Help! Barbarians at the gate!

[Legionem Insanis]

I'm playing the Republic of Rome in a Lusteds TE campaign.

Seems like everyone has a hard-on for my little boot shaped piece of land here in the Mediterranean. I had the Brittons, Macedoneans and Gauls coming at me through the alps. They are all neighbors but they are all allied, and seemingly against me! Making things worse, my funds were tapped by the upkeep of my military.

Things started looking up a bit, though:
The ensuing slaughter lightened the payroll for me.
The Gauls seemed to have tired for now.
One of my assasins has had a field day murdering enemy family members as they lead their approaching armies. It seemes to stop them until they they are replaced with another target
I built more roads and ports which seemed to help the economy and I was able to build a level 2 barracks in Pavatium allowing me retrain my troops nearby.

But...
after running my armies around repelling attack after attack on my Alpine orifices, the Iberians (Spain) land on my Corsica back door.

I cant take an attack on the mainland. My garrisons are all Rorarii (Town Watch) down there. I feel like I am holding back an all-out gang-bang on the mother-land.

The Brittons and Macedonia have offered protectorate status. Maybe that would buy me time.

Any help would be appreciated. The future of Rome is at stake!

[czePowerslave]

Its always better to keep man inside mainland against such cause...but still - you will probably lose city, but in meantime build-up force and retake it

[Kratos]

The Brittons and Macedonia have offered protectorate status. Maybe that would buy me time.

Next time they offer you to become protectorate, accept and ask for some money in return as well. A ceasefire and the trade that follows will definatly buy you some time and the possibility move your military forces to another front.
Good luck!

[Halie Satanus]

Agree with Kratos, 15000 is often accepted 10000 almost always, but make sure you have a ship or unit close to whichever faction you accept protection from so you can attack them asap, iirc; being a protectorate drains your economy in the long run.

[Legionem Insanis]

Thanks for the feedback.
How does being a protectorate drain your economy?

[Selifator]

If you are a protectorate you pay about 10k per turn. If you have a protectorate then you get about that amount.

[Hader]

Moved to Battle Planning forum.

[Legionem Insanis]

Well I have a ceasefire with the Macedonians. I must have assasinated enough of their family members because they are not at war with any new factions and their standing is still high on the graph.
The Gauls started up again and took Meloladium(sp) and Pavatium but it caused them a fight with the Brits who apparently had designs on those as well.
Of major concern, the Brits are moving into Italy with a vengeance. I autoresolved a couple of battles with them and lost horribly (like 900 kills to 60) even though I had more units and the blue bar showed in my favor. The good thing is with the lighter military payroll I am racking up the money.

Maybe I should upload this? I'd love to hear how more experienced players get out of it.

[Scutarii]

Well, don't auto-resolve battles would be my first recommendation. Auto-resolve never helps you. Ever. The player could always have gotten less kills taken, on matter how skilled they are.

[Lord Romanus III]

I don't know how you're game would play compared to mine, but I tend to fight battles and use a three-line maniple formation where it looks like a checkerboard.
m--1-1-1-1-1--m
-C--2-2-2-2--C-
m--3-3-3-3-3--m
-------G---------

1 is your frontline infantry
2 is secondary infantry
3 should be your last line of infantry
C is cavalry
m is mercenary or spearmen
G is for your general

This tends to be succesful for me. I don't use mods, but my game is so heavily modded I might as well make it one.

[Legionem Insanis]

Well, I've managed to turn this one around somewhat.

I started investing in my cities economic infrastructure which was sorely needed. This is the first game I have played where I turned off auto-management for construction in all my cities.

Another thing I have discovered is just how much unrest good spies and assassins can cause. I've managed to cause a lot of trouble for the Iberians (Spanish) and Brits who seemed to be spread somewhat thin. Some settlements the Iberians have never taken back.

I thought these two factions, Iberians and Brits would eventually go to war against each other but they seem content trying to invade my Italian peninsula. They have even announced a formal alliance.

