Some brief Boii tips

[Genghis Skahn]

As someone who's played countless Boii campaigns I figured anyone having trouble playing as the Boii, or who would like to see how to build an empire/stable nation with them might find this useful.

The Boii occupy a unique position when compared to the other Celtic factions. They start off with 2 territories at first(1 protectorate, 1 confederation) and are surrounded on each side by a potential enemy. Someone looking to turtle might not want to choose the Boii, as Central Europe is a hotbed for faction expansion--or it traditionally should be. The factions that the boii will most likely have to deal with are their gaul neighbours to the west, the germanic tribes to the north, Rome and the Getai to the south. Sometimes you can expect to fight the Sauromatae or the KB/other hellenistic powers as well, depending on their expansion or yours. The factions you must destroy to win in a long campaign are the swebozes, Areurnoi, Aedui and Roma herself.

The First turn:

As always with EB you have 2 options: unite your forces from across the land and use the army you cant pay for to conquer yourself back into the good graces of a healthy economy, or disband your army and slowly build your nation. As the Boii start with 2 territories they will have a head-start if you choose the slow nation building route. There is one slight problem though...Like your Suebic and Lugian neighbours to the north who are rather plagued by rebel AI desolation, you too have a total of 4 roaming armies laying waste to your borders, raiding as they please on the fringes of your territory. Disbanding might even leave you defenseless against the aggressive rebel AI which has been known to steal a few of my cities in the early game, even when you don't disband one of your less defended cities could be besieged and occupied. For myself, I never disband, I take the risk to grow my empire, and then let myself grow and recuperate my economy. The 4 rebel armies are in the locales of: Tarodunon, Kambodunon, Noreia, and Gorsissa. All of these are your Celtic neighbours, but none of them are so great as the Boii!

As the stratagem for early game slower nation building is fairly obvious (disband + simply let yourself grow to a point where you can healthily but slowly expand), this guide will only discuss the variations of early game conquest, as this is when conquest is the trickiest--you cannot afford to waste your valuable troops!

Stop the raiding, subdue your Celtic cousins:
For myself, since QS added roaming armies to the neighbouring provinces to the south and west, I find myself attacking the roaming stacks and then besieging the cities of their kin. Starting first with Gorsissa, or Noreia, then fighting the roaming armies of kambodunon and tarodunon(provided you have the military strength at that point). If I have enough troops left over I'll besiege kambodunon, tarodunon or asanka. Alternatively, you could first capture Asanka, make an alliance with the lugians to prevent them attacking you--or attacking them if you so desire(but I recommend you leave them be for now, no need to blitz every faction to death) and then capture Lugidunon. It should be noted that these areas dont have roaming armies and can be captured with more ease than the more celticized south, but this wont rid you of the huge devastation economy penalty those southern and western celt armies will give you. You could also attack Tarodunon, then kambodunon, then noreia, then gorsissa if you feel more inclined to strike out westward--just try to keep your conquests in a straight chain if you can, because each turn will plunge you further into debt. Avoid backtracking where you can. The reason why I personally attack gorsissa and noreia first is because of the fact that kambodunon has a strong garrison--stronger than gorsissa, tarodunon and noreia. I also prefer to invade noreia from the west so that I can reach tarodunon and kambodunon/their roaming armies immediately after pacifying noreia, keeping my conquests in a chain as often as I can starting off.

Asanka:
It should be noted that Asanka is the weakest neighbor you have, so total beginners might want to try their hand at conquering that first, then either lugidunon or gorsissa from there. Asanka is also an extremely important border region to control or protect against westward attacks from the east. Asanka is very easy to reach when you attack from the west, but in the east it is mountainous, forested at times and there is a river that also provides a fine natural boundary. Asanka has often been my eastern boundary against the steppe based powers many a time, and I've rarely had to expect much danger of attack from there. Asanka is also ~50% western tribal states culture, so its an easy province to control for you, and a boundary between forest tribalism and western tribal state culture. Asanka is also very important to control because of how close it is to Streuinta--anyone controlling it will have easy access to your original capital and first confederation, the Boii heartlands themselves. Control of Asanka provides the Boii with a fine buffer zone for your capital--but the cost of capturing it or lugidunon will put your borders next to the Lugians, whom you will probably need to fight, ward off or ally yourself with. Asanka's lack of economic and military producing potential is more than easily mitigated by it's strategic importance, and besides that, in the early game each province will reduce your debt by that much more. Asanka is also reasonably sized, such that it is not a nightmare to patrol(eg. Lugouwa: that province is huge, densely forested and has rivers running through it, what a nightmare to patrol), and at the same time it's long enough to allow you a decent route for expansions eastward to klepidava(if you want to conquer that multicultural nightmare of a town). For slower build players looking for less action, Asanka is an ideal target once you're economically strong enough to rebuild an army; it will add to your economy, consolidate your position and also control of it wont make you unstoppable. It's modest benefits, yet strategic values make it the perfect target for a slower build player. Asanka is also an ideal first target for the Lugian players too

Kill the Lugians:
Though I don't recommend this route because it involves so much blitzing, it's more than a surefire way to grant you great power--the lugian regionals are excellent in my opinion, especially their medium cavalry, the Aswinai(sp?). Control over traditional lugian areas will provide you with fine auxillaries for any campaign in Europe imo. The only problems involved are the fact that you'll possibly have to fight the lugian horde after you capture kalisia. You can always try murdering their FMs in battle if you dont want them to horde as well, or other exploits. This is for power hungry players only however, in all my playthroughs now, I try to avoid factional wars early on, instead choosing to grow my empire first quickly, and then slowly picking upon the independents. You can always take lugidunon before the lugians, if you're desperate for a bit of lugian love in your army. Control of kalisia, lugidunon and Asanka should help your economy significantly, however--you'll then be controlling 3 amber route provinces with streuinta, lugidunon and kalisia under your control

The good graces of gold:

So you've did it! you've beaten all those raiding celts, or conquered the lugians, or whatever military strategy to fix your economy you decided to pull. Now you've just got to wait till you climb out of debt to actually build any governments whatsoever! If you're like me and you've conquered your celtic neighbours south first, you could be building any sort of government from allied to confederation--it's really all up to you how you want to build your faction. I do advise you to think about the long term though. You may want migration governments in the less chaotic provinces you own, to provide good recruitment options without dropping your leaders authority points; the building of protectorates is important too, as a cheap form of law providing factional government. It should be noted how good of a capital noreia makes once you stretch even further north, west, east and south--it occupies a very central position in Europe.

