Your favorite "Pikemen" nation and why

[moonburn]

selling taras ? the blasphemy furthermore tara is 75% of your tax income if you´re already crippled at the start as epeiros economically (and yes you can take pella and demetrias on the very 1st round if you use your elephants right and wait for the right time to charge the maks in the back and always but always when charging with the elephants make sure they are guarded by the illiryan cavarlryman they´re indepensable and one the enemt routs they mop up all the enemies before they reach the town square)

selling tara is a mistake and as i said use phyrros the elephants and whatever unit you can use to take demetrias and pella and send alexander to taras if you survive there he will be one of your 2 best generals once phyrrus dies (him and ptolomaios)

the thing with epeiros is learning proper siege strategies open 3 holes on the wall send in the kelts or some other lighter unit to gain time as you place your phallanx pull back the lighter troops let all units be fighting against the phallanx place your elephants escorted by the illiryans and then kick them in the back trunk style and they´ll rout you can also use your general for the escort and mop them up duty´s but make sure skirmishers are either engaged or eliminated don´t let them near your ellies while they can still shoot (in rebel barbaroi setlements this is more problematic since there´s no squared city´s and it can be dificult to concentrate them all against one phallanx with a hole on the wall for you to pass your ellies by)

epeiros is a fun campaign but you might take longer to take control and operationalise your balkanic mines (more economical problems then for instance kh and maks) also after you take demetrias go for peace with makedonia they´ll keep each other busy and won´t attack you (i´ve been able to keep peace with kh for 50 years because makedonia is still in control of chalkis)

in italy your main duty is to survive once you take the balkans you can start concentrating on italy by ferrying your units over to italy and trying to take as fast as possible sicily particulary syracuse who will be your main recruitment center (on huge man power is very important you will have to take akontistai around the balkans to allow your city´s to reach 2k population so you can develop your mining activities so plan head and plan well because that shifting of population around costs money that might make you loose alot of turns in mine building)

once syracuse is taken you´ll be able to reigh supreme since they should enable you to recruit thureporoi and deutoroi from turn 1 wich with taras will grant you enough manpower to face rome

as for makedonia and despite what a few people said once you´re 50 years into the campaign all the cdtc and the dificulty of winning with phallanxs will make the throkitai invaluable since you´ll want to start autoresolving batles and thats where they´re the most precious babies (altough in batles you fight they can hold the line for your agrarians and thrakians and gallothracians to flank)

i understand fully well the allure of makedonia you can take athens on turn 1 (just used a few men from chalkis to siege the city and they´ll sally out altough i prefer the hold siege it with your faction leader and the thessaloy and charge them down the hill after your akontistai and slingers have weaken them you can call you in the mediums altough i prefer to use them with your corinthian army to take take sparta the batle beteween corinth and sparte is all about proper cavarly use so all cavarly you can call in is invaluable to win that fight and once you do you can take sparte by turn 3 ) you can protect pella with the original general akontistai and a unit of deuteroi (you can also leave a unit of thessaloy there and try to hunt down and kill phyrrus from the start use the thessaloy to attack phyrrus retreat to a place where phyrrus will have his back to one of the shooting towers and use swords meanwhile leave your general in position if he tries to pull back use the general to hunt him down) another trick is to keep running around the city walls and let the epirote bg´s die by arrows but then he tens to escape another one is after weakaning just charge them in the back with your general (use the thessaloi to tire them and weaken them) and run them down tired(exausthed) epirote bg´s will be easily caught by fresh makedonian bg´s
as for the ellies just place the akontistai with shooting at will off and wait for the ellies to come into range if it works well 80% of the time the ellies run amok before they can breach the gate if not it´s a matter of how your deutoroi will fare and for how long

[CashMunny]

You know, once I started using Alexander with EB, I almost never get crashes even 100 or 200 years into the campaign. I had some issues with unofficial mods, but those are cleared up too. I recommend Alex.exe with L3z's modpack until Jirisys' is 100% stable.

[Drewski]

selling taras ? the blasphemy furthermore tara is 75% of your tax income if you´re already crippled at the start as epeiros economically (and yes you can take pella and demetrias on the very 1st round if you use your elephants right and wait for the right time to charge the maks in the back and always but always when charging with the elephants make sure they are guarded by the illiryan cavarlryman they´re indepensable and one the enemt routs they mop up all the enemies before they reach the town square)

selling tara is a mistake and as i said use phyrros the elephants and whatever unit you can use to take demetrias and pella and send alexander to taras if you survive there he will be one of your 2 best generals once phyrrus dies (him and ptolomaios)

the thing with epeiros is learning proper siege strategies open 3 holes on the wall send in the kelts or some other lighter unit to gain time as you place your phallanx pull back the lighter troops let all units be fighting against the phallanx place your elephants escorted by the illiryans and then kick them in the back trunk style and they´ll rout you can also use your general for the escort and mop them up duty´s but make sure skirmishers are either engaged or eliminated don´t let them near your ellies while they can still shoot (in rebel barbaroi setlements this is more problematic since there´s no squared city´s and it can be dificult to concentrate them all against one phallanx with a hole on the wall for you to pass your ellies by)

epeiros is a fun campaign but you might take longer to take control and operationalise your balkanic mines (more economical problems then for instance kh and maks) also after you take demetrias go for peace with makedonia they´ll keep each other busy and won´t attack you (i´ve been able to keep peace with kh for 50 years because makedonia is still in control of chalkis)

