Pontus campaign!

[Persian Horseman]

Hi everyone. i started a pontus campaign a couple of weeks ago. i will write a more detailed list of events that has been happening in the near future. but for now, i was wondering what would u do as pontus?

the seleucids r HUGE and it would b mad to touch them. the macedonians r strong too. so u r surrounded by strong factions. after getting the few rebel provinces nearby, what is there to do?

Thanx

[Clovis]

in the past, I've attacked the greek cities in the Crimea - they start rebel and the sarmatians are not a real threat.

clovis

[Spendios]

The seleucids will attack you soon or later, they are huge but this means that their armies will be scattered, the most difficult is to kill the family members and their hetairoi I suggest you to assassinate them whenever you can rather than face them on the field...
In my pontos campaign i expanded eastwards unto Armenian and seleucid lands, if you keep ancyra neutral and don't conquer the western seleucid provinces ipsos, pergamum etc...it will create a buffer state beetween you and macedon so you can concentrate on the east...
Don't forget that pontos don't have elite units at the moments so it is better to use a lot of peltast and thureophroi to outrun seleucid pezhetairoi...
Oh and don't forget the scythed chariots a lot of people find them crappy but they are very efficient against light/medium cavalry, throw them into the loads of aspet cavalry that armenia fields and see the results........

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I don't know exactly what the reason is, but from what I've seen in 1.5, Pontos seems to be doing a lot better than they were in 1.2. I've had about three ten year campaigns as other factions and one time Pontos took Trapezus, Sinope, Nikomedia, Byzantion, Tylis, and Kallatis, and were expanding towards two more cities when I stopped. In the other two they were doing better than they usually do after a decade of EB in 1.2. This doesn't help much answer the question, but it's interesting to see that for some unknown reason they were expanding more quickly.

[Moros]

I would try to kick the Sels out of Asia minor asap, and then try to ally with Ptol. And fight them together. OFcourse also take the rebels cities ofcourse.

[Persian Horseman]

Hello to everyone again!
i am gonna write a more detailed explanation of what i have been up to in my campaign. go ahead and tell me what mistakes i have made and any other advice that u could think of which i may be able to use in the following campaigns. i also hope that some of the things i say here will be helpful to the EB team. kind of like "feedback" from customer.

background info:
I usually played RTW on VH/H or VH/VH. after a few campaigns on those difficulties, i got tired of it and wanted sth new and challenging. came to d/l EB, but becuz i was in a hurry, i only d/l v0.72 and not 0.74. it was 3am in the morning.

anyway, i wanted to start a campaign as persians, but then i remembered how my campaign as the parthians had gone. all the horse archers running around was some what annoying. then i read that the pontus were also kind of persian, so i decided to go with them. since this was my first EB game and i had heard from other forums that it was a lot harder, i decided to just go with M/M difficulty for now.

few things i noticed as a first time EB player:
1. the map is HUGE! i love it.
2. the map is full of rebel or independent towns and they r STRONG. love that too.

3. this script thing needs to be turned on everytime i want to play. some what annoying! half the campaign i have played i simply "forgot" to turn it on. what does it do exactly? 4 season a year? what else? is it important? i have done half the campaign with it and the other half without it.

4. expensive unit costs, love that too.

5. long long long names for all the buildings and units. somewhat annoying and takes getting used to. im not saying its a bad thing. but i think it would have been easier to have the "option" whether u have a name like "spearman" or something that ur average john doe has difficulty saying it. but i guess u guys really want to be historically accurate.

6. I understand that the game is incomplete and i look forward to the full version. its a bit hard now that the names r long and in a language i dont know. the unit cards r not complete. so many look like peasants but r heavy cavarly. and many dont have unit descriptions. in a battle i have to click on every single unit card of the enemy to see what im fighting. its time consuming.

7.battles r longer. love that. but the phalanx units r not so smooth. their movements r not that good. and they keep lifting their spears. i went from v1.0 in RTW to v1.5 so i never played v1.2 on RTW. maybe that was one of the problems. but i find it weird that i am some what forced to use my phalanxes only as defense. cuz as soon as i tell them to move, they go out of formation and jumble up. i have tried with phalanx formation off or on. but it keeps screwing it up. and as soon as the formation is broken, then the enemy attacks, leading to more casualties.

there have been times that the enemy units stopped few inches from me and were just throwing pilas or spears at me without engaging me. i told my units to engage them or tried telling them to walk towards the enemy (click behind enemy) or things like that, and my unit ends up lifting its spears, walking in the enemy mass and dying. i tell them to form phalanx formation and i see their spears coming out, but they r holding it BACKWARDS!

i mean, they r facing the enemy, look exactly like what they look like when in normal phalanx formation, but instead of their spears being in front of them, its sticking backwards. its just weird. then the enemy just walks right up to them, since there is no wall of spears, and kills my men. my men cant fight cuz their spears r behind them. im forced to tell them to break formation and fight with swords, but then i lose the bonus of phalanx formation. this is extra bad when im fighting anohter phalanx units.

i am not complaining, just letting u know what has happened to me in hopes that these features can be improved or fixed or watever. i love the mod. i can see a lot of work has gone into it and i dont mean to be rude. just giving feedback.

thank u very much for EB!

