How to play as Burgundians - overall guide

Hello there, this is my first guide to TWA and on Steam in general, so it might not be perfect, but I'll try to make it useful and interesting as much as possible. The guide covers the Burgundians, faction from the Longbeards DLC, how to survive and triumph as them in the GC.

Introduction

The Burgundians are available only with Longbeards DLC, so if you want to play as them you have to purchase it. They belong to New Kingdoms faction group, so it means that they have 50% reduced building conversion rate. While it seems handy, you won't rather use it too often because, unlike other barbarian kingdoms, your position is quite distant from Roman land, and your initial threat are usually other barbarians you have to deal with. And once you get to Roman lands, they will be already swarmed by different barbarians, so rather no need for conversion. But Burgundian faction traits which are:

• Icy determination: +10% replenishment rate
  
• Harsh sustenance: + 15 food from every region with poor fertility

are awesome. Additional replenishment is always useful, especially if you had serious casualities in a battle or you suffer from winter attrition. Food bonus gives you an edge when climate withers, basically you get + 45 free food, if you own all regions in province. Note that this bonus in applied to regions with poor and lower fertility.

As Burgandians, player gets one unique chain of agricultural buildings - Curing Shack. It gives, at highest level a flat 525 income, an additional income in regions with poor fertility (idk how much is that to be honest, if anyone knows, please inform me) and flat 62 food. So basically, if your fertility is zero (most of your land will be infertile about 450 AD) , you get just 8 less food from Curing Shack than from Goat Farm, and agricultural income is higher. I always try to have at least one of these buildings in my provinces. Additional profit is decreasing upkeep cost of your local forces by 20 %.

As any faction from Longbeards DLC, Burgundians have the uniqe event - The Lay of Ybor. Since there is already a splendid guide on Steam
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=402761831https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=402761831
I won't get into details how to obtain your desired general. I went for Godan's Eye, since I wanted to use Burgundians skirmishing possibilities to their peaks, though +15% missle range seems to be broken. But + 7 cunning bonus which makes night battles possible and significantly reduces upkeep of your forces, is also very nice. I strongly advise to adopt Ybor once he's available.

Campaign overview

In this section I would like to highlight some important remarks about campaign. Since every campaign in TWA is different, I won't say how to play step by step, just share my observations and experience. I've already finished this campaign on VH and gained cultural victory, but I'm planning to continue to get military victory and maybe even a divine trimph.

Burgundians start with one minor settlement in province Gothiscandza. Your settlement, Ascaucalis, is located in modern day Poland (I belive it's nearby Bydgoszcz, but it's just a guess). Burgundians are in possesion of salt resource, which is nice when you already have the whole province and plan to build top tier Chieftain Castle (providing you won't migrate and change capital). Your neighbours are Varinians (enemies) and Rugians (quite friendly). It is good to get along with Rugians as long as possible (though you will take their walled settlement Gothiscandza sooner or later). Take their girl as wife for your faction leader. Varinians should be eliminated ASAP (in my case, the Danes helped me in conquering Rugion, so it was an easy task). Your first serious threat will be in form of Viking forefathers and Anglo-Saxons. I'd recommend to get rid of them as soon as possible - their initial units are quite underwhelming, though numerous. If you let them live long enough, the will get unique, powerful troops, which are formidable opponents on the battlefield. In my case, Saxons had some forces in Iberian Peninsula, though I conquered they capital of Tulifurdum. Similar situation I had with Geats, after capturing their capital they became a horde and settled in southern Gaul. Crush Norse guys ASAP, because they may become a thorn in your side.

Once you move further, you will get to Gaul (in fact you have to, since many provinces required to win, are placed there). Usually there should be no Romans there, or in best case, some Roman rebelions. Once you have a nice solid ground in Gaul, I'd suggest conquering Britannia, as it's nice and isolate place, where no one will interrupt with your economy. Besides, it is better to rely on iron source in Londinium than in Octodorum. Additionaly, I've never seen Huns attacking Brittania.

I'd recommend not to expand east of Gothiscandza, before you deal with Huns completely. Provinces there are vast, usually desolate and it takes ages to develop them. More importantly, you will settle in the middle of Hunnic respawn centre (I guess it is in Germano-Sarmatia/Transcarpathia/ Sarmatia Europea/ Hyperborea area). I did this mistake, but fortunately had some forces there so respawning Huns didn't try to attack me. Still, you would prefer to have these forces somewhere else.

