I think Mytilene is a big part of the Macedonian problem. That combined with the fact that they just seem to be stupider in general means they always end up losing...except in this game! (me as Bactria)



Just kidding, that was all my doing. Desperate to see them actually be of importance rather than an Epirote or KH punching bag I first would randomly process_cq Pella/Demetrias to get their infrastructure up and running. Then when that did nothing, I snatched Tylis/Byzantion for them and gave them 100k. When that still wasn't useful enough, I bribed every single KH/Epirote army I could, including Athens and Thermon; I have 6 bribed generals hiding in a corner of Greece. The Macedonians were also in the top 3 world military, which is saying something given some of the strong empires there are in this game. Yet, with both other Greek factions having nearly nothing to keep themselves alive, the Macedonians did not attack and finish them off, but rather a few turns later both Pella and Athens were under siege! After a few more repeats I gave up and auto win'ed with a bribed KH general and mercs and gave them their new Empire. After this, they have surprisingly been doing something within a few years, retaking Serdike, conquering Kallatis, and sieging Naissos. They had 3 full armies sitting on Mytilene for the longest time but they have recently vanished.

I found rather interesting results from my tampering this game (with the A.I balancing mod). I'll post them in that thread tomorrow.