Suebi tips, barbarian gameplay

[Lord Blackfyre]

Seeing as attilla won't run for me...

I have decided to try a suebi campaign, its my first barbarian faction in rome 2. Having a tough time of it so far, i have taken the region to my north-east and am engaged in a seemingly endless war with the aestii, they can afford almost 2 stacks of better units! (Those baltic axemen go through my spear levy)

Anybody got any helpful tips of where to expand and what units/buildings to focus on?

Would be much appreciated

[FlashHeart07]

First of all. The Campaign difficulty will give bonuses to the AI meaning that at VH they will be able to easily field bigger and better armies than you. Also play battles on Normal since anything above will give the AI troops a bonus to their stats.

And now to the tips. I for one LOVE playing as the Suevi, Im from Denmark and they are the closest I get to play as my countrymen fighting for world domination and the sacking of Rome.
I usually just play it safe for the first turns. You are not at war with the Boii and you can get a few treaties with the other Germanic tribes with ease. Then I start building up my province. Build barracks and focus on military tech. As it is now (This will be changed for later versions of the mod though) you can get Sword Masters fairly early and easy and this should be your main military priority. Get the proper tech and get that lvl 3 Barrack. Build a few sword masters and then just levy spearmen and some archers.
You can post your faction leader in the capital alone and level him up for some sweet bonuses while helping out with the PO.
Always plan ahead. I usually go for getting all cities in your starting region so you want to look at who is at war with who, how big are their armies and garrison. After you have made a decision break any treaties with this faction in good time. It will take some turns before you can attack without getting a bad reputation with everyone else. Then use your spy to gather intelligence and then position your army at their borders and strike without mercy.
If you deploy your spy in enemy territory he will gain experience and you will be able to use him to poison the enemy army and stop them from reinforcing their city or poison the garrison to ease the conquering. Do this until you have unified your region and after that you should be big enough not to care who you insult