Hmm... Makedonia Strategy Anyone

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

That's it. I just can't win as Makedon early; by this, I mean I run out of cash quickly, I can barely recruit reinforcements, and to make things worse I have a war on two fronts, with Pyrrhus on my front door and these pesky Koinon Hellenon on my backdoor, ready to ram it with their Spartans and their even more pesky missile troops.

I just don't know how to win. Everytime I play Makedonia, I lose ground; either because I focus on Pyrrhus, or because I just try to erase the Koinon Hellenon threat. They won't accept peace early, and I feel my lack of decent light cavalry makes the KH missiles even deadlier. That, and the Spartans.

Any strategies?

[PershsNhpios]

I am very possibly the least experienced Makedonian here, as I have never played them, however, from your situation I might suggest that you abandon Korinthos, station as large a garrison as possible to cut off Peloponnesus, and then proceed to push Epeiros into Italy as quickly as possible.
I say this because it is more likely you will eradicate Phyrrus than the Spartans.
Solicit help from the Romans very early on as you fight against Epeiros, and with as little forces as possible, gain an income by conquering lands towards Naissos.

That, from the little I know about this area, is the best advice I can give.

[Ravenic]

Crush Pyrrhos early by massing the majority of your armies into one stack and sending them at him. An excess of missile troops is very important, both for Pyrrhos' feared elephants, and because the vast majority of the early epirote forces are armored in only tunic's.

[MButcher]

I use this strategy to great effect:

1. Disband 1 or 2 units of your Thessalian cavalry and your navy.

2. Capture Athens and enslave/exterminate them. Their mines will put you back in the positives.

3. Usually at this time Pella has been besieged a few times by minor armies. That's okay, I can't remember a single time where they took it.

4. Take your army under Antigonos, reinforce it with most of your garrison from Corinth, and take Sparta. Enslave/exterminate.

5. You can then focus all of your attention of Epirus. To do this I head straight back to Pella and fight off whatever army is besieging it.

6. Wait a few turns, get some cash, retrain your units and recruit some new units. I usually recruit 2-3 phalanxes from Pella and a few Akonkistai from Demetrias. I never recruit those javelin horsemen, I just use family members for their bodyguard and whatever Thessalian cavalry I have left.

7. With this army you should be able to capture all of Epirus.

Hope this helps.

[Cash Staks]

I might have just gotten very lucky in my Makedonia campaing, since I didn't have to deal with Epiros all too much. I was able to quickly take KH, or at least knock them off mainland Greece and get a nice bit of income going before I turned my attention to Epiros.

Epiros spent it's time expanding northwards and had a bit of focus in Italy. I think at one point while I was in the Peleponnesos they sent a little force at Pella. But it was meager and halfhearted. After that they asked for a ceasefire and I think I gave it to them only to have them attack me soon after I had conquered all of Southern Greece.

I believe my strategy was similar to MButcher. Athens was key, since it does have a mine. And Sparta was easy for me to take with reinforcments for Corinth. But once the KH are out of Mainland Greece you can focus all your attention on Epiros.

[Sand]

In my recent early game with the Maks, I did disband the navy, but I kept the heavy cavalry - yes its a huge chunk of cash in the early game, but it is the decisive factor in battle - lock up the enemy with levy phalanxes, then send the cavalry about the flanks and repeated concentrated charges from behind will destroy any enemy. IMO, you need the cavalary to win crushing victories. Id disband any spare garrison troops and delay surplus buildings [like barracks - dont have cash to recruit anyway] rather than sacrifice these vital troops. Only free up cash for simple ports to try and repair the bank balance.

I ignored Phyrrus and headed south, bringing together the levy phalanxes, heavy cav and my best starting general, hit Athens, then Sparte - Chalkis I picked off later. I believe concentrating on KH is the best step as their lands are richer and will help more with the ruinous expense bills youll be running up. It also ends the possibility of a 2 front war, and allows you to extend north, east or west in security. Epirus will attack Pella from time to time, but they never took it.

You need to move fast - the heavy cav are not economically sustainable. From turn 1 you need to be either taking a city or moving up to take another city. Only recruitment should be cheap garrison troops which you should have ready on the turn before the conquest of the city so you dont lose time with your main stack.

