The Greek Cities

[frogbeastegg]

Guide.

[The_Emperor]

Ok the Greek cities have it tough, but here is what i did in the opening stages.

In Sicily your city will be attacked by Carthage on almost the first turn, but can be defeated in a sally if you lure them to your defences.

You will need to train up as many men as you can here, because once Carthage is done, the Scipii will also be on your case as well, and they are tougher in my experience.

But all of this is a distraction from the main event, which is to take back Greece from the Macedonians, so develop up in Sparta with yet more Hoplites and then send out an army to that narrow strip of land just North of Athens and slap down a fort there, this will cut off any Macedonian reinforcements to the city north of Sparta you should besiege and capture... From then on you should move on to liberate Athens and a good portion of mainland Greece from Macedonian rule.

Sicily will be a major battleground for many years, but should you take Messana from the Scipii, you will seriously weaken Rome's efforts against you there. The Carthaginian side of the island should also be easily taken after that. (just remember to keep an army away from Etna)

If you have any cash bribe the rebel army near Rhodes into your faction and take the city and get a trade agreement going with the Selucids.

While the Romans will keep on comming at you (they are lovely like that) they will eventually run out of steam in their invasions. Especially once you have Sicily and you manage to kick the Brutii out of your area... Also do not underestimate the positive effects of a momentary ceasefire with Macedon.

After humiliating their armies time and again I was able to get trade rights from them... This combined with the Temples/Shrines of Hermes and markets produces a real cash cow in some cities.

[Cennyan]

My tactics where slightly different.

My first move was to send my Sicilian diplomat towards the Scipii and forge a trade agreement (They'll still attack you in a turn or four). Then did the same to Carthage. I tried bribing both but was unsuccessful. I built a dock, built a ship, then sacked the city and moved my troops out abandoning the provence. (You are going to lose this provence unless you spend a good portion of your resources on it in the first 10 - 15 turns).

Once I had my armies safely on the Greece penisula I went to work claiming Corova and Athens. At the same time, my Rhodes army was building up for five turns or so and was then sent to take the rebel controlled cities on the main contenant. Exterminate the macedonian population. You will end up with almost no revolts for the next 100 years or so provided you keep decent generals and 3-4 troops in each settlement and with such high morale, you're able to tax at very high and each settlement will be a gold mine. You want to get Corinth, Athens, Sparta, Halicarnassus, Rhodes, and Pergamum. Leave Larissa alone for the time being, you'll need the troops elsewhere very soon...

Eventually the Brutti will be tasked by the Senate to invade Thermon and Apolloinia...You need to have an army in nearby Corinth (or an army you can move) for this phase. Without forces, the Romans will have four - five cities from which to build troops and will make your life much more difficult. I immediately struck out and took Thermon, I also took Apollonia but simply sacked and abandoned it (just wasn't worth keeping really). The goal here when you fight these battles is to kill off the Roman generals. They're going to send one of there best and brightest (I had to fight a 6 star faction heir). Kill him off and their faction is majorly weakend. Within the next five or six turns (if you didn't already), you should have spy's in Croton and Tarentum, and as soon as you see the troop sizes are small, invade the romans. I did this around Turn 20 or so. If you're lucky (as I was) you'll be able to wipe out their faction completely at this point.

Sack both cities completely, exterminate the population and destroy every building (after you've retrained all your troops), teaching those dirty romans to stay on their side of the sea. You'll see the Scippii will remove some of their attention from Carthage and point it at these cities. By the time they do, you need to have both cities sacked and on a boat back to Greece. The Scippii will have to battle the rebels which will weaken them...after they take one or both cities, bring you're army back and lay the smackdown on the Scipii troops to. Once you do this, the two cities will be controlled by rebels for several turns.

At this point I turned my attention to the north...finishing off the Macedonians in Larissa and Thessalonica (Those guys had the plague :( ). By this time, the Thracians and The Secluded Empire will begin getting froggy. Defeating them will require a large navy, so focus on shipyards. Once you clean out the macedonians and Scipii, you really wont have too many enemies so focus on building that navy instead of building troops. Keep two medium - large armies...one in Larissa / Thessalonica and one in Halicarnassus or Pergamum. While clearing the oceans lay the smackdown in Sardis (Secluded Empire) and Clear out the Thraceians up to Byzantium. You don't have to wipe them out, choice is yours. I made peace and eventually got them to turn on Darcia by giving them back Byzantium after I began my move on the other roman cities. Make friends with the Parthians so that you have you're flanks covered by an ally. Try and keep good relations with them for as long as possible.

At this point, sit and build...build build build. Try to keep your military as low as possible without sacrificing too much defense. Roman troops are particullarly tough compared to Greecians in the early game, however after the Roman Reformation event, you should be spouting some huge cities and pumping out upgraded troops which will do nicely against the romans.

You'll find that the romans, in their effort to effectively build their empire, have left their backdoor open to invasion. Their biggest cities will be virtually unprotected, you want to take them out as quickly as possible, crippling their economy and troop building abilitiy. I recomend taking Sicily first, exterminating the populace, then take Rome and the Julii starting cities. I kept pushing the Julli out till I got to the mountain choke point in Arretium and left two armies there in ambush. From there, I moved my Sicilian armies (aftering repairing the city, retraining troops, and four turns of troop building) to the Carthage Theatre.

A lot of people will have objections to exterminating, however there's one thing that plays an important role here. When you disperse the population of a settlement, those in their home cities / territories are more likely to revolt than those sent to foreign cities. While once or twice will have no effect, you're going to be taking over about 10 Roman Cities in 10 turns. If you enslaved, you're looking at roughly 1000 + romans in every roman city and that is not good. You'll have to spend far too many resources trying to keep the peace in this region....The only good Roman is a Dead Roman.

From this point it's up to you...continue taking on the Julii in the former gaul territories and / or the Scipii in Africa, or focus on Darcia to get your 50. Darcia will be less likely to revolt as it will be closer to you're capitol, but it's just soo much fun killing romans.

[Cennyan]

One other note....

The hardest thing about playing this faction is going to be winning the early battles. Sadly, the Greeks don't get any decent cavalry in the early game. Our first cavalry are skirmishers. As a result, we have to rely mainly on very slow moving pikemen and archers to do most of the damage. My biggest problem in the early game was losing sieges and battles because the time ran out. I ended up making an archer heavy army and just pelting the general from outside the city, then rushing en masse on the city square, skirmishing back towards the pikemen moving up.

[Colovion]

The biggest thing I can suggest when you go up against Macedon is to form your Phalanx units in DEEP formation - at least 5 or 6 deep. Make sure you have your flanks/rear covered as well because you haven't many good cav units. I took over the entire Greek Penninsula with mainly Hoplite units only boltered by some Cretian archer mercs (which are indespensible in the early game) and perhaps some Militia Cav. Sometimes by the time you get to Larissa or anywhere north of that area you will encounter the plague. Build Sewers and Public baths ASAP in all northern provinces to counteract the spread of it - losing a couple family members totally cripples your Family Tree if you dont' watch out.

-Try to make nice with the Selucids and Pontus as well as all of the eastern powers until you can consolidate yourself to the Greek penninsula. An alliance with the Selucids is a great buffer zone between yourself and any possible enemies in the east.
-make sure to have naval supremacy - you're surrounded by water and every province you have is a naval port - use it!
- use your naval supremacy to subdue the Egyptians if they get too out of control (they will). If you can get an alliance that is better unless you're geared on Conquoring that incredibly rich area ;)

[Armchair Athlete]

For your cavalry needs the province east of Pergamun (Galatia, city of Ancyra) has mercenary Sarmatian Cavalry. They have very good charge (15) and reasonable attack and defense values. They are about on a par with Macedonian cavalry. The rebels in this area are quite weak, (2 naked fanatics and one peasant) and Pontus usually ignore this city to go for Nicomedia. Take your family member from Pergamun and hire some mercenaries along the way (in your province you can hire cretan archers, rhodian slingers, mercenary peltasts and merc hoplites) and take this city. It has a very small population, but you're there for the mercenaries mainly (you can also hire some exp 2 barbarian infantry). Its reasonable for money making too (about 500 per turn) however you cannot build a port so it misses out on the big bucks.

