Barbarian Help

[LordLurch]

I am desperately in need of some help regarding the barbarian factions. I love to play as them, but in every campaign I've started with one of them (Galatians, Suebii, and Boii), I've always gotten completely stuck and had to give up. I can't make money, my units are horrible, and every battle costs me at least half of my army, even when I win. I play on Hard difficulty and I don't use any major game-changing mods like DeI or Radious,so the only thing I can think of is that my tactics are wrong. I've been playing all of these factions similar to the way I play Rome (large armies, big pitched battles, etc.), and I'm getting nowhere. Can anybody point me in the right direction?

[LordLurch]

After attempting another campaign as Carthage, it would seem that my problem extends to basically every faction in the game besides Rome. I just can't seem to get a good start: everything goes fine initially, but I inevitably end up broke and at war with multiple factions until I quit out of frustration, knowing that I'll probably never be able to do anything except defend my capital for the entire game. What am I doing wrong?

[Alwyn]

I wish I could give you an answer. I play on Normal rather than Hard, so I imagine that I am a less experienced player than you are. I tried playing as Carthage and found it harder than playing as a barbarian faction - Rome was coming after me and I didn't know how to respond. I love playing as the barbarian factions - mostly as the Iceni so far (I recently acquired the Caesar in Gaul expansion, so that I could play as more barbarian factions and to add more barbarian units).

Apologies in advance if I am telling you things which you probably know: playing as the Iceni, I focus fighting the war which I began with (at the start of the campaign) before fighting anyone else. You mentioned that you cannot make money. Are you using mercenaries? I try to rely on Levy Freemen and slingers initially. When I recruit mercenaries, I disband them as quickly as I can. Are you developing your infrastructure? I like building bronze forges (to recruit swordsmen) but I build a farm first - I upgrade this to the 'horse' type of second-level farm building, to recruit light cavalry. Are you specialising your regions (and, as you expand, your provinces) so that some have mainly economic buildings, instead of military ones?

Levy Freemen can be surprisingly effective: they move fairly fast, they have a couple of javelins (you can see Levy Freemen throwing javelins in the second picture of the Battle of Eborakon in my Iceni AAR, here. They can be 'speed-bump' units, absorbing the enemy's charge (so that the enemy's best infantry charge is wasted on your cheap spearmen, while your best infantry charge theirs). Expert tournament player Decimus Maximus Meridius likes Levy Freemen so much that he named them the 'best unit in Rome II', here - not the most powerful of course, but the most cost-effective. Obviously, some of his advice is more relevant to tournament players, but much of it applies to the campaign as well.

I wonder if anything I have learned from playing as the Iceni would help with your campaigns? I imagine that playing as the Galatians, Suebi and Boii would create different challenges and that different strategies would work. For example, playing as the Suebi, I imagine that you would want to take advantage of their Club Levy units. Other Celtic factions tend to rely on Levy Freemen (and similar units); Club Levy can be devastating against cheap spearmen. I have not played the Suebi, but I have fought them. Their archers can be very effective (I like their stealthy archers, who can fire without revealing their location) while their melee infantry seem to have lower morale than some other factions. So it seems that 'hit and run' tactics would work best for the Suebi, rather than the massed charge of swordsmen which seems like an obvious option for the Boii.

[LordLurch]

I wish I could give you an answer. I play on Normal rather than Hard, so I imagine that I am a less experienced player than you are. I tried playing as Carthage and found it harder than playing as a barbarian faction - Rome was coming after me and I didn't know how to respond. I love playing as the barbarian factions - mostly as the Iceni so far (I recently acquired the Caesar in Gaul expansion, so that I could play as more barbarian factions and to add more barbarian units).

Apologies in advance if I am telling you things which you probably know: playing as the Iceni, I focus fighting the war which I began with (at the start of the campaign) before fighting anyone else. You mentioned that you cannot make money. Are you using mercenaries? I try to rely on Levy Freemen and slingers initially. When I recruit mercenaries, I disband them as quickly as I can. Are you developing your infrastructure? I like building bronze forges (to recruit swordsmen) but I build a farm first - I upgrade this to the 'horse' type of second-level farm building, to recruit light cavalry. Are you specialising your regions (and, as you expand, your provinces) so that some have mainly economic buildings, instead of military ones?

Levy Freemen can be surprisingly effective: they move fairly fast, they have a couple of javelins (you can see Levy Freemen throwing javelins in the second picture of the Battle of Eborakon in my Iceni AAR, here. They can be 'speed-bump' units, absorbing the enemy's charge (so that the enemy's best infantry charge is wasted on your cheap spearmen, while your best infantry charge theirs). Expert tournament player Decimus Maximus Meridius likes Levy Freemen so much that he named them the 'best unit in Rome II', here - not the most powerful of course, but the most cost-effective. Obviously, some of his advice is more relevant to tournament players, but much of it applies to the campaign as well.

I wonder if anything I have learned from playing as the Iceni would help with your campaigns? I imagine that playing as the Galatians, Suebi and Boii would create different challenges and that different strategies would work. For example, playing as the Suebi, I imagine that you would want to take advantage of their Club Levy units. Other Celtic factions tend to rely on Levy Freemen (and similar units); Club Levy can be devastating against cheap spearmen. I have not played the Suebi, but I have fought them. Their archers can be very effective (I like their stealthy archers, who can fire without revealing their location) while their melee infantry seem to have lower morale than some other factions. So it seems that 'hit and run' tactics would work best for the Suebi, rather than the massed charge of swordsmen which seems like an obvious option for the Boii.

Thanks for responding, this board is usually so dead. I do already employ most of the tactics you recommend, with the exeption of using Levy Freemen. I usualy disband them and replace them with swordsmen as soon as I can, but keeping a few on hand as cannon fodder might actually be a good idea. I do try to specialize provinces, and to concentrate most of my military buldings in provincial capitals. However, I may want to follow your advice and actually upgrade the settlements themselves; I almost never do this due to the expense, and due to fear of food shortages.

[Alwyn]

You're welcome! If you have not already seen them, I recommend the tournament commentaries by Maximum Decimus Meridius on YouTube, such as his commentaries on the Milk and Cookies Tournament. He has great ideas about using units, for example waiting until enemy cavalry are winded or tired before charging them with your cavalry or light spearmen. Recruiting swordsmen makes sense, of course. You might also get ideas on tactics and strategies from AARs in the Writers' Study.

If you are playing on Hard and not enjoying it,another option is to play on Normal and use mods such as a More Aggressive AI mod and/or Guaranteed Major Faction Empires to increase the difficulty level. For me, that makes the campaign more challenging by causing AI factions to behave a bit more like human players, expandiny and attacking the player. When AI factions are more likely to send armies against factions they are at war with, tactics such as ambushes can be used more often.