For myself, after capturing lugidunon, asanka, gorsissa, noreia, tarodunon, and maybe a segestika and/or kambodunon I figure its time to sit back and relax, let the surplus run in and start building all those infrastructure buildings. There's no need to make war on anyone, by this point you should be strong enough to resist any of your neighbors, and besides if you develop your towns more you'll get cool things like paved roads to speed on your invasions. I do find it hard to stay completely inactive, but I do leave large buffer zone provinces alone such as: singidunon, sarmiszegethusa, patavium and any of the villages close to the other continental celts. I do usually try to take ubioidunon after a time and make that a confederation, as a military bulwark against the swebozes to the north, who can often be quite aggressive. It's important, imo, for the boii to be larger than many of her neighbors, because she is so vulnerable to being attacked by a variety of fearsome powers. Thankfully the Boii have a ferocious reputations themselves :3

My next post will probably be about making a Boii empire.

[Genghis Skahn]

This will be part 2 of the guide on the Boii, mainly focusing on the mid-late game elements of gameplay. How many turns it takes for you to start truly becoming an empire is completely up to you.

Some brush-ups regarding your very first turn:

I usually spend what little money I have building farms in both starting cities, and then hiring some cheap but reliable skirmishers to bolster my army juuust a little bit. I usually leave just Tasgetios to guard Alkomoennos, which may or may not prompt the rebel roaming stacks to besiege you and occupy your city--it's luck based. I usually take Brennos out of Streuinta, and take him and your starting Bogios to lead your armies, replacing him as governor with that other family member who starts off leading a small stack--his name starts with a K. I leave 3 free upkeep units in streuinta for RP purposes, it's your starting capital after all, it should hold a garrison of at least some size beyond a general's bodyguard. As for guarding Alkomoennos, I dont feel strong enough starting out to garrison it--better to take as much troops as you can with your field army and risk it all!

So you've got your central European heartlands under control...or maybe you conquered the lugians and/or swebozes first and your northern frontier is now secure--either way you've got a great financial situation going on, and you can now safely field multiple large stacks, which you will need for the days to come...Especially against the growing power of Rome. As for myself, I delay wars between factions as long as I can, capturing as many independents to increase my power as I see fit. I usually use tarodunon as a western border against the aedui and areurnoi, because it has a river at the western edge of the province, which acts as a strong natural barrier for any invader. Capturing the villages immediately to the west of tarodunon will put your borders next to the aedui too quickly for my liking, and will not only limit their possible expansion but also provoke a possible attack from the aedui themselves. Capturing as far west as Nemetokena, is fine however, because you wont be sharing a border with the aedui, even though it is very close to the other gauls. Nemetokena is probably one of the most important locations to control if you plan to incorporate Britain into your empire--which you probably should, given the similarity of your cultures(western tribal states) and the vast economic potential that can result from conquest there. As per usual, though, I invade northern britain first thus ideally avoiding a faction war, and allow the pritanoi the southern reaches of the island--provided they havent expanded yet, or provided they havent conquered northward yet. If I see the pritanoi expanding aggressively, then I'll probably wait till they control all the british isles until I attack, to get a better challenge out of it--most of my tin isle invasions have been with a very passive pritanoi AI however. It wasnt since 2.01 that I invaded and fought against a united force of pritanoi.

More on tarodunon: control of this territory is another important buffer zone for your heartlands, similar to how asanka is a buffer zone in the east. While tarodunon is much flatter and friendlier than asanka in many ways, it most importantly has a long river marking its western boundary(as I said before). Control of this province by another power will allow easy access into your heartlands, as the eastern boundary of it ends almost right next to alkomoennos, but when you control it, it becomes a great bulwark against the western celts. Convert it to a confederation if you so desire--it could ultimately be worth it. For myself, however, I would usually install an allied gov or migration gov there, as I would ideally like a little bit of recruitment in a hotspot such as tarodunon can traditionally be. I prefer spreading out my confederations to provide as much of my empire with solid recruitment as humanly possible, so I personally dont choose tarodunon for a confederation.

Bogadunon: is a hotspot of conflict between the swebozes and the Boii. It's a culturally split permanent settlement(about 40% western tribal state with the rest being forest tribalism) that will provide you with dugunthiz if you install an allied democracy there; I think this is also true for ubioidunon, but I usually build a confederation or something there because there's more celtic culture there and because it's not as close to the german capital as bogadunon--making it harder to capture, but still readily available to provide support or to raise an invasion force to attack luppae or bogadunon herself(if the swebozes got to it first). For myself, I try to capture bogadunon before the swebozes, as it's a settlement, and as the Boii are settled peoples, I feel more justified in ruling it than those semi-nomadic "barbarians"(barbarians, at least in the eyes of a people so great as the Boii). Be aware though...As you capture more territories surrounding the swebozes, they will eventually run out of independents to conquer, and soon they will covet your possessions. But I ask you: What is worse? To grow and run into conflict by this growth? Or to let the swebozes grow, and let them slowly creep south towards your settlements?? I choose the former, over the latter, as you have to destroy the swebozes to achieve victory anywho(in a long campaign that is).

The Amber Route: It's hard to mention the Boii or Lugians without mentioning the amber route, both of these factions control a portion of it from the game's start, both can at least attribute some of their current greatness to it's trade and both are ideally looking to capture more of it in their respective spheres of influence. The economic benefits are good, but the RP potential is even greater. Amber is a prized precious material, as evidenced by the existence of the amber route herself, being shipped from the territory of histria to asia and beyond, reaching many markets in the hellenic world and otherwise all the way from the baltic sea. Controlling all of the Amber route would truly cement the Boii as a superpower, as it would have a stranglehold on a precious resource that most or all of her neighbours and beyond desire. This would bring immense wealth and power to the rulers and freemen of the Boii. This is also a good reason to capture both lugidunon and gorsissa early, as these both have the amber route building I believe. There is a serious problem, however that comes with capturing the northernmost parts of the amber route. The Boii has the unpleasant pleasure who, like the Getai, will have to deal with steppe based powers earlier than any other Celtic faction.

