My Alemanni Campaign

[AltarisGreyhawke]

First of all, I've got to say I've been having a blast with BI. I really liked RTW when it first came out, but it just wasn't much of a challenge. With BI, though, I'm always on my feet. Played through a long, difficult WRE campaign (VH/H), and only barely made it through that one due to some lucky breaks... the arrival of the hordes wiped out much of my European presence, and only the efforts of a few brave generals kept me in the game.

So, I started the Alemmani last weekend to give them a try. First time through, I focused on the northern European area, and started off fairly well. However, when the hordes started arriving, the Franks and the Saxons took an opportunity to go to war on me, and being faced with threats from Franks, Saxons, Goths, Vandals, AND Samaratians on five different fronts was just too much for my blooming little empire. After a few desperate battles, my armies finally fell.

I had such a good time with the Alemmani (great units, and lots of chances for night battles) that I decided to give it another go. This time has been infinitely more interesting... if a bit easy.

The key to my campaign has been to focus on diplomacy and subterfuge agents, while giving the WRE a run for its money. The WRE is a daunting foe for the Alemanni, so I decided to focus solely on them. I sent my diplomats east and north, making alliances with every faction in my path, and gaining some good trade agreements as well. I sent my faction heir (Horotar) with most of my army southwards to strike at the WRE's big cities right from the get-go, in the hopes of crippling them once and for all. It wasn't a big strike force, but it was enough to handle the relatively small garrisons in those cities. Meanwhile, the WRE thought to teach me a lesson, and started moving massive armies from western Europe towards my army. It looked bleak, and I knew I wouldn't last against those large armies, so I quickly assembled an army of spearman, archers, and mercs with my faction leader (Suomar), and engaged the massive WRE army at the bridge west of Vicus Alemmani. I was outnumbered 5 to 1, but knew the bridge was my best hope for stopping them.

After a long battle, I managed to slay the Roman general and route the WRE's army with a mere 50 men remaining. That gave my faction heir time to start looting his way to Rome. Within the next ten turns, I had butchered every last Roman city to the south, and effectively crippled the WRE, my greatest threat.

With my armies tied up in the south, though, I knew I had to keep an eye on the north, particularly the Franks and the Saxons. The Franks end up being a HUGE problem if left to grow (esp. if they horde later in the game), but I didn't have the military force to deal with them, as they had grown strong while I was busy sacking Rome. To deal with the problem, I kept my alliance steady with them, but began sending large number of assassins into their lands. Silly French... they left their unsuspecting, trusting family members to exposed to danger, and my lethal band of assassins managed to assassinate all their family members, save for the faction leader (he had grown so paranoid from repeated assassination attempts that even my best assassin only had a 2% chance to kill him), but he was reaching 65 years, and I knew old age would finish the job for me. Sure enough, several years later, the Frank's faction leader passed away, leaving his ruined kingdom in rebellion, ripe for the plucking by my armies.

Meanwhile, my faction heir and his army proceeded to exterminate every Roman they could find in western Europe. You get nice little titles from butchering every city you sack... so far my kingdom has been run by Suomar the Exterminator, and Horotar the Butcher. Both have developed some rather mean and nasty traits... but such is the price of conquest, I suppose. The only strong presence the WRE still has is in Spain, where I just don't have the resources available yet to wipe them out... but it will come. Luckily for me, the WRE also still has all their provinces between Vicus Alemmani and the hordes as well, so their remaining eastern forces are taking the brunt of the horde invasions, while I have yet to fight a single horde as of 385 AD.

It's been a great campaign. After my first go with the Alemmani, I knew I had to diversify from my usual calvary-charge tactics, and so I have. With a nice mixture of battle tactics, diplomacy, subterfuge and assassination, and endless looting, I've taken what I initially thought to be an impossible campaign, and pulled it out. It is getting to be a bit easy now, and I don't think there's any chance to lose at this point, but I've had a great deal of fun with this campaign.

For any of you who haven't tried the Alemmani, I highly recommend them. They start in a bad position due to the number of large enemies surrounding them, and really make you think about what you're doing. Their units are some of the most interesting in the game, though, and a lot of fun (berserkers, cheap spearmen with schiltrom formation, any of the 'chosen' units, etc). You won't make it through this campaign without diversifying your tactics, which I also found a nice change of pace.

Anyway, sorry for the long post!

[mybigfatgreekjihad]

I too am playing as the Alemanii. great units, poor economy. you must rely heavily on night battles. I like the sense of satisfaction you get from pummeling armies that are 2-3 times larger than yours. best faction in BI, imho.anyone know why the Alemanii cannot horde? the Brugandi(copy of Alemanii with crappier colors) can horde, and so can the Franks(also great units).

[AltarisGreyhawke]

Yeah, the Alemmani economy is a bit tough to get used to. My first go through, I spent that initial 15,000 way too quickly, and then couldn't get any decent income generating a few turns in. With the Alemmani, it's important to keep the big picture in mind from the very beginning, as those first few turns make a big difference in how the rest of the campaign goes.

