The Greek Cities

[BlorkTheImpaler]

Let me try that..

[Tellos Athenaios]

It's not really important having Syracuse, for as far as I can see, but it's tremendously important Syracuse isn't lost to some Roman faction. There is basically one reason for this: as long as the Romans don't have the place they'll keep coming, till they are utterly bankrupted.

As a Greek faction you don't really need your navy to impoverish your opponent, just stick to what you've got and don't give up will do just as fine or even better.

Later on in the game, I always find the Greek economy to be much more self supportive, than any other faction's - seemingly everything economy based (such as naval trade) performs better when it's controlled by the Greeks.

On the topic of naval dominance: if you spot a Roman, or indeed any enemy, fleet check wheter or not it carry's an army onboard. If so destroy it, if not don't. This will allow you to save your ships, while achieving the same results.

*Note: I strongly suspect the Greeks get bonuses in naval battles, for how else could I be able to defeat much larger or better equiped enemies at sea with only a few ships, continuously throuhout the whole game, even the relatively strong pirates of the North Sea? And how could it be that this only happens playing as the Greeks, while, say, playing as the Romans I need a much larger navvy (recently a 36 ships pirate fleet swept my entire Scipii navy in the North Sea consisting of about 60 ships away )?*

[Kralizec]

A likely explanation is that you played the Scipii on a higher campaign difficulty. Campaign difficulty has a huge effect on how auto calc battles turn out.

[whtdoesitmatta]

Greek was very easy, I play on M/M because I sim most of my battles, and I am not that good, I had an easier time with the greeks than brutti, or juli.

First turn, I sacked Corinth(Army from Sparta), and moved that same army and sieged athens.
I Also Sent Thermon's army to Larissa, next turn picked up Athens and sieged Larissa, sent Army of new troops to Athens, sents Athens troops to help at Larissa. Then picked that up once I had the advantage in numbers and skill.

After getting Larissa, I looked at syracuse, Messana had started its army towards lily, and I went after Messana, they came back and defened, but I eventually threw enough units to win it.

Also Bribing is another important thing. I bribe away all armies without generals, because owning the Aegean brings in so much cash. scipi and Juli then went for Lily, which I went bought away their armies, sacked it myself, and now own sicily.

I also have defeated the Macedonians, going up to byzlora sp? and taken over nicamedia(PONTUS), Bought Byzantium and Halicarnus, sacked Kydonia, 3 armoured hoplites, took over sardis, and am headed towards my wrap around the black sea, first taking out thrace, then moving around Scythia. Currently have Dacia, Gauls, Scythia, and Germania as my allies, and Macedonia(dead), All Romans, Selecuid, Pontus, Rebel, Thrace, and Carthage against me.

Fun Fun!

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

I tend to hold syracuse in order to make sure the scipii dont advance. i also take apollonia so the brutii dont expand. When i take those two, the Brutii and Scipii sit at their capitols doing nothing. Ive been having alot of trouble regaining the Greek mainland. Its normally a regular pushing contest with macedon. They dont have Companion Cavalry they just use phalanxes. I keep managing to push them back but then get pushed back by Macedon and Thrace. I keep attacking and funding the war. Ive secured an aliiance with Carthage and Pontus securing my sicilian border and my turkish border. I have complete control of the Agean Sea my fleets are stronger than my neighbors and a secured Agean has helped fund the war in the greek mainland. Any tips on how to defeat macedon in VH/VH?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Trap 'em.

They often field armies with lots of Lancers, a goodly number of phalangites, and little else.

Put yourself in a position where the map says they'll have to attack uphill.

Make sure you are numerically a little weaker than the Macs.

Set up as far back as possible and uphill. Spears in front and archers behind and above (cretans pref). Position two slinger/peltast groups in front of the spears (but close onto them -- NOT on skirmish). Have 1 or 2 mil-cav stationed near the front of the deployment area.

