Roman: Brutii

[Lonewarrior]

I ran into a money crunch before a successful war with Egypt. Now, no problem.

Egypt is the promised land. Loot and then rich trade galore.

Also, the Hanging Gardens wonder in Babylon increases farm income in all provinces by about 20 percent, I think. That was very useful.

Thanks Doug

[AssasinsShadow]

Brutii do have a great start position. I have over 400k and I'm not even to Egypt yet (In fact, I'm still dealing with the annoying Pontuns(sp?)). Would have taken over faster, but after aquiring half of Turkey and finally eliminating the Macedonians, the Senate attacked me. So I took Capua from the Scipii and called it a day.

[Tzar Kaloyan]

The Egyptians are tough. I made a strategic error to not take the Greeks out early. Instead, I went to Africa, took the two rebel towns there and got myself attacked by Egypt. Had to ask for peace for 5 turns before I could bring in a decent size army for a show-down. Fun and hard battles followed -- the Egyptians have so much cavalry! And those chariots seem to plow right through my legions ... I finally prevailed and repulsed their attack, but taking them down will be hard -- those buggers are very rich.

One easy front has been the north for me. I sent an 8-star general that way with a decent army. Then I used the following strategy:

1) Take a town, leave your army in, take the general for a walk.

2) Build temple of Juno

3) Move about your new domain, setting towers at strategic locations

4) See where the next rebel province is (generally light brown border)

5) Raise a mercenary army, join them with whatever units you can spare from the town (given that public order stays decent)

6) Move to the next town.

Using this simple strategy, I went all the way to the North Edge.

Be careful with Dacians. They have some phalx infantry that will totally ruin your day and plenty of archers. Their faction leader is an 8-star general -- hardly an easy beating.

One thing that is totally bugging me is how you guys deal with squalor?!? I took Siracuse early on and have had nothing but trouble with the city -- it grows fast, it is totally unprofitable and seems completely overtaken by squalor! Trade isn't good there either ... Athens seems to be the same bad deal, just slightly better.

[Doug-Thompson]

There's an impressive thread on squalor in the Collosseum. Here's the bottom line: Squalor goes up with your population at a fixed rate, and there's really not a #!&% thing you can do about it.

"Happy" buildings, sanitation and so forth just treat the effects of squalor. The only thing that actually cuts downs squalor itself are new "city hall" buildings like a imperial palace. A few governor's traits also help.

Things like constructing units only seem to reduce squalor, but that's only because they're reducing the population also.

This is a serious problem for the Brutii in particular, because we conquer heavily populated Greece right off the bat. However, I'd rather have the power in Greece.

[Accounting Troll]

Always build temples of Mars in your two Italian cities so they can become major troop producing centres.

I always take wardogs with me when I'm fighting any faction that has hoplites. They break the enemy formation and also inlict a morale penalty, thus making it easier for your hastatii and principles to rout them. Even Spartans find it hard to concentrate on what is in front of them when they are being bitten in the rear by hungry dogs. This is particularly useful in city assaults where your skirmishers and cavalry don't have room to manovere.

When you conquer Greece, relocate your capital to a more central location such as Athens to reduce problems with unhappiness caused by the distance to your capital.

I prefer to conquer the entire Balkans up to the Danube, including Illrya and Dacia. A fort on each side of each fording point of the Danube will defend your cities against barbarian raids. As your borders will be less porous, brigands will be far less of a problem.

Once you have consolidated your position in the Balkans, invade Asia Minor for the wonders.

[HopAlongBunny]

Excellent guide Doug-Thompson

I did much the same thing but my first expedition was a disaster.

Took Apollinia and the town to the North. Consolodated. Launched a small force to take Pratavium (sp). I had it all! (Yay me! )

The Greeks showed up with 80 boats; sunk my fleets; ate my armies for lunch. I was surprised that they did not pursue me into Italy. After years of rebuilding the Senate said, "Get thee to Corinth!"; I figured why not? It was either that or give up.

Corinth-Sparta-Thermon-Athens all in short order. Once you get started, no detours I guess

edit: I never managed to get a fleet going; the Greeks would show up everytime I thought I was gonna start rolling and sank every boat.

[mikkkl]

I have to say the Brutii are by far the easiest faction because they can take the eastern half of the map and have far shorter supply lines than the other Roman factions. Concentrating on taking the good stuff - Greece, at least 1 Sicily, Carthage and core Egypt as your crown jewels and you can't loose. Eventually i will move my capital to Athens which is pretty close to dead centre of your empire and a great base. Playing on hard/hard very early i take the south-east city in Sicily and not too long after head straight to Carthage and take that. Great recruiting cities and the Scipii never have a real chance. Then finish off all of Greece. Using lots of Equites and then Roman Cavalry i wipe all rebels and the Greeks/Macedonians aren't too hard as even with just cavalry you can take out phalanxes. Position 1 cav in front and then charge at side and rear with other cavalry. After Greece and a few other handy cities and having taken the easy cities in Asia i send a fleet with a couple of family members and take the 3 Egyptian cities on the Nile. Egypt will crumble and taking the rest is easy. I then consolidate and take every city on the eastern half of the map from the black sea ports southwards [don't bother taking extreme northern cities] and east from Carthage. Now you will have 40 plus cities and it's time for Rome. I use cavalry extensively everywhere but i have never tried bribing which is probably why i have so few family members and have to slow down from conquest and wait for more while sharing some across nearby cities. I also rarely use family members for battles as i am so short of governors so i have to fix this. The only unit i have trouble with is the Egyptian chariots which always give me a headache.

[Aemilius]

I actually found that Sparta is a easy kill. I rushed most of my troops over, thus killing the lone spartan-über-hoplite unit. Right after the siege I took the greek faction leader out along with his hopeless army.
I took Apollonia out with Aulus Brutus and the few troops he had. He then rushed the remaining greeks in Thermon with reinforcements from Tarentum.
That said I believe it is a good idea to take Sparta before the greeks start spamming fleets in the adriatic, which could ruin your day.

[Slaists]

don't make the mistake i made playing brutii: building the mars line of temples in your capital... sure, you get +3 experience troops but the cost is you having all the generals that pop in the capital having the anger/madness line of vices with bad influence, management, and command consequences... rather, build it in some province that you can keep running without a governor. Just drop in a governor with unit producing discount traits in to que up units from time to time and take him out right after... Julii have a similar detrimental effect with their Bachus line of temples. But they do not need Bachus for producing troops.

as to squalor: the brutii have the ultimate squalor fighting mechanism: the juno line of temples. note, it does not fight the squalor itself: it raises happiness due to health by a considerable amount negating the detrimental effect of squalor.

[Kekkonen]

as to squalor: the brutii have the ultimate squalor fighting mechanism: the juno line of temples. note, it does not fight the squalor itself: it raises happiness due to health by a considerable amount negating the detrimental effect of squalor.

Isn't that a two-edged sword though? I'm pretty sure health has a positive effect on population growth as well.

A hint for Brutii players: you start with no missile units, but have no fear. When you have the time and a little extra cash, take one of your generals to a short vacation in Crete. There he can recruit excellent Cretan mercenary archers, who have longer range than your regular guys with bows. You need about 800 denarii or so for that; if you have extra to spare, there may even be some Rhodos slingers (capable stand-in for regular archers) available for about the same amount of cash. Just beware: try to land on a spot with no woods (pref. east of the island's only city); the natives may be waiting in the bushes, and they're definitely not friendly.

[Racoth]

Actually you can find Cretan mercenary archers in every greek province now and then.
They 're simply the best archers in the Rome-Balcan-Minor Asia region...

[Lord Preston]

don't make the mistake i made playing brutii: building the mars line of temples in your capital... sure, you get +3 experience troops but the cost is you having all the generals that pop in the capital having the anger/madness line of vices with bad influence, management, and command consequences... rather, build it in some province that you can keep running without a governor. Just drop in a governor with unit producing discount traits in to que up units from time to time and take him out right after... Julii have a similar detrimental effect with their Bachus line of temples. But they do not need Bachus for producing troops.

i notaced this.... moving the capital to athens worked for me. puts the capital in the middle of my empire so distance from capital is less.

[Oshidashi]

I have had a really strange bruttii experience

Ofcourse I took appollonia and the other rebel city at the start. After that i send out my diplomats to my allies and bribed as many roman army's and generals as i could. I suspect the bribe thing is the reason for my strange game.

What happenned is that in turn 10 or so the senate announced me to be outlawed. If you think that's weird check this out: They also outlawed the scippii and the jullii! At the same time they gave me two final missions which was destroying the julli and the scippii. Surprised as I was i checked the diplomacy screen and noticed that all four roman factions were now at war with eachother, like a major civil war! I was like

I now had to turn all my military attention towards italy. I concentrated recruitment in the cities on my fleet and got my army through bribing the other roman army's because this is much cheaper then recruiting yourself and at the same time you will weaken your enemy's.

Note that you cannot bribe units which you can't build yourself. An exeption is made for generals thank god.

I was able to take Capua in turn 15 or so and then i made a ceasefire with the senate so I didn't had to take up against there elite army and had more time bribing their great units to! The jullii where taken easily after suffering from a large number of bribes. During their destruction the senate declared war on me again but now I was ready for them. It took me quite some more turns to get the scippi on sicily because I had to respond to an invasion of the Gauls.

Because i exterminated many (not all) of the roman city's I was rich like hell and able to recruit a large mercenary army which took the greek city of Thermon. Somewhat later i conquered Syracuse and by this time I was already pressing the Gauls into France. Those crazy barbarians did annoy me by making an alliance with the macedon, the carthaganians and with the Germans. The Carthaganians were also allied with Spain so this large alliance caused me to watch my borders a little more against invasion. I also started to make alliances myself with the Thracians and the Dacians

In the medditteranian I have like 2 fleets of 20 ships but not enough to fight the other great naval powers effectively. I've now declared war on macedon together with Thrace and my finances are good, my units experienced and my family is large. Hope to get this to a good end after all.

Peace

[Aggie]

I can't relate to Oshidashi's comments. But it sounds very interesting! In my H/H game I bribed a lot as well, but the senate only got really annoyed at me after I controlled the complete middle-east (including Egypt).

I'm now playing a VH/H game with the Brutii. My first VH-attempt. I followed the suggestions from this threat and took everything I could into Greece/Macedonia. My first aim were the rebel and Greek towns and after securing Sparta and Athens I decided that Macedonia had to go. The only real difficulty was Thessaloniki, where their main army with their king was located. But the Macedonians fell very quickly indeed. And the Greeks after that. The senate gave me the mission to conquer Rhodes, which was a bonus, because that island was no 1 on my list anyway (the Colossus). Meanwhile the Seleucid empire declared war, which made my next targets even more simple to determine.

I had my biggest issues with the Greek fleet. I took me quite long to get rid of them to get a safe passage to Asia minor and the islands.

Money was never a problem until now. From the start I had a couple of diplomats getting trade rights and selling maps around. I'm now at about 100K and the year is 256 B.C. I deliberately avoided bribing, to ensure a challenging endgame vs the other Roman tribes. Unfortunately they are doing a very bad job and only the Scipii managed to get a town until now: Syracuse.

EDIT: What followed was that my income went sky-high. Around 250 B.C. I was on 200K. Getting the Seleucid empire under my wings was never a problem. I also took over Dacia and Thrace. They were both very weak and I had troops that I didn't want to have unused. Then Germany declared on me, so I took 4 towns from them.

At 248 B.C. the reforms kicked in and in the same turn I was told that the people love me so much that they'd like to see me conquer Rome. So I made peace with Germany and Carthage. Then I sent half of my troops back to Italy and the other half to Egypt. It's 245 B.C. now and I'm standing in front of the gates of Memphis. I also conquered Rome and much of Italy.

My tactic with Rome was that I attacked a rather small stack just outside the borders with an overwhelming force. The senate troops from within Rome came to help -leaving Rome- and I won the battle convincingly. I then could enter into an empty Rome and never had to siege the place!

I was happy to see that the Julii and the Scipii managed to gain a lot of territory between 256 and 250. The Julii most of the former Gaul lands and the Brutii controlled Sicily and were quite far in conquering North Africa. The Germans, Britons and Egyptians were big empires as well.

My luck was that Julii was fighting Germany and the Scipii were in Africa. Italy was relatively empty.

I still have 8 regions to go, but with a force 5 times as big as the next best this will be very easy...

[cunobelinus]

i found brutti the best roman group they are in the best postion and have the eaiest people to kill off i went fro carthage to begin with because its an amazing city then i went for greece and macedon then i took the hole of the world this has been my most succesful campaig n and i am so happy with it

[Craterus]

i found brutti the best roman group they are in the best postion and have the eaiest people to kill off i went fro carthage to begin with because its an amazing city then i went for greece and macedon then i took the hole of the world this has been my most succesful campaig n and i am so happy with it

sounds good, maybe you could post a screenshot of this campaign - that could be helpful to other members.

[cunobelinus]

i will try soon thanks for the opinion

[pezhetairoi]

Brutii are definitely the easiest Roman faction (and possibly the easiest faction full-stop) to play in RTW. They get the richest cities from the start, and the highest population ones to boot. What else needs be said?

I mean, when I can end up with over a million denarii (and no idea how to spend it) by the time I knock out Egypt, it says something about how fearsome that faction's economic power is. And I assure you it has nothing to do with me building any trade buildings. Maybe the automanage AI, but not me.

[pezhetairoi]

How do you people make the transition from pre to post Marian reforms? For me it was pretty terrible when all of a sudden my armies became obsolete at a stroke. Do you people raise new armies, while disbanding the old ones, or scatter the old ones as garrisons and use new ones to attack, or just continue using the old ones until they die out before replacing, or what?

[katank]

I personally let my old armies die out fighting. No point to disbanding as that is as if I'm giving the enemy free kills. Frequently, I'm in the middle of military expeditions. Better to keep up the pressure with the old troops and maintain the tempo rather than wait for new troops to be brought up if they don't have to be.

[McArthurBR]

do you guys have any tips about the falxmen?
i mean, some good ways to kill them

[Craterus]

Pin them and charge into their rearwith cav? Works with most barb infantry.

[pyhhricvictory]

The same thing happened to me that happened to Oshidashi. I had taken Sparta, Corinth and Athens in Greece as well as Pergamum, Sardis and Halicanarsus. I get outlawed the next turn, so do the Julies and the Skippers. The Senate will take my alliance but will then immediately outlaw me again the same turn. I have no idea what happened.

[Craterus]

I think it would be funny if the 3 slaves of the senate (Julii, Brutii and Scipii) jsut eventually got so annoyed with their bossiness and destroyed them. Then there would be a battle for Rome. I tihnk Brutii or Scipii would win it.

[pezhetairoi]

Hey? why not the julii? Go Redskirts! *is a Julii fan*

[King Macedon]

I have choosen Byzatium as my capitol. There, i have buildit up to a huge city with urban baracks! Strange is that i can recuit urban cohort, altrougth
they havent been any marian reforms yet!

[Craterus]

You can recruit Praetorian Cohort. Not Urbans.

[GreatEmperor]

Can you build Praetorian Cohorts before the Marius Reforms than?

[Copperhaired Berserker!]

I need a gudie for Spqr 3.0 for brutti?Healp?

[limitedwhole]

Brutii Guide:

Intro:
This is a guide to the general strategy of the Brutii with a 5 turn opening. I welcome criticism and corrections, so reply if you have any. This is for a very hard/very hard difficulty game were you don’t mind saving and loading (not iron man). This strategy makes heavy use of your sons early in combat, and there is always a chance that they fall even to a two bit peltast. Obviously some things will be different. You may get different ancillaries, different Senate missions, etc, but early on things shouldn’t be too divergent.

Primary principles: Growth, Trade, Navy
Primarily you want to grow your cities as fast as possible the best way to do this by slaves and leaving all ungoverned cities on growth policy. I leave a governor in Tarentum only in the early game to maximize the slave flow to this key city. Later on you will govern only Athens and Tarentum.
By ignoring military buildings and focusing on trade we ramp up our production and growth fast. This will allow us to spend essentially at will without taking up precious cue space producing armies and buildings. We will make up for this by fighting closer battles well and hiring key mercenaries. We will also try to take advantage of any cities we conquer that may already produce military units.
Finally, this strategy imposes a heavy naval build up early. This is because we require dominance of the seas for the flexibility and range it provides our military movements which will make us all the more faster. Every turn you get to the enemy gates faster, is one less unit they can defend with.

General Strategy Arc:
We will send Amulius at the head of our eastern army on a no holds barred march towards Athens and the coveted academy that it provides. Aulus will bring up the rear of this army, building forts along the way to discourage the Macedonians from stabbing us in the back and taking our non-defended towns. We will want to ally with the Macedonians for several reasons. Firstly, their armies are too powerful for us to take down without more production. Their large quantity of hoplites and cavalry will decimate our armies. Secondly they will provide us with a needed trading partner in our war against the Greeks. Finally, later on, they will provide a key naval ally as we push the war into turkey.
Our second advance will consist of Tiberious and the bets of our units. He has a massive task and and no backup. He will march in a lightning attack on Syracuse, beating the Scipii to the key grain supply which will key grow Croton. It will also remove any Greek presence from the west and keep them form producing ships their. Syracuse will provide us with ships ourselves as Tiberious takes the war to Lilybauem and to Carthage securing the second source of grain. This manouver will also box-in the scipii and keep them small so that they are easy to conquer later in the game. Eventually, you want Tiberious to double back along the coast taking territories and culminating with a strike on Sparta, and finally betraying the Macedons and taking Corinth.
Our third advance will be either an adopted son or Cassius Brutus along with several Equites. They will sail north taking Segestica, and Patavium, and Mediolanum. This serves several purposes. Mediolanum gives us a port on the western shores of Italy, Patavium ensures that no Gaulish fleets will harass us form the north, Segestica ensures our dominace of the eastern cove. Finally, this hems in the Julii, much like our second manouver making them easier to conquer once civil war breaks out.

The Family:
Tending our family is of the upmost importance. Try only to marry political characters into your family. True Roman is a prized trait we are looking for. Most prized are political/management characters. We want to dominate the Senate offices, and “control” Rome even before the civil wars breaks out.

Ancilliaries:
Early on the prized ancillaries are Military Tribune, Slave Trader, and Doctor. Military Tribune will help us get elected to offices early. Be sure to be valiant in battle with your generals. We want at least one by turn 5, but two doesn’t hurt. Slave trader is a must. You want at least one by turn 5 to put on whoever is going to govern Athens (Amulius for turn, then Aulus). A second one may be carried back to Tarentum (for Vibius), on one of your sons as he makes his way back west (possibly to govern either Syracuse or Carthage). Doctor is extraordinary as well. We definitely want one for Vibius as he isn’t even married yet and if he does not have children his line will end. Furthermore, we really want one on Amulius and Aulus. For this reason we will want to build Temples to Juno early on in both Tarentum and Athens. Later on we will tear them down and build the Mercury line to increase our trade revenue. Finally, we are moving to takes Athens as early as possible for the Academy (not to mention the future trade potential, taking it early prevents any conflict with the Macedons over this city). Since Amulius and Aulus are headed there, both our immediate sons who will come of age and our adopted son will show up in Athens ready to get ancillaries and more ancillaries.

Five Turn Opening:

Turn1: Senate mission: Take Appolonia for a great reward (reload if you do not get this mission, the 5K is necessary to play this strategy.)

-Vet Equites, Hastati from Amulius to Croton
-Vet Hastati from Aulus to Croton
-Velites form Tarentum to Amulius
-Aulus army to north shore directly north of Tarentum
-Aulus recruits Samnites
-Hastati from Tarentum to Croton
-1 Bireme to north shore (NE of Aulus)
-Load Aulus army and move NE to due south of Salona
-1 Bireme to SE of Croton
-Spy, Diplomat, Amulius army to remaining Bireme
-Land this Bireme directly west of Appolonia
-Have spy investigate Appolonia
-Amulius attacks Appolonia

Battle 1: Appolonia
Amulius, 2 Velites, and Hastati vs. 2 Peltasts and Hoplites

Objectives: Keep Hastati from taking Casualties. Get Amulius into the thick of it but not into those Hoplite spears. Enslave the populace.

Strategy: Line up Hastati at main entrance with Velites at the two side entrance. Put Amulius to the right by the Velites. March Velites and Hastati up to seal off entrances. March Hastati part way up the path (but not to far) to draw out Peltast(s). Send Velites in to draw Hoplites out to left. Send in Amulius to clean up the remaining Peltast. Keep those Hastati out of fire even if it means, marching them back out of the path (even running). Have Amulius clean up second Peltast. If the Hoplites double back trap them between two Velites and fire away.