At some point ( 3rd or 4th chapter) you will get possibilty to migrate as a quest, which has some high reward (10000 I guess). But personally I decided not to migrate - I invested too much resources in my provinces already. You may however find migration useful, if you want to escape from Huns. Then go to Iberian Peninsula or Italy and enjoy yourself there.

Your starting religion is Germanic paganism, and I stayed with it. If you want to change religion however, I would recommend Celtic paganism (there is significant number of followers in Lugundesis, and obviously in Brittania). For more details, check this excellent guide (BTW I'd love to see it updated, since we got new religions with recent DLCs)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=400449944

As Hun are dealt with, there is no serious threat to you and you may go wherever you want. If you are looking for a challange, go east fighting with Sassanids/ERE depending on who win their everlasting war. Or alterantively, you can take the rest of Europe, either desolate or settled by what is left of barbarian tribes after Hunnic onslaught.

It is up to player, which technologies are to be researched first. I usually go immidiately for tier I military tech tree + tech allowing you to upgrade spear levies to Germanic spears. Next are techs from civil tech tree. What I'd really advice, is to develop tech which enables you to upgrade to Germanic archers and Germanic spear masters before dealing with Huns.

Legacy-wise I'd recommend going for winter attrition resistance, more ammo, lower upkeep and additional growth, if you want to recolonize desolate regions. First one is a must, since harsh winter comes quickly to your homeland.

As for economy, I usually try to customize province according to present resource. Obviously, some resources are more valuable than the others. Sometimes having just one resource building is enough. For example, in my campaign, my gems factory is located in Germano-Sarmatia, whilst in Germania I sacraficed slot dedicated for gems to another farm, so I could build tier four temple. I would recommend using provinces with additional food source (olives, salt, fur, wine) to construct buildings which are helpful in long campaigns ( the ones that provide additional tech research bonus or temples, or ones that are required in victory conditions) due to additional food, player can benefit completely from them. Remeber when I wrote about eliminating Norse guys ASAP? Another reason for that is the fact, that Scandza has three docks, and timber, which has no penalties as a building -use your PO and sanitation to build industry buildings there and use the 20% bonus to its full extent. Well developed, Scandza can become your cash-cow. Unfortunately, Attilas' mechanics force player to change economy as the game progress from industry to trade (factional one, trade between other factions is a different story). Once you have access to Amber Market you can replace some industry buildigs with these.

Units and army composition

As Germanic faction, Burgundians have access to standard Germanic units (though without Germanic slingers and Germanic night raiders). Since these units are well known, and very common, I won't focus on describing them. I just mention ones which are important and useful in my opinion. All troops from spear line are nice, but you should upgrade levies to Germanic spears asap. Useful in every army composition, and must against Huns. The same goes for Germanic archers chain. Obviously cavalry should be in every army in Attila, though from standard Germanic roster I'd recommend for Burgundians only Germanic noble cav chain units. However, I used also Taifali cav against Huns, and it worked fine. Germanic warband is a standard flanking and anti-armour force at the beginning of the campaign. Germanic noble swordsmen are useful as any unit in Attila with shield wall. And pikes - it is really up to player, they are helpful at the beginning, but later should be replaced.

Now it is time to describe units that are unique to the Burgundians. I won't write all the stats of the units unless it is necessary, because you can find it on Honga or Encyclopaedia for example.

Burgundian scattershot slingers - don't get fooled by their missle damage, though it's just 20 they shot at one time 3 stones, so it is 60 actually. With precision shot activated, damage rises further. But most important thing is, though not mentioned, scattershot has a bonus against infantry (+5 for each stone). While scattershot hurlers are typical light skirmishers, their elite version is something unique to not just Burgundians, but whole TWA. While being slingers, these guys have very heavy armour (65!), melee damage of 40, and missle protection of 50. This actually makes them more like a very heavy infantry than skirmishers. And indeed, their armour helps them to survive engagements, which would kill any other skirmisher. I usually put them on the flanks. Even when charged by infantry, they can hold long enough. They are too heavy to skirmish anyway. With precision shot and barrage activated, they can get tremendous firepower. Obviously, as normal slingers, they also slow down incoming enemies. Once they are out of stones, you can engage them in melee, don't expect to have many kills though, they have just 14 melee attack. Their armour and missle block chance also helps them in missle exchange, so they might be used against Huns and their pesky horse archers. Germanic archers are still more effective, and cost-effective in this matter, though.

