Help with first campaign

[Hargrimm]

Hello!

Well, I got this game a while ago, but I haven't played it until now. I've started my first campaign as the Julii, and I don't think I'm doing too badly:



However, I'm not sure how to expand my empire right now:



I've got about 4 stacks in the western provinces, and I'm allied with Spain, who control that peninsula. I've got two stacks along the border to the north, and three stacks in the western regions. I have potential expansions and enemies in every direction. Where should I go? My main priority is to enhance my economical situation, which is somewhat struggling right now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[ByzantineKnight]

However, I'm not sure how to expand my empire right now:



I've got about 4 stacks in the western provinces, and I'm allied with Spain, who control that peninsula. I've got two stacks along the border to the north, and three stacks in the western regions. I have potential expansions and enemies in every direction. Where should I go? My main priority is to enhance my economical situation, which is somewhat struggling right now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, your best bet would be to advance into the Gauls land, they are very easy to defeat in vanilia... The dacians are weak too.

But if you want to rack in some cash go to the greeks, their land is rich.

Good Luck

Byzantine Knight

[jhhowell]

Where should I go? My main priority is to enhance my economical situation, which is somewhat struggling right now.

Greece, without question. It's very rich, and just as important it will stifle the Brutii if you take it before they can. I'd guess the Roman factions will be at war with Macedon soon anyway, so there's really no down side. Your western troops may as well finish off the Gauls, though there's not much economic benefit over there. If I'm seeing the map right that Gaul owns Baetica, taking that and rebel Tingis is a rich little trade pair. Looking further ahead, Egypt is insanely rich, don't let the Scipii get it (unless you can time the civil war for just after Egypt goes to war with them). I can't speak from personal experience, but my belief is that you've already gone as far north as is worthwhile for a Roman faction - go east and south now.

As an aside, I found it very helpful in my first game to plan well ahead for the civil war. Judging from the map, it's not too soon to start building or reorganizing full stacks of your best troops in your starting provinces and other locations, ready for quick knockout blows against Rome and the best Brutii and Scipii cities when the time is right. That time being when your armies are in position and you're popular enough with the people to start a civil war.

[The Teacher]

Some tips i would use is:

1) Leave Africa along let the Scipi waste thier time and energy there.

2) Stop developing your Eastern side of the empire as its fragmented and will take time and money, men to crush the Gaul with little profit.

3) First secure your Eastern side of the empire, build forts and secure them with low level troops. Leave a rapid reaction for on the border there to scare off any Gaul who gets any smart ideas.

4) Use the rest of your energy to crush the Greek and Macedian forces where you will stack up nice fat troop producing citys.

5) Use those citys as your troop production centres to create stacks to subdue the rest of the region, and get ready for the civil war.

6) Dont push north into the Darcian theres little profit there.

7) Take the few settlements around the Istanbul region for the wonders.

8) Never forget that retraining troops will acrue massive benefits from their battle experience ...

By this stage you will have a well oiled machine and may be ready to nail the other factions !

Tell me how u do ..

[Severous]

Hi. Thanks for the screenshot.

First campaign...Julii. Snap. I suspect many do as we did..Red Romans first.

Have you thought about the 50 regions you will capture to win ? I choose the western end of the map (planned on playing Green Romans for conquest of the eastern end of map as my second campaign)

So my advice is based on what I did:

- Beat Gaul. (Easy). Their regions provide money...not vast sums but it is all extra income to improve your postion.

- Take out Briton. The London<>Belgium sea trade route is very profitable. Theres another 6 regions in your empire. (Learn how to fight chariots)

- Spain will have to go (Easy)..as will Germany (fight phalanx Spearbands) . Just pick your time carefully.

- Rome. Maybe that could be your 50th region. Might get away without fighting any Romans except SPQR.

You have a lot of troops. Thats why finances are tight. Dont build any for a few turns and capture enemy regions now. That the best way to improve finances.

Good luck.

[Hargrimm]

I think that's one of my problems; I keep on producing troops when I don't really need them. I think I should just try to work up a strong core of 4-5 experienced, upgraded armies.

Also, any tips on fighting chariots? I know to avoid barbarians in forests, but not too much else. Do the greeks/macedonians have anything special I need to worry about?

Thanks for the help!

