War against the Gauls

[Captain Jin]

I'm curious about how to combat the flooding mass of Gallic armies that come pouring across my borders just around the same time I get Marius reforms.

I don't have too much difficult beating them in battle. But my biggest issue is that they just send stack after stack at me. I had three legions up there fighting them and it got very frustrating pounding them out over and over just to have more replace them afterward. I control Massilia and Narbo so they have no naval ports I can blockade in the Med yet they seem to have enough money to spread all the way east to threaten the Getae. At one point they attacked Segestica.

I'm just getting angry cause everytime at this point in the game I get attacked on all side and I'm trying to get Rome to the point where I've built every building. I want to see the Roman Emperor! But I have to say Gaul and Epeiros won't stop attacking. Gaul especially, even after force peace it just lasts a turn. I hate the Gauls!!!!!!!! And somehow (the first I've ever seen) Epieros eliminated Macedonia and controls a ton of land! Sweet mercy! I still haven't taken Sicily either because I can't pull my legions away from the Gauls. And I know it's just a matter of time till Syracuse lands a fleet near Croton. They're busy fighting on Sardinia and Corsica but it's just a matter of time!

[Gaius Flavius Belisarius]

By and large the Gauls have poor quality units compared to what you have as the Romans. Keep a holding force there and concentrate your resources on building an offensive army that can take advantage of anywhere the Gauls may have a crack in their defenses. Although, if you're worried about the Syracusans use that army to attack Sicily. It's a much smaller chunk of land, and therefore it will be easier for you to operate from. Take your smaller enemies down first, using their assets as your own. Eventually you'll have enough strength to take the fight to the Gallic tribes and crush them.

P.S. I swear the AI cheats in regards to money, it always feels like that unless they only have one city or something, that they can build as many units as they want.

[Forsworn]

Ah, those Guals are lively! I had the same problem aswell. Since I was playing on VH/M the Guals were rolling in the money. So much so that after our borders finally connected they began a mass war upon me. I thought, at first, it would be easy when the first stack came. However, after beating that one another joined battle immediatly afterwards!

After getting annoy'd I tried to take the fight to them but my Legions kwpt getting ambushed many a time while trying to move about their territory. To make matters worse I'm faceing problems with both Carthage and Mecedon(I've never seen Epirus destroy them before) while trying to get land in Iberia!

In the end I decided to gather my Legions into a vast navy and sail them all the way around. I than performed a Lightning Strike upon their cities before they could reinforce. Yeah, it's a little cheap but... They were such a pain long before my other enemies.

[Captain Jin]

That's just it. My legions can handle them. But the issue is that they just smash against me over and over. I crush them, but more step up in their place. So eventually my legions get weak and I have to send them back to Italy to be re-trained. I could handle them if Epeiros wasn't also attacking in Segestica and Salona. I hate fighting two front wars! I appreciate the tips though. I'm going to send like six or seven legions up there and wipe them out. At least off mainland Europe, they can stay in Britannia till I deem it necessary to finish them there later.

[century x]

When I was ready to invade Gaul. I invaded them with 15 legions. I have a whole system so my legions last a hell of a longer time. The war has just ended I have defeated around 30 full stacks of Gauls. Not including there city garrissons.

This was of course with named legions. I didn't invade with pre marius legions. So like I can give you tips but I don't think they apply to your situation

[Captain Jin]

No I have named Legions now. I sent four in and whilst fighting in the mountains just south of Aventicum I was fairing quite well then my computer froze and I had to restrain myself from slamming it against the wall.

I sent Legio XIII, III, XI, and VII in but I dont have the same system as you. IE auxialry stacks in support. Mainly that my craptop doesn't handle reinforcement armies. I had to stem their offensive because they took Aventicum and Massilia and I lost Taracco to uprising. I gave up Segestica to Epeiros and sued for peace so I could fight a one front war but the Gallic flood continues. Narbo is under constant attack and I think theyll probably take when next they attack because my legions are bogged down in the alps and won't be able to relieve them. I don't altogether mind losing these as I expanded into Gaul admittedly to early because I was trying to stem their growth.

They were reeling (this was with pre-marius armies) but have now regrouped and are counterattacking hard. I've lost just about every town I took from them originally but as I say that's not a big deal to me because it lets me get my legions ready and strike out from Northern Italy, but any tips are very welcome.

[Legio XV Apollinaris]

at the beginning from every campaign im very fast to conquer whole italy incl. patavium, mediolanum, aventicum and massilia! after conquering successful i stoped to expand for a while and build up my cities!

here are some of my defensive tactics

Gauls:
massilia is easy to defend with the bridge. park one legion there and a support stack behind them. in aventicum i always build forts so no army or single man (spy, assassin) can pass. build the forts exactly before some little forest and park the support troops hiding in the forest. the gauls are always surprised after they tried to attack any of my forts and have to fight against two armies as only one!

summary: you need 4 legions and 4-6 support stacks to defend there well

Patavium:
secure also the bridge by patavium with the same system as massilia. one legion on the bridge and a support stack behind them. i was able to fight off over 20 macedonia stacks there.

summary: you need 1 legion and 1-2 support stacks

Epiros:
after i conquered tarentum from them. they always send a diplomat and ask for a casefire. i accept it, but it seems they dont give a on the casefire, so after a while they try to send an army to canne (not with a fleet, at foot (eh?))! they get stopped at the bridge by patavium! at the same time they land a full stack (sometimes only a half) at cannae. its always the same in every campaign with epiros! park also one of your legions on the bridge at cannae with 2 support stacks hiding in the forest by cannae and tarentum. with this forces i never had a problem fighting them down.

summary: you need 1 legion and 1-3 support stacks

Syracuse:
as i said above i always try to conquer whole italy. italy includes for me also sicilia, corsica and sardinia! after i finished to set up my defense in northern italy (gauls) and south italy (epiros), i start to build up 4 legions and 3-4 support stacks for my invasion on sicilia. i always land this legions at the same time, so its no problem to conquer it! after sicilia i send one legion to corsica and 1 legion and 1 support stack to sardinia! syracuse has gone .. and carthage sends mostly a diplomat asking for a casefire but carthage (like epiros) also gives a on the casefire and after some turns they try to re-conquer sardinia back from me! so rebuild your loses after the capturing and park your legion and 1-2 support stacks at sardinia. same goes for sicilia!

summary: you need 4 legions and 3-4 support stacks for the invasion as well as the defense!



at last but not least .. my offensive tactic for the gauls:

build up 8-12 legions and 8-10 support stacks and of course a powerful fleet! take half of your troops on the fleets and land them at narbo martius or ship them around iberia and land them at burdigala (this depends how massive the carthage fleet in iberia is)! so you fall the gallic tribes in the back! the rest of your troops should be parked at massilia and aventicum (perfectly park them hidden) and wait until your troops are landed and starting the siege! after you troops land at narbo martius or burdigala the gallic tribes sends her stacks to break off your siege there. now thats the right time to attack with the hidden troops at massilia and aventicum! ok, you reach high loses fighting off all the gallic stacks, but this works perfectly for me and the gallic tribes loose all her stacks and all (or most) of their cities.


hope this help you a little bit or gives you an inspiration to make something similar? and sorry for my bad english im german

[Brusilov]

How large is the Gallic Empire? What difficulty settings are you playing on and are you doing 0 or 1 turn recruitment?

The only way to slow them down is to take settlements from them and to disrupt their trade. Until you do either of these they will continue to send armies against you.

You can keep defeating field armies but they still have the resources to create new ones.

If you don't want to keep the settlements destroy all the buildings (with the exception of the barracks) and move on to the next one. Even if the settlement rebels back to the Gallic Tribes they will need to spend timie to rebuild the settlement.

[Oli]

What i would suggest doing is building a number of auxilia armies that can block off passes or whatever while you can use your main legions to take the cities. Basically use these auxilia legions for defensive work, and your named legions for attacking work. This means that your main legions will take fewer casulties, and the auxilia are expendable really as they are cheap and can be replaced in most places

[MarcusTullius]

Hold the line and wait for them to come to you. Pilum throws do an amazing amount of damage. Then use your second line to plug any gaps and wheel your cavarly round to finish them off

[Captain Jin]

Im playing on medium campaign and hard battle. I can handle them in battle well enough. I consider myself quite the tactical monster when it comes to fighting. When fighting the Macedonian hordes in the past whether it was RS or RTR I always went with a scorched Earth policy. Sweep in really fast and destroy everything then decimate their armies and hope their resources are low enough not to be able to retrain as many. Its a lengthy process but sounds like that's what I'll have to do. Ill take your advice as well and post some auxilia legions in the Alps while my legions go and tear up the Gauls.

I must say, they're going to pay dearly. They killed my citizens in massilia and for that Ill have to eradicate their entire population...

[MarcusTullius]

Im playing on medium campaign and hard battle. I can handle them in battle well enough. I consider myself quite the tactical monster when it comes to fighting. When fighting the Macedonian hordes in the past whether it was RS or RTR I always went with a scorched Earth policy. Sweep in really fast and destroy everything then decimate their armies and hope their resources are low enough not to be able to retrain as many. Its a lengthy process but sounds like that's what I'll have to do. Ill take your advice as well and post some auxilia legions in the Alps while my legions go and tear up the Gauls.

I must say, they're going to pay dearly. They killed my citizens in massilia and for that Ill have to eradicate their entire population...

Try using phase line tactics, its what i did to beat them and it worked a treat

Check the map for defendable areas and mark them as phase lines. Then, have your legions line up against them across the first phase line. Move towards the second and setup a defensive perimeter there whilst eradicating any stacks between those two lines.

Rinse and repeat!

