Macedon: starting moves guide

[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.