Picts - Playable ?

[RexPelasgorum]

I tried to play this faction, but it seems they have no chance against the Romano-British. Also, they cannot horde anymore like in 6.05 version.

Low troop quality, and low numbers compared to RB.... almost no cavalry...

Any guide for them would be more than welcome...

[Taskeen]

I tried them as well with little luck...

[Gazi Husrev-Beg]

barbarians pretty much suck now. R-B may have had good troops, but comparing to some other, all their units are pretty much elite. I dont see how. At least give barbarian generals more units with them.

[Saldron]

In the reverse of that situation, since I play as the Romano-British, the Picts didn't seem to stand a chance. So I can see what you're talking about, to be honest, I took the entire faction out with just 2-3 shore(i think?) militia units and 2 fleet sailor archer units. Come to think of it, with the lack of cavalry, I could've stood back and rained arrows on them all day. They could seem to use a bit of a boost in maybe troop numbers or a slight twitch in quality.

Rex have you tried to possibly, ally with R-B until you can get a better army up and running, possibly capturing Tara while the R-B are busy with the Saxons in the early turns. I don't know of they would turn their army to you after running the Saxons out, but if they move their armies to the mainland, that would give you a chance to seige their towns. I don't remember if the Picts have an archer unit, I don't recall seeing one in my campaign, but you could try to go heavy on the levy and archer units, with the occasional cannon fodder unit. Send in the fodder to put some kind of dent in their numbers on the batte field, then follow up with a box formation of some sort. Putting levies along the front and sides, then placing archers in the center. That formation has worked for me against more difficult oponents.

Good luck with the Picts and hope that helps atleast somewhat.

[Draco Borealis]

The picts shoud replaced by Gaelic Scotti from Ireland, they invaded and took Scotland from Picts in V/VI century (Scotts are Irish). And war with RB is hardcoded in forced diplomacy script.

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

The picts shoud replaced by Gaelic Scotti from Ireland, they invaded and took Scotland from Picts in V/VI century (Scotts are Irish). And war with RB is hardcoded in forced diplomacy script.

I was about to post exactly the same suggestion but that will be more work so maybe for 7.1 (w/c would not be savegame compatible). Will also make a map w/ a landbridge from Ireland to Scotland (and probably add a region or two to Ireland)

for the meantime, I have an EDU for 7.04 that will make ground bonuses more pronounced (Germans are better at woods and in snow, Desert peoples are better in - how did u guess, the desert..., and here the Picts get tremendous bonuses fighting in woods. this will have to do for now, as making the Picts just a little bit stronger makes them invariably conquer all of Britannia, w/c is just as ridiculous a situation.
...the Gaels, however, threatening the Saxons and the RB would be more historically correct...

re: Scotti, Anthony has this to say about the term Scotti

Scots in a strict sense didn't exist yet. 'Scotti' was just a (derogatory) slang term for Gaels, specifically Gaelic pirates and raiders (and was then freely applied to Gaelic inhabitants of the Pictish coasts, who were Dalriatta from Ireland). However, it came to be the regular Latin term for all Gaels (for example, the term for the king of all Ireland in Latin in the Catholic Church was 'Scotorum Imperator'; 'Emperor of the Irish/Scots, Gaels'). The reason Picts are mentioned so much is that they were adjacent to imperial territories, and that the Romans really had no concept of what the Pictish political landscape was like (for example that they were being armed by Gaelic kings). 'Scots', as they would come to be, were Gaels from Ireland, and having 'Scotti' would be totally erroneous and ahistoric (they were a tiny, almost totally unimportant group for centuries, and in this period were regularly subverted to an Irish king or a Pictish one). The Irish kept record of what was going on fairly well after converting.