Eastern Empire campaign

[Belisario74]

I would like to start a campaign with the Roman Empire of the East
is it better to use emperor and family for battles to control the faction's loyalty?
Does Roman paganism have a better cost / benefit ratio than Christianity?
to ally with the Huns I read that I should make war on them enemies (ok I know) and make donations but how much and what?
I should dissolve the alliance with the West but I would like to keep the trade agreement, could it harm the possible alliance with the Huns?
general advice on the campaign
Thank you

[SizarieldoR]

Mods can change many things about the campaign, so here is my advice for the vanilla.

Yes, use the emperor in the active front line. Use him against the Goths, then use him against the Sassanids. This will help you generate influence, which you can spend on adopting 3-4 statesmen who have good traits and keep them as governors.

I haven't tried converting to Paganism, but other people argue that Romans should avoid paganism. Roman factions have fewer food-generating buildings than Barbarian or Eastern factions, and pagan buildings require food, which puts extra burden on the building planning.

The factions that invade the western half of the empire are very far away from you, so I have found it irrelevant whether I keep an alliance or not. The Ghassanids are a diplomatic liability, because the Persians dislike them and, therefore, dislike you for being an ally. You might want to break up with them, although I think there was some sort of penalty.

Other advice:
In general, keep family members as governors and the emperor as the supreme commander on the field. Keep infantry and siege engines in the main army (emperor's) and the fast-moving units (cavalry) in the supporting army/ies that move with him. Bring along spies and champions. Always ransom the captives - regardless of who is the general (or garrison captain), captives decisions affect ONLY the faction leader. Repeated enslaving or executing give the faction leader the Cruel trait line, which provides a minus to public order for all regions of the state. Ransoming gives the Merciful trait line, which provides a bonus to public order, which the Romans desperately need early on. You have to always ransom, no exceptions, because the actions cancel each other out in the trait calculator.

At the beginning of the game, you should abandon the bottom half of the empire. Everything south of Tarsus, except maybe Antiochia, has to be dismantled and all the legions need to be pulled back to Anatolia and the Balkans. As a # of cities, it is more like 1/3 of the empire, but the territory is too large and you don't have the economy to keep armies there. Don't bother with the Tanukhids. After you deconstruct all the buildings in the settlements, you get a buffer area that draws the attention of Tanukhids and some other enemies. More importantly, you get a big influx of money (50k i think). Just be careful not to trigger famine, because Egypt provides a big chunk of your starting total food. Also, dismantle all churches down to T1. They drain a lot of gold and you can live without them at the beginning of the game. Tier 1 is ok, in my opinion. Before you do that, be sure to recruit 3 priests and send them in Anatolia/Balkans to stabilize the public order.

This takes 4-5 turns and when it's done you have a pile of gold in your treasury that gives you a 5% bonus every turn. Also, the borders that you are defending are much smaller than before - in the East you are defending a frontline that is 3 provinces long (Tarsus - Trapezus line). Also, the abandoned settlements serve as a distraction and buy you time to organize. Western Anatolia is very safe and you can start building up the economy. At the beginning, stabilize the Balkans, so when the inevitable war with the Persians breaks out you can move the legions in the East. After the early game, the Huns start terrorizing Eastern Europe and everybody is busy with them, so Dardania and Thrace become quite dull . The real action is in the East, where the thousand nations of the Persian Empire start sending stacks your way. Here's a trick - the enemy armies are usually spear spam. Also, the ERE doesn't have any armor-piercing units until later techs are researched. Keep an army in the Balkans and grab all the mercenary axe units and falx units that are available - they are great anti-armor guys and every infantry legion in the East needs 2-3 of them. Once you recruit some, send the legion to the Eastern front where they are needed.

Up until the mid-game, Roman cavalry sucks. Use Archers (Sagittarii) in the Eastern Front and javelinmen (Levis Armaturae) in the Balkans. You don't need a fleet at the beginning.

[Gronndar]

Meh, it sounds like an overkill to abandon your territories as an ERE. Its quite doable to hold your regions. And much more fun to try to keep empire together. Considering how much AI likes to burn down things, for keeping game interesting, player should avoid doing that.

Its same kind of tactic I don't like is abusing that ERE faction trait. Heard that people disband their armies and destroy building which creates huge ammount of money.

Try to deal Visigoths on turn 1-2. They attack with 2 stacks on that gold mine settlement. Bolster that army with stack and use another one to create army to deal remnants.

If you want to keep southern regions, deal Garamantians (depends on diplomatic standing). Better early than later.

I actually tried to help Ghassanids one time. Kept one stack of spearmen in fortified position next to their capital. Sassanids exhausted themselfs on that fort, which gave me an opening in Armenia.

Btw, try to make marriage with Armenia. If you get high enough standing with them, its possible that Armenia will break away from Sassanids.

Don't bother with religion, i usually start moving up religion tech when I have enough imperial libraries or theaters or whatever.

You start with war against huns(?). Its too costly to make peace with them and if you make peace with them, they just move through your territories and declare war & sack undefended settlements. Same as any other horde. Besides, huns only start to become a threat around 410, and by then your border guard should be strong enough to deal with them.

[Belisario74]

thanks for the advice, abandon half of the Empire too extreme for me but for the other tips I will think about it

[Belisario74]

Goths and other barbarians will have the same treatment as me ... iron! With the Huns I want an alliance to have the least insecure balvans, in the East I think that the great campaign that will see the annihilation of the Persians or of Constantinople