you crazy man ? epeiros is one of my favourite factions to play i have all the initial steps memorised by now and all the initial tactics defined

in the 1st turn i take out pella and then thessally using the elephants as baterring rams get a foothold on the city let them tire themselfs against my combined levy and elite phallanx (medium but for a starting game it´s elite) then open a second hole on the wall and charge the enemy back with a combined fm illirian and elephant charge the illirian cavalary can catch most of the routers when they run back to the townsquare and then just mop whatevers left with elephant charges and massive cavalry tactics then run to thessally on the same turn and rinse and repeat

use the levy spearmen as garrison build a fort beteween thesally and athens (hell gates i believe) and head strait to dalmatia

meanwhile set a peace treaty with seulekids for a bundle of silver same for the koinon and maks

use a few units to head strait for taras and start building as soon as possible stone walls once it´s done you can fend off the romans until you can send a few more units there but reinforce it with your lamest family member and sally out alot take out their generals with a combined fm and taratine cavalry force use hoplois to hold the lines and charge the roman infantry

now this is a hard one but if you can get the stone walls you should be ok

dalmatia and pella are literally gold mines so segestica tylis nassus bization and all the other silver mines are just bonus

transfer population to your capital to have a steady recruitment center of strong troops (use the typical recruit akontistai and then disband options to reinforce the city recruitment pool)

navy is tricky its a flip of a coin but you should go for the maks navy and the koinon one before you set up peace but its a question of dumbluck since you´re on the clock to have all massive mines by 260bc in the balkans

then keep the warflame up beteween the koinon and the maks and remember to build the danube wall where you set psf in all of the danube crosses to have some time to build up against the ghetai

also 2 forts in the bosphorus should keep the seulekids and the pontians away for a while avoid being draged into mikra asia before you´re ready the mines might seem nice but it will cost you one of your 3 armies once your balkanic base is set

i kept my elephants long enough to conquer most of the balkans including the scordasci orca homeland (they are well worth the investment ) the boii infantry not so much ...

actually if the maks had thorokitai they would be perfect but since they don´t they are tied with the epirotes on my favourite campaigns choice since i don´t care that much for elephants either but i recognise their usefullness and know how to use them

if you time it properly the cash you get from destroying the roman barracks in taras and the mak ones in thessally and pella should keep you above the waterline until you can extort the seulekids koinon and makedonians and ofc proper tactics means you can save up your warriors so you can avoid recruitment in the initial turns

also ttack away with elephants the trufh is you only need 1 as a batering ram so after turn 1 they loose their usefullness since they cost alot of cash

as for the navy use 1 unit to replenish your navy and then keep it safe in your capital having 3 ships of 2-10 soldiers is better then having 3 and navies also cost fortunes thus the reason why i said engage the maks as soon as possible to reduce the amount of soldiers ithout sacrificing ships once you need it again (i normally build large fleets of trireme and naval blockade the crap of the italians and the 3 early ships are essencial in breaking the romans economical back ) just retrain your navy and go smack some roman invading fleet and take out a few roman fm´s in the process

i use similar tactics with the maks except i erase the koinon in 1 turn i take athens and sparta when i finish my turn

put 1 unit sieging athens and your princes army sieging it or king i can´t recall now the athenians will attack that single unit but then your entire field army enters the batle with their lathers and rams and you´re on top of the hill so a carnage ensues and if you play it smart you can even take the city faster by using your fm cavalry to cross the gates with the routing greeks

as for the spartans it will take skills but with 2 fms it´s doable with a good cavalry use

once the greeks where kicked out and left only with rhodes (lets hope they survive they´ll prove usefulll s thorn in the seuleids side and ofc buy you time before going for mikra asia in a 2 pronged attack from myletos and bizantium

if only maks had thorokitai