It always annoyed me how Rome Total War is like some ancient Roman propaganda where tribal Europe is full of crazy half naked psychos who are also cowards who run away really easily. The celtic and germanic tribes were well organised and gave the Romans hell and won some huge victories. I've modded the game to let the barbarians have more of the buildings the Romans can have and I increased the morale of their units and it makes the Gauls a monster, playing as the Julii is like a survival horror game (so maybe I over-compensated).
@@sauromatae9728 Yes it's great but I never got it working on Windows 11, although I've just discovered that it's been ported over to Remastered so I'll have to give it a go.
Playing as the Julii is really kind of already a survival horror game considering all the doomstacks the AI throws at you two at a time on average after conquering just a few settlements from Gaul. But then you also got to spread your forces all around the world and beat the other Roman factions to the islands nearby, Sicily, preferably Carthage too, Rhodos (for the trade income bonus) and some rich Greek settlements all while hoping the game doesn't just decide to crash. 😂
I totaly agree easy to stomp, when was child was so hard to win even the shot run. Iberians, romans, britons all against me poor naked spammer...at least with romans when i spammed hastati first and pretorians after i won my games at 12 years
The Gauls are such a sad faction, they basically don't get enough time to use chosen swordsmen and usually get merced by Britons in late game, they should've had one key unit that beefed up their ranks, like chariots or berserkers
The basic warband are great for anti melee chariot duty. Their spears provide a slight bonus, but what really does it is the numbers. The trick is to put them in a formation that is too think for the chariots to break through. They get swamped and then butchered with minimal kills of their own.
It's sad because for so much of the Roman Republic's history, the Gauls were their boogeymen. Over 100 years before the start of RTW's campaign, the Gauls beat the Romans and sacked Rome. They'd continue to raid into Italy causing damage. The Romans had this deep ingrained fear of the Gauls. Several times in the Republic's history, even as late as 228 BC, 216 BC, and 116 BC, the Romans conducted human sacrifices because of problems caused by the Gauls. The RTW campaign starts in 270 BC. To put things into perspective: First Punic War went 264-241 BC and the Second Punic War 218-201 BC. Even after the Republic beat Carthage in the Second Punic War, they were worried about Gaul. That Julius Caesar went over and conquered the Gauls was like the world turned upside down to the Romans. I know this seems like a given today when you look at maps of the size of the Roman Republic over time and the Empire that came from it. But at the time, Caesar conquering the Gauls was an insane event to the Romans.
@@Warmaker01 idk about that, by the time of caesar's conquest gauls were not that different from romans, they surrounded their settlements with walls and ate grains, the gauls that rome feared were half naked psychopats who knew only war which in that time would be germanic tribes
The most major thing that Gaul should've had, in my opinion, is a very powerful elite cavalry unit. The Gauls historically were seen as some of the very best horsemen in Europe, and used by the Romans as auxiliary cavalry for a very long time. They even invented a pronged saddle that allowed for the steady swinging and shooting of weapons from horseback without stirrups or a chariot. The unit I'm thinking of would be well armoured with good mail (armor score of 8 or 9) and rather than being shock cavalry they'd essentially be heavy skirmishers who chuck some javelins (with high missile attack score) and then can fight well in a melee with their swords.
Someone should really start a meme campaign and migrate the Gauls to somewhere between the Middle-East and the Southern Pontic Steppe so that Warbands and Eastern Infantry could face off in a glorious struggle for supremacy. Or bring the Pink Pajama Guys to Gaul but that would be a tough campaign later on with the aggressive Roman AI and overpowered legionaries. On the other hand i don't know how Warbands would deal with Clibinarii or Cataphracts either had the AI decided to train them instead but i guess they could be killed off by exploiting settlement defenses, wouldn't have a chance if they were stationed in a settlement though.
Thanks for the comment. Yea, that could be nice to see. Imo, Warbands actually do rather well vs. Cavalry (as do Eastern Infantry) so I think they could deal with them - provided they have enough numbers :)
I still think you undersold foresters, with the gallic temples they can get gold weapons and 3 bronze chevrons. Yes you have to retrain them twice but it's totally worth it, they become absolute beasts
I feel like the Gauls should've been split into Gauls and Boii. The latter more or less being the Gauls of the final game (weak, nothing fantastic, not intended for player campaigns) The actual Gauls in this concept would be a decent all-round faction with their best units being Gallic Cavalry, Helvetian Pikemen, and Light Chariot Archers; kind of a Barbarian version of Pontus and Macedonia (but nowhere near as advanced, or powerful, but still much stronger than the Boii) The Boii would effectively take the territory Gauls living nearby to the Julii's territories (much like the actual Boii Celts) and you could be friendly with the Gauls, but not the Boii.
