Being overwhelmed

[blado]

I'm playing as Koinon Hellenon and its around 240 b.c on H/M. I have territories from the west near italy, to byzantium. I'm being overwhelmed at the moment. Every single neighbor is at war with me and I can't take them all. Rome, selucids, pontus, surving makedonia settlements, and the getai too. I've lost a western settlement to the romans already, and pontus took one of my last settlements in asia minor. Getai are biesieging one of my northern cities they I took from them, and will probably fall since that outnumber me there. I'm training a full stack but its taking too long and I'm not sure where I should send it. What should I do to save my small little empire?

I might post a screenshot of whats going on in a while.

I'm not interested in cheating

[theoldbelgian]

wel it depends I am no expert in this but what I would do is if the romans are already in hellas throw them into the sea, if not give up graeca italia for a while and come back later, erect a defensive perimeter against the getai , finish the makedonians, then destroy the getai, after that you can choose to attack asia minor or italia just make sure that both byzantium and ilyria are properly defended (most of the times ther armies come through there) good luck I should say

[Celtic_Punk]

speaking from experience of being overrun as the KH.

give up any settlements north of epiros and makedon. focus on consolidating your power. divide that fullstack between epiros and makedon. fall back to lesbos, and disband any unnecessary fleets. if you have spartan hoplites make a new army with as many spartans(or classical as necessary, 2 cavalry units, 2 slingers and 2 peltasts. use this as a field army. i suggest you station them in the centre valley in thessiclonia. take a defensive strategy while you accumulate money. Mercs are going to be a godsend. once you have enough coin build another field army and send it across the agean, and take Sardis or permagon, both are valuable ports. Permagon would be my preferred choice. its closer to the sea so you can take it quicker and if the shit hits the fan you can get out as soon as the fleet shows up. fighting on walls and in streets are what the KH are made for. take surplus units out of permagon and send em back over to build a new army and continue taking the eastern Aegean ports. If ptolemy doesnt have Kyrene take that aswell its also a good port. Crete should already be yours. doing all this will boost your economy to the sky and you will be able to pump out units and buildings willy nilly.

your best strategy is building a new army for each settlement then shipping surplus units back to hasten the new recruitment. you will slowly but surely take back the empire you had.

A scorched earth policy on the northern settlements might be detriment to you.

the KH are in a precarious position for a long time, but if you play your cards right by 200BC you should be safe.

[blado]

Luckely empire is among the richest, or at least it was. I had about 100k at my highest point, but all of these wars have lowered it to 50k. I'll try to do what you said, thanks.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Luckely empire is among the richest, or at least it was. I had about 100k at my highest point, but all of these wars have lowered it to 50k. I'll try to do what you said, thanks.

Then what's the problem?

You should really post the screenshots as you have said. Then people could really help. You could also post a savegame if you can. I'd LOVE to play your game! I never got challenges like the one you described in you EB KH campaign, but I really like it when it is so difficult on H/M or VH/M difficulty.

[Celtic_Punk]

hes got it on VH/H

battles are balanced for Medium difficulty. and the AI doesnt get any smarter they just get retarded stat bonuses on H and VH

i rmeember reading on the RTW guides about people playing on VH VH like its a religion... stupid fools haha

[Aemilius Paulus]

hes got it on VH/H


Huh? Blado just said in the very beginning of his first post that he was playing on H/M? Are you talking about the difficulty I'm playing on or on the difficulty blado is playing on?

[blado]

Things are going a lot better now. I lost byzantion but I retook what the Romans took away from me. Rome is no longer at war with me because I payed them 7k for a ceasfire. I'm not slicing through getai and hope to finish them off soon. I'll edit this post with a SS in a minute.



edit: having a problem posting a screenshot because all of my screenshots turn out as black screens. Photobucket isn't detecting them either

[Cullhwch]

Ask yourself one thing. How much do I hate the Romans?

If you want to really hurt them for the future (they WILL break the ceasefire with alarming speed), recruit an assault army (heavy on the hoplites), a Lemboi fleet (from Ambrakia), and a slew of spies. Send the spies into the Roman settlements in Italy (to open the gates) and sack the weakest ones with your army. Destroy their MICs and temples. Rome is usually pretty poorly garrisoned, as the Roman AI will always mass armies in the north.

If you do this right and retreat to the sea when things look ugly, you can destroy the Capitoline Temple of Jupiter for gobs of cash and absolutely cripple Rome's military might.

