Best Strategy as Romans against Iberia?

[dustyn214]

I'm playing 2.6 patch as Romans and in Spain they're literally hitting me with stack after stack. I invaded Spain 3 times and everytime got pushed out. What is the best strategy to kill them all fast and quick?

[LoGaL]

Spain is a pain dude, there's no way to make it quick and clean, you gotta prepare very carefully the invasion, with at least 4 -5 full armies

[dustyn214]

Spain is a pain dude, there's no way to make it quick and clean, you gotta prepare very carefully the invasion, with at least 4 -5 full armies

Yeah, I took out all of Carthage, and the Arverni is almost gone too. Spain has all of Iberia, I sent one stack to take back Emperiro or whatever it is. I'm getting around 40k a turn and trying to build up more stacks to invade with.

[ferike_2007]

Frankly as far as I know there is no "quick and fast kill" strategy against Gallaeci, so I'm also not able to share one, but instead I will share my last campaign's experiences I recently finished, however I have to warn you, I used an altered descr_sm_factions.txt file: I disabled the Carthaginians naval invasion ability, and... I removed the shadowing line from the Romans.

Firs let's see what Carthage did: instead of attacking me - I'm Roman player, obviously - at the island-located settlements, the AI switched the focus to continental maneuvers, taking more easier African and Iberian settlements , and even if they lost the Iberian settlements in the mid-game, they were able to defend the African soil. Carthage became a mutual "ally" for me, even we were at war, weakening and killing the Gallaeci, and they gave me enough time to secure my homeland, and to develop two-three strong military cities (Mediolanon, Massalia, Emporiae) for further invasion of Gaul, and to deal with Macedon in meantime. I was not too eager to take Carthago in early phases of game, but instead I'm focused on creating a bridgehead in the Epirot region - retaking Dyrrhachium which I have had to abandon when the Capuan rebellion occurs and taking and keeping Apollonia and Thermos, with all costs. After weakening enough Macedon, taking Greece and Macedonia became a pretty easy task. Just then, at that point I attacked Carthage.

Secondly, removing the shadowing line from roman faction (romans_brutii) in the same text file - descr_sm_faction - fulfilled my dreams I had since I have played RS2 at the first time: looted and abandoned settlements does not rebelled to the Roman rebels faction, at all. This caused also missing loyalty lines in the character windows (those little rings), but the (scripted) loyalty functions worked in the background!!! I will explain this at the end, but now I'm talking about my fight against Gallaeci: I let the Carthaginians to do the "dirty" job, but also I sent full stacks with capable generals, from time to time, and looted the Gallaeci settlements, without I'm worrying about cities will be taked over by the Roman rebels!

So, in these conditions taking over Iberia and Africa was far more easier than in a normal, unaltered 2.6 campaign, because Carthage and Gallaeci reciprocally weakened each other. I got even an "Africanus" epithet for a family member, so things goes pretty good.

And finally about loyalty: as I said before, I realised that loyalty worked quietly in the background. When I reached the point that the Second Rebellion has to be started, the game crashed - contrary to the Capuan rebellion which occurs without problems. After a quick forum search and a short look in the EDCT and in the BGS I realised that the (scripted) loyalty system could not go further at this point because I removed the shadowing line in the descr_sm_factions.txt file. I taked an earlier save, more exactly one with two turns before the crash, and restarted the game WITH (!) the readded loyalty line... the Second Rebellion occurs as it has been scripted, without problems - okay, thats not true because I had a lot of problems with the rebels - I mean without technical problems ... and those little rings appeared in the chararcter windows! I fought a lot with the rebels and finally taked over all the settlements I have lost at the Rebellion. At this point I removed again the shadowing line from the descr_sm_factions.txt file. Loyalty-rings goes, again, but...my 10 starred, master strategist, legendary commander, etc. faction leader became Emperor without any problems, I triggered the Augustan Reform and enjoyed the N&N Legions. I had no more crashes and I don't saw any Roman rebel troops even I looted, destroyed and abandoned a lot of barbarian cities in North and many Parthians in East.

[Victory or Valhalla]

I fought them forever in a Belgae campaign, I mean just endless slaughter in the Pyrenees lol, Now Im doing a world domination campaign as rome and Im honestly gonna try to defeat carthage and the Avernii then station some defensive legions around hispania until I can amass a huge probaly 8-10 stack force to wipe them in one invasion. I am scared to start a war with them early haha! I might even finish Macedonia and greece first as well so I have so much income I can just wash them away with endless legions lol

[Tesla]

Don't know if you still need it but try sailing one army around spain and attacking their undefended settlements it'll make them force their troops back.
After that you can try and hold said settlements while attacking with your other stacks.

