It took me some time to get my cash positive with the Makedonians - and I built mines in turn 1 and pillaged a lot, while disbanding a lot of cavalry, in order to do that.

I basically gather all the useful troops into two armies (one near Demetrias and one near Sparte) and kick KH off the mainland ASAP. They normally try and march in to relieve Sparte so I fight a big pitched battle and normally slaughter them handily which gives me the city for free if I can kill all the garrison as they flee. Then I make peace with the KH until I am ready to take Crete and Rhodes, this stops them disrupting my trade and also lets me trade with Rhodes for a while.

I garrison the cities, disband down to one large army, and take Byzantion, Tylis, and Sardika in that order (by using my one remaining unit of ships to sail my army out to Byzantion and then marching back. By this stage the Epeirotes are normally angry at my for denying them Sardika and want to go to war, which I am usually ready for since, by this stage I have managed to get a positive cashflow.