Playing as Brittania - first time

[rfjeff9]

I took Ireland and the 6 territories south of Britain that makes up most of modern day France fairly quickly and easily from Rebels and Gauls. It was almost too easy. Then, I started getting hammered in the northeast by Germania, to the southeast by the Julii, and the southwest by Spain. For about 40 straight turns, I was getting beseiged from a combination of all 3. Somehow, I managed to keep retraining those that were being attacked and importing fresh troops from the easternmost 3 provinces. Eventually, I managed to save up a small stack and won a heroic victory in the northeast to stave off Germania by taking a territory. Apparently, when I was able to take two territories it must have hurt their capacity to make war on me altogether (they didn't want to end hostilities), and what seemed like a neverending flow of Germanians ceased abruptly. With the flow to the south of fresh troops to Narbo Martius, I eventually held off long enough to build some ships, and in effect, blockaded Narbo Martius from the Julii constantly landing freaking troops by sea and attacking that territory. The Julii was sending single ships with troops. One attack by any of my 3 stacks of 3 ships would win, but it took me awhile before I was even able to train enough to catch the Julii BEFORE they landed the troops. Pretty soon, I was able to save up enough units to take all of Spain, and it went pretty smoothly. But the Julii were STILL harrassing me badly and I got mad and by the time Spain was finished off, I had a hoard of units ready to take all of Italy. I put my best generals in charge and absolutely smashed through all the Rome territories. By this time, I am losing money every turn, but I am still strong enough to send an army across the sea to take Corinth and Sparta in the same turn. The Scipii presence was weak and now they are mine. This is where it stands now, I have to quit for the night.

Here's something weird. I tried to get a ceasefire from the 4 ROME entities, and I sent my dipolomats to SPQR, Scipii, and Bruti and they agreed and we opened trade. But no matter what I did, I COULD NOT get the Julii to end hostilities. THey would always attack me regardless, and as soon as the next turn came, I would find the other 3 factions would be at war with me again. I now hate the Julii and I spent all of their money well.

Something else - I am always gaining family members to the extent that I would have 3 or 4 in all of my main armies and still have one in each territory. I don't recall them coming in as frequently playing as a Roman faction.

[Bonez]

I think the Julii are coded to hate on all of those factions in that general territory/directionn.
Also the family members thing could just be that you had a lot come of age sooner or something because I checked my family tree as the romans the other day and I had atleast 6 generals who weren't of age, and at the rate I expand it is taking awhile because I end up with a couple of battles a turn...

[rfjeff9]

Wow, that went really fast. After Italy and Greece/Macedonia fell, I started on Asia Minor and won the game taking a Great Wonder.

I will say this about Britain - the Head Hurlers are pretty cool.