The Germans. They have income problems to start with, but after a good start you can get them into a good economic status, and then focus on churning out their excellent soldiers. Even their most basic spear warband is a good unit, and they have the most variety of any barbarian nation.

Germans, definatly. Gauls are probably the worst one.

Scythia is also good.

I prefer the Gauls to the Britons. The Gauls have some semblence of cavalry and ranged units, while the Britons have infantry, short-range missile units, and super-weak chariots. Not a good faction, in my opinion.

Brits' start position is the best one in the game IMO.

The germans, their spearmen own any other barbarian soldiers not matter what they are. Once the germans get going they can own the other factions fairly easily.

Yeah, the Brits have a nice starting location, with two provinces totally immune to attack and one only marginally vulnerable (if the enemy uses ships and attacks Britannia Superior), and of course their foothold on the mainland. The thing is, although you can develop the two northern provinces into economic powerhouses, this is only within the limits of the barbarian tech tree, and in comparison I'd rather hold the Aegean with its trade.

Well the other barbarians cannot hold a candle to massed chariots... But I imagine thats not about the question.

In the "game" the gauls easilly. You start with the most, and can just drown the other barbarian factions with weight of numbers, while preventing the julii from expanding enough to really threaten you.

I would consider the Germans or the Scythians the best. The Germans have some of the best barbarian units, and the Scythians are almost invulnerable to someone who uses their units correctly. The Spanish are almost definitely the worst. They're basically a mix of the Gauls' and Carthaginians' medium units, with a few mediocre unique units.

[This message has been edited by Ace_Cataphract (edited 10-30-2004 @ 07:12 PM).]

Hello!
What about the Dacians? Their Falxmen is good. However, perhaps their starting position isn`t that good. Gaul is probably teh worst. Germany is good also.
/Capa

does thrace count? i know they probably dont but they do have some barbarian units and they dont consider themselves greek or anything(according to Luvian's mod)

Hmmm seems most people think that gauls are the worst, i think not, i mean right from the start u have a large number of provinces with a lot of troops as well as a pretty solid foothold in spain,the house of julii were just overun by my troops and quickly italy was under control of the gauls. now all i need is to finish of the britons...

Deffinitly the Germans or the Scythians, depending on what your preference is. Though Germania is surrounded by potential enemies somewhat, and Scythia is large and very spread out.

The Britons look like they have a neat starting position, but two of their insular cities have tiny pops, and so are virtualy useless at first, and the Gauls declare war with you right off the bat, which means you virtualy have to focus keeping that one continental city, then perhaps grabing Britany, whilst developing your insular cities, before your in a position to begin making choices about what you want to do.
Plus, those small city pops plus the geographic isolation means it takes some time before you can work up some decent income due to trade.
Also, the lack of cavalry is an annoyance, and although the chariots can be neat when used properly, seem a poor substitute for cavalry, and the general's unit is pretty much worthless (when its killed easily by barbarian brigand peasants, you know its crap).

Not than i'm knocking the Britons, on the contrary, i think they are a challenging and intresting faction to play, but don't be decieved by the map.

I can't believe that people actually think the Gauls are harder than the Spanish though. The Spanish stink. They get the Carthaginian's pathetic early units and their later units are pretty damn bad. The Bull Infantry are the only decent ones, but they come so late that by that time you're screwed. The Gauls on the other hand get fairly O.K. units right away.

I think the Gaul thing is the realisation that you have to deal with the Romans from the word go, at a time when you probably still can't produce your best units.
I've never played them though, and i admot i'm somewhat swayed by both the Rome thing, and how easy it is to spank them as the Britons (with a good start).

The best thing about the Gauls is that although you're up against the Romans off the bat, your swordsmen are actually very decent fighters when you use the warcry. That temporary boost gives swordsmen enough power to churn up Hastati and Principes, with Triarii being super-rare forever. The Roman troops just can't stand up to a full-scale Gaulish charge done well, as they lack decent attack values - 8 to the swordsmen's 12? Pfft.

Hi,

I'm playing a Short Campaign under the Julii and fighting Britons and Spanish are always super easy for me, Spanish stay out of the picture almost all the time, except for when you launch a navy with an army in it over there, Carthage is usually their allies, and they like their Spanish allies just fine!

Gauls are difficult for me, they have alot of territory to begin with, and lots of money, so its nice to trade with them, but its pretty hard just not to fight and claim new territory, unless you go ALL THE WAY to Spain, but then you face the problem with Carthage listed above ^^^.

The Gallic archers are also a pain for The Roman Legions, since in a forest, those things are impossible to get at.

-uthinkof1

Germans are the best because of their wide range of units. However, I like being the Britons though their lack of cavalry is a major drawback only overcome with extensive numbers of merc cavalry.

Scythians are probably the best barbarians as their excellent horse archers can beat 'most anything, and repeated charges from Scythian Noble Cavalry can even beat 1st cohorts if done properly. The only problem is their map position.

The Brits are pretty good too. You can stomp on the Gauls fairly easily, and push into spain, then take rome from all directions!

