I recently saw someone asking for advice on how to win with Pontos, and then reading the description for Pontos in game saw that it was nigh-impossible i couldn't resist the challenge.
I started the game on M/M. I was going to assess the starting situation and then set the difficulty level accordingly. I see that i start with 1 province that has barely any population or infrastructure, 5000 minai that was going to disappear as soon as i hit end turn and an army dwarfed both in size and quality by the two other nations that start in the same area that i do. Seeing all this i decided that M/M was justified.
I started by taking the two cities which have your armies close by. The one to the north of your capital and the one on the northwest coast. The battles were easy, i didn't have any number of casualties worth mentioning, but what did hurt was the fact that i had to leave either a full unit behind or a family member to keep the order, and set taxes to low. I decided to leave the skirmisher units behind.
I thought about using the 5000 minai to hire mercenaries but there wasn't anything worth buying, and even if there was in the long run it wouldn't have been of much use to me.
So i marched on, combined my two armies together and took Ankyra. With its mine i began making a little money each turn, but with 10,000 debt there was still nothing i could do but sit and wait. That's when the grey monster started laying siege to my cities. So i look at my situation and it's so hopeless that even Hannibal or Alexander themselves would shy away from the avenue of military action.
I have 4 cities, not even lightly defended, just a unit of skirmishers to keep the peace, and 2 have a FM in them because i didn't want to lose my line infantry or slingers, i needed them for the army.
I have an army, if you can call it that, with 3 full strength units of levy phalangites and one 1/4 strength unit of phalangites, a half unit of slingers which were badly mauled in a previous battle, a half unit of medium cavalry which has been molested in every battle since i started yet has no experience and a king with a very large bodyguard and 3 bronze chevrons.
In the west of my humble kingdom i face 2 Seleukid cities which are pumping out medium phalanxes, heavy skirmishers, thureophoroi and mercenaries. That's where my army is, and i know i can never beat these alone. In the east of the kingdom my capital is under siege by a half stack of medium phalanxes, heavy skirmishers and thureophoroi, and i have no forces to do anything about them.
So, it's a foregone conclusion. I will lose, no question, so i won't even bother to continue.
Now, i want a success story, if anybody has one. Is it possible to get up on your feet in a Pontos campaign?
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