Macedon: starting moves guide

[Slaists]

Disclaimer about game versions

LOL, CA changed the playing field before I finished the writeup here. What I wrote, seemed to work well before patch 7 (beta at this point). With patch 7, diplomatic reliability rating seems to be fixed. So, canceling military access with Epirus and declaring war with them on turn 2 will result in a major global reliability hit now (this was not the case before patch 7). The move is still possible, just be warned about the reliability hit. Leaving Epirus alone (for 10 turns) and moving North seems to be the way CA want us to play Macedon. In any case, earning some bad reputation tends to result in a more interesting game.

Setup

I intend this to be a short starting moves illustrated guide/AAR for Macedon. There will be a bit of role-play involved so not all the moves will be the most efficient in min-max optimization sense. I have all the screenshots and saves ready, just need to finish writing. So, bear with me.

P.S. I will insert blue color-coded tip/discussion sub-sections as I move along. These will explain the particular actions I take and are intended as tips for starting players.

Why Macedon?

It has a nice starting position. It is Hellenistic. It has a nice roster. I did not see it among the guides here in the forum.

Game version

Patch 5.1

Difficulty settings

Campaign: very hard; battle: very hard

House rules

No leap-frogging generals [this exploit seems to have been removed with patch 5 anyway]
No corner camping in battles
Dragging garrisons out into field battles IS allowed: they're sitting ducks inside the settlements anyway
No betraying allies and client states (Athens and Sparta for starters)

Initial goals

Death to Pyrrhus!
Conquest of Larissa by turn 2
Conquest of Apollonia by turn 4
Conquest of all of Thracia soon after
The world is wide open after the above


Chapter 1: Epirus Campaign

272 - Great Aspirations

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Leadership



Antigonids: Antigonos Gonatas is the current leader of Macedon (and the dynasty). Ahead of a small army he stationed in Pella. Young Demetrius Kalos is running the political side of affairs in the capital while old Peucestas is tasked with hunting down pirates in Mare Aegaeum.

Opposition: esteemed Kosmas is leading a strong Macedonian hoplite garrison stationed in Pulpudeva. Kosmas is an ambitious character so we have to keep an eye on him. An evil mother in law (-2 gravitas per turn) would come in handy.

Overview of the starting position



Macedon is at war with Tylis in the North. This is a concern, but not a major one. We have a strong garrison in Pulpudeva led by the esteemed leader of our political opposition party. He should be able to defend our Thracian holdings for a while. Most likely, the barbarians will lose their focus on Macedon anyway. Who knows, as time goes, someone might find Tylis an attractive target due to them being at war with Macedon.

The very existence of Epirus, on the other hand, is annoying to say the least. Epirus holds two resource production regions: Larissa and Apollonia. Both these lands are rightfully Macedonian. Thus, Pyrrhus and his Epirus must go! In addition, a war with Epirus might strengthen Macedon's waning relationship with our Greek allies: Athens and Sparta.

Starting military, diplomacy and trade

First things first, before engaging in any diplomacy with other factions, Macedon needs to expand it's military and navy. Any bit in terms of extra military strength helps in securing diplomatic agreements. The starting naval expansion mission comes in handy here. It gives 1000 gold for maintaining 5 ships (Macedon starts with 4). So, as the first order of business, Macedon recruits an admiral (the type with the cheapest upkeep) and transfers one javelin boat from the original fleet to the new one. The fresh fleet sets sail towards South-East to discover distant lands formerly not known to Greeks...

On the land, young Demetrius bids politics goodbye and founds a new army, Gryphon's Grace. He immediately moves this force towards the border with Epirus, near Larissa where 3 fresh hoplite units will be mustered through the winter. The two extra units: the admiral and the general give Macedon a slight diplomatic edge in securing its first trade agreements. Athens and Triballi are willing to trade. After securing the trades, it is the right time to cancel the military access with Epirus. We do not want to suffer the diplomatic reputation hit before trade deals are secured. As a bonus, Spartans seem to take a liking to the latest Macedonian diplomatic initiative...

Agents versus fleets for exploring

Some might ask why not use agents for exploration since they cost no upkeep? My take on it: on harder campaign difficulties, the player needs all the agent help he can get due to the incoming agent swarm by the AI's. Sure, a fleet costs upkeep, but the cheapest admiral + a javelin boat cost around 200 gold/turn. This cost will be compensated by the first 2 trade agreements. Any trade acquired beyond that is pure profit. I also do not disband the starting fleet since keeping it in Pella helps with starting happiness and the admiral can be used to lead city defense if necessary.

Why add a javelin boat to the explorer fleet?

If a fleet contains only the admiral's flagship; when the admiral dies, the fleet disappears. This is inconvenient, if the fleet, at the time, has just "almost" discovered all the sea-zones. If the fleet has a single javelin-boat in it, when the Admiral dies, you can recruit a new admiral to continue the exploration.

