Quote:
Originally Posted by Garvanko
I chalk it up to a stupid AI. One nice thing about it is that it helps build up stars on my generals. I keep rotating generals in and out of Croton as they gain experience. ~D
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Garvanko
I chalk it up to a stupid AI. One nice thing about it is that it helps build up stars on my generals. I keep rotating generals in and out of Croton as they gain experience. ~D
Same opinion. If you want to find out what cities they've got, just send a diplomat to their territory and demand they give you a region. You'll see what regions they have, save for the capital which will not show up. Then just leave your diplomat there, sell maps, and come back. Problem solved.
I now own all the Balkans up to Vicus Venedae, amazingly Gaul is racing with me for most advanced and also strongest faction, but that's because I changed them to comfortable napoleon :) Now they're no longer spamming warbands, and they actually have a unit of Chosens. So proud of them... they're shaping up to be a worthy opponent, and I'm about to test them with a three-army invasion once I wipe the floor with Germania and leave the northern half to Britannia.
The 3-4 units thing I have linked to AI 'opportunism', because now that no other faction save an enemy owns those regions, they would by all means try to take it for themselves: don't forget every faction wants a stronger stnading for the up and coming Roman civil war that will now never come.
Since you're there, why don't you just do something about Capua? It's save you a lot of annoyance.
It was getting late last night (2am) and I landed a full stack on Sicily. Out of movement points, I pressed End Turn. First up, Scipii.
I immediately have a battle with Scipii full stack. I won't go into details, but heroic victory. Then another Scipii full stack shows up out of nowhere. When it gets to the end of the battle (3am), all their units have routed off the battlefield the voice comes on: "Victory! But by the narrowest of margins..."
So I thought "Close victory, not too bad, they'll be hurst by this more than I am"
But before the stats come up (Deployed, Kills, Men Remaining) comes up, my computer crashes to desktop. So I just lost an hour of work. Bit annoyed by that, but I gave the battles another go today.
Something bad has happened to my game, cavalry won't stop pursuing routers, it won't turn, it won't change target. It won't deploy in a straight line. Being a cav commander, this is seriously annoying. So I quit the battle, reloaded, and tried again. Same problem :help:. So I reloaded again and this time withdrew to the boats.
This little glitch has seriously annoyed me and caused an almost burnout for my Macedon campaign. If anyone else knows how to fix these glitches, please :help:
Maybe you have to reinstall.
If it doesn't work when I play later, I'm giving up on that campaign and starting an Armenia one with Mundus Magnus.
Is there anywhere to see all the outro movies? Because I think I am close enough to the finish of the campaign to regard this as not cheating.
Do you have a point in the game saved earlier then the current time where the crash happened? I usually have a couple save points when playing. The original game has alot of bugs in it and I have learned to have at least two saved files for each campaign I play. Generally it goes like this:
AutoSave
Macedon Campaign
Battle/Siege
Backup
The autosave is built in and self explanatory but I add the next three myself. The main campaign save that I use the faction name I'm playing. Then there is a save file I save before each battle in case i want to replay the fight for whatever reason. And then there is the backup save. This save I use when i'm not sure if a direction I take in the game is a good one or has an alternate direction I may want to come back to later on to explore. The backup save is the one that can go back several years in turns.
As you can see I have a habit of saving alot. A habit I have grown over the years of playing a lot of computer games. :dizzy2:
Craterus, one of the folders in the data folder has all the animations for victory and faction destruction.
Oh lol. Cool! Are they different for each faction, or each group of factions?
different for each group of factions, but generic otherwise. There's, naturally, unique ones for each Roman house (i.e. different colours, same animation), but only one for the barbs, the easterners and the greeks. I think. Faction destruction, of course, has one for every faction.
Aha, I've seen 'em all. Now I don't have to worry about completing certain campaigns just to see the outro movies. The Greek one is cool, by far the best.
So, here I end my Macedon campaign (burnout, buggy) and end the last of my 1.2 campaigns!
Now, I set my sights on a Mundus Magnus Armenia campaign.
In my VH/H campaign, I took the Corinth and Larissa archers, along with some Light Lancers and my general to get Sparta on turn 2.
Even though it took me 3 reloads, I succeeded in defeating that damn unit of Spartan Hoplites. Needless to say, the AI forgot to build wooden walls, in which I built right away to prevent the Greek army that wandered away to get a chance of immediately counterstriking.
On turn 3, the Greek Cities leaders continues to drink merrily, and sent out a stack of Cretan Archers and 3 Peltasts from Thermon. Conveniently, I had 2 Light Lancers and a family member in Larissa... I will let you guys guess how the battle that came after went. ~;) After disposing of his missile unit stack, I planted a spy in Thermon, and immediately got a chance to strike a nearly-deserted Thermon with it's open gates.
With this done, I successfully eliminated Greek Cities from Greece. Athens would come later.
Other than that, my campaign has gone on quite smoothly, other than Dacians attacking Bylazora... which I made a grand sally that worked every time...
THE "WHACK-A-MOLE" SALLY METHOD
Ok, here is what I mean: you must sally against an opponent right as soon as he besieges you. Deploy troops as you see fit, but make sure your General's Unit/Cavalry is near the gate nearest to the opposing army.
When battle begins, charge the General's Unit/Cavalry out the gates as bait, but keep the door blocked by stopping the orderas the unit is almost through the gateway.
After a short time, the enemy army should attempt to march into your open gates... quickly run back into base with your gates shutting them out.
Now, quickly run your bait to another gate of your city, and use the method above to keep it ajar... The enemy army should be trying to reach that gate just like in the previous scenario.
Now, the great thing about this is: your towers will be shooting at them as they try to circle along your walls trying to reach the next open gate! You can quite easily lead them through a wild-goose chase... Or as I like to call: Whack-a-mole adventure!
When the enemy is weakened enough, they might stop falling for this trick in the battle... but then, the enemy units that "ran the gauntlet" should be tired now... Finish the job with your units!
I know this is cheating, as I am exploiting a dumb AI, but man, is this ever so satisfying to watch! Try it!
I prefer to let them march for the gates, then have fun letting them meet my welcome committee of pikes just inside the gates. Much more gratifying.
Yeah, that could work too... And it would probably feel less like an exploit.Quote:
Originally Posted by pezhetairoi
Yet, when Bylazora was under siege at that time, they had two Archer Warbands while I only have 1 unit of Peltast... The Militia Hoplites I had would probably rout pretty quickly under their Falxmen + 2 Family members + arrows.
