Macedon

[frogbeastegg]

This faction must be unlocked with game editing before you can play.

[Accounting Troll]

The Macedonians are one of the minor factions, so they are not unlocked when you win the game as one of the Roman factions. However, they are perfectly playable and it is simple to edit the game to unlock them.

Go to the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign

Open up the text file entitled descr_strat

At the beginning of the file, it lists which factions are unlocked, which factions can be unlocked and which factions cannot be unlocked. Change this section so it looks like the following:

campaign imperial_campaign
playable
romans_julii
romans_brutii
romans_scipii
egypt
seleucid
carthage
parthia
gauls
germans
greek_cities
romans_senate
macedon
pontus
armenia
dacia
scythia
spain
thrace
numidia
britons
end
unlockable

end
nonplayable

slave
end

It is a good idea to back up this text file before you edit it in case you make a mistake. When you have edited and saved it, load up the game and start a new campaign. All 16 factions will be playable, but you might experience some peculiar side effects if you lead the senate. I owe a beer to the person who figured the above out.

BUILDINGS

The buildings technology tree for the Macedonians is similar to that of the Romans, however Macedonians cannot build highways and level five farms. Also, being Greeks, they prefer to watch a play or a poetry reading rather than the chariot racing and circus games favoured by the Romans.

Macedonian cities have a choice of four gods to dedicate their temples to. Demeter increases food production, Zeus improves law and order, Artemis upgrades missile weapons and Ares improves troop experience. Temples devoted to Artemis and Ares are going to be vital in your struggle against the Romans, particularly after the Marian reforms.


MILITARY UNITS AND BATTLE TACTICS

The military units available to the Macedonians will look a little dated as the game progresses, which is what makes them a challenging faction to play. Unlike the Romans and the southern Greek cities, the Macedonians have a long tradition of using cavalry in warfare and they get a good selection of cavalry, although they lack missile cavalry. Nearly a century before the game begins, Philip of Macedon devised pike phalanxes as an improvement on Greek hoplites, and so the Macedonians get three pike units as well as militia hoplites. In gameplay terms, pikemen are the same as hoplites, although you get 50% more men in a unit.

Unfortunately, the Macedonians don’t get much else. They get peltasts, basic archers and standard artillery weapons. Their ships are the standard for a civilised Mediterranean faction. You will probably need to beef up your armies by hiring the light swordsmen and skirmishers plying their trade in the Balkans.

Pikemen cannot run when they are in phalanx formation, and they are highly vulnerable to flank and rear attacks. They are also easy prey for enemy skirmishers. Compensating for their weaknesses is vital when you build your armies and send them into battle. For a twenty unit army, I prefer the following combination:

One member of the royal family to serve as a general.
Nine units of the most heavily armoured pikemen I can build.
Four units of archers – Cretan mercenaries for preference.
Six units of cavalry - two light and four heavy for preference.

The pikemen stay in a line in deep formation. Don’t let them separate when enemy troops begin to rout – your pikemen are too slow moving to catch them and they will leave themselves exposed to a counterattack.

The cavalry protect the pikemen from flank and rear attacks, chase down enemy routers and skirmishers, and launch flank and rear attacks of their own when the pikemen engage the enemy. Keep at least one cavalry unit in reserve in case the enemy break through your pike phalanxes.

The archers go in front of the pikemen. They cause heavy casualties and demoralise the enemy before the pikemen get involved. They can often goad the enemy cavalry, including the general, to charge them down; get them to flee behind the pikemen so the enemy cavalry finds itself committed to a head on charge into massed pikemen. Archers have another function – the chances are that the enemy has some archers and javelinmen. They have the potential to wreak havoc on your densely packed pikemen, but only if they don’t use their ammunition up in a duel with your archers.

Even after the Marian reforms, Roman legionaries were trained to hide behind their shields and use their short swords to thrust into an opponent’s belly in a melee. If you can keep them from outflanking your phalanxes, they will suffer terrible casualties because they will get impaled before they can reach your pikemen. And don’t worry about the testudo formation – thanks to modern writers and filmmakers it is the most overrated military tactic in history. Form your heavy cavalry into a wedge and hit it in the flank or rear.

Siege assaults are tricky because pikemen and hoplites can’t use siege towers because their spears are cumbersome. Peltasts and archers are poor at hand to hand combat if the city walls are defended. If you use sappers or rams, the city wall towers will inflict heavy casualties on your pikemen. I find it best to recruit mercenaries to use siege towers to capture the city gates and walls. The good news is that pikemen will perform well in the street fighting as you push towards the central plaza. Get your cavalry to nip down a different street and hit the defenders in the rear.


EARLY GAME CAMPAIGN PLAN

The very first thing you should do is to change your capital from Thessalonica to one of your other cities. This is because there will be a plague outbreak in Thessalonica around turn 25. There is nothing you can do to prevent it without modding the game as CA programmed it to happen. Keep your generals, agents and as many men as possible out of the city. Changing your capital will prevent a member of your royal family from growing up and coming of age in a plague ridden city. When the plague happens, don’t let any unit to enter or leave the city in order to prevent it from spreading. It will then burn itself out in a few turns.