EDIT - The Sarmatians dont appear very often, so take good care of them when they are available for hire. barbarian cavalry mercenaries appear much more frequently near Ancyra, but are not as good (still better than Greek cavalry though). Sarmatians also appear in the Pontic provinces and I think Armenia.

[jerby]

[QUOTE=Colovion]The biggest thing I can suggest when you go up against Macedon is to form your Phalanx units in DEEP formation - at least 5 or 6 deep. Make sure you have your flanks/rear covered as well because you haven't many good cav units. I took over the entire Greek Penninsula with mainly Hoplite units only boltered by some Cretian archer mercs (which are indespensible in the early game) and perhaps some Militia Cav. Sometimes by the time you get to Larissa or anywhere north of that area you will encounter the plague. Build Sewers and Public baths ASAP in all northern provinces to counteract the spread of it - losing a couple family members totally cripples your Family Tree if you dont' watch out.
QUOTE]

how do you do the 'deep'-part? and why?---> how and why?

[WarLord of the East]

from my experinces the greeks arethe one of the easiest faction to play especially early in the game they have slight advantage rich lans ,armored hoplites ( one of the best unıts in the game considered cost / effectivenes)
very good starting position the problem occurs when you face the oppenents late in the game against heavy cavalary of east (and even against romans and macedons) they stand week hoplites are good and spartans comes but the hoplites are the most vunarable unit against onager fire due to their tight form. and by considering they have no heavy or medium cavalary always try to attack the macedons early romens mıd ın the game and never get involved with parthians if they managed to survive and build cat elp. and per. cav.
i did not had any problem while dealing with pharoah try to backstab the wıth spartans attack alexandrie thebes and the other city (i dont remember its name there you will find a lot of armor and xp up grades due to temple cities and also the cities have a great natural defences through sinai and bridges (i am playing at vey hard at both options as most of you ) by the way i wrote my username wrong by accident i am a recruit to this forum at all

[guineawolf]

My tactics where slightly different.

My first move was to send my Sicilian diplomat towards the Scipii and forge a trade agreement (They'll still attack you in a turn or four). Then did the same to Carthage. I tried bribing both but was unsuccessful. I built a dock, built a ship, then sacked the city and moved my troops out abandoning the provence. (You are going to lose this provence unless you spend a good portion of your resources on it in the first 10 - 15 turns).

Once I had my armies safely on the Greece penisula I went to work claiming Corova and Athens. At the same time, my Rhodes army was building up for five turns or so and was then sent to take the rebel controlled cities on the main contenant. Exterminate the macedonian population. You will end up with almost no revolts for the next 100 years or so provided you keep decent generals and 3-4 troops in each settlement and with such high morale, you're able to tax at very high and each settlement will be a gold mine. You want to get Corinth, Athens, Sparta, Halicarnassus, Rhodes, and Pergamum. Leave Larissa alone for the time being, you'll need the troops elsewhere very soon...

Eventually the Brutti will be tasked by the Senate to invade Thermon and Apolloinia...You need to have an army in nearby Corinth (or an army you can move) for this phase. Without forces, the Romans will have four - five cities from which to build troops and will make your life much more difficult. I immediately struck out and took Thermon, I also took Apollonia but simply sacked and abandoned it (just wasn't worth keeping really). The goal here when you fight these battles is to kill off the Roman generals. They're going to send one of there best and brightest (I had to fight a 6 star faction heir). Kill him off and their faction is majorly weakend. Within the next five or six turns (if you didn't already), you should have spy's in Croton and Tarentum, and as soon as you see the troop sizes are small, invade the romans. I did this around Turn 20 or so. If you're lucky (as I was) you'll be able to wipe out their faction completely at this point.

