Quote Originally Posted by TruePraetorian View Post
What i do to combat huge military costs is to make forts at key locations and stock them with 1 hoplite mercenary/unit and and archer (cretan ). This way when the AI comes knocking at my doorstep I have at least 1 year of before the fort is taken to build up units for the invasion. Not to mention they sallies and the fact a hoplite in a doorway is enough to beat up a good sized enemy.

With my territories safe I usually have 1-2 full stacks and thats it. I try not to maintain a huge navy also. In my current Romanii campaing its 249BC with the Punic wars just begun and I have 162000+ mnai, not to mention the 50+k I recieve a turn.
I do have forts in key areas, but that's not enough... Also it's hard to have only 2 full stacks... I needed 3 of them just to keep the north and west from macedon and south from the ptolys. But now Armenia has attacked me with and elite half stack + a full one....

I could live with fighting the ptolys and Armenia, but having Macedon of whom's massive empire i'm the only enemy really sucks... I don't really want to fight with them for the steppes..

P.S. On another note: does anyone know why i can't recruit the hellenic medium phalanx+cavalry in ipsos with a level 4 MIC? seems wierd