The problem with the east: is a long term problem rather than an immediate one. Kottinon, the territory of asanka isnt that likely to be invaded, and is unfriendly even when it is being invaded from the eastern parts of it. Provided you keep the lugians alive, they'll be the ones who will take the brunt of the nightmare of managing/defending the sparsely populated and densely forested eastern camps. Yet unfortunately, this means leaving parts of the amber route in the hands of the lugians, who already have a good claim to it, for they start with a portion of it as well. There is obvious benefits with keeping the lugians alive, as they will be more likely to be attacked by the sauromatae first, and less manpower will be needed in order to properly protect such large and unwieldy territories in the baltic and other areas of eastern northern europe. The cost is the same as the benefit: the lugians stay alive, you dont get as much access(lugidunon will provide lugian troops) to the good lugian troops without more forest tribalism areas in northeastern Europe, or access to scurgum, kalisia and waldawa who all have the amber route building and anymore economic support you'd yield from these regions. But then you'll have to deal with Sarmatian raids, unquestionably. Waldawa is very easily invaded from Neurja, and the other provinces nearby are also likely to either be controlled by the sarmatians, or raided by them...Of course, you could just totally ignore the east if you just dont expand in that direction(ideally allying with the lugians), and conquer all those delicious western tribal state areas in western europe. You will have to deal with one of your neighbors eventually though, and it could be from any direction, because you're playing as the Boii

North or South?

Ah the great question, to the north the swebozes and lugians bark on the doors of the Boii before any other celtic faction, typically. And yet the Boii are very close in proximity to the Romans as well, who are also obviously a great power. On a long campaign, you must destroy the Aruernoi, Aedui, Roma and the swebozes. Expect to expand/defend in all of these directions, and to also benefit greatly in terms of riches and military auxiliaries from controlling these new territories, but which should you choose first? Firstly I'd like to recommend to leave some buffer independents to your west to delay, if possible, conflicts with the aedui or areurnoi. As the aedui are closer, you might ask for an alliance with them--it wouldnt be an uncommon thing, I believe they've offered me an alliance before even, it's hard to remember with all these Boii playthroughs. Personally, the greater danger to me, as they are closer to the Boii heartlands, are the swebozes or lugians--although destroying the lugians isnt part of your victory conditions, so I often try to leave them be nowadays. Controlling the germanic territories in the suebic sphere of influence will provide you with nice auxilaries, increase your economy and more importantly will secure yourself from any attacks coming from the north. With the north conquered, and the swebozes either displaced or reduced to a vassal alliance state somewhere(maybe scurgum or hleifboz) you can now safely turn your eyes west and/or south. For myself, at this point the Romans might be making significant headway in northern italy. I usually attack them next. If you want a slower pace for your war with Rome you could always only conquer northern italy first(arretium included because of its western tribal state culture), sue for peace and slowly build up those towns until you feel tensions are high enough for war in the tribes again. Or, you can try to let them make the first move against you--you can expect them marching through the alps, or more likely trying to take segestika. Remember, you must destroy the SPQR to win a long game anyway, and the riches you will gain through sacking and controlling the italian peninsula are immense; all that considered a more greedy player might look to plunder rome first rather than attack the germans first like I did. With the italian peninsula under your control, who then will be able to cripple your power? This I ask you. The Areurnoi and Aedui will have to prepare themselves, once you feel ready for war again--which may be next turn or next generation, or even next century. It's really all your choice

If you have germany and the italian peninsula, besides a bunch of other central European territories, you're definitely going to be seeing the economic and public order benefits of Noreia as a capital--at least in my experience.

I might make another post about government types across the empire.

[Shadowwalker]

Great guide, much appreciated.
Now I'm looking forward to part 3, which deals not only with the mentioned government types, but also with army compositions, battle tactics etc

[Genghis Skahn]

It will also deal with possible routes of invasion used by the player :3. I'll get to it eventually!

[Genghis Skahn]

Part 3:

Government types: Let's face it here, if you intend to physically control the amber route(starts at scurgum and waldawa, ends all the way at histria), the rest of the Baltic areas and northern germany+ Asanka, then a load of your empire is already going to be allied governments, as allied oligarchies only can be constructed in camps, and the Boii can't convert camps to cities ;-;. Besides that you might find yourself installing allied governments in all your early conquest zones just because it's a quick, cheap and public order providing form of government that provides some recruitment--which is basically the whole point of an allied government. Remember, you can always destroy a government building and rebuild another via the same processes in which you built the first(precursor building -> choose government type). The thing I'll caution you about most is allied governors in zones with different cultures which can cause too much culture conversion. Some culture conversion is good(30-40% is good for public order), but past 50% in the pastoral tribalism areas will reduce your available recruitment. I unknowingly converted bogadunon past 50% with my allied governor there and unknowingly reduced my pool max of available dugunthiz to just 1. Feelsbadman. You definitely don't want to reduce your germanic recruitment. Those northern allied troops are often found making up a large percentage of my army. Allied governments are obviously very useful in areas with different cultures than your own, due to the public order they and a client ruler can give and are important for roleplaying the difficulty a different ethnic group of people might have with governing another. Some possible allied governments I recommend for RP/strategic reasons(in cities where you have the option to build otherwise--not talking about camps here) are: massalia, patavium, segesta, segestika, bogadunon, dalminion+ a load of other places including but not limited to most of britain and southern/central italy.

Protectorates should be established in areas which you want to use a FM governor for, are safe from harm(relatively so) and when you want to quickly establish a factional government that provides good building options and public order. Eg. You could install a protectorate gorsissa and noreia as protectorates or migrations(your choice, whatever you think is best) but you would want singidunon as a confederation, as it would act as a military buffer for those protectorates from southward invasion. I also established a protectorate on nemetokena, which wasnt bordering on any enemy nation except independents. The point is: protectorates work best when you want a fast factional government, and when protected by other types of governments, because they dont provide recruitment themselves. Dont rely only on mercernaries to protect your protectorates--it's too unreliable of a choice, in my opinion.

