Roman: Brutii

[Kaiser of Arabia]

DONT OVEREXTEND YOURSELF BECAUSE OF THE SENATE
I made that mistake (attack Carthage blah blah blah) and I went from a 30000 tresury to the negatives.

[Tzar Kaloyan]

There is an alternative path on Lilybaeum. This is what I did:

1) When the Senate gives you the mission, act quickly -- otherwise Scipii will get there first.

2) Take the city -- fairly easy battle if you brought your Greek army (which is what I did).

3) Enslave the population -- gives you ~2,200 people to distribute to your 3 other settlements as well as ~400 dinarii. This is MUCH better than killing the population over the long term -- i.e. the added people will help your cities reach the next level faster and your tax income will be larger EVERY turn from now on.

4) Sell ALL the sellable building in Lilybaeum and abandon the city. This gave me another ~900 dinarii.

5) When (and if) the Senate gives you the mission to blokade Carthage, go do that (defeat the closest two fleets, but stay away from their large fleet to the west -- it is 3.5 times larger than yours!)

6) On the way back, stop at Lilybaeum and repeat steps 2-4. This gave me another ~1,100 people and ~900 dinarii, plus I achieved a Heroic victory against the storms of peasants (very cool for your general and unit experience).

Overall, the little Sicilian adventure was a nice and very profitable diversion!

Playing on vhard/vhard.

[Doug-Thompson]

There is an alternative path on Lilybaeum. This is what I did:

1) When the Senate gives you the mission, act quickly -- otherwise Scipii will get there first.

2) Take the city -- fairly easy battle if you brought your Greek army (which is what I did).

3) Enslave the population -- gives you ~2,200 people to distribute to your 3 other settlements as well as ~400 dinarii. This is MUCH better than killing the population over the long term -- i.e. the added people will help your cities reach the next level faster and your tax income will be larger EVERY turn from now on.

4) Sell ALL the sellable building in Lilybaeum and abandon the city. This gave me another ~900 dinarii.

5) When (and if) the Senate gives you the mission to blokade Carthage, go do that (defeat the closest two fleets, but stay away from their large fleet to the west -- it is 3.5 times larger than yours!)

6) On the way back, stop at Lilybaeum and repeat steps 2-4. This gave me another ~1,100 people and ~900 dinarii, plus I achieved a Heroic victory against the storms of peasants (very cool for your general and unit experience).

Overall, the little Sicilian adventure was a nice and very profitable diversion!

Playing on vhard/vhard.

Interesting variation, Tzar, although I generally prefer cash early in the game. You may not get a chance to come back, either, which means you leave Lilybaeum as easy prey for a competing faction. Still, it's an intriguing plan.

[Tzar Kaloyan]

I agree -- strategy should be specific to one's particular position. In my case, I saw that had I killed the population, I would have earned ~3,600 dinarii. Enslaving and selling brought in ~1,300 immediately, but the additional ~2,200 people increased my income ~500 a turn. The long-term benefits are that both my Italian cities crossed the 6k population mark many turns before they otherwise would have, thus giving me a tremendous head-start.

The fact that next turn after my conquest and abandonment the Senate gave me the port blockade of Carthage as a mission and I got to re-conquer Lilybaeum was just a gravy

Here are a few things I learned from continuing to play this campaign (and having tremendous fun doing it, btw):

1) When you seige, don't use ladders if there is an enemy unit on the wall. The Greeks did that against me and lost 120 men (armoured hoplites, I believe) climbing on two ladders. My losses ... whopping 5 men (hastatis)!

2) War dogs are great units to flank with, as well as to pursue rioters. Just keep them away from heavy cavalry and make sure they don't get Winded -- if they do, they will become uncontrollable and will start attacking all enemy units around them.

3) Don't fight the Greeks with Town Watch, unless you have the numerical superiority. Sure, if you can flank their Hoplites with 3 of your town watch spearmen, then you are safe. Anything less and the hoplites will tear them apart.

4) When you attack a large city with stone walls, don't hang around the gate too long! Ask the Greeks who charged Corinth. My understrength unit of Hoplites of 34 men, parked right after the gate stopped the Greeks at the gate and held them enough time for the towers to do extensive damage (and the oil too ) It was pretty sad. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end.

5) When you take Corinth, be prepared to go to war against all of Greece. Forget about 'supremacy in the sea' -- at least with me, the Greeks mopped my 14-ship navy pretty quickly with stacks of 20-ship navies. It was a payback for their losses on land

[Doug-Thompson]

I agree -- strategy should be specific to one's particular position. In my case, I saw that had I killed the population, I would have earned ~3,600 dinarii. Enslaving and selling brought in ~1,300 immediately, but the additional ~2,200 people increased my income ~500 a turn. The long-term benefits are that both my Italian cities crossed the 6k population mark many turns before they otherwise would have, thus giving me a tremendous head-start.

Hmmm. The numbers do appear to be on your side.

The fact that next turn after my conquest and abandonment the Senate gave me the port blockade of Carthage as a mission and I got to re-conquer Lilybaeum was just a gravy

I'd rather be lucky than good, but I prefer being good and lucky.

