Pontos VH-VH

[Valerian Mengsk]

Hi there, I am an old lurker and EB player who finally got around to joining The Guild. Right now I am playing a VH-VH campaign with Pontos and have managed to survive, even thrive with them after a couple of false starts. Currently I am at 244 BCE, and will continue to post updates, if I can remember or until the save game gets corrupted .

Anyway, for anyone interested in playing Pontos, this is sort of a guide to one way to keep them alive in VH-VH (Note: I always play on this setting and I have no experience with any other setting, the other factions I have played with are the Sweboz and the Casse).

In 272 BC you will start with 2 armies significantly separated from one another in your province, and another force in Amaseia. The key to survival is to combine those armies as swiftly as possible, this will take all of the first turn to do. Meanwhile keep your diplomat nearby since you will need him. Lastly do [I]not[I] disband any units except for the cavalry (of you don't like them) since you will need every last man to survive the next few turns.

Alright you now have three options: North to Sinope which will cause the Koinion Hellen (sp) to declare war on you. South to Mazaka, and an unending war with Arche Seleukia. Or West to Galatia and Ankyra. Personally I chose Ankyra since they have no phalanx units and die on your spears easily. I had sieged and captured Ankyra by spring. (Note: You will be seriously in the red by this point and I recommend sacking the city to make it easier to control with fewer troops)

So now the new year has started and you once again have 3 options: North to Sinope (still viable), West to Bythia (larger army, but possible), South to Mazaka (and chaos).
You may think I'm insane, but blitz Mazaka ASAP. The first two attempts at Pontos I stayed away from AS and took Sinope or Bithynia, lost 30-40% of my army, was still in debt, and sure enough Arche Seleukia attacked me with 9+ units within 2 years and I was wiped out.

So.....blitz Mazaka, it should only have 5 units in it max. But before that if you want to maintain your alliances with Bactria, Hayadasan, and Phalava send your diplomat in and cancel your allaince with AS to save diplomatic penalties. If you attack AS within 2 years they will not respond soon since the AI is still putting out fires elsewhere, gathering armies, and is still relatively poor (for an AI).

Once you have Mazaka, and hopefully most of your original army, your financial situation should be improving (especially if you sacked Mazaka). The next strategic choice is a little less black and white than the first two (for me at least).
-You can go West on the handy road, and besiege Ipsos and then Sardis, thus securing your Western flank from issues, but you will be facing equal or larger armies, and one of those cities has a stone wall IIRC.
-You can entrench yourself (hint: focus on Mazaka, Ankyra is hard to reach by AS and is thus largely left alone by the big armies)
- You can go East, further into AS main territory (not recommended)
-Lastly you could try to pull off the crazy stunt I managed, since I sent a spy South to the Holy Lands and noticed that Minor City Antiocheia was garrisoned by 2 units, and march the strongest remaining units in your army South (without an FM) and take it. Yeah, march through Ptolemaoi territory and siege Antiocheia and take it fast.
-Oh, you could also attack Tarsos, and piss off the Ptolemaoi, but I don't recommend angering the other Super Power right now.

Anyway, I somehow managed to take Antiocheia (if it has a larger garrison, do not attempt and try instead option 1 or 2) and sacked it, which wiped out my debt entirely. By now the year was 270 BCE and I was feeling giddy. But AS was gearing up for war.

Now, If you followed my hair-brained scheme and blitzed Antiocheia you have three options, since in the next year AS will send armies towards Mazaka and Ankyra and Antiocheia.
1. Abandon Antiocheia completely and destroy everything that can be destroyed to give you money for units.
2. Send half your remaining army home, and have the rest hunker down behind Antiocheia's nice stone walls.
3. Take Refuge in Audacity and continue the assault!

I chose option 3.

In 268 BC I left 2 units in Antiocheia, moved a FM down to join the rest of the army and marched on Edessa to the east.

This little town has very little in the way of population, or defenses. So it was an easy capture with the remainder of my original army+plus some mercenaries which numbered some 600 men.

Now if your Arche Seleukia AI is anything like mine, it will be pissed. They had an army from Ipsos marching on Mazaka, another marching from Sophene, and 2 half-stack armies running for Edessa.

So I recommend destroying everything you can in Edessa, leaving like one unit there and running for your life back to Mazaka to aid in the defense of the Homeland. Interestingly enough Antiocheia was ignored for a while, allowing for its garrison to be strengthened, and I was able to hold it permanently.

The next 10 years or so I can only describe as hectic and desperate as you fend off numerous armies from AS while slowly building up to take Ipsos and Sardis.

Which I will cover in another, hopefully shorter post.

Thanks for listening.

[Whatever Scortamareva]

Nice post :)

I've never tried Pontos myself, and although I'm sure it's a nice challenge on VH/VH, I'd go with VH/M, since I hate waiting years to get some decent recruitable units only to have them halved in number in the first battle

You should have a go at an AAR with this campaign, if not it'd be nice to see some screenshots of it

Good luck for the rest!

[DaciaJC]

Very nice guide, but I believe a better place for this is the EB Gameplay Guides and AARs forum.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Meh, the mods will most likely sort this out. Although I expected a thread with questions and pleas for tips when I clicked on the title...

[Valerian Mengsk]

Oh, it would be cool if the mods could move this thread to the Guides and AARPs section, unless I can do it somehow?

[Aemilius Paulus]

unless I can do it somehow?

Unfortunately, we cannot do that. Or perhaps fortunately, as all sorts of people come here, some good and some just trolls/spammers.

[Molinaargh]

Could use some screenshots. But nice guide, just try to put some images in the next part.

Would also be nice to talk about unit choice.

[Apázlinemjó]

In Ankyra, buld a lvl4 regional MIC, then you can get the Galatikoi Kuarothoroi unit, which is a pretty good infantry.