Western Roman Empire

[^_Thranduil_^]

I've started playing the game in hard dificulty with the western Roman Empire, i'm somewhat stable (with ocasional revolts) keeping about 70% of my starting lands, still haven't seen the huns.

Now idk what to do because i've tryied to invade germania with some trops, and althought i made a carnage of barbarians i cannot stablish a secure foothold because i end up being overun.

Should i just forget about extending and prepare for the barbarian invasions? i could try to recover all the north african provinces (atm i just keep the cartago province), but they are the only neighbours that don't hate me and i've friendly treaties.

It's just that my game atm is a complete status quo.

[No Time For The Lost]

When I play as WRE, I put a lot of my money into the development of Italia, Magna Gracia and the two terroritories directly above Italia.

Huns and Barbarians don't stand a chance against a large garrison complimented with Crossbow cover and strong spearwalls.

Expansion-wise, I spend a lot of my time attacking north-west africa and take the jewel bareing lands of that region.

Hold out and prepare for WAR!

[The_Yogi]

Help ERE - They must be busy.

[Shaka]

Dont worry pal they will show and everything will go crazy. Remember they dont even need to attack you just sitting on your land gives you major penalties yeah i'd just expand in North africa.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Use the first 5 years to stabilize your economy and happiness levels. Put governors on your richest provinces. Get rid of the waste of space that are your Christian religion buildings (if you really want priests, get them and keep them in Germania to cause revolts). Only do military research and try to get your upkeep as low as possible through research. You will want to be in a position to spam libraries in as many places as possible within 10-15 years, as research is what will keep you alive in the long run. Also, try to convert to Roman Paganism (put T4 theatres in every capitol region as funds allow). If you can take Urbuzis (in Germania) or Dimmidi (Sahara), you can use the superior version of gold mines in your two gold bearing regions.

On the military side Sack AND raze as many neighboring barbarian provinces as possible on the Germania front. You need a No-man's land to starve your northern neighbors. Be aware of the diplomatic situation and try to not fight too many nations at once. Do not antagonize them further as they will gang up on you and wear you down with numbers. They will like you a lot sometime around 410-415AD when the Huns come knocking, so you have plenty of time to betray them later.

Any Germanic hordes that enter your territory must be chased down and killed off with the aid of spies (hinder, misdirect, slaughter them). You can also gift them regions and kill them off after a few turns (to my shame, I gave Florentia to the Visigoths at one point and didn't get around to killing them for 6 years for several reasons.) Again, be aware of the diplomatic situation and try to avoid fighting the Vandals in the early game unless you know you can catch and kill them without compromising your frontier.

In Brittania, sack and raze Eildon either immediately or wait for the Picts to attack, kill their army, then sack and raze Eildon. This should help you hold Brittania and kill off the Picts and Eblanians by around 405-410 AD (be aware that Brittania will be a HUGE money sink as long as you do not own the entirety of all 3 provinces because you will need two full armies to subjugate the region).

In NW Africa, get friendly with as many of your southern neighbors as possible and get any trade agreements you can. If any don't give you what you want diplomatically, curbstomp them and raze their towns.

Regarding the ERE, do not fight them for any reason until around 420AD. They are your early game buffer against the Huns and Sassanids. Do whatever you can to keep your alliance intact.

Yes, you must do all of this simultaneously. Yes, it takes forever. I am on turn 90 of my WRE game and though I have made significant land gains by colonizing, my turns have gone from being 30 minutes long in the first 5 years to usually being an hour or longer from 400 to 420AD(Thanks, Hunbama!). Even though I have 30k a turn in income, money is still always a problem. I have 12 armies and a navy (will disband after last Nordic empire, the Geats, dies) to equip and re-equip thanks to the Huns, and I always need to build something somewhere (right now, it's Roman temples...everywhere). Because I always need to build buildings, I find that I am having to use garrisons to ward off Hunnic stacks, especially in Gothiscandza, Transcarpathia and Olbia, since my armies are only have two seasons they can be safely used because of the replenishment blocking that the Huns have...and the constantly spawning stacks mean I have to reload if a spy fails to misdirect the Huns.

I do use a few quality of life mods for WRE and have been experimenting with some of the overhauls and the "legendary generals" type mods, but I haven't made use of any significant content mod content since meeting the huns.

TL;DR WRE is overwhelming, but fun.

[mikael]

I abandon every town except mainland Spain, this makes me being able to control rebellions and invasions whilst doing millitary tech-up and building a finacial powerhouse.

When my armies got somewhat good soldiers I start to nibble in on bordering weak towns.
My advance is made slow with spurts of conquering 1-3 towns, then followed by a consolidation/romanization period.

I play with Radius mods. Once you have tried his mods, you will keep them. :)

[Father Ribs]

I wouldn't invade the north unless it was to burn the provinces so noone else can use them. The northern territories are so infertile that it makes more sense to fortify Italy, expand into Spain and Africa.