I haven't been able to take back Mediolanum or Pavatium but I have been decimating stack after stack of Iberian and Brits never auto-resolving anything. (Truthfully, the battles are the most exciting part of the game but it is really a pain that you can not save mid battle.) I actually had Mediolanum under siege at one point but they were able to surround my army with 3 or 4 of their own. Although my army of some 1200 was lost I was able to inflict almost 3000 casualties.

The true golden opportunity came when the Numedians landed a stack on Sardinia. While at first concerned at fighting on another front it actually turned into the opportunity I had been waiting for. Their lightly defended cities have been easy prey: Carthage, the two cities south and east of there, as well as Tingi in the far West on Iberia's back door. All of which are well developed.

Most recently the Macedonians have declared war on Brittania. Maybe this will will help me but most likely it will be another faction vying for Pavatium.

I'm really wondering how to get those cities back. They just seem difficult to defend against two and possibly a third hostile faction.

[Double A]

Try to get some different cities first, because those 2 are real economy-busters (economy -3000 turn)

[Knight of Judgment]

how much denari do you have ?
maybe you can buy mediolanum

[Barry]

Fight on a different front, you mentioned Africa but if not spain or somwhere, you could use those mines

[Tiberius Sempronius Graccus]

Bridges! Make them get chewed up on some bridges-fight some defensive battles and let the hordes get hammered!

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Yes, bridges or mountain passes. Both are good. Build forts and just wait for them to come, then SMASH, they're gone.

[Lord Thesaurian]

keep using assasins and blockade all their ports. also, since theyre attacking from the alps, u should take advantage of the Po river. give up Mediolanium and Patavium and place all ur best men at the 2 crossings 2 defend them. You will have a glorious field day slaughtering those half-brained barbarians as they cross the river

[SonOfAlexander]

I'd just accept the protectorate offer and get those town watch concentrated - this will buy you time to arm up and send an army down there - the protectorate will stop them invading you too.

[Sunbird Alkibijad]

Just force the battles to be fought at the bridges, u got enough of that in northern italy. leave patavium if u have to. or stack it with heavy infantry.
A good thing I like to do is: let them siege your city. Sally forth, if u got any archers. move outside your city walls, hopefully they will try to rush your units, once they get within the reach of your walls, your missile troops and wall towers will decimate them. Do that every turn. In the end, u will be able to either reduce their army to ragtag bunch of survivors, rather than a sieging menace. Trust me, I've done this million times. TBH, i believe it's a bug of sorts, or just plain stupidity of AI.
On bridges, simply put your army on the bridge on campaign map, and once the fight starts, make a semi circle on your side of the bridge. 4 heavy infantry/spear units will do the work. have the reserves stacked up real close to fill in the holes, and general right at the back of your units(MORALE). If u got(and u should) any missile troops, line them up on the riverbank, and have them shooting the rear units, not the ones engaging your troops. generally, just shoot the ones still on bridge or about to reach the bridge. If u got archers, use the flaming missiles, u will kill less, but the morale effect on them will be horrific, and even a unit at 80% of manpower will rout on the first contact with your infantry.
I almost forgot, HOLD GROUND IS MANDATORY command for your infantry, to prevent them from rushing the fleeing enemy. the game is just too easy...
As for spanish, get a fleet if u can, and sink their fleets stacked with armies, that usually wins entire wars, without using a single land unit.
GL!

[jsjuno]

I would say changing your tactic completely would be what I'd do. :hmmm:

First of all, all of your field army units (the ones not protecting cities) should be rallied at one position. Best it be where you have the terrain advantage, and the enemy is most likely to come.
Then just wait for them to come to you, and when they are near you, and you have the terrain advantage, you should go on the offensive.
The reason I'm saying that you have to use terrain advantage is because NOT ONLY isn't it the best thing simply, but it is also best when you are outnumbered, which you might be.

If you just spread your armies all around defending each, then your armies, without too big of a strength, may be slowly cut down from every where.
I'm not sure if my plan will work, but I'd give it a shot if something like this happens.

You rally all of your field armies at one point.
You wait for the entire enemy army to reach you.
If you can, try to destroy the entire enemy army.
Make it so that you are not slowly rotting their army, but rather that you are cutting their head off at one point, making them go back to where they came from.