A guide to EB blitzing, for new players.
Nearly every EB faction in the game (except for the already large Carthaginian, Seleucid and Ptolemaic Empires) needs to ‘blitz’ at the beginning, just to put their finances in good order.
'Blitzing' means attacking and taking one or more cities as fast as possible at the very beginning of a new campaign, using your starting army for conquest, and recruiting only garrison troops as needed.
This guide is about blitzing just enough to get your economy up and running, (i.e. in the black, and making a profit of at least 500 mnai per city you own at the end of each turn). It is not about winning the game by making your faction invincible within 10 years or eliminating rival factions - for that, look elsewhere. Once your economy is running well, you can pick whatever strategy you like, fast or slow, aggressive or defensive.
Here’s a list of what cities I suggest you blitz for each faction. Most targets are Eleutheroi cities except where stated in brackets after the city name. Eleutheroi are the primary target of most factions in the early game.
Since ships use up so much of your money at the start of the game, I’ve also provided notes on what to do with the fleets your faction starts with. It’s usually best to disband them immediately or get them sunk in battle as quickly as possible – either way saves you lots of money, but the latter is more fun and realistic.
Aedui: Vesontio (Arveni), Avaricum, Viennos (Arveni), and finally Patavium too for a valuable port and to stop the Romans getting it. Suggest you leave Gergovia (the Arveni capital) alone for now, make peace with the Arveni once you've got their other two towns, so you can build up your economy. Aedui Fleet - disband it immediately, it's of no use to you.
Arveni: Bibracte (Aedui), Avaricum, Cenabum (Aedui), and finally Tolosa (for valuable port). Suggest you leave Mediolanum (the last Aedui city) alone for now as a buffer against Roman expansion, and to give you time to build up your economy.
Baktria: Two possible strategies - Option 1: Stay at peace with the Seleucids as long as possible and target the Eleutheroi. In this case you should go for Kophen, then Alexandropolis (the Eleutheroi city south of Kophen, not the Seleucid city north of Baktra!) and finally, if you can manage it, Gandhara. Option 2: Attack the Seleucids straight away! Make sure the Pahlava are doing the same thing. In this case, go for Alexandria-Ariana, and Prophthasia. Whichever option you choose, leave Marakanda alone initially as it's a target for both Pahlava and Saka, and you don't want to be fighting either of them so early in the campaign. Leave Gava-Haomavarga alone also, as a buffer between you and the Saka.
Carthage: No blitzing necessary, but there's a big Eleutheroi army in your area of southern Spain that you should fight as soon as possible. Carthaginian Fleet – hunt down and destroy all Epirote ships (so Pyrrhus can’t come back to Sicily), then hunt down and destroy all pirate ships.
Casse: No immediate blitzing necessary, just disband your ship and one unit of spearmen to get your economy working. Use family members as the bulk of your army to start with. No other faction will attack you, apart from Eleutheroi raiders. You start at peace with the Eleutheroi - unlike any other faction. Don't start the war, wait to be attacked, because you will lose a LOT of trade income once fighting starts between you and the Eleutheroi. After the war begins, take Ictis once you are no longer making a 500+ mnai profit per turn. Casse Fleet – transport diplomat to Gaul on first turn, then return to port and disband it.
Epirus: Depends on whether you want to play historically (i.e. chaotically, like Pyrrhus) or sensibly. If you choose the historical, chaotic approach, attack both Macedon and Koinon Hellenon – first Pella, then Sparte, then Corinth. If you want to be sensible, go for Pella, then Demetrias. This will cripple Macedon and leave them and Koinon Hellenon fighting mostly against each other from then on. Either way, hold Taras as long as possible, but only with its starting garrison. Keep your primary focus on fighting Macedon, not Rome - Macedon is far more dangerous initially.
Epirote Fleet - Either disband it immediately, or hunt down and destroy all Macedonian and pirate ships.
Getai: Sarmiszegethusa, Naissos, and Kallatis (a valuable port). Make peace with the Sauromatae before they take Olbia and share a border with you.
Hayasdan: Phraaspa and Ani-Kamah (important to take them early before the Seleucids go after them). Make peace with the Sauromatae, and leave Kabalaka, Kotais and Mtskheta as an Eleutheroi buffer zone between you and them. If the Sauromatae take any of those three cities, they will likely rebel to you anyway.
Koinon-Hellenon: Kydonia on Krete, Chalkis (Macedon) and Corinth (Macedon) in that order.
Detailed instructions for Turn 1: Beseige Kydonia, don't assault - the garrison is large enough to come out and attack you when you end the turn, allowing for a defensive battle outside the city with your army on a hill. (Try to do most of the fighting using your Spartan FM bodyguard unit, conserve your levy hoplites and skirmishers if you can.) Meanwhile, use your army in Athens to assault Chalkis. Leave one hoplite unit to defend Athens, and use your FM to hire a unit of Mercenary Cretan Archers (they are worth the money!) It's very important to take Chalkis very quickly as KH, as it will spam levy hoplites and skirmishers if you don't, recruiting one unit every turn, which after 5 years will be a Macedonian full stack strong enough to assault and take Athens!
Turn 2: Leave the smallest possible garrison in Kydonia, and immediately ship your faction leader's army (and your spy) to Corinth and either assault it if it's weakly guarded, or besiege it if the garrison is strong.
Hint: Often the big Macedonian army near Athens will leave to defend Pella against Epirus, don't fight this army until you absolutely have to!
Koinon Hellenon Fleet – after shipping your army from Krete to Sparta, hunt down and destroy all Macedonian ships. Then go hunting for pirates near Greece.