[Taelok]

My advice would be the same as Marcus. Hold the line in the Alps, send your legions via the sea into undefended territory. Target their cities (helps if you bring onagers with you) and take as many as you can, as quickly as you can. You'll be amazed how much damage they will do before the Gauls can redirect their attacks.

If you're playing 0-turn recuitment I suggest you recruit more legions. You should certainly be able to afford them. I have a similar campaign going as the Romans and I have 6-7 named legions running around.

Good luck!

[rory o'kane]

precisely. strike at massilia, or, if you're feeling really daring, send ships around spain and attack western/northern France. that'll really piss them off!

[Gaius Flavius Belisarius]

I still think it'd be a decent idea to take Sicily if you can manage it. That way you'll have a decent resource base relatively far from the Gauls, and if all else fails, a place to defend from in a last ditch effort.

[rory o'kane]

I still think it'd be a decent idea to take Sicily if you can manage it. That way you'll have a decent resource base relatively far from the Gauls, and if all else fails, a place to defend from in a last ditch effort.

i agree, it's actually worthwhile - the income you get from the island (especially with the trade-hub that is Syracuse) is quite decent.
and the scorched earth thing - i only use that if there's a SERIOUSLY LARGE empire (like the Grey Monster when it's taken over the east), but other than that, in, exterminate, demolish the Gauls' religious sites (a rather roman thing to do, i think), and then rack the taxes up to maximum, then pull the troops out. works for me!

[Gaius Flavius Belisarius]

i agree, it's actually worthwhile - the income you get from the island (especially with the trade-hub that is Syracuse) is quite decent.
and the scorched earth thing - i only use that if there's a SERIOUSLY LARGE empire (like the Grey Monster when it's taken over the east), but other than that, in, exterminate, demolish the Gauls' religious sites (a rather roman thing to do, i think), and then rack the taxes up to maximum, then pull the troops out. works for me!

Well, if you're going to do that to their cities, you may as well just demolish everything in them to make them worthless to the Gauls before you pull out. Although that will make rebuilding the city rather difficult when you do actually take it.

Long story short take Sicily. The agriculture from there generates huge amounts of wealth, and like I said, it's easily defended.

Whenever I start a new campaign as Rome I take all the islands in the Mediterranean ASAP. They are mostly all decent trading ports, and they give you a means to strike out at Greece (from Crete), Anatolia (from Rhodes), Iberia(from the Balearic Islands), etc.

[rory o'kane]

Well, if you're going to do that to their cities, you may as well just demolish everything in them to make them worthless to the Gauls before you pull out. Although that will make rebuilding the city rather difficult when you do actually take it.

Long story short take Sicily. The agriculture from there generates huge amounts of wealth, and like I said, it's easily defended.

Whenever I start a new campaign as Rome I take all the islands in the Mediterranean ASAP. They are mostly all decent trading ports, and they give you a means to strike out at Greece (from Crete), Anatolia (from Rhodes), Iberia(from the Balearic Islands), etc.

Hmm, i suppose, i just tend to reserve that for emergencies. and taking the mediterranean islands is always a good - 'cept for the fact that you piss off quite a few factions that way! what i used to do when i played RTR Gold was to get a couple of legions on ships, and sail them all the way up to the bosporan peninsula (controlled by rebels in RTR), and establish a Roman enclave there. it was actually worth the effort, because if i got into a war with macedon, i could always raid them from my black sea base. that won't really be easy in RS 2.0, given that the Free Greeks will own the place, but still, for those more ambitious Roman players (who don't give a damn about historical expansion) it's an option!

[GreatOne]

Phew, I hate using "Scorched Earth" tactic, it leaves settlements in stone age.Actually I never use it, because I feel like I'm cheating.

Regarding your campaign, I'd advise you build a lot of forts at chokepoints, this slows down invasions quite much, and you will have more time to consolidate your forces.As Apolinaris said, concentrate on defense, and build couple offensive armies with which you will conquer their cities.

Invading northern France, will probably take a lot of time, so invasion of Sicily might be a bit better option.It will provide with necessary income, and will secure your southern borders.Epeiros will be your main problem in the south IF they send sea invasions.

When you conquer Sicily, advance in Greece, It has a lot of valuable mines that will aid your cause in the north.By the time you are finished with Epeiros, Gaul attacks will possibly decrease due to massive armies they sent to disaster.

Try to get German alliance, and possibly an attack faction contract.It will greatly exaust the gauls that will only attack you once a couple of turns.

Since you are playing Medium campaign, Gaul will possibly run out of money sooner or later...

[Captain Jin]

Well Normally I always take all the Islands in the Western Mediterranean before early on but this time I ended up getting into it with Gaul pretty heavy before hand. Right now there's two big stacks of Carthagininian troops and three stacks of Syracusean troops fighting over Caralis. So I was waiting for Carthage to wear those three stacks down before I went into Syracuse cause I didn't want them to come back and give me trouble. Sicily would be pretty easy to take right now as most of them are fighting in Caralis.