Man enjoying himself playing Pontus

[Satyros]

Ok , this is ridiculous .

Those %@#%#@&$ AS are my ALLIES for Chuck's sake .

By the year 270 I have Sidon , Trapezous , Nikaia and .... my capital , can't remember the name .

I sign peace with the KH , while desperately trying to sell my map , -7000smth does not sound very good .

As an additional measure , now that peace reigns in the tiny "kingdom by the sea" ( great title btw mate ), and in order to stabilize my presence in the newly conquered cities , I disbanded most of my army .

Whoopee , +1200 balance per turn , small garissons , a bit of unrest , no worries , it 'll pass .

And THEN the ALLIES ATTACK !

I even made them a gift of 100 on just the previous turn ( my first with an actual profit ).

Please , please explain where I've gone wrong , I really want to play as Pontos . Because of a great book I once read . The guy ( king of Pontos ) in the book had stashes of gold in the mountains etc , I don't . He used cheats , I won't . Then again he drank and coctails of about 40 different poisons each day , just to be on the safe side against poisoning . Let him use cheats , he 's been through a lot obviously .

Any help would be much appreciated .

Thanks in advance .

Satyros

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

You didn't go wrong. The game is called "Total War" and is hardcoded to cause as many wars as possible. You weren't fighting enough so the game made the AI attack you.

[Satyros]

Thanks for answering .

To be honest I hoped for something like : " you shouldn't have attacked X city " .

Now I'm really desperate .

Re-load it is then .

Lalala , to death we march , oh joy !

AS ," all we are saying / is give peace a chance ".

Satyros

[mlp071]

1. you don't sell your map, AI sell(share) map to each other.

2. kill every diplomat that comes close to your teritory, they are spies, no matter which faction are.If you need to talk to them , do that, then kill them.

3.fill border cities with spies, and have decent garrisons

4.AI knew that your army went down and calculated that will beat you easy.

5.Yeah AS does likes Sidon very much so.

6.could be just "pathfinding" cause of war, something AI messup it's pathfinding and if they run into human will attack.

7.If you just started paying tribute for 100, AI won't care.200 is a minimum amount , but you need to start it in early game.Even that doesn't help alot of times.

8.AS has no allies, they just have "potential victims in waiting"

I managed to keep myself out of any wars for quite awhile(almost 20 years) with Getai like that.

[Lovejoy]

Satyros: I have said it before, and ill say it again: ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK! You most always be the first to attack the selues, specially if you are playing as Pontos! This way your allies stay on your side, plus they are weak the first couple of turns!

FIRST: Take Makerta(or whatever its called, the selue town just south of you capital) and continue on and conquer the two other selue settlements in "modern-day turkey". Never mind the repels, they are no threat to us.

Now you're in a kind of safe position. All the selues attacks should be directed against Makerta so make sure to build some stone walls and a decent garrison. Its a long walk threw the mountains to Makerta from the selues land, so maybe you should consinder putting some HA in does mountains and harrash any incomming selue stacks.

Now you should have some time to take some of the repel towns, try not to conquer provinces with a direct border with any faction. And make sure to get an alliance with ptolmoi(sp), build up your economy, and when ready, kill the rest of em. Good Luck!

[Satyros]

@MarcusAureliusAntoninus , you were right , after I reloaded and while I was streching myself thin all the way to Tylis they never once attacked me , that saved me some time . Unfortunately at some point I had to regroup and while I was sieging Pergamon they attacked . * sigh * ( I really believe it's needless to say that I am NOT capable of turning them back at this point )

@mlp071 Thanks for the tips mate .

@Lovejoy Your idea is brilliant , it gave me the wonderfull idea of trying to destroy Antiocheia early , for capital .

Satyros

[mlp071]

one more thing..Antiochea, Seleukia, Marzaka(easy defendable if you take it) and i think Edessa or another town are their main recruitment center .You destroy those , you will see crappy units and mercs..no elites for awhile.

Plus, in all scripts AS startsgetting way less money after 252, which usualy leads to them slowly decaying and getting eaten up by neighbors.

[russia almighty]

Everytime I've played a non-cheat campaign (yes there are those who play cheat campaigns , my stoner cataphracts AAR I'm considering will have to be one for there journey to work even.) that really doesn't matter , they've taken out Parthia, Bactria , Armenia , Egypt and Pontus .

[Satyros]

I thought you might wanted to know this :

It is now the winter of 270 ( in my latest -new- attempt to humiliate AS ) , the proud kingdom of Pontos claiming its freedom from the corrupted Arche Seleukeia now counts its own the following cities : the capital ( I still forget its name )*edit* Sinope , Mazaka , Ipsos , Nikaia AND Antiocheia . We love the Gauls , we do not touch them , they obviously drink , dance and reproduct, everyone happy .

Also beat up some wandering rebels from Pergamon ( the guy that walks around mostly )on the -glorious- march to Nikaia .

I'm actually thinking of keeping Antiocheia .

The 8000 that the KH paid happily for a ceasefire got things moving in my cities , the negative balance dissappeared after the conquest of Antiocheia ( sadly , the bodycount was high , some thousands were butchered , but the debts were paid and the coffers are somewhat "not empty") .

Sweet ptolemy I shall love you, do not attack me for 20 turns , pretty please .