Lusotann: Sucum-Murgi, Tyde, and finally Baikor too. Disband all 4 of your cavalry units, they cost almost 1,000 mnai each and you won't need them in the early campaign, the FM's are enough.
Macedon: Sparte (Koinon-Hellenon), and Athens (Koinon-Hellenon).
Detailed Instructions: Suggested initial strategy is to ignore Epirus, and deal with Koinon-Hellenon first. Don't worry about losing Pella to Epirus initially, just leave a unit of slingers and some levy hoplites as a garrison, and if it falls, let it go. If you do lose Pella, taking Athens will compensate you for the loss, and you can always recover Pella a bit later, once Koinon-Hellenon are reduced to just Rhodes and are no longer an immediate threat. Leave Athens alone until after Sparta is taken, then siege Athens until it surrenders, since it's too tough to assault (phalanx units are very poor at assaulting cities.) If your economy still isn't making enough profit, you can go after Kydonia on Krete and destroy the KH army there as well.
Macedonian Fleet – hunt down and destroy all KH ships, so they can't ship reinforcements from Rhodes to Greece.
Pahlava: Asaak, Marakanda, Antiocheia-Margiane, Hekatompylos, Zadrakata (all Seleucid). You have to hit the Seleucids very hard right at the start or they'll overwhelm you later. Use spies to open gates. Beseiging with 1 family member and 2 horse-archers will cause most garrisons to sally out, so you can destroy them easily and take the city.
Pontos: Sinope, Trapezous, and either Ankyra or Nikaia (all Eleutheroi cities) - assuming that you want to stay at peace with the Seleucids as long as possible. If you'd rather attack the Seleucids immediately in a pre-emptive strike (since they will attack you later anyway), then leave the Eleutheroi cities alone, and attack Mazaka, Ipsos, and Sardis (all Seleucid).
Ptolemoi: No blitzing necessary, but I like to take Ammonion straight away for roleplaying reasons - it's a sacred site to your people, so leaving it in the hands of rebels is unacceptable. There's at least one big Eleutheroi army in your southern territory to fight when you can muster a suitable army, plus an invading force from Kyrene. You may want to take Damascus too, since the Seleucids like to spam units there.
Ptolemaic Fleet – use against Seleucid ships, then pirates.
Roma: Taras (Epirote), then Rhegion. Roman Fleet – disband it immediately, you don't need it in the early game.
Sabyn: Tamane first (lure the garrison into a sally using a smaller attacking force), then Sabata, which will be an easy target since it doesn't have walls yet and your army will be depleted after Tamane. Carna last if required.
Saka: Chach, Gava-Saka, Alexandria-Eschate (Seleucid) and Marakanda (Seleucid) to start with. Finally, Sulek and Gava-Alanna. None of these towns have walls, so can be assaulted by a cavalry army if needed.
Sauromatae: Tanais, Gava-Yugra, and Gelonus. I recommend Gava-Thissakata too. None of these towns have walls. Olbia is nearer and looks very tempting, but it does have walls, making it too tough to assault. You'd need to seige Olbia until the garrison sallies out, plus it's a useful buffer between you and the Getai.
Seleukia: Reverse-blitzing - make your empire smaller! Recruit a diplomat in Antiochia-Margiane in Turn 1, then send him to Baktra and give Marakanda and Alexandria-Eschate to Baktria in Turn 2! (You may need to use the Force Diplomacy mod to do this.) Reason is, you won’t be able to hold these two towns for long anyway, too rebellious and too distant from your capital – and it’s better for neutral Baktria to have them than hostile Pahlava or Saka. Also, Baktria will defend these towns fiercely against the Saka, which gets Saka off your back and onto Baktria's - also, it keeps Baktria occupied so they don't expand into gold-rich India, which is to your great advantage later. You can then make peace with Saka. Trust me, it's more important to focus on economic buildings in the beginning rather than recruiting hordes of pantodapoi and archers to try and hold onto these far distant and poor provinces. You'll be able to use the evacuated troops to bolster Antiochea-Margaine against the attacking Pahlava.
Seleucid Fleet – use immediately against Ptolemoi or pirate ships, or disband it.
Sweboz: You'll need to conquer at least 3 towns with your starting army, preferably 4. You are in a good position, isolated from other factions. You have three choices: expand either north, west, or east.
Northern expansion: Gawjam-Rugoz, Gawjam-Kimbrioz, and Gawjam-Skandzawarjoz. This is the easiest expansion route, the garrisons are a little smaller and the towns do not have walls so are easy to assault.
Western expansion: Gawjam-Habukoz, Gawjam-Heruskoz, and Arctaunon. These towns all have walls. However, conquering them will take your frontier nearer to the Arveni and Aedui, so you will end up fighting them sooner rather than later, which may not be to your best advantage in the early campaign.
Eastern expansion: Gawjam-Silengoz, Ascaucalis, Carrodunum, Gintaras-Ostan. The hardest expansion route, but also the most profitable since the towns are all on the Amber Route (major trade route). Also the last three towns offer some nice regional Baltic and Gallic units that you may find very useful.
Make the most of your family members in the attack, their heavy infantry bodyguards are far better than your other units.
For all factions:
Once you have achieved the above objectives and raised taxes to High or Very High, your economy should be in good shape, making a healthy profit, provided you've used your diplomat to establish trading rights with all your non-hostile neighbours. You can now concentrate on town-building, or army building, depending on what you want to do next.
Hope new players find this guide useful!
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from Hannibal Khan the Great, Brennus, Tellos Athenaios, and Winsington III.
Originally Posted by athanaric
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