Build paved roads as soon as you can. They will encourage trade and allow you to quickly move your armies around. Construct shrines devoted to Artemis and Ares in your cities – when you upgrade them, they will provide military benefits. You will also need to build barracks and practice ranges so you can turn out plenty of militia hoplites, levy pikemen and peltasts for the fighting ahead.

Your first campaign should be to capture the rebel held city of Athens as soon as you can to gain an extra troop producing centre and end the isolation of Corinth. When you have stormed Athens, choose to merely occupy the city and don’t enslave or exterminate the population. The Athenians are fellow Greeks, so you get no culture penalty to worry about and you don’t need the cash boost as you start with a relatively high income anyway. You benevolent policy gains you a prosperous and loyal small city ready to build lots of soldiers for your armies.

It will not be long before the Greek cities attack you, assuming you are prepared to wait. I prefer to send my field army towards Sparta and I send a diplomat to the area around Thermon ready to bribe any House of Brutii armies planning an invasion. The city of Sparta starts with some armoured hoplites and a unit of Spartan hoplites. You will need to wear these units down with your peltasts and archers because they will rout militia hoplites and levy pikemen in a melee. When Sparta falls, don’t enslave or exterminate the population as you have no need to. Divert your field army to the easier task of taking Thermon. When you have taken Thermon, get a ceasefire and trade agreement out of the surviving Greek cities – they will probably be delighted to end a war that they are losing and it save you from being harassed by their navy.

By this time you will have encountered the House of Brutii, who always take Apollonia in the first few turns. Although they are your biggest threat, you should befriend them and get an alliance if you can; they will usually see this to their advantage so they can build up their strength before attacking you. Historically, the Macedonians and Greeks were conquered because they failed to cooperate with each other against Roman ambitions. You can only beat the Romans if you control the Balkans and your other frontiers are secure. A few well placed bribes will buy you time.

Your next threat will be the Thracians. You need to either destroy them or drive them across the Danube. I prefer the latter, so my young generals can gain experience by fighting their field armies at a later date. The Danube is between the provinces of Thrace and Tribus Getae, and it can only be crossed in one place. Build a fort there and then march on Tylis.

Secure your northern border by building forts in the other places where the Danube can be crossed and get a trade agreement out of the Dacians. You don’t need a large garrison in your border forts as their job is to hold invaders or brigands until you can assemble a field army. A unit of peasants reduced to quarter strength in battle is ideal as you won’t have high maintenance costs. Befriend the Gauls and try to get an alliance and military access rights treaty out of them. The Gauls will prevent a Roman army from taking the land route into Macedonian territory.

You are now ready to take on the House of Brutii. March on Apollonia and launch a simultaneous attack on Salona if they have taken it. Remember that you are rich enough to bribe their armies into dispersing.

To defeat the Brutii, you are going to have to cross the Adriatic while dodging the Brutii, Scipii, Julii and Senate fleets. Bribe their field armies and storm Tarentum and Croton. This time you must slaughter the population and destroy as many buildings as you can and then retreat before the other Romans launch a counterattack. The Brutii will be either destroyed or at least set back by a generation, and the Julii and Scipii are still busy fighting other enemies. You have checked Roman ambitions in the east for now and you are now free to consolidate your hold in the Balkans by taking Byzantium and Segestica if you haven’t already done so.

[Maltz]

Hi: I just played Macedon in the "very hard" level these days. The above guide is certainlly well-written, and here are just a few things to add:

[Open Game]

1) The Brutii never agreed to ally with me; I had a few restarts. These men in green usually sent their faction heir's army to my territory in the first 5 turns. So, I declared war to the Brutii and tried to ally with the Greek (but I betrayed them later to get Sparta).

Although the Brutii army isn't huge, this first battle vs. Roman is not very easy. I guess it is because of the "very hard" setting - the Macedonian hoptiles in the phalanx formation still melt before everything: hastati, equity... whatever. Then, hastati kills our cavalry hard, too. Then, our missle units fire too slowly, and kill as many friendly units as the enemy. It is a completely different experience apart from playing as Romans.

I had to attack out of a stone castle (not besieged is fine), with all of my missle units on the wall. My general lured the Brutii enemy to charge close to the gate. (all other units stay inside or they won't be able to get back in time. I tried with my hotiles in formation holding outside, and they still get massacred like sheep) Then, when the green dudes came close, all of the archers rain hell from above. Note: Chetain mercentary archer is so effective! You gotta try it. After a few failed attempts, the entire Brutii retreated back to their fleet. They never come back.

2) Starting with only 2 cities, the Brutii, or even the entire Roman alliance is actually managable by the power-start Macedonians in the early game. It was about only 10 years into the game - I sent one group of army, and eliminated Brutii in 3 rounds.

[Poised]

On H/H.

Nice and informative so far, I like to start out just a tad more aggressive though :P

On turn 1, pull the Larissa archer down towards Sparta, Sparta should be hit on turn 2, there is a spartan hoplite unit in there that need to die, and the city will be a major archer factory extremely fast.

Build the usual roads, trade, ports, and then a city barack for Thessalonica, phalanx pikemen are good in cities!