When battle opens, entice his plentiful light cav into chasing your mil-cav. You want them running early so as to leave his phalanx boys in the dust. Race back to your line and behind it, drawing the lancers into their favorite kind of charge -- hammering peltasts.

Shoot with the bows, but put them on "no fire" as the 1st peltast javelins get launched. Be careful, as your peltasts may not fire because the lancers charge to fast -- but keep the distance in mind so as to not kill your own.

As the charge hits home on your peltasts and into the spears, pause and have all the hoplites attack the lancers. Once the lancers break, halt them and do not let them chase. Reform phalanx.

Turn archers to fire at will and let them give the lancers a send-off.

Lancers should be down 40-80% in numbers, and some of them will route off and not reform.

This should allow you a lot of time to shoot at the oncoming sarissa-sissies, and to use your mil-cav to catanbrian their flank unit on each side. Remember to take the bows of fire at will as they close to minimize fratricide, but you should be able to select target their laggards or the reformed lancers as they come forward.

Should have heavy casualties among the Macs, especially the Levy pike formations, and flankers striking them as they go spear to spear with your line should do the trick.

Mop up as normal.

[Severous]

Here is a link to a picture based Greek campaign in progress. Macedon has long gone but the early posts will show how we played...on both campaign and battle maps.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=55186

Edit: It takes a short while to load due to pictures.

[Tellos Athenaios]

@Kralizec: not in this case.

@Hannibal99: check the state of your city defense structures. Greeks don't like fighting on walls for example, but they don't mind fighting in the streets. A battering ram can be set on fire with some archer units for example. Likewise Greeks don't like fighting in forests but don't mind fighting on a steep slope as long as they are the defenders. Greeks love to defend what's theirs, their whole army is based on that single factor (just ask Xerxes, if you don't get me). It would be preferable design your strategy with these facts in mind, and to do so: make sure you have some armies to attack any agressors in the back as soon as they lay siege upon your settlements, have always some archer units in your settlements, use your economy to finance mercenary units and stay away from forests! Oh, and whenever possible fight people with armies much the same as yours: (heavy infantry, little cavalry, not to much of an archery or artillery present), yours are not exactly the fastest forces on the planet. And most important of all enjoy!

[Seamus Fermanagh]

@Kralizec: not in this case.

@Hannibal99: check the state of your city defense structures. Greeks don't like fighting on walls for example, but they don't mind fighting in the streets. A battering ram can be set on fire with some archer units for example. Likewise Greeks don't like fighting in forests but don't mind fighting on a steep slope as long as they are the defenders. Greeks love to defend what's theirs, their whole army is based on that single factor (just ask Xerxes, if you don't get me). It would be preferable design your strategy with these facts in mind, and to do so: make sure you have some armies to attack any agressors in the back as soon as they lay siege upon your settlements, have always some archer units in your settlements, use your economy to finance mercenary units and stay away from forests! Oh, and whenever possible fight people with armies much the same as yours: (heavy infantry, little cavalry, not to much of an archery or artillery present), yours are not exactly the fastest forces on the planet. And most important of all enjoy!

Agreed. Use the Von Moltke approach -- rush your army to a position that is vital to them and make them attack you there. Combines the strategic advantages of the offensive with the tactical (esp. important for spear warriors) advantages of the defensive.

[whtdoesitmatta]

Yeah I can hold of most wooden wall and sieges, as long as I have a decent amout of spears, could be miltia hoplites, It is so hard to get around them...

and seeing as the computer won't sit there and shoot arrows at you all day, just take the first few rounds then your set.

[supersalsa]

I always make a point of not destroying the enemy rams whilst I'm the greeks. What i usually do is just have bout 4 archers on the walls and 3 hoplites on the ground (can be any type of hoplite). In the positioning stage at start of battle I put the 3 groups of hoplites just behind my gate in phalax formation. and 3 should b in a crescent moon formation. I let them knock down my gate. Once the gate gets knocked down every enemy all just charge 4 it. Its always a slaughter as they cant get past the spears but they getting pushed into the spears from their people behind them. I get my archers to fire ignited arrows into the centre of the huge mass of the enemy. The arrows do the most damage whilst the hoplites keep em still.

