There's challenging, and then there's.....

[Drewski]

All perfectly reasonable answers.... Yes, I know that as the Makedonians I have to make that tactical choice (I knew, as I set my armies off toward Pella, that Corinth would come under siege)...but..., I was just letting off steam, really. I'm poised to make the Epirus pay for their impudence, and the defenders of Pella made sure that it's taking was a costly act (got my cavalry and slingers out of the city walls and hacked down four routed units, and depleted the remainder until they could do no more...)

As I say, I can understand that I shouldn't expect to be swimming in money but.., with both factions (but particularly with the KH) your not just financially disadvantaged, you're absolutely crippled. I expect to lose Athens (I'd be disappointed if I didn't, frankly...) but, then I've got this piddling little army in Sparte, that I can't build upon because I'm so rapidly in debt - and even if I try and recruit units in the first season I might get one before that huge stack comes and besieges Sparte... then I fight one battle and win, then am instantly attacked by another army, manage to win and then a third army attacks the pitiful remnants of my forces and....there's only so much you can do.

Perhaps I've just been unlucky, but I've tried numerous strategies.... I generally bring the army back from Krete. I've tried shipping a relief army to Athens (no land-route, without hitting Corinth on the way) and that's a disaster. Tried combining my armies outside of Sparte, tried splitting my armies outside of Sparte, tried combining my armies in Sparte - the size and number of the armies that are sent against you - in such a short space of time - are just too much when you can't replenish your forces.

:)

Btw, something just struck me. Was it definetly a spy? Or was it the fact that Epiros start with an Elephant unit, and therefore don't need to siege? Armies with Elephants can often catch you unawares in that way. (Huge mobile siege rams)....

[Gaius Sempronius Gracchus]

:)

Btw, something just struck me. Was it definetly a spy? Or was it the fact that Epiros start with an Elephant unit, and therefore don't need to siege? Armies with Elephants can often catch you unawares in that way. (Huge mobile siege rams)....

Well, the gates were just open..., so maybe the elephant had bashed the gate in when no-one was looking and was hiding somewhere..., in the long grass?

I've been hit with elephants before (on EB, not in real-life), and it is a bit of a shock....

[Drewski]

Well, the gates were just open..., so maybe the elephant had bashed the gate in when no-one was looking and was hiding somewhere..., in the long grass?

I've been hit with elephants before (on EB, not in real-life), and it is a bit of a shock....

Invisible stealth elephants....hmmm ;) Reminds me of an early X-Files episode......anyways, you may have inspired me to crack open some vino and fire up a new KH campaign.....

Good Luck with your own:)

[MisterFred]

In my KH campaign (my first EB single player campaign victory, woot) I took Crete with the army that's there on the first turn (actually I didn't expect to win, but I noticed the army only after I disbanded my fleet... ). Go Spartans. And crappy sallying AI.

Then I also disbanded everything I had on Rhodos except the family member, and the same on Crete (in retrospect, I probably would have saved a ship to evacuate the Crete army except one garrison unit, since those Spartan bodyguards need to die in glorious battle early. SOOOOOOO expensive.

I'd recruited one unit in Sparta, and just sort of sat there worried with my southern army. The key to the campaign is that even though Epirus simply refused to attack Macedon, the Makedones couldn't take Athens with its garrison. They assaulted the walls time and time again, but pantodapoi phalangitai and akontistai don't do that well going up ladders against KH generals.

After 3 or 4 failed sieges, they sent the Corinth garrison to join the next one, I took Corinth with the Spartan army, then Chalkis during a lull with my combined army, and then my campaign went nowhere for about 20 years when Halicarnassus revolted and I was intimately involved with a general brouhaha in Anatolia, virtually unable to hold a city, but investing in levies and mercenaries and benefiting from revolts, taking and trading cities with Makedon, AS, and even Pontus.

That was intensely fun (if in retrospect strategically fail) until Makedon did something stupid and wasted their armies taking Thermon. I picked up Thermon and Demetrius from the disaster, and the campaign entered the middle stages...

[Cambyses]

I like to use the army on Crete to conquer Crete... that gives you another nice safe source of income (naval trade rules) that needs only a 1 unit garrison. After that your main mission is to take Corinth by hook or by crook. Once you hit that magic 5 province number you should be secure and actually from then on it gets increasingly easy as Classical hoplites + Peltasts = win versus phalanx based armies.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I had to resort to an exploit when playing KH.

The Macedonians kept wanting to besiege Athens. So I used a trick to beat them - sally out immediately with my garrison! Sounds suicidal. But...when the battle started, I had a unit of slingers and a unit of archers on the wall, sited in the right hand corner of the wall facing the enemy. Whenever you sally out of Athens, the stupid AI repositions its troops from facing the main gate to their left (your right). And to do this, they have to run parallel to the wall - on which my missile troops were standing.

My slingers and archers just shot the Macedonian buggers in the back as they ran to their new positions, killing dozens of them! And the slingers have such good range when they're on the wall that they can usually hit a few enemy units even after they've redeployed! (Cretan archers are also excellent for long-range shooting if you can get them.)

Then I sent my skirmishers and hoplites out of the gate. Deployed, and moved close enough to the enemy to get their attention. The idea was to make the Maks chase after me, into range of the missile troops on the wall. Skirmishers were good at this. Worked like a charm, lured the enemy into the killing zone below the wall, hoplites killed them from the front, missile troops killed them from above. Eventually the enemy got so depleted I could beat them with a head on attack with my hoplites, even they outnumbered me 3 to 1 at the start. It was great!

Keep a small, but well balanced army in Athens, and sally out when you're besieged. You'd be surprised how successful you can be!

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

I found the KH incredibly easy actually. Defend Athens and take Corinth, not truly that difficult with your Spartan bodyguards who rule the city battles against Makedon. Its tougher in field battles when Macedon can deploy cavalry.