[blado]

Right now I'm trying to decide which units to use as the main melee infantry as my army. For a while I've been using thorakitai hoplitai because they seemed to do the best on my campaigns with fewer casualties. I sent a force with them as the main force to take a Makedonian island. It was a disaster. I got slaughtered by an army I outnumbered. I'm thinking to maybe use thorakitai instead. I'd use epilektoi but they're very expensive and are only around 120 men. The Romans have weak garrisons in southern Italy and Rome has the most troops in it, but still only about a half stack. I personally like Rome and they could still kick my ass at the moment, so I'm going to wait till I have less enemies in the north and east, and whenever march of time happens. Also I'm looking for some better archers because the regular hellenic archers aren't very useful, as they run out quickly and don't inflict too many casualties.

Also if anyone knows how to solve the black screenshot problem than that would be great.

[theoldbelgian]

for the archers :use the kretan archers I personally use them very much

[Nachtmeister]

This is what I did for the AI-KH; it is still alive and kicking Mak balls in 250BC (I am playing as Baktria) - I don't do this for myself as I consider it cheating... Anyway, here goes:

=> press key next to the left of "1"/below "Esc"
=> 2 x backspace
=> input only code in brackets, not the brackets themselves:
[create_unit Athenai "greek infantry epilektoi hoplite" 4 9 1 1]
=> and watch the flag above Athenai swell waaay up.
=> änd sen kill sem oll.

MUHARHARHARHAR, an invincible greek steamroll.
Of course, you can spawn them wherever you like - just swap in the city name you want for Athenai.
works with besieged cities as well.

A word of warning - the campaign will not feel as fun after you do this as your sub-conscious becomes
more aware of the fact that you are sitting in front of a computer playing an unreal game and no longer
deems it to be of any consequence whether you win or lose - especially since you can't lose anymore.
Rapidly de-composes all the adrenaline. But before the AI takes your lands... Sometimes, the hard world out there calls for drastic measures.

[blado]

I hate cheating. Please try to post something useful instead of console cheats.

[teh1337tim]

keep romans alive till u get ur koinon hellene phalangite reforms... then feel free to pwn em...
greeks in gaul...armor pwnage?

[Nachtmeister]

Okay, okay, no cheating --- don't like it much myself but not knowing just how bad exactly the situation is --- well, thought before your campaign possibly dies I'd mention it as an emergency possibility.
Anyway, that screenshot you mentioned would be helpful to get a better picture of the situation...
For instance, did you destroy epeiros already? If not, keep them alive but otherwise, hold on above all to their western settlements (mines) and Pella and Pergamon (mines also).
The Illyrian coastal levies are what you need for triariorum flanks.
You might try diplomacy to get the Ptolemaioi to attack AS or at least give you some money, use mercenaries where your main army takes too long.
How is your financial situation?
What MIC levels did you upgrade to?
Do you need KH phalangitai?
Who is at war with whom? Or is it "all on one" with AS, Ptolemaioi, Pontos, Makedonia, Romani and Getai allied?
Regardless, try declaring ceasfire/trade rights to those currently besieging you, did that with AS as Baktria on VH/M and they even paid me 6000mnai only to set siege again next turn. Gives you 1 turn to even the odds per recruitment. Then repeat if necessary. Sally before you do this if you can take out 1 or 2 of their units with few casualties, otherwise afterwards if ceasefire does not work.
Tylis is a very valuable long-term resource for galatian phalanx-eaters and thraikioi rhomphaioi...
Use thraikian mercenary peltasts because they seem to last long in campaigns - comparatively low casualties if used properly, meaning units that don't need frequent retraining. Burn what you cannot hold, including civic structures - the AI will rebuild them for you, possibly even slowing down their MIC-buildup. Leave your government buildings and MICs though, the AI only damages them but fails to destroy them giving you a head-start when re-conquering the province.

That's all I can think of with no detailed picture of the situation. Hope it helps.

[blado]

Eperios is dead. Pontus and Makedonia decided they'd left me alone long enough and are now attacking. I Can probably take them both. I have the greek phalanxes now and have a nearly full stack with them heading to deal with pontus. I'm going to edit this post with a SS via xfire, but it won't be as big as other pictures. I also had a huge battle with Makedonia but got a CTD after the battle -_-


Edit: here's the picture: http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/c5d432f759577f191db94ec98811a872b13d7698.png

Edit2: here's a picture with the map revealed http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/natural/4b85ec9c8f9911af4bdcd225f2c127c35af6457b.png

[craziii]

hit print screen for SS, why use xfire??? that is a craptastic software that causes untold amount of prolems.