Another tactic I found good was if you have about 6 hoplites and your up against all all infantry and cavalry army then put the hoplites in a circle with the spears pointing outwards. Using just six hoplites I've slaughtered thousands of cavalry infantry in this way. It not a good idea however if the enemy has archers because they all focus on one unit and once there is a weak point it is easy for the enemy to get in and once they in it havoc as hoplites dont do well once attacked from the flank or rear.

[Tellos Athenaios]

I always make a point of not destroying the enemy rams whilst I'm the greeks.

I advised to set fire to the rams because this strategy allows you to defeat large assaulting AI armies with few garisson troops present.

Walls aren't the Greeks best friends, since when the AI come's up with an hughe invasion force they will most likely include some rams and ladders too: and that's where things might start to go all wrong. Greek armies are for some reason very very bad at fighting on walls, fighting on walls is a sure way to loose the battle against most factions. And by building walls you provide the AI with the possibility to attack the hoplites in the back (the AI doesn't have to go for your troops, I've noticed that it sometimes does try and find ways to sneak around my forces) and from then on it is pretty much a Clear Defeat.

To draw conclusions:
1 Whenever you can't afford yourself much of an garisson, then don't and don't build walls.
2 Whenever you do, be sure to try the supersalsa approach: it's far better to slaughter your ennemies than force them to go away but relatively unharmed. (They will keep roaming your lands and keep pillaging)
3 Always have some archers as garrison, they are one of the cheapest unit's available, are capable to hold off much larger enemy forces, have a decent size to keep up public order rates, and in both approaches fulfill a critical task.

And as allways: keep your hoplites with their noses pointed towards the enemy.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Hmmm. I've found the Greeks reasonably effective in fighting on the walls.

I don't tend to defend wooden walls -- though if they are using only 2-3 rams and I have 3-4 archers I might flame out all but the one headed for the gate so that my spears can "greet them" -- as spears do better in streets than on the interior ring road.

The key to any Greek stone wall plus defense is to sally with peltasts/mil cav. The enemy will often come after them and straight under the firepower of your towers and bowmen. You'll lose a fair number, but should kill many more. 1 or 2 such "draws" and the they'll retreat or the subsequent assault will be doomed.

In assault, put the hoplites to pushing the towers and flank with light troops on the ladders. Select your spots carefully to avoid fire and you can often engage his wall troops in one spot while your light troops take the rest of the wall -- and open other gates for the remaining troops.

[Roman_Man#3]

hey, downloaded and installed XGM. amazing mod.

anyway, off the start, macedon has alot of troop and is aggressive. they put me on the defensive for a while, and when their attacks slowd, i went on the offensive. i attacked larissa with about 1/2 stack, and a full stack of macedons attacked me. the garrison of of larissa came as reinforcemnts, namely phalangites being led by an 8 star general or something called antigonos. i deployed in a wheat field, which was a stupid idea cuz i couldnt see my troops, but i still won. anyway, i went on to kill antigonos and left their army of + 700 at about 200. pretty fun. only git a clear victory though.
still whipped them.





victory!!

[dzzirt]

Sorry for newbish question, but how do i build my own (non mercs) cretan archers? Already upgraded my archery range to level where i can create onagers, but still only normal archers can be built :(

BTW any guide / tool on the web that shows what buildings are required to get units?

[saxon_maik]

AFAIK, the Greek Cities do not get any higher level archers. I keep recruiting the mercenaries by making sure to have family members in the right places (Rhodes, Kydonia, Pergamum and mainland Greece, of course).

Since you already upgraded your archery range this far you might want to give heavy peltasts a try. I use them to flank enemies pinned down by my hoplites.

