Too many Gauls

[ShellShock]

I'm playing as Julii (Darthmod 7).

I'm onto my third campaign. I started on VH/H, and then tried H/H and now M/H. Each time I lose about 250 BC because of the sheer number of full stacks of Gauls that I get swamped with. No sooner do I wipe one out than another one turns up. I no wanna play anymore :no

Is this a feature of the Darthmod? I don't remember this from the original RTW (but I haven't played it since patch 1.5, so maybe that increased the difficulty too).

I really like the DarthMod battles, but the campaign is too hard. Is the DARTH_TOTAL_FORMATIONS_12.0 for use with vanilla RTW? Will this give me the great DarthMod battles, but with an easier campaign?

[Ahlerich]

well the new darthmod is way harder then any other mod because the ai does not play plain stupid. it takes a bit to get used to it. i havent played julii yet but with the germans i was able to take out gaul and britain. it was a slow campaign though. if you have problems why dont you play with m/m settings? that will still be challanging and maybe not so frustrating for you. i play on medium campaing and hard battles and that is just as much as i can take right now. it is possible for me to expand but i have to do it carefully because any battle that i lose could be decisive.
if you play vanilla on medium/medium that is :sign_lame
but darthmod on m/m that is alright ,)

[ShellShock]

I have been playing DarthMod on Medium campiagn, Hard battles, and I can usually win a battle as long as the Gauls do not have too many more men than me. So battles are fine; what is killing me is the campaign. I have been developing slowly, only taking two settlements, but then I get wave after wave of full stacks of Gauls coming at me; I fight off the first few but by then my armies are so depleted that I'm easy meat.

[Ahlerich]

do you repair your units? hm you know maybe i had it easier with my german campaign because the juli were in war with gaul and i was too. maybe in your game you are the only one in war with gaul and that is why the gauls make more unit stacks than in my campaign. i noticed in my game as germania that the bruti took off..they destroyed thacia, macedon and barts of dacia and fight me now in the east. but the juli never had a chance to grow. in my campaign the juli ai was only able to take one gallic town and maybe only because i did lot of damage to gaul as well. of course you could try strategies like only defending against gaul and repairing your units and in the meanwhile conquer somewhere else a few towns to get enough money to build 2 or 3 stack and then go after gaul or so.
i think i will try a julii campaing also just for kicks to see if i have the same problem.maybe the game is slightly unbalanced against juli

[seven]

Playing as the Julii is hard, then again it's meant to be. The trick is to take Patavium first.. THEN mediolanium. The population growth and sheer volume of income from Patavium will keep your armies growing constantly and at a prodigious rate.

[ShellShock]

Playing as the Julii is hard, then again it's meant to be. The trick is to take Patavium first.. THEN mediolanium. The population growth and sheer volume of income from Patavium will keep your armies growing constantly and at a prodigious rate.

That's a great suggestion. I've been doing it the other way round - well I take Mediolanium and then I never get a chance to take Patavium before I'm squashed.

I came, I saw, I whimpered. :wavecry

You have given me incentive to start yet another campaign. I'll try M/H again and go all out for Patavium.

Thanks.

[DARTH VADER]

What you witness as Gaul Horde is the actual impact of forcing campaign Gaul AI to have objectives in the map.
Previously, even though they had economic power and lands to use, they stayed idle until complete destruction.
Now they have been forced to claim Roman lands and also defend some of their own.
So energetically try to achieve this.
This has been done for ALL factions so this is why you feel so much pressure.
No real cheats, no bonuses, just fair AI.

Also keep in mind that historically, Rome managed to conquer Gaul only around 49 BC.

The real party for the romans begins when they get their Marius effect and start produce powerful Legions.

[ShellShock]

What you witness as Gaul Horde is the actual impact of forcing campaign Gaul AI to have objectives in the map.
Previously, even though they had economic power and lands to use, they stayed idle until complete destruction.
Now they have been forced to claim Roman lands and also defend some of their own.
So energetically try to achieve this.
This has been done for ALL factions so this is why you feel so much pressure.
No real cheats, no bonuses, just fair AI.

Also keep in mind that historically, Rome managed to conquer Gaul only around 49 BC.

The real party for the romans begins when they get their Marius effect and start produce powerful Legions.

:ymaster, Your humble servant hears and obeys, oh dark lord.

