Should I play a "Barbarian" Tribe?

[Hootieleece]

I have logged about 500 hours in this game playing mostly as Rome and NOT recreating the Empire. Mostly because I am risk averse.....

I played a few games as Macedon.

Should I try to play a tribe? Thinking either Veneti in Gaul or British Isles.

Is it better to become a Republic or go for Monarchy when you Civilize?

 

[IsaacCAT]

Republics are superior than monarchies (laws) but you lose out with the bloodlines game. If you like accruing bloodlines I suggest you go Monarchy, if not, it is better to play as a Republic. Unless you feel the Republican political game frustating. Roman factions are more forgiving for players: https://imperator.paradoxwikis.com/Government#Roman_factions

 

[manager2525]

With your play time you would definitely be able to pull off a decent run.
Would you like to stay as a tribal or change to monarchy/republic ASAP? If you play as a settled tribe you could change to a monarchy or a republic within the lifetime of your first ruler (if a bit lucky).
From the places you mentioned the British Island are a really chilling experience. You might not even ever have to fight any relevant power.
Playing in Gaul provides some challenge. Especially if you play in southern Gaul due to the proximity to Rome. I have played my last Gaulish runs in hard difficulty and Rome always beelined in order to attack me. It is fun/challenging having to defend against them. The Alps are your friends in that. The Veneti are too close to Rome and I think that even in medium difficulty you will need to take them out ASAP. Peace with them is simply not an option.
In addition to the above you might want to consider a migratory tribe. Boihimum (sp?) to Galatia for example. I had a very fun game settling in Cyrenaica with a Vandal tribe, going kemetic and going for the true Vandal achievement some time ago. Again if you migrate close to Rome, Carthage or the Diadochi be prepared for a more challenging run.

 

[Terixis]

Aedunia in Gaul is my recommendation for playing as a tribe. They get a good unique deity and can easily eat all of their neighbors, and Gaul is absolutely massive once united, with just the claims from forming Gaul being enough for great power status. The most important thing to keep in mind when playing as a tribe is that you want to reform as soon as possible you can gaining tech levels and building cities, ideally within your first ruler's lifetime because you need 80+ popularity to reform. The recipe for success in all of Britain/Hispania/Gaul is to ally two of your neighbors that you don't want to immediately annex, save up at the start until you can hire a small merc stack, and then chain wars forever, you+two allies+mercs will easy win every war. AE and Happiness are mostly non-factors for tribes because everybody around them is the same culture group and religion (except for iberic religion tribes), but stability does need to be at some level (40?) to reform to a monarchy/tribe.

I always go monarchy but it's up to you, republic mechanics are more interesting but can be annoying.

 

[Hootieleece]

Thanks for the Ideas. I will try a tribe game soon.

 

[Jiben]

Migrating somewhere exotic as a tribe is pretty fun. Settle in Morocco as a germanic tirbe or mirate to right above bactria etc.

 

[Tebriel]

 

[andxa2]

There is no doubt that migratory tribes are the strongest government in IR.

 

[Herennius]

There is no doubt that migratory tribes are the strongest government in IR.

Can you go a bit into details why you consider them so strong? I concede that it is possible to exploit the migratory way of landtaking if you are near unoccupied lands and move pops around (did it once - strong, but very tedious and boring) and perhaps migratory light infantry can be a force in numbers, but since 2.03 I feel that staying tribal is rather a burden on the military side: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/late-game-mechanics.1519852/page-2#post-28228664

 

[Napoleon1971]

Can you go a bit into details why you consider them so strong? I concede that it is possible to exploit the migratory way of landtaking if you are near unoccupied lands and move pops around (did it once - strong, but very tedious and boring) and perhaps migratory light infantry can be a force in numbers, but since 2.03 I feel that staying tribal is rather a burden on the military side: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/late-game-mechanics.1519852/page-2#post-28228664

You can create massive bulk of migratory light infantry with a "boring-but-not-too-long" phase of gobbling and blobbing lots of non-your-tribe folks into being your tribe. Once you run over a major city and depopulate it, its easy to just keep stream-rolling.

Its almost like they wanted 5th Century AD stuff to be possible in Imperator.