Try the building browser when you pull up the settlement details. The button should be near the obnoxious Victoria... Right-clicking on a military structure should let you know what troops can be recruited.

Sorry for newbish question, but how do i build my own (non mercs) cretan archers? Already upgraded my archery range to level where i can create onagers, but still only normal archers can be built :(

BTW any guide / tool on the web that shows what buildings are required to get units?

[Roman_Man#3]

its true, the greeks cannot build cretan archers. you can make them recruitable by the greeks, but i dont remember how off hand.

[Guyus Germanicus]

Ahhh . . . if only one COULD build Cretan Archers with the Greeks . . .

I have been enjoying a Greek Cities round of late, and I recruit the Cretan mercs every chance I get. I have a faction member posted in Sparta, and periodically I do a little boat trip to Crete to see if any are available. Since you can also recruit them as mercs in the Peloponese and the Albanian areas, I also have my faction member step outside of Sparta occasionally to see if any are available locally. Having 3-4 Cretan archers in your army is a powerful weapon. They can really maul opposing infantry. And they're definitely a "must have" when assaulting a city. I do the same availability checking with my Pergamum general.

Caesar used them in his legions. So the real generals of the era knew their value as well.

In my current game, I'm going to try feeding Sparta lots of peasants so I can build up my population and start cranking out spartan hoplites. It's a pity that the Greek cities have so little cavalry options. But the armored hoplites can certainly hold their own against all comers. What I lack in quality, for cavalry, I've been trying to make up for in quantity with higher quality armor. It seems to be working.

The early going can be touch and go, but once you establish some breathing room (especially by capturing all of Sicily), the going gets a bit easier. In my current game, Pontus has been the bigger headache. I got Macedon eliminated more easily than I expected.

[Roman_Man#3]

what provinces do you have?

[Guyus Germanicus]

Hello RM3,

Saw your post this afternoon at work, but I waited to arrive home before answering. The Feds (my employer) frown on our posting from the office PC to bulletin boards, etc.

Currently in my Greek game I hold about 20-21 provinces. I have all of modern day Greek peninsula, Crete, Salonica, Apollonia, Tarentum, Croton, and Capua, not to mention all of Sicily. I hold Rhodes, Halicarnassus, Sardis and Nicomedia. Bylazora and Byzantium are mine as well. Have Rome and Ancrya under siege. With Sinope under control now, the Pontids are on the ropes. I'm moving on Segestica to finish off the rebel ex-Macedonian army there. Three fleets guard Rhodes and I'm preparing an invasion force for Salamis. The money situation is good.

I have a rather large Pontic army under siege in Ancrya. Their last serious field army. Mazaka (sp) should be no fight after this. The Egyptians tried to slip an army by me to besiege Sardis. Had been on good terms with them until that moment. I'm at war with Carthage, but haven't encountered them since I secured Sicily early in the game. I have a ex-Brutii 5-star general for whom I'm assembling a large armoured hoplite expeditionary force on Sicily preparing to deal with Carthage. I bribed him into the fold after I took the last Brutii city - Tarentum. I bribed away a Pontic general and am going to post him in Macedonia to deal with Thrace.

Rome SPQR attacked me when I advanced on Capua. It wasn't their usual fullstack army that I typically encounter when I deal with them. My army was chock full of armored hoplites. Suffered light casualties to the hoplites; moderate casualties to my Greek cavalry.

I'm feeding peasants like mad to Sparta to get the population up so I can start recruiting Spartan hoplites. I'd like to have a goodly supply for an Egyptian campaign.

Rhodian slingers are marvelous for ruining Pontic spearmen.

That's the story so far. May not get to the game this evening as I have an open house to attend. Am enjoying a little snort of Bourbon at the moment. Cheers, big guy.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Ahhh . . . if only one COULD build Cretan Archers with the Greeks . . .

