yourself from all sides, try to have 3 armies wich are ganisoned or near those cites : Seleucia, Antioch and Halicarnassus. I suggest to keep one levy pikemen unit as garnison in your other cites.

- Halicarnassus force :Lacks of cavalry but has to powerfull mercs such as cretans and hoplites for flanking duty. They're you conquering force.
- Antioch force : Has few cavarly unit a better phalanx and has access to persians mercs wich aren't bad for flanking you phalanx. Building an haras quickly give you access to the elephants so don't hesitate. They're your guarding force against Egypt and parthians and sould not move too far from Antioch. The simple pesence of this large force near you border can keep egypt away for a time.
- Seleucia force : This force must a least hold the parthians, but phalanx as you can expect is realy useless against horse archers and vulnerable to arrows. As they have larger shields milita hoplite is better to hold a rain of arrows and still good against cavalry, so build them. Don't forget to recruit Syrians archers.

Strategic moves :
Don't hesitate, take Rhodes it'll be easy and the collossus will enchance your naval economy. On the east, keep your antioch force near your border and don't engage egypt. If you're lucky parthia will not attack you and will concentrate on armenia first, use this time to gatther you forces. Continue to take the greeks and rebel cities to get an other nice wonder to help your developement. You better troops are coming shortly, just try to stay alive long enought.

Time to test your valor :
Now you've built your forces and extended in asia-minor. Armenia is being destroyed by parthians or pontus, egypt has build larges armies and now they look at the rich guy wich has four wonders and a lot of money : you :tooth: .

Against egypt : If you want to have an advantage when facing egypt, uses your money well a build a powefull fleet. If you gain control of the sea you'll be able to protect your ports and blocked egypt's ones. Both empire have a rich sea trade, controling the sea will lead you to the path of victory. When you have control of the sea you can strike the island Chippria (spelling ?) with a your hallicarnassus force or a small part of it. Don't hestitate one second to hire elephants mercs, yes they're expensive but very powerfull too, both empire can afford them so try to have them on your side. With this you'll be able to easly beat egyptian forces with the seleucian anvil and hammer (see the tactics).

Against parthia :
Stay on the defensive use a lot of archer (Syrians) and take thier very bad siege ability to your advantage. Stay in your city and uses your hoplites to hold thier fire and protect your archers, your general can be an usefull cataphract killer too. Let'em waste thier forces and loose cataphracts. once it's done strike back as hard as you can before they can rebuild, siege thier cities with your vast armies to secure the babylonian region.

Pontus/Armenia :
In my game they were very weak and remained realy easy to beat, so nothing special to say about them. Just keep a good force in asia minor to keep them away.

Battles or the part I like the most
The Seleucid army is one of the best of RTW and Darthmod, you have heavy cavalry, phalanx, legionaries, good mercs and... ELEPHANTS ! just need some horse archers to be perfect...

In early combats against non-horse archers armies :
The phalanx, is the core of your army but it manoeuver slowly but it's truly a moving wall. A phalanx has to be mobile I mean waiting your ennemy to flank you is a bad idea, just march towards him like alexander did and engage. The best way to do this is to no to attack but simply marching your group trought the ennemy and push the stop key before they engage (it'll helps with the current phalanx buggy behaviour). An important thing to do and that was used in real life by phalanx armies, is to mass the cavalry on one flank traditionaly the left and use your best/elite phalangite on the right as they're strong enought to hold the ennemy.

A phalanx never wins a battle alone, it have to be well supported by a more moblile force, cavalry is ideal but not realy present in your early game except mounted javelin men. Pordromoïs aren't useless, yes charging with them is pointless unless you're sure the ennemy will imediatly break. They sould not be used against parthians unless you'll like to waste your troops. But against egypt they can harash the ennemy cavalry with thier javelins and threaten thier infantry hitting them hard on the back as they're already engaged with your phalanx, never underestimate to power of a javelin especialy on a roman's bottom . They're also good like all the light cavalry to kill routing soldiers, try to have at least one unit of them for this "noble" task .

Also the phalanx has to be supported by infantry, you can use mercenaries with spears to react to cavalry attacks. But you can also use peltats... you know guys armed with knives and javelins, just to the same thing as the mounted milita to an already engaged ennemy unit and watch the power of the dark force. Instead of the anvil of the hammer you've got the pike and the toothpicks ! I suggest to make them holding the line in close formation if they're charged, once the inital shock is gone just retreat, it's better to loose 50 peltast too keep your phalanx healty.

Elephants are also crucials, you can have the lighter quite early in antioch, they have to be placed on one of your flanx acting like heavy cavalry, let them charge when your phalanx engage the ennemy and watch them flee like rabbits. Place some infantry behind them to follow and support them once they've break and ennemy formation, I use arab sabremen and thracians for this duty.

Against horse archers :
Fighting horse archers on open ground with a phalanx is pointless, the AI maybe stupid sometims but not enought to charge your phalanx from front with horse archers. Use long range archers, use hoplites instead of phalanx and try to be as defensive as possible. Doing a shiltorn like formation with your army can be usefull in some situations too the best is to avoid fighting on open ground.

Advanced army :
Finaly you've acces to a good troops like heavy elephants and cavalry and better phalangites. You have enought money to purchase an incredible army : my prefered build is to have a good phalangite line, with one elephants unit on each flank with arbarian sabremen (can be remplaced with legionaries) for support and compagnions massed on the left as the seleucus guard the right. Nothing will resist you.

The final word :
Once the babylonian region is secured and the sea is yours, invade egypt with your elephant supported amies. Gatther a force to deal with pontus in asia minor, and finish the parthians in the arbian sector to have one corner of the map free of ennemies. Your power will easly grows as you conquer the richest region of the game and gain acces to nearly all the wonders. Dont' forget to keep the population grows to allow your cites to develop. Once you've finished conquering all the middle east and egypt you'll be unstopable and you've won the short campaign.