... War dogs are great units to flank with, as well as to pursue rioters. Just keep them away from heavy cavalry and make sure they don't get Winded -- if they do, they will become uncontrollable and will start attacking all enemy units around them.

Unless I am mistaken, war dogs main purpose in real life was to pursue routers.

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The other good tactics you describe are helpful in making the conquest of Greece more effective and less costly. Now, on to the very pleasant topic of what to do with Greece once you have it.

First off, use the Brutii faction's "Temple of Mars" boosts, of course.

Second, I've found that the combination of colesseums for loyalty, taxes for population control and money, peasants for use as settlers and upgraded shipyards for trade and movement to be a very potent one.

You can march across Asia Minor, wiping out the poplations, and use peasant units from Greece to garrison them. Disband the peasants and -- poof -- instant new citizens.

Squalor in the Greek cities is reduced. Population in the growing East booms, added to by your loyal transplanted peasants. Naval superiority and rich trade is assured by your multiple Greek shipyards.

Wait for the Reform of Marius, and then kick everybody's rear.

I didn't go to war with Thrace after conquering Macedonian. I'm pretty sure by now that was a mistake. I'd have an almost-complete land bridge to Asia Minor for my settlers if I had Byzantium.

The Brutii have a huge head start in their ability to conquer all of civilized Greece before the other Roman factions get a chance.

[Tzar Kaloyan]

DT: "Unless I am mistaken, war dogs main purpose in real life was to pursue routers."

I am not sure about the historical usage of dogs. After some more experience with them, though, I see that I have used the war dogs unit incorrectly so far! What I see on the map are a bunch of dogs running for the enemy and getting slaughtered. To save them, I was being forced to rush my entire army into a rapid attack, thus incurring extra casulties. Thus, I felt incredibly stupid when I finally realized what is going on! Turns out that the war dogs unit is made of handlers and dogs. The dogs themselves are expandable -- i.e. think of them as the limited number of arrows or javelins that the missile troops have. As long as the handlers survive, they will get more dogs for the next battle. My error was that when I see the dogs running around, I start trying to control the unit, thus getting the handlers in trouble -- i.e. killed And since the war dog unit costs a very high 680 dinarii, you can imagine my unhappiness ... I wish there was a good explanation somewhere of the war dogs unit.

I like your description of the peasant strategy! Wil have to try it -- the Greek cities are very hard to control and tie up large garissons to keep the peace.

[TinCow]

I wish there was a good explanation somewhere of the war dogs unit.

Use the wardogs as a one-shot attack. Hold them behind your main infantry line and then send them in just before the initial clash. After your handlers have released the dogs, pull the handlers back and keep them safe, do not use them to attack anything. The dogs will keep killing and attacking until the battle is over or they are all dead. You cannot control them once they are released, but they'll go after anything they see.

I always try to have 2 wardog units in my main armies. They are extremely useful in breaking up enemy lines when combined with a pilum volley. They also prevent many casualties to your men from the initial clash of arms and can be very useful at disposing of routing enemies.

[Doug-Thompson]

I like your description of the peasant strategy! Wil have to try it -- the Greek cities are very hard to control and tie up large garissons to keep the peace.

It's the cure. It's especially effective on large unit size and, presumably, even better on huge.

Any unit will reduce population, but peasants reduce population by 120 for $100 dinarii in initial cost and $100d for upkeep. That makes peasants dirt chip for moving population around.

I like to use Sparta as the gathering place for "settler" going overseas. Although a land bridge would be nice, Sparta is much harder to blockade that Athens. Thessolonica is even easier to blockade.

By the way, did I mention that the fact that NEUTRAL ships block your path really chafes me?

Trouble is, Sparta takes two turns to get all the way across to Asia Minor and unload. It's safe, though. The fleets can sail along the coast of Crete.

I'll have to see if Larissa is better placed. If it can make the trip in one jump and isn't easily blockaded, that may be the best choice.

[LestaT]

Unless I am mistaken, war dogs main purpose in real life was to pursue routers.

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I'm not sure about war dogs but my idea is to charge into pack shield wall. It sure disrupt formation in real life situation, but in the game terms..

[Vikings]

I would say Brutii is my favorite faction of all. Why becuz they have nice Temple bonuses but too bad not the Neptune. Having a few Mars Temples for recruiting, one for Juno to train your governors/generals then the rest is Mercury.

Mercury have nice bonus on trade depend on traffic conditions and cities populations.

Amazing seeing Macedon's Artemis:Hunting with a whopping +5 missile upgrade for missile type units. They are very handy Temples indeed, esp defending a fort or mega city.

I usually let out pack of spies and diplomats to search for other good leaders and if they are not protected well enough and that leader has good skills like Retinues, bribe them and take that skill that you cannot possibly have.

Maximum of 8 Retinues is what i heard, but nice to have all that bonuses on governors and generals. Btw, watchout for leader faction besure not to leave any valueable Retinues on him, if he dies it all lost.

-Vikings