Macedon

[Viking]

Ah.
So happiness have something to say about the price for bribing?

Thanks for the tip, orcorama!

[Craterus]

it depends how big the city is and how many guys they have and the general if any and how happy they are
if the town is small which thermon is a large town i think
and you say there is only a small army
and if you put spys into the settlements the happyines level goes down

I think they have a general in there and some skirmishers.
Oh well, I will just bribe it, hopefully, they will stay in Sicily, Pergamum and Rhodes. A surprise attack from Asia Minor would not be good for me.

[orcorama]

@viking- I believe so though im not positive
@craterus- good luck with the campaign and if you succeed with bribing you'll get another family member

[pezhetairoi]

I'm the aggressive one and I say stuff it, besiege Thermon! Don't leave any enemies in your rear. Besides, once you take them down they're down.They won't try to reconquer it, as long as you watch Sparta closely.

[Craterus]

I took Sparta on the first turn. They haven't touched it in 8 turns. I'm not very far in, as you can see, I hope to play tonight.

[katank]

Taking it on the first turn is nice. I suppose you make abundant use of the archer against the Spartan?

[Craterus]

Yes. It was a tough battle, but Sparta has made me a lot of money so far, I'm glad I took it.

Taking Sparta immediately made sure that I got Athens.

[amazon77]

Well, i took the North approach against the Romans, as i wanted to capture Salona and Segestica along the way, i think the Brutii had Salona apart from Apollonia.

It's year 254 and have gained 22 regions, while Rome is besieged and they'll prolly attack me next turn and loose it, its 7 turns to fall from siegeing.

I also have 4 armies in asia minor which will soon go after Egypt and the Seleucids, they've only lost Antioch from egypt.

The picture is: i've united Greece (under me of course ), took Crete and Rhodes, eliminated the Thracians and got Byzantium too, got Bosphorous (the Crimea), as i've already said captured salona and segestica, while capturing asia minor eliminating pontus in the process. Tarsus is the last city in asia minor (seleucids) i need to get. I'll then go for the Egyptians, leaving the Sel's for now, but blocking the bridge in Syria with some pikes. Btw, when you block a bridge with pikemen/hoplites, put 2 or more (but 2 is enough) units as a " V " with a little overlapping. If they charge that formation (and they will) they get killed instantly. Egypt got Libya and Bostra apart from Antioch. I can't wait to deal with that ovepowered scum!

On the Italian front i have eliminated the Julls (well, they have Sardinia left) and also got Segesta. After SPQR is done with, i'll kill Bruts and Scips.

Unfortunately, the gauls attacked me, not my actuall invading forces, just some family members i brought a lilttle later. Sadly i had to bribe their huge army as i was busy fighting the romans. Actually i got overconfident and thus i'm not sure i can win the Rome siege battle. One of my armies garrisons Ariminum and is full of merc's apart from 19 Phalanx pikemen (+1exp +1 waep ) They are Illyrian peltasts, merc hopl, samnites, and barb merc. Really crap, appart from the Illyrians. My rome siege army, has 2 phalanx+1.5 levy+1militia, 1 merc hopl, some merc pelts and cretans, almost 2 of my archers and 3 greek cav. My general has 42 guys of 5 exp tho .

After dealing with the romans and egypt, i'll maybe take the rest of the sels, but i'll leave armenia and partia/dacia/scythia alone. Instead i'll go for carthage + spain. Sardinia of course is included in the anti-roman campaign and cyprus in the anti-egypt camp. Sicily too, as 1 roman town there + the last of greeks. Carthage will come first (they have a town in sicily) and then spain. I'll also have to send more troops to italy so as 1 or 2 armies kill the romans, another take patavium and mediolanum and then march west to capture south france and invade spain. The roman killing armies, i'll land them in africa to deal with carthage.

Well, what i like about the Macedonians is:

1) COOL colour! i just love it, only the red Julii can rival it. But black+orange is better anyway.
2) Great gods. IMHO the best god set in the game.
3) Excellent strategic map position. Just take athens (via siege is ok, or lure them to fight by sieging with a small force so they think they'll win and attack) and you've won the game.
4) Very usefull cav! I'm talking about Light Lancers, they are great working with your phalanx. While they pin the enemy, the lancers charge the back. 15 charge is the same as Cataphracts+ they are fast for the needed flanking. Much better than the expensive 2 turn build, hi-tech behemoths. Also they can hunt down militia cav greeks get.
5) Tons of money after you take greece and the west shores of asia minor.

I could go on, but i'll stop here. Imho Macedonia is the most balanced faction in the game, no uber-units(romans)+elephant factions, no overpowered (egyptians), no machine-gun archers (gauls).

Btw, your archers even trained as exp3 and then +5missile, will go to 15 missile attack, the normal forester attack. But they'll still lack the long range of these units. Also u need really developed cities to achieve ares+3exp and artemis +5 missile (large city and huge city respectively), so these are certainly late game troops, when you have already built your empire, while the gauls can simply capture a 6,000 roman (minor) city and start building foresters.