in italy your main duty is to survive once you take the balkans you can start concentrating on italy by ferrying your units over to italy and trying to take as fast as possible sicily particulary syracuse who will be your main recruitment center (on huge man power is very important you will have to take akontistai around the balkans to allow your city´s to reach 2k population so you can develop your mining activities so plan head and plan well because that shifting of population around costs money that might make you loose alot of turns in mine building)

once syracuse is taken you´ll be able to reigh supreme since they should enable you to recruit thureporoi and deutoroi from turn 1 wich with taras will grant you enough manpower to face rome

as for makedonia and despite what a few people said once you´re 50 years into the campaign all the cdtc and the dificulty of winning with phallanxs will make the throkitai invaluable since you´ll want to start autoresolving batles and thats where they´re the most precious babies (altough in batles you fight they can hold the line for your agrarians and thrakians and gallothracians to flank)

i understand fully well the allure of makedonia you can take athens on turn 1 (just used a few men from chalkis to siege the city and they´ll sally out altough i prefer the hold siege it with your faction leader and the thessaloy and charge them down the hill after your akontistai and slingers have weaken them you can call you in the mediums altough i prefer to use them with your corinthian army to take take sparta the batle beteween corinth and sparte is all about proper cavarly use so all cavarly you can call in is invaluable to win that fight and once you do you can take sparte by turn 3 ) you can protect pella with the original general akontistai and a unit of deuteroi (you can also leave a unit of thessaloy there and try to hunt down and kill phyrrus from the start use the thessaloy to attack phyrrus retreat to a place where phyrrus will have his back to one of the shooting towers and use swords meanwhile leave your general in position if he tries to pull back use the general to hunt him down) another trick is to keep running around the city walls and let the epirote bg´s die by arrows but then he tens to escape another one is after weakaning just charge them in the back with your general (use the thessaloi to tire them and weaken them) and run them down tired(exausthed) epirote bg´s will be easily caught by fresh makedonian bg´s
as for the ellies just place the akontistai with shooting at will off and wait for the ellies to come into range if it works well 80% of the time the ellies run amok before they can breach the gate if not it´s a matter of how your deutoroi will fare and for how long

Here's my way to play Epiros. Basically never fails. I'll also quantify it, by saying that you absolutely do not need to follow up taking all of Greece with the rampage through Italy. Once you have Pella, Dem, Ambrakia, Epi,Sparta, Corinth,Chalkis and Athens (as early as turn 5), you'll be rolling in cash.

You can then continue very slowly, even disbanding most of your army in Ambrakia to add quick pop.

ON TOPIC, my fave Phalanx nation is Mak. Just avoid war in the west with Rome at all costs, as they are the bulldog that won't let go...

[CashMunny]

ON TOPIC, my fave Phalanx nation is Mak. Just avoid war in the west with Rome at all costs, as they are the bulldog that won't let go...

True that. Without blitzing them the Romans are one of my top 3 most annoying factions to fight, right beneath Arche Seleukeia and Saka Rauka. I'd rather fight Sauromatae than Romani... And I DON'T like fighting Sauromatae.

[A_Dane]

Really? I'd prefer fighting the romans every day. In my carthage games the iberians are always a bigger nuissance than the romans, and as anyone east of italy, the insane might of either Arche or Ptollies will eventually come to stomp on you. And if they fail once? They just stomp harder.

In essence: if they don't have pikes, I'm not really worried. (Although I'll agree, that the Sauromatae can be annoying)

[WinsingtonIII]

I prefer Epeiros. I've always had a soft spot for Pyrrhos and they also have an interesting starting position and some great units. I like the fact that they have both Agranian Assault Infantry and Thorakitai, I don't think any other faction has access to both of them. They also have the Illyrian regionals, which may not be great units, but I do enjoy them, and the Illyrian Light Cavalry in particular are suprisingly good (they have great stamina and speed and they also have AP axes which means they can take on heavier cavalry quite well when microed correctly). Plus, Epeiros technically has the best elite phalanx in the game (Chaion Agema), although it is only true by one attack point over the Agryaspides I think.

Epeiros also makes for an interesting and fairly difficult early game if you do not solely blitz Greece and ignore Italy. I would suggest trying to hold Taras against the Romans; 1. because it is possible, and 2. because it is more fun than just giving it up. You can take Pella and Demetrias with less than the full army that you start with in Greece, so I would suggest sending some units to Italy. I usually take the Illyrian Light Cav (the Romans generally have no good counter to this fast cav early on) and the Illyrian levy spearmen for simple numbers. Then recruit Levy Hoplites in Taras to fill out your battle line, they can hold quite well from the front. Just remember that you are not trying to push back the Romans yet, just hold them in the mountain passes and make your move later once you've consolidated Greece.

Plus, Epeiros has the most epic faction intro video ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs8wtEw77yY

[Ksifos]

Plus, Epeiros technically has the best elite phalanx in the game (Chaion Agema), although it is only true by one attack point over the Agryaspides I think.

How come Epeiros having the BEST elite pikemen unit in the game? Shouldnt that be Macedonia as the originators of the unit? Does this fact stands historically true? :-o

Plus, Epeiros has the most epic faction intro video ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs8wtEw77yY

Great Vid really enjoyed it :-)
Are these supposed to play when you start each faction's campaigns? Because all I get is a marble tablet with a "Europa Barbarorum".

[fomalhaut]

Pyrrhus maybe reformed it much better? who knows

[Ludens]

Are these supposed to play when you start each faction's campaigns? Because all I get is a marble tablet with a "Europa Barbarorum".

Unfortunately, only a couple of intro videos were made, so most factions still have the placeholder you describe.