Migration governments should be placed in regions close to the capital, or for when you want to cause conversion to happen. Imagine your capital is noreia, and you have migration governments installed at gorsissa, tarodunon, kambodunon, alkomoennos and segestika--with these territories being so close to the capital, it's likely the happiness penalty migration structures give will be reduced. Public order, to me, is the biggest issue with choosing a migration government. Can you actually keep the territory your people have migrated to under control? If you can, the recruitment options are rewarding, and will certainly increase your power greatly. I've actually made a sizable Boii empire without ever building any migration governments though, so it's not a necessity for success. That being said, I plan to try more of them out soon, and I do recommend using them, if you feel confident you can control the city in spite of the migration's happiness penalty. You might want a capable governor FM(I've had serious difficulty getting a good FM governor though) to help with public order problems when using a migration government

Confederations! Ah, the many tribes who will join us--our conquered but adopted bretheren. We should not let anyone become our equals, but rather we should choose those who are great and who have fine countries to become part of our confederacy. Confederacies will have to be spread apart if you plan to build a bigger Boii empire, as these cities will provide the best and most reliable recruitment. You dont want all your confederacies in one area if you plan to build a large Boii empire, it will become a logistical nightmare. Establishing confederacies is perhaps something that we each have our own individual tastes about, so I'll list a few confederacies I personally choose. Most of them are symbolic or strategic in nature. Singidunon, Ubioidunon/Tarodunon, somewhere in the rhone valley(Uiennos, I choose) for the Gaisatoi, either the aedui or arverni capital + streuinta which you start with. I recommend installing either a migration gov or confederacy in medilanon too--as this is a good foothold city for the italian peninsula(it's the furthest north, and thus the hardest to attack. Felsina is definitely a possible choice as well, due to it's central location in northern italy, and the fact that it's where the italian Boii are :3. You dont want to make too many confederacies, as each will lower your FL's authority by 1 point, with 5 confederacies you'll have a maximum of 5 authority, that's the most I recommend lowering your FL authority. As your empire gets bigger too, loyalty penalties really start to kick in, so FL authority becomes much more important. I choose singidunon as my boundary confederacy against the getai and hellenic powers for multiple reasons, some strategic and some RP related. I admire the ferocity of the Scordisci, or at least their apparent reputation, so I welcome them into my confederacy. More importantly though, singidunon is situated between several rivers, and marks a cultural boundary between western tribal state culture and urban tribal state + hellenic culture. Tylis and naissos are also cultural boundaries between western tribal state and urban tribal state culture--you could also make a confederacy in those places if you want, but I recommend singidunon because it's farther north, harder to attack and able to attack a number of provinces. Singidunon could be used to protect naissos, dalminion and tylis+whatever other cities you've captured in the balkans by this point. Streuinta actually retains it's importance as a confederation with the continuing sarmatian raids you may or may not be dealing with--it's northeasterly enough to provide a lot of core recruitment to the baltic/east germanic zones besides the lugian allies you have(which refresh every 4 years, unlike confederacy recruitment). Medilanon is an anti-roman choice as it establishes solid recruitment within the italian peninsula herself, and I guess I like the insubres a bit too; not much reason for me making it a possible choice other than that. Ubioidunon is mostly a symbolic(to firmly say that the Boii control germany), but also a strategic choice of a confederation close to the germans to provide quicker reinforcements or a quicker invasion platform against them. The Ubioi also have one of the biggest garrisons relative to their neighbors at the game start, most likely due to the population and warlike nature of the ubioi--or whoever live there, so I choose to welcome them into my confederacy too. Choosing the aedui or arverni capital will be a symbolic and strategic choice, for the purpose of controlling gaul herself and the western parts of your empire.

Cultural boundaries: You may find it all well and good to expand across most of europe, where all of gaul, southern germany, a large chunk of central europe and all of britain have western tribal state culture, but beyond that you'll run into big public order problems in areas like Hellas proper, thrace, dacia and iberia. I usually dont try to expand into Iberia too much, and try to use the pyrenees as a boundary against the iberian factions/powers. I do however try to control thrace and a large portion of the pastoral tribalism areas of northeastern europe, mostly for strategic/power politic reasons. I wont try to invade or control Hellas until I have controlled thrace and dacia. Hellas has basically no western tribal state culture, so you'll find that one of the harder areas to control in Europe. I just usually try to leave them to their business, and punish them if they try to invade my territory. I've yet to expand in Asia Minor with the Boii, but I have brought the war to the Sarmatians in the steppes, so I have technically been in asia.

My eyes are hurting unfortunately, so I'll have to cut this short and make a part 4 some other time with battle strategies, army compositions other such things

[Genghis Skahn]

Hopefully you'll find at least one piece of all this information to be somewhat useful.

Army Compositions:

I gotta be honest here, I ing love the levy slingers. My typical army usually includes a solid core of skirmishers and heavy line infantry which are deployed in a double line against an enemy, with the cavalry attacking from the flanks/screening my forces and cutting down isolated enemy cavalry. So my typical late game Boii empire army would probably go something like 3-6 spearman(6 if you dont want the bataroi sword infantry), 3 bataroi + 2 elites (I choose the Boii elite infantry, but the other gallic heavy infantry units are fine too) making 8 heavy infantry units. Then 6 celtic slingers, and then 6 cavalry units, 3-4 auxillary horseman/factional light cav(4 if you want less elite cavalry in your army), I usually pick the lugians for my auxiliary cavalry, but 2 lugians and 2 ridonez/ridans or whatever are fine too. Then 2-3 heavy cavalry units either 2 general units and 1 elite cav(either boii or western gallic heavy cav will do) or 1 general unit and 2 elite cavalry. These last units are typically the hammer pressed against my infantry anvil, besides usually being some of the first units to rack up some kills. So 6 skirmishers + 6 cavalry + 8 infantry units will make a full stack...Of course, if you don't want to use a full stack because you think it's unbalancing to the game, then I suggest omitting some cavalry and some infantry, but leave the skirmishers as this will give your army that nice rustic levy element.

Your starter army(once united) is rather rich in infantry, with only a few skirmishers and lacking in cavalry. Take your first Bogios and your FH Brennos with your starter army to give yourself a well needed edge on the battlefield. As well, recruit the skirmishers in streuinta to cheaply bolster your army a bit and provide yourself with skeleton garrisons(they're all you can feasibly afford in the early game, especially with all the devastation you're going to incur from those 4 roaming stacks). As your finances improve and your starting army starts to wither, you may find yourself hiring dugunthiz quite a bit, as they're a cheap and dependable mercernary unit. These dugunthiz ended up being the core of my heavy infantry in my last Boii playthrough, though my army was still largely celtic, with my cavalry, skirmishers and elite infantry all being celtic units. You might even consider hiring a dugunthiz unit from the start, the upkeep isnt ridiculous and they only cost 800 minai or so I believe.

Ah, I always remember the feeling of each campaign when Im finally financially healthy enough to raise another army besides my starter! I usually fill this army up with a LOT of skirmishers, maybe 6-8, then some celtic spearman or dugunthiz 6+ should do(no levy spearman until the autumn release ) a FM to lead them and maybe another FM or elite cavalry unit or 2 to back him up. Then you can add some cheap Londo Epatoi, maybe 3 or 4 to use as screening forces, occasional flankers and most importantly for pursuit of routing enemies. This army should more than suffice to conquer many of the remaining eleutheroi or fight off your typical invasion force(though a dedicated one might easily beat it, it's hard to say)

For defending the northern reaches of the amber route or fighting the sarmatians in general, you're probably gonna have an army that's quite different from what I just suggested. With a lot more cavalry to counter the Sarmatians HAs and a lot more skirmishers with a significant minority of infantry used to protect skirmishers/catch enemy cavalry once your own cavalry has pinned them down.

