As much trouble as they've caused you, Khajiit would be surprised if anybody blamed you for a little extermination! We are in a similar place with Gaul right now in our Julii Campaign. They just refuse to die!

That is a tight fix you are in! I recall playing the Saxons was no easier in Barbarian Invasion.

Between a rock and a hard place, aye. Khajiit is sure Haz will find his way out of it though.

It's definitely not going to be easy. I'm hoping that the Danes will help me fight the Lugians - Danes seem to enjoy raiding the Germanic coast, and might be able to distract the Lugians long enough for me to take back Flevum.

I've just upgraded my Germanic Levy (basic spear unit) to Nordic Spearmen, who can form shield walls and are generally better warriors. I also have some cavalry now, which will obviously be of huge help.

Love the cavalry. One of Khajiit's favorite things is running the cavalry off away from the battle and then being able to bring them up into the enemy's rear. All those little fleeing men getting run down is ever so much fun!

I did fire up Barbarian Invasion. I decided to give my old favorites another try - The Sarmatians. But this time instead of hording and moving west and then south into Greece, this time I tried doing something different. After spending the first few turns building up a few armored horse archers, I horded and went east. I narrowly avoided the Roxoloni horde that was coming straight west, and the Vandal horde that was coming from the north west. That left only the Hun horde, which I was also able to skirt around.

That left the steppe open to me. After sacking Campus Alani I headed south to the Caucasus. I went through them in the far eastern pass, on the shore of the Caspian sea. Then I set to sacking Sassanian cities. I went all the way south to Ctesphion, then hooked west to Hatra, and now am making my way back north into Armenia again. Kotias has revolted from the Sassanids since I went through there originally. They have a full stack in Artaxarta, and it looks like only one unit in Phraaspa.

I plan to tackle Artaxarta next, and settle there. Maybe I can lure the garrison out into a field battle. Otherwise I will just wait them out. I did that for Ctesphion, since it also had a strong garrison. I can probably send a second force over to Phraaspa at the same time to take it.

When you say "sacking cities", do you mean taking the towns then leaving or actually using the towns?

It is something they added with Barbarian Invasion to go with the horde mechanics. When you are a horde you only have two options when you take a city. You can sack it, or settle. Sacking does lots of damage to the buildings, kills most of the population, and gives you a lot of loot. But afterward your troops are immediately moved out of the city and it reverts to rebel control.

Settling means beginning the process of going back from a horde to a regular faction. You occupy the city instead, and lose a third of your horde units. After that you can no longer sack cities. Instead you can do the normal occupy, enslave, and exterminate. But you lose a third of your horde units every time. After the third city you have no horde units left.

Quite a stroll you took your horde on, but definitely worth it. Once the Huns are out of the way, the east is a really great place to be - lots of land, fewer factions, no Romans (if you go far enough).

Ohh ok. Sounds neat!

Update, 404AD:

My earlier desire to see the Lugians in turmoil came true, as the advance of the Huns pushed more barbarian factions into Gothiscandza - the Lugian town of Rugion changed hands half a dozen times to as many factions.

The Danes did do some raiding but rather than the east coast, as I'd hoped, they raided Flevum! The public disorder caused by their attacks caused rebels to pop up. The rebels took over the settlement, so I moved in to attack and was supported by some Danes.

King Gewis and his troops arrive in Flevum

On the other side of town, the Danes arrive

Caught between two armies, the Germanic rebels are quickly crushed

My forces form up in the town centre as the Danes raise our flag, Flevum is Saxon once again. Praise Wodan!

As you can see, the town has barely any buildings left standing. The reconstruction has been very expensive, but now the whole province of Frisia is under Saxon control. Across the Rhine, to the west, Gaul has declared war on me at the urging of their WRE allies, so my armies will be on alert for the time being.

Here is the current family tree

Here is the current world map. The Jutes have two colonies to the south, which allow a glimpse into the state of things down there - the roman emblem on the southern tip of spain is the Western Roman Separatists, and the black and white roman emblem to the east is the Western Roman Rebels.