[Mithradates]

Yeah i have noticed the odd backward pike thing, also its probably a known error but some units (the overhand spear) find it hard to charge. This should probably be on the bug page but felt it was a appropriate to mention it here.

[Ludens]

Welcome to EB, Persian Horseman. I noticed the phalanx thing as well, and I think it is caused by 1.2. I therefor only use them by moving them forward en masse. If you target individual units your formation will mess up, and for some reason they also raise their pikes when they are ordered to attack a close enemy (I presume because they have to change their facing ever so slightly, so they raise their pikes to allow the formation to turn).

BTW, the background script is very important as it runs all the scripts to enhance R:TW. That's why the request to start it appears very prominently whenever you start or load a game.

[Persian Horseman]

Ok! i have some free time so im gonna just write some more feedback!

1. ok, i understand that the script is very very important to EB, but i am a very forgetful guy. is there a way to just have it on all the time in the next version? or maybe have a very big warning sign or sth?!?!?!

2. wassup with all my generals sucking? the most stars i have got is 3. a faction leader who went and conquered a few cities just managed 3 stars, and then i had to sit in the cities in order to put them under contol. meanwhile, he just got older and older and got traits like "LAZY" and other stuff which brought him down to ZERO stars!

i can understand that having 10 star generals can ruin the game, cuz i have to say, it wasnt that hard to get them even on VH/VH in RTW, but is it even possible in EB?

oh yeah, and how come all the rebels or the enemy have GODLIKE generals? i have seen rebels with like 8 stars! or seleucid generals with 8-10 points for stars, management and infulence.

3. When sieging Pergamum, becuz its a big city full of rebels with a really good general, i was afraid to assault the city, so i just waited and waited for years for their food to run out. finally when it did, on the last turn they all sallied out as expected.

i quickly rushed my phalangites (or whatever their names r) towards the gate and tried to block the enemy from getting out while the rest of my army throws their spears. 1/4 of the army managed to get out of the walls and i engage them. after a while, i kill about a half and they rout back inside the walls. i tell my troops to stay and not follow, but 2 of my men, run along side the routing enemy and go inside the city. then a sign comes up saying "i have take the enemy gates"!!!!

anyway, after a while my 2 men walk ALL the way to near the city centre cutting a line thru the 3/4 of the enemy army left inside the city but didnt kill any of them, and then start walking back, cutting another line, and again not killing anyone and not being killed. finally they come out and get into position. so now im expecting the enemy to come out but they just wait at the gate. then i realise mayb the AI is too dumb. it thinks that i have the gates and it cant open the gate so cant get out of the city. so i just left it so it will b a draw, cuz i didnt want to use my phalanxes in the city as they will screw up and ill lose a lot of men.

so i wait and wait and surely enough the battle ends in a draw. i expect that a sign will pop up saying i have the city, but NO!!!!!! sign pops up saying the enemy army has sallied out for the 2nd time in the SAME turn. so this time, i do the same thing but let ALL of them get out. i kill a whole lot of them making them all rout, and it says i have WON the battle, so since i cant b bothered following the routers inside the city i just press "END BATTLE".

this time im sure that i have the city, but NO!!!!! the enemy sallies out for the 3rd time in the SAME turn. :furious3: :wall: this time i killed every single one of them. i hated them so much. that was one of my longest END TURNs ever! this happened to anyone before? this is the first time that it happens to me!

next i will write more about my campaign and how it has been going!

[Avicenna]

1. No, you'll have to click the advisor.

2. That's because not every general is capable of getting to be a famous awe-inspiring general such as Caesar or Alexander, just like in real life. The AI gets command bonuses to make up for its stupidity, which is why you should play on M battles. The AI already get that 10 star bonus, which is enough, really.

3. Never happened to me before.

[Ludens]

1) No. You will just have to get used to it.

2) Have a look in the Traits & Ancillaries FAQ (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=58620). For a short answer: yes, they are hard to get, especially if your general isn't particularly intelligent, charismatic or vigorous.

3) I guess this is a problem with R:TW and not EB. There is little you can do about it, except trying to kill them all next time or attempt to enter the city in force.

[We all need someone]

3) That's one WACKY bug. An end battle when all enemies are routing during a siege should secure the city. That's my favorite tactic, since I prefer to starve out them crazy huge Eleutheroi stacks.

