Warlord: Britannia – Gameplay Tips and Tricks

Some simple and some advanced tips and tricks to aid you on your journey.

The Weapons

This section will be dedicated to the weapons you carry

Let’s start with you the player, you have your trusty shield,sword,bow, and javelin (Im not using the Roman terms as to not confuse the reader(s).

Your shield and sword

are your bread and butter in combat you will use these more than any other weapons I would highly HIGHLY suggest you get into the immediate habit of holding right click to protect yourself at all times in combat as you can still strike like this.

The Bow

You may think this will be the ideal weapon and you may be right for all 6 arrows you can carry into combat, despite many celts carrying shields they can be easily killed by aiming a little higher and hitting them square in the face. This weapon ignores armor which makes it an amazing tool in picking of heavier enemies before they make contact with you, the player is the only Roman with a bow making it that more unique

The Javelin

This weapon is the ultimate destructive force on the battlefield BUT you may only carry 2 at a time making this a limited weapon just like the bow. The Javelin unlike the bow is not stopped by silly wooden shields used by the celts. This weapon also ignores armor like the bow but as said previously ignores shields as well. The best part your fellow Legionnaires also carry this weapon and will launch it into charging bands of Celts albeit not as accurate as the player so be sure to try to lure the celts into a straight line for maximum effectiveness

The Roman Legionnaire

This section is about the brave soldiers under your watchful or oblivious eye

The basic Legion makeup

Before we start discussing ranks lets talk about your standard soldier, he has his armor, shield, sword, and javelin

The Armor

There are 4 levels of armor for sake of simplicity average, above average, good, great

Now you might think “why not just upgrade to level 4 armor immediately” well my friend not only do you have to pay for that but you cant reach level 4 armor unless the particular soldier has served you for at least 10 days the other levels just need to be purchased (not a very cheap practice).

Battle Tactics

Its simple for now sadly but im sure this will be updated, as of now your troops will hold their ground or follow you depending on what you have them set to. As the enemy charges your lines your troops will throw their javelins this can be a massacre if the accuracy is on point. You can also charge your troops will break formation to engage the enemies this has some pros and cons.

Pros

  • Rear lines will surge forward to help in the fighting
  • Troops will surround the enemy formation
  • Multiple soldiers will attack singular enemies (great way to kill armored foes)

Cons

  • You can also get surrounded easier
  • In a charge troops will rush into enemy settlements and can sometimes wander into an enemy spawner and get themselves surrounded
  • Sometimes if an enemy convoy wanders by your soldiers will rush them getting themselves killed in the process

The more advanced Legion ranks!

The Tesserarius

Starting with the first promotion you can bestow in a century the Tesserarius this is quite literally the Centurions right hand man he will stand next to him in battle

The Optio

The Tesserarius may be further promoted to the rank of Optio this man will bring up the rear of his century(and do a huge amount of the killing in my experience my Optio have some of the most kills) and he gets a badass Plume on his helmet ,here’s where it gets interesting we have a path divergence for our brave Optio he can be further promoted to the Centurion or the higher honor and safer role of Signifier or Cornicen

The Centurion

The leader of a Century (with a badass plume) this man is one of the best legionaries of the entire Century he leads the Century into battle, has the finest armor, and (in my experience second in kills only to the Optio) The Centurion also has some upgrades we’ll discuss them as we go down the list

The Signifier

If you have a soldier you’ve grown fond of as an Optio but don’t want to lose him (names like Biggus Diccus) assign him as your Signifier a prestigious honor of a Century he carries the Century’s standard into battle this role may also be further promoted

The Cornicen

Sadly doesn’t do anything despite carrying a bugle (please add this as a feature) still like our signifier its an honor role inside the century so they will not be fighting unless an enemy actually makes contact with them

The Command Staff

So for our command staff if you have Legionaires you honestly have grown attached to, if you’re roleplaying and awarding the best soldiers,etc. or something this choice can matter as these roles are pretty much safe from all combat save one (not that you asked but my command staff are soldiers that have gone the distance with me after about 20 hours of gameplay)

The Primus Pilus

The senior Centurion of the Legion this man leads the first century and his an example to the rest of the Legion, (this is the only command role that will see regular combat)

The Praefectus Castrorum

Your right hand man, the highest rank in the whole Legion right behind you (The Legate) more so a cosmetic role as it stands he can only be promoted from Primus Pilus so theoretically this is your best soldier as he’s likely the first ever centurion your promoted way back when you started the game πŸ™‚ a true bond

The Aquilifer

The most iconic role and probably one that even non Roman history fans will recognize this prestigious honor is the Eagle bearer and the only role (I believe) plays a special audio if he is killed, this role can only be promoted from a Signifier.

