Grrr.....Over extended

[Hellenic_Hoplite]

I'm playing as the Romani and it's 206 BC, I've been in a war with the carthaganians for quite some time now and for the most part kicking their butts. my empire ranges from the Turkish cost to parts of Ibera. (already conquered all of greece, the macedonians have been driven to thrace. I also have most of gaul although central gaul belongs to the arverni) Now this is where my problems start, I've been destroying stack after stack of Carthaganian armies in spain, all I seem to have there are those crappy iberian light spearmen and a few iberian light infantry. at the same time my former allies the arverni and the macedonians decided to betray me and are sending huge stacks against my Gaulic and northern Greek cities, not only that but for no reason the giant ptolomic empire decided they wanted war for no reason. (they destroyed all of the seleucid empire and their empire ranges from egypt to india ) I think I'm going to have to start a new campaign.

any advice?

edit* Forgot to mention I also have north africa although thats not threatened at the moment

[Poulp']

Don't start a new campaign, yours is getting interesting.

You're in the middle of a two-front war. First, finish the job on one front; since the Ptolemees are the master of the East, I'll go and finish Iberia/Gaul first.

See the Rhine and Banub rivers ? Well, make everything west of the Rhine and south of the Danub yours, hold the bridges and pacify the land. Then, relocate your spare troops to your eastern front (very few troops, considering how rebellious Iberia is).

What's new on the eastern front ? You've got the Ionian coast against a completely yellow east. How many stacks are you facing ? Do you think you can hold ? How much reinforcements can you get from Greece ? Are they enough ?

Stupid AI should be bent on taking one of your city, ignoring the others. If there are no other threats, you can :
1/ muster all your troops into the targeted city, or
2/ form an army and let it roam in Asia Minor, ready to hit anything left unprotected (or simply divert some of their attention before being annihilated...)
3/ same as 2/ but more aggresive: form an army led by a FM and take and hold a chokepoint (Antiocheia/Tarsos) against them. They will have to get through your fortress before reaching the Ionian coast.

There are two points to bear in mind, don't give those cities away without a fight and you're probably in for a long period of time on the defensive. Are you ready to face endless stacks before you can finally go on the offensive ?

[marodeur]

No! Don't start a new campaign! You are just at the point where the game get's interesting.
By having conquered so much land already you should have enough money to build quite an army. So don't buy too many weak local armies, but concentrate on roman legions. For example phalangite mercenaries, cretan archers and gallic riders are good support, but don't waste your money on Lugoae or other light militia reserves.
Send about 2 fullstacks against gaul and against hispania each, try to make a beachhead in Africa with one or two fullstacks and try to secure your border in the east with one or two. Build city walls to help in the defense of your eastern cities. If you can establish a beachhead in africa, you will force the karthagians to turn around and stop investing in iberia.
I know you can't recruit roman troops outside italy - so produce reserves, transport them to the frontlines with ships, and reinforce your troops by merging them. You don't have to return your frontline troops back home to reinforce them. It's a question of logistics.
The turns will take a bit longer, but you will wade through rivers of blood and in the end you will triumph. I hope you will enjoy it. It's a hard time you have to go through, but it is the most interesting part of the game: for the first (and last time) your empires supremacy is in question, cause all enemies unite against you. Break your enemys backs this time, and they will not be able to threaten you again.
Good Luck!

[Imperial Fist]

If your empire is that big, you should have enough money to deal with your foes.
Establish some supply lines and try do defeat one enemy after another.
Since you are in 206bc and have polybian troops you should start with the gauls cause of obvious reasons. I also think i wont get better in a new campaigne.

[Hellenic_Hoplite]

I thought about it and I think i'll stick it out, besides the reason I play EB is because I don't find vanilla RTW challenging enough. These tips should come as great help since before I was sending endless legions on both fronts.

[pezhetairoi]

Dammit, if you quit now I will kill you. This is the part where EB is fun! Usually what I do at this point is put my Italian cities into overdrive and churn out legions like nuts. Suggestion, deal with Gaul first, and start building allied facilities in Bononia, Mediolanum and Patavium. Hold your cards close and play defensive until your Neitos and Brihentin training facilities are up and running. With Neitos you can hold the line far better than even with legionaries.

In Spain, you MUST rely on transshipment of troops from Italia. Milites and Caetrati are simply not going to cut it.

In the east, try to hold out with Lonchophoroi and Hoplitai. They are trainable in Greece, and are certainly more than adequate, if you have a fullstack of them, to crush the Ptolemaioi. That way you take some pressure off your Roman training facilities. Let Greece take care of itself. If your hoplitai facilities aren't up yet, then try to hold with one army in Greece, give up Ionia and hold Byzantion with another army you can use to take the offensive against the Makedonioi, one army in Spain, and two in Gaul. In Spain, try to hold on to what you have and stop attacking. The Qarthadastim can't possibly hurl stacks at you as fast as you can destroy them anyway.

Ensure a constant flow of reinforcements from Italia via your fleets. Send something like a halfstack worth per army to nearby cities. I usually, where Romans are concerned, send 3 non-Roman units, 5 legion units (2-2-1) and 2 cavalry units at one go. With 8 cities, you can pull off the production of one vexillarium a turn.

Once you've stabilised the fronts, train up a couple more legions and concentrate overwhelming force on one faction. You definitely have the economic resources by now to raise at least six to seven Polybian fullstacks. (I once had 7 Marian fullstack legions with all continental Europe conquered, and still was earning 15k a turn.) I would recommend the Gauls, because their troops are most valuable and highest-level. Then hurl everything against Spain. Then, send everything east, use one or two to finish off Makedonia, then everything south to finish off the Qarthadastim. Only attack the Ptolemaioi after you've finished off all these, then pincer attack via Asia Minor while you launch an invasion of the Egyptian heartland (which should be denudedof troops by now) and finish off their elite and cavalry training facilitieson the Nile . Isolate them from the Levant, then hold until Marians hit and you get instant armies anywhere you go. Then sock them hard all the way back to Mesopotamia.

[Hellenic_Hoplite]

So far the Egyptians managed to kick me out of my two colonies in turkey, I'm trying my best to get Byzantium built up with Stone walls while getting as many troops in it as possible. I'm no longer sending legions to two fronts I've been sending them all to gaul, the Arverni managed to take two of my Gaulic cities. I've taken one back and also taken their capital and destroyed most of their army. I have legions in gaul and more being built. It's going to be a while before I'm powerful enough to take on Egypt in their on their own turf so until I take the rest of spain and gaul I'm going to stay on the defensive with them. I've also managed to take most of africa, I'm glad I did because I'm seeing alot less of those dreaded "Elite African Pikemen" and seeing more Iberian Militias and "Liby-Phoenecian Infantry"