On turn 2, pull everything out of Corinth and hit Sparta, the Greeks should have set up an ambush outside of town, leaving only the spartan hoplites to defend the city core, run your archers to the city square, and pepper the hoplites with arrows from just outside the square, while you arrange your own hoplites with the back to the square, facing the oncomming reinforcements, use your general to kill anything that routs, they will rout through your phalanx and run for the city square, so have your horses clean them up, if they reach the square they will automatically rally.

You dont need to exterminate or enslave the greek or rebel cities of Sparta and Athens, just occupy them, then build practice range and archer range FAST in Sparta, tear down any alien temple after you have the archers, then build 3 temples to Artemis, in the year 261bc I had my first gold weapon archers from Sparta, these saw use when I opened up against the Brutii :)

Your back is now free of those pesky Greek, and there is no Rush to get Athens since it is rebel, just take it whenever you can, its an easy town to get with 2 hoplites on ladders, then 1 hoplite and an archer to get to the square after the gate falls.

There is no rush in getting Thermon either, on turn 2 Thermon will send out a small unit, kill them with your Larissa General and they wont bother you again, and they will serve as a nice buffer between you and Brutii till you get gold archers.

By this time you have Phalanx pikemen comming out of Thessalonica, and light horses comming from everywhere, you dont need to rush to get heavy cavalry from Thessalonica, the light horses are brilliant because they are cheap and ready from turn 1, and you can repair your army in almost any city and move on, with heavy horses you are much less mobile.

Ally yourself with Gaul, if only to spite those Romans :)

The Thracians will be on you almost from the start, they have even landed parties near Larissa by boat, so have an army consisting of only light horses and your general on the move, you can always pull some spears and bows out of a nearby town for an attack, and put them back home after the battle.

After you have conquered Thermon and Apollonia, you should be about to have a nice plaque in Thessalonica, so build market then public baths before that happens, to get Thessalonica back on its feet nice and safe.

By now you have Good horses, great archers, and good phalanx, potentially excellent economy, and only 3 borders, Apollonia, Thessalonica and Bylazora, the stage is set for greatness :)

(edit) Do remember to train your Cretan archers in Sparta too.
And build temples of Ares in all other big troop producing cities, +3 experience and +1 morale is nice, the Artemis temple eventuallly gives +5 to missiles.

[belac]

I concur with the above posts - but I have some advice with regards to Thrace and Greek Cities. Hit them early and hard and don't let up.

Force either into ceasefires and high tributes early - if you can you've got the cash to build your army and navy for the upcoming fight - the Romans.

The Brutii made an alliance with me, but invaded shortly after. Just a side note - build lots of watch towers in W Greece, near Larissa. Same with Bylazora (sp?). This way you can anticipate the invasion from Thrace and the Brutii.

The invasion from the Brutii means war with the every Roman faction. You'll need your army to fight the Brutii, but a strong navy to repel the Scipii and Julii.

Is it me or do the Julii have navies everywhere? The Brutii and Scipii have their respected navies concentrated in their spheres of control and war, but it seams the Julii have a vast naval network. Destroy them all.

I really really enjoy the challenge of Macedonia - you've got three potential enemies early on which means if you can win - you become STRONG fast. I love the cavalry/phalanx combo - deadly to Roman legions if you can pin with spears and cavalry charge from flanks and rear.

Hope this helps

[alexanderthegreat]

hi i m playing macedonia now but i use cheats so you guys are why better then me.

[Slon]

Macedon is fairly simple faction to play as (medium/medium). They have excellent phalanxes, artillery, normal archers and good cavalry. Their only weakness is their lack of sword infantry, but that's alright because their pikemen are pretty good at sword-fighting, too.

You should concentrate on the Greek Cities early on because they control very profitable land. Here are some basic tips before moving on:

For garrisons: Keep 5 units of levy pikemen and 4 units of archers (and the rest peasants if you have trouble keeping peace). Once you get heavy onagers, add those to the garrison equation.

For armies: I recommend avoiding companion cavalry and royal pikemen (at least at first). Companion cavalry isn't that much better than Macedonian Cavalry, and phalanx pikemen are more cost-effective and almost as powerful as royal pikemen. Don't bother with milita hoplites. If you do the math, they cost as much cash-per-soldier as levy pikemen, and the levy pikemen weapon is heavy. So, 6-8 phalanx pikemen, 4-5 archers, 3-4 macedonian cavalry and 4 heavy onagers (once you get them).

The Southern Front:

Once you have a basic army of phalanx pikemen and archers, take Thermon to keep the romans from getting it (you don't want the war to start too early). Then, build the aforementioned garrison (making sure to include archers, as this settlements may be beseiged soon). Then, take your amy and attack Athens and Sparta. In this sector, you should then proceed to attacking Crete and Rhodes, as these settlements will produce large amounts of income and will be awsome if you start growing them out early (it may be a good idea to set taxes to low or medium to increase growth, as small towns don't produce much taxes, anyway). In Cyrene, you probably won't see much action, so just make sure you have the aforementioned garrison. Then, just watch Numidia and Egypt duke it out for control of a worthless settlement. Oh, and try to ally yourself with Egypt and get a trade agreement with both Egypt and Numidia. Also, keep in mind that you should get heavy onagers to this settlement ASAP in case Egypt attacks.