But still, I would recommend anyone to try the method of sallying I stated above, although I am probably not the first person to think of that. ~;)
2 or 3 units of levy pikes behind the gate can hold up quite well. However, if you find that too unrealistic you can just make a 3 sided box right inside the gate to say hello to whoever wants to come inside ~;)
One word of caution: don't put them so close to the gates (or walls) so that their pikes stick out past the walls. The enemy just charges at them but doesn't get killed by your pikes. Very odd. However, this too can be exploited.
Defeating Pontus in the Macedonian campaign is easy if you use this explotied strategy therefore I do not use it. Also it is true what you say about putting them too close because even peltasts can break a phalanx then which is rather strange.Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbanator
Anyway, I am going to give my tips on the Macedonian campaign how I did it.
It is a good idea as with most factions to boost up your econamy because without money you cannot have armies, which is pretty obvious to everyone but I will say it nonetheless.
Thrace and Dacia are not much of a threat thoughout the whole campaign so you can ally with them straight away and if they do not except it is no real big deal as they can esily be swept aside later on. Firstly you must focus your conquest on the Greek cities and push them off of mailnad Greece which will give you the combined income you need and the territory you need to wage war on the Brutii.
No doubt by the time you have accomplished this (or evn sooner) the Brutii have invaded and will begin to attack Salona and Thermon. I find it an easier strategy to leave Thermon only slightly defended and instead concnetrate your garrison in Thessalonica which will enable you, with the assistance of roads, to travel around the rear of the Roman forces thus spliting their forces between Thermon and Salona. It should prove too much of a problem pushing the Brutti off of mainland greece as long as they cannot gain a foothold.
If and when you succeed in this objective you next priority should be to take all of Italy and vanquish those pesky Romans once and for all. Now this may sound strange but once Italy is taken the campaign has been more or less won already as the only factions that posed me any real problems from then on were Scythia and Egypt, both of which have an array of high speed light cavalry and missile cavalry. To defeat these armies it is best to bring along a few units of cheap Greek cavalry to keep the horse archers occupied then you can attack the main infantry forces with your overpowering Phalanx force, hopefully anyway ~;) .
Also one tip for attacking Egypt (as stated in my Seleucid strategy) is to prepare a naval assault to blockade their ports and an amphibious assault on the cities along the Nile Delta, Alexandria etc.
The rest of the campaign should just be a simple process of mopping up the remaining factions that dare stand in your way.
Thankyou :bow:
I'm currently playing RTR 5.41. My initial plan was to conquer Egypt before making to Rome (bacause somehow Egypt?ptolemaic) always strong in RTR version. My stly of playing is always to limit number of enemies I'm fighting (max 2 if possible).
As Macedon , Greek (and also Phyrus) attack me since the earlist turn so there's no choice but to make war with fhellenistic factions.
Macedons list of pikes/hoplites are not exactly memorable but blessed with great cavalries. In less than 10 years both factions are no more exist so I can concentrate on Dacia which become hostile. Romans is quite docile in my campaign and they only stay in Italy.
Now 50 year after the Dacians are gone , when I set myself on asia minor (belonging to Egypy now) the Germans broke our alliance.
There's no choice now but to go up norst instead of south.
Cheers....
btw my Macedonians are now reaches the baltic.
ahh macedonia. one of the funnest campaigns ive played. ill admit i did use 1 cheat and that was addind 20000 denari in the begining but that was only because thrace had an aliance with greece and decided to attack me. but more on that later. in the very begining i saw that athens was right there so i sent all my cavalry (i love cavalry for seiges) and quickly built an army to invade. i easily too athens and enslaved them as i always do as i like to get the slave trade going in the begining. the boost in finances got me enuf to build a small army for thermon and after battle (i automated it as i outnumbered them by quite a hefty margin). i enslaved them for the same reason as athens and tryed to build a large army toinvade sparta. with my temple of choice as artemis i had cavalry up the wazoo aith my trademark line of archers in back and watever infantry i could scramblein front and charged sparta. with around 4 seige towers i got through the walls fairly easily and the battle only went downhill from there for sparta. after that battle i built up my temple and then my cavalry and took my general and the biggest army i could manage and sent it on a ship to italy to take over the brutii. croton and the other coastal one (cant remember the name) were my first choices. after taking those i was quickly invaded by all 3 roman factions but i was luky enuf to ship over sum extra generals to hire sum barbarians and help quell the invading army. with a few lucky battles i automated i had a few turns to take capua and by then i had an alliance with thrace after long battles with them which i ended up automating most cuz of the superior cavalry i had. i told thrace to defeat the 3 roman factions and luckily enuf for methey managed to distract them enuf for my growing army in capua to take over rome which was sending its bigegst army to capua at the time. and thats where i stand now. i plan on taking down the roman factions next which should give me the rest of my 37 needed territory's for the win.
I've started a macedonian campaing that's going on well at least for now.
In the beginning of the campaing, the key unit is the militia hoplite. It's nearly as good as levy pikemen. I use to stack them in my cities and use armies of phalanx pikemen and light lancers in attacking.
First task is to take at least two rebel provinces (for me its naturally Athens and Apollonia). I thought Apollonia would be harder because the Brutii would also be wanting it. so I took the army with macedonian cavalry and light lancers and rushed it to Apollonia. Later on I sent a family member and couple of levy's there. At the same time Brutii landed there. I managed to capture the city and then I was just waiting for them to attack. They didn't attack. I made an alliance and trade rights with them. That gave me enough time to prepare. Then I began to build up my forces to attack the greek cities. With an army of phanlanx pikemen and light lancers+a family member sparta was mine. The spartan hoplite can be tricky, I took it down with my two cretan archers. After Sparta Thermon should be easy to capture. Try to get trade rights and alliances with thrace and dacia. You can take thrace a little bit later. By this time Brutii has taken Salona and Segestica and now they are breaking their alliances with me. They attacked Apollonia but I brided their army. Bylazora was also under attack but my phalanxes defeated hastati easily in the streets. Try to defend yourself against the brutii by placing strong garrison in both Apollonioa and Bylazora and maybe Larissa too.... By this time, I have produced a full stack army ready stomp on the thracians. I took Byzantium easily and brided a thracian family member who took Tylis with a mercenary army. Leave forts at the river crossings. now you can concentrate on Brutii. In my game I took two full stack armys over the adrian sea to take Tarentum and Croton. I have also ona half stack army ready to punish the brutii garrisons in Salona and Segestica. After Brutii kick Scipii out from Italy. Then Rome is at your fingertips. After Rome the rest of the known world is open. Should I go after the Gauls.... Maybe I should conquer the Asia-Minor.... Maybe I should go after Egypt..... The choice is yours. :charge:
I've got a post somewhere in here about my strict timetable of conquest for Greece and Italy, with the result that by turn 13 I had a fleet with a large army headed for Tarentum, and all greece captured. Yeah. On turn 6 I took Sparta, and really, if there's one thing wrong with spartans, it's their incredible vulnerability to archers. With only 3 armour that is literally the biggest chink in their armour.