I have been enjoying a Greek Cities round of late, and I recruit the Cretan mercs every chance I get. I have a faction member posted in Sparta, and periodically I do a little boat trip to Crete to see if any are available. Since you can also recruit them as mercs in the Peloponese and the Albanian areas, I also have my faction member step outside of Sparta occasionally to see if any are available locally. Having 3-4 Cretan archers in your army is a powerful weapon. They can really maul opposing infantry. And they're definitely a "must have" when assaulting a city. I do the same availability checking with my Pergamum general.

Caesar used them in his legions. So the real generals of the era knew their value as well.

In my current game, I'm going to try feeding Sparta lots of peasants so I can build up my population and start cranking out spartan hoplites. It's a pity that the Greek cities have so little cavalry options. But the armored hoplites can certainly hold their own against all comers. What I lack in quality, for cavalry, I've been trying to make up for in quantity with higher quality armor. It seems to be working.

The early going can be touch and go, but once you establish some breathing room (especially by capturing all of Sicily), the going gets a bit easier. In my current game, Pontus has been the bigger headache. I got Macedon eliminated more easily than I expected.

Try XGM. I've loaded it and bashed around a bit. It's much tougher than the vanilla and does a really nice job with the Greek/successor factions. Give it a whirl!

[Motep]

This is the Ideal Greek formation. Put your phalanx in a circle (or near-circle) and put the rest inside. Onagers were useless in this battle, but they may be found usefull in others. However, this Formation is vulnerable to Archers and Artillery. Always a good Idea to bring some cavalry, even if they die, to take out the archers and artillery to ensure the survival of the fromation. It can withstand forces several times the siza of their own (I won the battle against 4 armies of romans with gold chevrons). After a while though, your troops get exhausted and they are broken through, thus leading to their destruction. Great for taking out a large number of enemy troops with small loss to your own.

[guineawolf]

Ahhh . . . if only one COULD build Cretan Archers with the Greeks . . .

I have been enjoying a Greek Cities round of late, and I recruit the Cretan mercs every chance I get. I have a faction member posted in Sparta, and periodically I do a little boat trip to Crete to see if any are available. Since you can also recruit them as mercs in the Peloponese and the Albanian areas, I also have my faction member step outside of Sparta occasionally to see if any are available locally. Having 3-4 Cretan archers in your army is a powerful weapon. They can really maul opposing infantry. And they're definitely a "must have" when assaulting a city. I do the same availability checking with my Pergamum general.

Caesar used them in his legions. So the real generals of the era knew their value as well.

In my current game, I'm going to try feeding Sparta lots of peasants so I can build up my population and start cranking out spartan hoplites. It's a pity that the Greek cities have so little cavalry options. But the armored hoplites can certainly hold their own against all comers. What I lack in quality, for cavalry, I've been trying to make up for in quantity with higher quality armor. It seems to be working.

The early going can be touch and go, but once you establish some breathing room (especially by capturing all of Sicily), the going gets a bit easier. In my current game, Pontus has been the bigger headache. I got Macedon eliminated more easily than I expected.

only macedonians can recruit cretan archers.....

[Roman_Man#3]

The last time I checked, no one could recruit cretan archers. You have to mod them into the game yourself, at least to be recruited.

[guineawolf]

The last time I checked, no one could recruit cretan archers. You have to mod them into the game yourself, at least to be recruited.

my mistake,i think i check them at custom battle......

[Ray]

I think Spartans are a waste of money. Elite hoplites can do the most important things Spartans can do, and they don't cost as much money. That means you can afford more armies. The Spartans' greatest strength is their melee attack, but that is not important in open battles where the phalanx rules. In sieges, knock a hole in the wall and kill everything guarding the gap with ballistas or scorpions. Then send in the elite hoplites to block the streets with their phalanxes.

[Roman_Man#3]

Ya, I guess, but It is just cool to have spartans. They have two hitpoints remember, so 1 of them is like 2 elite hoplites. But for your everyday army, I would go with elite hoplites, because they can be retrained anywhere. If you have a very elite army though, go for the spartans.