Sack both cities completely, exterminate the population and destroy every building (after you've retrained all your troops), teaching those dirty romans to stay on their side of the sea. You'll see the Scippii will remove some of their attention from Carthage and point it at these cities. By the time they do, you need to have both cities sacked and on a boat back to Greece. The Scippii will have to battle the rebels which will weaken them...after they take one or both cities, bring you're army back and lay the smackdown on the Scipii troops to. Once you do this, the two cities will be controlled by rebels for several turns.

At this point I turned my attention to the north...finishing off the Macedonians in Larissa and Thessalonica (Those guys had the plague :( ). By this time, the Thracians and The Secluded Empire will begin getting froggy. Defeating them will require a large navy, so focus on shipyards. Once you clean out the macedonians and Scipii, you really wont have too many enemies so focus on building that navy instead of building troops. Keep two medium - large armies...one in Larissa / Thessalonica and one in Halicarnassus or Pergamum. While clearing the oceans lay the smackdown in Sardis (Secluded Empire) and Clear out the Thraceians up to Byzantium. You don't have to wipe them out, choice is yours. I made peace and eventually got them to turn on Darcia by giving them back Byzantium after I began my move on the other roman cities. Make friends with the Parthians so that you have you're flanks covered by an ally. Try and keep good relations with them for as long as possible.

At this point, sit and build...build build build. Try to keep your military as low as possible without sacrificing too much defense. Roman troops are particullarly tough compared to Greecians in the early game, however after the Roman Reformation event, you should be spouting some huge cities and pumping out upgraded troops which will do nicely against the romans.

You'll find that the romans, in their effort to effectively build their empire, have left their backdoor open to invasion. Their biggest cities will be virtually unprotected, you want to take them out as quickly as possible, crippling their economy and troop building abilitiy. I recomend taking Sicily first, exterminating the populace, then take Rome and the Julii starting cities. I kept pushing the Julli out till I got to the mountain choke point in Arretium and left two armies there in ambush. From there, I moved my Sicilian armies (aftering repairing the city, retraining troops, and four turns of troop building) to the Carthage Theatre.

A lot of people will have objections to exterminating, however there's one thing that plays an important role here. When you disperse the population of a settlement, those in their home cities / territories are more likely to revolt than those sent to foreign cities. While once or twice will have no effect, you're going to be taking over about 10 Roman Cities in 10 turns. If you enslaved, you're looking at roughly 1000 + romans in every roman city and that is not good. You'll have to spend far too many resources trying to keep the peace in this region....The only good Roman is a Dead Roman.

From this point it's up to you...continue taking on the Julii in the former gaul territories and / or the Scipii in Africa, or focus on Darcia to get your 50. Darcia will be less likely to revolt as it will be closer to you're capitol, but it's just soo much fun killing romans.

you should enslave them,becoz it can increase your cities(with governors)population,that will increase your income and troops supply..

[scipio the even younger]

I FIND THE BEST WAY IS TO GET AN ALLIANCE IN THE FIRST TURN OR SO WITH THE MACEDONIANS and then kick every one out of sicily and make it a huge production isle.
By this time the bruti or scipii will have invaded , with macedoians reppel them and in the same turn try to bribe someone into atackking the macedonians .
Now gather a army that you should have been building in sicily and invade capua, now split your the army from greece and attack both bruti citys.
Hopefully the macedonians r to busy fighting whon ever u bribed to bother u .Anyway as soon as you can assult all citys and keep a small garrison in the bruti towns and move the rest of the army north building forts on the way.This armys job is to hold up the juli.
Now the army in capua should resive renforcments from siicily and attack the senate. With an army full racked up and maybe more and with the juli being held up u should have no trouble in dealing with the senate.
Then just go north and mop up the remains of the juli. by this time the macedoins will have probaly attacked.If u have any armie left go north and round the aegean while if u have a army in sparta attack corith and move north.
u need athens for this to work as it stops the macedonians gettimg reinforce ments. theyll be in a sandwich.then when they have 1 place left offer cease fire and demand huge tribute. if they refuse attack and if they agee attack anyway.after that theres a whole world out there.