The Northern Front:

In the north, Thrace and Dacia will be attacking Bylazora continuously. I suggest keeping a fairly powerful garrison in Bylazora and also a Diplomat to bribe away armies/family members before they attack. Take Byzantium ASAP to get some more income.

Edit: It IS possible to get Alexandria, Memphis and Thebes to revolt and become rebel provinces. I managed to do this with a handful of spies and starting from Thebes and working my way North. The Egyptians became so weakened that their land attacks stopped as they were gathering all their forces to try and retake the settlements.
The Western Front: Brutii will most-likely be throwing everything they have at you. The settlements in danger are Macedonia (your Capitol), Bylazora and Thermon. Make sure they have good garrisons. Once you fight off a few waves of Romans, the Brutii will start to calm down because their losses will start getting to them (remember, the first profitable settlement that the Brutii are supposed to capture is Thermon, and it is in your hands). Take the settlement bordering Thermon when you can. once you have another army at this front. (Note: you should have a powerful army at each of the mentioned fronts). Once you're ready, board a ship and transfer your main army, 3-4 family members and some spies/diplomats, and move unload them in the Brutii capitol in one turn (to avoid being sunk by the powerful roman fleets). Immediately beseige the Capitol and build some siege equipment. If you see that the garrison is exeptionally weak, it may be easier to just assault the settlement rather than waiting for a few years. If they have a good garrison/good defenses, don't bother attacking. You might even attract a powerful roman army into attacking your phalanxes. Once done, build a garrison and attack the last remaining roman settlement. Meanwhile, if the Brutii still have a settlement near Thermon, take it with a small army, too. That way, you take the Brutii out of the game in a few quick and decisive turns.

Now slow down, build up your garrisons and retrain your armies. Once you are ready (having bribed all of the Brutii generals that became rebels), attack Capua to take Scipii out of Italy. If it isn't too much trouble, start building up another large army to attack Sicily. If you take Capua and your other army gets to Sicily, you will either completely destroy Scipii or at least greatly weaken them (to an irreperable state). Once you are ready, beseige Rome itself! If you see that the bulk of SPQR's army is walking around with a bribeable general or no general at all, bribe them and leave Rome with a tiny garrison. From here, it should be pretty easy to defeat Julii as they will be fighting wars with the Northern barbarians and with you on their southern front at the same time. They are basically screwed, as their undeveloped settlements won't allow them to afford battles on too many fronts.

Note: I managed to take Brutii out of the game without the use of royal pikemen, heavy onagers or companion cavalry. They are overrated.

Spies in Egypt:

While your northern wars rage on, it is a good idea to gets LOTS and LOTS of spies/assassins into egypt and start using them to start rebellions/damage buildings. A few years of this will make it difficult for Egypt to fight off Numidia and will delay their eventual attack on Cyrene. While you fight the Romans, you should start constructing a powerful army to take Egypt. You might even want to consider making a super army (BEST units like Royal pikemen and companion cavalry + heavy onager support). Personally, I recommend avoiding war with Egypt altogether until you weaken them. If they DO attack (probably in Cyrene), make sure you have two huge super armies ready to beseige Alexandria and Memphis.

The rest of the game is fairly easy since Egypt usually isn't ready for an attack on their capitol late in the game. If you get lucky, you will be able to avoid war with Egypt on your armies finally land in Alexandria and beseige their two most important settlements (Memphis and Alexandria). If this happens, they will most likely be completely unprepared with their large armies north-east of Jerusalem and west of Lybia.

Once you defeat these guys, the rest of the game is easy, as your enemies simply won't be able to outspend you.

[MoROmeTe]

I quite like the MAcedonians because of the phalanx/cav combo mntioned. Although I never finished a game I've started wih them I do have a few ideas about the early game. I need to mention that i'm playng RTR 4.1, not vanila Rome.
The first couple of turns I think the Greeks should be left alone. the Brutii will (it always happened to be) try and assault Corinth, but a few coordinated sallies will take out their army. Athens should be left alone, as the Greeeks will skirmish with it and take out some of the defenders. It makes it easier for you to deal with it later.
What I did in my game was take the 3 Copanion Cav you start with, along with the 3 Phalanx Pikemen units and 3 Light Lancers and go taking neutral setlements in the north west, like Delminium, Segestica. I once managed to get Apollonia before the Brutii but it was undefendable. Another idea would be to leave the neutrals alone and go for Byzantium and then for the whole of Thrace. But I've found that going for the neutral towns comes home with some profit, gives a nice base for expansion and a few troop producing centers without much work. The drawack is hat yo will be spread pretty thin and Dacia, Thracia, the Greeks and the Brutii might decide to attack you all at once, making your life very much miserable.
After this early stage I also go for Athens, Sparta, sometimes Kydonia and Rhodes. Then I usually beggin fighting the Romans in the peninsula but coming from the north, from my Segestica base, not by water.

