WRE OPENING TURNS

[Dodge]

FLAGELLVM DEI

Haven't played this in forever, it's a bit daunting. Opening strategy?

[BroskiDerpman]

Most posts like this from what I've seen get neglected, perhaps you can post this in the "Tavern" where people would be pretty much forced to at least skim through your post?
I haven't played the IB mods in an while but in IBFD I use pretty much the same strategy as in vanilla BI with the WRE.
I'd also suggest you to try the other IB mods, SAI being what seems to be the most popular. IBFD will have an new version that'll overhaul many things but you might as well try out the other mods in the mean time.

[Joar]

I've moved this thread to its proper forum.

And playing the WRE is hard, and the way I remember it is to try and focus on doing some "damage control" on your economy by disbanding units in regions you're forced to surrender. I'd focus on defending Italy to start with.

[Dodge]

What to do about the Visigoths?

[Joar]

Defeat them.

[Gäiten]

Herd them, try to split up the horde, attack separate armies, move your field army from Illyricum to Italy and use your fleet to make them more mobile.

[Joar]

...or fight them on a bridge/river crossing. A "Classic tactic"...

[Dodge]

But they attack my Rome straight away before troops.

[Gäiten]

Rome can not be saved.
Playing WRE you will have to sacrifice certain regions.

[Joar]

It doesn't have to be a bad thing in the RTW universe. Once retaken, the city will generate very good income. In the RTW universe, the only real way to keep people happy is to occasionally slaughter them.

[Justinian Australis]

^^When I took Rome back from the Goths, I slaughtered everyone, just for the cash.

Well, gather all your troops that you can muster and drive of the Visigoths to start with. It shouldn't be too hard as their are some palatinae, comitatensis and clibinarii among other decent troops in Italy than will easily account for massive amounts of Goths. I didn't defeat them out right last game but they ended up migrating to Narbo after I gave them a good ass wooping.

Then grab Constantius and smash your way across Gaul, as they are rubbish and little more than nuisance value. Victory shall be yours.

Iberia is a tad trickier as the Vandals are reasonable, particularly the Alan cavalry one of the stacks start with but I found that just before starting the first turn, that the Gothic spearmen were more than handy in dealing with them, so I recruited a few of them where I could.

Cant really recall what I did with Valens and Gaudentius as they have decent armies to utilize. i think i usually keep them there to deal with any incursions across the Danube or when the Eastern Romans inevitably turn against me.

Personally I never disband soldiers. Sometimes I will merge garrison armies in Africa or use some to bolster the garrisons of vulnerable cities.I try and hang on to every city I can but sometimes its not possible so I take those troops and use them elsewhere.

[Knonfoda]

There is only one answer, and you already know what it is.

Kill them all.

[Flavius Vegetius Renatus]

1. On your first turn, besiege and take Arleate with army of Gaul and its siege weapons. leave some garrison and sent rest to Italy via sea route.
2. Release peasant militia units from itialian cities among goths. That way AI stacks will chase single units instead of besieging Rome (works for me every time).
3. Rearrange your northern italy army and slowly move them south. rearrange your army in illiricorum, put them on boats and send them to southern italy. that way you can slowly launch two pronged attack and divide the goths. Use mountains, bridges, rivers, cities.
4. Recruit bunch of hun cavarly at sirimium and aquincium. they are only $50 a unit with no upkeep. they are deadly against the goths. Send em packing to help your italian armies.
5. abandon cordoba to reinforce carthago nova. that will be your only bastion of hope in spain so defend it well cause vandals will try to take it from u multiple times.
6. Althought i hate to do it for a novice player it is good to disband most of your african cavarly. they are drain on your budget and lets face it, in africa you do not face any real enemy till you let vandals in. For that not to happen reinforce tingis with stone walls and pack some infantry and archers. that should hold them for a while plus the vandals will be busy trying to take carthago. your other african cities will easlity fend off berbers.
7. to raise money on first turn destroy all unnecessary buildings especially in cities that will revolt for sure. I tend to go for barracks, blacksmiths, archery ranges, stables or religious buildings. Lets face it, you wont be recruiting for a while so those buildings aren't needed. Only keep your highest level buildings in rome and ravenna as the two will be the only cities in the beginning where you ll be able to recruit and retrain you depleted units.
8. sack every city to raise cash. reinvest money to recover units and build up your economy.
9. after you deal with goths its your choice. I usually take gaul first and send some troops to Illiricorum therfore to reestablish the rhine-danube fronteer. then I go for spain and britain simultaneously. Fight off couple more hordes and then East you go.

[Dodge]

Thanks, pals. =)