Makedonia recruitment

[Trithemius]

Since I have started a Makedonia campaign I have noticed a few odd things. I have know idea if these are features or bugs, or if they are known (I assume they must be), mostly I am just curious about them.

I'm confused about why Tylis/Odrysai has none of the normal Makedonian units. It's a type i government area, but I can't even recruit basic taxeis hoplitai there.

Similarly, I'm not sure why Nikomedia/Bithynia does not allow Makedonia unit recruitment either, when it seems most of the surrounding areas do.

I'm also a bit perplexed about why Sparta has a type iii government. I realise that Sparta had a quite strong cultural identity, but surely the long build time of the type ii government represents overcoming these differences?

If there are sound reasons, of which I am ignorant, for why these provinces are they way they are then I would like to be educated. If they are are known errors then I apologise for the repetition, the Makedonians are all new and exciting (at least for me!).

[O'ETAIPOS]

I'm confused about why Tylis/Odrysai has none of the normal Makedonian units. It's a type i government area, but I can't even recruit basic taxeis hoplitai there.

This province is culturally completely different from mak lands. Only reason there is govt I available is that it is just next to the capita - there could be direct king's controll. So you have only celtic units. In next build you should get Thracian units from there.

Similarly, I'm not sure why Nikomedia/Bithynia does not allow Makedonia unit recruitment either, when it seems most of the surrounding areas do.

This is a bug (at least partially) - you should get some units from there

I'm also a bit perplexed about why Sparta has a type iii government. I realise that Sparta had a quite strong cultural identity, but surely the long build time of the type ii government represents overcoming these differences?

Mak govt is a bit different than roman - political not cultural

govt I are lands with people similar to makedonians or\and royal demesyne(sp?)
govt II is land controled by governor
govt III is "allied" state that stays allied because it has Mak garnison
and govt IV is allied state under local tyrant

the Makedonians are all new and exciting (at least for me!).

Yes, Mak's are great!

[Trithemius]

Thanks for the reply! :)

I look forward to seeing some of these Thracian units too.

[orwell]

Playing as Makedonia, where should I head off to conquer to recruit some good archers?

[Trithemius]

I have no idea myself! I mostly use javelins (peltastai, akonistai, and theureophoroi).

[orwell]

maybe I should smash the epeirotes before I remove kionon hellon? I don't know if they'll prove to be more problemsome if I leave them alone and go for epeiros first, but right now they're are a pain in the arse. Can't they focus on Rome and leave me alone.

[Trithemius]

I expelled the Koinon from the mainland, then made peace. I then removed the Epeirotes, who had by then lost Taras, and so were finished. I made an alliance with the Getai and proceeded to fortify my northern frontier with them (just in case...) and took Crete, Rhodes (ending the Koinon) and then Aitolia.

About this time the Pontics had a go at extorting me so I had a go back at them, then the Seleukids decided to go the biff (giving them Galatia kept them happy for a short while at least) so I forced the Pontics into a protectorate and have been snipping off bits of Anatolian Seleukia since. I am planning on getting Pamphylia and Kypros and then fortifying a bit and installing decent governments. While this is happening I am also trying to make the Roman cities rebel, to avoid their buildup and I am grooming the Getai into a suitably powerful nemesis for the late-game phase. :)

Er, I went on a bit there! :x

[Trithemius]

Mak govt is a bit different than roman - political not cultural

govt I are lands with people similar to makedonians or\and royal demesyne(sp?)
govt II is land controled by governor
govt III is "allied" state that stays allied because it has Mak garnison
and govt IV is allied state under local tyrant

I have been thinking about this a little. If the Makedonian governments are purely political then why would Sparta not be able to have a Makedonian governor forced upon it? Historically, I suppose this may not have happened, but couldn't it happen in a given game of EB?

[orwell]

Shouldn't Rome get man of the hour's more than Makedonia? I've gotten two in just a few turns there, unfortunately both kicked the bucket on the way over to join the family.

[Simmons]

Playing as Makedonia, where should I head off to conquer to recruit some good archers?

Archers lets go East!

