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  1. #1

    Default Your favorite "Pikemen" nation and why

    Hey EB vets :-)

    Since I 'm finishing my Casse campaing and not intend to carry it on, I was thinking of a "phalanx campaign".I've read so much inside the forum about pikemen and I am intrigued to lead some phalanx armies.

    My heart speaks of Macedonia but I expect an easy game with them.What do you prefer and suggest?
    Could it be Seleuceia, Ptolemaioi, Epeiros, Pontos, Baktria maybe, or who else?

    Please give me reasoning and motives :-P

  2. #2

    Default Re: Your favorite "Pikemen" nation and why

    if you´re like me you will have a hard time leading a phallanx army so my sugestion is that you pick someone who can use thorokitai that leaves macedonia out

    you can always go for the reforms in the koinon hellenon and use their elite phallangitai they´ve got great archers skirmishers and decent cavalry + all the hoplitai you´ll ever need

    ptolomaioi is a good choice few enemies easy riches in the south (mines) plus alot of sea trade aslong as you can get antiocheia and criple the arche seulekeia you have many places to go

    makedonia is in a great position if you play the 1st 2 turns right you can imediatly take athens and sparta by using your heavy cavarly right and then move up north and remove the epirotes from the balkans thanks to the thesally hoplites you can build a nice army to replenish your losses and always keep moving taking over the balkans and their mines and basically using your forts to guard the river passages (i was able to take over all important mining centers by 267bs and by 254bs i had enough to suport 3 armies and go and take nikaia and pergamom wich makes you go to war with the seulekids if not you can just wait for the romans to take patavium and start attacking segestica )

    arche seulekeia is for me the most fun campaign they have more troop selection then the getai rich lands that you can explore right if you play your cards right and you must always be pro active trying to remove the ptoleis from mikra asia 1st then try to eliminate the pontus as fast as possible and then go for the hayasdan while trying to survive in hekatompylos and marakanda against the parthians (i always use the massive spam of pantadapoi and slingers to try and survive the early stages while keeping the population under control and avoid revolts) one of the most important things you can do when dealing with the arche is to make sure you always attack 1st particulary the phalavas as not to loose too many aliances at the start and always present those who might threaten you with a strong army on their borders should they decide to "visit" your lands

    economicaly you must try and secure the northern eastern mediterranean by removing ptoes from mikra asia dveloping your eastern mining sectors take nikaia and pergamom for your mikra asia mines and if you can remove the hai you´ll get fortunes from the caucasian mountains with a few forts on all major passages you can armour your western and caucasian border leaving your armies (recruited in antioch and mesoptamia) to deal with the ptoly and your eastern armies to nullify the parthian threat

    eventually the baktrians will backstab you when that happens have no contemplation just eliminate them with arche seulekeia is a do or die campaign you´ll always be surrounded everyone will betray you it´s hard financially at the start (altough you can get some nice sums of cash at the start by taking peace from the kh ) and you might likely end up fighting wars against the saka phallava baktrians pontians kh makedonia hay and the always hated ptolomaioi all at once

  3. #3

    Default Re: Your favorite "Pikemen" nation and why

    The Seleucids are definitely a good choice; they were my first EB campaign. It's challenging with so many different enemies but on the other hand your lands are rich and you have a great variety of units: I'd advise you to build a small stack of elites in Antioch and use this to take Egypt while sending a second force to seize Tarsus and Side. If you act quickly you will find that the Ptolies are quite weak and unprepared. Once you have Alexandria, Memphis and Thebes they won't be a threat anymore and you can send withdraw your main army. Taking the rebel cities in Asia Minor should be your next step, after which you should target Pontos who usually expand slowly. In the east use Alexandria Ariana as your main base and give up erveything else until you can reconquer them. After this you should be able to beat the Parthians and Baktrians and perhaps even take India.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Your favorite "Pikemen" nation and why

    It depends on what you want, if you wanna have won by the year 260, go for the seleucids and do as the others have suggested.
    However, I really gotta suggest either Epeiros or Macedonia. I really prefer their spots on the map more, than the seleucids. With Epeiros or Macedonia you get to fight other Phalanx nations to a greater degree, while you still get to fight various other infantry nations, (Getai, Romans, Carthage, Koinon Hellenon, and perhaps even some gauls). I find Epeiros unit selection to be more fun, than the macedonians though :)

  5. #5

    Default Re: Your favorite "Pikemen" nation and why

    I agree with A Dane here, Seleukids make a good starting challenge and have one of the best and widest troop selection but once you get your money sorted and defeated Hay or Pontos your quite invincible, plus you can autocalc against the Parni and Saka, tho it get's really tough when actually fighing on the battle map^^ - Pikmen kill HAs in autocalc but don't quite stand a large chance in battle mode.
    Macedonians and Epirotes make a good game while Epirotes have the more unique roster and afaik are a bit more challengeing. still If I remember correctly you've played the KH already, nor?
    in that case and if you feel EBized already Bakrtia would be a good choice, very varied roster the only thing they lack are elite pikemen. but it's more of a challenge imho.
    Pontos can also use a lot of pikemen, they lack the pezhetairoi but thier elite pikeman is about as strong^^
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  6. #6

    Default Re: Your favorite "Pikemen" nation and why

    I'd suggest either Bartix, or Makedonia. Makedonia ISN'T a walk in the park, although it's probably easier than holding together the Arche, it's probably a bit harder than the Ptolemies, or Epeiros. You start out in a really tight spot as Makedonia, and have to fight two pretty hard battles to keep your empire from crumbling. To your West, Pyrrhos and his large army including indian elephants (!!!) threatens your capital city of Pella, and to the South, the Koinon Hellenon is trying to push you out of Korinthos and Chalkis. You'll need to take out Pyrrhus first thing, and then book it to Korinthos and kick the Koinon out of Athens and Sparte while the Epeirotes are fighting in Italia and licking their wounds in Ambrakia.

    Baktria has a difficult start too, but perhaps not quite as bad. If you can keep the Arche from attacking you in the first 5 years, you're probably fine, but if they attack you immediately, you're in for a rough time until you can take the cities along the Indus and the Gedrosian desert. Saka is always a constant annoyance, and can occasionally actually become a real threat to your capital at Baktra, and while the Pahlavans usually stay allied to you until you attack them, they can sometimes backstab you if your capital is left too lightly defended. Additionally, if you leave Pahlava alone and they manage to expand at the expense of the Arche, they can become a real pain to dislodge once you're ready to. I'd recommend taking India and Gedrosia, and then blitzing the Pahlavans so you never have to face cataphract horse archers and heavy cataphract charge cavalry. You have your own cataphract horse, but they're not quite up to snuff with the pahlavans and they're expensive enough that you probably want them soaking up Saka arrows or destroying Seleukid armies instead of being wasted on the (comparatively) minor threat of the Pahlavans.
    Last edited by CashMunny; 04-29-2011 at 16:29.
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  7. #7
    Wandering Metsuke Senior Member Zim's Avatar
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    Default Re: Your favorite "Pikemen" nation and why

    Klerouchoi Make a pretty good medium pike unit for Pontos, and they're probably the most difficult "pike" faction, if they count.

    I've always had a soft spot for Ptolomaioi due to an interest in their history, but they have a rather easier start and not quite as much variety in units as the Seleucids.

    Macedonians, Epeiros, and KH (who get pikes late in the game) all have an interesting start, especially if you start off slowly for more of a challenge, but all become somewhat easier as you finish off Greece (migrating KH to Sicily can make for mroe of a challenge) and all have interesting units.
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