[Johnny Blaze]

Hello Everyone,

Just though I would mention a few of the things I have noticed about the Macedonians. First of all, Militia Hoplites and Levy Pikeman are for all intensive purposes COMPLETELY useless. Therefore, if you are the type of commander who enjoys seeing a long line of gleaming pikes, I suggest that you upgrade your barracks ASAP before engaging in any conflict with the Romans or Greeks. There is nothing more frustrating in my opinion that outnumbering your opponent, lining up your levy pikeman against his infantry line, swinging your calvary around to the rear of his army and then just as you are about to delover the decisive blow...having your entire line break and flee for seemingly no reason. Often the morale of these buggers is so poor that even with a very expeienced general and superior numbers the infantry of your line will flee almost before they lose a man.

Which brings me to my second point... dont use Macedonian infantry early on in the game, use their calvary instead! It is quite possible to win battle after battle after battle with a large stack of just light lancers and a decent general.. why would you risk losing by adding any levy pikeman? Now dont get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of the combined arms approach.. in fact if your are not playing an eastern faction it is almost essential for survival in the middle and late game. But lets face it... light lancers have one of the best charge bonuses in the game, and the infantry of the Greeks and Romans can be out maneuvered time and time again. Just run around them till they break apart from their battle line, then hit isolated units in the rear hard! Withdraw immediately and repeat the process to take advantage of the high charge bonus! Use your general's calvary (preferably the backup general(s)) to deal with enemy heavy calvary (practically non-existant with the romans and greeks), and the light lancers can deal with any inf or missle troops no problem. Another point which validates this theory is that in RTW calvary are sooo overpowered compared to other troops that you must take advantage of this to win battles with minimal losses. I do not have the new patch 1.2 myself, but I have heard that it increases calvary strength even more (what were they thinking??).

Remeber, this advice applies mainly to the early game on VH/VH setting. On easier settings your inf may or may not have better morale (I have never played on the easier settings myself as I find the battles easy enough as it is once you get a feel for the AI and the units).

[mrcow88]

what ive done for my vh/m campaign is go all out to get the greek cities of the greek peninsula. first turn, empty all the men you can out of ur cities while still keeping the taxes as high as possible and train peseants in all the cities but corinth where u should train a diplomat to sell an atm package to the greeks. plus u dont need to move the corinth units anyway because its right next to the first target, sparta. send ur starting diplomat up past bylazora to the thracian capital, often a dacian army will come down to this area and u can sell an atm package and/or bribe a really sweet general, continuing to thrace to sell another atm package later on. next turn, use the diplomat in south greece to bribe the army that comes from thermon, u will get these units and send them right back where they came from, all the defense thats left is a general and militia hoplites. also, when the next coming of age comes around, send him to that city to get experience witht the seige. at the end of turn 2 u should have massed all the troops u started with right next to sparta, easier to do if u use the boats provided at thessolonica. turn 3 attack sparta and the army nearby, it will be any easy fight with all those troops u started with, plus the faction leader usually suicide charges in the battle, making it really easy to rout the remaining units. just occupy sparta and build temples to ares as high as the tech tree allows, then stables. now, ur probably wondering why ive left out the brutii. 2 things will happen with them, 1 they will land at apollonia and take that and start there (not as much in my game) or 2 they will suprise land at corinth the turn after u start ur seige on athens or so (80% of the time). every time its been the faction heirs army too, so u cant bribe it, fight it with ur spartan army. this can be a tough fight with the good general for the romans, but to ease the fight, train lancers every turn where u can after the first turn of peasants and send them to south greece, just flank them and rout em. and its not just limited to the brutii, ive had the julii give up on gauls and come after me at corinth too, witht their faction leader. the scipii r usually busy on syracuse but after 15 yrs theyll knock at ur door too if u havent made it to the italian peninsula by then. jsut keep repelling these roman armies until u can take ur main army to tarentum and croton and finish the brutii off. the whole plan ive laid out is a massive blitzkrieg and having cavalry trained at the exterior while infantry is trained in the interior allows for fast movement. with the spartan army go to athens and take that. that same turn you should take thermon to get the greeks of the area. also, u should get a few rebel armies and thracian armies wandering through ur area, bribe them and add them to the bribed dacian generals army. with taht army, if u have enought troops, try to beat thrace to byzantium, if u dont go to their capital and seige that, but make sure u have a diplomat to bribe everything u can for more troops, u should have the money by now. with tylis gone, thrace is screwed and its only a matter of time. i went to byzantium next, took that, built a full stack army and then went to finish off the greeks in asia minor. always keep building troops in most of the cities because teh more armies u have the faster u can expand, i have 4 armies right now, one in italy, one is asia minor, one in thrace and one going to crete then rhodes then asia minor. even though this seems bad as it hinders populatin growth and costs a bit to maintain, u dont want to stockpile money in this game, at a treasury of 50k or so ur general lose their management abilities and become crappy governors, in one of my scipii games, all my governors were so and so the wrathful with a 700k treasury. the point is always spend ur money to expand faster. now with the brutii gone, feel free to take an army up to apollonia then salona, if the gauls own salona, take it anyways and keep going to segestica. this is bout where i am now and its workin quite well, but that senate army looks like a pain compared to my lancer heavy force

[ajgundam5]

First 5 Turns - Ally with Greek Cities and when they lay siege upon Athens go and build siege weapons yourself, then assault the city and the Greeks will even help you out :-).
From then on try to wipe out the Greeks from Greece and then move north up until you wipe out thrace. If you prevented the Julii from getting any territory outside of Italy they should be your first choice to hit. Then continuously produce units in the major 3 greek cities and ship them over every chance you get nd keep making troops in italy until you control it all. I hunted down all the italian factions so they wouldn't bother me. Then I moved into Asia Minor. Then I just kept expanding.