Burgundian barbed skirmishers and javelinmen - I belive that their barbed javelins are actually Angon (short throwing spear, very common during Migration Period, especially among the Franks, though I'm not military historian by any means, maybe someone can confirm that?). Another very capable units. While their firepower and AP bonus is smaller than other skirmishers, they have excellent fire rate and guerilla deployment. This makes them spelndid general killers. In fact, I managed many times to slaughter enemy general with these guys, since AI is stupid enough to leave their general undefended. They require some micro, though. Once they are out of javelins, they can be used for flanking. Skirmishers, along with slingers and axemen usually have highest kill rate in my battles. All mentioned missle units and Germanic archers give Burgundians ridiculous firepower. EDIT: There are some other important things about these guys. First, their javelins have additonal damage vs infantry (which is opposite to normal javelins that have only additonal bonus vs cavalry) and they have snipe ability, which means that you get a lot of kills while being unnoticed. This is only possible in areas with a lot of trees to hide, though. And beware of enemy units that have 'excellent spotting' feature as they can expose your trap.

Burgundian Warhounds - a very useful unit at the beginning of campaign. Seriously, if you micro them well, dogs can annihilate any enemy skirmishers. I found them extremally nice during siege battles, when I had still no artillery, and enemy didn't want to sally out. I could exterminate his skirmishers without any loses. The same goes for attacking enemy in fortified position. You can also exploit the fact, that dogs (but not dog tamers!) fully replenish after every battle, so you can use them to engage incoming enemies just before your lines and shoot them to no limit, when they blob. 2 - 3 units of dogs in army is enough. However, tamers are quite underwheliming and useless in battles, unlike their Alani or Celtic counterparts, so you rather replace them during you campaign with more capable units.

Burgundian Axemen - things are getting nasty here. Anyone who played Attila knows how deadly Dane axe-wielding units are. With 50 melee attack, 56 damage (with 16 AP) and 60 charge bonus they can wreck anything they touch including cav, providing you use them as support. They are excellent flanking unit, though they can also prove their worth charging head-on. However expect high casualities then, since their melee defence and armour are very low. Obviously, the are also voulnerable to missle fire and cav charges. Anyway, great unit and even against Huns they can be useful, providing you have engaged your spearmen with Hunnic cav and charged from behind. As final note, your general second unit, Burgundian Guard, is also two-handed axe unit, and it might be tempting to use them similar way. I wouldn't advise to do that, however. Their stats are not so good (though the have better armour), especially melee attack and charge bonus, so their performance is worse. It is too risky to use general that way, unless you have no other choice.

Barbed lancers and Royal lancers - your unique shock cav. Barbed lancers are already decent unit (not outstanding, just decent), always welcome, as any shock cav in Attila. But Royal Lancers are crazy. With 270(!) charge bonus they actually are better than other elite shock cav, including Gyan-Avspar, Sacra Francisca or Hunnic shock cav. Even recently added Alani superb shock cav is inferior to them in this field. Only one Tanukhid unit has better charge bonus. Additionaly, they scare enemies and are immune to fear. Excellent in hammer and anvil tactic. Use them well, and they will deal with any threat on the battlefield.

Burgundian mounted axemen - very good unit at killing infantry, however it is much worse in dealing with cav. You can still use them to support cav fights, but don't expect them to win head-on with anti cav melee cav(I know, it sounds stupid);-) . Their are good general killers, thanks to their AP bonus and very high melee attack.

Now a word about army composition. My initial stacks were like 2-3 warhounds, 3-4 spears, 2-3 warbands, 2 barbed skirmishers, 2 slingers, 3 archers, 2 Germanic cav, general and one slot usually for mercs or onager later (I find merc onagers too expensive, and you really need that cash, especially in the initial phase of campaign). Later, when I had access to my shock cav I usually replaced hounds with shock cav, and warbands with Burgunian axemen. Obviously, this composition can be changed, depending on situation. My current stacks look mostly like: 3 Germanic spear masters, 2 barbed javelinmen, 2 elite scattershot slingers, 3 Germanic elite archers, 2 Burgundian axemen, 2 Burgundian monted axemen, 2 royal lancers, 2 Germanic noble cav/Taifali cav, heavy onager and general. This composiotion is capable of dealing with most other Germanic, Celtic or Roman armies. Obviously, I had different composition for fighting the Huns: 6 Germanic spear masters, 6 Germanic elite archers, 2 Burgundian axemen, 4 Germanic noble cav/Taifali cav (I found them better against the Huns actually), heavy onager and general. EDIT: My suggested army composition works well also against Sassanids and Easterners, but never ever try to fight them with just one stack.

