Impossible to win

[QuintusSertorius]

Meh. The kinsmen tend to lose soundly against my Hetairoi anyways. But Hellenikoi Kataphraktoi are more shiny than effective...

I think the Hellenikoi Kataphraktoi are useless. My Epirote bodyguard Molosson Agema butcher them in melee. Course that's partly because the AI never switched to secondary weapons.

[Celtic_Punk]

holy shit havok!!! that was like my defence of Pella against the Epirot king. but i had WALLS and they were using ladders and only one seige tower...( plus i destroyed their ram which halted any cavalry advance unless they won the walls)

now my question is, can yah give us a rundown on that victory? what happend? lets here some grueling tales of pontic heroism and selucidian cowardice!

[Watchman]

AI-controlled lancers in general are all but crippled by the stupid algorithms' inability to switch to secondary weapons. You can massacre cataphracts and Hetairoi with axe-skirmisher cav thanks to that, as Baktria players in particular should be well able to attest to. IIRC what custom-battle testing suggested was that you need a match-up of Hetairoi Kataphraktoi vs bodyguard-Grivpanvar level armour for that to cease to matter...

So, yeah, how heavy shock cav performs in a straight horse fight under AI control doesn't really say much.

[konny]

I wouldn't diss the Hetairoi bodyguards they fellows are my bread and butter in winning battles only if the AI was smart enough to attack from the rear or flank man what a genius idea to bad CA didn't see it that way but they did give us RTW

So why, even Equites Consulares can be a battlewinner - if you know how to use them.

[Havok.]

@Celticpunk: There was this rock on one side of the map, i aligned my Pandatapoi phalangites on a side, at the left of it, i aligned my the few phalangites i had on the side of it, putted my general behind 'em, and hided all the others FM, when the loads of AS phalangites skimishers and thureophoroi came, part of it fought the my phalangites, the other part tried to surround my troops, my hidden FM pwn down with their mighty mistic charge the part that was trying to surround, and then destroyed the ones that were fighting my phalanx, basicly was this

[Satyros]

Wow , I remember my own frustration when I first tried a game as pontos 0.8x VH/M . I was furious !

I tried a couple of times , I even tried a blitz campaign with all 3 starting armies grouped together in an attempt to gain me some cash . It failied horribly even after I sacked Babylon .

Then I started over .

And tried to do the unthinkable ; Attack AS and take each of these three tiny armies and try to besiege a city . It actually worked ! I was amazed . And had three cities by the 3rd turn , I think . Oh , if you choose to do that , skip Ankyra for now , they're tough .

You will also need : a) to defend against AS from the south and east by the river outside Mazaka ( assuming you got Mazaka on the 2nd turn ) b) 'to kick AS out of Ipsos and Sardeis as soon as possible ( say, 2-5 turns more after the capture of your first three cities Mazaka , Sinope , Nikaia ).

If you manage to do these things ( I do not say it is easy , only that it is possible , you will get sick of winning heroic victories , there is no other way I'm afraid ) you will have cash , a nest for your empire , crumbles of an army ( until you retrain ) and -the fun part- AS as an enemy ! But thanks to the known diplomacy bug it will have almost no allies , if you have attacked first .

I do remember this campaign fondly for two reasons , the one because of a book that inspired me to it , and the other becasuse it felt as if I "gained a level" ( you know , the good ol' rpg way ) in the RTW game .

After 1.0 was oute and they said it was "Nigh Impossible" I was almost genuinely proud . Heh .

I really have to start over this campaign man ....

Good luck mate .

Satyros

P.S. Q Pontos , I totally forgot about Pontos .... Screw the Horse Archers ....
P.P.S. : I was advised also when I was frustrated such .