Congrats to you and your Danish allies on your glorious reconquest of Flevum! Sounds like a truly amazing turn of events!

Very cool that you were able to team up with the Jutes to retake Flevum. That kind of thing didn't happen in the old games. I did team up with another faction in a battle once in Shogun 2.

But soon the Huns and other barbarian hordes might be knocking on your gates. Unless you are lucky and they veer farther south.

Hey Haz, who has control of the British Isles in your game?

Britannia starts off split between WRE, Picts, Caledonians, and Ebdanians.

In the last map screenie I posted, WRE have been replaced by the Franks and Britain (A Roman-based faction, similar to Gaul, Asia etc.)

Oh ok, gotcha.

Khajiit is about to make his move against the rest of Gaul. We've got two forces coming up from the boarder of the Iberian Peninsula and another is carving its way through some Britons in Germanía, trying close in on their last city*.

*We think it's their last city.

My Sarmatian horde has wiped out the Sassanids.

I have settled in their old lands. Well, some of them at least. Here is a pic of the new Sarmatian homeland. I have three cities, so now all of my horde units are gone.

Now the real hard part of the game has begun. I had to recruit a large standing army just to keep order in my cities thanks to both the culture penalty of Barbarian vs. Eastern, and the religious penalty of Pagan vs. Zorastorian. I also already had one invasion by a full stack of Eastern Romans. Of course they were no match for my horse archers, and I completely wiped them out.

Before I de-horded I had 44k in gold in my treasury. Now I have about 12 I think. I cannot afford my army. But I cannot afford to disband them. I just redistributed my generals, so my faction leader - who has the most Influence, is in my most rebellious city. That allowed me to raise taxes there a little without triggering a rebellion. I have disbanded a few infantry units here and there, and the herdsman units I started the game with. I am loathe to disband any of my horse archers however. I need them too much. At this point I am going to try to buy time and hope the religion penalty dies enough over time for me to raised taxes more, and free up my cavalry from garrison duty.

And somewhere far in the west, the Romano-British have emerged.

Sounds like everyone's doing well! Or at least...not doing poorly.

Horse archers are so handy. My Saxons can hire some as mercenaries - expensive but definitely worth it.

I love horse archers. They require a lot of micro-management. But when used properly, they can annihilate much larger enemy forces. Even when you are out of arrows, they can still make the enemy run around the map chasing them. Then you can gang up on them from all directions with multiple horse archer units. The lower quality units will often rout at that point (very tired and surrounded).

Khajiit could be doing better than he is. Several of his towns are very unhappy but there isn't anything we can really do about it at the moment. Some don't have governors. One (the frickin Julii capital no less), is being ravaged by a plague. The main reason we are going so hard at the Gauls is because destroying them (or outlasting them) is one of our victory conditions. The poor Britons are just in the way of some big armies, lol

Welp, it wasn't pretty but Khajiit finally met the victory conditions for his Julii campaign. Gaul was down to one last stronghold and we were beaten back once. At the second battle though, we crushed them. We could've kept playing but the end was so sloppy Khajiit was ready to be done with it. Now we've got more options for campaign factions so we may try a Britannia campaign next.

Congrats! For your first ever Total War campaign, messy is fine. Good luck with whichever faction you go for.

Update. 408AD.

I began by sacking the Gaul-controlled Colonia Agrippina, to the west of Frisia, which convinced Gaul to offer me a peace treaty. I then set up a defensive alliance with the Geats and a trade deal with the Alamans. The old Alaman king has died, and the new king seems trustworthy.

My desire for expansion met with some problems. Primarily, I can't expand in any direction without upsetting half a dozen factions. Fortunately, the Huns solved my problem - they razed the town of Duna in Germano-Sarmatia, so I sent a force to occupy and rebuild. It's not too far from Frisia, but far enough that I'm away from all of the barbarian shenanigans. Also, the Huns have already been here so I shouldn't have much trouble. I've also sent a high priestess to the new settlement to cement germanic paganism as the dominant religion.

