Tips and Tricks for New Players

[NoHelmet]

Yes, and don't we all hate "Evil mother-in-law" ancillary type?

[Blxz]

@Nohelmet
Safe cities are those that often have a governor and quite often its your homelands to begin with which means that my post is accurate, moving population to cities where tax bonuses and recruitment pools benefit.
Also, the ancillaries tip is brilliant, i often have one star general with the best ancillaries i can obtain. When i retire him, i move him onto his successor so they can continue to benefit my best generals

Nothing at all to do with safe cities. NoHelmet was 100% right. If I put governors in all my 'unsafe' cities on the border then thats where the population will go. If I have every city ungovened then the population will just disappear.


As for the saba and their tactics, they can defeat using standard units (arabian archer spearmen for me) equal number seleucid and ptolemic armies fairly regularly. Because they are made up of light units you can use your speed to ensure a local numerical superiority and decent numbers to fully surround isolated and semi isolated units. Also great for chasing down foot routers as they are sightly faster than most of the heavier units. Saba are the arch-typical zerglings. Really one of my favourite factions. They get even more impressive if you start using actual unit choice tactics and start flanking with AP units like the red sea dudes. Not to mention the fact that nearly all of their troops have a ranged weapon of some sort.

[WinsingtonIII]

Not to mention the fact that nearly all of their troops have a ranged weapon of some sort.

Except the Red Sea Axemen unfortunately... I wish those guys had javs, but Arabian Light Infantry are one of my favorite skirmisher units in the game, so Saba certainly aren't lacking in that area in general.

[athanaric]

Well well well. Hardly any spam so far. Comrade Stalin is pleased.

I'm trying to keep up and update the first post. If there are suggestions as to how to organize the advice, feel free to post them.

[WinsingtonIII]

One thing that should be noted is that the effect of scary infantry units doesn't stack, so one scary infantry unit in an area of the battlefield is just as good as 2-3 for the fear effect. However, the scary infantry effect will stack with different types of scary effects, like fire arrows, chariots, and elephants.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

So the best unit in EB would be an elephant-drawn chariot with archers shooting fire arrows out of it? Cool! <gets modding>

[NoHelmet]

So the best unit in EB would be an elephant-drawn chariot with archers shooting fire arrows out of it? Cool! <gets modding>

As long as the archers are naked.

Well well well. Hardly any spam so far. Comrade Stalin is pleased.

I'm trying to keep up and update the first post. If there are suggestions as to how to organize the advice, feel free to post them.

Well, perhaps you were right about moving the thread to the gameplay section, once it gets too big to be easily managed, but it is still very nice to see it as soon as the page opens...

Back to the topic: 1. If there is a family member or character that you really want to see gone, put him/them on a smallest possible fleet, and send it to be destroyed by pirates. Do this only if there is nothing else for them to do, but remember, FM bodyguard is ussualy one of the better troop types you have at your disposal.
2. Always try to have at least one squad of light cavalry to pursue fleeing enemy, since your heavy cav will usually be too tired to do this effectively.

[panten]

Don't think it has been mentioned yet so:

Bridges
Use bridges to your advantage. They are easily defendable and can safely secure your empire in the beginning when the budget is tight.
This works best with factions who can employ phalangites but spearmen would work as well, only not as effective. Usually two units of phalangitai can block a bridge to the point where it is impossible for the opponent to break through, unless he is attacking with massive bodyguard or cataphract cavalry. In that case have some AP units close by to counter this menace. In general: position your units in a triangular position, this will allow two units to form a narrowing path that will efficently cut down the enemy.
This also works pretty well in city defenses.

Especially factions like Pontos or Baktria profit immensely from this tactic and especially for Pontos this is a life-safer. If you take Mazaka in the first turn, deploy some phalangites and some archers/skirmisher or cavalry to hunt down fleeing enemies at the bridge south of Mazaka. With that strategy you will be able to kill everything AS is throwing at you and allows you to expand safely into Anatolia.

[NoHelmet]

Don't think it has been mentioned yet so:

Bridges
Use bridges to your advantage. They are easily defendable and can safely secure your empire in the beginning when the budget is tight.
This works best with factions who can employ phalangites but spearmen would work as well, only not as effective.