[Cronotekk]

ERE players here, send troops to help the ERE fight the sassanids before they get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Chaoslink]

I attacked the enemies of the huns til they liked me... now they kill for me.

[chusunny]

I played as WRE long time ago in Very Hard and get a divine victory with no mods. (I think they change some setting later so difficulties may be changed and some tatics I used may not work now.) Start with Economy, WRE has massive corruption and very low net income at beginning.

1) What I do to get some income: Except first year, net income always keep 10k.

1. Disband most forces except Legio X (with some better units merge from other Legio).
2. Abandand regions to reduce corruption and easier to defend.
3. Allow rebellion to set up new factions in South Spain and South France then make them my puppet state - They now can trade with me and Attack other rebellion on my soil near their town.
4. Get money from diplomacy, ask your Puppet states and ERE. (AI with very hard seems have a lot of money...Especially ERE)
5. Try made ERE your puppet state. (In my game, They turn back to attck me 7-8 round later, but during that 7-8 round my net income raise to 40k and even later ERE fight me back I manage to keep income 30k. Their betrayal in fact later profit me.) (Later game, around 415)

2) How I defend:

1. Mercenaries is cheap to use and easy to get.
2. Defend a costal town, battle near the shore can get naval archers support (unlimited ammo).
3. Draw a line from Rotomagus to Aquileia, this frontier is either costal town or fortified.
4. Fight every battle manually. (I feel disgusting becuase I fight the same sets of enermy with same garrison more than 30 times and somehow my game is broken and cannot Fast Foward...)

This is my early game tatics, They might not work now and you are welcome to point out any mistake '_>`

Personal opinion: The corruption system is really bad. Why can't they base on distance to Capital? In intro it saids WRE Capital move to Milian for easier administration... but in game there are no difference between Capital set in Rome or Milian. Lazy Developer :(

[Raider Deci]

The problem for me is rarely the attacking armies. Its the happiness and in the end my rebels tend to outnumber me and my enemies 3-1, sometimes 6-1 (per faction)


But when the push comes remember to defend your heartland, everything else is disposable.

[98.7]

Move all your best assets to the British Isles and let the world burn while you establish England...

[Schkeiwookah]

Usually what I do as WRE is that I try to develop my core lands which are relatively easy to defend. So Italy below the alps and Spain. If you can try to hold north africa. That takes a way a lot of pressure and you can move your troops to defend your north and eastern border. Once your core is secure you can reconquer what you lost.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

As an update, I have achieved total dominion of the campaign map in Summer 429. I will never have a divine victory because it requires I regain the useless Latin Christian religion. For some strange reason, the ERE was the last faction to fall, as they were my main source of income via trade (60k just from trade with ERE) The Sassanids admired the ERE until 425, when the ERE, being unreliable, agressive, and expansionistic, declared war due to a lack of Hunnic threat. Attila had been killed off and the Huns decimated in 422, the far North colonized and mostly stable. As I was dragged into a war with the Sassanids before planned, it took a year to get most of my armies over to the eastern Mediterranian and the Caspian Sea.

Since the ERE took the brunt of the damage from the Sassanid advance, losing four legions and part of the Palestinean strip in the process, I was able to calmly crush the Sassanid puppets in the north and move on their heartland in Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Thanks to the ERE weakening the armies of the Sassanids and their puppets, it took only about two and a half years to clear the region and (kind of) stabilize the occupied lands. With no other foes, I marched on the Byzantines and reunified the Empire.

Some additional concepts that should be addressed when dealing with major empires: If you can either cause a famine or lower their income to where they cannot support their armies, they will suffer constant attrition just the same as you would in the same situation. This means that targetting the economy, especially when assisted by another empire (even if its just there to absorb the initial blows) is an effective strategy. In the case of the Sassanids, raze or occupy their puppets first to cripple trade and tribute. Your weakness as WRE and reason for killing any random horde that wants to cross your borders, staying friendly with the ERE, killing the Saharan princes, etc etc, is, as stated above, your heartlands. The entire italian peninsula, Insulae Occidentalis, and your coastal African provinces are your economic center and your breadbasket. Losing those means GG,WP.

[Father Ribs]

That's my saving grace when I played the Himyar; Sassanid and their allies turned on me and if they had gotten all their armies all in position I wouldn't have had a chance, but I aggressively attacked first and burned all their border provinces, and sent two navies to burn every coastal province they and their allies had. It seemed to do a good job of keeping me from having to deal with superstacks of heavy calvary.

[Big Moustache]

Sack and raze every neighbouring region you can for more cash and security. Invest in miltary fleets and sink hordes and enemies alike. Always check if they are at war with the Huns and than join war instead declaring war. After 40 or so turns you are rich and stable enough and gained a unkillable friend too. Not like CA intended it but it works wonders lol.