Starting construction

None. At the start, our treasury will be fully focused on military to ensure swift and decisive victories for Macedon.

Starting research

Logistics is the choice. We want to bee-line for the first siege tech that allows Macedon to obtain ballistae. On top of that, logistics allows Macedon to recruit champions.

Agents

Macedon starts the game with a spy: a foxy lady who goes by the name of Alexandra. She gets dispatched to gain experience and observe Epirus' movements near Larissa.

271 - Fall of Larissa

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Tylis

The spring of 271 brings great news to Antigonos. Just as expected, Tylis is getting into more trouble than they can handle. Ordyssian Kingdom has noticed them as a tasty little snack. Let the barbarians brawl each other while Macedon attends to more important matters!



Pyrrhus

From the South of the border, Alexandra reports an interesting development near Larissa. Overconfident Pyrrhus has rushed his Champions of Nike in forced march stance. Exhausted, Epirote outfit is about to enter Larissa but have stopped for a break in an isolated mountain pass. This needs to be taken care without delay. Young Demetrius reinforces Gryphon's Grace with mercenaries from Pella. Attack?



Not so fast.

The very act of going to war can be profitable

Epirus is already at war with Sparta. Let's check if our Southern allies are willing to contribute anything to our upcoming war efforts. Be as it may, Sparta is willing to pay Macedon 1000 gold for joining the war against Epirus. As an extra bonus, joining Sparta's war should further boost Macedon's relationship with Sparta.



Descending from the mountains, Macedon's forces make a short work of unsuspecting Pyrrhus and his elephants.



Effects of forced march stance or, "don't get caught with your pants down"

The success of Macedon's first victory relied on Pyrrhus' forced march stance allowing Macedon's army to execute an ambush attack. As a result, Pyrrhus' army suffered a hefty morale penalty and could not be reinforced from Larissa. Neither the Epirote army stationed there could join nor the city's garrison. They were reduced to mere spectator role in observing their beloved king die on Macedonian pikes.

Dealing with elephants

Similar to RTW 1, the elephants in RTW 2 are very vulnerable to javelins. A few volleys from the starting javelin-men unit from Pella were sufficient to bring down the towering beasts of Pyrrhus.

Larissa

Things go not much different for Larissa's garrison. Despite Alexandra insisting the city garrison be poisoned ahead of the assault, Demetrius' Gryphon's Grace strikes with no hesitation. Epirotes meet Macedonians on a hill near Larissa but find themselves heavily outnumbered and outclassed as Demetrius is joined by royal pikemen of Antigonas. After a valiant fight, the settlement falls and Macedon gets its very own amphorae production center.

Demetrius decides to winter in Larissa, dismisses the remaining mercenaries and musters more hoplites. As Alexandra rushes to Apollonia she discovers Epirotes lack any land armies there. Eagerly anticipating the next season, Antigonas pikemen set up his winter-quarters in Pella's Northern mountain passes leading straight to the fertile vineyards of Apollonia.

Macedon has some morning to do as well. The starting Companion cavalry outfit dies to the man while fighting Epirote Royal Bodyguards. Demetrius' orders to disengage were not heard in the heat of the battle. Oh well, not all can go our way, can it?

Construction

Still nothing. All Macedonian masons have been drafted.

The age of discovery

Macedonian explorers encounter new land to the East. The locals call it the island of Rhodes. Admiral was pleasantly surprised to learn the aborigines were no cyclopes and spoke Greek. However, despite cultural affinity and what seemed like friendly disposition, the locals bluntly refused any trade with Macedon. The cook could not procure even a barrel of smelly, half-decomposed tuna in the market. Must be a religious thing or something. Or could it be that the good folk of Rhodes did not agree with Macedonian sailors eyeing plump merchant wives near the docks? Oh well, can we blame the boys? The voyage was long and lonely.

[Myth]

No corner camping is easy if you have cav superiority.

[Slaists]

No corner camping is easy if you have cav superiority.

It's more fun in other situations too ;)

On top of that, many battle maps in RTW have nice terrain features that allow for more natural flank guards: buildings, rock walls, etc; much better in that regard than RTW 1.

[Hooahguy]

Glad to see this, I was planning on doing a Macedonian AAR after my Suebi AAR wraps up.

[Slaists]

Glad to see this, I was planning on doing a Macedonian AAR after my Suebi AAR wraps up.

Mine will be pretty short (or so I think): just to get things rolling for Macedon. I do not have the patience (or the attention span) for writing a full-blown AAR, LOL.

[Slaists]

First two years complete. More to come later.