I don't get the lack of praise for the forester warband, easily the best archer unit in the entire game when in forest, and can compete with the other mass recruitable top archer unit when it comes to harming infantry, all while having spears to really harm a lot of cavalry even in melee. The Gauls border three enemy nations with many bad armor units, so this unit gets hundreds of kills easily in each battle, especially against Germans, more so during sieges still when even romans have noticeable casualties. Rushing this unit is a very easy win against pre reform rome as well as all of your direct neighbours, and even hard counters later enemy nations like Scythia with their annoying horse archers.
I kind of disagree on chosen swordsmen. First of all, what exactly do you mean by other elite infantry? That could comprise a wide number of units with no clear definition. To simplify things I'll just summarize how chosen swordsmen do against the Roman infantry roster. They annihilate any pre-marian units, can easily handle early legionary cohort, and will put up a good fight against late legionary cohort (even defeating them fairly often if they're controlled by ai). Out of the Romans' vast and mighty infantry roster, which is the main thing they're known for, the only units than can clearly defeat chosen swordsmen are praetorian and urban cohort. Which have higher requirements (especially the urban cohort which is actually demonstrated to easily handle chosens unlike the admittedly mediocre praetorians) Anyway I typed more than I want to XD
Thanks for the comment. Well, I think Chosen Axes and Berserkers will beat them. Bull Warriors will beat them. Phalanxes (Armoured Hoplites, Phalanx Pikemen etc.) will beat them. Agreed that they can do well vs. Pre-Marian troops in player's hands but Legionary Cohort is not exactly Roman elite infantry imo :)
This army roster has problems as there's nothing about them that you can truly call great. The Parthians and Scythians have bad infantry selection but are killer with cavalry and range. Before the reforms, the Roman cavalry are an absolute joke but the infantry is top of the line even before the reforms. Greek Cities are crippled with godawful cavalry but their infantry is decent and you can get Spartan Hoplites. I heard you joke that the Gallic roster would fare better if they had a start location in the east, dealing with Eastern Infantry. It's even worse over there for their roster. That's the place of Cataphracts, HORSE ARCHERS, and arrow spam from the likes of Parthia, Scythia. Several factions out east can train Cataphracts. Scythia has their own very good cavalry that also includes a lot of ranged spam. The Gauls have poor armor and they're going to suffer from arrow spam and actually powerful cavalry. They'll also have to deal with Hellenic pike formations and great cavalry in their rosters. Egypt likes to spam excellent ranged units to go with their pike formations. There's also the grave matter of Gaul's starting position in RTW. They're not rich set of settlements, they border the Iberians, Germans, and Julii. War with all of them is a distinct possibility early on. If you play RTW Remastered, it gets even worse because unlike the original RTW, the Britons in Remastered like to leave the British isles and actually conquer a lot of Europe. I was surprised on my Parthian Remastered campaign that when I arrived in Central Europe, it was almost all Britons. They never did that in the o.g. RTW. Gaul is just a real unfortunate faction in both RTW and the RTW Remastered. One of the factions that has the biggest challenge because there's so little about them that makes you go, "Okay, wow, this is cool!"
Thanks for the comment. Good points. Imo the Britons are quite aggressive in the OG Rome as well - they have a settlement on the mainland. And agreed on the cav in the East, was referring to infantry only :)
Their archers with their fully upgraded attack and the retrained at a 3 experience shrine are very good. Probably the best archers in terms of offense.
In my recent OG rtw julii campaign (first time actually beating rtw) the britons taking over continental Europe is exactly what happened XD. Going my the faction rankings the same seems to be happening in my current seleucid campaign.
Let's call them "unfortunate"...
This feels like a cannon fodder roster.
Indeed :) Thanks for the comment.
this is entirely accurate. naked fanatics description made me chuckle
Yea, it is nice to invent those :D Thanks for the comment.
It always annoyed me how Rome Total War is like some ancient Roman propaganda where tribal Europe is full of crazy half naked psychos who are also cowards who run away really easily. The celtic and germanic tribes were well organised and gave the Romans hell and won some huge victories.
I've modded the game to let the barbarians have more of the buildings the Romans can have and I increased the morale of their units and it makes the Gauls a monster, playing as the Julii is like a survival horror game (so maybe I over-compensated).
Evropa Barbarorvm exists
@@sauromatae9728 Yes it's great but I never got it working on Windows 11, although I've just discovered that it's been ported over to Remastered so I'll have to give it a go.
