Romani to blitz or not to blitz?

[TancredTheNorman]

This question which I need advice on is not nearly as rediculous as it sounds.

As Romani I find that by endgame all that there is to do is struggle between Romans and Ptolemy Phalanxes, while Romans with proper leadership could win it is a matter of fighting the same Phalanx from Kart-Hadast all the way to India literally.

I was wondering if moderate strategic blitzing that actually costs more money than it gains could be the answer in order to hurt the Egyptians right as the Selucid Empire begins to collapse?

I ask this because despite everything Romani seem to be the only faction I can't finish a campaign with.

[Captain Jazzy]

Im doing a Romani game currently and Ive been playing pretty slow but after the Polybian reforms I noticed that the AS had lost Antioch and all of Asia minor to a mix of Pontos and the Ptolemy's which kinda worried my because i really dont want to fight a proper yellow death. I had given Kyrene and 1 or 2 other regions to the AS to act as a buffer in Africa but they were getting battered pretty quick. Then about two or three yers alter after I had invaded Spain i toggled fow and saw that AS was down to about 5 regions and has lost all of Babylon and that the Maks (my allies) had very successfully invaded Asia minor and had just declared war on the Ptolemys. So I abbandoned my previous quite enjoyable pace and created 4 Poly fullstacks including my Spanish Vets and launched a naval invasion of Egypt and quickly took most of the Ptolemys homeland.
So frankly I think its ok to Blitz a faction thats getting two strong because frankly elite phalanx spam isnt fun, Think of it as a premptive strike and you can give the terrator to other weakened factions to make things interesting. Frankly Ive found the role of balancing all the other factions against each other to be really rewarding and fun.

[Fluvius Camillus]

The reason for my blitzing is the fear of facing some AI Behemoth which can send numerous fresh identical stacks, who are all defeated with the same superior strategy. My blitzing gives me exciting and a great variety of enemies and battles.

But on a slower take I would suggest being some kind of world police. In this case you can try to simulate the policy of the Romani to keep the Arche Seleukeia and Ptolemaioi weak and balanced, like after Antiochos III Megas' defeat at Magnesia.

~Fluvius

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Would it be possible for the Romani to execute a 'decapitation strike' on the Ptolemies?

Train up 20 spies and 40 assassins to an extremely high level of expertise in the best forums available, and through lots of practice. Find every single Ptolemaic Family Member and position at least 3 assassins by each one that you think your assassins are good enough to kill. Prepare Roman armies to fight and kill in battle any Ptolemaic FM's that are too difficult to assassinate. Then, kill ALL of the Ptolemy FMs in the same game turn! Every single one must be killed in the same turn, so the Ptolemies can't get any more when the turn ends.

If successful, this would destroy the Ptolemaic faction at a single stroke, and turn all the Ptolemaic armies into Eleutheroi rebels! All their towns would become rebel too! Which would wipe out their recruitment of new units and cripple their strategy (since the faction is destroyed and the Eleutheroi can't recruit), so all Rome has to do now is destroy the armies already in existence, take the towns and Egypt is hers. No different than fighting other Eleutheroi.

This is kind of similiar to how Rome defeated and annexed Egypt historically - the Ptolemies had no strong male military leader and their nobles were divided against each other, and Rome just took over with relatively little fighting.

[Captain Jazzy]

I found assassins to be nearly useless at killing FM's in EB even a 10 skill assassin has a very low chance of killing even a minor FM...
If you wanted them to rebel you could Force Dip a load of their land to a weak and broke faction which would be unable to stop all of the new provinces from rebelling. It might work but I havent tried it personally.

[Mulceber]

My advice is a variation on the "world police" suggestion of Fluvius: download the force diplomacy mod and at the end of every year, examine how the AI is doing - if one is getting too powerful, use force diplomacy to take away a few provinces and give them to his weaker neighbors. It's not a perfect solution, but in general, I find it neatly avoids yellow fever/silver death. It's especially useful when you can use it to make the AI expand in a historically-accurate manner. -M

[Valion]

Dont Blitz! Rather Send 2 Stacks to Egypt and Annoy them like Hell! Like what i did with the Makedonians who took over all of greece and kicked KH to Asia Minor i sent a Legion with my Best General and Butchered 5 Makedonians Full Stacks and now they are too weak to expand hahaha GLOBAL POLICE!!!!!

[TancredTheNorman]

Thank you all for the advice, I generally quit the end of campaigns when I am something west of Greece for this reason, and am glad you all agree that yellow fever and silver death should be prevented before they ruin your game.

I love fighting factions without phalanxes, as Romani the Gauls throw everything from lugoe with curepos and neitos to Suldoros supported by gaeros and slingers, even their sieges of Tolosa never get dull their armies are rarely identical and will often slaughter Legions who dare invade inner Gaul.

As one of the Gallic factions I faced every single unit the Romans could have before Marius comes along in a single battle that ended with two dead family members on my side and a heroic victory when the last two units in the field (my faction leader and his generals body guard) fought to the death.

Unfortunately the move east really takes the wind out of a campaign once Phalanx Spam starts.