Opening Moves: Germania – Land of Darkness

By KaiserWinterfeldt

Feel free to email me regarding questions and/or comments related to this article!

Germania is widely regarded as a powerful faction in its own right, and possibly the most powerful of any of the barbarian factions. But quite a few problems surface early in any Germanian campaign, the opening moves guide I have written will detail, using my own experience, the best way to negate these effects as much as possible.

NOTE: This guide was written and tested while playing on hard difficulty, although it should work for any level you choose to play on.

Turn One:

  • Taxes: Take all your cities and jump the taxes up to very high
  • Military/Agent movement:
    • Train a unit of peasents in both Batavodurum and Damme.
    • Next, take all the units out of both those towns (excluding your faction leader in Damme) and join them together in one single army. Adjust the taxes in Batavodurum as needed.
    • Now, move your spy (located around Trier) towards the British settlement of Samarbrovia.
    • Move your diplomat (also located around Trier) towards the Romans. Your going to want to get an alliance with as many Roman factions as you can.
    • Recruit two units of Spear Warbands in Vicus Marcomanii.
  • Construction: Build a Muster Field in Batavodurum, and a shrine of your choice in each city (excluding Batavodurum). I recommend a Shrine to Freyja in Vicus Marcomanii because the Screeching Women they grant will come into play in a couple turns.
  • END OF TURN ONE

Turn Two:

  • Taxes: Now that the garrison in Batavodurum is up, you can consider raising the taxes again.
  • Military/Agent movement:
    • Continue moving your western army towards Samarbrovia.
    • Send your spy into the british town, and continue moving your diplomat south.
    • Recruit a unit of Skirmisher Warbands in Damme.
  • Construction: Build a road in each settlement, excluding Batavodurum.
  • Other: During the other factions turns, you may or may not get an offer from the British. Negotiate as you will, but keep in mind they will soon be losing a settlement to us.
  • END OF TURN TWO

Turn Three:

  • Military/Agent movement:
    • If at any time, your spy is kicked out of Samarbrovia, simply put him back in the settlement.
    • Continue moving your diplomat south, and recruit a unit of screeching women in Vicus Marcomanii.
    • Because of your SERIOUS lack of an economy (remeber, I said this was the best way to negate the economy problem as far as I knew, I never said you wouldn’t have ups and downs) you really cant afford to do anything at this time. If you have the money, build a Shrine of your choice in Batavodurum, if not, it doesn’t really matter.
  • Other: During the other factions turns, you may or may not get an offer from Gaul. Negotiate as you did with the British. Don’t bother forming an alliance with Gaul for two reasons: a) your going to ally yourself with the Julii, who will be in a war with Gaul eventually, and b) your going to steamroll the Gauls later on in your campaign.
  • NOTE: If you dont get an alliance with the Julii, you can try to get one with Gaul, if you already arn’t in a war with them, but keep in mind there are three other Roman factions just waiting to be exploited.
  • END OF TURN THREE

Turn Four:

  • Military/Agent movement:
    • Again, due to the economy problem, you don’t have much money to really do anything. BUT that will all change soon.
    • Recruit a unit of peasents in Vicus Marcomanii, then take the entire garrison and send them north, to Vicus Gothi. Adjust the taxes as necessary.
    • Move your diplomat as far south as possible, and keep your western army on track towards the british town.
  • Construction: If you didn’t do so the turn earlier, build the shrine of your choice in Batavodurum now. If you don’t have the money, unfortunetly, you will have to put it off until you do.
  • Other: During the other factions turn, Mogontiacum might get attacked by Rebels, if so, defend yourself! DO NOT LOSE THIS SETTLEMENT! DO WHATEVER IT TAKES!
  • END OF TURN FOUR

Turn Five:

  • Family relations: A young boy named Vannius should come of age, send him to govern over Mogontiacum.
  • Military/Agent movement:
    • Move your diplomat south, and move your western army towards Samarbrovia.
    • Take your eastern army and attack Vicus Gothi, assault the settlement, and when it is captured choose to enslave the population.
    • Recruit a unit of peasents in Vicus Gothi and then take your General, your Screeching Women, and your two highest numbering Spear Warbands units, and set them off to attack Bordesholm (the settlement north of Damme).
  • Taxes: Set the taxes in your newley gained settlement to very high.
  • END OF TURN FIVE

Turns Six and Beyond:

  • Military/Agent movement:
    • Move your northern army closer to Bordesholm.
    • Move your western army closer to Samarbrovia. By now, you should have reached the settlement. If there is a british army sitting immediatly adjacent to the settlement, attack it. I personally do not favor seige battles.
    • If you really like seige battles, then go ahead and seige the settlement. If during the non-seige battle you managed to take the settelment, choose to enslave it. In the turns afterward, if you didn’t capture the settlement already, do it now and enslave the populace. Continue moving your northern army towards Bordesholm. When it arrives there, assault the settlement and choose to enslave.
    • If you haven’t noticed the trend yet, you will be enslaving newley captured settlements, this is to help with the Germans population problem. Use your diplomats to forge alliances with the strongest factions, namely Rome and Egypt. The alliance with Egypt is more important because you will be eventually fighting Rome. Your getting the alliance with Rome at the moment for extortion reasons. Every few turns, sweep down the Italian penninsula with your diplomat and propose Map Information. Get as much money as you can out of the Romans by counter-proposals of map information (ie. you offer map info, they propose X amount of denarii. If you think they are going to go higher, press the counter-offer button and demand map information.)
  • Construction:
    • Finally build that shrine in Batavodurum if you haven’t already.
    • Also build a trader in Mogontiacum.
    • In the turns afterward, you will want to put your main focus on buildings of economic importance (Markets, Roads, etc.) and military importance (Muster field, Meeting Hall, etc).
    • Due to the Germans pitiful (if any) economy, you’ll want to put the most emphasis on economics, but military should be just a smidge behind.
    • Destroy any temples in settlements you capture and build your own to reduce the culture penalty.
  • Taxes: Always set the taxes as high as possible as long as the settlement’s happiness does not fall below 110%.
  • Naval: Due to your position at the beginning, a navy is not really required, but as you begin to advance towards the Mediterranean, a navy will be more necessary.
  • Family Relations/Settlement Government: Garrison your inner cities with garrisons of at least five units of peasents. As you get closer to your border territories, beef up the garrisons (in both unit quality and quantity). Only bother to govern the border territories with family members, use the rest of your family for conquest.
  • General plan of Conquest:
    • Spread evenly out in all directions. Conquer all of Europe first, then start moving down across Spain into N. Africa, and across Russia into the middle east and Parthian territory.
    • During your military conquests, you will try to advance by making a small series of vicious lashes, capturing a settlement or two in a few turns, then sitting back on the defensive and recuperating.
    • Steamroll the Britons and take the British Isles and Ireland. Steamroll the Gauls and Scythians too.
    • In my experience, Britannia, Gaul, and Scythia have been the easiest factions to deal with, so take them out early.

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