Help with Galatia?

**b34rd3d** · June 04, 2017, 10:02 AM

Hi. I have been having alot of problems trying to play a Galatia campaign on hard difficulty. I really enjoy the faction but I am finding it extremely hard when a multitude of factions declare war on you unprovoked. For instance, Even though i am on relatively good terms with Egypt or Pontus, they declare war on me and force me to fight a war on multiple fronts.

Also even if I am on friendly terms with them, most refuse to have non-aggression pacts or even trade agreements. Here is my good save

http://www.mediafire.com/file/z30gok...+Galaton+.save

Although here I am ready to have Lydia on the run, capturing Ephesos causes Rhodos and Knossos as well as a multitude of greek states to declare war on me. Pontus and egypt also declare war.
Having buffer states does not work (from liberation) as all of them produced are devious and become new enemies.

Also what could I do to my unit composition to aid me?
Are there any tactics I could implement??

Thanks for reading and apologies if multiple posts get put up as I am not sure they are being posted.

**b34rd3d** · June 04, 2017, 11:01 PM

I am also wondering is it a bug? People such as Rhodos declare war on me even with a friendly attitude. I can't take advantage of any friendly statuses and achieve lucrative trade contracts as they always deny me (Arche Bosphurus, etc)

Is this hard diplomacy due to the celtic culture that I have vs the rest around me? Or is it due to power imbalance? Because I have friendly attitudes from many factions yet they want nothing to do with me in terms of diplomacy and even declare war.

I would really appreciate someone helping me out.

**Garbad** · June 05, 2017, 09:51 AM

Welp, I know its a hard faction but honestly that save is probably a lost cause. Your economy sucks, your army is weak, and your diplomacy couldn't be worse. I think its time for a reroll.

**Garbad** · June 05, 2017, 04:00 PM

Here ya go; I made you a save file in a better position. Its on hard/hard and has no wars, a good war chest, good army, and two provinces taken. From here I suggest either going after sparta/knoss for extra income or backstabbing lydia and taking asia minor.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fereofuncs...aton.save?dl=0

**b34rd3d** · June 06, 2017, 07:53 AM

I am amazed, I have several questions if you don't mind,
- How did you not get Seleucids and their satraps to declare war?
- How did you achieve such a massive bank treasury?
- What is the basic/general idea in regards to all army composition? Why was my galatian warrior spam poor?
- What are the key things you do to stabilize a province? (I spam patrol and build temples)
I understand you need to rush tier 3 settlements but I am very curious as to how you easily managed to progress much farther and put yourself in an ideal position

I would greatly appreciate you answering these questions as you seem to be quite the experienced player.

**Garbad** · June 06, 2017, 09:34 AM

- How did you not get Seleucids and their satraps to declare war?

My first target was egypt, who unwisely attacked the seleucids. I took their city in asia, then made peace with them. Going to war with them made the selucids like me, plus the fact that we had no border tension. Note how I have multiple chars with diplomacy bonuses.

- How did you achieve such a massive bank treasury?

After I took rhodes/pergamon, I disbanded most of my armies and used the large income to quickly build up my buildings to the ideal level and stockpile some cash. The AI will rarely aggro on you unless you give it a reason to and/or have l1 building centers (the AI thinks they are weak and wants to attack, but l3 buildings it will ignore).

- What is the basic/general idea in regards to all army composition? Why was my galatian warrior spam poor?

Your army was mostly low quality infantry, who will struggle to defeat a large or high quality army. I find low armor infantry to be the least effective units, and I use them only in an emergency. As you can see by my armies I go for small, elite armies supported by lots of support troops (especially missile and throwaway shock troops).

The three armies I used were (I named them after their role to help you see how to use them):

Heavy Combat

Fights in the style of False Center 2.0
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...lse-Center-2-0

^ designed to annihilate low quality armies (such as garrisons or weak stacks) with little casualties in a very cost effective way. Focused on pure combat.

AMBUSH

The ambush stack uses all ambush skills (including a suitable general) and lures opponents into ambush attacks. Its heavy on attack infantry to maximize the initial impact. Its goal is to defeat elite hostile stacks in a cost effective manner.

LIGHT

The light stack is a support legion that used up the last bit of money I had left using cost effective troops intended to support the main stacks.

- What are the key things you do to stabilize a province? (I spam patrol and build temples)

Gauls in asia are an extreme cultural outlier, so the first thing I trained was diplomats and a +10 passive bonus to culture. Even with this, it was hard to stabilize a friendly culture and I spent probably 20 turns unable to advance because my provinces were on the edge of revolt.

My typical economic layout is:

l3 Capital with: gladiator, blue sewers, library, X (x = slaves, food, or temple depending on needs). This gives you a good boost to PO, income, and research.
Other settlements: l2 building with: trade resource 2, farm 2 or yellow PO (if no resource) + farm 2. This generates minor income and lots of food.

This setup, along with some investment in the culture/po line, generates a food surplus and moderate income hassle free. Its an easy template to build an effort free empire.