How to beat late aged rome?

[Angrychris]

playing as germany is real fun with always different scenarios occuring each time. I always find myself being out beaten by later aged roman armys. its hard to take them out early due to briton, under developed citys, and income. should i just go archer/calv/spearmen?

[Xavier Dragnesi]

I suppose there are a few ways to do this. One is to try and eliminate the Romans as quickly as possible, before they reach the reforms, and then head for the other barbarian factions. Another is to build fairly bad troops to start off with, which means you'll gain more experience fighting with them. Then once your better troops come along, such as beserkers and the like, scatter them around your armies so you have some elites that will enhance your army.

[Selifator]

I would advise you to take at least the boot of Italy before the reforms. This can easily be done by taking the largest cities first. If they don't get an Imperial Palace in Italy the reforms will never happen.
If they do happen, you're probably doomed.

[Angrychris]

im doomed i suppose, here is the scenario i am in. Ghaul was pretty much the super power of europe and for the first time in a game kept rome in italy. so i used ghaul as a buffer and molded around them taking europe as far as the border of spain to my farthest eastern province that u have from the start. what was to my surprise was that the roman provinces expanded by sea only. now that i am at the top of italy i found out that julii took spain while brutii (or scipii) took everything east of me, with rome/the other remaining faction roaming around italys base, i am literaly surrounded with water to my north. i got a horoic victory against romes main army (which surprised even myself) so i can more or less take rome as well as a remaining julii settlement in the region but my units arent great at sacking so i have to maintain sieges but with the blue(?) roman faction roaming aimlessly up and down italy it is hard. i also kepy two ghaul regions at the top of italy under the mountains but even have trouble taking them out seeing that there single stack of fully upgraded swords men can make numerous stacks of spear men in phalanx run like little girls. i think im borked.

[Angrychris]

well this is depressing, im holding my own against the roman siege onslaught. i took a desperate chance at attacking rome when i was attacked my one of their armys when waiting in siege. i won and crippled rome leaving only a 26 horse general within the city. i won on auto select and battle on my own and each time the game freezes, but thats not all, the comp freezes as well. i know the npc is a cheater but not a sore loser to. what crap!

[Aristarchus]

I thought you said you were playing Germany, yet you haven't mentioned your wonderful axemen. Individually they are outmatched by Romans, but the chosen axemen and night raiders are very fast and tough, and can concentrate to grind down even the urban cohorts. Check out my AAR "German Assault" for examples of battle strategies (link below).

[Xavier Dragnesi]

I find that berserkers work wonders against Roman cohorts as well. Just hit a cohort with berserkers from the front and back and they'll desintegrate in literally seconds.

[Selifator]

Ah, zerks. Wonderfull units, given that you protect them from missile units. Porcupined zerks might look cool, but aren't that impressive.

[Angrychris]

ill have to reinstall the game and start over seeing that each time i sack rome no matter when, my comp freezes. i thought zerks were only in bi? i have yet to use night raiders though. ill try to incorporate more axemen in the mix. the spearmen are uber in siege defense and for early/middle age units but get turn up moraly/physicaly by later age elite units.

[Selifator]

Berserkers are only in RTW. In BI there is a unit called Hounds of Culan for the Celts, and I think the eastern barbarians have a berserker unit but I'm not sure of it.

[Cmdr_Sdxo]

^^ The Lombards in BI have Lombard Berserkers.. The german berserkers in RTW look better, though imo.

Anyway, as a germania player(in DarthMod,though) too, I whole-heartedly second the use of chosen axemen and night raiders-chop those arrogant tin-cans into pieces! But watch out for roman missile troops and let the lower-quality units to absorb any missiles : Quite many of my defeats as germans were probably due to my best troops getting shot up with missile fire and the crappy low morale troops were cut up and ran away because they weren't supported by enough heavy troops.

[Angrychris]

war dogs do crap against rome, but how about other barb factions?

[Cluny the Scourge]

You could consider using massed Assassin-and-Spy groups to repeatedly sabotage the Barracks in their major cities and so prevent them from building any decent infantry. Improve the assassins skills first by giving them assassination missions against ordinary, unimportant army Captains. Rebels are especially useful for training them up this way.

[Angrychris]

i had almost 10 assassins 1 diplo and around 4/5 spys on a town once and they really dont do much against the cheating ass npc. makes me feel good though.

[The Rights 2]

do not forget that there is a time just after the reforms that the romans cannot retrain there vetrain armies and can only build lower troops for say 16 turns.
This if you act correctly is enough to distroy them, extermeate the citys and distroy everything, set the tax highest and walk out for it to rebel... make the city useless and if you take their lagest cities first they will not hold much longer.

every man lost can not be replaced, so even if you can't win the battles you should aim to kill as many as you can.

[Benz282]

Hm. I haven't ever really played as the Germans. Not against Post-Marian Rome, at least.

Here's my advice:

Get Zerks in your core provinces. If you don't have the time, make Chosen Axemen/Night Raiders. For the provinces under attack, make armies of Spear Warbands with Archer/Skirmisher support. In the open field, try to concentrate your forces against the weakest section of Roman infantry. By all means, go for ambushes/bridge battles though.

Also, get Gothic Cavalry.

[IYI4sT3r 0f PuPp3t5]

Wardogs are useful if your line is holding, then charge the wardogs, and if they're not wavering yet they'll start too, I use them because enemy troops are afraid of them, you have to charge at the right time though.

[Aristarchus]

See the great post on strategy for the Gauls by Morble - emphasizing upgrades and strong morale as the way to beat Rome with second-rate troops. Germany doesn't have druids, but wardogs, night raiders, and berserkers can help demoralize the enemy. Best, though, is speed. The German cavalry and axemen can concentrate superior numbers to overcome more powerful Roman units.

[Carl von Döbeln]

take at least the boot of Italy before the reforms.....otherwise your DOOOOOOOOOMEEEED

[Falcone]

With Scythia, I use mixed Horse Archers, Axemans, but I think the best is Scythian Noble Cavalry...