If you're ambitious like me you can actually take Thermon and Sparta in one breath, like so: Corinth and Larissa to Athens. Thessalonica and Sardica to Thermon. Following which, Corinth and Larissa to Sparta, with the addition of another unit or two from Larissa and Corinth, which have been kept busy with recruitment (you hope.) Quick and easy, as long as you make no commanding mistakes, you will remain with two viable armies of about 10 units' strength to mess around with Italy and Asia Minor.
You love the phalanx I see!~D
Yeap I do, but against such an idiot AI that dashes itself to shreds on phalanxes, how could anyone not? I doubt I'd like fighting Craterus the Cavalry General with my Phalanx Combined approach, though. He'd cut me to pieces and send pikes routing over the field.
I really need to get my router to let me play online games. I have mastered the phalanx to it's fullest of manueverablility. I bet I could take Craterus...
Not against the supercavalry commander, you can't. ;-P But it's be nice and instructive to watch. It'd also be a very long battle if you had no archers.
You talking about Craterus, the REAL Alexander general or the Craterus on this site? (I know he's a good online player so I thought you were maybe talking about him)...~:confused:
...lol, of course THIS Craterus, the online one. He's really good. You should read about his exploits on the earlier threads in the guides. Legendary, I tell you. Things like routing a whole army with 2 units of cav. Unsurpassable.
Good...I was about to say...
With your username you should know Craterus was not a cavalry commander...he was indeed the commander of 3 of his hometown units...the pezhetairoi~;)
Aye, I know that. Craterus 2000 years ago was an infantry commander... now he's reborn as a cavalry commander. Ironic, no? ;-)
Actually, Craterus went on to command the Companions after Philotas' execution (the assassination plot that he was supposedly involved in).
Then, he became ruler of the Macedonian part of the empire... and died whilst fighting against Seleucus, I think... not too sure about his death..
EDIT: Oh, and Alexander, any time you're up for a beating, give me a call... ~;)
EDIT2: And Pez, it was 2 units of Generals' Cav... But hey, give me a few units of light lancers and I'd be happy to take you on...
If I remember, Craterus, your namesake was killed by an alliance of Diadochoi in some battle or other. Strange, I always thought he was an infantry sorta fellow. I never knew he commanded the Companions.
Oh, d'you know Alexander might have bequeathed his empire to Craterus? I just read an article in which they said ancient greek for 'to the strongest' was something like 'krateris' or something like that, which could very well have been 'Krateros' for all we know. And so history was changed because of one mishearing. :)
Advice to Macedonians in RTW (vanilla):
You have an excellent light cavalry. Use it well.
I had two armies (4.5 Hoplites, 9 Light Lancers) combine against my Brutii city defense (Fac leader, Equites, Hastati, Town Militia, 3 * Peasant). Hoplites bust the gate, back off, and Lancer after Lancer charges in. ~D Let's just say that horse-steak was on the menu in a big way (us'n - 70 or so, them'ns -730+).
So, remember, sons of Mokdon, Lancers are for field engagements, not gate crashing. :bow:
Dear Seamus, I always used my LLs for gatecrashing because my levy pikemen were so hopeless in melee. :) As long as you send enough LLs at the enemy AT ONE TIME, they will break. :) You should the spectacular fireworks when 6 units crowd into the gate and gain enough mass to charge. :)
Yeah, I know, it's suicidal. But it's kinda hard to do otherwise when they're such good stuff. Anyhow, in 1.2, you can gatecrash, join combat, then vamoose out the gate, and the defenders -will follow you out the gate-. Then you can slice'n'dice them to bits in a field engagement, and repeat until the enemy charges everything he has at you. ;-) Remember, when the enemy charges out the gates pursuing you, leave one unit of cavalry next to the gate to cut off their retreat once they're out the gate :-D
Actually, in the game I am playing, they really did pile in about 6 units in one grand charge.
I three sided them, but did NOT follow any routers out -- that would have been my debacle in a hurry. Those lancers have little staying power, but their first hit is a wallop.
hell yes. Oh well, against you I guess expecting you to charge out after them is asking too much. But for the AI defending, it's perfectly wothing reason... one of the reasons I love the AI. :)
I haven't read all of this thread yet so I don't know if someone posted about what I am going to ask:
I was fighting the Brutii to wipe them off Greece while suddenly I had Cyrene.~:eek: ~D I don't recall sending any troops there especially because the garrison's attack, defense, and experience ratings were high and they were composed of only peasants and militia hoplites.(7 peasants and 2 militias I think) Anyways I just wanted to know if there was a trigger or this was a random event of some sort. I don't know much about mechanics, I was curious about this maybe my computer/game is going crazy.
If someone has a logical explanation for all this I would be very happy to know.
Thank you before-hand.
Each settlement has a founding faction.
If the town rebels(verb) from the Rebels(noun), the founding faction is "gifted" the settlement.
Craterus thank you!:bow:
I was surprised with this and I didn't know what happened. This info will prove to be useful in the game(I don't know how much). I will use the opportunity as a chance to expand in Africa.:charge:
Of course. It's a nice little base. Good luck, but I'd recommend you garrison it first. You don't want to lose it right after getting it. Just build peasants for a garrison, they're cheap and effective.
No worries about that, Craterus. Cyrene always reverts to Macedon with 6 units of triple-gold-chevron militia hoplites and 3 units of single-gold peasants. At least, it did the two times I played Macedon. That is more than enough for you to take on the Nile valley once you send over a family member or two and a few units of cavalry and archers. :) No need to worry for a garrison, just leaving those peasants behind is already enough to beat off most of the mobile forces Egypt has short of a half-stack :)
Exactly. But I think it was 6 peasants and 3 hoplites. Anyways, until I send someone over I plan to stabilize Greece and the Balkans. Too many fronts can be exhausting.
Dude, it's "TOTAL War". Not "One-Front-At-A-Time War"
Well, think of it this way: I have played one game with the Julii e/m, long campaign, and won(this was my first rtw game ever). Now this is the second game, m/m long.
Maybe you'll cut me some slack.~D
Also even though I said too many fronts can be exhausting, I'm fighting the Gauls, the Dacians, the Thracians, all the Romans, and the Numidians(only at sea and if they siege Cyrene) at the same time.:charge: The year is 249 BC.