[Suraknar]

Well, I am very fond of playing the Greek Cities.

I always open up with Diplomacy, and in the first few turns Forge an alliance with the Carthaginian in sicelly with Trade rights, Macedon, Seleucid and Pontus.

The romans are really poised to get the greek peninsula so trade rights with the scipii will only prolly buy you a couple of turns befor the full attention of the Roman Senate is brought upon you.

In some campaigns the Brutii will forge alliances with Macedon and Macedon will declare war on you.

But most of the time Macedon comes under attack by the brutii specially if you manage to sieze the rebel cities of the north western side, when the britii go against macedon you can be pretty sure that macedon will remain you ally for a very long time, they serve as a buffer against the roman before you decide expanding to Itally all together.

In anatolia things are very unstable at times the seleucid will remain faithfull allies till their demise, at times they will attack you, if they do attack you betraying the alliance of the opening stages, then expect hardship, as it usually makes pontus to join in and occasionally caused even macedon to betray so you can find yourslef attacked from all sides.

Trade rights with the egyptians and armenia are very important, specially if seleucid turns against you, as you can ask egypt and armenia for alliances in that scenario which will eventually put pressure on the seleucud and in some cases on pontus, permiting you to concentrate in consolidating your place in Greece by fighting macedon while keeping at bay the romans.

The alliance with Carthage is also important as rome will go after them and thus they do remain faithfull allies distarcting the scipii.

Thegauls are not that interested in allying with you, even if they come under the scrutini of the Julii, however the Dacians can be usefull specially if Illyria is yours.

Early fleets are very important, you will be able to invade byzantium early as well as establish a foothold in the black sea provided you can afford a campaign there and are not under heavy attack, if you do so trade right with teh thracians as well as Scythians are also important. In scenarios where Macedon remains your ally they will go after the thracians and the Thacians will not attack you as your trade with them can be lucrative and they use that income to defend against the Scythians and incming Macedon, sometimes even Dacia.

Slowly and surelly you can establis yourself in all directions, Crete is a good island to take early on, as wellas the northern tip of africa directly to the south of crete. Once funds permit you can try to bribe the carthaginians in sicelly, (even if allied), after which point eliminating the Scipii is much easyer.

Depending on how your relations go with Seleucid you can wait till they are eliminated or almost eliminated by the others and either inherit some of their terrotories or cancell your alliance once they have only one province in anatolia, and then a couple of turns later besiege their settlement there insuring a very solid foothold in anatolia, and complete control of the aegean sea. This is a Strong center situation and trade will absolutelly flourish under the protection of your navy, which will then permit you to start you plans for further expansion, to the east or if you prefer directly start the campaign towards Rome...

Battle Considerations,

Unfortunently as strong as a phalanx can be, in later stages of the game, your enemies start having better and more varied troops, specially the romans post marian reforms, this I have found lets the Greeks in a disadvantage, and so even if it is more than possible to reach final victory as per vanilla, I have prefered to immplement some modding to give the greek cities some type of competition.

With minimal changes I only turned the Hoplite Militia in to normal Spearmen, removing their phalanx capability aswell as their secondary weapon. That gives you a secondary choice of Phalanx Flank support and defense against later Cavalry. With upgraded Armor and weapons as wella s carefull accumulation of experience these Militia Hoplite Spearmen make a huge difference in the battles of the later Game.

Use of certain mercenary units is always a good thing for Greek cities, specially Sarmatian cavalry if you have a foothold in the northern Black Sea, Thracian/bastarnae Mercenaries, Rhodian Slingers and Cretan Archers. Dont really bother with Heavy peltasts/Illirians mercs, as you will be able to make your own at one point.

Some eastern mercs work well too depending how deep you advance in anatolia.

I suggest spartan Hoplites only when you can fully upgrade their weapon an armor, they do have better health stats and can stand their ground for extended periods due to their higher base morale. The backbone of your armies will eventually be Armoured Hoplites and a couple of spartan hoplites could be deployed to the sides of your battle line for shock/flanking maneuvers.