[Hohenstaufen234]

I agree, they are nearly impossible to kill. They just pump out stack after stack all the time.
But the naval invasion that Tesla suggested could work. Im going to start a campaign and try that later on when the empire has grown.

[LoGaL]

it's just a matter of planning ahead and not rushing, plus, i found out that the best you can do is slowly creep inside spain, while buidling your recruitment centers in the cities you conquer

[ur-Lord Tedric]

Play 1turn (as designed) - you know it makes sense :-)

[LoGaL]

you get stack spam also in 1 turn

[Agrippa19]

Just started a new 1-turn roman campaign m/m in anticipation for RS3.

By the year 553 AUC after completely beating Hannibal and the rebels I've made Hispania a priority also. I've decided against a full expansion into Spain but have gone for a 'gradual' approach. I've sacrificed Dyracchium in the east to macedon in order to get a ceasefire and trade rights while getting map info and 5000 denarii in return. I've made peace with Carthage also with trade rights and map info and giving them 2000 denarii. They're no threat to me now so I'll need them to push the gallaeci from the south and they are doing just that. It makes my fight a lot easier with the gallaeci fighting 2 superpowers of the the West.

From the start I've prioritised building Government buildings in Emporiae before any economic buildings, in order to get recruitable generals and diplomats, once they were all built I filled the building Q with ports and roads, pop booms etc waiting until the city upgrade is available. I want to build northern Spain into a 'Client Kingdom so that I have effectively got a Spanish faction with spanish units as quick as I can that is ruled through roman officials. Emporiae is surrounded by hostile but non aggressive 'free people' so I don't need to worry about being attacked there just yet, so I've sent scipio south to take Sagunton and do the same there. I've destroyed all the economic and military buildings so that Sagunton becomes effectively a 'decoy' city with no economic or military value but of course I knew that either the expanding Gallaeci or Carthaginians to the South would eventually attack, I'm hoping that it becomes a slaughter ground that Carthage and Gallaeci battle over with basically no reward at the end of it.

After the war with Hannibal and the civil war I sent an allied legion to Spain with 3 generals to help with government and recruited another mercenary army so I had an allied and mercenary full stack in Emporiae but I foolishly auto resolved a sally attack in Sagunton against Carthage and lost scipio and that republican legion but as predicted Galleaci attacked Carthage there and the city has switched hands between the two factions twice and it's helping to bleed them both while I settled another truce with Carthage and landed another Republican legion led by an upcoming Fabius Maximus in Emporiae just in time as 3 gallaeci full stacks besieged the city and the mercenary army in a fort outside the city. I used Fabius Maximus's night attack ability to fight 3 seperate battles and destroyed the poorly lead gallaecians. I then marched on Caludonon, and took the city that was defended by another full stack with minimal casualties which has major mining facilities in place, 2300 a turn from mining alone! That obviously hit Gallaeci hard as it was 3 turns before they could gather an army to attack Caludonon but they lost the siege miserably.

The plan from here is to garrison Caludonon with a recruitable general and mercenaries while I sail Maximus with a governor around Northern Spain and take the Gallaeci capital while they are unaware. Then garrison that city with mercenaries and upgrade them all with the amazing armoury facilities the gallaeci have, sail Maximus back to Caludonon and march south taking Numantia and Sagunton while another legion or two is sent from Rome. So I will have 5 major cities, with fantastic mining and armoury facilities and ofc the Gallaeci Capital crippling their tax income. With 4 (republican and allied legions, two relatively strong mercenary armies) armies in Spain now, another 2 more should ensure those cities are safe while I build the government buildings and allow these cities to start recruiting AOR units. As they begin to dig out spanish units I'll slowly pull the roman legions back to Italy where I'm starting to annex the North of Italy up to the Alps.

Another tip I found that allowed me to focus so much on Spain was to purchase Syracuse (for 50,000 denarii) from the Greeks, as they always start a war in Sicily I found that peacefully removing them will allow me to stay allied to Massalia who are in reality a 'City-State' who don't expand all too often but will help keep the Arverni in check. Therefore trade continues in the North and stationing a heavy Garrison in Genoa seems to deter the Greek incursions that happen so often there from Massalia. The economy is booming and I'm only fighting one overseas war in spain but I have the resources to give the Boii money in return for Bononia and Patavium which I will eventually do while I attack the free people's cities.