Campaing start - initial tips

This section is a request from Mr Killkieran. I will try to point out some important initial moves. Note that because of randomness of campaigns, these are rather general pieces of advice, not step-by-step walkthrough. These tips include some of my experiences from VH difficulty level - some events may change depending on difficulty level.

1. Your initial goal should be taking Rugion. To do that, join your army from Ascaucalis with your faction leader (Gebbica). Then return with the general to Ascaucalis and train 2-3 units of Germanic levies. Move Gebbicas' army to the border with Rugion region (but don't cross the border!) and train remaining 2 units (I recommend Germanic levies since you will need some holding power). Start developing military techs (initilal tech goal is to research full tier 1 military + tech upgrading levies to Germanic spears). Assign provincial governor for Gothiscandza (it's up to you, I personally picked faction heir to do the job) and choose desired edict (I'd recommend one providing public order). Make trade agreements with as many factions as possible (plus non-aggression pacts if possible). Take Rugians chick for a wife for Gebbica. I don't recommend hiring mercenaries, especially onagers - their are not worth it, and you really need to spend cash somewhere else.

2. On next turn launch the assault on Rugion (note that you can suffer some attrition due to the fact that you have to cross the swamp). In my game, the Danes helped me. If this is the case, let them do the dirty work. It doesn't matter if they kill the whole garrison and capture the settlement as long as you are the side provoking the attack. The result may differ, they may kill off the entire garrison, or their pathetic nordic bands may rout once their general is killed. Still, the job is done for you, even if it's just about destroying watch towers. And the Danes, which you will have to deal with soon, will sustain some casualities. Once you have Rugion, occupy it (it may seem tempting to loot and occupy, but since Slavic Nations DLC the first rebelion is a civil war, so in a long term you would probably lost more than gain from that).

3. So now you have 2 regions, and one is a maritime region - it is very, very important! For dealing with the Norsemen, navy is crucial. Note, that barbarian factions have a rapid access to decent archer ships (after some upgrades). You should slowly start to create your fleet. Fleets are costly, but you dont need the full stack, general + 9 -12 archer ships is usually enough, depending on how good at skirmishing you are. In case of naval incursion of land troops, you will be able to repel them with little to no looses. It's even possible to kill off the entire army. And more importantly, you can capture settlements with fleets in an easy (cheesy, actually) way. There is a a guide made on YouTube by AdmiralPrice how to cheese with fleets. It's done for Romans and shown with some advanced troops, but in fact, it works with any faction with any naval archers with replenish ammo ability. BTW, using fleets in that way is the easiest and cheapest way to get Killing Mode achievement. ;-) All settlements in Scandza have docks - they are waiting to be conquered with navy ;-)

4. From now on you are free to go. The event with Ybor should probably trigger, so 'make' your desired general ;-). Try to build (for a moment, at least) carpenter in Rugion (you will need your own onager for seizing walled settlements, and obviously, some archers). Also, try to build pastures if possible - you will need cav soon. Stay friendly with Rugians as long as possible, though you will need to capture their settlement at one point. In my case, Angles quickly declared war on me. They had two stacks, but thanks to ambush stance I was able to defeat them in two separate battles (it wouldn't be possible if I had two fight them both at the same time, I would be overrun by their numbers). This made my way to Angulus clear. With this third settlement, I decided to conquer whole Frisia. Remember, to use dogs extensively at the beginning of campaign. Try some battles with them in Custom Battle mode, if you need some practice. Important thing - don't go for Belz (desolate region in Transcarpathia). Though the Advisor and chapter goals encourage you to do that (it is fertile land, indeed), it is really not worth going there. Transcarpathia will soon be swarmed by Huns and other steppe nomads like Jazyges, Roxolani or Budinians (these guys, BTW, historically speaking, shouldn't even be in the game, and I wish they were removed with some patch). Additionally, you may face there the Anteans, and if they declare war on you...trust me, you don't want to be hit by their uber poison archers... After developing desired military techs, go for civil techs ( tier I and II, when researched completely, are pretty handy, providing bonuses to PO and sanitation).