Maybe its time to rewrite history.

[katank]

Sacking Corinth and getting the Statue of Zeus right away is a nice boost. Thessalonica can also become a hoplite factory quickly. Unified Greece is amazingly rich. You can easily take on the Romans and the Macedonians simultaneously while remaining defensive to the Carthaginians.

[RollingWave]

But katank, I find taking all of the Balkans early on quiet difficult, which is why I usually settle with just taking Athens and Cornith, and then try to gain a firm holding on all fronts first before making the Advance... I find that the best way to weaken the Brutties threat on the Balkan is simply (taking a hint from ur Carthage blitz strat) sail from sciliy to sack their home towns .

On another note, it is very important that you get trade rights with Egypt/Carthage and the Selucids, so you can acturally make use of ur trade bonus, also take Crete when you have some spare men or mone as it is a incrediable money machine once you get ports going. you probably will get into some trouble with the Selucids but you need their trade, espically since you probably wont' be trading with the Romans or Macedonians any time soon, sue for peace with Carthage and Selucids ASAP after taking Sardis and Sciliy.

[katank]

The balkans are not that bad to take. You can beat Brutii to Apollonia and siege Corinth on the first turn. Ignore Athens and go straight for Larissa and then Thessalonica. With Pergamum force, push for Nicomedia and then Byzantium if Thrace didn't take it already. Rhodes can sit pretty and ship slingers to Italy or take Halicarnassus.

Carthaginian blitz type strategy is good as Italy is often poorly defended but without elephants, it's not as effective. Conventional warfare to sack Messena first is probably better.

Pump out hoplite and use some militia cav to screen infantry advances. Hoplites should have phalanx off unless responding to imminent threat. Take out enemy archers (Macedonians start with 2, Julii and Scipii each with 1) at all costs to save your spartans. Also consider using militia hops as fodder so your more expensive hoplites don't end up being pila fodder.

[Rome:Total Slayer]

Sicily will be a major battleground for many years, but should you take Messana from the Scipii, you will seriously weaken Rome's efforts against you there. The Carthaginian side of the island should also be easily taken after that. (just remember to keep an army away from Etna)

Trai as many assasins as possible to wipe out the Scipii Generals. eventualy they will be destroyed and taking sicily will be no problem.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Negative on the assassins. They're fun, but way to expensive in the context you describe. Save that for later.

You need to develop hold points and then focus on one opponent.

Reduce your Syracusan/Messanan garrisons to whatever minimum you need to hold the cities. Cartha and the Scips will keep trying, but you can keep hammering them down. You need to channel funds to get your home base cleared up.

In Greece, develop Byz as a defensive bastion -- Thrace will keep coming and you can keep killing them, use it as flypaper.

Keep forts in the two passes between Larissa and Athens/Corinth. Use them as a screen to develop a powerful field army.

Your field army should take Thermon as soon as its strong enough. Once you have Thermon, you can develop it as a bastion against the Brutii, who will then obligingly kill themselves on your walls.

Pergamum is also a must-hold, but don't try to attack out of there yet. Keep it for the economy.

If you can spare forces and it is still rebel, have the Rhodians acquire Halicarnassus -- good money there. Money is important since you need archers to thin out the phalanxes that will come against your hoplites.

Focus on building one very powerful field force and the replacements to keep it in the field and garrison its conquests quickly. When ready, head for Macedon and keep going until you have Bylazora. Then you can consolidate and choose a new strategic goal.

General thoughts: Build your ports and trade-spots, Greece can be rich (and needs to be since it has to purchase/rent all of its best missile troops, flankers, and heavy cavalry).

