Imperator Romano
Legionary
posted 17 February 2009 13:47
EDT (US)
1 / 48
I think it has its upsides and downsides. A big upside is that you'll get rid of your immediate threat when playing the Julii, the gauls. A big downside is that you'll leave those cities to rebel and sooner or later the other factions around it will take them (Britons, Germans, Spain) and one day they will become your enemies.
I personally don't think the northern gaul territories to be that rich, and I wouldn't bother with them, it's still, however, a solid source of income that could help you. But remember you're going to need territories to be able to declare war on the SPQR, unless you don't listen to them and they will outlaw you.
So my suggestion is, take Patavium and Mediolanium. Then head for Massilia (which should be rebel), then jump to Narbo Martius, because of its silver mine. Then take a couple divisions and sweep north and take every single gaul held city. Exterminate the population for some nice cash and if, if you're going to abandon the town, destroy every possible building in there. I would then suggest you to head for Spain and their rich mines, take Palma just for strategical purposes, then once you own Spain for a nice source of income, Africa is basically a sail away.
Octavium
Legionary
posted 17 February 2009 13:54
EDT (US)
2 / 48
I agree. Take the southern Gaul coast, trash as high as you feel like with a portion of your force while you take Spain.
ShieldWall
Legionary
posted 18 February 2009 12:37
EDT (US)
13 / 48
I don't see the use in destroying them. They won't be gaining you a fantastic amount, but you certainly won't lose anything by it. Alesia is a pretty useful city to have - highish population so you can build those barracks quickly and have a nice forward base on that nasty Rhine frontier to keep your troops up to full strength. The problem with the other cities in Gaul is that when you capture them their populations are so low that it takes a long time before you can build anything but the most basic of settlements up. Import some peasants from Italy though and you'll soon be able to correct that.
You won't be losing money by taking them - the negative economy indicator on the campaign map is utterly misleading and should be ignored. The reason is, if say you have 12 settlements, the total cost of funding your empire, and in particular your huge army, is divided equally between these settlements, regardless of whether they're the smallest village of the most cramped metropolis. Obviously these small places won't be able to contribute enough money to fund the upkeep of several legions! Nevertheless there are people living there, paying taxes, there might be resources you can plunder, trade routes open - trust me, they're making money!
The only question is whether you need to build another expensive army to protect these little settlements. I don't think you do really. Because if you sit back on Narbo and Massilia, you'll need to keep one full stack around there to keep the Britons, Germans and Spanish away from them. By advancing north and basing yourself around Alesia, you can defend the northern frontier with just one army. The south will still be open to Spain, but you should look to attack there and take their lovely gold mines off them.
Octavium
Legionary
posted 18 February 2009 16:12
EDT (US)
14 / 48
Actually it's divided by population, which is why Carthage always seems to lose loads. Non the less the principle that more places is better than less remains.
Maybe keep Lugdunum and ignore Alesia. Leave a powerful defensive army in Lugdunum (since it is fairly large and strategically the linchpin of the area) and reinforce it once you've dealt with Spain. If it worked it would not only give you a foothold for later but significantly weaken their forces as they are all forced to attack you where you are strongest (because the computer attacks you where you are nearest).
Imperator Romano
Legionary
posted 18 February 2009 17:10
EDT (US)
15 / 48
For some reason, recently rebeled cities are reinforced with a big amount of rebel soldiers, almost a full stack. Either strong or rather weak soldiers. My point is that other factions that try to take the city will find it rather difficult and it will take them several attempts, therefore buying you sometime to train an army nearby while you have a nice bufferzone. Something to keep in mind if you still want to abandon them.
Imperator Romano
Legionary
posted 19 February 2009 11:08
EDT (US)
17 / 48
Two things, let me correct myself on my previous post, if you abandon a previous conquered settlement from say the gauls, that settlement will go back into gaul hands by itself, instead of rebeling. The settlement had to either be previously rebel, one of your own or have the faction destroyed and then abandon it. Just making sure that's clear.
Also, chariots are a big pain in the butt, I'm sure this varies with every game but everytime I've encountered the britons, the AI doesn't seem to train a whole lot of chariots. Perhaps you'll find a stack here and there that has a couple of chariots with them so I won't plan my invasion of Britain entire based on that, be ready for them of course but don't expect to find them by the loads. And always be on the attack when facing chariots, bring a bunch of archers (the cretan ones are nice, hire one of those and ship 'em north!, the island of Crete always has a couple divisions) and get you some onagers to and blast those chariots while they're sitting, they shouldn't charge unless they see an isolated part of your army so keep them together.
ShieldWall
Legionary
posted 21 February 2009 05:44
EDT (US)
23 / 48
Has anybody mentioned spies? You might have a hard time getting the small towns in Gaul to rebel because their populations are very low and so everyone in them is very happy. But I've just had an utterly devastating campaign against the Egyptians as the Greeks, and I've yet to fight a single battle against them. Send a mob of three or four spies out and put them in a city with borderline public order. Follow up with some assassins to destroy buildings that could improve this order, and within a few turns you should have a nice rebel city that won't revert to the control of Gaul - they'll have to recapture it. I got the entire Nile Delta to rebel very quickly, and they've spent several decades trying to win them back. It's made a complete mess of their economy and I've had no trouble from them at all since.