[Persian Horseman]

ok, finally i got some time to write about my campaign.

right at the start i noticed that i only had one city, and 1/2 stack in it and another to the west. didnt want to disband since it seems like a waste, so the half stack in the west went more west and conquered that city near bizantion. the one in the city went and got sinope.

those were not heavily defended. and i just waited for the enemy to sally out cuz getting phalanxes to work in streets is a headache. and my dear faction leader died as soon as i press the FIRST END TURN!!!!! :furious3:

anyway, instead of going towards the east(cuz seemed like the independent cities were stronger) i went west. the 2 stacks merged and got bizantion. 4 cities total. me being an accountant, i tried hard to max the tax, but keep order and change capital around to make it work. but i still wasnt breaking even. with about -100 per turn. by then i had about -25,000 treasury.

so gathered all my troops and went for pergamum. have to note that everytime i conquered a city, i wasted a long long long time waiting for them to get happy enough for me to leave. it took forever.anyway, i knew i needed pergamum to get +ve cashflow and it had the most population.

u all know how i conquered pergamum since i already wrote abt it. then finally i was making money but i had about -28000 treasury. had to keep push end turn for a long long time. few hrs. those generals who conquered those cities for me started growing grey hair and dying by the time i had enough money to build stuff like temples.

after pergamum i was making about 3000 a turn. but i didnt wanna disband my units, cuz i had used my boat and distributed the troops all over the 5 cities to keep order. all my cities were with blue faces. and from time to time, one would go red and i would transfer troops there using the boat within one or 2 turns. thats y i culdnt sell the boat. i really needed every single boat and unit.

FIANLLY. i made money and built the 1st time of govt in all 5 cities which took forever.during all this time i sent diplomats to make frends with everyone. i had so many allies.

i noticed that macedon was kicking ass. the greek cities were reduced to rhodes. so i gathered all the troops and went to get rhodes which my spy said only had 2 units in.

but as soon as my ship went near, i noticed that there were only 2 units in the city but there was a full stack sitting right outside the city so i turned back.but not wanting to return empty handed, i went and got kydonia.

the suprising thing was that, there were 3 greek family members on kydonia, but it was owned by rebels. anyway. i went and killed all the family members and sign popped up saying the greeks have been destroyed. rhodes became a rebel city. 6 cities now. everything seems well and going my way.


this is where the problem starts. i get all confident and im like,"yeah, im kicking ass, 6 cities, and a near full stack, while for example armenia only has 3 cities. so i ship all my troops all the way from kydonia to north eastern turkey and take the city between me and armenia.

spies told me that armenia was slowly becoming strong.since most of my nearby rebel cities were conquered or were full of full stacks, i decided to go for armenia instead.this turned the outcome of the game.

i attacked armenia. armenia was seleucides ally, so they broke their alliance with me and told me to pay them sth like 50 gold per turn for 20 turns. i was all afraid of them so i accepted. plus i saw that they were kicking ptolemy ass. they got ptolemy out of turkey and were on their way to jerusalem.carthage was their ally and had taken a city in turkey for itself too.

in the same turn that i attack armenia and lost seleucids as my ally, the macedonians attacked the dacians and asked for my help. not wanting to be on war on both sides i said no thanx. then they cancelled their alliance.

within a few turn i conquered 2 armenian cities, and found out that they had 2 more cities including their capital. both 400 men only. i thought it was still ok since it looked like i was winning against armenia. all my armies and phalanxes were on the eastern border. west was defended by the cheapest skirmisher units.

then hell broke lose. macedon attacked me. :wall: 2 full stacks. one sieging pergamum, one byzantium. i managed to delay them a bit by attacking their cities and lifting the siege but they just killed my attacking force and went back to sieging my towns again. so im DYING on that front. tried everything but no peace.

on west side. armenian cities were showing -4000 per turn income but i saw their income go to about 50,000. im guessing the seleucids r helping them since they hate me too. they gathered lots of units (mercenaries) and attacked one city. in responce, i attacked their capital. they uplift their siege but then i got attacked by sum units that must have been hidden. those units plus the ones in the city decimated my army and i LOST badly.

so now:
9cities.
3cities under siege. 2 by macedon.1 by armenia. all will fall by 3 turns or so.
i have shot myself in the foot. i over stretched my empire and in war on both sides and losing both. especially the macedonians. no one likes me. i have lost ALL my allies one after another.
:help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help:
help me plz! suggestions?

b4 they all attacked, i was making like 5k-6k cuz of my ports bringing in loads of cash. but after the cities being sieged, i make about 800 a turn. not enough for anything. after loss of many good units in battles,i make maybe 1500 a turn. im dying!!!!!

im thinking of quitting as soon as 0.8 comes out and try an easier faction. this is on m/m. i usually play vh/vh in RTW!!!!!!!
but yeah, im impressed with this mod!

[Subedei]

Sell all staff u can get rid off in the cities besieged...say byebye to the poor geezers in these towns...with the money u earned that way improve your remaining cities and prey the Macedonians will sit still 4 a while....best of wishes....

But Pontos is fun to play i was thinking, u kinda like get the Western & Eastern parts/factions of the game....ain`t nothing but conquering Italy, Greece & the Near East (Egypt/ Seleucids)

[edyzmedieval]

Can you post some screenshots man with your campaign? ~:cheers: