Julii

[LuckyDutch23]

Hey Guys,

I've been playing this game for a while, but never as the Julii, so I was wondering what some good tips are for starting out and even further in the campaign. Thanks

[SavageFeat]

Focus on economy.

[Genius of the Restoration]

Focus on some key areas to control. Sea trade routes give you far more income than farming revenue, especially if they are short-distance. Take all coastal settlements. Londinium is particularly excellent. Take plenty of Hastati against Germania because they don't take pila well and reducing their numbers makes their Spear Warbands easier to deal with. Keep an army in Italy when the Civil War is near so you can finish it quickly. Don't bother recruiting Principes; many settlements you come across will be unable to retrain them early on and they aren't that much better than Hastati anyway. Don't bother with ranged units for the Roman factions until you can get Roman Archers because their skirmishers are fairly redundant when you've got infantry that have better thrown weapons, even if they have a slightly shorter range and only shoot twice. Try to pinch some of the Greek and Carthaginian settlements that your Roman neighbours usually go for because they give much more money than the settlements to the north that the Julii usually end up with.

Do you have any specific questions?

[CaesarSalad]

Dont underestimate the Spanish. The Gauls are numerous, but you'll get used to fighting them and it can make you complacent. The Spanish whipped up on me a few times before I figured out how best to engage them, they have a couple of unique units (Bull Warriors!) that can hang with anything you can produce. This is all early game. Late game, I end up bribing a lot of rebels to join the ranks of my army, simply because fighting the Scipii and Brutii is exhausting. I always just need more meat to throw at the grinder. You know what, in general I pretty much have to use un-desirable means to best the other Roman families, assassins, spreading the plauge around with spies, stuff like that. I guess when you play Julii, you're at a disadvantage in some respect when the civil war starts. The other familes will have more cash, be out producing you, not to mention their lame little alliance, so I find I have to get "creative". I dont know, things to think about anyways.

[LuckyDutch23]

At this time, my only specific question would be, who should I wage war with first? the Guals did attack me, but now we are in a ceasefire state, I'm thinking i should continue that war and kill them off as fast as I can, but of course the Senate is being really annoying and are demanding I attack The Greek Cities, but my armies are in no shape for that. I've never expanded into the North, and capture as much as I can. My biggest concern is Germania, mostly because of their berserkers. Of course any help is appreciated. Thanks

[Goldentoad]

I would wipe out the Gauls first, they are easy enough to eradicate, plus you get some small, if poor, coastal settlements which give you trade income.

As the Julii you do not need to, and can't really afford to have too many large armies, it is better to have one big army to wipe out the Gauls in Europe, and possibly a smaller army to ensure that they don't try and reinforce from Spain.

[CHIPS]

From the sound of it, you just started the game. So you don't have to worry about the civil war right now. That won't happen for a very long time.

Your #1 priority right now is to "force" you allies to fight against strong enemies like Greeks and Macedonians. This would really slow them down. Send one group of peasants over to attack them, and then retreat. Once you declare war, you allies will also declare war the next turn. In my campaign I played as Scipii. I got my allies fighting against Gaul and Greeks since the beginning. And as expected they expanded very slowly, because when in war the AI has a nasty habit of building tons of units and not enough economic buildings.

Your #1 enemy right now is Gaul, but I would only take their southern coastal cities and keep them semi alive as a buffer for the Germans. (In my campaign Gaul and German had been fighting since the beginning. There is never any peace between them.). Go toward Spain and take that first. All 6 cities there are ports and will yield decent income. After that either Britain (because you don't want them to build up a chariot army) or Carthage (because you don't want them to build up an elephant army). I would suggest Britain first because they are closer and easier to reinforce. Carthage and Numidia's land size is very vast and will be hard to reinforce with your limit number of troops.

[LuckyDutch23]

From the sound of it, you just started the game. So you don't have to worry about the civil war right now. That won't happen for a very long time.

Your #1 priority right now is to "force" you allies to fight against strong enemies like Greeks and Macedonians. This would really slow them down. Send one group of peasants over to attack them, and then retreat. Once you declare war, you allies will also declare war the next turn. In my campaign I played as Scipii. I got my allies fighting against Gaul and Greeks since the beginning. And as expected they expanded very slowly, because when in war the AI has a nasty habit of building tons of units and not enough economic buildings.

