Leading barbarians

[Delenidas di Warlord]

This is actually quite embarrassing to admit, but whenever I pick a barbarian faction I manage to start well but as the other factions get more advanced I can never gain any more territory! Any advice?

[Arbitrary Crusader]

Depend on which factions you're playing.

[Dave Strider]

Advice for Gauls:
launch an all out Blitzkrieg on the faction that you think is weakest. I did that in a Gallic Campaign of mine against the Julii and I ended up taking over all of Italy. But, to be safe, make alliances with the other bordering factions to keep your flanks safe. You can even just get Trade and Map info and give them some money.

Advice for Germans:
You may not need much advanced tech for these guys. They can kick the out of other Barbarian factions, even Rome, because their starting troops(Spear Warbands and Axemen) need little in the ways of the Tech Tree. Spear Warbands make mincemeat out of Normal Warbands and Hastati/Principies. They can last a long time.

Advice for Britons:

Stay confined to Britannia for as long as possible. Build up your economy, train alot of Swordsmen and Light Chariots, then go Normandy on those damn Gauls/Germans. Or if you wait a long time, the Romans.

[Arbitrary Crusader]

When the roman go their phase,meaning legionnaire army you're even more screw,so kill them off quick.

[Lord Thesaurian]

Advice for Gauls:
launch an all out Blitzkrieg on the faction that you think is weakest. I did that in a Gallic Campaign of mine against the Julii and I ended up taking over all of Italy. But, to be safe, make alliances with the other bordering factions to keep your flanks safe. You can even just get Trade and Map info and give them some money.

Advice for Germans:
You may not need much advanced tech for these guys. They can kick the out of other Barbarian factions, even Rome, because their starting troops(Spear Warbands and Axemen) need little in the ways of the Tech Tree. Spear Warbands make mincemeat out of Normal Warbands and Hastati/Principies. They can last a long time.

Advice for Britons:

Stay confined to Britannia for as long as possible. Build up your economy, train alot of Swordsmen and Light Chariots, then go Normandy on those damn Gauls/Germans. Or if you wait a long time, the Romans.

I'd agree; except as britannia I always drain and abandon amarobriva with peasants and take them back to britain to disperse in my 2 northern towns, then take the irish settlement (forget the name) to boost my economy. U usually start with a nice cash reserve so I always fully upgrade londinium, train up 3-4 huge, fully upgraded armies, ally with germania and julii, and hop down the gallic coast with my fleet (to avoid pirates) to spain.

now u can start in spain and easily maintain a 1-front war, whereas trying to launch invasions from samarobriva would be much more complicated. Blitzing spain with my glorious armies, i use the money gained from this conquest to train up 2 more armies in britain and invade gaul from the north and west. once u get into gaul the jullii usually attack, and well, come to think of it i should write a guide now, but u get the point

[Final Frontier]

Spear warband is indeed brutal, just for that phalanx formation. Combine it with cavalry flanking, oh boy.

[Dave Strider]

I know, look at what Attila16 did on a German campaign he had on Youtube.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

There are lots of interesting tactics for barbarians. You just need to learn how to utilise their best units in conjunction with their weaker ones e.g. Forester warbands and Gallic heavy cavalry supplementing the weaker troops, and Beserkers and Gothic cavalry combined with Spear warbands. These can make fearsome armies even against civilised factions.

[|Sith| Max]

Well, If you don"t kill the Romans in time before the Marian reforms you still have Gothic cavalry, Chosen axemen and berserker's to help you out. As Germania that is...
Also an army of twenty war dogs is a great rebel killer since the bastards regenerate dogs after the battle and don't need retraining. Never failed for me on VH/VH.

[nvm]

I finished my Gaul campaign about 230 or 250 BC (the long one!)

You take 2 northern Briton cities at start and pray to gods they offer ceasefire. After that they stay confined to their lands and never attack (at least they did not when i was playing)Or you claim them and keep their fleet nonexistent.

Rushing Rome is essential as well. They will attack anyway and if they don`t - then you need to attack them.

When you claim Italy(i "saved SPQR forces for later". For some reason there was only a halfstack and one general. The reason was discovered pretty quickly - the other halfstack was in ambush)you get chosen swordsmen pretty fast. Then you just spam them, mixing with a forester warband or two and a pair of noble cavalryman
Attack the Germans! I don`t know, what horrible things the AI does to their cities, but almost all were on the 1st stage of development(village)Aganist spear warband, you place bait and a good stack near it, then you move bait away and flank them with damage dealer. They will turn, and you attack their back with bait. Attack screeching women with your general. Do not forget to warcry.
It`s not that hard to win as Gauls. It was harder to manage generals and cities. So as i was taking more and more settlements the campaign kept exhausting me more and more as well until i instead of fighting out the 50th city because it was sieged by a captain and bought the last city from Scythia.

[d0gz1lla]

While i played as gaul i was attacked by britannia, germania + i began fast offensive against juli. I crushed down juli, just so that their role would be taken by bruti, and crushed down britannia, couldnt keep up whit germans and bruti on 2 fronts i closed my self on the briton island to rebuild. did retake most of the western europe, but never got rome. Bruti were all over the place, germans made a ceasefire whit me, but to late in the game to slug it off till the end whit bruti, never had enough money to sustain constant attacks against bruti. I raned out on money whit gauls

as german it was more easy, i ended whit eliminating gauls, britons, and juli. Had to much money at the end too. Was fun, but its more interesting when you are struggling against the "opressor" hehe.