And this is actually my most on-topic post in this thread .

The spies report nothing , at the moment we wait .

Oh what an AAR this would make !

Thanks everyone !!!!!!!!!

Satyros

[Horst Nordfink]

I tried playing Pontus on a medium difficulty. It took me a couple of years to start making money, and then bang on time AS attacked. They took me by suprise and wiped out my leader and heir and took my capitol.

I managed to scrimp and save for a few turns and threw myself a handy little army together. On my way to try to take my capitol back, I was ambushed by an AS army twice my size. Fortunately it was mostly levies and slingers. I wiped out that army, but it was costly. Right after that battle, I was attacked again! With an even bigger army!!

Again, it was most levies and slingers, and again I managed to scrape another win, but I couldn't handle many more victories like this. After the battle, I thought I was free to gather my army together, hire a few more mercs and have another go to take back my capital.

NO! NO! NO! ANOTHER BLOODY ATTACK!! This time there just wasn't enough of my army left to beat them. I was engulfed and got annihilated! This was my last General and I was wiped out.

It was 261BC!

I hate AS! I HATE THEM!!

[Digby Tatham Warter]

You didn't go wrong. The game is called "Total War" and is hardcoded to cause as many wars as possible. You weren't fighting enough so the game made the AI attack you.

Is this correct?

My favourite faction is good old AS. In a previous campaign it got very heavy going, as every body attacked and you never seem to get the time for the game to actually progress and get somewhere.

In my latest campaign(now at 202BC) certainly in the East, most of my neibours leave me alone, meaning that it is less tiresome than 'to many' scraps per turn.
I presume I have achieved this 'space' by the fact that all my Eastern border cities are strongly garrisoned(expensive I know).

As for the mini-mod it sounds like a good idea, because in the west, Rome seems to own everything, and I have to fight off at least 4 stacks per turn. Good job my two main stacks out there are such delux(but balanced and semi realistic) heavy duty Roman killers, eh!

[Satyros]

Hehe

news from the front

The empire of Pontos was not meant to last eternally .

The former masters present no threat , half hearted attacks at best , desperate attempts to retake Seleukeia , utterly crushed by the Emperor , who now resides there , having seen the elephant etc .

But treacherous plans were discussed in the shadows .

The Ptolies attacked breaking the alliance , and in the same turn allied themselves with the remnants of the Seleucid (former) empire .

My poor ( literally - I can only afford a couple of stacks ( not full ) of pantodapoi phalangites and some slingers , and minimum garissons ) empire now stands alone , victim of the megalomania of the Emperor who fought his way all the way till the center of the Seleucid empire .

My other stack was just beginning the journey to finish the half finished business of Asia Minor , the Gauls , Trapezous and rich Pergamon . So the southern border is unguarded .

Any suggestions ?

I think I should have listen to the advice to defend in Mazaka . Oh well .

This is by far the best campaign I ever played .

Thanks Europa Barbarorum , thanks Redmeth * edit * and Mlp071 .

Satyros

[mlp071]

Tactical retreat, destroy all buildings and move back if you can. That should give you some money to rebuild economy and /or army.Make stand in Marzaka.

If they are coming with Galaktikoi Kleruchoi stacks , you better upgrade your troops. They owned my Maks "silver shields" (first open battle that i lost in very long time)

Ptolies are no different then AS , they are same type of butcher.

[Alderdix]

Satyros
I learned in pontos campaign one thing completely. To think perspecivly. Playing this faction is harcore. You can;t do many mistakes if any. Its best campaign in Total war, most hardest. I can say what i did. I have similar situation war with ptolemai and AS in one time. Almoust endless zerg of elite enemies. To fight you need money. If you have no profits you won't buy more mines (you won;t have more profits) - > you won't make more soldiers - > you will die. Expansion wont give you more money (since you need to keep garnisons to keep people calm) but mines in secured area will.

To have money you need to have time (best way is to build mines). So you need to reduce army and in the same time slow down enemies (best if you can stop them). I can say what i did.

I made system of forts , remains of mercenaries armies are garrnisons for it. After every bridge in every thin pass near all border tows i made forts. Its the way to slow down enemy and it gives time to build the defence or move main forces. I fought with every faction i meet on my way (heyda, macedonian, Ptolemai, Seleucid, greeks). I took whole minor asia (with byzantie), whole heyden land, on easti 'we build mines in everywhere i could (still need to build mayby 5-6 mine complex), i made 3 big armies.

One to defend ptolemai attack (bridge near Tarsus. other ways are secured by forts).

Second army is in the north in land of Hayd to protect agains seleucid, and on east in Byzanitie prevent entering other nations to minor asia. Now im focused on establishn complex mines.I have more less 10 provinces with valuable metals, its really chance for good benefit.

Good idea to slow down enemies are spy and assasins, spy is increasing unrest , assasins are making sabotage actions (destroy buildings that increase stability of city (temples, garnisons etc). Enemy will gather forces there instead sending them to you. With bit of luck those town will revolt and you will have natural border.

So good luck :) i advise everyone to play Pont :) it gives most funniest army ever (naked mans, chariots, phalanx and slingers :)) Everything to make fear in enemy hearts :). Slingers are more efective when shooting in enemy backs :).And of course you need to be smart to win with giants.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Welcome to the forum alderix! Nice first post.