Absolutely love playing the Germans, especially with how aggressive the roster is just makes battles so fun (as you roll over the enemy utterly). My favourite strat is going all in fear stacking, having such a mishmash army (berserkers, dogs etc. even flaming arrows from the archers. Basically everything that causes fear) with a front line of chosen axemen and lots of gothic cav. Watching how the initial clash almost always begins the enemy mass route is just glorious.
Absolutely. Add in the flaming archers and you have a morale monster of a force. We should have fun with the units altogether in the final livestream. 😃
Used to love using these in sieges, using the fear units, screeching women, dogs, beserkers, and high damage units like the chosen axemen and then attack when my ally in 2vs2 sieges had tired out the enemy units, a german defense in a siege can be surprisingly powerful even with no phalanx.
They're a fun faction for sure; especially in a situation such as what you describe! I love how they have so many morale penalty units it makes them feel like a well designed set of units.
Spearwall formation in the center, because both cavalry and infantry cannot break through it from the front, and their flanks will be covered by your other infantry and cavalry. Directly behind the spearwall, on the sides, you want your missiles. javelins, archers if you got 'em. They cannot be harassed by cavalry or infantry back there, and they can hit the cavalry of the enemy that try to flank you, and they can shoot at the flanks of the enemy infantry line to soften it up. Front flanks: Cavalry to stop enemy cavalry charges once they get through the hail of javelin or other missile fire you send in their direction, once the charge is blunted, send in your infantry. Flank infantry: swords and axes, maybe a lone spear unit to directly attack the enemy cavalry. You protect these guys from enemy cavalry charges, and they will be super healthy to finish them off. Once the enemy has no cavalry, and their infantry is busy being slaughtered by your spearwall, you ram whatever missile units they have with your cavalry and make them flee, and you flank the infantry line with your swords and axes. No cavalry, no missile units, means you just devour and rout what's left of their infantry. This works extremely well because your spearwall is basically a solid stone wall the enemy infantry can't hack their way through. They can stand still for a very long time and not lose too many men, whereas most spear units take loads of casualties and only function as a unit that can surround and kill cavalry, little else. Your infantry actually works. Your infantry is mega strong, and as long as you protect your axes and swordsmen from cavalry charges, the only unit you actually get damaged by is enemy missile units. But those missile units cannot damage you for long with this strategy, and if they load up on missile units and infantry, they cannot have much cavalry. In such a case, you protect your infantry behind your spearwall and simply destroy the enemy missiles and cavalry with your own cavalry. Then, there's basically no missile fire either. They have to decide: have nowhere near enough infantry, in which case, their line collapses by flanking immediately and you have so many spearwall units not engaged with enemy infantry that the enemy cavalry can't even touch you, or they don't have enough cavalry units to protect their flanks and their own missile units, so the missile units are no issue... or they don't have enough missile units, in which case, they're going to lose anyway because an army of pure cavalry and infantry does basically nothing since your spearwall infantry unit counters them both without losing men. It's rock paper scissors where no matter what they bring, they lose. The german spearwall unit is too strong. You can defend any settlement with 1 to 2 of those protecting every hole in the wooden wall they make with rams or whatever. Then you just need a cavalry unit to chase down all the routers so you can capture or kill the enemy army completely. It doesn't matter if you're outnumbered 8 to 1, they'll still lose easily. Since you can defend any settlement easily with free upkeep units, you can afford to always have a 20 unit sized offensive army or more for every war you are fighting. Your star unit is cheap and easy to make with low tier barracks. You also get decent cavalry and infantry. Supplement this army with the best archers you can recruit and you're unstoppable. Even the roman heavy infantry can't really touch you, because it will still take them forever to chew through your spearwall. By the time they get their late game units you've got an empire that is vast, powerful, and controls all the choke points into Italy anyway. They won't be able to break through your defenses, and whenever you capture one of their settlements, you will be able to hold it. It's a war they can't win.
