Need help with Massalia

[heavenoverhell]

While I been having fun with the mod, the campaign i been wanting to enjoy has been a major hell. Idea wise and placement is exciting, however no matter what happens Rome comes and curbs stomps for me with mass stacks of their insane units (partly relating to unit being good melee, mostly being 6 exp). Is this winnable or simply just hell?
If possible, can a general idea of what to do in the beginning of the campaign?

[Suppanut]

While I been having fun with the mod, the campaign i been wanting to enjoy has been a major hell. Idea wise and placement is exciting, however no matter what happens Rome comes and curbs stomps for me with mass stacks of their insane units (partly relating to unit being good melee, mostly being 6 exp). Is this winnable or simply just hell?
If possible, can a general idea of what to do in the beginning of the campaign?

What difficulty you are playing? This mod design to be played on medium difficulty so when it hard it is very hard (and when it is very hard, you tempt your fate). You should give up idea about how to play it as it was in vanilla and looking for more creative solution. You either need to get rid of Roman quickly or you have to stay strong and avoid direct conflict with roman until you have your own empire ready. You should take your time, plan carefully and put your grand strategy (that not fantasy) into execution.

XC5 recruitment system different from other mod as you could upgrade their starting exp by fulfill condition of recruitment of those units (read units' descriptions is a good way to learn how to do that) and you build your infrastructure to support those kind of army. So with proper infrastructures, you could recruit your mainstay meat with sizable starting exp like 3 or 4 to protect your home.

[heavenoverhell]

What difficulty you are playing? This mod design to be played on medium difficulty so when it hard it is very hard (and when it is very hard, you tempt your fate). You should give up idea about how to play it as it was in vanilla and looking for more creative solution. You either need to get rid of Roman quickly or you have to stay strong and avoid direct conflict with roman until you have your own empire ready. You should take your time, plan carefully and put your grand strategy (that not fantasy) into execution.

XC5 recruitment system different from other mod as you could upgrade their starting exp by fulfill condition of recruitment of those units (read units' descriptions is a good way to learn how to do that) and you build your infrastructure to support those kind of army. So with proper infrastructures, you could recruit your mainstay meat with sizable starting exp like 3 or 4 to protect your home.

Thank you for responding, Sorry it took so long to notice.
Difficulty wise i started on hard/hard but went to medium/medium when i released the balance was towards that. I'm aware of the recruitment system and part of the reason I like the mod. What gets me is you start in a trash position with literally no infrastructure or a semi decent army to expand with (only the Celtic hoplites being your good and cost effective unit at start.) The best i managed to do was ether disband the army to build a proper infrastructure to actually support an army without going bankrupt (lasted a long while before 6 rome stacks overwhelmed me) or to take the rebel city in two turns (eco was better but carthage would attack it meaning more troops needed to defend both cities before and eventually bankrupt again. May of been bad luck though because each time it varied when carthage showed up). Surprisingly the Gauls leave you alone most of campaign so that's a plus.
Quick question but how would one go about rushing rome?

[Suppanut]

Quick question but how would one go about rushing rome?

This one is difficult but not impossible on medium difficulty, AI may build inftrastructure quicker but not smarter so they would have to rely on recruitment from Rome as well as its economic boost effect for quite a while (this also true to most of AI faction regard their historic capitol). If you end up in situation that have to Rush on Rome, Gather army, take Rome (maybe by sea), you would not met with any new triarii and much less principii for a while along with much more stiffed economy on AI side. The rest of the fight is to prevent roman retake Rome gradually take the rest as now you nolonger disadvantage in attrition war as much as start of the war. And you would need to rely more on cheaper and less complicate to recruit units to take unavoidable casualty too as they are much easier to retrain and reinforce than more elite units.