While that was going on, the Picts attacked and occupied the weakened Colonia Agrippina. A force of Jutes from the north moved to attack them, with my army in support. The Pict version of the settlement differs from the Roman/Gaul version (it's on a hill rather than flat ground) but our forces had no trouble. The Jutes decided to revive Gaul rather than take the settlement for themselves.

Shortly after returning to Tulifurdum my king, Gewis, died from natural causes. His son Esla, governor of Frisia, is now high king while a general named Cynesige took over command of Gewis's army, The Sons of Wodan. Cynesige's first act as general was to lead the army north and west, across the sea, to attack the Pict capital of Tuesis. Their garrison was surprisingly small, and we took the city with little trouble. After that I raised a third army, to be stationed in Frisia.


Some shots from my attack on the Gauls at Colonia Agrippina:
My forces prepare to attack

The defenders march out to meet us

Battle commences

It was a decisive victory, despite our losses


Here's the family tree

Here's the world map

So you sacked a Gaulish city, the Picts moved in, the Jutes along with your forces kicked them out, and then the Jutes gave the city back to the Gauls?

Yep, you've got it. I was hoping that the Jutes would capture it for themselves, and I have no idea why they'd resurrect Gaul. I wonder who'll take it next.

The diplomacy sounds a lot more complicated than it is in the older RTW games, where whoever neighbored you would eventually attack you, no matter what.

My Sarmatian game has still been mired in cultural and religious penalties, along with squalor. I think I de-horded too soon. Maybe I should have sacked my way farther west into Roman territory before trying to settle. Now I am being inundated by Roman armies. I was able to finally build the next higher tier government building in my most difficult city - Araskia. I am hoping that will alleviate some of the cultural penalty and allow me to disband more of my infantry.

I did have a rare occurrence. A rebellion back on the steppe joined my faction. But sadly I am so stretched to the limit that I just could not afford the units the rebellion spawned, or the city. So I had to abandon it. I tried to bring the best units over to New Sarmatia, but they were attacked by rebels from Campus Roxolani and wiped out. So it was all for naught.

OTOH my victories against the Romans have borne fruit.

Silly Jutes, lol!

So if you attacked it again would the Jutes get mad?


Ooh an Eagle! Bet the Romans are super pissed about that!

I think so. I'll have to check their alliances info to be sure. Usually when you revive a faction they become your faction's puppet state.



SubRosa - Good job with that eagle! Hope it doesn't cause too much trouble for you though

I played a little more, and now I have collected a dozen or so eagles. There are a couple in every Roman army I face these days. My faction leader is called "Of The Eagles" because he has captured so many.

I was able to break out of the cultural and religious penalties in my first three settlements. Going up a tier in one city helped. I also went back to my other cities and demolished many of the Eastern buildings, that lowered the culture penalties, and gave me some money. Then I started building all over again.

I was even able to finally take Kotias, giving me a total of 4 territories now. I Exterminated it, and it has not given me any troubles.

I just decided to mount a punitive raid south. I sent a small force down to Ctesphion. They had a big fight along the way and took some losses. But I shattered the Roman resistance in the area. Now I have the city under siege. I don't plan on trying to assault it, as it has a couple of Comitanses defending it. Instead I just plan to wait it out.

I sent my main army south towards Hatra as well, with the same idea. But I see a big Roman army coming up north to meet them. So it looks like there will be another huge battle first.

I don't plan to keep either Ctesphion or Hatra. Instead I will exterminate the populations, raze the buildings, and then abandon them. Maybe that will slow down the Roman deluge a bit.

So now that you are a settled barbarian tribe, is abandoning a city like that an option that comes up on the menu after you take a city or just a manual effort after you press "exterminate" on said menu?