True, a good one. Used it myself a lot. Works just as fine with HA, or for that fact, any missile based army. One more thing, this strategy is tremendously useful when deployed within the enemy teritory in a deffensive-offensive way, because when they see a small army just standing arround, they will attack, and die. But beware: attune your troops to the nature of the enemy, meaning that it's not quite smart to deploy phalanxes on a bridge or crossing and expect that Saka will ram itself upon sarissae.

[panten]

True, a good one. Used it myself a lot. Works just as fine with HA, or for that fact, any missile based army. One more thing, this strategy is tremendously useful when deployed within the enemy teritory in a deffensive-offensive way, because when they see a small army just standing arround, they will attack, and die. But beware: attune your troops to the nature of the enemy, meaning that it's not quite smart to deploy phalanxes on a bridge or crossing and expect that Saka will ram itself upon sarissae.

To be honest, I have never tried to defend a bridge with HA or a lot of missiles since they would eventually run out of ammo and with armored opponents this could well end in desaster, atleast for me. I usually deploy units that have staying power and are decent in killing the enemy and phalanxes are quite good at that even if casualties tend to be outrageous as soon as they face some heavier cavalry - but there are the AP troops to keep those in check. I like having missile troops/archers there too - but not just by themselves - they would get raped by the Cataphract/HA insanity I'm facing in my current AS campaign. Given that there are alot of rivers in the area it would be a shame not to use the tactic in an "defensive-offensive" way since it is really useful to fight off strong stacks with limited troops. Helped me to kill the majority of Baktria's cataphracts with acceptable losses.

Troop mixture is a good point though. My eastern front was a defensive mess for a long time due to logistics and lack of useful baracks. What I came down to using almost exclusively are Phalangitai Pantodapoi to pin down whatever unit I needed pinned down and to eat arrow showers, Persian archers to shot everything that moves, Dahae Riders to shot everything that moves a little faster as well as the more annoying troops in the back, Eastern Axemen as shock troops and Persian Spearmen as a more flexible unit but with their death rate being not very economic, I mostly use them defensively.
All in all these are not very expensive troops but they easily manage to kill off better equipped armies. Especially when you're struggling with income, a cheap levy army can do wonders if managed right and with Baktria and Parthia running wild, it is possible to defend cities with strong garrisons and have one or two offensive armies who are able to stand their ground against pretty much everything.

[vladiator]

Bridges
\ /
As Romani, when defending bridges I had lots of success arranging my formation in this way: \ _ _/ around the bridge exit. This gives the enemy units quite a lot of space to get through. Once the first few enemy units are out, my 6 units shower them with pillas/javelines, which makes them rout almost immediately. Since they are pushed from the back by their other units, they normally try to rout through my units and get killed in the process. The incoming enemy units normally attack my units directly in front of them (which I put in "guard" mode). Then I just slaughter them by using my units on the flanks to attack and surround them from the sides.

Usually I also have my other units standing around my first line of units -- this way they can also throw their missile weapons and pick up any routers who manage to get through my first line of defence.

I have not tried this tactics against Hellenic factions yet, but works wonders against Celtic factions.

PS For some reason, the formation is not shown correctly in this message. To describe it, it forms a kind of a square with 3 sides. :)

[vladiator]

Oh, and I only recently learned that you can widen/narrow down a unit/formation by pressing - or +! Bloody convenient!

[Blxz]

More general advice than anything....

Don't fight factions on the steppes in the normal way with phalanx or other infantry based armies. Avoid the enemy armies entirerly and just charge for their towns. Attacking towns without walls defended only by horses is easy. If you are attacked on the campaign map you have 2 options depending on how much you like to exploit the game. Either draw your armies up defensively against any corner and just wait out the timer or if you want to be more realistic just sit on the highest hill and wait for them to back off at the end of time. Probably also a good idea to bring only heavily armoured units if you have them.

[NoHelmet]

More general advice than anything....

Don't fight factions on the steppes in the normal way with phalanx or other infantry based armies. Avoid the enemy armies entirerly and just charge for their towns. Attacking towns without walls defended only by horses is easy. If you are attacked on the campaign map you have 2 options depending on how much you like to exploit the game. Either draw your armies up defensively against any corner and just wait out the timer or if you want to be more realistic just sit on the highest hill and wait for them to back off at the end of time. Probably also a good idea to bring only heavily armoured units if you have them.