The Imaginifer

Another prestigious role but one that isn’t quite as iconic, this man will carry an image of the Emperor showing Rome’s reach as the previously stated role this role can only be earned through service as a Signifier

Base Building

The Roman Marching Camp was one of the many ways Rome was so successful, lets quickly give you an overview of the simple base mechanic

When it comes to setting up camp I always ask myself 3 things

  1. Is there enough Wood
  2. What is the traffic in this area
  3. Proximity to settlements
  4. (Bonus) How cool can I make this if im staying for awhile

1st. Lets discuss Wood as it stands this is the only resource in the game at the moment, when you set up your camp you will need to assign some soldiers to work detail build some chests for storage and simply walk over to a tree and designate it for clearing very simple thankfully

2nd. And actually probably the most important is traffic, so settlements will send convoys to one another (we’ll get into more detail in the next section) and if you build right on a road you may have groups of barbarians walking into you while you’re strolling your camp or worse before you’re setup! My advice to you monitor the map check common routes and build far enough you can pick them off. Be careful with how close you let them get as at times soldiers for some reason will just run out of camp at them getting themselves killed

3rd. Proximity to settlements, rpg players may be on suicide watch after reading this part so brace yourself (NO FAST TRAVEL) now that ive killed a few people the remaining can appreciate a nice danger filled trek through England

I like to build my camps in about a days or less marching distance to multiple settlements in any direction that way I can justify a larger camp and not tear it down right away

Now lets talk about something you might care more about how to make an “efficient” camp, I worked with 2 types of camps so lets talk about those

Camp type 1

My go to camp was and is (as of typing this im halfway through the midlands) a massive palisade wall with 4 ways in 4/out with gates. Any design of the walls will do Ive done stars Ive done squares its up the builder and how much wood you have. The standard makeup of these is a supply area plenty of chests and barrels, enough tents for you and your Officer really thats all you need for now.

Lets talk defense of the camp We have Watchtowers and Battlements, you dont really need these to survive but if you prefer the lives of your men instead of creating soviet era tactics about 1900 years early then you’ll want to set these up at key points. To use them to the fullest assign a guard to them assuring any barbarians closing in on the fort get a face full of javelin.

Camp type 2

This was more of an experiment but I went for more of a checkpoint build so I built on the busiest road I could easier said than done getting camp up, but no gates just left it open with gaps in the walls. So this type of camp was great for farming some funds and im well stocked now due to it but the loss of life was a bit too much for me as while im checking a map at times id just start getting death alerts and save scumming but if you can make this work better please let me know.

Overall not ineffective not by a long shot but not a great idea either and should only be done in the lowlands where enemy numbers are smaller and (I believe less armored enemies are found)

The Barbarians

The Barbarians (Celts) are the only thing standing between you and Romanization of England (un)fortunately there are more of them than there are of you. So lets talk about what you’ll be coming across, the settlements types, and world events

The Celt population

The Serfs

Target practice, tax payers, whatever you want to call them live and can be found only in settlements you will not see them anywhere else, when you capture a settlement you will ultimately decide their fate you can tax them for quarter, half, or full (or leave them be but we’re Romans we don’t do that). You also have the option of enslavement again quarter, half, or all of them this will grant you immediate funds but the settlement will not generate tax as well you just sold them all. There is also an option to loot/raze you can loot for some immediate funds, raze to troll them, or both in that order. and the final option is the choice to massacre them (DO NOT mess with this unless you know what you are doing)

The celt “soldiers”

You have your basic savage with no armor sometimes a helmet their shield and weapon

Or you can encounter an armored warrior these soldiers can glance blows from your sword and your soldiers’ as well, save an arrow or javelin to avoid the sword spam

What should I do?