Things to avoid: since you will have basic javelins for missile units for a long while, don't try to be a missile / skirmisher heavy army on offense. You'd need to be on stone walls captured from an enemy before that begins to remotely make any sense, your own missiles are sitting ducks until you have chosen archers. And even in such a case, those are too valuable to go shot for shot with enemy long range missiles. Keep them behind low tier spearwalls to protect from missile fire, infantry, and cavalry charges. Using the spearwall offensively opens up gaps whenever you have to maneuver, it's better if you are able to keep them stationary and then focus entirely on the flanks. Nothing's getting through in the center, as long as you don't foolishly open up gaps, so set them in place and forget about them. If the enemy doesn't come to you, and you have to advance forward, you don't have long range missiles to win a shooting contest for a long while, and your infantry moves slowly when in spearwall, so you should turn it off and advance like they are any other warband until they get close enough to go back in spearwall and then engage. Your strategies and units work best defensively. Capture settlements and bridges as a priority, and don't attack enemy armies in the field, let them attack you so your army can set itself in a defensive position and the enemy loses the battle unless they come to you. You basically cannot lose a bridge battle or settlement ever, and it's enormously difficult to beat you even in the field if you're the defender. The idea is to put your armies in position to threaten the enemy without being the attacker. Lay siege and starve them out, defend a settlement you took from the enemy, defend a bridge in enemy territory, you can be very offensive without actually forcing yourself to attack. The enemy AI can't think strategically and like a moth to flame, will walk right into your defensive position over and over again, and lose. You can also be offensive and take settlements quickly when you have overwhelming advantage. Generally though you don't want to chew through a pile of infantry while being shot at by archers even if you'd win, because while you can kill more than you lose, germany's tactics defensively lose a lot fewer troops. You can sustain a long offensive campaign against an enemy with minimal unit retraining if you win all your battles and lose less than 1 soldier for every 20 you kill. You sort of win 4 to 1 or 3 to 1 if you assault a city center, which is great, most factions dream of odds that good, but you really don't need to die at all. Germany too strongk.
Comprehensive and accurate. I like how Germania appears to be a very offensive and aggressive army but as you say, it functions best in defensive positions - drawing you into their spearmen before getting crushed by the supporting units. They have the tools to win whichever combo is thrown at them.
I've always loved Germania, they're the only barbarians I worry about when playing as the Julii. And when I play as them... the forest starts speaking...
In retrospect I think they should have been downgraded from noble archers to just archer warband at tier III cities. It would better cement their identity as the all melee barbarian faction.
Are the stats for phalanx units their stats for when they are not in phalanx formation ? What are the stats once they get into phalanx formation ? The defence stats seems to go way way higher
nope, you gotta curl your phallanx line on the edges /-\ in set up to intercept some of the flankers then for the extra flankers you use your mobile people like you did.
Germania in Rome TW embodiment of "Peak Of The Germans Engineering" Very strong rooster, Gothic Calvary is crazy broken, Berserker can Banzai Charge without fear and Surprise Mother####er professional
I am not sure if Berserkers were actually a German "unit" type, Berserkers were Viking fighters that were so fearless that they fought without any armor (Ber serk means in "only the shirt" (Bare Serken). They were mainly a Viking-type of individual fighters who would go absolutely nuts in front of the enemy. According to the Sagas, they could move easily because they did not use the heavy ring armor and they were so angry that they would bite their small, round shields in anticipation of rushing in and attracting the enemy head-on. Not a unit really, but individual hard fighters that just couldn't wait to get into the fray. Remember that the Viking heaven consisted of fighting to the "death" all day, and then waking up from the dead in the evening feasting on roasted beef or pork, drinking mead (beer), and presenting poetry for the other Vikings. Every day for eternity. Christianity was seen as a weak religion, mainly appealing to women, but on the positive side, Christ got killed so that was kinda nice. Less known by Brits is likely that Vikings went up the Russian rivers, one king got married in Ukraine and moved to the Black Sea. He then fought together with the Greeks against the Turks. And moved on and conquered Sicily. Then he sailed to Norway to become king after his father. One story tells that he was sitting in his longhouse when his wife showed him his oldest baby son. The little guy pulled his beard hard and bit his face so the blood ran. Then he said with a smile: "This is a tough little bugger. He will become a great Viking". And he did. Remember that the Viking history was written down shortly after it happened by Snorri Sturlason.
Absolutely love playing the Germans, especially with how aggressive the roster is just makes battles so fun (as you roll over the enemy utterly). My favourite strat is going all in fear stacking, having such a mishmash army (berserkers, dogs etc. even flaming arrows from the archers. Basically everything that causes fear) with a front line of chosen axemen and lots of gothic cav. Watching how the initial clash almost always begins the enemy mass route is just glorious.
