Advice For All Factions.

[the man with no name]

I thought it would be helpful to all of us who need to know strategies for factions we've never played before. Plz. add to this thread it's open 2 anyone that has ideas to offer. Great idea eh? I myself am considering offering an Aedui strategie Or a Quarthadastim one.

[the man with no name]

AEDUI

It's kind of obvious what 2 do first. BLOW UP THE DAMN ARVERNI!!! Go for Viennos first as this will sever their trade. Then take your main force to Gergovia and starve them out. While ur doing that send Vortigern (ur starting Diplomat) to make peace with the Romans. They might stab you in the back though.Then before they sally attack. Just trust me on this one. Fight well with the 6 seige towers you should of made and capture all towers that could interfere with your assault by shooting at ur men. Take city. Then do the same to Vesontio except that you should build 4 rams instead if they didn't build big wall. If they did then make 6 siege towers. This time attack though if you want to save time. If not starve them out. Then attack and win! If ur lucky Galatia won't rebel to the Arverni. If it does then at least they're out of the way. What i did then is take Masailia. Good port city = lots of trade. Then take Bononia if the Romans haven't already because if they haven't taken it, it will be weakened. Then take Patavium. If the romans haven't atttacked you yet GO TO WAR WITH THEM SO U CAN KICK THIER ARSES. I suggest going down the peninsula taking each city. From then unite the Gallic tribes and it really doesn't matter in which order just be ready in case the the the Sweboz attack if it's 260-255 Be ready for Sweboz. Then you should take your Iberian objective again in order of closest to Bibracte. Then finally prepare a big invasion force to take and hold Calmusadae (How do u spell it?) and Ictis.

THEN CONQUER THE WORLD, MWHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[/Bean\]

I'm sorry, but your idea of a guide is pretty shabby. All I got from that was:

-Start game with Aedui
-Destroy Arverni
-Capture everything
-Destroy Romans
-Destroy world


That's not much of a guide. I could have written that, and I've never played the Aedui.

If you want a guide to making a faction guide, Frogbeasteggs are always pretty good. She writes and encourages others to write them for the RTW Vanilla factions.

[satalexton]

actually i found that quite fine, especially the destroy romans bit. But it would prefer if the word Aedui be replaced with Makedonia

[/Bean\]

Bah! Touche...

[Maion Maroneios]

actually i found that quite fine, especially the destroy romans bit. But it would prefer if the word Aedui be replaced with Makedonia

Agreed. Actually, do you remember the Brennus description of him sacking Barbaropolis? Something about the polis stinking? Mightly lols

Maion

[Ignopotens]

Getai:

Option 1:
- Disband cavalry units and some infantry (not the Light Phalanx, though, they're you're only line-holders for a little while)
- Combine the 2 armies, leave 1 FM behind in Buridava, with taxes at max
- Spend all your money on buildings (I like to build roads, the next MIC, and farms)
- Head North and conquer Sarmiszegethusza (might run into rebels on the way, easy to beat, though)
- Disband most of your army, especially anything that you can recruit with the new MIC you're building in Buridava.
- Wait until you're no longer in the negative, money-wise
- build army again and head over and take Kallatis
- Again disband most of the army, and wait until you have plenty of money, while upgrading MIC's and building whatever else suits you. You should be in a pretty good situation by now, about 10 years in, with a solid economic base and good units available
- Decide which way to expand, if South, pick a Greek faction to fight and ally yourself with the others

Option 2:
- Same as Option 1, but take Kallatis first, don't disband, and head straight to Sarmisz, then disband and wait for the economy to sort itself out.

[Celtic_Punk]

Agreed. Actually, do you remember the Brennus description of him sacking Barbaropolis? Something about the polis stinking? Mightly lols

Maion

We invented soap. you greasy, oily greeks.

with your rough pebbly tongues!

[the man with no name]

I'm sorry, but your idea of a guide is pretty shabby. All I got from that was:

-Start game with Aedui
-Destroy Arverni
-Capture everything
-Destroy Romans
-Destroy world


That's not much of a guide. I could have written that, and I've never played the Aedui.

If you want a guide to making a faction guide, Frogbeasteggs are always pretty good. He writes and encourages others to write them for the RTW Vanilla factions.

Thats not very nice Also you couldn't have if you have never seen their victory conditions.

[/Bean\]

Thats not very nice Also you couldn't have if you have never seen their victory conditions.

I'm not trying to be mean. I'm simply trying to make these guides worthwhile and useful to those who want to use them. As I said before, Frogbeasteggs are pretty good startpoints. Some of the people who answer her posts are very detailed guide writers, and you should take some tips from there.