Ok, maybe I'll let you off. :wink2: Don't forget to keep us updated on your campaign though.
Well, I'll give you a quick summary and I'll keep you up to date on it.
As soon as I started I went for the unification of Greece. The Brutii had taken Apollonia of course, but I conquered Thermon,Athens,Crete,and Sparta. Even though I was trading with Thrace and Dacia, I had to fight them because they attacked me and were in the way of my plan. Before the plague in Thessalonica, I was already in contact with Gauls(which I allied asap) through Segestica. Anyways, that's when I had a huge setback. I was having little skirmishes in the north with Dacia and Thrace:duel: , and I was building up an army to take on the Romans in Italy. Through my careless game play, the faction heir died defending Thermon, his son while going up to Segestica, and his father(the faction leader) of either old age or plague. Also during this time I lost Thessalonica to the Brutii and was stabbed in the back by the Gauls. I worked hard to take those places back and was 'gifted' Cyrene. Currently the Brutii are out of commission(not by me, and I'm mad about this) and I have landed a small force in southern Italy. A big force is after the Thracians.
If you guys have any advice, I gladly welcome it.
I'll keep you posted.
Just keep going, and develop the situation further. The fun's only just begun. Though I have to say, losing those 3 family members was careless. :)
Expand that small force in Italy. Capture Tarentum or something, and use it as a base and expand your Italian army. The Italian front will be one of your most profitable so you should speed it up your turning of the paninsula black and orange.
Well,
I finished my second tech-tree, the Macedonians, 5 levels, 55 buildings, 20 units, and one ?-mark; I could not figure out what the 'bodyguard improvements' are.
The image quality is not for printing, as for the 1024 byte restriction; I'm looking for an upload site for the original 3.5Mb bmp file and will post a link when found.
Let me know if there are any errors or mistakes...
Enjoy :bow:
Quote:
Originally Posted by C-F
You can download it here
I had a weird battle last week. I was sieging Tylis when the garrison and a reinforcements attacked me. I held a good place on top of a hill and so did they. They came but while I was watching out for my cavalry, I lost focus of my main line and they routed most of my phalanx. I used the general to rally them and got some of them back. Towards the end they had 2 infantry units and 3 pikemen, I think. I only had my general with 10 guards, half a unit of merc. peltasts and about 6 merc. peltasts in another unit. Using my general to attack the infantry from rear (also downhill), I let the mercs get away to a safe distance. Then I manuevered my general out of pikes' way and set him as a bait (by this time only 6 of them left) and put the mercs a little bit to the front on left and right. Whenever the pikemen came I pulled my general further back and flanked with mercs from both sides. When they switched their attention to the main merc unit, I flanked with my general. :charge: This happened for some time until all routed and I won the battle and the city.
At first I thought I was going to win with my strong force but when they routed I was kind of worried. The last piece of inspirational tactics saved me.
Just thought I should share this with y'all. I think it was interesting.
Good use of the general, they're crucial if you're down to your last units.
Anyone know a good strategy for dealing with Falxmen? Without sustaining significant casualties.
Pincer them..
Let them run onto phalanx (anvil) and use cav into the back.
They're tough, but once you've got rid of Dacia and Thrace, they don't exist anymore.
Craterus, I have a question. I have read in this thread about the strength of the Macedonian Cavalry. Is it possible to rely on cavalry to win battles or should the armies be infantry based? I am asking this to you since you are a great cavalry commander. Cavalry were used as auxiliary troops so I have never tried it, but I do wonder the possibilities.
Historically, what made the Macedonian army so powerful was the effective use of combined arms. They had good infantry and powerful cavalry, and used them in hammer-and-anvil tactics to defeat their enemies. This you should try to do in game as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Seyfullah
The latest patches have dimnished the power of cavalry, so relying soly on them to win the battle is going to be expensive. I usually find it works best to have between one-third and half of my army consisting of pikemen, about one-third cavalry and the rest skirmishers. The pikemen form a line to engage the enemy infantry while the cavalry deals with enemy cavalry and then hits their flanks. The skirmishers are mainly there to drive of the enemy skirmishers and provoke their cavalry in an unsupported charge.
I haven't actually played with the latest patches, and if cavalry are a lot weaker then relying on them will probably cost me. This is quite worrying because it means a big change in my style.Quote:
Originally Posted by Seyfullah
I ALWAYS take infantry to a battle, but I use them as support troops and they rarely see action unless they're needed.
The possibilities are there, and cavalry can be very effective, you just have to know how to use them.
Fun thread, I had an almost 10 month break playing RTW but when they got the 1.2 patch out and B:I out I had to reinstall. Lo and behold, I'm reading the book Alexander by Pressfield which inspired me to pick Macedon. This far I only played one evening, currently engaged in a three front war with the Romans (Brutii), Greeks and Dacia and haven't lost a single battle. Medium/Medium, I thought I was rusty so I didn't want the weird morale bonuses the AI gets otherwise.
Got one heir/general killed while fighting the Brutii on a city gate when they invaded Greece, bad mistake and careless on my part, but somehow in a wonderous manner my whole army rallied and annihilated them to a man.... never seen such, almost everytime my general gets slaughtered the fight is over but my phalanxes and lancers somehow regrouped and made a slaughterhouse of the field. Wow.
This far the light lancers have been a wonder, they don't have staying power but who cares, just charge, withdraw, flank, repeat...
This far it feels Macedon has real striking power fast if you play your first turns right and become a true force very quickly. For some reason I've been unable to get almost any peltasts or merc archers in this far, maybe bad building decisions but as I said I was rusty, and the merc hoplites don't really strike me as a wonderful unit.
But goddamn, I tried the Alexander tactics in a few fights, i.e. strong phalanx center, left wing auxiliary cav etc to hold the enemy wing, strong right wing with your most powerful cav which will break through the gaps and absolutely wiped the field of any resistance.
Lets see how it goes after the Romans get better units. Also I used to play VH/VH if at all so maybe I took too easy settings despite my long break.
I'm playing Macedon on RTR VH/VH its been a great game and I currently own everything from Illyria to Syria (eastern asia minor is in Pontic hands), which in RTR constitutes a hell of alot of provinces.
To summerise, a quick, brutal but ultimately successful war with the Greeks brought about the conquest of all the Greeks in the Balkans within a decade. During which time I also occupied the only Ptolemaic province in Europe after they attacked me.
I planned on consolidating, but the Seleucids were hellbent on war so I was forced to invade Asia Minor very very early on, it seemed the endless stacks of seleucids would overwhelm me but I gained a toehold in the north west and constantly reinforced my position. During 20 years of warfare western Asia Minor was mine and i'd conquered territory from Illyria in Dalmatia and had sporadic warfare with Thrace.