[pezhetairoi]

well, one weakness is the lack of melee infantry except phalanx troops. Never got over that, I think, but the rest, it's all good.

[Craterus]

The Greeks lack infantry too...

But they have the ultimate spearmen (?) or are they pikemen. I'm talking about Spartans. I do agree though and there should be some infantry available, even if it is only basic.

Then again, you are farely close to Thrace, so you could just recruit some Thracian Mercs, or better - BASTARNAE! They are great infantry. Brilliant flankers, that's for sure.

[katank]

They are infantry. Take em out of phalanx and use em as swordsmen. Hoplites are 5/16 and not so bad swordsmen. Of course, their 7/16 spear attack with phalanx is superior.

Spartans are also terrific swordsmen. I don't know what anyone is complaining about. Learn to turn phalanx mode off, run into place and turn it back on. Phalanxes can flank as well as anything else. All except the latency for pursuit that switching out of phalanx would entail.

[pezhetairoi]

haha it just seems...blasphemous...to use phalanx troops out of phalanx xP But yeah, of course you could use them as swordsmen. But we're purists, heh. You should've seen my Spartans storming the walls. No 2 units of levy pikemen can stand against them--they just kept advancing and the pikemen were dropping like flies, and they only lost one man. Impressive.

[katank]

To say that Macedon has no infantry is justifiable early on.

Using Levy pikes out of phalanx is horrible.

I assaulted Rome with 2 siege towers and 6 units of levies. There was only 1 unit of 3xp hastati on the wall. Even with a constant stream of all my levy pikes onto the walls and sandwiching the hastati, I lost about 5 units taking that wall.

Not ethat my levies were 1 xp also.

It was truly horrible.

However, Spartans are quite capable of acting as good swordsmen. I believe they can take legionary cohorts in swordplay.

[pezhetairoi]

I've tested it, and 2 out of 5 times, as long as they outflank the enemy by some, they've also beaten praetorians.

[Craterus]

I agree, it just feels wrong using phalanxes out of phalanx mode.

I have used them to flank before though. After I've shamefully wasted my cav.

[pezhetairoi]

*gasp* Craterus! you're losing your cavalry touch ;-)

[katank]

Adjusting to new situations and strats is always good.

[pezhetairoi]

Yeah, but losing the skills of the old is always worrying :) I've had to shift my Germanic playing style from defensive to aggressive cos with my battering rams of armies no one ever wants to play with me anymore :( except the Senate! yay! the Senate wants to play with me! Oh no, where'd the Senate go? *ahem*

[Craterus]

It's not that I've lost my touch. I'm just out of practice. At least, I hope I'm just out of practice. I'm playing online later (20:00 BST) so we'll soon see if I've still got it.

[Craterus]

Damn save/load bug has meant that the Greeks have sailed back to Thermon. There is a full stack there, planning invasion. They also have fleets filled with units. Should I betray the alliance and sink these fleets before it's too late?

I think I will, and then I'll take Thermon. This will save an unwanted attack in the homeland. After this, if I beat them hard enough, I could force them into protectorate status.

[Garvanko]

Macedon is fun.

[pezhetairoi]

The greeks like to camp in their territories and amass huge armies. Sink those fleets. Fast. You should've annihilated them a long time ago...now they're a major pain in the posterior because of their AI personality...

[katank]

They do. In my Seleucid game, by blazing into Greece and taking the isthmus etc., I left Rhodes alone for a few turns. Now it's 265 and Rhodes has a huge stack of various hoplites which might require a half-decent army to whip.

Luckily, Sparta, Athens, Thermon, and all of the former Macedonian cities are mine in addition to all of Egypt and the Parthian cities of Arsakia and Susa.

Being the preeminent power makes it easy. I think I might start turtling now.

[Craterus]

Ok. I just got the Brutii as my protectorate for 4000 denarii. Which I thought was some good bargaining.

Anyway, the next turn they declared war on the Greeks (allies of mine) and the Gaul (also allies of mine). Do you think I should hold my protector and drop my allies? Or hold my allies and drop the protector?

I've decided that I will annihalate the Greeks so they are out of the Aegean, but leave them with Rhodes (at which point, they will become my protectorate), but I need the Gaul for my master plan.

Please Help.

[Ziaelas]

and this master plan is?

also keep romans, valuable ally they are.

[Craterus]

The master plan is to take the Romans out...

Basically, I go through the "heel" of Italy and through the Julii.

I also need some tactics for fighting the Romans.

[Ziaelas]

Then go wipe out the Romans, and keep Gaul.

[Craterus]

Hmmmm, it's a shame I just wasted 4000... Oh well, I guess that is the thing I have to do.

[katank]

Don't worry about it. Things happen. Stick to your plan and don't waste the money.

Otherwise, consider abandoning the plan and just farm the Romans to become a big empire and then crush them.

[Craterus]

It's ok. The Brutii are down to two cities and have about 10 units to protect them. I'm about to knock them out.Then, I might take Sicily; or take Capua, then Rome.