[Craterus]

Greeks/Macedonians have slow, phalanxes and the Macedonians have some great early cavalry in the form of Light Lancers.

As Rome, it's easy enough to defeat phalanxes as long as you use your legionaries' pila (javelins) to full effect. Archers wouldn't go a miss either.

Light Lancers won't hold in prolonged combat so if you can pin them down, you'll be fine.

[ByzantineKnight]

Also, any tips on fighting chariots?

You should get masses of histati or other pila throwing infantry to bog them down, spearmen to kill them, and add a bit of archer backup (Flaming arrows cut them to pieces, if they hit)

[jhhowell]

I think that's one of my problems; I keep on producing troops when I don't really need them. I think I should just try to work up a strong core of 4-5 experienced, upgraded armies.

Also, any tips on fighting chariots? I know to avoid barbarians in forests, but not too much else. Do the greeks/macedonians have anything special I need to worry about?

Correct, only produce troops when/if you need them (i.e. lots of peasants for garrisons - that tends to be the vast majority of troop builds in my games). Four or more full stacks sounds about right; add more as your economy permits and needs require.

Chariots are freakin' annoying. The chariot archers the Egyptians use much more so than the melee chariots - at least you can come to grips with the latter. Just let them charge you and mob them with your infantry, you'll take more casualties than you might be used to, but the chariots will die. Chariot archers - use archer auxilia and/or cretan archer mercs. That won't destroy them, but will at least cause some damage and influence where they move on the battlefield. It is possible to run down and murder chariot archers with good cavalry, but doing so is insanely bloody. I lost quite a few generals doing that early on in my Seleucid game as I blitzed Egypt (early game Egyptian generals are chariot archer units - they should have moved on to normal cavalry armored generals by this point in your game, I think). Velites/light auxilia/peltasts/skirmishers have some bonus against chariots, but I've never seen it be useful. Their range is just too short - they're particularly hopeless against chariot archers.

If you can arrange it, the ideal anti-chariot system is to get them to charge you across bottleneck terrain (bridge or city street). Have a phalanx or two at your end of the bottleneck and the chariots will be annihilated for little or no losses when they hit the spears. Only works against melee chariots, sadly. Auxilia or triarii might work too, but phalanxes are best due to the reach of their spears. There are plenty of mercs, it shouldn't be hard to carry a few into Egypt with you. If you besiege Alexandria when an Egyptian army with chariots is somewhere in the delta, you should get exactly the bridge battle you want.

I'd also recommend going heavier on the cavalry when attacking Egypt. The AI loves their bowmen (who wouldn't?), and tends to field armies with insufficient infantry. So the usual Roman heavy infantry masses are less necessary, and having plenty of cavalry auxilia/roman cav/equites/legionary cav to run down and kill the various archer units is helpful. The flexibility of jav cav like the cav. auxilia is nice - charge the archers, then come back and javelin the nile spearmen/nubians/etc. afterwards.

[Caius]

Chariots are freakin' annoying. The chariot archers the Egyptians use much more so than the melee chariots - at least you can come to grips with the latter. Just let them charge you and mob them with your infantry, you'll take more casualties than you might be used to, but the chariots will die. Chariot archers - use archer auxilia and/or cretan archer mercs. That won't destroy them, but will at least cause some damage and influence where they move on the battlefield. It is possible to run down and murder chariot archers with good cavalry, but doing so is insanely bloody

Use Archer Auxilia of Cretan Archers with fire.
In a certain moment, the Chariots will run amok.

[Craterus]

British Chariots don't run amok. Only Scythed Chariots run amok, and they are exclusive to the Seleucids and Pontus (I think that's all? )

[professorspatula]

Taking the rest of Greece would be a profitable venture, but then you have to worry about spreading your forces thinner as you'd have more potential enemies around - Thrace, Germans, Dacia etc so you end up producing more troops to deal with any incursions into your land. I'd make inroads towards Greece, but at the same time try to secure Gaul and Iberia. If you secure the western borders, you only need to keep small garrisons there to protect from rebels, then you can concentrate your forces elsewhere - ie: Italy and the eastern frontier.