These 3 wars continued pretty constantly for decades, I suffered reverses such as the total annihilation of a stack when the Thracians cavalry flanked my position and charged my centre. Also the Seleucids crushed another stack outside Nicomedia, but by now my economy was booming so these losses were swiftly replaced and the Thracians were slowly being absorbed.
Success against Seleucia speeded up dramatically as central Asia Minor was seized many Seleucid stacks were swept aside along the way including the vital province of Galatia, with its gallic influenced troops.
Around this time 220bc or so, my army in the east was 50% mercenaries, mostly Galatians and Cretans, the further east I was forced to go the more mercenaries were in the army. I pushed deeper into Seleucid territory seizing Tarsus and then moving still further taking Antioch and 4 nearby settlements. I even went further east and briefly besieged Babylon but was forced to retreat. Now my eastern army is almost entirely made up of Persians and Galatians as Macedonian troops are so far away its hard to get regular native reinforcements so far east, besides the mercenaries and Persian troops etc are doing brilliantly. By 200bc all of Asia Minor except the east was mine and I had a permanent presence in Syria.
The greeks still lived in Sicily, with their 1 province Syracuse, I got an expedition together and besieged the city, I stormed and only lost out when the time ran out, I had 1 man left to kill :wall:. I was further angered when Carthage besieged Syracuse whilst my army was unable to react. So I in hindsight rashly attacked the Carthaginians and they retreated, this wasnt a big deal since peace was made with Carthage soon after, but my alliance with Rome was broken and war followed. Syracuse was taken anyway and the Greeks dead. :skull:
180bc is pretty much where im at, I have extended far into the north beyond the Danube and the war with Rome goes on, despite the fact ive smashed 8 stacks without losing a single one of mine. They persist on attacking me.
I plan now to march east and take Babylon and Seleucia crippling the Seleucids before pre-empting against the Ptolemies and capturing Cyprus which is the key to there economy with its 3 cities. Furthermore absorb Rhodes and Lesbos which are still in Ptolemaic hands from the beginning of the game. Oh yes and of course my plans are well under way for a formal invasion of Italy, I already have 2 province in the south but im massing 3500 men for the invasion, the target Rome itself.
Update on my campaign, first of all, I have no idea where you other guys got all the money from at the start, I've 20 gold at most after each round and for a while it was a bit rough as I've had to replenish armies with mercs which took alot of my infrastructure development out. Also since I'm at war with nearly every neighbour they frequently block my harbors or siege cities which sucks money out of my war chest.
Then again I didn't read the thread much, just went to do it my way, eliminating Greece from the peninsula (they still have Sicily and Rhodes with big stacks awaiting for a landing) and then Thrace attacked. By my last post, I had already wiped them out and was in a war against the poor Dacians I tried to co-exist peacefully with.. Alas, in vain.
I exterminated them all, which might've been a mistake maybe... the towns produce nothing, they would have been good targets for training generals and a buffer between me and Germania. But they just refused to yield no matter what I tried. Now I control the empty Thracian/Dacian wastes with a few tough garrisons in the ready if Germania tries something funny.
On my mission to destroy the Greek completely I crossed over from Byzantium, at which point the Greece allied with Pontus who throw masses of men at me. However they were not powerful enough to penetrate a phalanx/peltast line and survive the following flank and rear charges by my light lancers and other cavalry I picked along on the way. Some pretty epic battles took place with thousands and thousands dead.
This all the while fighting with the Brutii and Julii in the west. I have camped in Segesta and pump new forces to repel their landings on the coast, which they do regularly. I'm not even trying to hit Italy, just keep the coast clear and any invading Romans in check.
I've been using a Macedon style battleline all the time when suitable, with strong (well... as strong as I can get with only semi-developed cities) deep phalanx middle, a left flank that can hold its on against cavalry or spears (mercs and cav mixed) and the most powerful cavalry massed on the right wing, poised to envelope and rout the enemy with one huge charge which either flanks or envelopes their center. I bet this would've not worked so well on VH though, as some pointed out militia hoplites and levy pikemen tend to rout for no reason very quickly. On medium they are both mostly solid enough as long as you hold their flanks protected and keep them on a deep coherent formation.
Allied with Gaul to spite the Romans, and Scythia just so I don't have to mind the empty north-east wastelands.
Egypt, as usual, is emerging as a powerful force in the south, rolling over everyone. I'vet yet to see more than a few of their diplomats but I pose this question to you Macedon players:
How the hell will I deal with their chariots?
I know its going to happen sooner or later. Infact after dealing with Pontus for good and taking the last Greek outposts, I have a mind to attack the middle-east, like Alexander, and I know what's waiting for me over there. Its scythes on wheels. The game is nearing 235BC so mere light lancer charges will not do it all anymore. I'm already having trouble with principes and such landing on the coastline between Segesta and Salona and losing quite a few cavalry units to beat them back. Nothing a few flanking wedges of lancers can't handle but you get casualties fast the moment the fight stalls into a melee, at which point you should pull back at once for another run but while multitasking several different fronts in the battle you sometimes forget to do it ASAP.
edit: I have to say I love the phalanx center & cavalry enveloping tactics. I have _some_ peltasts and archers in each stack, and have enjoyed using ballistas to rout enemies attacking over the danube or in Ponthia, but this far I've seen my phalanax center rout only a couple of times, when fighting against such overwhelming odds I had no chance to keep their flanks covered or turn around fast enough to face the flankers. They are truly a calming force in my center I can rely to repel almost anything thrown at them as long as their sarissas and spears are pointing in the right direction, a massive force of Dacian and Ponthic infantry have both rushed my phalanx front and oh my oh my... I hardly suffered any casualties at all since they can't get near enough to use a sword or a short spear before being ground down by the constant pummeling beat of the Macedon lance.
Playing Pontus, I found the Eggy chariots a pain. The Heavy ones were actually pretty easy to deal with; they could usually be goaded into charging pike-points, just buried under an advancing wall of pointy things, or shot to bits. But the archer versions are a bit of a major pain, especially when there's the rest of the army (Pharaoh's Bowmen are... not nice) keeping you from just sending some disposable Peltasts to keep them busy while you demolish the rest. It's usually impossible to engage the archer chariots with suitable troops so long as the Pharaoh archers are active, and conversely you can't really clear out the foot archers with cavalry as long as the chariots hang around ready to rip your horses to bits.
