The Alemanni - Faction Guide

[Astaroth]

This is my latest faction guide! I hope you like it
Any feedback is very much appreciated.

The Alemanni

The Alemanni


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Introduction
I. An Overview
II. The First Step
III. Looking Ahead
IV. The Alemanni Army
V. Summary

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Alemanni expansion in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.


Introduction

After the Varus disaster in 9 AD, in which 3 Roman legions were destroyed, the Romans gave up on trying to conquer Germania. They pulled back to the river Rhine, Danube and the Limes. That way, defending against invading Germanic tribes became much easier. Eventually, the Limes was abandoned as well, and the Germanic tribe of the Alemanni settled in the area between it and the rivers Rhine and Danube. Over the following decades and centuries, the Alemanni kept raiding Roman territory, stealing lots of money and plundering cities. They even reached Italy but were eventually beaten by the Roman Emperor there. When many other Germanic tribes crossed the Rhine, the Alemanni followed and settled in the area of modern day Alsace, Switzerland and south-west Germany. In the end they were conquered and became part of the rising Frankish Empire during the Dark Age. However, that does not have to happen – change history and lead the proud, strong Alemanni to new peaks!



I. An Overview


Your starting region.

It seems you have made the wise choice of playing as the glorious Alemanni! Let's have a look at your kingdom and belongings at first. At the start of the game, your treasury contains 15,000 denarii and you own a single region, called Vicus Alemanni. Its garrison is rather tiny but you have a small field army as well. The city is being governed by your faction leader whereas the army is led by your faction heir. You control three agents, one of them being a spy, the other a diplomat and the last an assassin. As your single province is full of forest, it is not really fertile. Furthermore, it has no access to any ports and does not border the sea at all. To the south and west of your small but proud kingdom, there is the massive Western Roman Empire (red). Several of the Roman towns are very close to your single settlement, being just across the Rhine and Danube. The Romans will be your major and strongest enemies; you will need to conquer many of their regions if you want to achieve victory. North of your town there is a Frankish (blue) settlement. While the Franks own a single region only, just like you, they begin with more troops, their unit roster is better than yours and they can horde. They might become annoying but should not bother you too much. To the far north-east of your settlement, there are several other towns, owned by different Germanic tribes. They will most likely not affect you much, though.


II. The First Step

After mustering our armies and having a look at our little kingdom, we have to decide on our first moves. Obviously it is always important to have lots of money, therefore it would be advisable to gain trade rights of all neighboring Germanic factions. Whilst, use your spy to scout the surrounding area and possibly train your assassin by killing some rebel captains. Constantly build troops in your capital and possibly take Campus Quadi, a rebel settlement to the east of your region in order to increase your power base. Now you have to decide where to strike at first. Before that can be done, we have to carefully examine our closest neighbors and surrounding territories.


The Western Roman Empire (red) stretches alongside the Rhine and Danube to the south and west of your kingdom, from Spain to Gaul, from the Alps to Sicily. They field the typical Roman armies, including some strong, heavy Comitatenses units but mainly weaker, lightly armored Limitanei spearmen and Foederati units. However, their armies are not made up of the old legions anymore. Their lands are falling apart, riots are everywhere. Not too soon into the game, several of their regions will rebel to the Western Roman Rebels (green). On top of that, sooner or later several barbarian hordes will invade their lands. Therefore, they are rather weak and become weaker the longer the game lasts.


To the north of your kingdom, there is a single Frankish (blue) town. They have a rather limited army, just like you. Their army consists of axemen, swordsmen and powerful cavalry. In theory, they are an easy prey. However, they can horde – therefore I would strongly advise against attacking them early on. If they decide to attack you, possibly take out their armies and assassinate all of their family members. But don't take their city, having to face several horde stacks is simply not worth the small gain of conquering their single region.


When going east and north-east from your kingdom, you will reach several rather insignificant cities, owned by different Germanic tribes, such as the Burgundians and Lombardians.

In conclusion, it is pretty obvious that the Western Romans will be your first target and victim. Their cities are the richest and most profitable, expanding into the deep forests and vast plains of Germania and beyond is simply not worth it. However, before you are ready to actually face the Romans, I would suggest building up for a few turns. Use your starting troops to take Campus Quadi, the rebel settlement to the east of your starting region and constantly build archers elite and nightraiders plus maybe some cavalry in your capital. After waiting a few turns, you are ready to go! Rome will be weakened by several revolts and a severe lack of money, it should be an easy prey for your proud and strong warriors. Muster your armies and lay siege to the closest Roman cities, taking them one by one. I personally would suggest expanding into Gaul at first and taking the Roman towns north of the Alps. Gaul is rather fertile and wealthy. Furthermore, it is less defended than Italy and will not be contested by many hordes too soon. It's the perfect basis for any sort of future expansion.


III. Looking Ahead


Rome must fall if you wish to succeed!

