Any hints for Makedonia?

The last mod I downloaded was RTR 6.0, where I also played with Makedonia and established a world empire. I simply love the hammer-and-anvil tactic the Makedonians use. But with EB I immediately start with cities without profits, so I the only turn I can spend on buildings or units is the first time. After that, I tend to decend in enormous debts. What is the best solution for this problem? I disbanded my fleet, but this does not seem enough. Captured Athena and Sparta for the moment, but my debts are still rising well above -100k. I play on M/M

Any hints would be extremely useful. I still have a full stack at my display with enough cavalry and pikemen to annihilate any enemies, but whereto should I turn my attention? Epeiros? Getae? Asia Minor?
Thanks in advance!

You can check the information of each city to see where all the money is going. I think your problem might be that you're spending too much on your army.

Makedonia is in a tricky position during the opening turns, with a plummeting economy and strong opposition from Pyrrhus and his sons from the west. In order to extricate yourself from this tricky predicament a few simple steps are required.

First, set your taxes to Very High for each of your cities. This will not get you out of debt, but it will slow your descent into destitution. Second, pick a direction, any one will do, and third, expand like heck! Disbanding one or two ships in your fleet will help as well. It would be best to keep one though, for purposes of transportation.

I usually gun for Asia Minor right off the bat because of the large populations present in the cities and the strong financial boon this part of the map offers. However, if going toe to toe with numerically and financially superior foes doesn't suit your fancy, Epirus and the Dalmatian coast offer plenty of potential as well with many mining opportunities and access to the Amber Road. Just be careful. Pyrrhus didn't become a legend in his own time for being a substandard fighter!

Fighting against Pyrrhus is not optional; the Epirotes will attack you if you don't attack them first. Expanding to Asia Minor without first capturing the mainland provinces of KH and Epeiros is a quick way to get yourself into a 3- or even 4-front war. As for economy, you should definetly start building a mine near Pella on your first turn. It'll cost a lot of money and take a long time to finish, but it'll give you a great boost that'll help get you out of debt much sooner.

Having played Makedonia in EB a few times, here are my suggestions:

1. Disband all useless cavalry. This means all the Hetairoi and Hippeis Thessalikoi that are in useless places like Mytilene and so on.

2. Group your garrisons and armies together and form two decently-sized armies. Disband everything else.

3. Conquer all cities south of Makedonia. Even though your armies are mostly made up of Taxeis Hoplitai (essentially militia hoplites), you should be able to prevail without too much difficulty.

Once this is done, disband one of your two original armies. You will start to get quite a healthy profit, so spend a bit of money on building one army consisting of simple Taxeis Phalangitai, Akontistai and Hippeis Thessalikoi. This will be enough to defend Greeece and Macedonia from enemy invasions for a while. Concentrate on building things like roads, ports and farms to improve your economy (and definately build/improve mines in Attica and Makedonia!).

Once all this is done, you should be able to fairly easily support a few decently-sized armies. Start conquering regions with gold (plenty of cities in Asia Minor have it) and ports, and you won't have any more financial problems.

Hope that helps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cheexsta

Having played Makedonia in EB a few times, here are my suggestions:

1. Disband all useless cavalry. This means all the Hetairoi and Hippeis Thessalikoi that are in useless places like Mytilene and so on.

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I think this is your main problem the Hetairoi cost over 1000 a turn and completely cripple your economy theres a unit at Mytilene as Cheexsta mentioned another in Korinthos and on Chalkis I believe once your family members get together your cavalry arm will be more than overpowering :beam: and once that mine is built you will be set.

I must say that when playtesting, I usually am trying to conquer a city quickly, and I use all my soldiers, including hetairoi, in that first rush on athens and sparta, and then to run down any armies that flee. Plus, a hetairoi can often conquer larger armies and get a 'man of the hour'. But that's not me trying to play realistically, just to test out things. Still it works usually. :grin:

I should clarify: keep *some* Hetairoi and the like in your two armies. One or two units per stack is more than enough. So disbanding the two units of them that are stuck on islands (even though the one on Chalkis can still reinforce an army besieging Athens, that army normally has a unit or two of Hetairoi anyway so you may as well disband it) should be enough.

As an aside, during the early game (and even later when they have lots of experience) when you can't afford large numbers of Hetairoi, always get Hippeis Thessalikoi. They aren't quite as good but far surpass most other cavalry in the immediate vicinity. Hell, I've had Thessalians with 4 or so experience points kick the heck out of 'green' Seleucid Hetairoi and Hayasdan Aspet Cavalry, even when outnumbered. They are quite a good investment for an 'army on a budget'.

I guess its just my slow play style and the fact that I have not got more then 5 turns into a campaign in months but I can never afford units of Hetairoi I just stick with the generals cavalry, Hippeis Thessalikoi sound cool though playing as the Seleukidoi I don't really get any "army on a budget" cavalry I'm not even going to talk about those useless Persians "nobles" that do nothing but get slaughtered in droves. :whip:

I suggest you not to disband you cavalry even if eats up all your income. The speed is paramount here. All right, assemble your cavalry (at least four units) with some few meek hoplites. Add general, or two.

With that combo you will be able to take Epiros and Greek mainland without much trouble. Ignore negative income for now. When you eventually loose some of your cav in battles, just merge it with fresh units u didn't disband earlier.

You will be able to take two epirote cities (forget italian one for now), rebel city on the south and all greek settlemenst on mainland. By the time you finish (and it wont take long) you will loose enough cavalry to be in positive income, plus you have nice little empire, as all the greece is yours.

From that is path to glorious conquest.

The thing you've got to do is choose the Epirotes or the KH. Then, proceed to blitz. Use up all your funds in turn one to upgrade your economy, and disband your entire navy. Use turn 1 to gather armies, and then attack the faction of choice on turn 2, giving them no time to respond. The KH in particular should be easy, getting one family member to the Corinthian army should deal with either Athens or Sparta (your choice). Don't worry about unit quality, the KH too only have taxeis hoplitai. Ships are a waste of time, as firstly, they are expensive, and secondly, biremes are rubbish. Take the Balkans before even thinking of anywhere else, and fortifying your norther mountain pass to Sardika helps later on, dissuading the Getai from attacking.