That is about it.

[13th-Caesar]

O.K. My tactics are completely different to everyone elses... but my levels are Medium/Medium so they may be no use to anyone here.

I knew the Scipii were going to attack Syracuse so I grabbed Messana real quick. I left Carthage for a while, they werent attacking me so why atack them? I built up armies in Rhodes and took the rebel town near there. Soon after I moved my forces back to Greece mainland to concentrate attack on Macedonians. I saw the Macedons going for Athens (well that direction anyway!) thanks to diplomats so I took Athens with a relativly small loss of men. This cut off any Macedon help while I invaded the city north of Sparta. I now had a firm starting base. After moving swiftly north through Greece I stopped at Bzylaroza (forgotten the name!). By this time I had managed to kill off Macedons and make alliances with Selecuid, Egypt and Parthia (Thrace and Pontus didnt want to even speak to me!). I bribed a couple of Selecuid towns in Asia Minor/Turkey. This way I stayed neutral/allies with nearly everyone while still gaining ground. With everything in Greece mine, Asia Minor was calm so I decided to hit Italy while they were still not strong enough. I moved all my forces to Syracuse in a massive fleet to make sure it didnt sink (7/8 ships) and smashed the Brutii town in the boot of Italy. I stayed neytral with Carthage for sea-faring reasons ;)

After I took the first Brtuii town I stayed still for a few turns. Replenishing my forces, building walls and occasionally forts as well as fending back constant attacks. I then moved north and grabbed the other Italian Brutii town before capturing Capua. I lost nearly all of my forces at Capua in a desastrous attack on the city. This left me with lots and lots of money, but very little army. The Thracians then declared war and besieged Byzantium and the town west of Byzantium. This was quickly followed by Julii besieging Salona.For a long time I was just fending off those attacks, and this shrunk my meagre force even further. However I did manage to gain some land off of Thrace by landing a force I had been building up from Rhodes next to Byzantium (get back ) I tried to make ceasefires with Julii but they didnt give two hoots about ceasefiring. With two fronts opening up I didnt like it, so I hit Rome hard. I took my Faction Leader (50 cav.) and the rest were armoured hoplites (not a very balanced army!). The senate had two units in the city, and one huge one outside containing maybe 6 family members (all the family pretty much). I attacked both in one and my phalanxes absolutely smashed the Senate. I took rome by killing around 1400 romans and losing 400 myself (stupid big walls!). I thought this would stop Julii (offering them Rome for a ceasefire, but alas, they said no ) Julli kept on sending forces south but I bribed them off. I shifted my army to the army that was being made all this time in Asia minor and in one turn sent three huge forces and besieged 3 Pontus towns (currently under siege as I type!). I also gathered up all my mainland Greece armies, lowered taxes and pushed northwards, hoping to take out the Brutii but I cant find them!?!? Thracians are in the way and are being squashed. Bribes are buying me towns in Edgypt's area, around Antioch etc and I am pushed north from there (firm alliance with Egpyt to cover my back). In my last turn I took the Carthagian town of Lilybaeum which now means I am, unfortunately, at war with them. They look pretty weak though so I m not expecting any attacks.

Also, an idea that didnt occur to me until today in a boring Maths lesson... (stating the obvious here) Parthians have poor infantry but good cavalry, which = a cavalry based army... an army my mighty phalanxes can easily beat.


I love playing as the Greeks, the phalanxes are awesome and are pretty much indestructible (my only heavy defeat as the Julii came from the Greek phalanxes, I didnt know anything about them so I charged my General a.k.a Faction Leader's cavalry at them because they had a poor attack ). So far (quite a way in, I have 30 or so terratories including central and southern Italy) I have only had one unit of my beloved hoplites routing (mercenaries just dont stop running!!)

[cobalt]

why can't view this? It just says guide on the first page?