Why are the Casse described as being a 'very difficult' faction?

[nein]

They are one of the easiest factions in the game, their isolation allows them to expand against rebel provinces with no threat of invasion from AI factions. They can become incredibly wealthy (with both Britain and Ireland conquered) and then just sit there and max out their troop recruitment options and general stats by visiting the 'island of darkness' woowoo. I invaded mainland Europe with two full stacks of high end units and laid waste to everything, first I all but destroyed the germans (they attacked me first!) and then turned on the romans who were advancing into gaul, wrecking their legions with glee. I thought they would be a big deal but my fear generating units, Belgian swordsmen and chariots made short work of them, routing them back to their Italian borders. Of all the factions I have played barring rome and carthage (babies first factions) they are the easiest. Your heartlands are all but secure (naval invasions are a rarity) and you can just sit on a pile of gold doing what you please... initially they seem a little intimidating but so do many factions. Casse should be downgraded to a moderate challenge... very difficult my ass.

[ooji]

From my understanding, the difficulty level mostly refers to initial challenge for Casse. You start with one settlement and a huge negative income. Conquering the next settlement means you have to fight an unfavorable battle and it is up to you to take tactical advantage over AI to make up for that imbalance. At this point, EB team is working on EB2, so there won't be any changes on EB1, especially a minor one like this.

[athanaric]

As has been said, the very start is difficult, especially for people who're new to the mod and its quirks. Sure, after you've defeated the two nearby field armies and taken the first settlement, it's one of the easiest campaigns.
There are some tactical difficulties to consider though: chariot bodyguards are very difficult to handle, and your core troops are weak and cannot stand up to Germanic or Lusitanian infantry in a straight fight, let alone Romans. Of course, you can circumvent this by only using elites or only Belgian units, but where's the fun in that, let alone the historical accuracy.

[nein]

The sweboz and Spanish have a much harder start, the amount of debt they get in is quite scary, something like 60k for the sweboz and 100k+ for the spanish. After conquering the midlands and one other settlement the casse debt fades away quickly... and the larger AI stacks are easy to defeat due to it's usual stupidity. Chariots are wonky but still quite useful, I would take them over a foot bodyguard any day.

>and your core troops are weak and cannot stand up to Germanic or Lusitanian infantry in a straight fight, let alone Romans. Of course, you can circumvent this by only using elites or only Belgian units

tbh I could probably defeat them with the core troops, after all the AI armies are generally filled with ass tier units themselves... romans would be a problem as their troop armour standard is quite high. The Belgium swordsmen are quite formidable but I view them as a medium unit in the long run (if not by casse standards ), I only use a tiny amount of druids and casse champions for the bonuses they offer... naked Belgian guys all the way! Well with a couple of naked celt spearmen and two different chariot types to stack that fear bonus. In fact I'm not sure if that works... does fear stack with different units? If I combine naked celts, my generals chariot guard and then the recruitable chariot unit together does the fear stack? I am fairly certain that identical units do not stack the fear effect...

[athanaric]

tbh I could probably defeat them with the core troops, after all the AI armies are generally filled with ass tier units themselves...

Well yeah, I'm not talking about tactical brilliance or defeating stacks of levies. Casse shortswordsmen can't stand up to any continental infantry for instance, and your other core melee units are unavailable in most of the provinces required for the VCs. Uirodusios are good but they're hard countered by missiles, so you can't use them in the main battle line.

romans would be a problem as their troop armour standard is quite high.

Not to mention their morale.

I am fairly certain that identical units do not stack the fear effect...

The chariot effects shouldn't stack, since they're effectively the same unit. Chariot plus fear infantry might stack. In fact, Pictone swordsmen are a very good unit to have once you operate on the continent for that very reason.

[nein]

>Casse shortswordsmen can't stand up to any continental infantry

Those are the worst melee infantry unit the casse possess, but even so the basic celtic/sweboz units are not much better. As long as you use tactics (the dumb AI is vulnerable to flank routing) I could probably win most battles with a stack of shortswordsmen and a few general units, especially after sticking my guys on a hill and letting the AI walk into a javelin

>Uirodusios are good

the hell is that... Guessing celt naked spearmen?

>Not to mention their morale.

Romans have an unfair morale advantage? Still they should be better trained I suppose

[athanaric]

the hell is that... Guessing celt naked spearmen?

Yes.

Romans have an unfair morale advantage? Still they should be better trained I suppose

No they don't. Romans are pretty well stat wise. However their core units have a combination of good morale, good armour, and high discipline that is hard to combat especially if you lack AP troops.

[nein]

So the romans are like those pesky bullet sponge phalanxes? Never actually fought them

[athanaric]

So the romans are like those pesky bullet sponge phalanxes? Never actually fought them

Not quite as bad, but Camillan Triarii spam is almost on the same level as phalanx spam. The bad news is that phalanx spam is just as annoying when you're playing the Romans yourself, because while you can deal with it on the battlefield, even legionaries lose horribly in autocalc battles against phalanx pikemen. Including the Carthaginian ones. So when you get to face Carthage in your Casse campaign, better bring along a lot of axemen and Naked Fanatics.