The Greek Cities

[Colovion]

The biggest thing I can suggest when you go up against Macedon is to form your Phalanx units in DEEP formation - at least 5 or 6 deep. Make sure you have your flanks/rear covered as well because you haven't many good cav units. I took over the entire Greek Penninsula with mainly Hoplite units only boltered by some Cretian archer mercs (which are indespensible in the early game) and perhaps some Militia Cav. Sometimes by the time you get to Larissa or anywhere north of that area you will encounter the plague. Build Sewers and Public baths ASAP in all northern provinces to counteract the spread of it - losing a couple family members totally cripples your Family Tree if you dont' watch out.

-Try to make nice with the Selucids and Pontus as well as all of the eastern powers until you can consolidate yourself to the Greek penninsula. An alliance with the Selucids is a great buffer zone between yourself and any possible enemies in the east.
-make sure to have naval supremacy - you're surrounded by water and every province you have is a naval port - use it!
- use your naval supremacy to subdue the Egyptians if they get too out of control (they will). If you can get an alliance that is better unless you're geared on Conquoring that incredibly rich area ;)

[Armchair Athlete]

For your cavalry needs the province east of Pergamun (Galatia, city of Ancyra) has mercenary Sarmatian Cavalry. They have very good charge (15) and reasonable attack and defense values. They are about on a par with Macedonian cavalry. The rebels in this area are quite weak, (2 naked fanatics and one peasant) and Pontus usually ignore this city to go for Nicomedia. Take your family member from Pergamun and hire some mercenaries along the way (in your province you can hire cretan archers, rhodian slingers, mercenary peltasts and merc hoplites) and take this city. It has a very small population, but you're there for the mercenaries mainly (you can also hire some exp 2 barbarian infantry). Its reasonable for money making too (about 500 per turn) however you cannot build a port so it misses out on the big bucks.

EDIT - The Sarmatians dont appear very often, so take good care of them when they are available for hire. barbarian cavalry mercenaries appear much more frequently near Ancyra, but are not as good (still better than Greek cavalry though). Sarmatians also appear in the Pontic provinces and I think Armenia.

[Sir Moody]

Personally as the Greeks i follow 3 Simple Rules
1) i let the enemy come to me - the Greek army is inheriently Defensive so if you dont make any agreesive attacks and instead intice enemy armies to attack you - your on the road to victory
2) Present a Solid Front - you dont want a single gap in your lines and if you cant defend you flanks with cav or mercs bend the hoplites into a horse shoe - this in itself is devestating during defences as the enemy has nowhere he can slip in behind you and will alwayse be facing at least one unit
3) If under seige dont wait Sally forth - the Greeks lack a solid wall defence so unless you can destroy all the ladders and towers before they reach the wall (highly unlikely) your gonna need to hit them before they hit you - with the Romans this works even better as they rush to the walls torepulse your attack.... before you make it which puts them in a world of hurt and you can sit inside the walls until ure archers run out of ammo then move on out

On the Campaign map there are again some simple stratgies to Greek Domination (the Greeks have the potential to outstrip the Egytions in power in the early game so if you can keep it going the momentum will rush you to end game)
1) unite Greece and Smash the Macedonians - this is relativly easy if you move fast and take Athens and Corinth before they know whats happening
2) once Greece is behind you comes the next stage and this is where you can split and take your own path - your choices are simple you can move to the rich east where pickings are easy and ull make even more than u allready are (with all of Greece im making a mere 15k a turn which is great for the early game) OR and this is the choice i urge - you deal with those Irksome Romans before they get the marius reforms. If you Counter the incoming Romans and then push your way back round the North of itally and down you can smash them one battle at a time - so long as you arnt overly agressive this should be easy (remmber Defensive is the Way to victory move into positions where the Romans have to attack you)
3) Once you either control the majority of the East or have crushed Rome then how you procede is up to you - personally i went for egypt but the Northan barbarians are probably a good choice too

Army makeups are easy
1) Build hoplites as you main Assualting (well i meen if you follow the defensive stratagy like myself the armies that move on the campaign map) they seem to be better in the open battles than the Armoured relatives
2) For every 4 hoplites build 1 Archer (remmeber when using them to stop them shooting once the enemy is at ure wall of spears)
3) for every 2 archers build one Cav (this is optional most my armies dont have anything like that much cav(some none at all))
4) for Cities defences build armoured hoplites - while they seem to be worse than hoplites in the field they are MUCH better on the walls
5) Make extreme use of mercs - the Greek army lacks the agressive power of the other nations so you need a god solid attack force from time to time use any barbarian Merc you come across

if you follow these rules you can emulate Alexander in no time

[Colovion]