It's good you got a foothold in Africa in my opinion, although it's a pity you hadn't managed to take Carthage before the Scipii. If you move into Iberia, you should secure the other N. African provence next to the one you already captured. There's not a great deal of money to be made from that provence alone, but you'll control much of the sea trade in the area which isn't too bad, and at some stage you'll probably end up needing to ferry troops across the sea to Africa. Also hire every single Numidian Cavalry mercenary troop if you're staying in Africa. They're excellent cost effective troops.

Also try to scupper the Brutii advance as much as possible. You don't want another Roman family gaining the rich Greek lands, so any chance you get to capture a settlement that has been stripped of its defenders thanks to the Brutii's earlier involvement, then take it. Finally, don't forget to use forts to slow down the AI advance when you're find yourself weak of soldiers in a particular area. A single peasant unit in a fort blocking a road can give you a couple of turns to get reinforcements from elsewhere. That way you don't necessarily need a massive garrison in every town because the forts give you extra time to move men around.

[Somebody Else]

Regarding chariots. Bottle them up - then shoot them up. So, fight in cities, or on bridges etc.

Regarding future expansion. Do as much as is necessary to secure your northern and western borders - there's no money in those provinces compared to the east. Take all of Greece, including the islands, and you're away, with more money than you can swim in.

[Karo]

I would say expand into greece or asia minor there both rich and not so hard to conquer

[Alexander: The hellenic empire]

If you want to expand your Empire:

- First conquer the rebel province of Mauretania (rebels are the weakest of all enemies). Do this before any other faction does. When sieging play the battle yourself since some good tactics can defeat the rebles without many losses on your side. If possible bring cheap, light infantry and some cavalry.

- Then smash into Gaul, since it is an easy target. Use armies from Northern Italy (eg . Mediolanum) (keep your armies in Arretium, you will need them for the civil war.) Gaul might not be a great source of money, but it contains numerous provinces. Be careful to not fool around close to the Germans because they are a very competitive faction. Try to ally with the Germans.

- (OPTIONAL) Now you have encircled the Spaniards. You control Mauretania, and central Spain. If you have large armies and generals who enjoy battles in the area be sly, and siege many of their cities (with not enormous amries). This will destroy a new faction and give you control over the west. However be careful when engaging fanatics in battle.

- Your next move must be to consolidate your control on the Rhine frontier. Durin the previous steps you must have been attacked frequently in your Dacian province. Now is the time to get rid of the Dacians, this is pretty easy. Again be careful with the Germans and the Thracian (very powerful faction) (on the other side you can also use the Thracians in order to create problems to the other Roman factions who must be struggling in Greece by now. Try to become their ally.

- By now you must have enough provinces and power in order to engage the other Romans in the civil war. Use the Thracians against the Romans in Greece (who are very powerful, but a bunch of determined armies and good tactics can wipe them of the face of the earth).

- Attack and gain control of the Italian peninsula and Sicily, leavng Rome free. (it will be your final target)

- Finish up the Romans in Africa by brute force or by gaining help from the Egyptians. This is the most delicate part of your campaign. Several Factions will be quarreling against you in Northern Europe and Northern Greece. If the Egyptians also attack you, bad news.( ) However not terrible you an do this. If you are loosing control of Africa and need more provinces, disembark in England and conquer the island. (very easy, however don't let the pc play the battles for you).

- Now, even if you are struggling in Africa, Rome is at your feet. A handful of full armies (around 3or 4) and good tactics will do it.

- You must have won by now, if you haven't, chose Germany or Asia minor as a target and get hold of your 50 provinces.

- Now have fun playing with the new unlocked factions!

[Hargrimm]

Wow! That's great advice; thanks, Alexander!

[GottMitUns]

Still new myself (almost done with 1st campaign) but heres some suggestions anyways:

You've got 4 or so living factions on all the "flanks" of your empire. I'd push to conquer one of those factions entirely while securing the border against the others. Then open a new front against a different faction. Everyone says go into greece- I totaly agree that should be your next move. I don't think its smart to let the other roman factions eat up all the rich provinces (greece, the egyptian provinces etc) before the civil war. Dominate at least one of them.

I think the best advice is to take advtantage of opportunities as they arise. Who is weak? Are there any lightly guarded cities you can snatch up easily? Once you take greece, you might find the egyptians have tiny garissons in memphis and alexandria etc. Cities with wonders of the world and small garissons are like gifts.