[Svean]

Macedonians starts really powerfull so - use it!
First of all I took Athens - you willa have many benefits of that - a lot of cash and producting center for most of the game.

In the north you should send a diplomat to birbe incoming Dacian army. It's worth about 6000 (maybe less - I don't remember) but you will take one of the best leaders (in my game he became fraction heir). Of course before that try to sell to Dacians yor map and offer to attack Rebels (same with Greek Cities).

In south build and send to Greeks a diplomat (see above) and after taking Athens send that armies to Sparta. Most of the times Greek units hide near the city living there only Spartan hoplites. In that case attack the city - spartans will defend the city while you could deal with the rest of the army and THEN kill as many of spatans with arrows/javelins as you can. This unit has 2 lives (my cat is better - has 7 ;)) and great stats so after using all missiles charge them with everything you have.

That's the very beginning.
After that take Thermon and go north - Dacians and Thracians will try to take Bylazora soon. Birbe them or kill in battle. And go for their cities ;)
Thacian cieties don't get culture penalty so you don't need to enslave them but you can if you want yor main cities bigger.

During that prepare for Brutti. I couldn't ever ally with them but even allied they always attack. In my game they go for Tessalonica but they were easily defeted with garrison from Byzalora and Larissa (with the help from the besieged too :))

Then you can take Appolonia or/and invade Asia Minor/Crete/Rhodos.

[cunobelinus]

i enjoyed these there spearmen are there strong point there royal pikemen are my favoutrite spearmen and phalanx even if the arent the strongest type.i went fro greece and wiped them out first then there is the romans they are really annoying.i never completed my campaign with them

[Imperator]

Campaign-
When playing Macedon you must remember you can't use their phalanxes exacly like Greek ones because they aren't as good against missile troops. On the Campaign map try to get alliance and trade rights with both Dacia and Thrace to secure you back. If they do attack, which they might, be ready! what I did was take Athens before the Greeks and then I took Thermon and blockaded Sparta to destroy trade then I bribed their huge army and use it to take Sparta. Now you have a really good production area from Sparta, Athens, Corinth, Thermon, and Larissa. If the Brutii haven't attacked yet attack them! They have Appolonia and possiby Salona. Now try to get a ceasfire with Greece and take Crete. Now you have a good invasion point to Italy, sail over two bg armies and quickly take Tarentum and Croton before the Romans can do anything. Slowly work your way up to Rome and defeat the huge army. This will probably destroy you army so have a reseve army. Now might be a good time to attack Thrace because they probably have some good cities, adn Dacia because they can't stand up to Macedons phalanxes. Once you take all of Italy you might have to fight Gaul but you can beat their hoards with you cavalry alone! You can choose to go into Sically (Syracuse is Awsome!) or you can march on the final Greek settlements with will eventually bring you to fight the People of Pontus and later Egypt. By now if you haven't attacked Thrace, attack! you can get phalanx pikemen from bribing and their cities and Dacian ones will give you the possibility of two fronts with European barbarians. From here your on your own.
Infantry-
At the beginning your arny isn't very good militia will rout on contact with the enemy and levy will rout if not helped. Once you get to phalanx pikemen your fine, but they aren't very good against missiles. Royal pikemen are awsome, they're just like aroured execpt with more men. I always put either mercenary hoplites or royal pikemen on the flanks because the can move faster with their shorter spears.
Cavalry-
Macedon starts out with a few light lancers and two of macedonian cavalry. Macedons cavaly is made for one purpose, while your infantry hold the go around back and charge. Remeber until you get to macedonian cavaly don't let your cavalry get fully engaged by infantry, they will be slautered. In you armies you should have at least 4 cavalry. Don't underestimate light lancers because of their armour and defence because their charge bonus is 15! Companion cavalry is unnessecary but is awsome because they are just like legionary cavalry.
Missile-
Macedon has two kinds of missile troops: skirmishers and archers. Personally I like archers more because they can sit safe behind your battle line and peg enemy troops. Skirmishers though can be useful against other phalanxes and can put a charge in a desperate situation.
Mercenaries-
In Greece you find three different mercenries hoplite, cretean archers, and skirmishers. To me only the archers are really worth your money. In Turkey you get barbarian cavalry and infantry, hopites, cretean archers, slingers, thracian and bastarnae, samaration cavalry, and eastern infantry. All except the easrtern infantry and Barbarians good. In Italy there are hoplites, barbairians, and sammnite mercenries. Sammnites are only watered down triarii.
Temples-
Macedon has 4 temples: Zeus, Ares, Artemis, and Demeater. Zeus gives public order and happiness, Ares gives public happiness and experiance. Artemis give public law and better missile weapons, and Demeater gives public happiness and increases farm output.

