The Amazing Epeirote Debt Machine, or: "Help?"

**Landwalker** · 10-12-2007, 19:14

So, to celebrate the release of EB 1.0, and indeed to celebrate me just getting started into the EB world, I thought I would take a break from the Romaioi (as a Byzantinist, I feel obligated to use the Greek national term rather than the Latin Romani) and try my hand at the kingdom of Epeiros.

I quickly realized that I may very well not be up to the challenge. Despite claims in the faction selection screen of being "Challenging" (which I interpret to mean "Slightly more difficult than Rome"), I find myself facing over 10,000 minae in debt after a single turn. To aid in my quest to turn Pyrrhos' dubious distinction of having his name become an adjective into a positive thing, might any of the more experienced EBers have some words of wisdom on firing up the Epeirote War Machine? Alternatively, are there any "getting started" guides floating about for the Epeirotes, akin to those listed in the FAQ for Rome, Bactria, and the like?

Cheers.

**Bootsiuv** · 10-12-2007, 19:18

Disband or conquer. These are your options.

I would strike hard in Hellas, and not worry too much about Taras. Taking on the Romani from the get go sucks essentially.

Or, disband the majority of your troops, build economic infrastructure, and hope you don't find a Makedonian army on Ambrakia's doorstep.

**Sakkura** · 10-12-2007, 19:21

EB in itself is far more economically challenging than pure RTW. Taking a challenging nation only increases the challenge. The troops you start with are meant for use in attacks early on; if you don't use them to conquer something or disband them, their costs will be too high for your starting economy.

**Kampfkrebs** · 10-12-2007, 19:29

build exactly one phalangitai deuteroi in taras, this single unit willl kill every roman who tires to step through the doors of taras, simply place it in front of the gate and watch the slaughter.

With this you can keep taras, and then you should conquer as much of hellas as possible; disband fleet + elephants. this will give you some room to breath, and exterminate everything on your way.

I just destroyed the maks (killed all their leaders), and I make ~7000mnai per round with everything of hellas under my control except the aiotoloi (sp? wtf the rebels with the big army there) and sparte.
The KH are broken too. All hail pyrrhos!

And build mines/ports/roads!

**Dram** · 10-12-2007, 19:28

for any faction that starts out with an economically unsustainable army you can either:

1. disband all the uneccessary units and focus on developing your economy. some people recommend this but i really cant imagine how you can do this on VH difficulty unless youre playing as a faction that is completely isolated.

2. you can use your army to expand rapidly. gradually as you take more and more provinces your army will deplete until its being used to garrison the new towns and you dont really have a field army anymore. look around the map to insure that you take the weakest towns, preferably rebel ones so you dont start any wars. you really have to do this fast if youre dealing with other factions because they dont have debt problems and will continue to produce troops every turn. you just have to hold them until the unrest goes down eneough that you can start to take some troops out of garrison to defend your kingdom. once you get your profits going its pretty much smooth sailing.

oh yeah also, im not sure if Pella starts with a mine or not, but if it does, make it a priority- theres several large vein precious metal mines in the area that can produce a great deal of gold.

**Bootsiuv** · 10-12-2007, 19:30

I can't remember if Pella has one or not, but I'm fairly certain Illyria is rich in minerals to be mined, and Athenai has a silver mine IIRC.

**Bootsiuv** · 10-12-2007, 19:32

Oh yeah, I forgot abou the Eles...

Lose 'em, unless you feel the absolute need to take towns in one turn.

I sometimes keep them to take Pella on turn 1, but then they're gone.

Fleets are rather useless, but sometimes I keep one around to evacuate any FM's in Italy who need to roll out with a quickness.

**Kampfkrebs** · 10-12-2007, 19:33

Pella gives ~3500mnai per turn with full build up mines.

**Bootsiuv** · 10-12-2007, 19:37

Well, there ya go....probably explains why Hellas is one of the richest areas on the map.

**paullus** · 10-12-2007, 19:29

you've got one of the more expensive starting armies in the entire map. you can either use them to go rampaging around (as Pyrrhos did in 272 until his--unfortunate?--demise) or you can disband them and try to survive, slowly building up to expand later on. I'd recommend doing a bit of rampaging first, but also considering disbanding a few of your more expensive units.