Or you could just use Sphendonetai (slingers) they will do just fine against the western mediterranean powers.

[orwell]

Well, that first attempt went pathetically, started and lost in one night. Feels like a Baktrian campaign.

I immediantly took all my forces to crush KH, leaving minimal garrisons in all my towns. While conquering them, I disbanded as much as I dare, and yet still ended up with huge amounts of debt, leaving me unable to make headway and foreshadowing my downfall. After finally chasing them out with the faction heir sitting outside sparta gaining command stars for no apparant reason I had lost more than half my entire army, and had since disbanded some more of the hammer to atempt to allieve debt. While this was happening, they took.... the town between Athens and Pella that I can't recall the name of, and made me wonder.

Why isn't Thessaly in? Why do we have nowheresville in northern europe. I generally like the city distribution but this seems like a rather.... poor decision of the EB team. You can recruit thessalian calvary, but you can't visit the city its from. Some breaking up of the monotony of desert on the eastern coast of the med would be nice too, but whatever.

After losing that town they contented themselves with turning Pella into a siegefest galore, I was fighting in the city every third turn and it was sieged every turn for about 4 years or so. That garrison wore down so much that it was just general 1 and 2 plus a couple of surviving militia hoplites. Towards the end of the siegefest they began seieging athens and other towns thus halting my recruitment which only started about half a year before the end due to my debt. The size of the armies are just too big to fight with out the hammer, and I disbanded those guys to save me from the debt that froze any sort of offensive. Now if KH did a naval invasion that'd really put the finishing blow on me.

Too hot to sleep, time for M2. This time I'll hit Epeiros first.

As far as units, I've had the best success with archers, though that was more with western med as the romans, maybe I'll try slingers against the hoplites. The only problem with slingers is that unless I'm in a battlefield they tend to kill more of my troops than the enemy.

[Trithemius]

It took me some time to get my cash positive with the Makedonians - and I built mines in turn 1 and pillaged a lot, while disbanding a lot of cavalry, in order to do that.

I basically gather all the useful troops into two armies (one near Demetrias and one near Sparte) and kick KH off the mainland ASAP. They normally try and march in to relieve Sparte so I fight a big pitched battle and normally slaughter them handily which gives me the city for free if I can kill all the garrison as they flee. Then I make peace with the KH until I am ready to take Crete and Rhodes, this stops them disrupting my trade and also lets me trade with Rhodes for a while.

I garrison the cities, disband down to one large army, and take Byzantion, Tylis, and Sardika in that order (by using my one remaining unit of ships to sail my army out to Byzantion and then marching back. By this stage the Epeirotes are normally angry at my for denying them Sardika and want to go to war, which I am usually ready for since, by this stage I have managed to get a positive cashflow.

[Warlord 11]

Why isn't Thessaly in? Why do we have nowheresville in northern europe. I generally like the city distribution but this seems like a rather.... poor decision of the EB team. You can recruit thessalian calvary, but you can't visit the city its from. Some breaking up of the monotony of desert on the eastern coast of the med would be nice too, but whatever.

I beleve that Thessaly is a region, not a city.

[orwell]

I beleve that Thessaly is a region, not a city.

But certainly there was a town in there somewhere. For the number of factions in greece, it seems rather empty.

[Simmons]

But certainly there was a town in there somewhere. For the number of factions in greece, it seems rather empty.

Once you have taken control of all of Greece as one of those factions the game is pretty much won anyway I think province distribution is very even amongst the factions.

By the way Demetrias is the capital of the Thessalia region in EB at the games beginning it is under Makedonian control with a Type 1 government.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Before another city in Thessaly would have been included, we would have put in one or even two more cities in the Peloponnese I think, and probably another between Pella and Byzantion.

[NeoSpartan]

Makedons are a good faction, the only problem I have is that noone wants to ally me

I fellas didn't wait to get my econ up or disbanded my army. Having played with KH I know that they were in a weak position. I took my army from Corinth to siege Sparta and took a second (smaller) army to siege Athens. 3 turns later HK was out of Greece and battled Epiros as they moved to Pella. With the part of the army from Corinth I took Crete and kill the KH army there. A few turn later I was sieging Rhodes and took 1 Epirote city. Then I sent reinforcements to increase the force and take out Epirote for good.

