AOC- Playing the AVARS tips

Age of Charlemagne offers slightly different game mechanics to Attila the Hun (and other TW) which I personally enjoy as they "stretch" the challenge of the campaigns. There is more to AoC than solving initial problems and then embarking on a map -painting exercise. The closest faction that comes to this game play is the Mercians.

One faction that stretches the campaign to "beginning", "middle" and "end" challenges (for me) is the Avars (I haven't played all factions so can't fully comment on whether other factions offer more in this space)

The era portrayed in the game is dark ages and I think this is reflected well in the resource constraints and options, from what little I know of that time.

Agriculture and mining form the backbone of the economies.

There is no rapid get rich quick in this game, it takes time (and many regions) to build up an economy (and is expensive). As you acquire regions, the % income lost to corruption increases, to VERY HIGH levels. Available food and public order diminish as Imperium increases as well.

Expect to be cycling between the goals of economic growth, public order or armies (killing power) as you build for surplus, go for expansion, integrate and settle the newly acquired lands to a point where you can expand again.

Familiarise yourself with buildings offering buffs within the region and between the towns in the province (province to each region) AND into neighbouring provinces. Particularly important are sanitation and religion. Spreading the sanitation around avoids using precious slots.

Bear in mind that public order is linked to religion - this is a defining factor and fantastic challenge for non-Christian factions in the game. If you spread religious buildings around and are focusing on public order using other buildings, you may find other religions have "leaked" into your provinces and have become dominant, significantly undermining your public order - something that takes a long time to reverse and ties up armies to manage.

Christian factions appear to have it easier as once you start, and build good diplomatic relations with neighbours and enemies of enemies, you can significantly boost income with trade.

Take a strategic view when specialising your provinces.

a) Have a game plan... - Which borders/directions do you expect to expand?

b) Build your food supply in your interior (not border provinces). Farms offer both food and wealth, both depending on fertility levels so take that into account when planning. Where your "interior" is might not belong to you just yet... :).

c) Water mills are multipliers which increase agriculture AND industrial output (mines), while Mints multiply wealth in general or trade and commerce.

d) Despite your best laid plans, you will likely face wars on more than one front with a few enemies at once. That's part of the AoC fun. Defend your non-active border regions with garrisons, and fight (don't auto resolve) the battles. Level II garrisons plus troops from main and/or auxiliary building is about half a stack. You ought to aim to hold off two stacks with a newly recruited general plus few additional units (even mercs recruited last minute) plus the town/city garrison.

In summary:
- take time to understand a province, whether its your primary food source (fertility level) and then adapt the other provinces accordingly.

- religion is a key long term influencer in the game. understand for each province its main religion and whether that is compatible with yours and how you will convert it

- the nature of building buffs and religious "osmosis" favours holding entire provinces so your conquest strategy will benefit when you have all regions in a province under your control

The Avars are horse people, lightly armoured and mobile. Very vulnerable in close combat against heavily armoured chopping troops or javelins.

The infantry backbone is the Spearmen with "shield wall" ability. Training, commander, army and combat experience boost their morale, attack and defence abilities to offset their limitations and ensure they last against heavily armoured chopping troops. These are very good at defending cities as long as they are supported with horse able to attack and charge the rears of enemies.

The Avars offer a great opportunity for players to master the use of horse in flank and rear attacks against better equipped and more experienced troops.

The Avars infantry archers are not worth recruiting.

The "tribesmen" (icon is armoured spears) are better thought of as armoured archers. When fighting melee it takes a while to take them out. They don't have shield wall but have good morale and good bows.

The Avars get these basic units but really only progress the horse archers to better versions.

Image shows an experienced Tier 2 horse archer unit. Very poor melee defence, excellent in all other things. Armour compromises the speed. Army and town being prepared for an attack from the Franks to the North. They are at last feeling the Avar pressure, and their empire in the East is starting to fragment (e.g. Eastphalia just declared against the Franks).

Playing the Avars is an opportunity to develop a Player's skills and experience with lightly armoured mobile units against heavily armoured but slower units. This experience translates to many other games e.g. "tribes" vs "Romans" factions.

Experienced Players will probably find something very enjoyable with the battle possibilities of their the horse archers (360 degree firing range for advanced troops)

Early game.
The Avars start in the South East corner of the Map face the Christians in the West (Italy and over the Alps) and Pagans in the North.

They start with good food, low public order across their regions, and are at war with the Croats. A Croat army is ready to wipe out one of their towns and cause havoc. Their obvious first step is to defeat the Croats. Player has strategic choice of aims here: Win a peace, subjugate the Croats or destroy the faction? Each offers variations to the later challenges the Player will be exposed to.

The player must also get public order sorted and embark on economic (and religious) growth.

Picture shows that despite a priest and level 1 Tengrii shrine, Christianity is at 11% and rising, accounting for -2 per turn public order in the North facing province. Armies are busy in the west. A non-aggression pact with Northern (Christian neighbours) is not expected to last.

The early game is about controlling the Balkans. This sets the scene for the middle game challenges:
- attack by sea across the Adriatic (less so if Croatia is a puppet state but the Player faces Croat rebellion when no armies are close by)
- land attack from Northern Italy
- northern incursions from the North East Alpen valleys (and beyond).

Middle game
Sitting in the Balkan basin once it is under control is not a long term viable solution.

The Christian empires are growing and evolving their armies to heavy everything.

To survive, the Player must decide which direction (which Christian empire will be the focus of their take down) while maintaining the remaining borders. Effective resource and region management to cycle through the economic growth, integrating conquered regions and building killing power really kicks in. Having one army in the wrong place at the wrong time could lead to a province being overrun and sacked.

- Across the sea (southern Italy?) lies Sicilian enemies.

- South of the Alps? (then take all of Italy or into South of France?) lies the growing Kingdom of the Lombards and its minions.

- North lies some pagan lands and the Frankish territories.

Players are kept busy.....

Whichever the path chosen, expansion is challenged long term with religious differences and limited army development. Along the way, are factions to be subjugated and/or liberated to form allies and trade partners, or lands conquered and held?

Long term.
Its all about religion and Imperium. The Christians hate the Avars. The ambitious Christian states hate the growing Avar Empire even more.

Direct control over many regions long term requires they all adapt Tengriism - tearing down the many churches that are built to convert the locals. This is resource and time intense to subjugate the lands, bearing in mind the loss of resources through corruption and the rise in Imperium.

The alternative is liberating the Christian small states from their ambitious Christian empire overlords, finally allowing positive diplomatic relations despite religious differences and trade opportunities.... but that leaves Christian religion oozing through the fabric of your empire and slow death to public order all across it.....

Which could collapse system wide when the Khan changes over, or province wide when a good governer dies and is replaced......

Age of Charlemagne converts Attila the Hun to a game from a different period and playing the Avars offers an engaging set of challenges throughout the campaign