The Defender of Iuvavum

[Argeus the Paladin]

You read me right, the 10-star general who loathes Romans, Greeks AND Carthaginians called Satras (Or whatever it was) who roams the area around Iuvavum with a full stack of silver-chevroned Gallic crack troops and utterly tears apart everything that stumbles into him, up to and including a full stack of Polybian Triarii.

Are there any roaming defender liek him elsewhere around the map? If there are, have any interesting encounters with them that ends with your (the more elite the better) troops fleeing in terror?

[Faramir D'Andunie]

Where is that again? There are certain parts in the map scripted to have extremely powerfull (and respawning) rebels to prevent expansion in certain paths.

[Argeus the Paladin]

The EB name is Iuvavoetta, north-northeast of Patavium. Annoying forest, really.

[Knonfoda]

The EB name is Iuvavoetta, north-northeast of Patavium. Annoying forest, really.

Pretty much all of northern europe is populated by said enemies and roving stacks. Lovely really.

[Dargaron]

Oh yes, there are many more where he came from.
In my Sweboz campaign, I had three successive attacks on the army outside Eburonum, the first time with two full stacks, one of mid-level Germanic troops, the other, who got distracted by some bandits, of Balts. That ended...predictably.

The second time, I brought two Germanic stacks (With those utterly useless club infantry for flankers! "shudder") and one stack of Balts. one germanic stack was annhialated, by the celtic Neitos mostly, and the Baltic stack finished him off. But that left only 1.25 stacks vs the full garrison of Eburonum, and that was unacceptable, so I pulled out.

The third and final time, I had to bring in two stacks of Germans that would set any historical roleplayer to tears: 6 Germanic Pikemen, 6 Germanic Swordsmen, 4 Baltic Frontiersmen and 1 family member per stack. (Very unhistorical, but sufficiently overkilly.) That finished it.

There is one more to the east of Eburonum, defending the celtic city in the really odd, teardrop-shaped province. Didn't bother with that one because then the Red Tide arrived from the south.

Lets just say I am very happy that the Boii are going to be a faction in EB 2, so that the horror of respawning Boii stacks is banished forever.

(Edit: Ww, people posted fast)

[athanaric]

The second time, I brought two Germanic stacks (With those utterly useless club infantry for flankers! "shudder") and one stack of Balts.

They are not useless, you're using them wrong. Other players like Duguntz are big fans of them.
Actually, it's a good idea to field them against Neitos, seeing as they carry AP clubs.

There is one more to the east of Eburonum, defending the celtic city in the really odd, teardrop-shaped province. Didn't bother with that one because then the Red Tide arrived from the south.

You can overrun them in the 260ies, before the defender stack spawns for the first time (and let out an insane laugh upon success, like I did when I first pulled that off). Then you'll have a useful province where you can recruit a deadly AP unit which will be of great use against the other defender stacks:


In fact, you could try fielding them and supporting them with other AP troops. They have the "command" ability and will boost the morale of your clubmen.

Lets just say I am very happy that the Boii are going to be a faction in EB 2, so that the horror of respawning Boii stacks is banished forever.

I second that.

[Argeus the Paladin]

^^ Looks like I'm lucky to finish him off together with the sallying-out garrison of Eburacum with a garrison with THREE full stacks of TRIarii (Capitalized for emphasis).

[torongill]

Why do you use triarii? principes are much better against infantry, with the penalty against infantry that spears bestow... There's a belt of these full stacks going from Italy in a northeastern direction. They were placed there to stop ze germans from going east and the steppe faction from pushing on to western Europe.
What I do in my Romani campaign is assemble the army, veterans from the wars with the Arverni and Aedui, make sure I have at least 2 units of slingers/archers and choose my battlefield carefully. I take the high ground and wait. They come in a long line. I have my shooters barrage them as they approach and usually decimate them(the units have a lot of exp, but still lack armor, so the rain of slings and arrows really thins them out), then my principes and hastati throw their pila and charge. At the same time I charge with my cavalry, outflank them and start the charge-retreat-charge routine until the engaged unit is routed, then do the same for the next one. Rinse and repeat until you see their heels hitting their аsses. Put some special attention to the enemy general, since once he's dead, the enemy army has a significant chance of disappearing instead of retreating.

[Argeus the Paladin]

As said, I'm not really a pro in EB. My mid-late game strategy encompasses mass-producing the best possible unit and let auto-resolve decide the rest.

That explains why I never play more tham M/M...

[torongill]

My mid-late game strategy encompasses mass-producing the best possible unit and let auto-resolve decide the rest.

This is blasphemy! This is madness!

[Knonfoda]

Hmmn, im playing as Rome at the moment, and I saw that the the Germans were really managing to tear those defenders to shreds, so I did a add_money *roughly about* 2,000,000 slave, which gave all that money to the slaves.