It is the latter. Just do the Exterminate as normal, then destroy all the buildings, set taxes to very high, and move all my troops out of the city so it rebels. I find it is a useful tactic when I want to create a buffer zone between me and a particularly annoying enemy whom I don't have the resources to visit a proper total annihilation upon.

Oh that is good! Khajiit will have to try that later!

I had a much slower day today - no fighting, no border expansion, no political shenanigans. I've been building up my newer settlements before I dare risk expanding further.

The Huns have become aware of my easternmost settlement, and have set up camp right on my border. Every time myself or my other neighbours send an army, the Huns scuttle away rather than fighting. I'm not sure what they're up to, but I'm not going to let them draw me out just yet. Once the settlement has some walls I might go hunting.

Up in Tuesis, things are going well. I've been tasked by my priestesses to increase the presence of Germanic Paganism in the area, so I've built a temple to Wodan and will continue to develop that branch. Relationships with the neighbouring Caledonians and Ebdanians are going downhill pretty fast, so I'm expecting a declaration of war quite soon. I'm confident that I can hold my ground there though, and maybe even expand down to Hadrian's Wall.

Back home in Frisia, I'm working on the development of large onagers, which requires me to build some new stuff and rebalance the sanitation situation. I think I've got it under control, so hopefully I should be able to upgrade my siege engines quite soon. The basic onager is already very useful, so the large version will be downright devastating.

The calm before the storm, eh?

Started a new campaign. Since the Julii campaign took place in the west, Khajiit decided to go with Egypt this time.

*Update*
Saved and quit after several turns. Pretty much just feeling out the neighbors right now. We made an alliance with Numidia to our west and sent an army east to Petra, which is being held by rebels. The Seleucids to the north offered us trade rights for a couple hundred moneyz tribute for 2 turns. Pharaoh does not pay tribute.

Egypt is a strong faction. Those Nubian Spearmen are good at the start. The chariots can be really powerful. But they can be difficult to use. The Chariot Archers work like any horse archer. Move and shoot and stay out of melee combat. The regular Chariots can be very powerful shock troops. But don't let them sit still in melee combat and just slug it out with opponents. Then is when their small number of people in the unit starts to hurt them. Instead make sure they always keep moving. Move them through the enemy lines and then come back again for another charge. If you can, mix in a cavalry unit with them for support.

My Sarmatian campaign might be taking a turn. When I previously decided to destroy Hatra and Ctesphion and abandon them it was with an eye toward expanding westward into Asia Minor. The ultimate goal being to take the two territories in the balkans that are part of the Sarmatian victory conditions. But today I decided to 'F' the victory conditions. Instead I am creating my own victory condition - destroy the Eastern Roman Empire. With that in mind I am going to take and hold both cities, and part of my goal of conquering the entire eastern Mediterranean.

Both Ctesphion and Hatra have fallen to me, without needing to assault either city. In each case a Roman relief force came to attack my besieging armies, pulling the city garrisons into the battles as reinforcements. Each time I completely wiped out the Romans. With no garrisons left, each city automatically fell to my conquering Sarmatian hordes. One of my generals even had a three way...

My decision to take and keep the cities has paid of beautifully. Literally. I am now the richest faction, with about 35k in my treasury. Quite a far cry from a few days ago when I literally could not pay my army. I am now building up my forces. I am even thinking of hiring some mercenary war elephants. But I don't think they really suit the horse archer play-style. If there were not so many cities with stone walls it would be worth hiring them just to break down city gates. But the boiling oil from stone walls makes elephant attacks suicide.

Khajiit is probably going to see some elephants this time around. Pretty sure he remembers that the Seleucids field war elephants.

WAR WITH SELEUCIA!

Khajiit decided that he could no longer ignore the growing threat of the Seleucids on his doorstep, and then, using a rebel band that popped up near Damascus as an excuse to send an army into their territory, we invaded. After dealing with the rebels, we marched away from the city for a couple of turns to make it look like we were returning to our lands. When we were close enough to one of our cities north of Jerusalem, we took on some extra soldiers. On the next turn we marched back to Damascus and attacked and defeated a decent sized Seleucid army outside the walls. After that, the puny garrison was easily removed from the city and Damascus is now flying Egyptian colors!
Khajiit can tell the Seleucids are going to be very worthy opponents. They have several large armies not far from our lands so now we will work on bolstering our armies along our borders.