Your #1 enemy right now is Gaul, but I would only take their southern coastal cities and keep them semi alive as a buffer for the Germans. (In my campaign Gaul and German had been fighting since the beginning. There is never any peace between them.). Go toward Spain and take that first. All 6 cities there are ports and will yield decent income. After that either Britain (because you don't want them to build up a chariot army) or Carthage (because you don't want them to build up a elephant army). I would suggest Britain first because they are closer and easier to reinforce. Carthage and Numidia's land size is very vast and will be hard to reinforce with your limit number of troops.

The Forcing method is working well so far, so thanks for that tip, and currently i'm taking about all their smaller armies and settlement as to make a foothold in Upper Europe. My push East will be coming up shortly. So I hope that goes well. Thanks for the tips guys!

[CHIPS]

I would give you one more tip. Build a large cavalry before any other unit type. With good micro cavalry can beat any other unit type in the game. Against spearmen, lure them one way and charge their backs. Against chariots you can just outnumber them. You can't go wrong with cavalry.

[Genius of the Restoration]

I'd go for the Gallic settlements immediately to your north. Then expand along the coast towards Greece while taking some of Gaul's key settlements if possible. You've got a while before ze Germans start producing Berserkers so don't worry about that initially. You should have plenty of archers available by that time which should make them a piece of cake. The Spanish settlements are also pretty good once you get some sea trade going.

[LuckyDutch23]

Yeah I agree, cavalry are very useful, and once you get to know how to use them effectively then you are very hard to beat. I just love how no two games are alike. It makes it more interesting. Thanks chips and all others.

[LuckyDutch23]

Well everyone has their own fighting styles, so Unicuique suum. It's so rewarding to see an enemy that attacked you run away in panic as you crush them lol.

[Vindictus]

It's not playing style. It's how you counter others. Going mostly cavalry is not the way to win in many experienced battles. But against the AI, it is more than suitable.

[LuckyDutch23]

Alright i'll give you that. But sometimes its just fun to swamp them with cavalry, even if you know you can't win haha.

[Vindictus]

Of course! . Cavalry is amazing because of that extra shock force. If you swarm one side with cavalry and attack another with infantry, you have great results in instant routing.

[LuckyDutch23]

I have to admit, I'm very used to fighting in big open desert environment, so getting used to the forested winter woodland takes some getting used to, but it is a nice challenge. First time I've ever used the hide function of my troops haha XD

[LuckyDutch23]

Cavalry is just fun in general, but so are Bererkers. I once attacked Rome with Germania (custom battle) and i let lose my berserkers on the walls and they decimated. It's almost unfair haha.

[Genius of the Restoration]

CHIPS, you could take half that army and win battles that are Heroic which would lead to better generals if you wanted. A full stack seems a bit much and you can clearly battle with less given many of your units didn't do that much killing. I agree though, it's hard to go wrong with cav in general. They're even good against spears, phalanxes and chariots, their supposed counter units. I wouldn't bother going for elephants with them though.

[mesor]

Generally i just go for a straight blitz through the Gaul's while building a second stack that slips along the coast and invades Britain which is very easy to take early on then once im done there ( usually no more then 6-8 turns ) that stack mops up gaul and set's to work driving in the Germans flank settlements while the main gaul force drives into Spain insted which due to it being tightly clustered is fairly simply to dominate.
Barbarian factions are all weak early on so if you hit them fast and early hastati and equites will wipe them out in short order.

Generally i make sure they have higher numbers so they charge i form a line let my hastati fire at will to burn through there Pila then the enemy hit a line of heavy infantry and come to a dead halt normally get cut to shreds and my cavalry sweep round the flanks and drive into the back of the general he dies army routes mop up and repeat.

barbarians in general are very simple to beat.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Another fun thing to do as the Julii is to start a new campaign and "lock in" the other Roman factions by expanding into their direction first. Just take a ship with a few units ASAP and send it to Sicily. Conquer the settlements there, and the Scipii will usually stop expanding (Sometimes they'll land an army at Carthage, so you'd best start expanding there as well). At the same time, go for Greece. The Brutii will stop expanding. You'll get rich in no-time, the Civil War will be a breeze and you're basically the sole Roman faction. A bit of skill is required, so I suggest you try this only when you're fully acquainted with the game