And I really could have written that. I don't know any faction victory conditions off by heart, and none of the barbarian ones because I don't ever play them. I'll take a stab at the Sweboz:


-Start game with Sweboz
-Destroy Arverni and Aedui
-Capture everything
-Destroy Romans
-Destroy world

Oh look, that seems similar...

[johnhughthom]

Sorry to sound pedantic Beanerz, but I'm pretty sure Frogbeastegg is a she.

[the man with no name]

I'm sorry, but your idea of a guide is pretty shabby. All I got from that was:

-Start game with Aedui
-Destroy Arverni
-Capture everything
-Destroy Romans
-Destroy world


That's not much of a guide. I could have written that, and I've never played the Aedui.

If you want a guide to making a faction guide, Frogbeasteggs are always pretty good. She writes and encourages others to write them for the RTW Vanilla factions.

How do ya like it now, punk?

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Let's calm down. Posts like those will only bring you troubles with the mods and you do not want that.

[Maion Maroneios]

Yeah, calm down. If he's offending you in any way, remember he's probably a guy several miles away from you. I know people can get very annoying over the net, but losing your cool just isn't worth your time and energy. Had some similiar "problems" with a guy from the fora as well, you see.

Anyway, there is actually a think I don't understand. Nigger is a bad word. Negro is a bad word. Black (for God's sake), coloured and the like are bad words. How the hell must we call someone who belongs to a different race? I know there are racist expressions that I admit shouldn't be used but hell. Same with beaners. Why is calling someone white or something like that not racist then? Well? And by the way, I know afroamericans (another stupid name, btw) call each other "nigger" many times.

Maion

[Celtic_Punk]

AEDUI

It's kind of obvious what 2 do first. BLOW UP THE DAMN ARVERNI!!! Go for Viennos first as this will sever their trade. Then take your main force to Gergovia and starve them out. While ur doing that send Vortigern (ur starting Diplomat) to make peace with the Romans. They might stab you in the back though.Then before they sally attack. Just trust me on this one. Fight well with the 6 seige towers you should of made and capture all towers that could interfere with your assault by shooting at ur men. Take city. Then do the same to Vesontio except that you should build 4 rams instead if they didn't build big wall. If they did then make 6 siege towers. This time attack though if you want to save time. If not starve them out. Then attack and win! If ur lucky Galatia won't rebel to the Arverni. If it does then at least they're out of the way. What i did then is take Masailia. Good port city = lots of trade. Then take Bononia if the Romans haven't already because if they haven't taken it, it will be weakened. Then take Patavium. If the romans haven't atttacked you yet GO TO WAR WITH THEM SO U CAN KICK THIER ARSES. I suggest going down the peninsula taking each city. From then unite the Gallic tribes and it really doesn't matter in which order just be ready in case the the the Sweboz attack if it's 260-255 Be ready for Sweboz. Then you should take your Iberian objective again in order of closest to Bibracte. Then finally prepare a big invasion force to take and hold Calmusadae (How do u spell it?) and Ictis.

THEN CONQUER THE WORLD, MWHAHAHAHAHAHA.

worst blitz guide ever. and by your sig i see you've only completed a vanilla campaign....

[Andy1984]

Ideas you should consider if you've started an Arche Seleukeia-campaign

I'm experienced with VH/VH, so the strategies here should work on easier difficulty-levels as well. However, better strats may be possible with lower campaign-difficulty.

The AS starts with two major problems: the first one is a financial one, the second is the imminent threat from Pahlava. They'll attack you (at Asaak) in the very first turn, while you have no chances of winning that (or following) battle, let alone making peace with them. Other than that, you find yourself at war with the Ptolemeans, who aren't eager for peace either. The main idea behind my strategy is to consolidate my territories wherever possible, while gradually giving up far-east-provinces until a decent defensive border against Pahlava has been created.