Absolutely. Add in the flaming archers and you have a morale monster of a force. We should have fun with the units altogether in the final livestream. 😃
Used to love using these in sieges, using the fear units, screeching women, dogs, beserkers, and high damage units like the chosen axemen and then attack when my ally in 2vs2 sieges had tired out the enemy units, a german defense in a siege can be surprisingly powerful even with no phalanx.
They're a fun faction for sure; especially in a situation such as what you describe! I love how they have so many morale penalty units it makes them feel like a well designed set of units.
Fully agree@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH
Get home after a 7-6 got some carry out food and a TNH video to watch, lovely thanks.
Excellent. Victory and glory all around!
Great guide as always. Definitely appreciate highlighting the ambush battles as their generals are so well set up for this!
Amazing video as always, will definitely be trying this all out :)
For the glory of Germania!!
Spearwall formation in the center, because both cavalry and infantry cannot break through it from the front, and their flanks will be covered by your other infantry and cavalry.
Directly behind the spearwall, on the sides, you want your missiles. javelins, archers if you got 'em. They cannot be harassed by cavalry or infantry back there, and they can hit the cavalry of the enemy that try to flank you, and they can shoot at the flanks of the enemy infantry line to soften it up.
Front flanks: Cavalry to stop enemy cavalry charges once they get through the hail of javelin or other missile fire you send in their direction, once the charge is blunted, send in your infantry.
Flank infantry: swords and axes, maybe a lone spear unit to directly attack the enemy cavalry. You protect these guys from enemy cavalry charges, and they will be super healthy to finish them off.
Once the enemy has no cavalry, and their infantry is busy being slaughtered by your spearwall, you ram whatever missile units they have with your cavalry and make them flee, and you flank the infantry line with your swords and axes.
No cavalry, no missile units, means you just devour and rout what's left of their infantry.
This works extremely well because your spearwall is basically a solid stone wall the enemy infantry can't hack their way through. They can stand still for a very long time and not lose too many men, whereas most spear units take loads of casualties and only function as a unit that can surround and kill cavalry, little else.
Your infantry actually works. Your infantry is mega strong, and as long as you protect your axes and swordsmen from cavalry charges, the only unit you actually get damaged by is enemy missile units.
But those missile units cannot damage you for long with this strategy, and if they load up on missile units and infantry, they cannot have much cavalry. In such a case, you protect your infantry behind your spearwall and simply destroy the enemy missiles and cavalry with your own cavalry.
Then, there's basically no missile fire either.
They have to decide: have nowhere near enough infantry, in which case, their line collapses by flanking immediately and you have so many spearwall units not engaged with enemy infantry that the enemy cavalry can't even touch you, or they don't have enough cavalry units to protect their flanks and their own missile units, so the missile units are no issue... or they don't have enough missile units, in which case, they're going to lose anyway because an army of pure cavalry and infantry does basically nothing since your spearwall infantry unit counters them both without losing men.
It's rock paper scissors where no matter what they bring, they lose. The german spearwall unit is too strong. You can defend any settlement with 1 to 2 of those protecting every hole in the wooden wall they make with rams or whatever. Then you just need a cavalry unit to chase down all the routers so you can capture or kill the enemy army completely. It doesn't matter if you're outnumbered 8 to 1, they'll still lose easily.
Since you can defend any settlement easily with free upkeep units, you can afford to always have a 20 unit sized offensive army or more for every war you are fighting. Your star unit is cheap and easy to make with low tier barracks. You also get decent cavalry and infantry.
Supplement this army with the best archers you can recruit and you're unstoppable. Even the roman heavy infantry can't really touch you, because it will still take them forever to chew through your spearwall. By the time they get their late game units you've got an empire that is vast, powerful, and controls all the choke points into Italy anyway. They won't be able to break through your defenses, and whenever you capture one of their settlements, you will be able to hold it. It's a war they can't win.
Things to avoid: since you will have basic javelins for missile units for a long while, don't try to be a missile / skirmisher heavy army on offense. You'd need to be on stone walls captured from an enemy before that begins to remotely make any sense, your own missiles are sitting ducks until you have chosen archers. And even in such a case, those are too valuable to go shot for shot with enemy long range missiles. Keep them behind low tier spearwalls to protect from missile fire, infantry, and cavalry charges.