[Aimar78]

To make things a little more interesting with Macedonia try to walk in the steps of Alexander the great, in the first few turns gather up all your armies and generals jump in your ship and sail straight to nicomedia, take it and give all your cities in mainland greece to your greek brothers in exchange for pergamum, now you can conquer asia and the Greek cities should be strong enough to keep the brutii off your back untill the conquest of asia & egypt is complete, and then you can set your sights on rome and fight on your own terms.

[Norxis]

Heres a little something I found helpful during my game with the Macedons.
The first thing you need to do I think at least is reunite Greece as quickly as possible and grab as many rebel provinces as you can. This was extremely easy I thought, i just left a skeleton garrison at Thessolonica and then filled up a ship with my king and army and captured: 1) byzantium, 2) Crete (+ stocked up army with as many mercs as i could afford), 3) Hallicarnasus, 4) Rhodes. Capturing Hallicarnasus early is important because its got a wonder and it will immediately assist you in undermining Pontus before it gets to powerful! I did capture Sardis soon after that in one game, and if you do that, you have to reinforce the garrison because the selucids will counter-attack with a big army of militia hoplites, but if you can stick 1 or 2 units of phalanx pikemen in garrison there, you should have no big problems.

Here's a little tip that I kinda exploited to get Rome off my back. Eventually I sent a biggish army over to Tarentum and Croton. I sacked and destroyed Croton, enslaved Tarentum. All I did to keep the Romans off my back was build a stone wall in Tarentum, maintain a relatively strong garrison, with the gates always destroyed (thats very important, leave the gates destroyed!!!!). The Romans would always stupidly rush into the city, 5 units of archers on the wall and 2 ballistas on the ground would decimate them before they ever got to the phalanx defences (this was on Hard/Hard). The ones that would get to the unit of phalanx pikemen would always flee the moment they hit the wall of spears. Always battles with massive Roman losses and only a few of your own troops dead. This way, the Romans only try to invade Tarentum, hence they're off your back for good, you can build up your generals to legendary status rapidly (and then ship them off for other campaigns) and continue to conquer Asia Minor and the East before invading the rest of Italy at your own leisure!

The position of the Macedonians, possibility of rapidly making tons of cash and a relatively strong army (especially they're cavalry) make the Macedonians a great faction to play!

[pezhetairoi]

Well, I think my Macedonian campaign is certainly an interesting one, like yours :-) I took Athens at Turn 3 after picking up all spare units in Thessalonica and Larissa. Meanwhile, I'd built a militia barracks in Thessalonica (the only one that could do so) and trained 3 units of levy pikemen (crappy, but no matter what they have 5 rows of sharp pointy sticks compared to 2, as well as more men), loaded them into my navy and sent them south to land in Laconia, Turn 6. Meanwhile my Athens army came up with reinforcements from Corinth and besieged Sparta. Turn 7, I merged my Levy Pikemen with it, assaulted and took it while a secondary army trashed Thermon and moved for Apollonia, taken another 2 turns later.

I am sure that it differs, but sometimes as late as turn 8, Sparta is still unwalled. In my case Sparta was unwalled until Turn 5 (damn) then they had it walled so I had to go in the gate with guns blazing. Or spears glittering, as it were.

In my case, anyway, Greece was united by turn 8, and by turn 13 I had an invasion of Italy and Thrace going on at the same time. After my levy pikemen taught the Brutii 20-stacks some lessons (who ever said they sucked? Their morale only crashes to the ground if a) you leave them unsupported for too long, or b) you let them take all the pressure.) I captured Brutia-in-Italy, while Thrace was annihilated in 7-8 turns flat (or 9, i cannot remember, mostly spent in movement) By turn 20 I was island-hopping from Crete to Rhodes to Halicarnassus, which I simply bribed away, then north to Sardis (then Seleucid, they caused some serious problems with their chariot archers, but nothing my light lancers couldn't handle), and finally, Pergamum. A good core in Asia minor, then I bribed Pontus. Asia Minor was a study in bribe success... I managed to pay for Ancyra, Nicomedia, Mazaka, Tarsus, Halicarnassus, without a fight. Oh, not to mention all the Seleucid, Pointic and Egyptian armies I bought off.

Now here's an interesting thing: Macedon vs Scythia makes for Alexandrian tactics. When Alexander fought the Scythian horse archers, in central Asia, he had a balanced army with phalanxes etc as well. But he didn't get cut to pieces. On the contrary, he managed to trap the Scythians and trash them. How? He advanced the phalanx as bait, and when the horse archers began circling around the phalanx, shooting, he moved up his light troops and cavalry wide to the flanks, herding a portion of them into between them and the phalanx's rear, and followed up with a powerful charge of his companion cavalry straight into that mass of horse archers, after which he pursued the remnants of the Scythians that had not fallen into the trap. It works in RTW. Especially when you can repeat ad infinitum because the -stupid- AI doesn't know better than to repeat their same circling tactics again. Light Lancers are enough to trap the HA. of course, you need quite a few units, and they have to do some hard riding to come around and behind the HA flanks to herd them into Companion/General's/Greek cavalry range. But it works. Very well, too. You probably wouldn't have this problem in your game since the HA will probably run out of ammo and charge into your spears, but for me, I'm playing on unlimited ammo (my rationale being that Surena could bring up new supplies of arrows during Carrhae, and so could the Romans whenever they fought).

