Playing as the Alamans for noobs (Campaign)

[tjsollers2988]

Oh the Alamans, such a mediocre faction imo, but they do get some interesting units.
First the get Bejewelled Nobles fairly early and these Super heavy infantry can tangle even with tier 3 infantry units just fine. Their unique units feel tanky and more specced for defensive tactics than offensive. They do have a nice +15 atk against roman factions which is nice for gloriously slaughtering those pompous romans.

1)Starting off new campaign: send a full stack of troops south and have them in ambush stance in the southeastern forests of Uburzis. This is will make good chance of wiping out a whole stack of warring Vandals.

2)Make treaty agreements with as many germanic and celtic factions as you possibly can. Make as many Alliances with them as you can, there are many germanic factions and most of them like you. This will be helpful in roflstomping the Western Roman empire and later the Huns. After all their unique trait is called Germanic Unity.

3)I suggest holding off on declaring war and annexing Western Roman territory till after 400 AD as by now they have their hands full fighting everyone else. Since the recent Last Roman update the Western Roman empire actually sends whole army stacks against the player if you go to war with them early on. Before they mostly took the abuse like a B****.

Tech wise, go military first as Germanic factions get several good unit upgrades early on and this helps in absorbing Roman territories. After finishing Mil Tech tier 1, I recommend Clearing Civic Tier 1 for the early farm and public order boosts as Roman territories have a ridiculous amount of immigration unhappiness.Then go back to Mil Tech tier 2.

Dealing with the Huns: Until you have 4-5 army stacks and a good 5k+ or more income per turn I DO NOT recommend fighting the Huns. Even if you succeed in killing Hun stacks early on, new full army stacks with tier 3 troops and heavy onagers spawn immediately to replace them. CA really put the odds in favor of the Huns in this game. Also it might benefit you to wait off until you have access to Tier 3 troops as well or at least Elite troops in Mil Tech tier 3.

Economy strategy: Usually I look at the special resource in each province and try to get the most out of their industry and commerce bonuses. I recommend speccing your provinces according to its resource. Iron and Timber provinces make for good troop training grounds. Industry has high unhappiness so until you get late tier 4 civic happiness bonuses and buildings I recommend only having 1 tier 4 industry building in them. Olive Oil, Wine, and Salt provide free food as well and I maximize the food half of them and invest in food heavy buildings like town upgrades and Chieftain halls/Taverns/Elder Circles.

Later game as fertility decreases you should look towards more static food buildings such as fishing harbors and Capital storehouses, also its fine to downgrade a few settlements if you built them too high and they use too much food, they dont get that much better income at each tier. Commerce buildings will become increasingly popular in later game as they give more bang for their buck and also less unhappiness compared to industry buildings.

Well these are my suggestions. Feel free to comment and ask questions.

[Dragonrubi]

Also apart from here you should post this stuff in the community guides, it may come in handy and here in the forum might be eventually buried.

Cheers

[von Lützow]

And you should include in the headline the word Singleplayer or Campaign. I just clicked on this because I thought you'd like to have some hints how to bash nearly everyone in Multiplayer with the Alamans. And now I see a guide for SP. Haha

[tjsollers2988]

ah my bad, yes this is campaign focused. As for multiplayer I can give a few tips.

Dont pick chnodomar raiders they are prohibitively expensive, your next best cav choice is good enough. Alamannic spearman have an excellent spear wall ability making them an effective frontal wall against infantry or cav. A few sword infantry are nice, bejewelled nobles are good for their morale bonus and their unbreakable buff too. All in all think of the Alamans as the Best Defense is the best Offense strategy. German archers are best pick for ranged since they have excellent range.

[brandonlott938]

nice guide cant wait to see more for the other factions

[tjsollers2988]

Originally posted by brandonlott938:

nice guide cant wait to see more for the other factions

np, I like to share what I can.

[tjsollers2988]

One of the best things to do after wipingout the huns, is absorbing all those empty desolate territories, although expensive its an easy investment and helps in the long run. Not to mention you dont have to go to war with other factions for more territory doing this. I often find the Huns have burned half the map by the time I neutralize them.

[von Lützow]

Originally posted by tjsollers2988:

ah my bad, yes this is campaign focused. As for multiplayer I can give a few tips.

Dont pick chnodomar raiders they are prohibitively expensive, your next best cav choice is good enough. Alamannic spearman have an excellent spear wall ability making them an effective frontal wall against infantry or cav. A few sword infantry are nice, bejewelled nobles are good for their morale bonus and their unbreakable buff too. All in all think of the Alamans as the Best Defense is the best Offense strategy. German archers are best pick for ranged since they have excellent range.

