Conquering the Romans rather than the Macedonians?

[Calypze]

I wonder if it is a viable strategy to - as the Epeirotes - wage a full-out war against the Romans early on, instead of against the Macedonians and KH. Or are the Romans simply too strong for the Epeirotes early on?

[Hax]

It's not that difficult to battle Romans if you know the proper way. Wear them out with slingers, then pin them with your Phalangitai and finish 'em off with Thorakitai or Hippeis.

[Dayve]

It's not that difficult to battle Romans if you know the proper way. Wear them out with slingers, then pin them with your Phalangitai and finish 'em off with Thorakitai or Hippeis.

It's not as simple as that though. Thorakitai aren't available at the start and cavalry is very expensive due to the fact that unless you disband half of your army you go into debt on turn 2.

I think it would be possible to steamroll the Romans early on though. They seem to create only Rorari, which are easy enough to kill. If you bring over your army from Greece and have Pyrrhus(sp) himself lead the invasion then it'll be a doddle. Just defeat the small legion from Arpi, take the city, then take Capua and you have them on their knees. Their starting army is weak when controlled by the AI but strong when controlled by a human player.

Don't expect to hold your two Greek cities for very long though. Perhaps you'll get lucky and the Maks and Greeks will fight it out with each other and leave you alone, perhaps you'll not be so lucky and Makedonia will hit your Greek cities with one of their starting armies.

Just ship Pyrrhus over to Italy and see how it goes, what have you got to lose?

[anubis88]

That should keep him away from argos.

I conquered both the romans and macedonia with the epirotes in 2 separate campaigns. Both of them are a lot of fun

[Caelus]

I tried this approach this morning. I have not yet conquered all of Italy and the Romans are still alive. However they are certainly on their last leg and I am starting to work my way out of debt.

I took Rome in the winter of 271 BC after a heroic victory outside of the city (they sent a relief army in the autumn) and an assault in the winter.

Actually this appears to be the best approach in 1.0 due to the increased strength of the Makedonian starting army. The last two tries at an Epeiros campaign I ended up either loosing (in battle, not the campaign) or running into serious difficulties against the Maks. This is in contrast to my easy victories against them in the previous version.

The Maks haven’t even tried to attack my cities in Epeiros. Even if I lose them, so what? Italy is so incredible rich and secure I should have no problem organizing a return. Taras being a homeland city I can train factional troops there, and I will also have access to Samnites.

[LorDBulA]

It's not that difficult to battle Romans if you know the proper way. Wear them out with slingers, then pin them with your Phalangitai and finish 'em off with Thorakitai or Hippeis.

Proper ways to fight Romans is to bring Elephants.