As your empire grows, you will see your armies get more and more multicultural as you mix more mercenaries, regional auxilia and factional cores together against all sorts of enemies that the Boii had never dreamed of once subduing...Feel free to construct your armies as necessity or your own discretion dictates. As a Celtae faction, however, you have access to a number of dependable heavy infantry units, and some good backing cavalry units as well, you can expect infantry to play a big part in your armies.

Battle tactics:

To be quite honest, I don't use the most advanced of tactics. I just usually try to secure the high ground, make a double line, and then use my cavalry in conjunction with that double line... Here's the thing about my double line though: you know how skirmishers are supposed to be kept in front of your heavy infantry to protect them from other skirmishers?? Um, yeah, I don't do that. I use my infantry to protect my skirmishers from enemy cavalry and heavy infantry; I rarely ever have skirmishers in front of the heavy infantry. You'd be surprised how effective it still is, and in fact I find I take less casualties doing it this way than when I keep my mostly skirmishers in front. As well, for when you need that little extra pincer attack, these skirmishers can be used in a last ditch attempt to flank the enemy. Because this is EB this tactic can be quite successful given correct timing and any number of other factors. The line of heavy infantry takes the brunt of the assault, and then my cavalry tries to typically defeat other cavalry+kill their general to destroy the enemy's morale, and then I try to do hammer and anvil tactics against the infantry engaged with my line. I'm a defensive commander in battles, so I usually just aggressively deploy my line in a hard to attack position(if it's available) and then wait for the enemy to make the first mistake. When I'm attacking an enemy, I often try to damage him as much as possible with individual cavalry fights/skirmishes which often prompts the AI to take the offensive(though this is not always true), again letting me take the defensive and waiting for him to make a mistake I can exploit. I'm also fond of ambushes, but these can be difficult to execute, and can have mixed results. I've had a lot more success with my "Reverse double line" strategy. That being said, I'm not opposed to flanking manoeuvres performed by bataroi or elites, or the like. I just usually let my cavalry do the talking. If you have any formations you'd like to suggest me to try, or which you feel are infinitely superior to my own tactics, then by all means! Employ them!

Several variations of this double line tactic, or simple line tactic(when Im lacking skirmishers or other units) have been sufficient for me to create a gigantic Boii empire on VH/VH in 2.01 and several unquestionably sizable ones on H/M(the recommended difficulty) in many later versions. I almost never use auto-resolve , it should be noted.

For sally-outs during sieges, I typically retreat my forces from the walls, so that routed forces can be chased for longer periods of time before reaching the walls by cavalry and the like. Employ the double line--->???????---->Profit! It works most times against most of your early, mid and late game enemies.

I think I'll have one last post after this just to tie up a few loose ends.

[Zeion]

Um, yeah, I don't do that. I use my infantry to protect my skirmishers from enemy cavalry and heavy infantry; I rarely ever have skirmishers in front of the heavy infantry. You'd be surprised how effective it still is, and in fact I find I take less casualties doing it this way than when I keep my mostly skirmishers in front. As well, for when you need that little extra pincer attack, these skirmishers can be used in a last ditch attempt to flank the enemy.

Exactly this.

This is something I found very useful with any faction in any TW game actually. I remember when I started out, I would use skirmishers in font of my melee troops, then retreat them back behind the infantry line and then, well, treat them as archers.

They are so much more powerful if you can use them to flank the enemy melee line once they are pinned down with your own infantry. Of course you need to remain mobile, protect your skirmishers from enemy cavalry and it requires a lot of good control, but its absolutely worth it. Just keep skirmishers behind your infantry, then lash out to the side once both infantry lines are engaged. Really nice. Depending on your skirmishers (i.e. if they have melee capabilities or not), you can then engage in close combat as well.

Otherwise, great guide(s) Skahn. I'm not the biggest player of barbaric factions (I like my hellenics ), but I'm sure this is very useful for other players.

[QuintusSertorius]

This is a great guide, I've already added as much Reputation as the system will allow.

One thing I will say, though, using 6 missile units in a full stack, especially 6 slingers, is definitely in the realm of exploit in favour of the player. Really, you shouldn't use more than a couple, and if you want more missiles maximum of another two archers, and any others fill out with javelineers. Now granted the Koxsolatoi (Celtic Javelineers) don't appear til the autumn release, but you've got access to Jugunthiz who play the same role.

[Genghis Skahn]

This is a great guide, I've already added as much Reputation as the system will allow.

One thing I will say, though, using 6 missile units in a full stack, especially 6 slingers, is definitely in the realm of exploit in favour of the player. Really, you shouldn't use more than a couple, and if you want more missiles maximum of another two archers, and any others fill out with javelineers. Now granted the Koxsolatoi (Celtic Javelineers) don't appear til the autumn release, but you've got access to Jugunthiz who play the same role.

Duly noted. I'll be sure to add both more celtic javelineers and levy spearman to my line up once the autumn release happens .

[QuintusSertorius]

Duly noted. I'll be sure to add both more celtic javelineers and levy spearman to my line up once the autumn release happens .

Levy spearmen you are within your rights leaving behind as pure garrison troops - they're emergency units really. But levy archers should be in the mix; yes they're rubbish compared to the slingers (though they're adequate spearmen), but they're what you have.