After establishing a power base for your glorious kingdom in former Roman territory, you should pause for a moment and look about. What's going on in my empire? Which problems and enemies will I have to face? How are my neighbors behaving? Is anyone approaching our borders? Where should we expand next? After you have begun conquering Gaul, the Franks will most likely start to cause trouble. They will want to have a piece of the cake as well, so facing them is inevitable. Now, how do we deal with their annoying horde trait? One possibility would be to simply never take their region and just constantly siege it, then break off the siege right before the city would fall. Another option is waiting until you are strong enough, then risking it and letting them horde by taking their town. Once your army is big enough, their three to four horde stacks will hardly be a big problem anymore. Last but not least you could of course also assassinate all of their family members, turning their town rebel and removing them from the game without having to face the horde. That seems to be the easiest solution. You have to keep in mind that taking out many family members which will most likely spawn is not that easy. Especially faction heirs and leaders are very hard to kill with assassins.
Aside from the Franks and the remnants of the Roman Empire, the hordes could become a massive threat to your kingdom as well. Once you invade Italy in order to take the rich cities there, you will most likely encounter dozens of stacks from different horde factions. That's rather dangerous for the Alemanni especially, since their unit roster is not really suited for fighting masses of horse archers and cavalry in general. Many of your units are half-naked, you do not have access to strong, heavily armored spearmen to deal with cavalry and axemen do not have shields to protect themselves against arrows. Furthermore, you do not have any horse archers yourself. Your only chance is massing plenty of elite archer units, along with heavy axemen and possibly some heavy cavalry of your own, killing the enemy horse archers at range and protecting your own archers from his troops. It will however still be a difficult task to deal with such an amount of enemies. Another possibility would be to quickly blitz into Italy, taking several cities there before the hordes arrive. Defending cities is much easier and horse archers are bad at sieging. Put plenty of archers and some heavy infantry on the walls and victory will be near.


IV. The Alemanni Army


Standard flanking moves, employed at Marathon by the Greeks.

The Alemanni might be barbarian Germanns but they still know how to fight! Their armies consist of a variety of units, ranging from strong archers to elite horsemen. Not only do they field berserker troops, they also have access to wardogs and much other units! This colorful mixture can pose a serious threat to any opposing force as long as it is lead by a capable general. However, keep in mind that the Alemanni do not have any incredibly overpowered tank soldiers. You cannot just mass single unit armies and expect to win. Alemanni warriors are not Roman legionaries, you must never forget that. Use your troops wisely and how they are meant to be used. Most of them are rather specialized and should be used according to that.
There are different possible tactics which you can employ. The most obvious one is of course the typical 'barbarian' strategy: just take your strongest guys (berserkers), put them in the front row and mass charge at the enemy's center, break it and possibly use smart cavalry charges to increase the chaos and damage. Another one would be to form a weak, long line of spearmen with large groups of axemen and other strong infantry units along with cavalry on the flanks. Wait until he attacks and breaks your center, then move in your wings for the kill. Crush him from both sides and use the cavalry for extra punch. There are of course dozens of other possible strategies as well, such as using cavalry mainly, crushing his wings and killing his general, then routing his center by constant charges. Utilizing archers van be highly useful as well – after all, the Alemanni have acces to elite archers. Use fire arrows to make your enemies panic and move your ranged troops to the flanks or rear of them to increase the amount of damage. What I personally find highly useful is to begin with normal ammunition, then switch to fire arrows and charge with your cavalry right afterwards. That will scare his troops even more, causing many of them to rout immediately. Wardogs can create even more fear and are another excellent addition to your arsenal. They can be used to break up formations or to destroy light infantry. In conclusion, there are obviously plenty of different possibilities, many of them being very viable as long as the general commanding the army is a capable man. Always keep in mind just because your people are considered 'barbarians' by the Romans that does not mean that you should refrain from utilizing smart tactics!


Here you can see an early Alemanni army consisting of a main body of weak spearmen. They are supposed to form the center, the main battleline. Whilst, the nightraiders and cavalry are positioned on the flanks. The archers will pepper the enemy with arrows from behind your army. Once the two armies clash, flank his army with your cavalry and nightraiders and rout it. Concentrating your units can help a lot with this – don't spread your cavalry all over the place but rather concentrate it on one spot. Use their speed wisely – avoid heavy spearmen and take out generals, light infantry and make wavering troops rout.


This is a late Alemanni army. The weak spearmen got removed, instead we have several strong heavy infantry units now, such as axemen and berserkers. The weaker archers got exchanged for elite ones. Furthermore, the amount of ranged units got increased as those missile troops are an important addition to any Alemanni army. In addition, wardogs were added, as they can be quite helpful for breaking up enemy formations and spreading fear amongst their ranks.
Finally, the weaker, light Barbarian Cavalry got switched for much stronger heavy cavalry. Those horsemen can take on most infantry units and will pose a serious threat to anything on the battlefield, aside from heavy spearmen of course.


V. Summary

In conclusion, the Alemanni are certainly a fun faction to play. They have an interesting starting position, being right next to the powerful Western Roman Empire. That opens up many possibilities. Furthermore, they have a unique and diverse unit roster, ranging from wardogs to berserker soldiers. While they might be called 'barbarians' by the more civilized peoples, they can still develop and utilize smart and inventive tactics. You will only be truly successful if you use every possible weapon in your arsenal of strategies!
Advance quickly and with all your force if you want to turn your tiny kingdom into a mighty empire. Blood and steel, pride and honor and maybe a hint of luck are necessary if you wish to succeed! Now go and lead the Alemanni to new victories, to new glory, to unknown power!


A Germanic warrior.

[Njord]

Very nice.

An alternative strategy could be to hoard on your first turn and take a roman province of importance, thus gaining a better economy and a better built city with more able fortifications.

Sacking the cities you deem worthless along the way will aid in a monster economy for your initial army.

[Astaroth]

It would work if it wasn't for the fact that the Alemanni cannot horde, unfortunately.

That's one of the reasons why the AI Alemanni often get wiped out by the Romans early on.