[Hooahguy]

Mine will be pretty short (or so I think): just to get things rolling for Macedon. I do not have the patience (or the attention span) for writing a full-blown AAR, LOL.

Dont worry, I also plan on doing a Suebi guide once I finish. Or maybe Ill just do one this weekend.

[Sp4]

What's leapfrogging generals?

[Slaists]

What's leapfrogging generals?

Leapfrogging generals? Check this video out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9UL...ature=youtu.be

Basically, it was used to transport troops over larger distances than the move points of a single army allow. With fleets, the same idea has been around for quite a while (in earlier TW games). For example, you could transport armies around the whole map transferring troops from one fleet to another in Shogun 2. The same idea worked in Empire Total War.

[Slaists]

Um, anyone know how do I delete the attachments I do not want here? I have removed a couple from the text, but they still show up as "attachments". In the attachment manager, I do not see an option to delete.

Never mind, I found how to do it :)

[MadKow]

Nice plan. I followed it on normal and it worked quite well. I have a new found love for hoplite type troops. Pulled some heroic victories while conquering Macedon and Tracia, where the AR calc would give me at best a phyrric victory. Even those Odryssians that used to rip tthrough my lines and panic every one went down with ease (i think i sacrificed half a unit of javelins with depleted ammo to absorb their initial charge.)

Now with two complete provinces i feel i have to reorganize my building strategy, as Tracia, with its 4 regions, appears to be best for unit production. I would welcome any hints from those more experienced with Macedon/hellenic on what to look for and build for it.

As far as further expansion, i think i may head east, because apparently everyone in the west wants to trade and be friends with me. I dont expect this to last forever but for the moment i thing Pergamon or RHodes o Cyprus may prove a better adittion to my empire. Will try to keep a sizeable force on Macedon to face any challenges from the west, or from Sparta and Athens.

[Bramborough]

Now with two complete provinces i feel i have to reorganize my building strategy, as Tracia, with its 4 regions, appears to be best for unit production. I would welcome any hints from those more experienced with Macedon/hellenic on what to look for and build for it.

Macedonia/Thracia is pretty darn good, those are two great provinces. 3 resources, 2 wonders, and 4 of the 7 regions are ports.

Thracia would indeed seem a good province for unit production. I haven't played Macedon itself yet (increasingly becoming my choice for next campaign). So I'm not sure about specific tech tree production and barracks/unit idiosyncracies. During my Pontus experience, however, I can see in hindsight that I should have built pikes into my army composition much much earlier than I did. I didn't build any pikemen until the Level IV faction-unique unit...I'd definitely do it differently now. If you're new to Hellenic factions (as I am myself), check out Myth's pike/hoplite guide in the stickies...helped me tremendously.

As far as buildings, I assume Macedon gets Temple of Poseidon...spam this thing. Has zero food/squalor cost even at Level IV, and provides both food and public order. My "Hellenic standard" build for minor settlements is Field+Poseidon, it worked very well for Pontus.

[MadKow]

I can see where pikes work very well. However i had more than a few situations where my units were flanked and i am pretty sure things were kept in control because of the superior troop quality of the hoplites. I'm sure i will bring along more pikes as my armies become full stacks, and i can bet on a more solid and ample "anvil".

Also, yes, Poseidon is there. Im tempted to build also an Ares temple where troops are produced.

[Myth]

Province development for a hellenistic faction is pretty straight forward. Since Macedon has quality cavalry in addition to infantry I would propose this:

One 4 settlement province dedicated to spear melee troop recruitment.
One 4 settlement province dedicated to cavalry recruitment.
Hellas dedicated to ranged unit and siege weapon recruitment. Especially getting a few Cretan Archer mercs once money are no issue.
One 4 settlement/4port province dedicated to fleet recruitment (i recommend Africa)

The troop recruitment provinces should have as few resources in the minor settlements as possible, so you can keep the minors at level 2 and thus avoid the PO hit from higher tier upgrades (one can't really afford not to upgrade minors).

For infantry production you should have:

Province Capital:

Hippodrome
Temple of Ares Enyalios
Ephebic College (link currently not working)
Stratopedon (link currently not working)
Port (if available)




Minor Settlement 1:

Temple to Ares
Royal Barracks
Port (if available)




Minor Settlement 2:

Temple to Ares
Armourer




Minor Settlement 3:

Temple to Ares
Foundry




You will probably need to run Bread & Games to keep the PO in check. Also, don't build the tier 3 Temple to Ares in the minors untill you have enough food to spare, because those, coupled with the tier 4 military infrastructure will require tremendous amounts of food.

However... Out of this province you will produce incredible melee troops! Your Foot Companions are already the best pikes in the game. Your Royal Peltasts are incredible shock troops that can double as skirmish backstabbers. And your Shield Bearers are just marginally weaker than Royal Spartans / Heroes of Sparta (well you don't have the Monument to Leonidas and if that is factored in then they beat your guys with morale).

