Pontos 101 for the European plz tks~~!!

[skuzzy]

I'm usually a Western guy but I decided to do Pontos on VH/VH today and I was owned after like 20 turns. The units available at the start confused me strategically as well as -3600 in the hole from turn one. I finally was able to be gaining 1000 a turn after succumbing to 17000 in debt and about half way back to even the Seleukids realized they really hated me and the alliance was a facade and attacked my meager settlements. So I would just like some info on how not to suck with them in case I get bored again :)

[Zastrow]

I always blitz Sinope and Nikomedia from turn 1 with my armies and take them both at the same time and then you can start building your economy from there while still maintaining a meager army for self-defense.

[Barnabas]

I am playing as Pontos right now (go into the AI faction progression to see how I am doing in the guides subsection). It is tough, especially at the beginning. I'm playing on M for battles and VH for the campaign map. I would decrease your battle difficulty to M, which would make Pontos very challenging, but possible.

The hard thing with Pontos (and I'm not sure if this was intentional or not) is that you start with 5000 gold and a ton of troops. You have two turns to use your troops before you go bankrupt. If you do not capture either Ankyra or the northern coastal city (that puts you at war with KH), or perhaps Byzantium, if it is in reach, you're sunk. You can even gamble and try to take two cities right off the bat.

I captured the small coastal town at turn 2, and had to disband all but one of my units to just break even monetarily! If I had gone for Ancyra, or any city to the south, I would've been better off, since you can start mining right away.

If/when you capture Ancyra, put a type 4 type of government. You'll have access to a variety of celtic troops, and with the government and their temple, you'll start them off at second rank. These are all fairly good shock troops to support your phalynx that you did not have to disband.

Any city that you capture to the south should build mines as soon as possible. Mines are your only hope of making any money, since for some reason Pontos can only build the most basic roads (is that a bug? It didn't seem right to me)

Try to ally with Makedon and the Ptolemies if you can. As you have said, Seleucia will come for you very soon. I had to defeat an army of 800 seleucians with my one phalynx and 4 generals, so I know the start can be very challenging!

Once you get your economy rolling, start gobbling up the neutral cities (especially Byzantium) one by one. Grab Sidon when you are strong enough-- that city is so wealthy that I was tempted to move my capital there (probably not a bad idea overall). The Ptolemies and Makedons made good allies, and have so far allowed me to just worry about Seleucia. If you've taken 3-4 southern cities and built mines, you should have more money than you know what to do with. If you are fairly well off, bribe Makedon or the Ptolemies to attack Seleucia with a full stack, and move in a half-stack army after that battle to finish the target off. If you are very wealthy (I was making 30,000 gold for a while after capturing Byzantium), you might start bribing some cities and moving in your faction leader (he should have a lot of influence). Every last city in Asia Minor except for your capital and the couple cities to the north have the ability to construct mines, so you will be wealthy-- eventually.

A strategy that I used against Seleucia to buy me more time was to build about a dozen spies and a good number of assasins. I caused their two cities that bordered my realm to revolt, and let them be while I expanded Eastward. When I was strong enough, I took over the "neutral" towns that bordered Seleucia, and began the Eastward march.

(Look at this link to see the way I did that. You'll see the two neutral neighbors of mine that gave me breathing room with Seleucia).
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=74123&page=5

As far as battle tactics, you'll find that Pontus has very good cavalry (especially when you are used to the Romani or KH cavalry), and has access to very nice mercenaries (Cretan archers, Wild Men, Hippeis Thessalakou). Supplement your basic phalynx unit with a couple units of slingers (to draw the enemy in to you), a few units of cavalry, and some barbarian shock infantry. Your phalynx units are actually quite superb when well supported with cavalry or shock infantry.

You'll have access to some GREAT Armenian/Georgian/Parthian units if you take that town directly East of your capital that is in a mountain valley. The Partian archers you can obtain there are just wonderful, and most of the other units (if you build a type 4 here) are perfect as well since you lack variety with your Pontus units. I have built a few Scythed Chariots, but I either am using them wrong, or they are worthless...

[Numahr]

As Pontus I played 12 years quite succesfully by applying the following strategy:
- Disband all but 4 phalanxes + 1 cavalry, which is enough for start and allows you not to get banckrupt.

- With all generals + this army, immediately capture the two nearby costal settlements, Samsun and Trabzon. They are lightly defended (relatively to Ancyra) and can bring quick money thanks to trade.

- Installation of governments and economic developments for a few years with a minimum army (the initial phalanxes must be quite depleted by then anywa). A few crappy soldiers are massed in the capital for preventing Seleucid attack (I think AI detects the number of soldiers).

- When economy is flourishing, which is not difficult with this build and these 3 cities, constitution of a cheap infantry army (I used a lot of these cheap Greek militia I had access to through local MICs, very cost-efficient, perfect for an ambitious but budget-restricted empire). The many generals you have give you a super semi-heavy cavalry so you just need cheap resistant infantrymen anyway.

- Aliance with Ptolomey, Parthia and Armenia against Seleukia. When you see Mazaka is lightly defended, rush on it with the cheap army.

- From then on it is easy to defend valleys leading from Mesopotamia (Seleucid heartland) to your territory, and you can expand freely by capturing indendant cities / remaining Seleucid Anatolian settlements.


Be aware that the devs said there were major lacks for Pontus, although I did not quite understand which ones. Because of this, I quited my Pontus campaign, will start again when the devs say it is a complete enough faction...

Hope this helps, and remeber, Pontus shall rule the world as the new bridge between West and East!

[Barnabas]

Be aware that the devs said there were major lacks for Pontus, although I did not quite understand which ones. Because of this, I quited my Pontus campaign, will start again when the devs say it is a complete enough faction...

I believe the main problem with Pontus right now is that they lack elite units. The last two barracks that I built for my type 1 governments gave me either no new troops (in one instance) or just one. That really can't help the end-game, since you're then reliant on local MICs for the backbone of your armies in some cases (though there are really excellent local MICs in Asia Minor).

A question regarding Pontus: Shouldn't they be able to build roads better than a basic dirt (h)odos?

[soibean]

I disagree with the disbanding of the armies, I always blitz nearby towns and dont worry about how many troops die because if they win a pyrrhic(sp?) victory then I still have the town and lost a large amount of upkeep, if they win well enough I can move on and conquer another town. Two or three turns in debt doesnt bother me, just execute or enslave every town you come across and sell your services diplomatically i.e. map information and alliances. Everyone tends to love allying with the smaller kingdoms for some reason.

Barnabas you actually got the AI to attack some one for you? Never in the history of the game has the AI agreed to attacking and actually assaulted the other side. Howd you pull that off?

[skuzzy]

Yeah, with Sweboz, Casse, and Getai I end up being about -6000 in the hole by taking 3-4 turns to sack another city or two but the major difference is they're bordering non-aggressive rebel states as opposed to having border sex with Seleukids. But these were all very informed and good explanations that I'll try to mix and match with and see what kind of crap-stew I can create :) Thanks.