Aside from using Scythed Chariots as chariot-hunters (obviously not an option for Macedonians), I found artillery to work suprisingly well. At least on Hard the AI seemed quite hesitant to assail a properly supported pike line, and while it dithered trying to decide what to do lobbing rocks onto its fancy wheels and shiny archers stacked the deck nicely.
Heavy infantry mercs were a pretty good chariot-killer too as long as the things deigned to come close (and event the archer kind are often surprisingly willing to try a massed charge); both Thracians and Cilicians seemed to do a pretty good job (one bunch of the latter lasted some three battles before being depleted to uselesness). Even the puny Eastern Infantry seemed to do pretty well especially when "braced", presumably by the virtue of pretty decent defense score, spear bonus and sheer numbers. 'Course, those guys aren't that useful against most anything else but at least they're more mobile than phalanxes...
Hmm! Never thought of artillery to deal with chariots but this sounds like something that could work. I just have to make sure I have my infrastructure ready enough to actually build some decent artillery before I invade the Eggie territory, from the few fights with Ponthian chariots I know the units that finish the battles for me, i.e. Macedonian/Greek/Lancer cavalry with their flank/rear wedge charges will suffer horrendous losses against massed Eggie chariots.
Maybe build a solid phalanx front of the best fitted units I can get, get some archers behind them and then nuke the chariots with arty as they approach.
Some peltasts could serve as a nice distraction, taking the brunt of a possible chariot rush and then withdrawing after throwing a spear or two. Poor guys, they will suffer massive casualties but then again, what are skirmishers for...
Man, I hate the Eggies and their super-units :mad:
Let the Egyptians attack you and deploy at the back of the deployment square. That way, they'll come to you, and it gives you a chance to use your artillery on their chariots. :idea:
In my experience it was usually enough to simply deploy into the basic phalanx fortress line with the artillery right behind the pikemen in the center, flanked by archers. On the average the Egyptians seemed *very* hesitant to engage the Phalanx Pikemen head on (no wonder; my experience suggests longer pikes are seriously bad news to fight against), leaving the artillery free to bombard them while the AI tried to figure just how it was going to try to crack the formation.
Often, after eating enough rocks and commonly losing many of its chariots to stones, pike-points, arrows and peltasts (who are in my experience a fairly effective way to lure chariots into pikes), it simply decided to take a hike and withdraw. At which point I of course cheerfully obliterated as many retreating units as I could with cavalry, the Pharaonics and particularly Bowmen being singled out for special attention.
Worked on the attack too. Doing a proper creeping "parade attack" (as I liked to call them already in MTW) which scares the AI into withdrawing is pretty tedious, but wins battles with minimal casualties. Good for holding territory against those annoyingly endless piles of armies the Eggies like to throw at you. If you have HAs - the mercs available on the eastern and southern Black Sea coastal area work fine - you can even inflict some decent casualties in the process.
The AI is "learning"... Well, not really, but I had a day of fun wiping out the last Ponthians and their chariots, Royal Phalanx with some experience & armor just stop them like they hit a wall of steel, nothing gets through, I won't even take casualties while the chartiots crumble into pieces. In one battle a single Phalanx unit got almost 500 kills, and that's without chasing anyone at any point, just thursting their lances at the AI infantry and chariots trying to get past them.
Then suddenly in a few battles after the AI got clocked it used some kind of type of evil new flank/rear charge with the chariots. My own cav counter-attacked and I was able to chase them off but with horrendous losses, I lost 6 units of lancers in a single fight. YIKES! The evil AI targeted the units with exactly the weakest defend stat on my flank and burst through. Skimmers or archers had no chance to survive for a second or two, barb infantry with a good commaner was able to hold on untill my own heavy cav got in the mix. And like someone pointed out, counter-attacking with bactrian or thracian mercs helped a bit.
Be as it may that was only Ponthia that had over-expanded I had to deal with, now the Eggies started a war with me one turn after Ponthia was wiped out by me, without any other provoaction.
Ugh, I hope the Germans (former Ponthian allies) don't attack me as well, I have my hands full with all the roman factions and now Ponthia is gone but changed to Eggies... damn, I'd rather fight the Ponthians...
edit: I got a good force of artillery in Anthens, but for some reason, the same round the Egggies attacked my onager city was hit by the plague, so they're out of use for a while... goddamn,
The plague fleet is on the move. Take that you charioteering weasels.
Charioteers... the AI is trying to play clever and flank my Phalanx (appears that on almost every difficulty the AI will think twice about charging a unit of Royal Phalanx frontally) fortress and I don't have my Onagers with me yet to bombard them since my Onager producer (Athens) got the plague. My archers are doing a nice job reducing them but they move so fast they are out of range half the time.
If I load my Onagers into ships and carry to them to the midde-eastern fields of war they'll just spread the plague to my cities and armies over there, right, correct me if I'm wrong.
This vexes me and I want to punish the "wise and belligerent" Pharao a bit. Killing his best general near Antioch is not enough, not by a long shot.
So what is this plague fleet? A little jest you can play on the AI many of you might've heard of already. Since I can't send my Onagers into Egypt untill the damn plague ends, I had several spies gather in Athens, get infected with the plague and loaded them into the menacing "plague ship" that was guarding the Athenian port. Then I drew a few powerful, separate fleets of ships from Sparta and Thermon to run escort for the plague ship so I will, by Zeus, get my agents into Egyptian soil even if they try to intercept the one carrying the plague carriers.
And when they get there, they will infiltrate all their major cities, and the spies all being plague carriers... Death WILL stalk the lands along the Nile, even if my armies are still parked near Antioch. I hope I can get the Pharao infected too, but in a year all their major cities and provinces along the Nile should be fighting the plague whilst trying to out-produce and out-fight my Macedon elite on their northern front at the same time.
Take that, you [snip!].
EDIT: Please mind the org's language rules. froggy.
EDIT: Hahahaha, all their cities far enough from the battle front are stricken with the plague. And excuse my bad language, froggie.
If I could "pipe in" here with a comment or two about defending against chariots. When I played as the Greeks I learned to keep a couple of Phalanx units in reserve on the flanks behind my skirmishers and archers. I would deploy them in a longer line, about three deep, to give wider coverage. This way, when the charioteers tried to charge my skirmishers, I would retreat them behind the Phalanx units and let the Egyptian "Panzerwagenen" meet my line of spears, all the time behing peppered with javelins and/or arrows.:wall: Only when they broke and began to route would I commit my cavalry, which was stationed behind the flanking phalanxes. Sometimes I would leave some mercenary "javcav" outward on the flanks to harass their archer chariots.
