Suebi strategies, grand campaign

[Alwyn]

The Suebi have an interesting start. You're fighting the Boii from the beginning and, if you take their city, there's a big public order penalty because their culture is different. Of course, you can put down rebellions with your army, and use temples and dignitaries to reduce the cultural penalty. However, in a recent campaign it took a long time to stablise public order in the first Boii city.

The Suebi have some fairly good early units - your slingers have shields, you can recruit Wodenaz Spears by building the relevant temple and your scout cavalry can disrupt enemy lines with their javelins - but your early-game enemies have fairly good Germanic or Celtic units too, and I was fighting a lot of them. As I expanded slowly from that first Boii city, nearby factions kept declaring war - so I was caught in between two or three factions at once. At one point, I retreated a half-stack Suebi army from a full-stack enemy, only to be caught in between that enemy army and two approaching armies from a different enemy faction.

If you play the Suebi in the grand campaign, how do you deal with the challenges of the early game?

[twgamer20197]

I remember I played as the Suebi once. I didn't finish the campaing but I got to expand up to near Italy. What I did was first being at war with alll the hostile German factions until they propose me to be their client states or to confederate with me. It wasn't too hard to make it.

[Alwyn]

Thanks, I'm impressed that you managed to defeat all of the hostile German factions. I was fighting Celts as well as Germanic factions, and the Oathsworn generals were tough to defeat with early Suebi units.

In my early Suebi campaign, I was struggling to fight two or three factions at the same time - particularly when one of my half-stack armies was caught in between an enemy 20-unit army from one direction and two armies (one with 20 units, one with about 10) from another direction - 10 units against about 50!

[Gyrosmeister]

I have finished a campaign as the Suebi. The trick is to get as many Maultaschen and home saving contracts as possible to fuel the power of the Swabians use fear units extensively in your battles. They are the signature units of the Suebi and can be really effective if used combined with flaming arrows and flanking. The capital of the Suebi and the home region is quite trash, try to secure a port in the North or Baltic sea as quickly as possible and send some agents to uncover the factions in the Mediterranean and try go get trade with them to boost your low starting income. Wipe out the Boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii early on and any Germanic rivals you have before starting confederating the other Germanic tribes. Once you are done with Germania, go ahead and destroy civilization and win.

[Alwyn]

Thanks, good tips!

I re-started my Suebi campaign. This time, instead of expanding south and taking the walled Boii city to the south (in my previous campaign, this left me stuck there with low public order for a long time), I left an army to defend the Suebi capital, and sent a second army north to take Baltic Sea ports. This made it possible to set up a sea trade network - as you suggested. The northern expansion and trade income helped me to defeat the Boii.

I haven't used Wolf Warriors or Bersekers yet, but I'll follow your advice and give them a try. Rome is expanding, so destroying civilization looks like an enjoyable challenge!

[Gyrosmeister]

Thanks, good tips!

I re-started my Suebi campaign. This time, instead of expanding south and taking the walled Boii city to the south (in my previous campaign, this left me stuck there with low public order for a long time), I left an army to defend the Suebi capital, and sent a second army north to take Baltic Sea ports. This made it possible to set up a sea trade network - as you suggested. The northern expansion and trade income helped me to defeat the Boii.

I haven't used Wolf Warriors or Bersekers yet, but I'll follow your advice and give them a try. Rome is expanding, so destroying civilization looks like an enjoyable challenge!

Rome doesn't count among the "civilized" factions

[LuckyPistol]

Suebi are a really fun but challenging faction. Your early game will consist of charges and the "frenzy" ability, and strategic expansion. Your fellow Germans are busy tearing each other apart, so its really just the Boii that are an immediate threat. You can conquer them or force a peace, but IMO you are better off at least taking their walled settlement while you gauge the politics of your neighbors. It's an easy to defend settlement and all you need to do is wait around 10 turns for your culture to gain a hold and lower the penalties. I see that you already tried and went a different route in your gameplay, so maybe I was just lucky.

In my current campaign, I've expanded north and caught the warring neighbors off guard. You can try confederating - and its more of a boon to the Suebi than the other barbarians cultures - but it's harder to do early game due to your lower strength rating, and in the mid game it might not be advantageous depending on who your fellow Germans are at war with (diplomatic penalties and all that).

Expansion after consolidating a couple provinces is up to you. The steppe factions are actually pretty easy targets - easier than mid/late game Celts, anyways. You get decent spears and good light cavalry. Your bows are nothing to scoff at either, but your club units are eerily effective against the fodder of other factions. You don't really get elites on the levels of your peers, but that won't matter after you have an experienced champion with maxed out Frenzy/Fear and Charge bonuses. Hire a couple Falx mercenaries and go ham.

[Alwyn]

Thanks, that's good advice and I'll use it.

It makes sense to expand east into the steppe faction territory, as the Suebi have decent spears and ranged units. As you said, your elite units aren't as powerful as some.

Rome is expanding and now borders Suebi territory along three regions of my southern border. Rome's expansion seems dangerous, as decent spears and ranged units seem likely to struggle against Rome's heavy sword infantry. How do you fight Rome as the Suebi - do you defend bridges and the choke-points of settlemwents with Spear Wall while firing at the attackers with bows and artillery, or is there a better way?

[LuckyPistol]

There are two ways to fight Rome, strategically and tactically (not mutually exclusive). Strategically: Aggressive and precise settlement sacking to disrupt their economy and unit production while you bait their frontier armies into bridge battles or wooded terrain (using fear to your advantage). Tactically: don't waste time trying to set up ambushes on the campaign map, the AI knows where you are at all times. Instead, set up ambushes on the battle map. As the sword and board Romans advance, have some high charge value units hidden in the woods. Once the Romans are engaged, have your hidden units charge out and flank with the frenzy ability activated. This is why I encourage recruiting a Falx unit or two. These guys decimate with a rear charge, they are well worth their price.

You can beat Rome in the range and cavalry game, so skirmishing shouldn't be a problem. Siege battles will be tough, I actually recommend trying to take out the Romans in the field so that you're fighting a depleted city.

[Gyrosmeister]

Thanks, that's good advice and I'll use it.

It makes sense to expand east into the steppe faction territory, as the Suebi have decent spears and ranged units. As you said, your elite units aren't as powerful as some.

Rome is expanding and now borders Suebi territory along three regions of my southern border. Rome's expansion seems dangerous, as decent spears and ranged units seem likely to struggle against Rome's heavy sword infantry. How do you fight Rome as the Suebi - do you defend bridges and the choke-points of settlemwents with Spear Wall while firing at the attackers with bows and artillery, or is there a better way?

Wolf Warriors, Berserkers, Flaming arrows and a lot of flanking to cause massive morale chaos