There. Just my two cents' worth. Oh, I was playing on M/M. More realistic than VH/VH with their stupid morale bonuses.

[Craterus]

What sort of infantry (not spearmen) does Macedon get?

[Accounting Troll]

As well as the militia hoplites and various pike units, the Macedonians can build peasants, peltasts (unarmoured javelin throwers) and basic archers. Try hiring mercenaries as Cretan archers and mercenary peltasts are better than your archers and peltasts, and their wages are only slightly greater.

[Craterus]

I've found out that they have no infantry units (not including spearmen) ... I'll have to get used to fighting with spearmen, usually there my last resort..

[pezhetairoi]

Hahaha, Craterus, it's highly ironic that you haven't yet gotten used to fighting with the phalanxes you're given, because your historical namesake under Alexander was a commander of a pezhetairoi phalanx division ^_^ He was supposed to be GOOD at it, lol.

But, yeah, I find pikemen a little unwieldy in reinforcement battles (where the enemy has another army coming in at 90 degrees to your main front), so my Macedonian armies always have a generous complement of barbarian infantry/bastarnae/thracians/any other infantry I can get my family member on, as well as Cretan archers. Like Alexander's army, only about half of every one of my armies were of Macedonian origin, mainly in the form of light lancers and family members.

I rarely take more than 6 units of pikemen with any army in any campaign. In fact, 6 was a high-point i used in Italia, nowhere else. Elsewhere it was rarely more than 4.

[Craterus]

Hahaha, Craterus, it's highly ironic that you haven't yet gotten used to fighting with the phalanxes you're given, because your historical namesake under Alexander was a commander of a pezhetairoi phalanx division ^_^ He was supposed to be GOOD at it, lol.

But, yeah, I find pikemen a little unwieldy in reinforcement battles (where the enemy has another army coming in at 90 degrees to your main front), so my Macedonian armies always have a generous complement of barbarian infantry/bastarnae/thracians/any other infantry I can get my family member on, as well as Cretan archers. Like Alexander's army, only about half of every one of my armies were of Macedonian origin, mainly in the form of light lancers and family members.

I rarely take more than 6 units of pikemen with any army in any campaign. In fact, 6 was a high-point i used in Italia, nowhere else. Elsewhere it was rarely more than 4.

Craterus went on to command Alexander's left flank of cavalry. Maybe you have yet to hear of my legendary cavalry commanding. Check out the Spain thread, I posted a description of a heroic victory vs. 1000-something Romans using only 2 generals..

After the assassination of Parmenion, Craterus was promoted to command the left flank. Before this was Parmenion's responsibility.

[cunobelinus]

dont say anything about craterus pezhetairoi because he is a great commander of cavalry and at least he has a descent name.if u wanna do an online fight with him or our clan is up for a fight

[Craterus]

Hey littlegannon, he was just stating the irony that Craterus did indeed start his military career commanding a phalanx battalion. As I have stated in this thread, my skill when commanding phalanx units is far from good.

Of course, pezehetaroi if you would like a battle online, I'm up for it (as long as I'm not playing Macedon/Greece), if you would like a clabattle, that is also welcome. If you are not in a clan, you are welcome to join ours, but enough advertising here, visit Campus Martius for MP info.

[pezhetairoi]

Umm, well, I've never fought online before, I don't think my skills are good enough yet to toe up with true masters like you all... Besides, there's the slight problem in that I don't have internet access at home, and I have to use the computers in school to post on the forums. So. :-( But oh, no, I've been posting on the Spain thread too, remember? I have heard all too often about your cavalry commanding skills, and am justifiably wary of them :-) If I ever join a clan battle, it will be on your side. :-P The day I get internet access at home, I'll take you up on your offer to join Leo Honorius. (what am I getting myself into? *potters off to read Campus Martius*)

Littlegannon, chill :-P Nice to see you're so protective of Craterus, though ^_^ *remarks to Craterus* The Clan Spirit is strong in this one. :-P

Ahaha, sorry, I'm feeling a little crazy today.

[Craterus]

Lol, me and littlegannon are good friends.

Good to see you would join the clan if you could..

Nice to see you are aware of my cavalry talent.. It's more my lack of infantry talent that puts me off Macedon and Greek Cities..

[pezhetairoi]

Yeah... but as I suggested in some other RTW guide thread (why didn't I post in this one?) you could milk Macedon purely for its cavalry.

[Craterus]

I could but I think I will try to learn about using phalanxes and balancing my skills..
That way I could play with a bit more variety..

[katank]

As I said in other threads, turning off phalanx to move them into position is essential and makes them far less frustrating.

If you can get a phalanx to rear attack the enemy, it's truly beautiful. The phalanx sandwich is probably the most deadly situation an enemy unit can face.

[Craterus]

Have you seen the screenshot of two men completely surrounded by phalanxes? They're doomed.. I know about phalanx standard formation but they are quite vulnerable to cavlry in this formation so I don't like to use it if cavalry is near.