In other words I rushed in and Killed Epirote and KH in about 10 or more turns. I used my existing armies over and over... and over and over.... them (incompatible language - Moderator) got some nice expiriece levels.

That was my biggining, Kill the enemy quickly while he is weak.
(the AI in VH/VH gets $$$ and I don't, so I Rush while I have an army)

[Trithemius]

That was my biggining, Kill the enemy quickly while he is weak.
(the AI in VH/VH gets $$$ and I don't, so I Rush while I have an army)

I waited to fight the Epeirotes and they gave me a bit of trouble - fun trouble though! (Elephants are neat!). I also got some nice MICs when I took them over! :)

[orwell]

I was rather disappointed by the elephants. In RTR I think they have like 14 hp and can be the death of any army, while here I just took 6 units of skirmishers and leveled it in a minute. Though I suppose its a good thing because I was in huge debt and if my army was destroyed I couldn't retaliate at all.

[Simmons]

I was rather disappointed by the elephants. In RTR I think they have like 14 hp and can be the death of any army, while here I just took 6 units of skirmishers and leveled it in a minute. Though I suppose its a good thing because I was in huge debt and if my army was destroyed I couldn't retaliate at all.

I don't think elephants have been done yet they can be defeated with one unit of skirmishers as is which makes it a little easy

[Trithemius]

I don't think elephants have been done yet they can be defeated with one unit of skirmishers as is which makes it a little easy

Skirmishers are kinda meant to kill elephants, aren't they?

[Simmons]

Skirmishers are kinda meant to kill elephants, aren't they?

Yes they are but should 1 unit be all thats needed? I'm no expert so I don't really know all I can say is that it was very easy to kill them playing against the AI anyway I guess thats the main problem the AI does not screen them.

[Trithemius]

Yes they are but should 1 unit be all thats needed? I'm no expert so I don't really know all I can say is that it was very easy to kill them playing against the AI anyway I guess thats the main problem the AI does not screen them.

Yeah, I suspect that they would be much more effective if the AI would screen them so they don't break and run amok.

When I fought elephants I had a bit of trouble with them until I flanked them with some psiloi and then they basically crumpled and ran for it... since it was a sally battle this meant they tried to storm back through their own gates and a horrible mess ensued. :)

[Jolt]

It took me some time to get my cash positive with the Makedonians - and I built mines in turn 1 and pillaged a lot, while disbanding a lot of cavalry, in order to do that.

I basically gather all the useful troops into two armies (one near Demetrias and one near Sparte) and kick KH off the mainland ASAP. They normally try and march in to relieve Sparte so I fight a big pitched battle and normally slaughter them handily which gives me the city for free if I can kill all the garrison as they flee. Then I make peace with the KH until I am ready to take Crete and Rhodes, this stops them disrupting my trade and also lets me trade with Rhodes for a while.

I garrison the cities, disband down to one large army, and take Byzantion, Tylis, and Sardika in that order (by using my one remaining unit of ships to sail my army out to Byzantion and then marching back. By this stage the Epeirotes are normally angry at my for denying them Sardika and want to go to war, which I am usually ready for since, by this stage I have managed to get a positive cashflow.

Yeah, it took me some time as well, but it was very cool to see my faction emerge out of the debt pool and killing off KH and Epeiros. In my current game, I already expelled KH & Epeiros (Epeiros became Kings of the Southern Italian Greek Colonies.) And expanded first against Arche Seleuka, with Pontos help. Then I tried to take Pergamus (Damn hard. They killed most of my armies. In the end I amassed my three elitest armies to raze it to the ground), then Pontos betrayed our Alliance, and I used my Pergamus armies, now with Pezhetairoi additions, to destroy them all. I then expanded a little against Arche Seleuka and Ptolomaic. Now Seleuka's armies are so huge that, I'm having trouble holding on to my conquests. Ptolomaics had just made peace with Seleukia and were still at war with Carthage.