I think - Germans because of their falanx. These guys together with cavalry and archers can beat any other barbarian horde.
May be only Scythians can do something with germans, but I prefer not to use bow but hand-to-hand fighting.

PS Sorry for my bad english, I am not native-speaker.

Spain is definatly the worst barbarian faction. Their only cavalry unit is round shield cav. and thats just pathetic. Only regular slingers and skirmishers, no archers.

Iberian infantry get ripped apart by practicly everything. The scutarii is pretty good but problem is you get them at the same time as the Bull Warriors.

As much as Bull Warriors do rock, they are simply too expensive as the spanish lands are EXTREAMLY poor.

In a campaign game, the Germans are probably the best one. Good infantry, decent cavalry (the Scythians are SO toast when german light cavalry get ahold of their horse archers, and Gothic Cavalry play ball with the best of them, and the Nobles aren't bad either) and a solid battle line, combined with their good starting position: the germans have plenty of time to finish of the Britons on the continent (after which the Britons are only an occasional nuisance) before they start tangling with the Gauls - and at the point where the Gauls attack them, the Gauls are typically at war with the Romans...and so get sandwiched. Out east, the Scythians seem to prefer (at least on the harder SP levels) to tangle with their southern neighbours rather than mix it up with the germans, especially if there is a zone of rebels between the two.

Horse Archers are a real problem against the Germans if used by a clever human player (of course, most units are a real problem for human players if used by a clever human player...) but even with reduced foot archer efficiency, a spear warband/archer warband/barbarian cavalry combo, perhaps stiffened by a few Gothic cavalrymen or Noble Cavalry, make short work of many Horse Archer strategies...at least that is my experience in MP.

Ringeck

Ringeck wrote:
combined with their good starting position: the germans have plenty of time to finish of the Britons on the continent (after which the Britons are only an occasional nuisance) before they start tangling with the Gauls - and at the point where the Gauls attack them, the Gauls are typically at war with the Romans...

I am playing company for Germans (very hard/very hard) now.
In the early beginning I was attacked by both Britons, Gauls and Dacs, then by Scythians and Fraks. For now I destroyed Dacs and almost elliminated Gauls and Britons.
And what was the most surprising thing (in bad meaning) - Romans did not attack Gauls during all this time and now they send fleet with large army to my new borders! So, I don't think that Germans have really good starting position.

MOrbid: "I am playing company for Germans (very hard/very hard) now.
In the early beginning I was attacked by both Britons, Gauls and Dacs, then by Scythians and Fraks. For now I destroyed Dacs and almost elliminated Gauls and Britons.
And what was the most surprising thing (in bad meaning) - Romans did not attack Gauls during all this time and now they send fleet with large army to my new borders! So, I don't think that Germans have really good starting position. "

That is interesting. I have the completely opposite experience, once with germans on hard/very hard and once on very hard/very hard. The Scythians never even made a real appearance (apart from the obligatory VH criteria of declaring war on the player faction at the earliest point possible) until well after both Gauls and Britons were dealt with, and the Thracians (which is what you mean by "Fraks", I assume) did not declare war at all in the H (short)game and, while doing it when I reached their borders in VH, were too weak to do any real damage. The Romans declared war on the Gauls both times and did quite a lot of damage to them.

On the battle map the Germans' spearmen dominate so much it is almost silly. Just make sure their larger armies attack you (which they will invariably do, especially on H/VH), hopefully while you are in wooded territory, set up, and watch them desintigrate on the spearmen's phalanx. The TR mod help a lot on making the Germans less formidable barbarians by introducing the Lancemen and taking the Phalanx formation away from the Spearmen.

Ringeck

May be all attack me in the beginning because I conquered many rebel cities in the beginning and so became closer to other factions and also almost did not use diplomats... %)

Ringeck:
"On the battle map the Germans' spearmen dominate so much it is almost silly. Just make sure their larger armies attack you (which they will invariably do, especially on H/VH), hopefully while you are in wooded territory, set up, and watch them desintigrate on the spearmen's phalanx. The TR mod help a lot on making the Germans less formidable barbarians by introducing the Lancemen and taking the Phalanx formation away from the Spearmen."

I am quite agree with you! So, as I write before, Germans in my opinion is stronget barbarian faction. I am going to install TR in nearest future. Does this mod really kick ass?

Total Realism isn't entirely finished yet, but I think it makes for a better game. The worst ahistorical units gets taken out of the game (you won't recognize the egyptians, for example) and the übercavalry gets a remake - cavalry is still efficient, but not the battle dominators they used to be. In addition, many campaign rules get changed - cities grow slower (which means you get less units, but the game lasts longer), the navies can actually wipe one another out, and so on.

I like it a lot, at least. However, keep an unmodded version for internet multiplayer, because there aren't that many out there that have the mod.

Ringeck

Thank you for information!
About cavalry - it is great that it become weaker. As I know, rome cavalry for example was very weak. About fleet - great too. I will install this mod.

BRITANNIA ROCKS. i discovered the strategy. instead of moving into Gaul, u go to Spain and move up. its genius.