Here's what I prefer:
(1) Disband any units you don't need, apart from the units in Edessa, Damascus, Antioch and Asia minor. Definitly disband units in settlements like Susa, Seleukeia, Babylon, Persepolis, Charax,... You may want to disband any cavalry as well, and try to train some garrisson-units like akontistai and gund-i-palta (eastern skirmishers) to free up even more money. That should free up some 11K for each turn. After a few turns, 14K/turns should be within reach. If you disband the forces in Asia Minor, you might be attacked by a huge rebel stack with experienced pehzetaroi, which you want to avoid. For gameplay reasons, I've never tried the effects of sacrificing that (or any other) region.
(2) You're going to lose the most north-eastern provinces anyway, either due to rebellion or due to Pahlava. Since they don't give you any money (corruption), since they have little to no infrastructure and since you're paying the upkeep of Dahae-cavalry, you should disband these units and destroy any buildings there. I usually sacrifice only these two settlements this way. After this, your borders should be 'ahem' smaller and 'easier' to defend.
(3) Pahlava is a cavalry-faction. Their FM's and horse archers will destroy almost anything you send in the open. Therefore: avoid open combat to all costs. For this reason, I try to focus on stone walls in these settlements that are big enough, and on demographics in my small towns in the east. Since you're probably not going to be capable to hold Asaak or Zadracata, you really wish to slow them down there. Allow them to starve you out and destroy any infrastructure. You should be capable to hold Hekatompylos almost indefinitly once it has stone walls. In order to hold Hekatompylos, you will need access to Persian archers and some spearmen (preferably the Parthian spearmen). They're to I prefer to train these guys either in Hekatompylos, or one of the surrounding settlements. Phalangites are in my opinion a waste against Pahlava. They're too inaccessible, too expensive and once their pike line is broken up, they're lost. Pantodapoi Phalagitai have armor-piercing axes. Therefore, if you really want pikes: go for these guys. Later on, you can try to spam slingers to fight them in the open. Slingers are both cheap and effective against armor. Do expect to take horrendous casualties, and don't expect the war in the east to be short nor cheap.
(4) You don't want Pahlava to swarm around Hekatompylos either. Therefore, you should try to transform Ecbatana and Persepolis into military strongholds as well: stone walls are your friend. Gabai, Karmana and all the other not-mentioned towns in the east should have walls as well, but for some reason Pahlava doesn't seem to attack them too quick in my experience. Therefore: if you run low on funds: focus on Hekatompylos, followed up by Ecbatana and Persepolis. I wish to fortify Susa as well, but I haven't been forced back that far until now.
(5) The two settlements in the south-east won't need stone walls as soon as possible, but you do want to keep these settlements too. Once Pahlava conquers them, they'll have even more mines and training capacity. Therefore I don't really pay attention to the ratio between upkeep costs and settlement income.
(6) About construction: I try to construct these buildings that have the lowest cost per turn. Regional barracks will give you persian archers, which will be ok to stand on wall. They'll get killed to the very last men in the Pahlava arrow-waves though. Needles to say, you want to have law-temples in the east. Once you have the money, (extended) mines in Ecbatana are a must.


By concentrating most of your limited resources in Asia, you're going tighten your belts in Antioch (=no mercenaries), which is exactly the place where you want to attack. I prefer attacking Sidon within the second turn. During the first (or second if you decide not to press on in turn one) turn, I like to train Podromoi or harmata drepanephora (scythed chariots) in Antioch. They'll give you an edge against the Ptolemeas. Place your forces from Antioch and part of Damascus on the spot north-east of the city. Ptolemeans are too weak to sally without reinforcements. But they will attack you with another army. Cheer: you now find yourself fighting on one of the highest hills imaginable, while you have pikemen, heavy cavalry and missile units. The battle should be relatively easy. What's even better: you can use the Ptolemean barracks in Sidon.
I've never tried to push trough towards Hierosolyma, since by the time you conquer Sidon, Antioch will be threatened by forces from Tarsus. Conquering Tarsus or Nicosia will be pretty difficult. Luckily, there's no need to conquer them right away: Feel free to halt the offensive against Ptolemeas in order to hold the east. With time passing by, and stone walls being erected in the east, your position should improve considerably after ten or even twenty turns.

About Pontos, Makedonia, Baktria or even Hayasdan: they've never attacked me in the very first turns. Having sufficient garrisson units in the bordering settlements (low-quality units of course) helps.



Good luck Basileios



Edit: for those of you who like a difficult all-deciding battle at the very start of the game: select your forces of Alexandria Margiane, and try to reach Nisa. I've never managed to get there, but I guess conquering the Pahlava-capital slows down your arch-enemy.

[Ibrahim]

advice for all factions?

well, I actually have a few:

1-don't over-stretch yourself.

2-keep your people happy, well provided for, and well fed.

3-garrison all your cities with at least 2 units.

4-kick out management/influence poor FM's, and send them to war.

5-have the best units available for your army, and maintain them for war-readiness.

6-and most important: have money at hand! ;ast thing you need is to fight a powerful faction/several factions sine capita. that is folly. I can tell you of a few cases when I had to do that-none ended too well.