Yes, and fighting in the steppes requires some troops that are vital to your survival, especcialy those like Toxotai Syriakoi, Kretikoi and Bosphoran Archers, they are a necessity on the steppes, as they all have good range and armor (not to forget great caucasian archers, that are terrific, altough bit low-ranged). Parthian Archer-Spearmen are good, but lack armor and range, but have spears to repel cavalry. As said earlier, slingers are best used against enemy tanks. If you want, use meat shields that are useful (not only there) at town asssaults against nomads, the underestimated and often overlooked light troops like pantodapoi.

[Atraphoenix]

I hope you know how important the scouting parties are. It is not necassary to use your soldiers as scouts only your agents are very good scouts and you do not have to fight and lose your scout parties.

P.S. It took one of my full stack army to learn this lesson, that cost me 3 years to raise one but can you recruit experience? Hell no.... :-(
I hope your luck is better than me on learning this.
BTW you cannot recruit experienced soldiers but RETRAIN THEM
I use Alex for this to give AI some fair chance.

[Randal]

That reminds me of a good tip:

If you are attacked by overwhelming odds, do not use the retreat button on the battle pop-up. Instead, enter tactical combat. Once the battle loads, order all your troops to to withdraw by clicking the white flag button. Your troops will leave the field before a single blow is exchanged and the battle ends with 0 losses on each side. Your "defeated" army now retreats up to a full move towards the nearest friendly town or ship or something.

Why do this? If you select the retreat button on the battle popup screen, your army will retreat only a few paces on the strategy map, and if the enemy has enough movement left they will attack you again. And when your army has retreated in this way they cannot withdraw on the tactical map anymore, and indeed you will lose all your men should you be defeated. Much better to retreat farther and make sure your men are safe to fight another day.

(This probably is one of the rare few tricks I learned from the AI. They do this sometimes when they decide halfway through a battle that you outnumber them after all.)

Edit: BTW, you -can- recruit experience if you play Dacians. Silver-chevroned units in fact. Ouch.

[Lazy O]

Sarmiszegethusa to be precise

[Moros]

You should add to the angent section that keeping Diplomats in your settlements, especially those without governor, reduce the chances of getting your settlements bribed.

[Lysimachos]

I have one addition and one correction.

In the unit section there is a tip regarding the effectiveness of slingers against heavy cavalry. Perhaps you could add that this is not only because of the armour piercing capabilities of the slingers (which foils the heavy cavalry's greatest strength), but also because the most heavy cavalry units don't use shields (because their lances are two-handed) and shields are the best protection against missiles there is.

In the last section (Economy and Infrastructure) there is a tip about roads. There it should read "(see above)" instead of "(see below)", since the strategy section is above.

[Olaf The Great]

As the Sweboz, you can recruit 4 chervon units straight from some cities, and the german nobles(the ones with swords/spears and chainmail) can be upgraded to 3/1 with a blacksmith, rather than 1/1 as with most units. This includes the reformed ones and the mercenaries, but not the general unit.
As anyone with boats in the sea, you can recruit tons of good mercenaries from the southern tip of SPARTA, but it's blocked off from a land route so you have to use a fleet.

Defensive skill protects units in melee but not range, and shields only protect the left and front of the soldier. Armor protects all from every direction but is cut in half against armor piercing units, take this in consideration when facing different types of opponents. Your Gaesatae will be destroyed by horse archers and your Legions will be wrecked by Drapania

[Marcus Darkstar]

Yes, and don't we all hate "Evil mother-in-law" ancillary type?

Most def. i usually transfer that ancillary to an elderly statesmen about ready to die. So i can say begone to it as soon as possible.

[Olaf The Great]

When using horse archer only armies, put the most heavily armored ones(like bodyguards and Cataphract archers) in the front to absorb ranged attacks, since on defense they're the best but they're equal with arrows. Bodyguards are the best for this as they are regenerated and free.

[NoHelmet]

When using horse archer only armies, put the most heavily armored ones(like bodyguards and Cataphract archers) in the front to absorb ranged attacks, since on defense they're the best but they're equal with arrows. Bodyguards are the best for this as they are regenerated and free.

That is good, solid truth. Especially late bodyguards, with armor of around 25. And that way you can quickly strike when AI makes some stupid move...

[Earl of Memory]

Hi all, been lurking around ever since .7x series, and finally got an account here, to share a few tips...

