Iceni Tips

The Iceni is a good faction for beginners and for people who just want to play as a barbarian faction. In this guide will be going through the faction bonuses, first steps and some units to make note as when playing the Iceni (Units coming soon). This guide will not show you how to go through the whole game step by step, only to get an understanding of the faction and how to get a nice position by 10 turns.

Fierce Inderpendence: +10 melee defence for all units in your terrortory or allies land.
It is always a nice help and it is a nice bonus

Warrior Society: +1 public order for every war against a neighboring faction.
A pretty minor bonus and you probably won't notice. However for anybody going for the "This is Total War" achievment then the Iceni is a great choice.

Children of Andraste: +10 charge bonus for all units
Again it is always a good bonus, even if it is quite minor

Cultural Aspirations: Moderate diplmoatic bonus with all non barbarian factions.
This is a pretty good bonus and can get you a lot of treaties (Tip: If there is a high liklyhood of success then demand some cash out of them until the liklyhood goes to to Moderate liklyhood. This just not only apply to the Iceni, it applies to all factions). It only really starts to play in effect when you get to non barbarian factions (factions that are not Celtic or German. Like Rome or Carthage)
This is great if you want to follow the "Trade Bonanza" guide by pinbag.

No Quarter: -50 to number of battle captives.
This isn't really much of a negative effect for me because battle captives for me is just a nusaince. For me personally, the isn't really a negative trait

Turn 1: The Iceni start with 2 armies. One has 2 mercanary spear bands. Whatever you do, don't disband those mercs. They will come into handy later. There is another army in your only city. Move both of the armies to the border between you and the Brigantes (there settlement is Eborakan to the norht). Yes the Brigantes is your first target. They already hate you so why not. once you moved those armies to the border recuit some units in the army with the mercs. Now on to the economic part. You are making around 3000 per turn at the beginning of the campaign, even with the mercs. This nice cash flow is great for recuiting mercanaries early on. Build a artistans lodging in your only city and you can do some diplomacy with the Carnutes if you want. Once you are finished end your turn. (By the way don't make any deals with the Demetae and the Dumnonii because you are gonna take them out quite soon)

Turn 2: First things first. Attack Eborakan with the army with the mercs and assist with your other army. You can fight it if you want but there is an autoresolve option if you don't want to fight it. If autoresolve says you will lose fight it or hire more mercs.

If you had luck like me then the Brigantes built an army right outside Eborakan. This will retreat and will attack you when it is the Brigantes turn. Send the army without the mercs down south. Recuit units in any army you want. End of turn 2 and you now have 2 settlments nice job. Turn 3: Ok once you take Eborakon, try to get a non aggresion pact with the Caledones. The reason why is that you are going to be sending your armies down south conquering the other tribes in your starting province. With all luck the Demetae will send an army up to Eborakon. Destroy it and recuit some units.

Head down to Moridunon with both of your armies. Just watch out for tresspassing on the tribe that holds Iska ( it really doesn't matter for you are going to be attacking them soon anyway). You can't make it in Moridunon in 1 turn so just recuit at the borders of your lands. Construct whatever you want in your 2 settlements and end turn. Turn 4: Head down and destory the Demetae with both of your armies. If autoresolve says you are going to lose, fight it or hire more mercs ( the merc cav is really good mercs early in the game)

Turn 5: Now this turn you may just want to replenish all your units if you lost a lot of men against the Demetae. Now if you built a blacksmith in any of your cities than recuit some ballistas. Ballistas and any other seige weapons are really overpowered that when you try a multiplayer battle many people do not allow any seige weapons. Anyway if you got a blacksmith build a ballista. If you have a bronze workshop recuit some swordsman. Swordsman work great against the crap levy spearman.
Note: Now all this ^ depends if the Dumnonii havn't declared war on you yet. If they have remember the army we sent down south? That will protect your capital but also just recuit some units in the capital just in case.
If the Dumnonii havn't declared war on you (probably because they are doing stuff down in Gaul/France) then replinish if you need to and end turn. If not send your army down south to your borders near Iska and recuit.

Turn 6: If you are all replinished then declare war in the Dumnonii and attack. It should be quite easy with Balistas or swordsman or if you hire some mercs (CAV MERCS). However I tried turn 1-6, 4 times and every time I had to fight it. So just fight it.
I didn't replinish my army before attacking Iska but I was still able to win. You should be able to win if you did replinish and built a ballista or somthing. Also you have experianced units which is always helpful. Now once you are done with the Dumnonii, you now have your first province
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