Nah, man. THIS, is the best MP building:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsPmzPybB0c

HoC approved and from me too

[tjsollers2988]

ah nice share.

[Hil1Bil1y]

Honestly, in my Alamans campaign;
1. I suckered the Langobards and the Marconomians to declare war on the Vandals. Vandals usually attack and kill most of the standing langobardic armies.
2. Declare war on the langobards and seize their almost defenseless town. The Vandals will be weakened after they fight both the langobards and the Marconomians. Hunt down and destroy what's left of their 2 hordes.
3. Then declare war on the Thurgians *they usually spam spear levy so they are easy to take care of if you build germanic axemen.
4. Consolodate Germania, fill up your 2 main armies *leave a half stack in Germania to keep public order*
5. Conquer Gothiczansa before the Rugians and Burgundians expand. Leave another half stack to keep public order
6. Conquer the viking factions. Leave another half stack to keep public order.
7. Conquer Frisia *yes back stab the crap out of the Franks*. Build a navy *this comes in handy for part 8.
8. Start your conquest of the entirety of Britain.
9. By now you should have 21 territories. Take a few years to build up your provinces and re-recruit all your armies with T3 units.
10. By this time the Hun Invasion is in full swing. If you did what i did all of the Slavic factions to the east of you *Sclavenians, Anteans, etc* are your allies and provide a buffer for the Huns.
11. Now you can take out the WRE. They will most likely be too occupied with other factions towards Panonia, Dalmatia. You should be able to take 6 more territories very quickly before they send much of a response.
12. After you crush most of the stacks they send at you, finish completing your victory province objectives.
13. At this point in time conquer whatever you want and choose the victory objective you want to pursue. Only the Sassanids can rival you in terms of military power *Possibly the ERE if the Sassanids or Huns haven't decimated them yet*

[tjsollers2988]

nice strat there. Much more offensive based than defensive.

[tjsollers2988]

admittedly I dont like offensive strats due to unhappiness issues and how aggressive the AI can be, but the end turn waiting is soooooo long.

[Walpole343]

question before I wreck Rome's proverbial ass and defeated the whole of the Vandals do I have to consolidate my position in Germania by destroying Langobards and Thuringians?

[IGX]

Originally posted by tjsollers2988:

1)Starting off new campaign: send a full stack of troops south and have them in ambush stance in the southeastern forests of Uburzis. This is will make good chance of wiping out a whole stack of warring Vandals.

2)Make treaty agreements with as many germanic and celtic factions as you possibly can. Make as many Alliances with them as you can, there are many germanic factions and most of them like you. This will be helpful in roflstomping the Western Roman empire and later the Huns. After all their unique trait is called Germanic Unity.

3)I suggest holding off on declaring war and annexing Western Roman territory till after 400 AD as by now they have their hands full fighting everyone else. Since the recent Last Roman update the Western Roman empire actually sends whole army stacks against the player if you go to war with them early on. Before they mostly took the abuse like a B****.

Tech wise, go military first as Germanic factions get several good unit upgrades early on and this helps in absorbing Roman territories. After finishing Mil Tech tier 1, I recommend Clearing Civic Tier 1 for the early farm and public order boosts as Roman territories have a ridiculous amount of immigration unhappiness.Then go back to Mil Tech tier 2.

Dealing with the Huns: Until you have 4-5 army stacks and a good 5k+ or more income per turn I DO NOT recommend fighting the Huns. Even if you succeed in killing Hun stacks early on, new full army stacks with tier 3 troops and heavy onagers spawn immediately to replace them. CA really put the odds in favor of the Huns in this game. Also it might benefit you to wait off until you have access to Tier 3 troops as well or at least Elite troops in Mil Tech tier 3.

Well these are my suggestions. Feel free to comment and ask questions.

1. The advise is sane. Removing the vandals is top priority.
2. You cannot ask Germanic factions to join your faction so unless you have a military alliance with all of them victory objectives will be a little more difficult. However on legendary it may be more wise to have super funded A.I patrolling your borders.
Your enemy will always be Huns. Eventually.
3. If you don't go to war with them you'll find yourself in a melting pot of different factions all vying for Roman Lands. And for the most part the Romans when overwhelmed do not attempt to take them back from enemy A.I. and instead retreat to Italy or Iberia.

[Alf Stewart]

im playing alamans now and following objectives whith no dramas. i built priests from the rip and stayed barb religion to push north. but it might also be a good idea to convert to christian once u take some settlements instead. as most ur friendly neighbors will do the same, then its easy to capture christian and roman settlements. but both work.