As far as the plague ship concept goes, I found it amusing. The nasty little Egyptian court could stand a few deaths in the family. I guess the Pharohs never learned from their experience with Moses.
Plaguing the Egyptians is, I agree, only fair payback for the non-ptolemaic anachronism ogres they are in the vanilla game.
Loved the close to your Brute campaign, Rotor', apparently my reply was snarfed by the cyber-gnomes. It was a good climactic moment.
Good effort on chariot-killing. Same tactic usually works for charging cav as well. I've found chariots pretty fragile, especially the Brit version, the moment they stop. For a few seconds they stall as they roll over some unit, and in that moment a counter attack by non routing nearby infantry will usually smash them up pretty well.
-- Seamus Fermanagh, Magisterum Equitum to Rotorius Brutus Princeps Senatus Dictator.:2thumbsup:
Hi,
I started a Macedonian campaign two days ago, so far its going well, i took Athens quickly, but am now under attack by the Brutii, the Dacians, and the Greeks similtaniously, although ive been able to repulse their attacks so far.
I really like the Macedonians cav but i have a question: is it best to use line or wedge when charging? Until now ive been using wedge during a charge, and then turn it off afterwards. Is this the right way?
As for my taste I like to use light Macedon cavalry in a line formation. they are lancers so their first hit is doing the most damage. Pull them out of the enemy soon after they hit them, because their skills and weapons in close combat are very worse. Pull em back, then charge again. The usual tactic is to hit and run.
Macedon cavalry you cannot build from the start on, they are more heavy than the cheap lancers are. I use them often in a wedge formation charging just after the lancers had hit the enemy. They can fight in any formation, but using a wedge will break many enemy formations. You can turn the formation after you already engaged into normal modus. They fight pretty good in close combat. You start the campain with only 2 of these, so watch good for them as it will take some time until you have buildings able to replace the losses they had.
Didn't have any time to play for a week but now played a couple of more nights. Still having trouble with the Eggie chariots, I will try the sarissa winger tactic rotorgun suggested next. Problem is, I'm campaigning so far off from my homeland I've had to use far too many eastern and barb mercs as my "troops of the line" and they get annihilated. Not that I'm losing battles that often, it just comes so very, very close very often. They put up a hell of a fight, those Eggies. I hope they lost a few characters on the plague though, I was able to re-infect their major cities for about 10 years on row with this one crazy 60 year old spy who would not die of the plague himself no matter what, but was a carrier all the time. Hah.
Also I know I'm a bad diplomat in this game but damn, after the B:I version and patch, every AI faction hates me even more then ever, no amount of money or gifts will give their friendship, so now I'm reduced to turning Egypt, Italy, Germania Major, the Gaul territories and practically everything else into a salt wasteland. I don't even want their crappy provinces but they insisnt on attacking my borders no matter how much gifts I shower them with.
My current "major" campaign is turning the NW forests of the game map, infected by endless full stack Briton armies, into unpopulated wilderness. I have three columns of Greek trained units romping over in a wedge on the strategic map, and just exterminate anything I encounter, tear apart every city, when they they rebel (I let them on purpose) exterminate again and leave only smoldering ruins behind me.
Damn barbarians.
The Egypt campaign is taking ages, mainly because I decided not to strike their heart (Memphis, Alexandria) with fleets filled with crack troops, like I posted before I just keep them suffering from the plague and slowly work myself southwards, currently sieging Damascus and Seleucia.
I am not exactly an expert, but I find wedge useless because it doesn't have the same frontage as a two or three-line formation and it doesn't compensate for that by giving a lot of penetration. However, I haven't used it since the 1.3 patch (and before that I barely used it either) so maybe things are different. It is usefull for quickly turning a line-formation into a collumn and getting in between and past enemy units.Quote:
Originally Posted by poweraxe
It helps to angle them about 30 to 45 degrees from the main Phalanx Taxis(Battle Line. Of course, this is just one variation. You can modify it as you need to. I used Onagers behind the main line when available and Heavy Peltasts when I developed them. If you can afford the Cretan Archers then buy them. They are the best light archers in the game, and are the only ones with range enough to counter the dread Pharoahs Archers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ligur
Definately send an amphibious force to attack these cities.(After the plague has run its course) If you look at some of the posts from the Brutii thread, Seamus Fermanagh gave me some outstanding strategy advice concerning these Egyptian towns. (That is why I recommend him for election as Hegemon of the Grecian League) Taking Memphis, Alexandria, and Thebes will bring you enormous wealth, and cause much heartache to the Pharoah, who will have a difficult time keeping order in his remaing provinces. Capture the Pyramids and the Egyptians are in your back pocket. Be sure to keep the pressure on in Coele Syria; a two front war creates some difficulties for the enemy. If you can, blockade all of his ports to put economic pressure on him as well. The Greek Cities are a naval powerhouse, if you've managed to capture them early in the campaign. Put those Athenian helots to work transporting the house of Macedon and avenge Alexander against the issue of Ptolemy.Quote:
The Egypt campaign is taking ages, mainly because I decided not to strike their heart (Memphis, Alexandria) with fleets filled with crack troops, like I posted before I just keep them suffering from the plague and slowly work myself southwards, currently sieging Damascus and Seleucia.
Dromos(Charge at the run),
Rotorgun
Unlike most other people, I didn't bother with Egypt or even Pontus for that matter. I took non-Egypt Africa, Italy, Greece and the barbarian lands North of Greece and Italy.
I played a couple of more nights and the plague still hasn't ended, this one 60+ year old spy just refuses to die of it and keeps infecting all their cities. Laugh. Then I went into some sort of berserker rage mode and found out why I didn't play at medium last summer, the stupid Romans and Britons absolutely feel they need to attack me so I annihilated several full stack armies with 100 and at best only 7 casualties, while the enemy suffered more then 2000 warriors sent to Hades. The AI actually attacked my main battle line head on several times... what the heck? Against veteran, well armoured Phalanx? Pure slaughter. But this stalled sending a force of marines to the heart of Egypt, as I need my new troops to fight in Europa.Quote:
Originally Posted by rotorgun
As for the Eggies, since I captured all of the Greece during the first 10 or so years, I'm a naval and economic powerhouse, which means I control the seas, which means I've blockaded all their ports almost instantly when they started a war with me, which again means I haven't seen much of their feared chariots lately and they are facing some severe problems with production. I actually burned a few of their cities and abandoned them to start a revolt so I could train my troops slaughtering their gold shield peasants even better.