Disband your navy. While fighting multiple enemies, they will hammer your fleets in succession while ignoring other opponents. You are simply throwing money away. Don't bother with a navy until you can find a relatively quiet place to build a full stack of triremes. Then and only then venture out. yes, I know Greece is supposed to be a naval power, but you simply can't outbuild the ship-happy AI. Moreover, the AI will sit around not fighting -- even when at war -- unless your ships hove into view, in which case they will be hunted across half the Med.

[Rome:Total Slayer]

[QUOTE=Seamus Fermanagh]Negative on the assassins. They're fun, but way to expensive in the context you describe. Save that for later.

Your rigt but training one and killing lots of captins will raise the chance of killing a general which greatly increses subterfuge. I actually destroyed the Scippii using assassins. taking the rest of the Island was no problem. But the income was not very much if at all.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Its very simple to play as the Greeks. I usually pull out of Syracuse all together and focus on Macedon, but that's just me...

[Kralizec]

Negative on the assassins. They're fun, but way to expensive in the context you describe. Save that for later.

Your rigt but training one and killing lots of captins will raise the chance of killing a general which greatly increses subterfuge. I actually destroyed the Scippii using assassins. taking the rest of the Island was no problem. But the income was not very much if at all.

That's probably because you're hostile to all the Roman factions plus Carthage. Otherwise those Sicilian settlements would have good incomes from naval trade.

[Emperor Mithdrates]

I need space and I need It fast.
First I focus on ports. Your empire stretches out across the oceans and if School history taught me anything its that if you want to maintain an overseas empire rule the waves. Then while my shores are being protected i focus main recruiting in syracuse in Sicily. When the scipii attack, and they will, I have a suprise force waiting for them. I turn the tables, ally myself with Cartage and drive the Roman scum into the Sea where My Supreme navy (told you you'll need them) whipe out the scipii Army and sink their ships.
(it looks like hes drowning, he)

I then fortify My greek cities (which have been creating units the whole time) and launch two attacks on Macedonia and the ever present House of brutii.
Then; because I now own the Romano/scipii city of Capua, I march my troops down from there and use my Navy to cross from greece and squash the Brutii territory smaller and smaller until its destroyed making my path to Rome (and Victory Clear)

"March!"

[Quintus.JC]

You seems to be playing an fast paced game, which is un familar with me. I prefer to slowly vanqush my ememies one at a time. allying yourself with Carthage on a hard leveled game seems to bring betrayl most of the time. especially if you hold Srycuse and Messina, attracting their attention, plus if you try to capture Capua and Tanratum early on wouldn't that bring the divine intervention of the Senate, who has one full-stack troops full of exprinenced Triarii and co. Ports are very healthy though, which increase trade by an awsome amount, but it is sometimes unreliable if you have no one to trade with or if it's blocked. although they are the best option for economical structure.

[The Wandering Scholar]

You play a lot like me Cicero, I am very defensive and I enjoy making money.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

I prefer the inverse. I enjoy massive offensives and squeezing every denarius out of my economy and then putting it straight to use.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

I also play fast paced game cause with the greeks thats the only way to do it ..
You just need to destroy some neighbors early because I have found that nobody likes greeks
In my greek campaign about month ago I was at war with the romans, carthage, pontus, macedon, seleucids and germans(just because I had conquered the Massilia and they had decided to attack me with their huge army of 3 units the next turn ) .. and the date was just 250BC
Also .. the senate hardly leaves from Latium .. they just stay next to Rome or hide there army in to that forest north-east of Rome .. they will attack if you are close to the borders of Latium tough ...
Ports bring in a lot of cash even if you fight with everyone around you .. I got every turn over 10k and this was just the beginning of the game .. Colossus of Rhodes helps a lot

[linkdrago]

my thing is you get attacked by the Scipio family or Carthage on Sicily, then at thermon by the brutii, if you get Athens quick enough and take that then u can build a army there to be able to attack the brutii family, but the next thing i would do is go straight up to a stone wall at sparta but with the greeks i would just say slowly take greece and maybe some of turkey

[Darkvicer98]

My Strategy of the Greeks is to take Corinth and Athens then Larissa in Greece. Since you now own Greece and withstanded the attack on Syracuse attack Messana on Sicily. In Asia Minor take Halicarnassus. Then ship an army to Crete and take Kydonia. Theres now a really good sea trade in the Aegean. Take the Macedon settlement North of Greece and Sardis once the other Seleucid settlements have fallen to the Eastern Factions. Watch out for attacks on Thermon by the Brutii.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Send your Spartan hops and a choice merc or two to Syracuse early on. Athens and Kydonia should be acquired quickly, as should Halicarnassus. Enslave rather than exterminate -- but keep a governor in Thermon (and nowhere else, even if your camping just outside as the battles are each resolved) so that you can get Thermon rapidly to stone wall status.

Thermon and Syracuse can then be used as breakwaters. No army is better set to defend stone walls than the greeks. Cretans and Rhodians shooting from the walls, spears greeting anyone who forces a gate or tries to get through the streets to the square, a general flashing in on the flank when they turn th wrong corner -- THIS the greeks do well. Both cities will be repeatedly attacked, but properly defended can end up being places to bleed the Scips and Brutes white. This lets you slowly build your economy while acquiring Corinth after the inevitable betrayel of Macedonia. Just let the Romaoi bleed at those two spots, reinforcing gradually.

Build a support army to fend of Macedon (and snap up Larissa if they screw up), to reinforce/help Thermon as needed, and to squash any Julii force landing near the isthmus. Build a stronger force in Asia minor to contend with the Selkies, Eggies, & Pontics -- once you've expanded to good borders (mountain passes and rivers), you can turn back to the Macedonians. Remember, defeating those sons of Alexander means a wider front for the war with the Brutes -- be ready to hammer back and follow through into Italy.

[RollingWave]

the RTR version of the Greek campagin is even more... interesting.

starting at 280 bc they basically gave them the Kingdom of Epirius and the Aetolion league. at this stage the succession wars of Alexander had reached one climax, with the Kingdom of Selucid , Ptolmy firmy entrenched in Persia and Egypt, and fighting to a stalemate in Syria, while Lysimachus also carved out a empire in the eastern Asia Minor and Byzantium area.

Back in Macedonia, Pyrrhus, king of Epirus and cousin to Alexender the great tried to annex the throne with the help of Lysimachus but was throw out after a brief stint.

In 281 BC though, all hell broke loose as the last two great generals of Alexander both died in short succession, Lysimachus was killed in a war against the Seleucus, and his kingdom crumbled, as Selucus and the Ptlomic and Macedonian King scramble to absorb his holdings, Seleucus himself was assinated.

With Pyhrrus on the outside looking in, the different Hellenstic faction reached an rare agreement, as the Italian Greek Colony of Tartenum was threatened by the new rising Roman Republic, an agreement was made for all 3 major kingdom to supply Pyhrrus with an large army to defend and develop italy into a new Hellenstic stronghold. this also send a major throne in their back looking the other way while they concentrate on carving up what was Lysimachus' realm.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in RTR, the greek city starts with Athens, Sparta, half of Crete, the Kingdom of Epirus (south of the Illyrian, west of Macedon) , two Greek colony on the Italian and Syracus, Byzantium.

Much like vinilla, your under threat from all sides, but this time even more scary as you have no just 2 front, but more like 6 front.

Rome will come bearing down on Pyrrhus' huge arse army quickly, while Syracus will be under assault from Carthage, you start at Peace with Macedon and at war with the Ptlomic , but that'll change very quickly. as all your holdings in the area is in contact with them. it's a messy situation.

You'll also lose money very quickly if you don't act, because you start with a unit of elephants that cost almost 3000$ in UPKEEP. your better horsemans also cost 600 or so in upkeep, as is your Spartan.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sure many here play RTR or RTRPE, so how would you approach the Greeks in the RTR setting?