I find an interesting way to succeed as the Greeks is to not stretch yourself thin trying to combine your provinces too early. Wait and build up your troops in each of your cities. This is much more difficult to defeat for the computer as they will have huge armies in a few cities instead of many cities with only a few troops per. Start by building up Sparta and advance on Macedon through Corinth, Athens, Larissa etc... Thermon may be tough to hold onto because it is kind of blowing in the wind. Build up a large amount of phalanx units to bolster all of those skirmishers. If you can use the Skirmishers as a "hit and run" tactic on the enemy as they appoach - every bit helps.

[Tibilus]

Ok I must have lost my brain?? But I cant seem to pick anything else other than, Julii, Brutii, scipii, Gaul, Bitrs, Carth, Germans????

Thanks for any help on that?

[Lord_Winter]

For some reason I had huge amounts of money a few turns into the game say mabye five six or so and I bought Athens and recommend everyone else to do the same...since it spares a lot of time and perhaps more then a few soldiers to the real war with the macedonians...

[sapi]

you can only play as factions that you dealt a killing blow to in a previous campaign. Just kill the greeks and they will become playable

[Shottie]

I hate to get off topic but I can only play as 3 factions. How can I get other factions to play? Im used to MTW where I can pick what faction I want to play.

[eeyoredragon]

Click the link below to download the All Factions Mod (or you can complete the campaign with one of the Roman Factions):

Clickety-click

[Young Belisarius]

i never lost syracuse, despite it's isolation. in fact syracuse was like my impregnable castle, despite carthage and scipii attacking me. all i did was put save my archers, and hastened my way to build a range so i could build more.then the rest is just making more hoplites. and my city was never conquered.

[TN[ KrAzY!]

ive never lost syracuse either, let the romans and carthaginians attack you then when theyve wiped themselves out on your defences move out of the city and capture their 2 towns. My biggest problem with the greeks has been diplomacy, absolutley no1 will ally with me at all even if im winning most of my battles or offer them REDMAN CHEWloads of cash still no1 will ally, i get plenty of trade aggreements, even factions like the pontus who im continually wiping the floor with will not even accept a ceasefire, any suggestions?

[Jeanne d'arc]

ive never lost syracuse either, let the romans and carthaginians attack you then when theyve wiped themselves out on your defences move out of the city and capture their 2 towns. My biggest problem with the greeks has been diplomacy, absolutley no1 will ally with me at all even if im winning most of my battles or offer them REDMAN CHEWloads of cash still no1 will ally, i get plenty of trade aggreements, even factions like the pontus who im continually wiping the floor with will not even accept a ceasefire, any suggestions?

Make alliances with factions that have common enemies as u have.Make sure u watch them closely and if they send troops in to your teritory then they are going to attack u, use diplomats to cement the alliance with bribes.
Best chanche on a succesfull alliance :
-faction u want alliance with is at war with one of your enemies
-faction u want alliance with is far away from your borders

[jerby]

[QUOTE=Colovion]The biggest thing I can suggest when you go up against Macedon is to form your Phalanx units in DEEP formation - at least 5 or 6 deep. Make sure you have your flanks/rear covered as well because you haven't many good cav units. I took over the entire Greek Penninsula with mainly Hoplite units only boltered by some Cretian archer mercs (which are indespensible in the early game) and perhaps some Militia Cav. Sometimes by the time you get to Larissa or anywhere north of that area you will encounter the plague. Build Sewers and Public baths ASAP in all northern provinces to counteract the spread of it - losing a couple family members totally cripples your Family Tree if you dont' watch out.
QUOTE]

how do you do the 'deep'-part? and why?---> how and why?

[Chimpanzee]

can anyone give me the code for the Macedon plague. I was being stupid and deleted it when I played Macedon and now I want it back so I can infect all their cities. it is in C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign. Look in the text file descr_events and it is like the second or third one down entitled plague_in_macedonia. I need all 3 lines of code in that group. Thanks. PS I know it happens really early, but I want it for my next campaign.

In addition I find it usefull to only take Theramon, Athens, Corinth, and Sparta in southern Greece, since I can then use the Macedonians as a buffer in the north while I focus my attentions elsewhere. Then I can kill the Brutii at my leasure while Macedon is to occupied with Thrace to bother with me at the moment.