Epeirus:Which of these two strategies did you choose?

[Ravenfeeder]

The starting position against Makedon is so good that I went for Greece first.

I'd actually planned to leave the Romani to really build up, but they kept on spamming Epeiros with stacks by sea from Arpi that when Taras rebelled against them I just went and jumped all over them.

It was (is) a great campaign, but eventually I got annoyed with fighting the Kart-Hadast as the mixture of distance to capital and cultural penalties meant constant revolts.

There's maps of my progression in the AI Progression thread.

[Kralizec]

Use your starting money to que some extra Phalangitai Deuterioi and one or two skirmishers in Taras. Stay defensive in Italy for the time being while you conquer Pella and Demetrias. After that you can either chose to disband your elephants to recover your finances or keep attacking either Makedon or the KH till your elephants are spent.

[Watchman]

Huh. When I tried the Epirotes a while back I was able to simultaneously blitz both the Macs with Pyrrhus and most of south-central Italy with the Taras garrison augmented with Samnites (hired with cash earned from disbanding Mac factional buildings in Pella...). Seemed to me once you got rid of the garrison of the nearest Roman city (don't recall the name now) the Res Publica had a hard time scrounging up enough decent troops to seriously contest the matter. Either they were busy up north, or their starting stacks just don't add up to enough of a strategic reserve to quickly make up for the loss of the fairly strong southern garrisons...

Incidentally, I found the elephants Pyrrhus starts with to be a rather pointless money sink. Maybe I just got lucky, but spies worked much better for instant siege assaults, partly because with them you don't have to worry too much about the slingers most of the Mac garrisons include. Indeed, as the AI tries to put one unit blocking each of the open gates, them pesky slingers for some reason always tended to be guarding the one facing the whole assaulting army with the due result Pyrrhus and his boys shortly trampled them flat...

[pansoiatr]

I found the elephants at the start of the campaign very useful.With them you can easily take pellas and dimitrias in the first 2 turns.
I found that letting some of elephants getting killed gives a necessary breath at beggining since it takes only 3 out of the initial 9 elephant guides to operate all 3 elephants
Maximum effect with minimum cost

[gran_guitarra]

Actually if you use them right you can capture all of Greece no problem. I captured everything except for Sparta and the Delphi place.

That being said, it took me about 12 turns and I was 50k in debt by the time I finished. Took me about ten or so turns to get back into black. But if you do this all you really need is a nice little army to take both those places and then blitz Rhodos and Kretai, thus gaining you a brilliant economy.

btw, when you expand into Ionia, is it common for the Selucids to attack you for no reason with a half stack of half-strength units? cause they did that to a full stack of experienced units, mostly mercenary medium phalanxes, cavalry, and a bunch of skirmishers.

[MiniMe]

Incidentally, I found the elephants Pyrrhus starts with to be a rather pointless money sink.

That being said, it took me about 12 turns and I was 50k in debt by the time I finished.

Pyrrhus money problem has simple solution:
1. disband 2 of your 3 vessels;
2. take Pella;
3. rase the taxes to maximum.
that's it =)

[The Errant]

I use a different strategy for victory.

First. Disband all troops in Taras with the exception of two Phalagitai Deuteroi. Then start building stone walls in Taras and train six slingers there.

Disband all your fleets.

Attack Pella with Pyrrhos stack and bring in reinforcements from Ambrakia. Any troops already there is fine.

Take Pella. Leave a garrison and move south. Take Demetrias. Leave the Maks fighting the Koinon on the Peloponesos. They will be busy for a while.

Now move to Byzantion and take it. Then do the same to Tylis, Serdike and Dalminion. You now have four additional mining towns to Pella and Epidamnos. The money should be flowing in at this time.

Concentrate on economic upgrades and reinforce your army. When the Koinon grab the last of the Mak holdings in mainland Greece. Move your army closer to Demetrias.

Now watch the Koinon go for Thermon. When the bulk of Koinon forces are besiegeing Thermon, attack Athens. Take Athens, defeat their field armies, and take Korinthos, Sparte and Chalkis in that order.

You have now kicked out both rival greek factions from the peninsula and have a good defensive position. Not to mention a killer economy with mines and seatrade.

You can now start moving against Rome in Italy. The slingers and stone walls of Taras should have been strong enough to whitstand anything the Res Publica have thrown at you up until now.