KH Advice?

[Novellus]

In my experience, I had a terrible time starting out. But here's what I did to at least give myself a fighting chance:

Withdraw soldiers from Krete by boat. Leave the spy. Park the boat in the port of Athens. The soldiers on the ship will be unable to unload due to their movement points being depleted.

Take your strongest men from Sparta (both family members) and their armies and send them to the ship. Unload them directly on the docks. In this way, you're at least able to have your forces combined at one spot.

In Athens, recruit two units of Hippakonistai. A big weakneess infantry-based armies have is the lack of ability to chase down routing enemies. The last thing you want in the early game is a re-emergence of enemy phalangites.

Makedonia seems to be preoccupied with the Epeirotes. When they are far enough away, take your army and take over Chalkis. Also, with a small force, load the ships and sail for Mytilene. There is a very small garrison present on that island, which should be able to be taken by the end of the third turn. There are no defenses, and the AI does not seem to even bother doing anything to the island. Leaving a minimal garrison afterward doesn't cause many problems. I tend to leave behind a unit of Akonistai for garrison duty.

The Makedonians seem bent on taking over Athens. But for some reason, the AI tends to task them so that their entire force moves off to the forest outside of the city whenever you sally forth. Use this to your advantage. Park your units of slingers and your Kretan Archers on the walls. They'll cause tremendous casualties to the enemies below.

Very large hills surround Athens, and even the gate appears to be in a valley. But if you move a few units of Hoplitai Haploi, some Akonistai, and Hippakonistai (or better yet, and your Kretan Archers if they still have ammunition), the enemy often sends units to try to counter your new position. Your soldiers will become exhausted from scaling the hill, but so will the enemy. Use the ranged units to knock out targets below. Even cavalry under fire from above don't stand much of a chance. I've even exhausted the famed Hetairoi to the point where Hippakonistai can hack them to pieces in close-combat.

When the main Makedonian army is far enough away, you should also plan to take Korinthos as well.

NOTES ON FIGHTING PHALANXES:

The Makedonian phalanx is the bane of the Greek Hoplitai. But there are ways to defeat them. First off, keep your units in guard mode when charging. Usually this is ill-advised. But often the phalangites seem to change the focus on where they're attacking. When their sarissae are pointed in the wrong direction so that you have a massive flank to attack, charge it, then when engaged, take the units out of guard-mode. This causes your hoplitai to spread out and it begins to hack the enemy phalanx from the inside out. Usually when this happens, the enemy routes. Even elites become panicked when there are enemy hoplitai staring at them within their own ranks.

Another tactic I enjoy is using the Akonistai to attack the rears of phalanxes. Their javelins cause high casualties when they attack from the rear, and then when they charge, the massive 240-unit usually panics the enemy to the point that they'll run away.

Phalanxes are tough, but fortunately, they're not as invincible as they seem. Survive long enough and you'll have phalangites of your own, along with cavalry to do the damage. Think how ironic it would be if the Makedonian "hammer and anvil" tactics were used against them by the Hellenes?

Good luck! Hope this helps!

[Ludens]

When I am playing the KH, I do not engage phalangite-armies lightly, yet I don't have much trouble defeating them. My guess is you are either not using your hoplites correctly or playing at H or VH battle difficulty. Yes, you cannot defeat levy phalanxes head-on, but that's what phalanxes are made for. Instead, you should use their weaknesses by attacking them from multiple sides. This can be a bit tricky when you are outnumbered, so the first priority is to lure their supporting troops away and defeat those. This is generally easy since the A.I. is bad at maintaining a line and phalanxes regularly lag behind. Then, once your troops have been reformed and regained some stamina you should pin the phalanxes with something sturdy yet expendable (hoplites haploi are excellent for this job), and then assault them from the other side. It also helps when you engage them downslope: there is some kind of bug that makes them phalanxes effective when their opponents are not at equal height.

[Marcus Ulpius]

I've played KH campaign a long time ago, but here's what I did:

I shipped the troops from Crete to Greece, aligned with Epiros. Epirotes are besieging Pella at the start and it gave me a little time to reorganize as Maks moved some forces in that direction. You can let them try to lay siege to Athens, just make sure you have enough Hoplitai Hoploi on the walls. Starting Mak phalangites will die horribly on the walls. I use all spare forces to take Corinth. After it's done, I move to relieve Athens or if Athens repelled invasion to combaine forces again and attack Chalchis (don't remember how that island city is called) or attack Demetrias. Once you take either of them the Maks are not a threat as they usually lose Pella to Epirotes.

As to fighting phalanxes with hoplitai - I didn't deploy them on the straight line. I used a curved frontline so that the phalanx line would break and I'd be able to flank some phalanxes. When flanked, levy phalanx will die to levy hoplites or Peltastai. I remember I conquered entire Macedonia with mostly Hoplitai Hoploi because I couldn't afford yet to produce a lot of Classical Hoplites. Hoplitai Hoploi are one of the best militias available and do excellent job for their price.

[Tiberius Claudius Marcellus]

Thank you all for your advice. I'll be trying out these tactics tonight!

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Usually this isnt a problem when i play as the KH cuz they move to repel the Eperoites from Makedon proper. So i have enough time to take The Crete city and build up enough force to take Korinth. Its when they come back down to siege Athens that i have my big is this campaign gonna win or suck battle.
If ur copm does something diff i cant help ya.