The end result was that every rebel city in the game now had massive garrisons and that drastically slowed down AI expansion, making the game a lot more interesting.

I am going to wait till I get the marian reforms and artillery and move on those cities to the north with catapults, ballistae, slingers, archers, hordes of mounted archers, etc.

I have used the *mounted archer horde strategy* to good effect with the Seleukids after I captured Kallatis, and have spammed at least 2 stacks of scythian and sarmatian mounted archers. Go up to a Seleukid stack, unleash all the volleys, and if possible do a simultaneous charge from all sides, if not, I retreat, ''lose'' the battle, then do it again untill the stack is completely destroyed.

I am going to employ the same strategy with those annoying rebel stacks when I move north.

[Argeus the Paladin]

Hmmn, im playing as Rome at the moment, and I saw that the the Germans were really managing to tear those defenders to shreds, so I did a add_money *roughly about* 2,000,000 slave, which gave all that money to the slaves.

The end result was that every rebel city in the game now had massive garrisons and that drastically slowed down AI expansion, making the game a lot more interesting.

Now THAT is insane. Normally garrisoned Eleu stacks (Full stacks? FOUR Gaesatae? Who fund these troops anyways, seriously?) are already way too much for the AI to handle. Or is it because I'm playing M/M?

[Knonfoda]

Now THAT is insane. Normally garrisoned Eleu stacks (Full stacks? FOUR Gaesatae? Who fund these troops anyways, seriously?) are already way too much for the AI to handle. Or is it because I'm playing M/M?

Well I play VH/M so the AI spams stacks like no tomorrow, so I gave the rebels a 'boost'. Needless to say the Germans are now fighting a fruitless war against their eastern neighbours, and have been for the past 90 years, but show no sign of quitting yet.

[Argeus the Paladin]

LOL indeed. But the fact remains that EB thick jungles i.e. around Gallic/Germanic settlements makes it impossible to even see your troops, let alone commanding.

[Faramir D'Andunie]

Well it was hard to fight battles in such places in any case. Sometimes it really pays off to zoom in and be certain of where you plan to have that fight.

[nvm]

Ahem, but Romans MUST take luvavum to win!

I acciedantly stumbled into him with an inexperienced family member. Even camping on the hill and exhausting all their troops didn`t help. That`s how badass that defender is.

[XSamatan]

Try to lure him with one army away from the city, then spam the city with spies and try to attack it with another army in the same turn (there is a chance that your spies can open the gates). Those scripted defenders are there to lead the AI expansion into a little more historical way.

XSamatan

[Drewski]

With a good diplomat, you can buy that stack AND the city for about 500,000 or so mnai....he makes a fun general to have as your own

[Knonfoda]

I managed to Capture Iavavum yesterday with only two stacks and a lovely 35 casualties.

Kept sending depleted single cavalry units as scouts to random tiles to see if I could find a decent place to fight in (seeing as everywhere I went was completely forested and there was no way I was fighting in that).

Actually found that there is a mountain pass, with a lovely vantage point in one tile, as in, there is a valley and then a massive hill you can position your army in. Took two stacks there, one with my best legion (silver chevrons) the other a full stack of mounted archers. As predicted, the enemy uber stack attacked me. I put both stacks under my own control. While the legion proper waited to enter battle, my mounted archer horde destroyed about 64% of the enemy stack with most losses incurred by friendly fire and such. When they ran out of arrow, I told them to retreat, and my other stack came in. Oh yes, did I mention I had ELEPHANTS aswell? Got one from Sala specifically for this. My line charged and surrounded what was left of the enemy, my elephants attacked the general who died immediately in the charge, and the whole army routed at once. Beautiful.

Repeated the tactic on the city itself. Used the archers to deplete the ranks of defenders, then attacked with heavy infantry. Classic.

Some screenies I took:

The pass:




My Mounted Archer Army (not they are quite experienced)




Satras and his battle hardened army:




The battlefield:




2 minutes into the battle:


Sadly this battle crashed just after I took that screenshot. I would recommend to people who want to do the same as I did here to not fight any other battles in this round (during the AI turn), as usually it causes a the second battle you fight, especially a large one, to crash. Secondly, make sure its not raining or foggy if you are using archers, I noticed I kill a lot more of the enemy if its clear and not raining. Thirdly, never let the AI command your second stack. They usually simply charge the cavalry and the general into the enemy, killing them in the process.

[nvm]

I find skirmirshers particularly useful aganist barbarians. 4 stacks of Rorarii and he loses 18% of his soldiers while i only use 4%. Perpharps if i brought 16 rorarii and 4 pedites extraordinarii he`d die