Koinon Hellenon " weakness "

[HFox]

KH has one great advantage .....gold.

If in doubt do what the Greeks were famous for. Buy success.

Having great fun playinig KH. Thanks.

[Tellos Athenaios]

'Buy succes' a.k.a. 'Hire mercs'

[NeoSpartan]

'Buy succes' a.k.a. 'Hire mercs'

GOLD??? hell... I wish I could get an income above 18K per turn. I have just enough to make a few buildings and retrain my troops.

same story with my Makedonia and Aedui Campains.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Gold?

Well this is how I managed...

(Note that minimal garrison equals minimal in combat power, so that'd be akontistai, spherdonetai, or toxotai, while maintaining high public order at very high tax rates. In the first few turns you won't have money to build anything, and from then on you need to keep in mind that you can only afford the cheapest buildings, and you need to invest above all in economy infrastructures and public order buildings.)

Turn 1: select your faction leader's army, make him hire all the mercs you can afford - whenever possible mistophoroi hoplitai they're the best -, send your spy into Kydonia, lay siege on Kydonia - and most likely - assault it, propose a ceasefire with Makedonia - they will accept -, propose trade rights - they will accept -, split your fleet in two, ship your faction heir's army to Athenai using 1 boat, send the other boat to Kydonia and send all units except your faction leader's bodyguard from Kydonia to that ship.

You should now have Kydonia, combined with Athens your money making key in your early stage campaign.

Turn 2: ally with Epeiros, get trade rights, use your faction heir's army to lay siege on Chalkis, hire their once again all the mercs you can afford, ship the Cretan army to Athenai, send as much garrison from Athenai to the army near Chalkis, train one unit of toxotai in Sparte.

Turn 3: take Chalkis, leave minimal garrison, ship the combined armies (Kretan + Euboian) to Mytilene, hire mercs, train another unit of toxotai in Sparte if possible, assault Mytilene (no wall present yet...), leave minimal garrison, ship the rest back to Chalkis.

Turn 4: by now (pretty late, seeing that they have nearly a full stack in Korinthos, ) the Maks will probably have realised that you're eating them alive and they will have used an army to lay siege on either Sparte or Athens - never mind, keep the advantage of initiative - , to Korinthos - so close that you're near the town, if possible lay siege upon it - , train a diplomat, hire mercs, fight off the following joint attacks from Makedonian standing armies and the Korinthian garrison, use one of your fleets to ship your diplomat (that one present from the get go) to Taras, and ally with the Romans who are probably busy beating Epeiros, and thereby secure Greece from future greedy Roman hands + enabling the Epeirotes to focus on weakening Makedonia!

Turn 5: hire mercs, and either assault or lay siege upon Korinthos.

Turn 5/6: use the large army under your faction heir's command to take Korinthos, leave minimal garrison, and lay siege upon Demetrias, hire mercs, fight off the joint attacks from Makedonian armies and the local garrison, send your spy towards Pella, (using the new recruted diplomat) ask the Epeirotes to attack Makedonia - if they ask for military acces, agree, and ask them for the same next, then they will agree too, and thereby you secure a long lasting alliance.

Turn 6/7: drive the Maks from Thessalia, and infiltrate Pella, send your new diplomat towards the Getai.

Turn 7/8: hire mercs, assault Pella, ally with the Getai, and the Maks are gone!

From now on: focus on the Black Sea rebel cities, get rid of the Getai in the process, and consolidate your rule using Empire Building, you can as I did go for an Sicilian adventure - taking Messana, Rhegion and Syrakouse using the main army except for the faction heir's bodyguard. Use your faction heir to hire mercs and use the new army for expansion towards Tylis, Byzantion, Nicomedia, Kallatis, those Getai lands, Olbia, Chersonessos, Pantikapeion. Meanwhile ally yourself to everyone possible, get trade rights whenever possible, sell map info whenever possible, get map info whenever possible, and you'll be the largest faction in no time at all, and more importantly you'll generate 2 stable money making regions (the Black Sea and the Aegean). Get an army ready to conquer everything to the North of the Seleukids in Asia Minor. Take Thermon.

By now you should be making about 2 - 15k profit/turn, so you can afford a long lasting, expensive war with any agressor, and if need be with multiple agressors too.

[NeoSpartan]

OH BOY!!!!!!!

I just fought a FULL STACK of Potlemoi Elites and beat the S**T out of it!!! (too bad I didn't have Fraps on to take pics of it).

How:
-I was at "slight" uphill slope, so my Phalanx held a long time against Kleruchoi Agameta, and Galatians where not so hard to kill because of the slope.

-Some major generalship on my part + AI bad tacktical decitions = Heroic Victory.

[Watchman]

I've been kind of wondering, would it be a viable tactic for the KH in a "phalanx push" to use lower-grade phalanxes/hoplites (phalangite mercs would be able to match the Diadochi pikes in lenght, and in conjunction with the hoplites and their shorter spears ought to internally disjoint the enemy line a bit too) in the center of the line and put the Thorakitai Hoplitai at the flanks where they'll hopefully be able to start rolling the enemy pike line up from the sides ? I understand the TH pretty good with their AP swords, so I've been wondering if they could double as shock infantry when needed.

[Tellos Athenaios]

That's pretty much what they're for.

As you may conclude from reading their description, they're best used to attack enemies from the side whilst thureophoroi guard their backs.

[NeoSpartan]

I've been kind of wondering, would it be a viable tactic for the KH in a "phalanx push" to use lower-grade phalanxes/hoplites (phalangite mercs would be able to match the Diadochi pikes in lenght, and in conjunction with the hoplites and their shorter spears ought to internally disjoint the enemy line a bit too) in the center of the line and put the Thorakitai Hoplitai at the flanks where they'll hopefully be able to start rolling the enemy pike line up from the sides ? I understand the TH pretty good with their AP swords, so I've been wondering if they could double as shock infantry when needed.

I don't know... try it out, take pics, and let us know how it went.

As of TH being used as shock infantry, try them out.... I use them as a phalanxs 9 times out 10.