Screens

Now, as I promised, some screenshots. I will try to present my typical late Burgundian army composition, and how separate units cooperate on the battlefield. I had a nice battle with the Caledonians near Ravenna. Here is my usual army deployment before a battle.
Lets get more detailed insight. As you can see, Barbed Javelinmen are hidden in the woods, near possible enemy incoming route.
My cavalry is standing on both flanks, in following order: Royal lancers in the front, Germanic noble cav behind them, and Burgundian mounted axemen in the back.
Infantry flanks are made of Elite scattershot slingers, who are supported from behind by Burgundian axemen.
In the middle of my battleline there are Germanic spear masters, and behind them Elite Germanic archers. Large onager and general are standing behind the archers. Note, that spear masters are not in spear wall - I want them to use their javelins before enemy will charge them. Just before that, spear wall is activated.
Caledonians are coming! They army is all about infantry, including some strong spearmen, berserkers and fianna.
Caledonians are getting peppered by my missle troops as they are advancing.
Javelinmen are throwing their javelins, still being invisible to the enemy.
Cavalry is ready to start flanking maneuvers.
Slingers are now engaged in melee, it is time for axemen to re-charge the attackers.
Cav is killing off some separated and weakend enemy units.
Flanks are now clear, all I have to do is to support spearmen with now free cav and axemen.
The battle is won! Now, time for a dirty work for cav (chasing routers).
The entire Caledonian army got wiped out.
This coposition is also effective against other factions, here I destroyed Saxon army consisted of elite units.
Conquering Sassanid settlements is all about good angle.
Brave Spearmasters fighting against Spahbed
Long awaited Divine Triumph!

Final notes

I started my campaign soon after Empires of Sand DLC release, so many things changed during that time with patches etc. This is why campaign experience may differ. For example, it is hard to tell how Slavs affect capaign, since their land is close to Burgundian starting position. I did destroy Venedians when they were still 'Germanic' faction, and Scalvenians and Anteans were annihilated by Huns. Also garrison compositions changed during that time.

I'm planning to add some screens, not now though, because guide was created on my laptop, and I played on my PC at home. I hope this guide will be helpful to you guys. If you have any remarks or questions, write it in comments, in both English and Polish. I'll try to answer in the best way I can. Best wishes and kick ass as Burgundians!

[Walpole343]

Okay I followed the army composition a bit with some adjustments to fit my play style but other than that I usually prefer two units of heavy Onager in the army for firepower reasons.

[Demcik]

Ok guys, so I have reached the Divine Triumph, I decided to update the guide one last time with some screens. I also added additional info concering Barbed skirmishers/javelinmen. Hope you enjoy the guide and feel free to ask any questions!

[Demcik]

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy it :) BTW guys, if you still care for Attila, then go there https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/176233/attila-total-war-ultimate-glitches-and-bug-thread#latest and post your own ideas/suggestions or simply report bugs. I myself made quite a long post here (still edited, BTW).

[KillKieran]

Good work man a nice guide overall now :)

[Demcik]

The guide is update as I promised with some screens.

[Demcik]

The guide is updated! Added some initial tips as Mr Killkieran requested! Hope it will help a bit!

[BemusedAlligator]

I've played through a few rounds early as burgundians on legendary (died to huns every time...), and I find that's it's pretty easy to get a non-aggression pact and trade agreement with 2 of the 3 norse factions (destroying the one that won't trade), as well as every neighbor to the south, allowing me to conquer the angles and saxons with secured borders on every side and increasing my income a great deal.

[KillKieran]

sounds awsome looking forward to seeing it!

[Demcik]

This is a very valuable tip. I will try to create something like first turns walkthrough, though I have to recall the beginning of my campaign ( I have started it in Semptember, because I could not finish my Sassanid Empire campaign - there was Separatist crash back then). Well, maybe not a typical walkthrough, rather some advice, randomness of campains in Attila makes step-by-step guides pointless;-).

[KillKieran]

If i could recomend anything in future updates maybe add a turn 1-10 walkthrough on VH or legend to set people up (obviously not to far due to the randomeness)

I find i get roflstomped early game by norsemen so and additional guide to get set up would be awsome