Strategy Advice Request.

[Hannibal Smith]

Hi hope that you can help me with a decision about how to proceed with my first EB campaign. I'm playing as the Romani difficultly M/M on the ALX.exe

I'm trying to expand in a sort of semi historical way, and thus far I have taken things slow building my economy (now earning about 30000 per turn) and slowly expanding.

Before I ask for your advice please alow me to set the scene. (and hope you read on)

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I currently have 4 Legions and a few support units being ferried back and forth to italy to be retained.

My Northern Italian Legion guards against the Gallic tribes and the Sweboz.

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My Illyrian Legion is currently guarding Dalminion from Epeiros who are mounting raids basically every turn. The Sweboz are now making moves against Segestica and I dont think that my Illyrian Legion can cope with both attacks at once.

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My Southern Italian Legion is currently serving in North Africa and as taken three cities from Carthage earning the commander the title Africanus.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My fourth fledgeling Legion is my the North African. They are not at full strength yet as I would like some Numidian Archers (which I believe I can train at Ippone) once this legion is at strength I will send my Southern Italian Legion back home (and I was thinking maybe on to Greece)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So it comes to my problem. The Sweboz...

They have been garining stength for a while now and have only recently been able to defeat the slave supper stacks taking the regions around the Alps. Well they are now turning their attentions on me.

They have attacked Mediolanum a number of times each time I have been able to see them off. However they are now making moves on Segestica also, and I dont think my Illyrian legion can handle both the Sweboz and Epeiros.

I think I have enough money to build another Legion but I'm in two minds as to what to do with it.

1) Use it to guard my Northern Illyrian border from the Sweboz

2) Use it to take the war to the Sweboz and attack their cities.

The problem is that I didnt really want to invade Germania until after the Marian reforms which are some time away. Plus by invading Germania I will extend my borders further inviting conflict with other factions which I'm not ready to take on yet. However, I kind of think that two legions guarding Illyria is a bit much. Ive tried asking for an alliance but it was refused even with a big cash gift attached (plus I dont believe alliance would last) I've also tried to take sweboz cities and gift them to my ally the averni, but the averni refuse the gift, time and time again. I dont want to use the forced dip script.

So any ideas on what I should do? Is there a third option that I havent thought of.

[athanaric]

Train a few more Kretan archers and use them as a garrison force in your northern cities, together with some Gaeroas and other locals. Kretans are costly for a garrison unit but you look like a good player and your income should be insane at the moment.
For a historical approach, a well as for reduction of cultural penalty in your empire, I'd recommend eating up the Mediterranean factions first. Unlike Carthies and Greeks, the Swêboz and Gauls can never out-tech you (they can't build huge cities), so you can wait with the northern conquests. Border raids and invasions are annoying, but you'll face them anywhere, not just in the North.

[Stigmata]

create buffer state between you and the sweboz, make the offer with a little bit of money, I think that 5000 mnai will be enough. That will give you a time to breath and focus you operations (as athanaric already said) in the mediterranean area.

[Flowerpunkt]

Build great walls & recruit archers = AI got no chance. I would use new "legion" as a fist against Getai to support Hellens. I would also consider quick campaign against Epeiros in order to cripple their armies. Fighting strong Greeks or Macedonians is a quite fun.

[Diomede]

Why don't you want to use force diplomacy?
I'm a few years behind you in my first EB campaign ever as the Romani... it's pretty difficult getting used to the 1HP system again, but otherwise, great mod so far.

[Knonfoda]

Having been playing as the Romani for a LONG time and also doing a 'historical' ish approach, I think there is a thing or two I can helo you with.

You need to install the Force Diplonacy mod if you want to make the game realistic or enjoyable. Its not cheating as long as you stick to basic rules like don't force factions to do anything they wouldn't so in a real life situation, eg if you are besieging their last city with a massive stack and they only have one unit, you can FORCE them to become your protectorate, something historically realistic but something the AI will neve accept.