I think I'll do it the "hard" way and just use my troop training center in Antioch to gather troops and send more waves in, I currently have 4 stacks pummeling their way in, burning everything east of the Nile and they're doing just fine. My onagers and Cretan archers destroy any missile troops, and then I walk my Phalanx Taxis on them and grind my way through, while lancers sweep in from the right flank and wipe them out in one terrible charge of "dragons teeth" wedges.
Hooray.
Question: why do people include Onagers in their army unless you're looking to bring down some heavy fortifications?
In field battles the damage they cause, at least when you count the kills, is quite meager. A lucky shot sometimes knocks out a general or two, but often a unit of archers would do a lot more damage than a unit of Onagers, measured in kills at least.
I still haven't figured out what to do with those things, except bomb Eggy chariots from afar or bring down walls, otherwise they are quite useless for me or am I doing something wrong?
I like using onagers for the moral effect (frightened by artillery). I suppose archers with fire arrows could do the same, I don't know the stats. But of course the onagers have a much longer range and the just look cool. If the enemy is far enough away i'll use fire "bombs" for even more affect. The more I can frighten and enemy the easier they are to deal with.
There are three reasons to include Onagers in a field army.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ligur
1. If the enemy forces have Onagers in their order of battle, it is good to have them for counter-battery fire. It's bad for the troops morale when they are being bombarded and the enemy is not.:no: :skull:
2. If the enemy has sizable amounts of heavy infantry, especially phalanx capable types, it helps to break up their cohesion prior to their closing with your infantry. They make good targets as they are slow moving. This works well for elephants as well, although they do tend to move a bit faster. Using them against moving skirmishers or cavalry is wasteful I agree.
3. If you are going to conduct a siege, which is self explanatory.:wall:
I guess a fourth reason could be that it is just impressive to watch those Great Balls of Fire heading downrange. I also find some great satisfaction whenever I can get behind the enemy's main line to take his out.:2thumbsup:
Sounds like fun Ligur. I can sometimes be resolved to stubborness too. There are some great river defense lines around Antioch where one can lure the desperately aggresive Egyptians to battle. Just be sure to have some heavy artillery to combat those Pharoah's Archers. They will make mincemeat out of any standard archers in the game. They remind me of the Elite Byzantine Infantry in MTW that are also bow equipped.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ligur
What are the Parthians and Pontics up to in your game? Watch your back with those factions. They can put up a tough fight to a Phalanx type army as you know.
Yes siirreee. When the Romans started pushing in from the Italian peninsula especially the Brutii kept sending naval armies on the shore near Salona with up to four Onager batteries each. They were usually enable to land a few shots on my Phalanx front... before my Light Lancers swept in from the right flank and destroyed them. It is very satisfying. The stacks they landed with were always too small to prevent me from enveloping them from the right flank with the speeding Lancers. With the Onagers gone, the Brutii found themselves between a wall of pikes backed by elite archers, and a formation of Lancer wedges BEHIND them. It was, invariably, nasty... for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by rotorgun
For some reason the dread Pharaoh's Archers have been giving me very little trouble, but then again, my own have been trained to a very high level in a temple of Artemis somewhere and provide deadly coverage, and my Lancers usually run through the PA's quite fast when and if they manifest. Which is rare, probably as I explained before, I cut all their trade at once when they declared their moronic war on me, so that with infecting their heartlands with the plague has kept their production pretty meager. The first few battles were quite rough but after that, I'm facing dregs of their best troops that managed to flee some earlier battles, peasants and cheap spears mostly now. Tee-hee.Quote:
Originally Posted by rotorgun
The Ponthians do not exist anymore. They started a war with me earlier when I was occupying the last Greek colonies. The Greeks allied with them as some sort of last resort move and I found myself under attack by Pontus, and exterminated them by using cavalry and heavy inf mercs mostly. There is a post above which details some of my actions with them. At first they rushed in at my Phalanx in a couple of bridge battles and I utterly pulverized everything they threw at me with deep formations, then it turned into open field battles which resulted in thousands of casualties. Heavy merc infantry holding the left flank and counter attacking with my heaviest and most devastating cavalry wedges charging from the right flank (picture a huge oceanic wave, and replace the spray and foam with dismembered limbs, flying bodies and bloody carnage) ended up carrying the day for me in the end most of the time.
A surprisingly easy war to win in the end. There were some utterly massive battles with up to 4000+ dead around Ancyra and Sardis but my generals came through against some pretty nasty odds, mostly thanks to the annihilating Light Lancer wedges which I used to charge, withdraw, charge, withdraw, ad infinitum. Horrible losses for me too but they carried the day almost every time, then went home to retrain and were back in the field in no time with fresh troops.
Oh and I allied with Armenia since Egypt was giving them some sort of trouble, so they protect my NE border just fine, I haven't actually even seen the Parthians yet. I think they have something like two provinces in the far east edge of the map and are a non-factor. I just hope the Armenians won't backstab me.
my way to deal with chariots, while playing as Brutii, chage em with velites or light auxilia, there amazing against chariots. I don't really see the need to use onagers unless attacking a city or fort. If a unit is marching, and the onagers shoot at them, the artillery will always overshoot. In my experience, onagers can only work if the enemy are standing still. You could buy 2 archers instead of an onagers, and get 4x the kills
I have just started a Macedon campaign, my first time with this faction. I have quickly massed and taken athens, and hope to attack Thermom and Sparta the same turn in a few years. I am considering allying with Thrace and letting them take over Dacia, maybe with some of my funding. That way I can advance into Turkey and make the Aegean profitable. Any thoughts on my diplomatic strategy or what I should about the romans would be much appreciated. Thanks, Glaucus
Glaucus.. Im pretty much using the same strategy as yours. Ive taken Athens, Sparta, Thermon and Byzantium.
Thrace and Dacia will stab you in the back, so tread carefully.
As for the Romans.. they won't ally with you, so get as much trade from them as possible before they attack - which they will, most probably at Thessalonica. Im looking to defend Greece from the Brutii, while launching a campaign on Asia Minor with all its riches and wonders.
I'm turning my gaze north, as Dacia and Thrace both attacked me unprovoked. I took Tylis from thrace after they attacked me at Byantium. An army of dacians got killed charging into spears at Bylazora. I eradicated the romans from the mainland greece using light lancers, phalax and levy pikemen, and quite a few diplomats who helped lighten my purse. Should I launch an attack into Italy, or move north into Dacia further, or into pontic land, though I think the Greek Cities and them are fighting it out over Ancyra? I think I should let pontus take all of turkey, land an army at Tarentum, and kill the Brutii hopefully. Then I can sue for peace with the Scpii/Julii/SPQR. I doubt they'll except, but if they don't they'll be sorry. So I think north is the place for me.