[Genghis Skahn]

Protecting against and preparing for invasions:

****in' Neurja and the east:
Like I've emphasized many times in the past, if you are planning to control the amber route and the lugi-balt territories, then you had best be prepared to be raided by the sarmatians. This area is one of the most difficult in the game to patrol and protect against invasion, and you might find yourself overextended many times. The sarmatian movement bonuses are the real killer here, and neurja's proximity to waldawa...The real issue with neurja is that moskagordu is so goddamn far away! Your army will be begging for supplies by the time it reaches it if you enter Neurja from it's western boundary which borders on waldawa's province, and a sarmatian army is likely to have bypassed your invasion force, leaving your own territories at risk again. It's more feasible to capture budingordu and zemegordu etc. until moskagordu is much more easily reached...Even then your army will be starved for supplies when you attempt to take it. Settled factions don't have the luxuries of cultural movement bonuses and resistances to winter movement penalties. You may want to capture Descaims and some of the other pastoral tribalism territories to act as a buffer zone for lugouwa/scurgum(mostly lugouwa though), because lugouwa is very difficult to patrol and is one of the amber route provinces. You'll really be depending on your lugians here, but you may want to send out waves of allied western germanic and getic auxiliary horseman too, to deal with the mounted hordes of the sarmatians. You'll probably want a number of armies on this front, as I said this area of the map is very difficult to patrol and control. 2 stacks(1 in waldawa/surrounding area, and 1 in descaims/surrounding area) used for defense and 1 used to invade further east, which will be reinforced whenever it is necessary and we are able. The ultimate goal of this invasion force is ultimately control of neurja. Neurja just might be the largest or one of the largest territories in game, and one of the least navigable. It has an abundance of bogs, rivers and forests, and absolutely no roads, but control of it will provide a huge buffer zone for waldawa. Zemegordu and budingordu arent as important as controlling neurja; I only captured them so I could capture neurja(which took forever). As long as the sarmatians control neurja, they can raid you as they please, as neurja's southwestern boundary is a hop and a skip away from both waldawa and descaims. Neurja is pretty much the whole reason why I would delay my expansion eastward, seeing it not in sauromatae hands has been a rarity for me.

The Swebozes: There are 3 main invasion routes into sweboz territory: Northeast from bogadunon, west from scurgum/lugidunon territory across a river, and north through luppae. I've personally tried all three and I find myself generally leaning towards heading through luppae and bogadunon--or both. Ideally a Boii player might capture bogadunon before the swebozes, but I usually let them have luppae, as it is a camp. Leufana and cimbrodunon are the important targets here, as they receive the most foot traffic when fighting the swebozes. I usually take luppae first, then try to take leufana(I usually meet the german stacks in/around leufana's territory), followed by cimbrodunon and hleifboz. Of course, I dont try to blitz the swebozes anymore like in my earliest campaigns--I wait for an excuse to make war on them, like disputed territory like bogadunon, and the completely benign amassing of neutral forces on my newly conquered bogadunon's territory(which the m2tw AI has a habit of doing), and then attack. As they say: who who does not attack first, will be first attacked...Once the swebozes run out of independent territories to conquer, their greedy eyes will certainly consider taking your lands for their own. There are many benefits to controlling western and northern germania, and since they're a part of your long campaign victory conditions, why not avail yourself of the many benefits of controlling this past potential threat to you?

The Lugians: You might find yourself wanting to destroy the closest faction to you as early as possible, to increase and protect your power as much as you can. Most of my early campaigns involved this, and usually(unless I made an alliance with them), they would invade asanka while my army moved to lugidunon or gorsissa; a classic case of he who does not strike first will be struck first. You may want your western and southern ring of central european territories before you attempt to destroy the lugians--they wont attack you if you dont share a border with them-- or you might try to do it as soon as you control asanka and lugidunon. I've done both, as well as having left the lugians completely to their own devices as my allies. If you are going to invade the lugians, you should capture and then attack from near lugidunon to attack the lugians. From there, it's up to you to fight them and the potential horde you'll spawn. The rewards will be clear though, you will have gained hegemony over the lugi-balt territories(for now...) and should be in a positively increasing financial state after having captured lugidunon, asanka and kalisia. Those damn roaming stacks in the west and south does make invading the lugians less appealing, I will admit though

The Romans: Again, I usually look for an excuse rather than directly blitzing these formidable foes. I've had them invade my territories many a time, as well as have suffered from their shadow tactics(the use of agents, I mean). Once the romans start frequently sabotaging you, amassing at your border and attempting to bribe your cities...it's hard for tensions not to build up in the populace and as well in your own mind. We might let them keep to their business, perhaps they could even have the honor of being our vassals one day? But no, neither the Bogios nor the senate or roman peoples want such a thing. You have to destroy the romans to win a long campaign(I keep repeating this, sorry) war is completely inevitable! Ah! And the wealth of the italian cities, certainly such conquests will be well rewarded... By land, most players know there are 4 decently traversable routes by land into italy: a mountain pass leading into gaul from the west,the coastline from massalia to liguria from the west, by patavium in the east and a northeastern passage which connects noreia and kambodunon to patavium. As for myself, I often find myself invading mostly from the eastern routes, you'll be controlling the northeastern pass from an early point in the game, so that route will already be in your sphere of influence. You may want to establish yourself in patavium, medilanon and felsina before the Romans do--it depends on what you feel you can do, or want to do. These days I mostly grow my power in central and northern europe before moving southward. If you choose to delay the war with the romans and increase your continental power instead, then you can expect to have a strong platform to invade from. Beware the many stacks and the wealth of the romans. This war will be a rough one. If you leave them be, when they take patavium, you can expect them to try to claim segestika. Alternatively, you can always sail across the adriatic sea to the italian peninsula from segestika if you dont want to attack italy by land. I've never tried this tactic before, but segestika's port is so close to the italian west coast that you could easily land a large invasion force there, and retreat after beating a stack/sacking a city. Once again, play as you wish.

The other Gauls: You need to beat both these factions, but you may want to fight them individually rather than both at once, to use their own division against them. The Gallic heavy cavalry is what I seem to struggle the most against when fighting these factions--as it's stats are identical to my own. If you proceeded all the way to nemetokena, and control tarodunon, then you already have a firm foothold there. Public order will be good in Gaul because of the amount of western tribal state culture. I don't really have any specific invasion routes or suggestions other than to gain a foothold there and expand. Gaul doesnt have the forests of germania or the swiss alps like the romans do, so there are less natural boundaries which restrict invasion.

Some final comments:

Players who are not seeking to be aggressive, and wish to play an isolationist campaign shouldnt choose a central european faction which is so close to so many other factions. The pritanoi, saba, areuakoi and lusotannan + many others make for great isolationist campaigns, but the Boii generally do not. The Boii literally start out with double the number of territories(not hard when so many factions just have one, haha) that most of her European neighbors have, and I believe they traditionally expanded into silesia(lugidunon's territory), which is to say, that at the game's start that the Boii are already a reasonable power and even historically expanded beyond this point! Behave like the power you are! The Boii didnt make their starting western territory a protectorate by asking nicely . Yet most importantly of all: play how you want and HAVE FUN!

[Genghis Skahn]

This guide is due for an update upon the release of 2.2, whenever that may be, so there will yet be more to speak of about the Boii!

I still believe this guide contains a great deal of useful information about how to play as the Boii as it is, however, and I hope people will continue to find it useful in the years to come!

[Genghis Skahn]

UPDATE: For 2.2 the Boii and many other barbaroi factions now have access to a new gov type called the Allied State which costs no authority points to build! It provides good regional recruitment, can house an FM gov but it's geographic range is limited. The Boii should be able to build these govs in Germanic/Baltic, Thracian, Celtic and Illyrian areas(I think that's right). Enjoy! I know I did!

[QKuhlmann]

Hey, Ghengis,
thank you for this amazing guide. I think, now, that the reforms are implemented, Boii is my favorite faction too. I am now on turn 150 whith my campaign and it is just getting more interesting. Here is how I proceeded:
I started with destroying the 4 devastating rebel armies and only conquered Noreia in the first phase. Also I made a pan-gaulic alliance with the Aedui and Avernii, to prevent them from fighting eachother. Also I allied with the Sueboz, because I did not want early trouble with them. With the Lugiones, who were quite passive in the first 50 turns I only made a trade contract. Then I developed my economy and slowly proceeded to the southeast, conquering Gorissa and Segestica. I then realised, that Epiros was exanding north an made them my allies too. As I prepared to get hold to the new illyrian provoince east of Patavium, which I wanted to secure as a basis for joining the great fight over northern Italy, a real race evolved between the King of the Boii and Phyrros himself, who also approached this province with a great army. Fortunately, the royal Boiian Army was one turn faster, so I had the honor to conquer this town with the assistance of the not so pleased Phyrros and his Royal Guard. Then, as I looked forward to a time of peace and building, the Lugiones attacked.
They took me by surprise and managed to take Streuinta bevore I could gather troops to push them back, but as they were a quite small faction, I managed to reconquer my former capital (which had to be reintegrated in the confederation with huge amonts aof money). I then took Lugiodunum from them and installed a Client King, who bravely and repeatedly defended it against continuous attacks from theit capital Kalisia.
Meanwhile the North-Italy game began. My closest friends, the Aedui, took Mediolanum, Rome invaded Bononia and the Boiian King secured Patavium. The Romans then declared war on the Aedui an I considered to help them against the SPQR-Invasions, but I missed the proper moment. So, now is the situation that Rome owns all of Northern Italy except Patavium, which I have garrisoned strongly, to prevent them from attacking.
To postpone the inevitable war against Rome, which I would probably loose at the moment, was good, because war broke out again in the north. The Sueboz, who made the Lugiones a homless faction and dealt with their Horde, decided to attack the Aedui (who are also at cold war with Britannia and Rome) and I decided to take the side of my Gaul friends. As soon as my Alliance with the Sweboz was in tatterws, they attacked me too. I managed to push them back and to install another klient kingdom in Kalisia, so that now the whole former Lugionan Territory is sworn to the Boiian Confederacy. It seems, that the Sueboz were a little overconfident, to go on war with two Gaulic factions at the same time. Meanwhile the conquering og Kalisia made me a neighbour to the Sarmathians, wich are definately nt to be trusted. (With the Getai and Bosphrian Greeks, who are my neighbours too, I am allied)
So the situation now is as follows. In northern Italy ther is a tense situation wich could explode ar anytime. I am on a guirillia war in the germanic forests with the Sueboz (and a strong rebel army devastating the province of Kalisia). If the Sarmatians would decide to attack, I would be in serious trouble. If the Getai, who fortunately agreed to be my friends, would attack, I would pobably be doomed. Because of the huge garrison in Patavium, which is absolutely nessesary, I really do not have much money.
So, to summarize that, it is definately one of the most interesting campaigns that I played in a total war game. And your guide really makes it better, because it shares the spirit of my campaign.
Best regards, QK

[QKuhlmann]

Path to Patavia

As 2.2b came out, I launched another Boii-campaign until turn 100 over the weekend and I would like to show you, how I proceeded.
My general aim for the early game was, to establish a Boii-confederation, which is strong enough to face the roman republic and prevent it from taking the north of Italy and invading Gaul from there.
Difficulty was hard/hard and I followed a few houserules:

1. Never retrain units, only merge them
2. Try to be trustworthy. Never break alliances. (Exception: Establishment of a new faction leader. Also: Never make alliance with someone, your faction leader hates)
3. No reloading of battles. Acceptance of tragical defeats.

The first three years:
As we all know, the firts years are crucial for a campaign. It is always good to have a detailed plan, and mine was to get rid of the 4 rebel-hordes, who cause devastation in the Boii-lands and to conquer one or two new provinces. Also, relationships with the neighboring factions should be established. Regarding the economy a deep fall into the red would be acceptable but it should not be too deep.

So, on it goes: First of all, the improvement of farming-buildings is ordered in Alkimoennos and Streuinta, to ensure a steady population growth. Also, a few watchtowers are built to improve sight and lure the rebel forces to our borders. (Important: Brennos has to build one at the border to Gorsissa!) The diplomat is sent towards the Gauls in the west, because northern factions are expected to adress us with their diplomats.

Then two armies are gathered: Boiorix, the leader of the confederation, unites his forces with those of his youngest brother and with the Garrison of Alkiomennos. This mighty force heads to the western borders. It will deal with the two rebel stacks in the west and then turn to the Noreia-rebels.
His son Brennos, who sits in Streuinta, recruits one unit of elite infantry and on of skirmisher cavalry to strengthen his much smaller forces, because he will have to deal with the mighty Gorsissa-rebels and eventually take this province by himself.

So the conquest begins: Boiorix defeats the two rebel-hordes in the west quite easily and then gathers his troups in Alkimoennos for the winter. Brennos has to act a little bit tricky because of his lack of strength: He lures the stronger Eloitheroi-forces to the watchtower at the border, provokes them to attack by trespassing the Gorsissa border and gains a heroic victory by choosing the higher ground (see the hv-cross between Streuinta and Gorsissa on the picture below)

Meanwhile relationships with the neighbours are established:
A pan-gaullic alliance to prevent Aedui and Avernii to wage war on eachother, because we will need both as allies against Rome.
Alliance with Sweboz but only trade with Luguoi because we would like them to fight eachother and do not plan to conquer the north in the near future.
Trade with Rome, but Alliance with their Epirotic enemys, to piss off the SPQR.
Trade with the Getai. No Alliance because of Boiorix’ veto (He hates them).

The next year Brennos proceeds to Gorsissa. As he is too weak to attack directly, he has to wait out the siege. Boiorix defeats the Noreia-rebels an retreats back to Alkimoennos, because his losses from the three battles were too large to face Noreia-garrison alone.

Then finally the garrison of Gorsissa sallies and Brennos takes the town by another heroic victory. After resting there for two turns he orders his son, (who freshly came of age and got inheritage-privilege as a welcome gift), and heads towards the west with his well supplied troops, to finally unite them with Boiorix army. Together the lay siege on Noreia.

So, after 12 turns we have the following situation:
Gorsissa is ours and Noreia will likely be ours too within the next turn. We are 16.000 denarii in the red, so, after taking Noreia we will distribute our army between the four provinces, maybe disband a few units and hopefully recover financially. (turned out that the Boii confederacy was out of the read within another two years)

Picture summarizing the situation after three years:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

(Will maybe continued)

[Genghis Skahn]

Interesting. As for myself, I always unite Boiorix and Brennos into one huge army, leaving small garrisons at my towns and then proceeded with my initial conquests. Swebozes are usually my first enemy--Rome is a mid-game threat for me.

[QKuhlmann]

By seperating the forces of Boiorix and Brennos I tried to get rid of the devastating eloithroi faster. Also it was possible for me to get hold on two provinces with the first conquest, which I did not manage before with one big army. But it absolutely necessary to recruit some elites and horsemen for Brennos in this approach, so initially you get into the red even more.
As for general tactics, I think, the focus on northern Italy and long lasting alliance with the other Gaul factions is more a roleplaying thing. Solidarity with the other Gauls. To deal with the weaker Germanics first and face the Roman superpower later would surely be the smarter plan, but the Boii Confederation is not interested in ruling the northern camps. It wants to save Northern Italy from Roman rule, be it with or without the help of the Aedui and Avernii. Now in turn 100 it seems like Rome could push us out again but anyway will will recover and return.

[Genghis Skahn]

Just btw, the Boii can convert Germanic convertible camps now . As for myself, the Germans always attacked me before the Romans, giving me little choice in whether I wanted to rule those camps.

[QKuhlmann]

Thank you for the tipp with the converting, Ghengis! I think it will come to the situation, that I will convert a Suebic- camp in the future of the campaign.

Let me tell you in short, how it went with my Boii-Campaign until turn 160. I still think, it is one of my finest EB-campaigns so far and for shure will not get boring in the future.

So, after the initial conquest there was a time of building up economy and government. I learned, that to join into the confederation, a province has to reach the 2000 Households level (besides the cultural requirements of 75%), so for Alkiomennious and later Noreia you just have to let them grow properly and do not waste money with establishing other expensive government structures beyond Protectorate. Gorsissa became an Allied state, which gave me a second recruitment pool early on.
Into the second phase of conquering I was driven by a Rebel-Horde devastating Gorsissa. I rallied a mighty army led by brave Brennos, defeatded the rebels and conquered Segestica and Nesciaton in a rush. Unfortunately Brennos was slain on the Market square of Nesciaton and so never became our High-King.
As Boiorix died peacefully in Streuinta, shortly after the Time of Riders began, the Romans started to invade Northern Italy with heavy troops and waged war upon our Avernian Allies. They conquered Felsina and Mediolanum and started besieging Patava for several times. The young High-King, Brennos son Tasciomennous, decided to join into the game. With money from mining in Streuinta and Alkiomennous we could afford two armys. One, under the command of the heir Tasgetios (Boiorix brother, quite old for a heir and more like a placeholder for the heir to come) besieged Patava and another one, under the King himself, attempted to take the strongly garrisoned town of Kambiodunum to provide short supply-ways for the supposedly long and bitter war against Rome.
Unfortunately the King was beaten to death on the marked square of Kambiodunum shortly before the town fell in our hands (he was kind of inexpierienced for a High-King). And so the reign of Tasgetios began.
The new High-King conquered Patava, which was heavily garrisoned to postpone the inevitable Roman attack. But alas, one turn later it was attacked by severeal Roman Armys containing half of the nobility led by old and evil Consul Regulus, the faction Leader. Another turn later, Regulus lifted the Siege and marched into the Alpes with a full stack to bring death and Roman rule upon the purely defended Avernii heartland. Rome tried to break the Gaulic alliance by alliing the treacherous Aedui and offering peace to us. But no divide and conquer with Tasgetios. The High-King laid siege on Felsina, liberated it (wich gives a nice message) and so the long and exhausting Italian wars began.
That was around turn 100 and the war lasted for about 12 years. The Boii won. We conquered Mediolanum, gave it to the Avernii, conquered Segesta, lost it and conquered it again and Tasgetios had a decisive heroic victory over the Triumphator and Vanquisher of the Gauls Regulus, who had finally returend from across the Alpes. The Romans then had two provinces in Gallia Transaplina, which now are reconquered by the Avernii, in one case with our help. The Aedui was forgiven and allied again with us only to betray us again by attacking the Avernii. So they will be not forgiven for a second time.
Throughout the whole war, we had no access to assassins and Rome pested us with sabotage every second turn. (Interesting: Only two of the 5 Temple-lines (the blue lake and the yellow field) provide a population growth bonus and without those temple-bonus it is not possible to develop a large town into a city. And no city – no large market - no assassins. So you have to choose your gods carefully.
Also very helpful were the strong Illyrian units from Neskiaton and Segestica, because the gaulic light infantry is inferior to Roman troops. And Gaulic Heavy horses in the Time pf Riders are expensive bur often battle-winners.

The road to peace after the war was conquering Arminium, going to Rome with our highly experienced Diplomat and treating Arminium back to Rome for peace. As we have strong garrisons in Festina, Rome kept the peace for another two years, ordered away its saboteurs and accepted an alliance with us after that.

So the situation now is that we have sucessfully prevented Rome from invading Gaul and made friends with it after that. Tasgetios, who spent the whole war in northern Italy, died a peaceful dead in Noreia and our new High-King, his firstborn, thinks about punishing the treacherous Aedui and to bring peace to western Gaul (which is a warzone by now with Aedui, Avernii and Pritannoi fighting each other.) That will be our next project.
But maybe the black superpower of Makedonia will cross those idle plans. They are by now the strongest power in the world (followed by Takashila and Pontos) and they appeared in southern Illyria, now being our new neighbours and pretending to be our friend. Also, in the north Lugoan assassins were recently caught by our security networks.

The campaign is really epic and so far and I can only strongly recommend the Boii for anybody, who seeks an adventure.