People say the same about Carthage too - people can be wrong. My advice for the Greeks at syracuse is to take all the units you can muster on the first turn (including all the mercenaries available) and attack the Roman free standing army. They will fight with support from the units in the town. Kill them all and just stroll into Messana! You have kicked the ROmans off sicilly on the very first turn!

You now have 2 towns to replace your losses and bolster your numbers to take on the Carthage army. So do that on the next turn (if Carthages army is still on the island - sometimes they leave on boats!). Once they are beaten siege their town. Hoplites vs Town Militia = win for you!

You have a massive advantage in town happiness at the start so use / abuse it.

3 turns, 2 cities, 1 completely liberated issland. Piece of p**s.


PS: It may take 4 turns if no-one builds roads!