Its quite doable though - Im about 15 turns in and the KH and Epirotes have been pushed out to Rhodes and Taras respectively, the bank balance is looking healthy and the construction of economy buildings is coming along nicely. Persevere:)

[LordCurlyton]

Yeah focus on the KH first. Korinth is your most endangered territory to start so its imperative that you protect it. I used my early funds to buy mercs and train troops and by consolidating your forces you can bring up a big enough force to defend Pella AND lay siege to Athens at the same time, forcing the KH to respond, which is key. If you siege Athens it seems highly unlikely that they would siege Korinth. If they do, shame on them, since you win out on that particular trade. Besides, all told, Spartans will die quite effectively on a line of pikes, no matter the quality of said pikes. Though it would have been nice if Pyrhhos had decided to test himself on Pella. As it was, he wandered of and I finally hunted the scoundrel down in Dalminion with the remmnant of his army. Epeiros managed to survive in Southern Italy for the next 40 years as quite the local power, at one point owning everything south of Roma, plus all of Sicily, before Roman resilience finally began to wear them down and I "intervened" for their safekeeping, eliminating the Romans in their totality, and using Epeiros as a buffer nation that I continually push out farther into Gaul and Germany, occasionally declaring war on them to take more of Italia. Eventually I will have to eliminate them to win, but it is fun watching the Sweboz, Aedui, Arveni, and Epeiros all fight for Gaul and Germany.

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Thanks all for the tips. In my next Makedonia game I just abandoned Korinthos and focused on besieging Athens with a large stack, while at the same time keeping a large enough force to the north to stop Pyrrhus and take the war to his upstart Epirote usurpers. Needless to say, I chosed debt between Heavy Cavalry and cash, and I'm not disapointed with such choice.

Hippeis Thessalikoi are superb Heavy Cavalry. Especially early in the game, when most of your foes don't have anything better than Linothrax and Good Morale, hitting the enemy from behind with them is decisive to rout even numerically superior foes. The phalanx alone can take the challenge, as long as they have something to watch over their flanks, but then the anvil is never complete with a good Thessalian steel hammer. Expensive, but effective.

Soon all of Greece will be mine and the profits will be high :).

[NeoSpartan]

I agree with the Advice given

Mass ur forces and crush KH (I can't believe I just said that KH is one of my favorite factions shame on me). One full stack should be enough.

In the north u can keep ur 1/2 stack on the top of hills, don't let it roam around in flat ground, NOR let Epiros combine its forces into a full stack. IF Epirote looks like its trying to combine its forces, move ur 1/2 stack into enemy territory and SIT ON TOP OF A HILL. They will come to you, and you will be on top of a REALLY steep hill.

p.s do NOT send ur cavarly after the elephants you will take unessesary losses.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

I agree with the given advice to take out the KH first.

1. disband your ships.

2. build two phalangite units in Pella and one sphendonetai unit.

3. take Sparta first, it's most likely an easy prey.

4. mass your troop around athens and take it, exterminate it.

5. build another couple of phalangites and sphendonetai and take care of the KH stack roaming around on the Peloponnesos.

6. If Pyrrhos attacks in the north, kill him with Alkyoneios' Somatophylakes, and his elephants with the sphendonetai.

7. Relax and take out the rest of those green hillbilly usurpers.

[Laman]

Akontistai may not look that impressive, but in my experience they are really effective against elephants (when throwing their pointy sticks, not when they attack with their knives).

[Sand]

Yep, theyre devastating - Distract the elephants with an expendable unit, line the skirmishers off to the side - utter carnage ensues.

[Morte66]

+1

Disband your navy. Disband all cavalry except units that can win a field battle. Recruit pikes in Pella to shore it up and hold (or frighten off) the Epeirotes. Besiege Athens with whatever starts next to it and anything you can spare out of Demetrias and Chalkis.

On turn 2 storm Athens -- build ladders, take the walls with heavy armoured close combat troops (pikemen have swords and decent armour), take the missile towers so it's safe to move your missile troops up the ladders. They can fire down from the walls to keep defenders at bay as the phalanxes assemble in the streets. Pike phalanxes are the ultimate street fighters with their flanks secured by walls, just grind down main street and they will chew anything the KH can throw at them.

Enslave Athens (make sure you have governors in the cities you want the slaves to go to), and move towards Sparta in turn 2 linking up with troops out of Corinth. You should have Sparta by turn 4 or so, and you can then strip everything south of Demetrias to bare bones garrisons and shift your army to fight Epeiros. I killed their elephants with one volley of javelins from behind by the lowest form of skirmisher. It was a bit anticlimactic...

Once Epeiros are out of Greece, start knocking off rich or strategic Eleutheroi provinces. Try to make peace with the KH/Epeirote remnants in exile so they're less likely to send a fleet at you.