How to defeat roman armies as Iberia?

[Grimbold]

So im trying an Iberian campaign once again and choose to head north into gaul instead of Carthage lands, like i've tried before.

Rome being rome , always tends to expand northwest into Gaul aswell. That said they've attacked me.

So my question to you is how do i defeat Roman armies as Iberia? Romans are always a pain to deal with, since seem to get full stacks with good experience fast.

My armies are still made of early units, like regular spearmen, archers , scutarii and loads, and i mean LOADS of cavaraly...i must have 10units of cavarly. The problem with this is, obviously, Iberian infantry wont match Roman infantry and might rout faster than expected.

So, to anyone who has played an Iberian campaign and faced the roman threat, what strategy do you chose?

Reckon i should make my infantry hold theirs long enough for my cavarly horde to go behind them and HOPEFULLY rout those damn freakin triarii (yes! i rly dislike triarii!!!)

[Diomede]

Use river crossings and other natural choke points then make them attack you. If you've taken Emporion then the hoplites are more than worth it.

Edit: Come to think of it, that's rather generic advice, but other than temple bonuses I can't really think of much. :/ Anyway, screenshots please.

[Grimbold]

Here it is my army, its 11 cavarly units btw



Btw, could someone please explain me how can the romans alrdy have units with that many silver chevrons, JUST from throwing out Epirus, Roman Rebels and conquering northern Italy? ( this is why toggl_fow is on)

I fear that my infantry wont hold long enough agaisnt that.

Btw bridge battles always suck for me. Even having a good computer, bridge battles tend to be slow.

Edit: I dont auto resolve battles with Iberia. That would be suicidal, specially agaisnt Rome. With Iberia, by auto resolving, one always tends to be defeated or to lose half their army. I know its a way to gain fast experience, but i rather do the battles myself and still keep most of my army intact ( not to mention the battle musics with Iberia are awesome! Gladiator rawr!)

[Grimbold]

Here's another SS.

This is what a victory agaisnt romans on open field usually looks like. If i didnt have those horsemen, the result would surely be different.

[Diomede]

I agree on bridge battles being slow... I finished my 3rd battle at the same bridge in a row and was close to beating my 5th Iberian stack when I CTDd as Greece - and that's on large, not huge! They can be damn useful though, especially as Gaul with chosen slingers. It seems you have heavy scutarii and lot's of cash at the moment, so just spam them. I play on medium so they can hold their ground with most things, not sure what settings you're on though.

[Grimbold]

Ill post a screenshot later on the afternoon, but i can only say this, my Iberian campaign is so far is going very good, thanks to the forced ceasefire with the romans, since we were prety much tied.

[Diomede]

You've tempting me back to my barbarian roots by doing so Grimbold, I've been trying to enjoy Greek campaigns... I get to 200BC as the Greeks then TSE gets their victory conditions. D:

[Unknown Soldier]

Gentlemen erm I mean Barbarians...
its simple - bealeric mercenary slingers - 2 units in front of your army = victory
ditch all of the spear men - get javelin throwing infantry
basically let the romans come to you on a hill - shoot them down
flank with your cavalry - charge them in the rear when they are engaged in melee with your foot troops
Always take out the roman general unit as early as possible.

Look at what bonuses your troops get - fight in the correct terrain

[Diomede]

Oh! Terrain bonuses. Forgot about them.

[Grimbold]

The Romans are no longer an issue, they've been conquered, all of italy and half of sicily is mine (except Syracuse).

But damn its annoying to keep an empire together with a barbarian faction, specialy when one moves into "civilised" lands. I cant tell you how many times the conquest of Italy was held back due to revolts in the same area. And once owned Carthage lands? Those are damn annoying always revolting!

But now, with the Roman fully conquered, im just trying to hold Italy together which was hard to do at the time when i was still doing it, since my economy as in the toilet, going negative and all, but now im having 6-10000 income per turn, so it aint too bad.

I've also gained another enemy, Macedon which basicly is the other super power. They keep trying to take Patavium but are being repelled. Now im taking back some veteran units back to gaul to retrain them and surprise macedon by attacking Greece and hopefully take Athens and those other southern cities. Btw Cydonia is rebel, sup with that? Isnt that like a nice source of income? Surprisingly Macedon hasnt taken it.

As for Carthage, i wont be conquering damn, it just takes way too many turns to pacify their cities and im alrdy at 205 or less.

[Diomede]

Carthage ftl. Helping Thrace kill of Macedonia is fun... if they're still alive.

[Boriak]

One thing to note: except Triarii no Roman unit has a bonus against cavalry. Engage the Hastati and Principes and then charge them with your cavarly. I believe Iberians have very good cavalry and Celtic Light cavalry has a very good charge bonus.

[Grimbold]

Thx for advice guys, but im at my 3rd attempt in Iberia, so i guess im a bit familiar with the campaign. And yes Iberian cavalry is awesome. I just love going behind the enemy line with around 500 cavalry and routing them all

[Diomede]

Real men use heavy scutarii and envelope then destroy.
Iberian cavalry is awesome though, especially longshields.

[Grimbold]

scutarii with decent experience are the shizzle!

Iberia with loads of javelin infantry is awesome

[Grimbold]

Think this is my 3rd attempt at Iberia, the most successfull one, because Romans for some reason, havent moved out of Italy, not even taking northern Italy, they're just standing there with loads of stacks on their border.



Carthage has been destroyed

Now the war goes on in the eastern regions of my empire, dealing with the Indie greeks and Thrace.

The economy is ok, getting 10.000 per turn or smth.

And yes... wow at TSE!

[Unknown Soldier]

Wow indie greeks took egypt!

I predict an ocean of silver flecked waves of death coming your way soon!

[Diomede]

I hate TSE.
No really. I hate them. Officially renaming this thread "how to beat TSE as Iberia?"

[Grimbold]

dudes... im not at war with TSE, and they are a phalanx based army ( usualy ), phalanxes agaisnt javelin infantry dont do well.