Beating Egypt?

[César Victor]

I've taken a break from my Macedonian AAR and started a campaign as the Scipii. Question is, how the hell do you defeat Egypt? I was doing fine, killing of all the Numidians and Carthaginians with Egypt as a great trading ally. Now they've suddenly decided to wage war against me. They are the richest faction, have the most land and the biggest armies- much bigger than my eastern based armies- and I fear they're gonna come storming into my land with little resistance. Any tips?

[YENKO]

Hehe, the Egyptians will become a powerhouse if left undisturbed for too long. Thats why i always take Alexandria and Damascus, so i can kick their butt some, if/when they become (too) cocky! :)
So, build a big navy, block their ports and start figting them. Check the map, dart forward, capture a city of theirs, kill everything, burn everything and fall back. Ouch those huge peasant armies spawning with golden chevrons!:dizzy2: Slowly, they will run out of steam. Then you can go back to your favorite enemy :P


Y.

[Caius]

Why you dont try with war elephants?

[professorspatula]

Seeing as the Scipii have no War Elephants, and mercenary war elephants are incredibly rare, he has to use more traditional methods of warfare.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Egyptians. As long as you keep a balanced force in Africa to deal with them, you should be able to beat them like any other faction. Their chariots can be troublesome, so counter them with archers. They also like their own archers, which if they badly outnumber your own should be a high priority to kill.

If you are going up against the Egyptians you should probably make them your priority. Ignore other factions and conquests. So once the rest of North Africa is Scipii blue, move into Egypt and take their triad of important settlements as soon as you can - Memphis, Alexandria and Thebes (I think that's the 3). They are hard to control because of the incredible growth rate there, but they are rich and will provide training grounds for more legionaries etc with which to defeat the rest of the Egyptian force. It'll be a bit of a chore at first, but you'll soon find your rhythm and perfect army to beat the Egyptians.

[Severous]

A well balanced Egyptian stack is a tough opponent. Chariots to stop your cavalary dominating the battlefield, long range archers to out shoot yours, phalanx troops to hold the line.

Mercenary hoplites. A few of these would be handy to take down attacking chariots. Long range archers like Cretans are also helpful.

Strategically advance into their regions building forts as you go. Fighting them in sally situations is easier than on the open battlefield.

[LuckyDog Trojan]

To reinforce a couple of tips as already offered by Yenko and Severous, blockade as many of their ports as you can AND build & garrison forts along the line that separates the Scipii and Egyptian territories. Try to entice them to attack you. This will slow them down a bit.

Questions for you...
1) Have you reached the Marian Reform event yet?
2) What's your cash flow like? If good or better, bribe some of their armies - which will buy you some time.
3) Is your 'back door' covered? i.e. Is Numidia & Carthage eliminated or neutralized where they are no longer a threat?

Another trick I sometimes employ (and often forget to do) is sabotage. Train up 2 to 4 spies and 2 to 4 assassins. Spend a few turns getting them some experience by picking on those hapless rebels or other scumbags that like to roam around your territory without your permission. Then quickly head for a couple of the cities as mentioned by the Professor. Send the spies in first followed by the assassins. Then in each following turn, have the bad boys with the clubs start destroying their major infrastructure. Take out buildings such as temples, and war-producing centers. Your assassins can destroy at a rate much, much quicker than they can rebuild.

Believe me - this tactic along with a few well placed blockades and bribes will have Pharoah thinking that your middle name is Moses and that his empire is being afflicted with mayhem of biblical proportions. Use some of that salt you covered Carthage with!

Enjoy - have fun - hope it works for you Cesar.

[Whacker]

If you have to fight them, fight them IN THE CITIES. Cities completely and totally negate any of the advantages that chariots had on the open field, your massed heavy infantry blob running down the streets will slaughter them handily.

Also, another awesome tactic I tend to use when going up against stone walls is to built 1 or 2 sap points, and a bunch of ladders. If you play your cards right, you can draw quite a bit of the infantry off of the walls from your sap point hole, or there will be few enough infantry on the walls you can just pick a few good spots and send your ladders up. The key/trick is to capture ALL of the gates and towers. Do this soon enough when the enemy hasn't done the "pull back to the town square" bit and you'll get some extra casualties. This works great against elephants also.

One more thing to be careful about is any phalanxes. Taking a phalanx head on with any unit is never smart, use your pila-tossing units or archers to lay into them. Causing a chain route is obviously the goal, *but* as long as you can keep them from forming a phalanx your superior infantry should do just fine.

When they finally do pull back to the square for good, you've got them pinned. Split up your forces enough to surround them and cover all entry points to the square, then charge in your heaviest units. When they swoop to engage them, send in the other wings to flank and watch them melt away. Just don't forget to keep your cavalry away from any chariots that survive!! I lost too many generals that way before I finally learned. :no:

Good luck mate! Scipii are my favorite RTW faction!

:balloon2: