Egypt

[Garvanko]

Rebels left an open gate for me too. Have wiped out House of Scipii and Rome, but the Julii will take some leveling. Its odd though, at the moment any new family member I get is 50 years old or over? No young 'uns coming in at the moment.

[Craterus]

You might want to hope for a Man-of-the-Hour? At 50, they'll be out of the game soon. Or a young'un to adopt? Worst comes to worst, you'll have to bribe another faction's general to carry on your faction.

[Garvanko]

So what your saying is that my faction is dying out? I suppose, unless what you suggested happens, I can't really control it.

[pezhetairoi]

there's a thread on the colosseum about the sad Greek who hasn't gotten any children in 20-30 years, and no new factioners either. You're not too bad, at least you're getting new factioners, though admittedly old ones. Start sending out two-unit chariot armies to hunt rebels. You'll need MOTHS. Adoptions aren't reliable, they're too random.

[Craterus]

Yeah, if you have some young daughter's you could hope for some adoption/marriage but you would be better off trying for Man of the Hour.

Unfortunately, MOTH isn't of your faction's blood. Once upon a time, when I was playing the Egyptians I made a MOTH my faction leader and he died at 37. I wonder what happened there. My theory is that he was assassinated by his own troops.

If, however, one of your daughters was to marry, her son (not her husband) would be of noble blood.

Sorry, I like to add in a little role-play into my campaigns. Keeps it interesting.

[Garvanko]

I just got a MOTH (+3 stars) capturing Byzantium from the Brutii.

[pezhetairoi]

at last! He will be your heir. :-) *prophetic*

[Craterus]

Yes, don't let him die... Get some kiddies out of him.

[pezhetairoi]

keep him in a city with a temple of love or whatchamacallit.

[Garvanko]

He conquered my 50 province (Thermon - Brutii Capital) and won me the game last night.

[pezhetairoi]

Young people these days... *shakes head* The things they do. XD

[Garvanko]

Your main army (which whups Selecuid arse) is in Alexandria, and it's going to take way too long to go after the Selecuids without Roads, and Paved Roads.

Getting this army to Antioch is the most important thing the first two-three turns of the Egyptian campaign.

Better to send 'em by ship (with your faction leader of course!). You'll have Antioch by turn 4 or 5 this way.

You can take Damascus without a fight by agreeing a ceasefire-give region deal with the SE. Make sure you garrison it immediately though or it will revolt to the rebels. Eitherway, it'll free you time and space to take Tarsus.

[Deus ret.]

people, some of you I know from other forums as passionate fighters of the Egyptian threat. their ranks include myself, though I have been pondering about playing a nice Eggy game...but what would be a good way to make it challenging without gifting the SE with all of the orient's riches (because then they would hunt YOU down...)?

btw since applying the package fixing the scarface issue and some others I experience game crashes whenever there are Lybian mercenaries involved in combat. is there anyone with similar problems?

[katank]

I personally don't think it's possible to have much of an challenging Eggy game. Even the Nile Delta alone is capable of producing some nice armies and supporting them.

You can gift a lot of things to the S.E. and hope they get their act together but it can take a long time.

[Garvanko]

The only challenge with Egypt is dealing with its incessant plague.

[Deus ret.]

The only challenge with Egypt is dealing with its incessant plague.

hey, you got it! Especially those cities in the Nile valley seem to have a strange affinity to this disease. They attract it even when you invest considerable time and money to build up their sanitary infrastructure (which the AI staunchly neglects)...when I played Armenia and already had over 30 provinces, every second plague case was on the Nile. Maybe the Pharaoh's revenge?

[pezhetairoi]

...Maybe Moses. ^_^

Anyway! Pezhetairoi the Master Strategist is officially taking up residence on the Egypt thread having moved over from Spain. But pez here has modded the desert axemen and the desert cavalry drastically, reducing their armour and their numbers. He has also modded the chariots, reducing their general defence and increasing their defensive skill. He has, however, decided to keep the bowmen at 240 a unit since it is a mainstay.

[katank]

Bowmen are still ridiculous. With 8+ bowmen, you often will not need a meat shield.

[pezhetairoi]

I have quit Egypt, it truly is ridiculous. I've decided, all because of Egypt, to remod the game's stats completely to better suit my concept of fair historical reflection. >.< Took Parthia in a two pronged attack after bribing away their main army, and crushed Armenia four turns after the first army crossed its border. When I quit in disgust, I had the lands of the Seleucids, Pontus, Armenia, Parthia, as well as beachheads at Athens, Rhodes, Chersonesos and Byzantium. Not to mention the eastern half of Africa. Whoopee. Now going on to Brutii... Egypt is truly too overpowered.

[Garvanko]

There's no point taking Parthia and Armenia. The end game will see you dealing with riots every turn. Just forget about them, and they'll forget about you.

Playing Egypt, I'd concentrate on the Seleucids, Greeks, Carthage and the Romans. Fight a multi-pronged war, and you should get some fun out of it.

[pezhetairoi]

Not true about riots... it can be done. After all, I can afford 20-unit garrisons if it really comes to that.

[Garvanko]

When you move your faction capital, as you surely must once you get to Greece and italy, riots will become a problem regardless of garrison, unless of course you send you're best leaders up there.

[pezhetairoi]

...Maybe because I'm playing on Medium because I forgot to graduate to hard. Hmm... I never had that problem after I demolished temples and built my own while my army was occupying it.

[Skott]

I have found that going for the rebel towns first or saving them for last really doesnt make much of a difference in the long run. Either strategy is good. I have also found that in the early war the Egyptians are quite powerful but once you enter the mid and late period the Romans put up a huge nasty fight.

My current campaign looks like this. Playing VH/M. Its about 171BC and I have taken everything north all the way to the Caucus Mts. Seleucids, Pontus, and Armenia are gone. Parthia still exists only in the far northern Russian Steppes (just that one province). The Greeks have Rhodes only ( I havent bothered to capture it since they are allied to me). I have taken everything to the west up to and including Tripolitania.

Basically I'm at war with all of Rome now. It was easy up till I decided to invade the Balkan Penisula and Libya. Once I did that I found myself in a long long war of attrition with the Brutii and the Scipii. I landed and took Sparta, Athens, and Corinth pretty fast but then everything bogged down. The Brutii constantly throw army after army against me in large waves. I'm not kidding when I say they have 12-14 armies (half that are full size) swarming all over my cities.

The same thing against the Scipii. I got Libya quite easily but its been a huge war of attrition after that. The problem is that the Roman factions have a endless supply of money apparently. The Julii are fighting whats left of the Brits so havent seen them yet other than a few ships.

I have a nice big income but bribing is a huge drain on it as is the constant repair of troops. I have to use only the best troops now (Pharoh Bowmen, P.Guards, and axemen) to even have a chance of winning a even fight. These types of armies are not cheap and dont gurantee a victory. Auto-Resolving is a big no-no too. I have had 10-1 odds in my favor in numbers and still lost trying auto-resolve so manual fighting it is the only way to win. The computer AI favors the Roman factions in this campaign obviously.

I think I finally got the upper hand on the Brutii now though. They have lost Sparta, Corinth, Athens, Larissa, Thermon, Thessalonnica, Byzantium, and the city directly north of Thessalonnica. They still have armies swarming about but not as full stacks as they once were.

In Africa I'm still in a stalemate against the Scippi. Tripoli is mine but I'm bogged down in a war of attrition with the Scipii. They have a mass of armies that constatly assault my town. If it werent for the Pharoh Bowmen I'd be in trouble. The Romans use those Auxilia Archers and I need the best Egyptian archer to match their range.

Anyway, my point is that once you go head to head with the Romans its a tough serious fight compared to the early fights against the Greeks, Parthians, Pontians, and Armenians. Right now I'm hoping the Romans hurry up and get into their civil war to relieve the pressure somewhat but from my experience that doesnt happen usually until around 140BC. Thats another 30 years at least. Until then its a slow snail pace crawl to get any extra territories. If the Julii were to come at me before then Then it could go very bad. Luckily they are preoccupied with the Brits at the moment.

So, yeah, the Egyptians are easy earlier but later on it does get tough once you take on the Roman Eagles.

[pezhetairoi]

Is this post-Marian? By right if you use combined arms attacks with Nile as backbone no Roman army is going to be able to stand against you, full-stack or not. I took on a Brutii full-stack with 2 generals as Eggy with 8 Niles, 5 Desert Cav, 3 Generals and 4 Nubians. The losses I suffered (10% compared to the enemy's almost-everything) suggest to me that as long as you're in Greece where population is mightily high you should be able to defeat at least 3-4 full-stacks before finally running down your army enough to need retraining. Use desert cav! They may be lightly armoured, but they have armour-piercing attacks, they're MADE for the armoured Romans.

From a strategic pov i crossed to Greece and took on Rome only after I'd finished off the Seleucids and taken over Asia Minor, about turn 30.

[Skott]

Lately I been playing the RTR 5.4.1 mod. The Egyptian faction is very easy to win with. In all fairness though they tell you at the start its an easy faction to play.

Carthage never bothered my Egyptians much even when they declared war on me. Sent a few boats to blockade and that was it. I was amazed how silly that strategy was. There was never an invasion from them although they had about 6 full stacks and a couple lesser stacks on the border. Maybe it was bugged?

Basically I wiped out Pontus, Armenia, Seleucids, and all the rebels in that part of the world and then went straight to Southern Italy. Left the Balkans alone. Fought my way up to Rome, took it, and then quit. I didnt see a need to go on really.

Only played the Egyptians once so others may experience a different fight. But just based on that one campaign I would say the Egyptian faction in 1.0 is harder than in 5.4.1.

[symball]

The egyptians are far too easy. once you start building blacksmiths you can roam the map with hoards of cheap chariots. I have used armies of 14-16 chariot units combined with a few spearmen and archers (for sieges). even being attacked by armies of urban cohorts couldn't stop me. one mass charge with the chariots and I would have yet another heroic victory on my hands.

[Craterus]

The key is the Light Chariots. I remember using those a lot in my campaign. I built entire armies of them, and just used them as horse archers to kill the enemy. That was my second campaign, and before I found this place. Shortly after joining, I gave it up. And then I realised about their UberUnits.

[Garvanko]

Ive just finished a short/longish campaign with Egypt. A good combination of Desert Cav, Archers and Chariots still owns everthing in its path, post-BI/1.3.

[Stefan Ehlers]

Hi I am Stefan, this is my first letter to you. I still trie to figure out how the forum works.
Theres one question I have.
Apparently there is a provincial campaign in rtw, how do one access that campaign.

Greetings
Stefan