Even now, I still don't have a great economy... most of my money comes from exterminating and looting large WRE cities. In one turn around 378 AD, I sacked three WRE cities in the same turn, and managed to loot out ~50,000 denarii from them. Turned around and spent 22,000 bribing a Frank general to help manage my northern settlements.

Good fun!

[Flotch]

Franks, burgundii moved from their original settlement. But the Allemani stayed in Germany. (History)

[Niccolo Machiavelli]

I played my first BI campaign as Allemanni and decided to go south - things were a bit to easy for my taste as I took Rome quite quickly, which might have been a reason for my economy not going too bad - things got interesting again when some hordes arrived simultaenously though.
Playing them was lots of fun and I've never had so many nightbattles with any other faction...

[AltarisGreyhawke]

Yeah, I'll agree that the Alemmani are a lot easier if you go south towards Rome from the very beginning. I think any other direction would turn disasterous in the long run, though, as eventually you'll make the Franks and the Saxons mad infringing upon their territory, and be right in the path of the barbarian hordes as they arrive.

[Sitarus Originalus PM-30+]

I find Allemani almost too easy to play... sure the start is hard but after 5 years with proper care of your economics you can easily destroy Franks and Saxons and also most of the WRE. The fact is you have to invest money into infrastructure and in the buildings which will eventually bring income and not so much in the army... doing this i managed to concor all france, northern Itally and most of the German teritories and i have spent 40-50 years or so... 1 more city to win a game (Rome).
I also tried to play as franks but that wasn't really a chalange for me...(thou i play WH/WH i must say game should be harder... but have also noticed that AI is getting smarter each new TW series game :original: ) I better try WRE becos i heared they are more complex and it is harder... we will see...
I am also surprised nobody likes playing Allemani or at least only few people said so..

Thanks for reading my oppinion and i am apologizing for all mistakes i did wile writing it.

[swabian]

i'm honored that my ancestors are so popular here

with the allemanni it's allways the best way to sack your path through the northen wre cities. it's fun and action for the whole family and it solves the economical problem by the good old ways. mhhehe. just use the rivers and mountains as natural barriers by putting some forts on the right places. this will hold back the remaining romans in the north till you've spent your money by subjugating the pitiful saxons next (they can't horde). the franks are no prblem later.

[Sitarus Originalus PM-30+]

Ok... so now i am in year 405 AD and have concored also spain now and whole Itally and sicily and corsika (or how to spell that island western from Itally) and Cartage ... i have won the game in 401 i think... well allenani are too easy... i have also 70.000 di ... and my economy stands perfect i have about 14.000 di profit per turn.. all i want to say is that i like allemani as faction, but they are too easy... i like chalanges so i have to strat playing WRE now (since i heared they are hard).
Try not to pay attenction to my writing mistakes again =)

have a nice day all!

[Shadows]

Yea the Alemanni are definatly a great faction to play. They have a great mix of soldiers but i found the economy a little harder then some of the other factions. But that didn't count for much in the end as my Burgundian Lancers could just slaughter armies and i could the nexterminate cities for quick cash. Very effective system once your troops get some chevrons and have a decent general. Overall the Alemanni are one of my favorite factios in both BI and Rome.

[cmorr66]

I've been playing as the Allemani recently and I have to say it's my favourite faction.
I have the Saxons and the Western Roman Empire as Protectorates (gained around 3mil of Tribute from them), wiped out the Celts and the Franks and am allied with around 6-7 other factions and have trade agreements with the others (except the Ostrogoths). I only have Rome left to capture but I'm leaving off capturing that (the Goths have it atm) because I'm having too much fun.

Admittedly I've been very lucky, mainly thanks to the Franks being useless. They besieged one of my territories with 2 armies (about 1300 men, they got Horded) against the garrison of 500. I thought "B*gger it" and sallied out, and binned them. Then I built an army of 97 Berserkers and began assaulting their armies. The tactics really won it as opposed to the actual army. The tactic was to assualt the army as it went through wooded terrain, hide in the woods, wait for the to rush, the Berserkers jump out and I hit Warcry. First fight was 97 vs 698. The Berserkers killed 698 and lost 21. Next was two armies which numbered 1374 against the 76 Berserkers - 907 kills to 44 deaths. They won two more before they got decimated (in open ground), 35 vs 286 and 32 vs 85.

The only reason this worked is because the Frankish Generals kept being in the centre of the front lines, so they were the first unit the Berserkers hit and killed, causing the surrounding troops to flee due to the loss of the Generals, high casualties and intimidating enemies appearing out of nowhere. The vast majority of the casualties (about 400 of the 698 and about 700 of the 907) where actually killed whilst fleeing. In a straight up battle the Berserkers would have got binned. That and the AI for the Franks seems to be a bit....retarded...