Early game hell even now in my middle game mostly just tax them thats the safest and most lucrative in the long run.

However if you come across a village or have quests assigned fulfill those whatever they may be even if its enslavement get it out of the way for the unrest reduction.

(This little part is if you have taking a strange liking to your faceless Roman soldiers)

If you are fighting at a larger settlement and lose idk lets say like 15 soldiers (true story)

I endorse loot ,raze ,massacre in that order, again unrest will be high be sure you know what you’re doing but don’t let Cicero’s death be unjustified okay back to buisness

Settlement types

From smallest to largest:

Waystation, Farm, Hamlet, Village, Town i’ll just give a brief synopsis of each here

  • Waystation – Minuscule garrison, minuscule serf pop, minuscule tax revenue
  • Farm – Small garrison, small serf pop, small tax revenue
  • Hamlet – Decent Garrison (sometimes more enemies spawn in combat), decent serf pop, decent tax revenue (the first type of settlement to generate Gold through Tax)
  • Village – Large Garrison, fairly large serf pop, excellent tax revenue especially if you extort with full!
  • Town – Huge garrison, large serf pop, towns are rare so I recommend saving them for last ina region then looting followed by a full tax for a massive economic backbone

World Events

  • Standard Convoy- simple group of celts kill them all for some quick funds πŸ™‚
  • VIP Convoy- slightly more significant, kill for some unrest reduction and funds a win-win
  • Noble Gathering- crash a noble meeting (crash meaning slaughter) for a large unrest reduction
  • Raiding Party Anger the local populace enough and you’ll find yourself on the defensive defeat the raiders for a fairly large unrest reduction.

Unrest

You might have seen me mention this multiple times so in short every action you do in game has an effect on the local populace and the greater area less severe actions are met with less severe unrest, dont bite off more than you can chew unless you know you’re ready for the consequences.

I have only ever had unrest in the yellow and it was an annoying experience raids and ambushes on the roads so its best to be a fair ruler unless you just love the thrill of murdering serfs. I like to fight on the ground of my choosing not theirs.

Cheesing (for Fun Please Don’t Abuse)

If you have come to this section you don’y like fighting pitched battles and instead want to abuse celt AI well im here to help Ive figured out a few things in my time playing

Solo capping

So in my experience the player can capture up to a village alone in the lowlands, and probably midlands. So to do this effectively pick off 6 AI with the bow kill 2 with your javelin and just hold your shield up and keep on stabbing till they’re all dead its fairly rare the AI can damage you through your shield but on village raids the small probability adds up and you can potentially leave with hardly any health left but you did in fact just take a village alone. I didn’t mention other settlement types since they’re easy

Convoy cheesing

So you check your map a convoy of 1500 silver and 70 gold “wow this is gonna be a tough fight”

Wrong simply go to the convoy alone and repeat these steps. Charge in kill 1 to 2 enemies (after the bow and javelin of course) You may be worried now that this huge convoy is turning to attack you but whats this the player just took 25 paces back the AI is….turning around? Yes you read that right they’re going to continue their journey simply keep picking them off until boom profit!

Formation fight cheesing

So you’re approaching a town this will be your first huge battle and you’re expecting massive casualties but whats this? Why yes you forgot to have your troops follow you in and you left them about 200 paces back and the whole town is now focused on you. I learned this by accident so allow me to explain possibly the greatest fighting strategy i’ve designed in game.

Position your forces outside the town about a genuine few hundred paces, next do the bow and javelin strategy again for easy kills the celts will all attack you, slowly lure them outside the walls (if its a town) or jus in a giant line anywhere else, okay while you’re doing that tell your battle formation to follow you as they close in make sure you are still engaging the huge celt blob you built. have your formation hold just outside of javelin range now slowly walk the blob past your century’s one at a time as they waste their javelins on them now turn around again and walk at the village with your back to it and tell your formation to charge, before the celts can even try to fight back they’ve been encircled by “superior” Roman “tactics”.

Created by EvlShadows

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