Help. Ptolemaioi are too strong for me

[ludwag]

Playing as Karthadastim. Ptolemaioi attacked me. I sent an army of elite phalanxes, sacred band, elephants, slingers, elite infantry, everything to take back what was mine. I beat abouit 4 of their full armies. And about 10 smaller armies. I allways sent one of my generals up tp Crete to get new mercendaries. But soon they where all gone and i had no units left.

I got a new reinforcements from carthage. When i had fought for many turns, I was ready to march on Alexandria. I found out they had four new full armies. I was like "". Ofcourse they won after some battles. and now i dont know what to do.

where do they get all their money from? they get new full stack armies all the time. I have blocked most of their ports.

I have used much of my money on this war, and i do not earn anything on it. But if i stop, they will get closer to carthage every turn.

tried to ceasefire with my best diplopat. offering them money, and even a town.

You have any good ideas to what i should do? If i sail straight to alexandria and sacks it, they will get closer to my capital all the time. And they wouldnt stop producing new full stack armies.

Playing Very hard / Hard.

[mcantu]

switch to Hard for the campaign difficulty...

[Karo]

maybe it's because you play on hard battle difficulties try normal and see what happens and make a second army and go conquer Egypt that would stop them.

[Cullhwch]

Take Salamis (it won't be very well-defended) and use it as a staging ground for raids on Alexandria. You can recruit militia hoplites, peltasts, and hippeis from there, as well as some mercenaries. If you can sack Alexandria and Memphis once every 20 turns or so (use lots of spies to open the gates when the cities are poorly defended) and destroy their MICs, the Egyptians will have great difficulty in recovering their former strength.

If you want an even better chance of success, take Rhodes as well and recruit hoplites from it to serve as the heavy infantry core of your raiding army. The great thing about seizing Rhodes is that the Greeks should immediately sign a ceasefire afterwards, as you will share no borders with them.

[ludwag]

thank you for very good tips. I Allready have Rhodes. And Crete. Just one more question: If i capture Cypros, are they phoenican or greek?

[Cullhwch]

I think that Cyprus is Eastern Greek.

And remember, you don't have to hold the Egyptian cities. Just sack one, destroy its important buildings, and move on. Leave no garrisons and recruit spies as soon as your conquering armies leave them. That way, you'll have a strong intelligence network for return trips.

[ludwag]

I have sacked all their cities exept for 3 now. If I sack the rest of them and destroy everything, ports, everything. will they ever be a threat to me again? I want to be free to do whatever i will. All of iberia is a few turns away now, and I have half gaul. I dont want any more wars. How to prevent the other raising factions from attacking me, when we share borders?

Makedonia, Epeiros, and Aeudi are very big now. They all are ery colse to me. I dont want any more expensive wars.

[penguinking]

It's simply impossible to prevent the AI from attacking you on Hard or Very Hard difficulty levels. The horrible diplomacy of the game insures that. There are, however, a few things you can do:

-Make alliances with your neighbors, and give them smallish amounts of mnai- around 1000- to each of them each turn to keep them happy.
-Keep your borders well fortified. Strong armies discourage the AI from attacking.
-Do what you can to stir up other wars between other factions so they're too busy to attack you.
-Use the Force Diplomacy minimod to get ceasefires.

[ludwag]

thanks for good things i can do. To keep lusotanian from attacking i gave them about 300 mnai every turn from game start, so that i could focus on other stuff in the beginning. but suddenly they did, but i was prepared. And i also do what i can to make them fight eachother instead of me, but i think i focus more on that, and i will place the rest om my armies on the borders to scare them, thanks.

but what do you mean by sayng that te diplamacy system is horrible? I dont think it is horrible at all, i think CA did a very good job. But i think everyone here thinks it is cool to dislike vanilla rome, just becouse many things that is bad with eb is becouse it had been bad with vanilla rome, and you blame them more every time.

edit: sorry i may seem a little unthankfull, but i am very thanksfull, even though i said that thing about the diplomacy.

[NeoSpartan]

YOU NEED MORE HEAVY CAVALRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4-5 units including a General. Also get a Geasate or 2 in your army from Gaul to "scare them" while the cavarly charges in their rear.

Also look for "hills" on the strategy map and then attack. Once the battle starts you will be on/near a hill to fight from.

Also, think about sending "pirate raids" into Alexandria and the other cities near the coast. Land, Attack, then kill the population and destroy Every Building!.

[tls5669]

Egypt is usually a push over for me, but I still play 1.0. I dont know how good the green shield guys are. Anyways the key to beating the Ptolemai as Carthage is weaken their economy, theyre one of the richer factions.

Sack Memphis, and Alexandria, keep them if you want, but I usually dont. Let them rebel, Egypt will send armies to retake them, using up money, do this about 3-4 times and Egypt will be crippled. This is how I do it. Once I have all their African cities, I leave them alone, the AS will eat them up.

Then of course later on youll have to take Sidon for your VC, which is where I usually have trouble, if its in AS hands. AS is a tough nut to crack if theyre in the game still.

[Arutima]

this is what i use to keep an eye on the ptolemaioi in north africa, in my karthadast game






all my infantry come from karthadast (i have a bonus of moral of +6 when recruiting in that city)


Two libyan spearmen on each flanks, with two numidian javelimen behind them. Fa and my other cavalry unit on the left flank, elephantes on right flank.
Pretty strong in defense, and easy to break ptolemaic armies (just flank them with the spearmen and the javeliners and smash them with the cavalry and the elephants)

Will replace the liby-phoenician by elite african phalanx , and the libyan spearmen by the reformed libyan spearmen, then, i will make at least 3-4 armies like that, and have each of them walking in parallel as i go eastward, smashing everything that is yellow

[Cullhwch]

Egypt is usually a push over for me, but I still play 1.0. I dont know how good the green shield guys are. Anyways the key to beating the Ptolemai as Carthage is weaken their economy, theyre one of the richer factions.

Sack Memphis, and Alexandria, keep them if you want, but I usually dont. Let them rebel, Egypt will send armies to retake them, using up money, do this about 3-4 times and Egypt will be crippled. This is how I do it. Once I have all their African cities, I leave them alone, the AS will eat them up.

Then of course later on youll have to take Sidon for your VC, which is where I usually have trouble, if its in AS hands. AS is a tough nut to crack if theyre in the game still.

Again, wrecking their economy will do NOTHING. Destroying the MICs is the only way to dam the flood.

[gamegeek2]

The Ptollies are tough cookies, but they have two weak points, which have been mentioned before: Memphis and Alexandreia. Not only are these their key cities (without which they WILL fall apart, unless they have Antiocheia), but they are usually lightly defended. If taken, the Yellow Fever loses a lot of steam. Just march in and take over everything. Do not fight too hard on those desert provinces, they are nearly worthless; concentrate on the coast and the Egyptian heartland.

[ludwag]

yes i have sacked alexandria the third time now. their population is about 400 now becouse they bribe it back without putting a garrison in there. so i can sack it many times. i dont destroy alexanders toom, but everything elese. Memphis has a great army standing next to it.

I have 3 armies. One to viking raid ptolemaioi. One to stand by a bridge and hold off their armies. And one to guard my borders in gaul. They have very much expensive units, but they are special made for their tasks.