[wumpus]

Seamus, my noble friend, once more I learn a tip or two from you. Megathanks. It's those little things that can be added by bits to what humble (and sometimes humbling) experience I have that continue to make me enjoy RomeTW so much--and it's having an exchange of ideas with people sharing the same craze as I do that makes playing even more enjoyable.
Hi there, RollingWave of Taiwan. Because of your post up there, I"m finally convinced to try RTR very soon in the future. I have tried vanilla, then XGM, and trying to wrestle with EB 1.1--shifting from one to the other (and loving it each time). Maybe I'll try RTR this time.
Hawooh.

[AMD4EVER]

While Rome wasn't built in a day, Greece can be. I've been playing RTW for about a month now and having beat it once as the Greeks in version 1.1 by year 246, I decided to give it my all to win this game as quickly as possible without cheating. I used no mods and nothing that would be considered cheating. Many times I saved and reloaded, many times I exploited AI weaknesses and flaws, and through it all I only become more and more cheap as far as my victorys went, but it was all legal. My goal was to win in 40 turns or before 250 BC. I actually won by 257 BC.

On to the fun stuff. Here is a map of the direction I took and what year I reached each city.

Final Map

If you want to see my little journal that I was writing while going through this campaign, check out this site.

Journal

This was all in good fun and I must say I really enjoyed it. I think that it can still be done faster by at least 3 or 4 turns, but I'm not going through that hell again. I spent about 45 minutes to an hour per turn just analyzing everything and going through the battles.

I also want to note that I don't think that any other faction could beat the game as fast as the Greeks are capable of. The Seleucids and Egyptians are probably the next fastest, but I'd say the Greeks have the upperhand due to how spread out they are.

I hope some of you Greeks out there are able to get some use out of this!

[RollingWave]

As the greeks, the news isn't too good...
1.you start with 5 cities but sepeated in 3 different fronts, non of them are connected save by sea.

2. on all 3 front you are in a 3 way brawl, and on all 3 front you are in the weakest position with little hope of reinforcement anytime soon.

3. your army is vanillia and outdated, you have a one purpose infantry line up, one of the crappiest calvary line up and mediocare at best archery and skrimish line up, the only thing above par is your seige line up. your army is highly defensive in nature.

There are some good news though.
1. you start with rhodes and pretty much any province you own or will own have ports too, meaning you will be pretty good in the money department as long as you can keep ur trade open.

2. you will get seiged a lot, but luckily ur hoplits are extremely good at seige defense. and the AI is extremely retarded in seige assults. (and defense too) you also start with stone walls on ur most dangerous province Syracuse, while u can capture Athens fast which also has a stone wall.

3. wether intentional or not, the hoplits are acturally better than their supposed superior pike counter parts in most sense. as long as you manage to keep them from being flanked they will carve their way through pretty steep odds.

Now, you can choose to give up one front asap, or you can try stay on all 3 front, either way ur first priorty should be acquiring Athens and Cornith to secure ur foothold on the balkans. I highly suggest capturing Athens first, reason being i rather have Cornith jammed between Sparta and Athens then tring to take Athens while the Macedonians counterattack me.Taking Athens before u get into war with Macedonian also mean u have a stone wall defense against any one trying to head south.

On Sciliy and Asia minor I highly suggest massing up at least 6-7 groups of miltia hoplits right off the bat, they will be able to deal with most seige assults for a while, on Sciliy do remember that Messina is on a time bomb to blow, you either take it really quick or you wait till the Volcano goes off before attacking. this sector will be quiet hard fought but luckily at least ur in a good situation to defend it.

After taking Cornith and Athens, i think focus on Sciliy is ur best move, the reason being that if you want to win on the Balkans, the best way to do it is probably by seiging the Brutties hometown and cut off their reinforcements. and securing Sciliy will give u a easy jump right onto the Bruttis heartland.

On Asia minor really take the chaces as they are Presented, it's a loooong way to fight but securing Sardis and Hellenisia will at least give u a relatively good foothold. the other factions there will kill each other eventrually, just make sure u don't become the first victim. if possible sue for peace with the Selucids and/or Egyptians as they are going to give u good trade.