Well, in the Remastered they sometimes have those weird eye animations - kind of supporting that horror game view :) Thanks for the comment.
@@qualityoldgames7721 No problem. How do you get the original RTW working so well by the way? Or do you have a lot of crashes that get edited out?
Playing as the Julii is really kind of already a survival horror game considering all the doomstacks the AI throws at you two at a time on average after conquering just a few settlements from Gaul.
But then you also got to spread your forces all around the world and beat the other Roman factions to the islands nearby, Sicily, preferably Carthage too, Rhodos (for the trade income bonus) and some rich Greek settlements all while hoping the game doesn't just decide to crash. 😂
I totaly agree easy to stomp, when was child was so hard to win even the shot run. Iberians, romans, britons all against me poor naked spammer...at least with romans when i spammed hastati first and pretorians after i won my games at 12 years
Thanks for the comment. Yea, Gaul is a nice challenge if thought from that perspective :)
The Gauls are such a sad faction, they basically don't get enough time to use chosen swordsmen and usually get merced by Britons in late game, they should've had one key unit that beefed up their ranks, like chariots or berserkers
Thanks for the comment. Agreed, that would have helped them quite a bit :)
The basic warband are great for anti melee chariot duty. Their spears provide a slight bonus, but what really does it is the numbers. The trick is to put them in a formation that is too think for the chariots to break through. They get swamped and then butchered with minimal kills of their own.
Thanks for the comment. Agreed. Imo they do overall rather well against cavalry (at least compared to infantry) :D
Agreed! It’s the least interesting faction for me, I rarely play their campaign. They’ve been done dirty.
Thanks for the comment. Yea, I guess they wanted to have some easy picking for one beginning to play the game :)
It's sad because for so much of the Roman Republic's history, the Gauls were their boogeymen. Over 100 years before the start of RTW's campaign, the Gauls beat the Romans and sacked Rome. They'd continue to raid into Italy causing damage. The Romans had this deep ingrained fear of the Gauls.
Several times in the Republic's history, even as late as 228 BC, 216 BC, and 116 BC, the Romans conducted human sacrifices because of problems caused by the Gauls. The RTW campaign starts in 270 BC.
To put things into perspective: First Punic War went 264-241 BC and the Second Punic War 218-201 BC. Even after the Republic beat Carthage in the Second Punic War, they were worried about Gaul.
That Julius Caesar went over and conquered the Gauls was like the world turned upside down to the Romans. I know this seems like a given today when you look at maps of the size of the Roman Republic over time and the Empire that came from it. But at the time, Caesar conquering the Gauls was an insane event to the Romans.
@@Warmaker01 Thanks for the interesting historical info :)
@@Warmaker01 idk about that, by the time of caesar's conquest gauls were not that different from romans, they surrounded their settlements with walls and ate grains, the gauls that rome feared were half naked psychopats who knew only war which in that time would be germanic tribes
The most major thing that Gaul should've had, in my opinion, is a very powerful elite cavalry unit.
The Gauls historically were seen as some of the very best horsemen in Europe, and used by the Romans as auxiliary cavalry for a very long time. They even invented a pronged saddle that allowed for the steady swinging and shooting of weapons from horseback without stirrups or a chariot.
The unit I'm thinking of would be well armoured with good mail (armor score of 8 or 9) and rather than being shock cavalry they'd essentially be heavy skirmishers who chuck some javelins (with high missile attack score) and then can fight well in a melee with their swords.
Thanks for the comment. It would complement their roster rather nicely :)
@@qualityoldgames7721 basically pontic heavy cavalry but stronger xd.
Someone should really start a meme campaign and migrate the Gauls to somewhere between the Middle-East and the Southern Pontic Steppe so that Warbands and Eastern Infantry could face off in a glorious struggle for supremacy.
Or bring the Pink Pajama Guys to Gaul but that would be a tough campaign later on with the aggressive Roman AI and overpowered legionaries.
On the other hand i don't know how Warbands would deal with Clibinarii or Cataphracts either had the AI decided to train them instead but i guess they could be killed off by exploiting settlement defenses, wouldn't have a chance if they were stationed in a settlement though.
Thanks for the comment. Yea, that could be nice to see. Imo, Warbands actually do rather well vs. Cavalry (as do Eastern Infantry) so I think they could deal with them - provided they have enough numbers :)
I still think you undersold foresters, with the gallic temples they can get gold weapons and 3 bronze chevrons. Yes you have to retrain them twice but it's totally worth it, they become absolute beasts
Thanks for the comment. Agreed that those will improve them quite a bit and perhaps I undervalued them a bit :)
"Bar Bar Bar"
-The Gauls
:) Thanks for the comment.