Results: MD K MR
Amulius 529 479 464
Captain 481 77 0

-Amulius (alone) NE to mountain pass, build fort
-Move spy to fort
-move Diplomat to SW of fort
-Appolonia to growth build and build governor’s house
-Tarentum to high taxes, build Shrine to Juno, build diplomat
-Croton to very high taxes, build port (for future grain imports from Syracuse), diplomat
-Bireme W of Appolonia to dues south of Appolonia (on coast)

Turn 2: Senate Mission with Macedon: Trade Agreement

-Aulus disembark to SE of Salona, hire Illyrians, attack

Battle 2: Salona
Aulus, Velites, Peltasts, and Samnites vs. 2X peltasts, Hoplites, and Pirates

Objectives: Win and enslave populace.

Strategy: Use Aulus like crazy and hope he doesn’t die. This is a very hard battle particularly if Salona has narrow streets. If you have the battle map like Appolonia was just charge the Peltasts unit on the outside with Aulus and they will break. His pirates will come charging over. Reverse Aulus and hit them full force send the Samnites in to the flank. After this point its just mop up detail. Lure the Hoplites away from the remaining Peltasts with Velite fire. Have Aulus (whats left of him) and the Samnite charge them. Then pinch the hoplites between Velites and Illyrian fire. Hopefully, you’ll get a military tribune for this (I didn’t).

Results: MD K MR
Aulus 545 640 443
Captain 641 120 1

-Aulus (alone) to mound SE, build fort
-Illyrians, Velites to Bireme
-Bireme to coast due south of fort
-Aulus to Bireme
-Illyrians to fort
-Bireme to S
-Appolonia Diplomat to SW of Macedonian diplomat
-Barter trade agreement
-Sell Map info (830)
-Alliance with Macedon (1440)
-Move this diplomat now to the NW of the Greek army to the south in Thermon
-Trade agreement
-Sell map, Alliance (2630)
-Amulius, 2 Velites, Hastati to Bireme south of Appolonia
-Disembark SE of Thermon
-Diplomat at Croton and Tiberious army into Bireme
-Disembark north of Syracuse
-Diplomat north of Syracuse bribes Greek army (5080)
-Diplomat near Thermon bribes Greek army (3480)
-Amulius hires Hoplites and betrays the Greeks, set siege of Thermon (ram)
-Tiberious sets siege of Syracuse (ram, 3 ladders)
-Bireme NE of Syracuse blockades port.
-Diplomat at Syracuse proposes ceasefire to Greek diplomat (2000)
-reset both sieges and blockade
-Thermon Bireme to SE of Amulius
-Diplomat at Tarentum to NW towards Capua
-Diplomat at Thermon to east to block mountain pass
-Croton set to growth policy and build diplomat
-Appolonia set to growth policy and build land clearance
-Salona set to growth policy and build governor’s house
-Tarentum build Equites and Temple to Juno

Turn 3: Senate Mission: Take Patavium

-Diplomat to Capua (agreement for you to attack Greeks for 640)
-Diplomat to E of Rome (Agreement for you to attack Greeks for 600)
-Tiberious hires Hoplites and Illyrians and assaults

Battle 3: Syracuse:
Tiberious, 2 Vet Hastati, 2 Hastati, Vet Equites, Vet Velites, Hoplites, Illyrians
Vs. Dionysios and Hoplites

Objectives:
Kill valuable son of Greece and enslave populace without losing too many casualties.

Strategy: Throw stuff at his Hoplites while keeping his horse at bay with your hoplites, simple enough. Lure them away from the town center for an easy victory.

Results: MD K MR
Tiberious 1313 127 1198
Dionysios 229 135 102

-Amulius attacks Thermon

Battle 4: Thermon
Amulius, 2 Velites, Hastati, Hoplites
Vs. Antigonos and Hoplites

Objectives: Enslave populace while killing valuable son of Greece without losing Hastati.
Strategy: Use Hoplites to keep Antigones from charging. Use ranged attacks to draw his hoplites from the square. Push Antigones out of square with hoplites. (Or seal him out once he goes to chase ranged attackers.)

Results: MD K MR
Amulius 631 68 511
Antigonos 208 110 140

-Aulus Bireme to tree grove just south of Thermon border
-Thermon diplomat to next mountain pass S of Larissa
-Aulus disembark and move to mountain pass where diplomat was and build fort
-Bireme to cove NWW of Thermon, velites disembark
-Amulius army to Bireme SE of Thermon, move due east and disembark towards Athens. March to the SE.
-Diplomat at Syracuse barters with Greek diplomat for ceasefire (3000)
-Tiberious army (leaving behind Peltasts) and diplomat to Bireme and land SEE of Lilybaeum
-Diplomat at Lilybaeum (trade rights) (map 1000) (alliance 2050)
-Diplomat at Croton moves north west to the NE of Tarentum’s copper
-Thermon Bireme north to fishing village
-Bireme N of Corinth merge with the Thermon bireme
-Syracuse set to growth policy, shipwright, repair, bireme, try to cue peasant to keep Syracuse from rioting)
-Croton, trader, bireme
-Tarentum, equites
-Salona, land clearance
-Thermon, growth policy, destroy Shrone to Hermes, repair, Velites, Land Clearance

Turn 4:
-Diplomat at Thermon towards Athens
-Aulus to Bireme to south, disembark to mountain pass south of Larissa and build fort
-Velites NW of Thermon to fort N of Thermon
-Velites in Thermon to fort south of Larissa
-Aulus to Bireme, land east near Athens, march NE
-Amulius siege Athens (Hire Illyrians, ram, ladder)
-Syracuse Bireme to SE of Lilybaeum
-Lilybauem Bireme join the Bireme you just moved
-Tiberious siege Lilybaeum (2 Ram)
-Croton Bireme to coast directly north of Tarentum
-Tarentum 2 Equites to Bireme on north coast
-Diplomat at Tarentum to Gaulish diplomat (Trade rights, Map 1500, Alliance 1040) then moves W
-Diplomat at Rome (attack Carthage:?), to Scipii Diplomat (attack Carthage:?), to Arretium (attack Carthage:?) (I didn’t have any luck here and couldn’t get a deal. You might do better) to NW of Arretium
-Syracuse, Bireme, cue 4 peasants
-Croton, Bireme
-Appolonia, Trader
-Thermon, Velites
-Tarentum, Equites, Trader

Turn 5: Cassius comes of age
-Cassius, Equites to Bireme N of Tarentum
-Bireme N of Tarentum moves NW towards island
-Amulius assaults Athens (join Aulus if you can, I couldn‘t, a Macedon army was in the way)

Battle 5: Athens
Amulius, Hastati, Vet Velites, Velites, Hoplites, Illyrians
Vs. 3 Hoplites and Peltasts

Objectives: Occupy Athens so as to keep Population high
Stategy: Lure away Peltasts, Lure away Hoplites with ranges attacks

Results: MD K MR
Amulius 673 293 534
Captain 617 163 322

-Aulus to Athens
-Aulus, move Merc Captain, Slave Trader, Exotic Slave, etc. to Amulius
-Tiberious assaults Lilybaeum

Battle 6: Lilybaeum
Tiberious, 2 Vet Hastati, Vet Velites, Vet Equites, 2 Hastati, Hoplites
vs. Theages and Peltasts

Objectives: Kill valuable son of Carthage and enslave populace
Strategy: Try to lure Peltasts away and charge with General and Equites. Theages will counter charge. Seal him off form the town square with hoplites.

Results: MD K MR
Tiberious 1047 102 918
Theages 206 133 104

-merge Vet Hastati at Lilybaeum
-Tiberious army sans smaller Vet Hastati and diplomat to Bireme, move to NE of Carthage (fight ships if in way of landing)
-Diplomat at Carthage (ceasefire 4000)
-Tiberious sieges Carthage (Sap, 3 ladders, hire Libyan and Numidian mercs)
-Diplomat at Carthage to Numidian diplomat (Trade Rights, Map 1000, try for Alliance, I couldn’t get one for money)
-Lilybaeum, repair, retrain, hastate, port (to import Carthingian grain)
-Syacuse Bireme W towards Carthage
-Carthage Bireme E to be adjacent to Bireme that just headed this way, blockade port
-Syracuse, decue peasants, cue Bireme and 2 peasants
-Salona, Trader
-Thermon, Trader, diplomat
-Athens, low taxes, destroy temple to Athena, repair, shrine to Juno, diplomat, cue 2 peasants
-Diplomat at Athens to N
-Bireme at Croton to SE
-Bireme at Athens W (merge with Bireme from Croton)
-Diplomat at Arretium to north between Mediolanum and Patavium
-Diplomat at Rome to N to Ariminum
-Croton, Communal Farming, Bireme
-Tarentum, Equites

Try it. It's a nasty opening. 8 Regions by turn 5. You'll take Carthage on the following turn. Yum Yum.