[blado]

If you had read the posts you'd see that I'm only getting black screenshots using that, so this is all I can use the moment.

[Nachtmeister]

Right now I'm trying to decide which units to use as the main melee infantry as my army. For a while I've been using thorakitai hoplitai because they seemed to do the best on my campaigns with fewer casualties. I sent a force with them as the main force to take a Makedonian island. It was a disaster. I got slaughtered by an army I outnumbered. I'm thinking to maybe use thorakitai instead. I'd use epilektoi but they're very expensive and are only around 120 men. The Romans have weak garrisons in southern Italy and Rome has the most troops in it, but still only about a half stack. I personally like Rome and they could still kick my ass at the moment, so I'm going to wait till I have less enemies in the north and east, and whenever march of time happens. Also I'm looking for some better archers because the regular hellenic archers aren't very useful, as they run out quickly and don't inflict too many casualties.

With your current enemies, forget about archers.
Use slingers - archers are only useful against unarmored units like falxmen or skirmishers.

You need to get the AI to attack you on high ground by placing an army at the bottom of a slope facing towards an enemy army, then if they attack, on the battle map you will be on top of the hill and they will move to you, getting exhausted on the way up. If this is not available, build a fort, which will force some even ground in case you are otherwise at terrain disadvantage, then sally.

On level ground, use peltasts to get behind the enemy phalanx, guard them in turn with some durable units (prefer hoplitai over thorakitai for costs), the damage any missile unit does on a phalanx is very much higher when shooting from the rear. After all javelins are spent, charge into melee (but never from the front); peltasts are the only relatively cheap and effective KH sword unit I can think of. And there is nothing better than sword units to gut phalanxes from behind.
If you don't want to commit your ranged units to melee at all, use akontistai instead of peltasts - more men, more javelins, same missile attack - and thus far more damage.

For wood palisade city battles, have 4 units of slingers with you to cause the enemy 20% casualties from outside the walls before the fight even begins.
Place akontistai directly outside the walls for devastating effect. This also has the effect of clearing the area behind the gate, allowing you to get some units into formation inside before they have to fight.
If there are no phalanx units left in the city or only 1 guarding the town square, use FM and 1-2 units of hoplites on guard mode, place FM in front and hoplitai right behind them to attack whoever attacks your FM, when no more units are coming rush the rest of your melee infantry inside and sandwich the enemy between them and your FM => usually instant riout and lots of carnage as the way out is already blocked -- that always does the trick. But beware of makedonian peltasts (the heavy ones, not the skirmishers) though. For a city battle, epilektoi hoplitai would be a better choice than thorakitai hoplitai in spite of the cost but normally simple hoplitai are already sufficient, unless you are fighting on stone walls - there the swords of the t.hoplitai are very useful.

Switch off battle time limit - the AI normally pays no attention to keeping it's troops well rested whereas it is vital for the above mentioned tactics to rest the assault units after every enemy rout. Rushing the town square leaves your army depleted at best if not entirely beaten.

[Nachtmeister]

Woops, you post faster than I can type :laugh4:
So you have phalanxes - augment the above mentioned sandwich-tactic with them...
Note that they can be troublesome in cities.
Turn def-mode and phalanx off when maneuvering, call a halt when content with rough position and facing direction, then turn def-mode back on, phalanx will form up properly, then turn phalanx mode back on.
If their formation shifts direction during battle to your disadvantage, use "," and "." to adjust though this will cause them to lift spears while rotating.
Also, keep to the actually graphically represented pavement in cities.
The little bit of open flank this leaves usually is not significant in battle as the AI doesn't deliberately exploit it.
If you have time to form up comfortably you can even place two phalanxes on the same space, doubling enemy casualties and halving yours at that front.
I read somewhere in a more detailed phalanx discussion that this would actually even be "historically correct"...

[Tartaros]

hello,
you economy looks a little bit weak. did you build mines alot?
more income - more soldiers - more victory!

[mcantu]

If you had read the posts you'd see that I'm only getting black screenshots using that, so this is all I can use the moment.


turn off the in-game anti-aliasing setting. if you have an nvidia card, go into the control panel and in the RTW game profile, select override game AA settings and set AA there