The net benefits for your troops from such a dedicated setup is:

+45% melee attack
+20% melee defence
+15% charge bonus
+20% shield effectiveness
+25% armour
+8 unit ranks
+35% morale

Now for cavalry, in the minor settlements you will need 3 x Ranch, and to replace the Stratopedon with a Hipepius Stables in the Captial. All else should stay the same. You will recruit monstrous cavalry (and Macedon has a fair selection of shock and melee cav).

In Hellas, you will need a Marksmen's Range in Athens, a Siege Engineer's Workshop in Sparta and a Mercenary Camp on Crete.



P.S. For regular provinces, I'd go with an Amphitheater for PO, a Library for Research and depending on the circumstances I can outfit it for sea trade (Amphora factory etc.), Industry or Culture income. 3 x Tier 3 temples of Poseidon in the minor settlements coupled with level 2 or 3 farms are also a must.

For a naval recruitment province you need tier 4 ports in all 4 settlements (of the military variety) + a Siege Engineer's workshop.

[Slaists]

I can see where pikes work very well. However i had more than a few situations where my units were flanked and i am pretty sure things were kept in control because of the superior troop quality of the hoplites. I'm sure i will bring along more pikes as my armies become full stacks, and i can bet on a more solid and ample "anvil".

Also, yes, Poseidon is there. Im tempted to build also an Ares temple where troops are produced.

For the laughs, against the AI, you can try this out: put some pikes (3 is sufficient) in phalanx formation in the center and put loads of hoplites on the flanks + some shock troops in the center behind the pikes. More often than not, the AI will completely ignore your pikes and go heavy on your flanks with all its got (in sort of a dumbbell formation) allowing your shock troops to enter the AI's rear through your ignored pike center.

To Myth: good tips for building optimization. BTW, are you sure stacking multiple ranches work? I haven't figured out a way to see if the speed bonus is applied from all of them.

As to "real life" campaigns: with the current AI, there is no need for any elite units on the player side. With a faction like Macedon, can fight all the way to the end with hoplites, levy pikemen and citizen cavalry: affordable and efficient. I just worry about food and money in my campaigns (but that's me). I add some higher level units to my armies if the AI has built a corresponding building in the settlements I capture. The way it works now: even a broken, foreign faction barracks building allows you to recruit units, sometimes from tiers not available to you.

[Bramborough]

Province development for a hellenistic faction is pretty straight forward. etc etc.

Excellent breakdown. I'm using much of this in current Egypt campaign, works well.

Just wanted to throw out there an Egypt-specific wrinkle. Most of the buildlings, including military, are the same as other Hellenistic factions. Egypt's temple set, however, is quite different.

The "military temple" is the Horus line, and does not offer the same bonuses as the typical Ares temples. Horus provides an equipment bonus instead: weapon level. At first I was non-plussed by this, until I realized it meant one does not have to build the Blacksmith line. Instead of having to deal with -10 public order for the top Blacksmith, one gets positive public order from the Horus temple (+6 at Lvl IV). In addition, there's no reason to stack; one Horus temple is enough. Frees up other slots in the province for other uses. So Egypt's military temple all by itself is kinda ho-hum, but its synergy within a military-production province is quite powerful.

[Myth]

Unfortunately i've tested and can confirm in my Sparta/Seleucids games that the temples of Ares bonuses do not stack fully (bug, since CA said that everyrtihng is stackable in a Q&A session). The main temple in the provincial capital stacks with one of the minor temples (so still you can get the benefit of 2 out of 4). Maybe morale stacks, I haven't checked that, but the troop levels do not.

[Slaists]

Unfortunately i've tested and can confirm in my Sparta/Seleucids games that the temples of Ares bonuses do not stack fully (bug, since CA said that everyrtihng is stackable in a Q&A session). The main temple in the provincial capital stacks with one of the minor temples (so still you can get the benefit of 2 out of 4). Maybe morale stacks, I haven't checked that, but the troop levels do not.

Also, with the Ares, there's the thing that it does not seem to affect higher level spears (and pikes); for those the xp bonus does not show up at all.

[edyzmedieval]

A little Macedon starting tip - Agrianian axemen are a very useful bunch. Light, quick, cheap and armed with javelins, they can be a very good complement to pikemen.

[Slaists]

This guide is a bit out of date, lol. Things have changed with patches. Nowadays, a different path for Macedon might be required (moving on Tylis asap instead of Epirus).

Agrianians are excellent once Macedon gets its cash-flow up and running. Agrianians + massed cheap light charge cavalry (bring them in as reinforcements for extra punch).

[edyzmedieval]

Sarissa cavalry pack a very good punch, really useful early on.