Using the spearwall offensively opens up gaps whenever you have to maneuver, it's better if you are able to keep them stationary and then focus entirely on the flanks. Nothing's getting through in the center, as long as you don't foolishly open up gaps, so set them in place and forget about them. If the enemy doesn't come to you, and you have to advance forward, you don't have long range missiles to win a shooting contest for a long while, and your infantry moves slowly when in spearwall, so you should turn it off and advance like they are any other warband until they get close enough to go back in spearwall and then engage.
Your strategies and units work best defensively. Capture settlements and bridges as a priority, and don't attack enemy armies in the field, let them attack you so your army can set itself in a defensive position and the enemy loses the battle unless they come to you.
You basically cannot lose a bridge battle or settlement ever, and it's enormously difficult to beat you even in the field if you're the defender. The idea is to put your armies in position to threaten the enemy without being the attacker. Lay siege and starve them out, defend a settlement you took from the enemy, defend a bridge in enemy territory, you can be very offensive without actually forcing yourself to attack. The enemy AI can't think strategically and like a moth to flame, will walk right into your defensive position over and over again, and lose.
You can also be offensive and take settlements quickly when you have overwhelming advantage. Generally though you don't want to chew through a pile of infantry while being shot at by archers even if you'd win, because while you can kill more than you lose, germany's tactics defensively lose a lot fewer troops. You can sustain a long offensive campaign against an enemy with minimal unit retraining if you win all your battles and lose less than 1 soldier for every 20 you kill.
You sort of win 4 to 1 or 3 to 1 if you assault a city center, which is great, most factions dream of odds that good, but you really don't need to die at all. Germany too strongk.
Comprehensive and accurate. I like how Germania appears to be a very offensive and aggressive army but as you say, it functions best in defensive positions - drawing you into their spearmen before getting crushed by the supporting units. They have the tools to win whichever combo is thrown at them.
I've always loved Germania, they're the only barbarians I worry about when playing as the Julii. And when I play as them... the forest starts speaking...
The simple answer is that you just make an army of 100% Berserkers.
That's a pretty effective strategy! 😂
If you're careless, phalanxes and archers will bust them up
In retrospect I think they should have been downgraded from noble archers to just archer warband at tier III cities. It would better cement their identity as the all melee barbarian faction.
It would probably be a better balance that way. They certainly could be countered better by the likes of Scythia in that case.
Are the stats for phalanx units their stats for when they are not in phalanx formation ? What are the stats once they get into phalanx formation ? The defence stats seems to go way way higher
Warcry > Charge > Hope for the best > ????
nope, you gotta curl your phallanx line on the edges /-\ in set up to intercept some of the flankers then for the extra flankers you use your mobile people like you did.
Germania in Rome TW embodiment of "Peak Of The Germans Engineering"
Very strong rooster, Gothic Calvary is crazy broken, Berserker can Banzai Charge without fear and Surprise Mother####er professional
It's a well put together force, that's for sure!
I am not sure if Berserkers were actually a German "unit" type, Berserkers were Viking fighters that were so fearless that they fought without any armor (Ber serk means in "only the shirt" (Bare Serken). They were mainly a Viking-type of individual fighters who would go absolutely nuts in front of the enemy. According to the Sagas, they could move easily because they did not use the heavy ring armor and they were so angry that they would bite their small, round shields in anticipation of rushing in and attracting the enemy head-on. Not a unit really, but individual hard fighters that just couldn't wait to get into the fray. Remember that the Viking heaven consisted of fighting to the "death" all day, and then waking up from the dead in the evening feasting on roasted beef or pork, drinking mead (beer), and presenting poetry for the other Vikings. Every day for eternity. Christianity was seen as a weak religion, mainly appealing to women, but on the positive side, Christ got killed so that was kinda nice. Less known by Brits is likely that Vikings went up the Russian rivers, one king got married in Ukraine and moved to the Black Sea. He then fought together with the Greeks against the Turks. And moved on and conquered Sicily. Then he sailed to Norway to become king after his father. One story tells that he was sitting in his longhouse when his wife showed him his oldest baby son. The little guy pulled his beard hard and bit his face so the blood ran. Then he said with a smile: "This is a tough little bugger. He will become a great Viking". And he did. Remember that the Viking history was written down shortly after it happened by Snorri Sturlason.
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