In my campaign as Baktria, I found out my half stack of "Bactrioi Hippotoxotai" coupled with one unit of "Hellenikoi Kataphractoi" and a few units of "Prodromoi" wiped the floor out of the Saka and Pahlava (in their own turf, I mean fighting in the steppes). My own horsearchers could defeat theirs (superior armor) and my Kataphractoi would defeat theirs since most of the times they tried to chase down my horsearchers (unsuccessfully) and they would be exhausted by the time I sent my own Kataphracts in. Prodromoi would then charge from behind and put them to rout. Keep some skirmishers around for garrison duty if you want to keep their "cities".
Defend your own cities with some good archers such as persian archers or persian archer-spearmen, perhaps a few slingers, and a unit or two of "Pandotapoi Phalangitai", while your half stack of horsemen is away. Build your pop growth buildings first, and also build mines (essential to support a half stack of horses).
Keep peace for as long as possible with the Arche Seleukeia, since they have endless gold coffers, and will win a war of attrition against you. When you're ready to attack, blitz them a bit and grab all their eastern possessions (East of Persepolis, or perhaps grab Persepolis and the surrounding cities as well). Most of them have mines, which is always nice, and while you've been at peace, the AS might have developed those for you!
Ok, too much Baktria for today...
As a general rule, try to keep a spy or two in your outlying cities, since they prevent the AI from sending spies which cause unrest (or at least your spies might expel any present enemy spy), which might cause rebellion if you're not careful. Also, I would recommend to choose some cities as Production & Cultural centers, and others (near the frontline) as Troop production centers. Set low taxes to all Towns, normal to Minor Cities, and very high taxes to >Large cities. Good FM should govern cities, and cities with FM almost always grow faster than those without one. Bad FM can die impaled in enemy spears, or in a boat to pirate land, they're also useful as heavy cavalry... I used to roleplay test them, the initially bad FMs would fight against great odds, and if they survived they would prove themselves and eventually became good.
just my two cents...

[Olaf The Great]

As Baktria, try to use spies to make Seleucid provinces rebel so you can capture them without making the Arche declare war on you.

[Atraphoenix]

If you want to roleplay rebellions spies are worthless in the cities close to capitals or in small states. Unfortunately the only chance to incite a rebellion is 'add_population cityname 5000'
note this is a game breaking issue and CTD is quite possible because of gov. building lines of EBBS script. So do not activate the script until the city rebelled. On the other hand if you do not activate the script more than one turn it may crash your game soon.

[NoHelmet]

Regarding some conversation on another thread: Fighting successor armies that spam phalangitai.

1. Eastern tactics (cavalry based armies). Spread your army, and if you successfully break up their line, start picking out individual units. Then, do this: Attack with some cheap infantry, then charge rear with some lancers (most noble eastern cavalry has it). Never stick around for too long after charge. Repeat as long as necessary. Possible difficulties: enemy has lots of missile support. You can easily outmaneuver them by spreading your army, or simply put some heavily armored cavalry to soak missiles (your general does the job, or cataphracts). Another problem: enemy has strong cavalry support: Drag them out with your HAs, then you will easily dispatch them with some heavier troop.

2. Western tactics (infantry based armies). Make them spread out, or keep them in place by sacrificing some cheap infantry while your heavies go around and take care from behind. Use javelins for maximum effect, as long as they are shot in the backs. Pilae do the job even better (teskatos, some northern iberians, romans), so do slings.

3. Spam your own phalangitai.

[Atraphoenix]

Regarding some conversation on another thread: Fighting successor armies that spam phalangitai.

3. Spam your own phalangitai.

I do this with Pahlava
The easiest solution. The latter ones needs a lot of micromanaging in battles.

[CorporalJigsore]

This isn't really a tip, but a question to the more savvy in the mysterious ways of EB... How do you "lure" garrisons to sally? Seems to be mentioned in quite the many starting guides for factions, and I, to be honest am kind of having trouble starting up with factions who have to siege a lot in the beginning. (Getai comes to my mind)

Of course I can try and seize the settlement with totally inferior troops, but simply keeping a larger army near the small sieging army doesn't seem to fool the AI in my campaigns?

[NoHelmet]

Lay siege when there is an enemy army near the city, and they will come to the rescue of the city, or attack the enemy army if it is right next to the city, that will cause the garrison to come out. Or simply wait couple of turns, and on the last one before starvation they will sally. Problem with that is that it devastates the land and makes your general gain morale losing traits, not to mention that 6 turns of waiting is not cost effective, but better than losing half of the army.