[Ovidius Empiricus]

I play one-turn campaigns, on H/H. As Rome, I've never conceded Dyrrachium, and Emporiae either remains mine or has at least been able to defend itself and prevent expansions by Arverni, Carthage or Gallaeci for quite a few years, until I regain it soon enough. It takes a good amount of caution at the beginning, and it's useful to know the first rebellion will be coming quickly. But at any rate, stabilizing the situation in Italy (killing Hannibal and Maharbal, taking Genoa) is key before expanding into Spain or anywhere else for that matter. This means not just eliminating invaders, but also improving military infrastructure immediately in a few key cities like Rome and Arretium which already have gone in that direction and have resources like iron, by building foundries and barracks and eventually advanced temples. Other regions (perhaps 75-80% of them) should only focus on economics and never make a single unit for you. Italy should be a real powerhouse, and the regions you expand into will take a long time before they're very useful for either recruitment or profit-making.

Carthage must be destroyed. That's really the long and short of it. You must get rid of them, pathetic as they are at harassing the Gallaeci, so that Africa will create a nice entry point into Spain from the south. You'll have no intrusions by the faction controlling Cyrene to the East, whether Greeks Cities or Egypt or the "free" faction. With Carthage gone (since it wouldn't put up much of a fight anyway), the Gallecci will not be able to present a united front against you, by blocking off the northern passage in the Pyrenees or otherwise covering the **Eastern coastline. (**EDIT, not Western). You'll be fighting on two fronts, but they will be as well -- strategy on that level is a losing proposition for the AI against a competent human player, if you continue to put the squeeze on them as long as it takes.

From Genoa, you can expand into Cisalpine Gaul as much as you want, as well as taking Massalia once your inevitable war with the Greek Cities starts. (Syracuse at least should also be taken then, but why not all of Greece?) Massalia is easy to defend, and a ship can take armies from there to Emporiae, since expanding into the more open regions of France is something I usually put off until I have a better hold on Spain. A ship is faster than having them march all the way there (perhaps through enemy territory), and naval superiority isn't difficult to achieve with a few decent fleets. It will take quite a few years to conquer all of Spain, and they will put up a fairly strong resistance until the end is near. Just keep chipping away at them. Once that entire corner of the map is relatively safe and peaceful, it's of course much easier to turn your attention to other areas. I happen to like Turkey (after western Africa, Spain, Greece, southern France) for its nice roster of units and its centralized position, but some people seem to like Egypt or Britain or they'll expand in various other ways.

You want to keep pumping out troops every turn, from multiple cities, in a 1-turn campaign. Mostly cohorts, a couple archers, a slinger, a couple cavalry, maybe a few triarii if you can afford them. Be defensive on the field to keep your casualties to a minimum, since it's a long trip back to Italy to retrain and reinforce them. Depleted units should be merged to a full-sized unit before the remainders are sent back, to maximize the number that can continue fighting on the front. As far as battlefield tactics, they're not so different from most other factions. It helps to use archers to attack their annoying (and often numerous) light cavalry. But Rome's strong point is its heavy infantry, and standard hammer-and-anvil tactics work very well. If you get some cavalry to charge in and/or bring archers/slingers around a flank to fire at their backs, then they won't be too much trouble unless you're heavily outnumbered.

Money can be an issue if you don't also develop your economy. So, every city should have cheap, fast, useful buildings in its construction queue every turn. You should not altogether (or nearly) stop producing either troops or buildings, unless you put yourself in a truly desperate situation, since it really does work to find some sort of a balance between both kinds of expenses. The balance of power doesn't change that drastically in the game unless you do something to make it happen, so find what the pace is and get a sense of how strong the factions are, so you can have a reasonable estimate of how many troops you need where. Depending on how slow your expansion goes (and when you trigger the reforms), you might be recruiting some nice shiny new units from Carthage and Massalia, as well as from Italy, to support the older units that will become obsolete, but make sure your cities are prepared to produce the shiny units in time or that you have enough reinforcements to defend while you wait for that. The extra time spent traveling could turn this into a real problem, if you don't take it into account, until those cities are producing (more and closer and slightly better) units for you. Whatever the case may be, those regions are both important on the route to taking Spain, just because of the geography.

[Alavaria]

Make a nicely sized fleet. Put in stack which has artillery.
Sail around and then park off their capital (which has the magic treasury).
Then on the same turn you get off the ships, assault and take their capital (which has the magic treasury).

Send fleet over to get another stack of reinforcements.
Do whatever pre-reqs are needed for Citizenship etc.
I recommend using some trap forts***, though as Romans the forts are annoying to use for this purpose...

***Instead just use their capital itself as the trap.

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If for some reason you just must fight them all to death using little swords, then instead throw forts all over Iberia with 1 crappy/depleted unit to slow them down and take stack with artillery and start clearing the settlements.