[ckerr094]

Yeah the Gauls are a nuisance but when you kill of their last faction family member it makes victory all the sweetier

[Ahlerich]

i really hated (hated in a good way )my campaing against gaul with germania...it took me forever...every meter ground i won was soaked with blood but "many enemys - many honour" a german proverb. now that i defeated them i left them one town and drop by every now and then when i feel like it and siege them kill some of them and retreat. death is too easy for those bastards. haha...i might grant them death and destruction after 100 years of suffering and humilation. har har harrr

im still palying my first campaign of darthmod 7..now i have half of spain, juli are out, dacia and gaul only still existing because i and chuck norris allow it, brits are gone too. the next target is rome and the senate..followed by a long and bloody campaign against the bruti who seem to have conquered a lot in the east

[wineman]

As the Julii I started by building a port in Arretium (or Ariminium, but I mean the one without a port), build a bireme and send over a small (3 units + general) army to the other side. By now you should already have captured Segesta (the rebel province), but I would advise you not to actively march into Gaul territory as the forests there will kill you at this stage. The Brutii will also have conquered the rebel province Salona (where you landed your small army). This army you now expand with Illyrian mercenaries (you need those javelin units to back your hastati and they can melee as well, better than your velites) and you march on Segestica (Illyria province) and besiege them (expect the Macedons to attack you with a small army, but you should win as they will be fighting uphill).
Send out a diplomat to make peace + trade rights with Carthage, as you need the trade with Caralis for income. as a bonus you generally can get a few thousand income from carthage when making peace. After your battle with the macedonians make peace with them too (they will also pay for this, at least on hard) and make peace with the Greek (these fractions are not your worry, so leave them and gain money from them).
So now you have cash (invest in archery range, roads in all provinces and mines in Illyria) and a province Illyria where you can recruit good mercenaries, it will give you good cash and is protected from the Gauls by the Brutii province Salona. Make peace and trade with the Dacians so they will not stab you in the back.
In italy, the Gauls should start stirring, so find hilly ground and let them come at you. Make sure you have plenty of javelin skirmishers (and preferably also slingers on the flanks) so you can decimate them coming up the hill. Tip: there is a nice hill north of Segesta on the road close to the Gaul border. Don't forget to ferry your Illyrian mercs back from Illyria to italy as you need them. They fight well in the woods (especially after warcry), and have a lot of javelins, making them excellent backup and flankers behind your hastati. In the beginning most Gaul stacks will attack you coming from Patavium and mediolanum through the centre, later on the stacks will come for Segesta. during this period you need to keep your armies within marching range of your cities as after every battle (even when you win), you will need to replenish your hastati. If you have money left, get cavalry to help your skirmishers against their cavalry.
In the beginning you will have smaller armies than theirs, so use terrain (don't fight in woods unless you have lots of long range missile units, I made that mistake and almost lost that battle) and make sure you have 5 to 6 hastati/principes in your one stack (you cannot afford much more) that fights off their stacks. Keep them up to strength (merge, retrain, buy new ones and use the general with 10% reduction for this, you need those savings) and slowly your economy will start to function and you can build more armies. by then the Gaul armies will come from Gaul (use fleets to blockade their mediteranean ports) so you could capture Patavium by attacking with a non-full stack (expect gaul reinforcements from mediolanum). Do this before the Brutii do, or if they do capture it before you do let them face the Gallic might without your help. Then capture Patavium back from the Gauls. Keep your biremes in the Adriatic to quickly ferry reinforcements to patavium from italy/illyria. From here you have a choice, either go for mediolanum and secure the mountain passes or prevent their stacks form reaching Segesta by attacking Massilia and securing the river. They can still reinforce mediolanum, but you can try to defend on the river crossings now. Expect hard battles on the flat ground as by now most of their troops will have two or three chevrons, especially their swordsmen (they are still vulnarable to slingers though).

These were/are my tactics against the Gauls and they worked for me. I must add that I have the house rule of not building/retraining troops in conquered territory until the barracks are roman and I have the territory at least 15 turns. Expect slow going; I won all land battles (some quite Pyrrhic) but was still on the defensive most of the time. The Gauls are powerfull and rich (check the statsitics, they generally rank top 3 in finances) and can afford to throw huge amounts of manpower at you. Expect, prepare and slaughter and you will win.