410 AD.

My forces in Tuesis pushed south and captured the town of Eildon from the Caledonians.
All land north of Hadrian's Wall is now mine, so now I'll spend some time getting it all secured. Shortly after my attack a force of Jutes took Eboracum, also from the Caledonians.

More Hun activity to the east, but still no attack. My priestess assassinated another Hun leader, which seemed to scare them off for now.

In political news, the Danes and Ebdanians both hate me. The only factions who hate me more are the Huns, Picts, and Caledonians - all of whom are at war with me. Meanwhile the Geats, Jutes, and I have a pretty strong relationship going, all being defensive allies and trading partners with each other - an invincible triumvirate of northmen.

Here's the world map

Wait, weren't you good buddies with the Danes? How did that relationship sour?

Yes, the Danes used to be good friends. Unfortunately their king is quite aggressive with his expansion, and jealous of rival empires - as I've expanded my borders and become more powerful, it's made him unhappy. My alliances with some other factions, particularly the Geats, are also bad for my relationship with the Danes.

I actually want them to declare war on me, so then I could take some of their settlements. We share a province in the east, and their capital to the north is shared with the Jutes and Geats so it'd be perfect for me as a trade settlement.

Does Attila have Angles? Or is it just the Jutes and Saxons that will be conquering the British Isles?

Are you strong enough to fight them now?

SubRosa - There are Angles, they start in the town of Angulus in Frisia. They were destroyed very early in my campaign, so it'll just be the Saxons and Jutes this time.

Cheshire - The Danes? Definitely. They keep sending raiding parties to attack settlements all over the place, but spend little time or money on their own settlement defences.

Wipe them out. All of them.

I plan to take 2 of the 3 Danish settlements, but I don't want to wipe them out if I can avoid it - they're really useful in keeping everyone busy. Every time one of my neighbours expands, then Danes are there to push them back. Usually the Huns fill a similar role, but it looks like they've headed south instead of west.

Well that makes sense. Of course, they are likely to harass you also! Lol

I say kill them all and let Woden sort them out in Valhalla!

In my Sarmatian campaign, I saw that the city of Antioch was sparsely defended. So I left a few camel mercenaries behind to hold Hatra, and laid siege to Antioch. Before I could assault it, the defenders sallied and brought in reinforcements from outside the city. But I had already built my siege towers, so I was able to take the city. The new Bosphoran Infantry that I can now recruit from 3rd tier barracks' are a big improvement over my old Runaway Slave Spearmen.

With Antioch, I have cut the ERE in two. My plan is to hold on the defensive in the north, and take the Levant and Egypt. Then return and roll up Asia Minor. With that in mind my faction heir took a small force from Ctesphion down to Dumatha. He laid siege, and then I realized he had no infantry in his army! So there was no one to use a ram. I wound up hiring those Mercenary Elephants, who battered down the Roman walls.

So that small force will be headed west to link up with my army from Antioch. To sweeten things Philadephaea rebelled from the ERE. They didn't become regular rebels, but the Eastern Roman Rebel faction. Maybe I can make a deal with them? Or failing that, they can become grist under the feet of my elephants.

Had some further developments.

The Geats, who have been at war with the Danes for a while, asked me to join in. This was just the chance I'd been waiting for, so I agreed and immediately sent my army in Frisia to attack the Danish capital of Hafn. Decisive victory.

Over in the east, I took the city of Palteskja from slavic rebels. Now I control 2/3 of that province, with the final settlement lying under the control of the Danes. Once Palteskja is back on its feet, I'll march.

Attack on Hafn:
Large Onagers are large. Who knew?

The Saxon line holds firm against the Danish tide

Victory is imminent

Hafn burns