Anyway, assuming you install force diplomacy, you should take on your enemies piecemeal as the Romans did. I would suggest finishing off the Epirotes to their last city, and then forcing them to become your protectorate, thus creating a buffer state/zone between you and Greece, any invasion from there will have to go through them first. I also did not want to invade Germania either, but you will have to engage in A LOT of raids and 'punitive' expeditions, something the Romans did A LOT. Thus, they have attacked your cities, a fort or destroyed one of your armies? Send an army up north, take one or two cities, destroy any useful buildings, enslave its population, and then either give them to other friendly factions (one of the gaulish factions is good for this) or FORCE (through force diplomacy) them to accept peace and return the cities to them.

This will give you between 2-10 years of peace with them where you can concentrate elsewhere. You'll want to expand first into Africa, taking the Carthaginian cities, then into Greece and Iberia. You will need to be friendly to either the Aedui or Arveni, have a 'legion' near massalia (which should be yours) and use it as a spring board to keep the Gauls in check. Don't let one get stronger than the other one, wage wars of intervention to destroy large stacks or give cities back to the losing side. Use force diplomacy to get them to comply.

Remember, only use force diplomacy to force ANY faction to do your bidding after you have destroyed some or their armies and sacked a couple of their cities. This will apply to any neighbouring faction (which will always attack you) and is the only way to guarantee a couple of years peace at a time in which to expand where you want and WHEN you want.

[Magic Man]

I use Force Diplomacy.


The Rome Diplomacy is pretty retarded otherwise, and it makes the game much more enjoyable for me.

[Diomede]

'course, if you want to avoid using FD all together, one of the bonuses of Quintus' "guide to conduct becoming of a true Roman" is that since you're expanding so slowly, you end up struggling to spend more than you earn, so there's always money left over to convince the AI...

[Magic Man]

I advanced quickly and had about 3'000'000 in the bank.


In the end i spent most of it bribing rebels for extortionate sums of money because i couldn't be ****ed to kill them myself.

[Hannibal Smith]

Thanks for the replies guys . Using FD just doesnt sit well with me, the AI does make some stupid decisions but I still cant help feeling like its cheating.

A few people have suggested garrisoning the Northern cities with Archers and Slingers, and also build up the walls. This seems to make sense to me, I think I'll also make another legion and put it to work against the Hellens or the Dacians.

In a number of RTW campaigns in the past I have used a network of forts around the alps to defend against the barbarians, has anyone had any success using forts? Or are they not really worth it in EB?

[Knonfoda]

Thanks for the replies guys . Using FD just doesnt sit well with me, the AI does make some stupid decisions but I still cant help feeling like its cheating.

In a number of RTW campaigns in the past I have used a network of forts around the alps to defend against the barbarians, has anyone had any success using forts? Or are they not really worth it in EB?

Its definitely not cheating in any way shape or form as long as you use it right. RTW's diplomacy is hardcoded and is notoriously stupid. The AI is hardcoded to identify the player as their main threat no matter what, this means they will be extremely unreasonable. Things do not play out as they did in history or in real life. If there is a script out there which makes it possible for diplomacy to be more realistic it should in no way be considered cheating.

As for forts, I use forts all the time. All my frontiers have forts, literally strings of them. Im considering not using them because they are making my game slightly tedious. My cities haven't been attacked in forever, and im also wasting money on garrison troops (I always use full units). But for you, forts on the alpine passes are definitely a good idea, helps keep italy secure from raids in the start of the game.

[Turtle Hammer]

Its definitely not cheating in any way shape or form as long as you use it right. RTW's diplomacy is hardcoded and is notoriously stupid. The AI is hardcoded to identify the player as their main threat no matter what, this means they will be extremely unreasonable. Things do not play out as they did in history or in real life. If there is a script out there which makes it possible for diplomacy to be more realistic it should in no way be considered cheating.

As for forts, I use forts all the time. All my frontiers have forts, literally strings of them. Im considering not using them because they are making my game slightly tedious. My cities haven't been attacked in forever, and im also wasting money on garrison troops (I always use full units). But for you, forts on the alpine passes are definitely a good idea, helps keep italy secure from raids in the start of the game.

I can see both sides of it really, but if you set yourself rules for when it's ok to use, like when you've got another faction on it's knees, I don't see it as much as cheating as correctinghard coded AI errors. But that said, I still don't do it either.

[Magic Man]

Ive never really bothered with them tbh.


I know they cost 0 denarii, so you can use them as Roman Marching Camps, but ive always preferred pitched battled to fort battles.


You might be better off just parking a force in the alps, rather than in a fort.