Gaul or as there better known the Roman German British and Spanish punching bag
Indeed :D Thanks for the comment.
I feel like the Gauls should've been split into Gauls and Boii. The latter more or less being the Gauls of the final game (weak, nothing fantastic, not intended for player campaigns) The actual Gauls in this concept would be a decent all-round faction with their best units being Gallic Cavalry, Helvetian Pikemen, and Light Chariot Archers; kind of a Barbarian version of Pontus and Macedonia (but nowhere near as advanced, or powerful, but still much stronger than the Boii)
The Boii would effectively take the territory Gauls living nearby to the Julii's territories (much like the actual Boii Celts) and you could be friendly with the Gauls, but not the Boii.
Rome 2, anyone?
Thanks for the comment. That would have been interesting :)
I don't get the lack of praise for the forester warband, easily the best archer unit in the entire game when in forest, and can compete with the other mass recruitable top archer unit when it comes to harming infantry, all while having spears to really harm a lot of cavalry even in melee. The Gauls border three enemy nations with many bad armor units, so this unit gets hundreds of kills easily in each battle, especially against Germans, more so during sieges still when even romans have noticeable casualties. Rushing this unit is a very easy win against pre reform rome as well as all of your direct neighbours, and even hard counters later enemy nations like Scythia with their annoying horse archers.
Thanks for the comment. Agreed that the unit is one of the best archer units, though a bit pricey :)
I kind of disagree on chosen swordsmen. First of all, what exactly do you mean by other elite infantry? That could comprise a wide number of units with no clear definition.
To simplify things I'll just summarize how chosen swordsmen do against the Roman infantry roster. They annihilate any pre-marian units, can easily handle early legionary cohort, and will put up a good fight against late legionary cohort (even defeating them fairly often if they're controlled by ai). Out of the Romans' vast and mighty infantry roster, which is the main thing they're known for, the only units than can clearly defeat chosen swordsmen are praetorian and urban cohort. Which have higher requirements (especially the urban cohort which is actually demonstrated to easily handle chosens unlike the admittedly mediocre praetorians)
Anyway I typed more than I want to XD
Thanks for the comment. Well, I think Chosen Axes and Berserkers will beat them. Bull Warriors will beat them. Phalanxes (Armoured Hoplites, Phalanx Pikemen etc.) will beat them. Agreed that they can do well vs. Pre-Marian troops in player's hands but Legionary Cohort is not exactly Roman elite infantry imo :)
This army roster has problems as there's nothing about them that you can truly call great. The Parthians and Scythians have bad infantry selection but are killer with cavalry and range. Before the reforms, the Roman cavalry are an absolute joke but the infantry is top of the line even before the reforms. Greek Cities are crippled with godawful cavalry but their infantry is decent and you can get Spartan Hoplites.
I heard you joke that the Gallic roster would fare better if they had a start location in the east, dealing with Eastern Infantry. It's even worse over there for their roster. That's the place of Cataphracts, HORSE ARCHERS, and arrow spam from the likes of Parthia, Scythia. Several factions out east can train Cataphracts. Scythia has their own very good cavalry that also includes a lot of ranged spam. The Gauls have poor armor and they're going to suffer from arrow spam and actually powerful cavalry. They'll also have to deal with Hellenic pike formations and great cavalry in their rosters. Egypt likes to spam excellent ranged units to go with their pike formations.
There's also the grave matter of Gaul's starting position in RTW. They're not rich set of settlements, they border the Iberians, Germans, and Julii. War with all of them is a distinct possibility early on. If you play RTW Remastered, it gets even worse because unlike the original RTW, the Britons in Remastered like to leave the British isles and actually conquer a lot of Europe. I was surprised on my Parthian Remastered campaign that when I arrived in Central Europe, it was almost all Britons. They never did that in the o.g. RTW.
Gaul is just a real unfortunate faction in both RTW and the RTW Remastered. One of the factions that has the biggest challenge because there's so little about them that makes you go, "Okay, wow, this is cool!"
Thanks for the comment. Good points. Imo the Britons are quite aggressive in the OG Rome as well - they have a settlement on the mainland. And agreed on the cav in the East, was referring to infantry only :)
Their archers with their fully upgraded attack and the retrained at a 3 experience shrine are very good. Probably the best archers in terms of offense.
In my recent OG rtw julii campaign (first time actually beating rtw) the britons taking over continental Europe is exactly what happened XD.
Going my the faction rankings the same seems to be happening in my current seleucid campaign.