Greek State Campaign Guides

[Omnipotent-Q]

Greek State Campaign Guides

Post yours here

At the top of your post(preferably in bold print) Please put the name of the Greek State you're playing as.

[Zantesuken]

Epirus

This guide is based on my experience on VH/VH in patches 4 and 5.

Initital state

You begin with two provinces in Macedonia, neither of which are particularly wealthy. To your north is the Adreai, a largely defensive and reliable neighbour. To the south is Sparta with whom you are at war. Beside that is Athens, the capital of Hellas, and to the North East is Macedon itself. Rome is a short hop across the Adriatic. You have two armies, one of which contains some mercenary elephants (sticking with what was historically true), but these will be bleeding your ailing economy so I reccomend disbanding these immedietly.

Opening turns

Your priority is eradicating Sparta and Athens. You have a diplomatic penalty with all Hellenic factions, which means that early game they will be baying for your blood. As has always been the case, a strong offense is the best strategy. Combining your initial forces along with hiring mercenaries should be enough to invade and conquer Sparta (by crossing the small ford into Sparta itself, avoiding Athens). These battles will be tough but, with careful micro, they are winnable. Troop retention is critical because you will need every pair of boots to take Athens immedietly after. Taking control of a major settlement is a massive gain for your economy and should be your priority. An early spy/scout does wonders in managing your fights, splitting your enemy up so you can win in the face of unfavourable odds.

It is my experience that Macedon is very peaceful on recent patches. They will want to build alliances with the states of Asia Minor and Anatolia; they will more times than not avoid war with you, especially if you manage to consolidate yourself in southern Greece in the first ~5 turns. However, Rome will come barking at your heels despite their perilous position amongst Carthage, the Etruscans and Syracuse. Do not be surprised if a small Roman raiding force lands from the Adriatic. Fight defensively with what troops you can spare while looking for a chance to snag the Greek islands of Crete (owned by Knossos) and Rhodes. Should Macedon declare war on you also, do not be temped to advance into Thracia / Dacia. The native tribes have very powerful early game units that will chew you up. Forge trade agreements and NAPs with those celtic tribes if you can - they will be busy fighting the Germans to the north.

In terms of research, you need to tech up to the stronger military units ASAP. Epirus doesn't get the sweet sword infantry that other Hellenics do (no royal peltasts, no silver shield swordsmen) but their pikemen are solid. The quicker you can get your Hellenic Royal Guard the better you'll be positioned to win battles. Rush for that tech, but only after you get some critical other pieces. Burning oil in seige is essential, as is unlocking champions and dignitaries. Depending on your economic strength, you may want to grab libraries. Build a military port in Athens asap also. Seige ships will win you every naval battle singlehandedly - well worth the cost.

Early Game to Civil War

Depending on how things have gone with Macedon, you should ideally be in control of all of Hellas, your two initial provinces of Macedonia plus Rhodes. From here I highly recommend trying to cosy up with Pergamon / Bithynia as they will form defensive alliances readily, even with your diplomatic penalty. Instead, turn your military attention to Rome. If they have DoWed you, you should already have fought some invasion forces and should be able to invade Brundisium without much effort. Magna Grecia is incredibly rich and well worth taking quickly - though avoid war with Carthage for now. Bide your time, play off Rome's wars and pick off as much territory as you can. Your aim is to consolitdate Italia, Magna Grecia and Corsica & Sardinia. Doing so without angering Carthage outright is ideal (use agents, manipulate the enemy AI into attacking each other) though Carthage, like Rome, tends to fail pretty hard. Pick off what you can, taking opportunities as they arise.

This should lead you into the most profitable province in the game: Africa. If Cathage / Libya still owns all of Africa, great. Go take it. If, as is more likely, it is split between the minor African factions (Nasamones, Cyrene) then war may be best avoided, and again bide your time and wait for rebellions or moments of weakness.

Ideally you should also have a strong navy. Two or three fleets consisting of ~5 ballistae ships and ~5 archers will wreck anything in the water. Use this to protect and extend your influence around the med, keeping your armies in volatile boundaries ready to pounce on faltering neighbours. At this point in the game, with Civil War approaching at level 3 Imperium, do not launch any large wars. Be patient. Epirus is not a military powerhouse; you rely on your borders remaining peaceful for the most part striking only when victory is assured

Civil War

Approach level 3 imperium with care. Once you hit it, you're liable to hit the civil war. I am yet to determine what controls the civil war; my only observations are that it is inevitable and that having gotten it out the way allows you to focus on your campaign with clarity - so everything in the mid game should be preparing for this tough fight. Put armies in all your walled settlements, fortify any others in key passes, bridges and chokepoints. Pikemen supported with companion cavalry and peltasts will be able to repel odds up to 4:1 if positioned well. The greatest trouble will be the navies that spawn. ~7 stacks of artillery ships, assualt troops and archers will trounce you. Do not engage these navies. Instead, attack the transports where they are vulnerable. The navies have poor odds against land armies in city garrisons - use that to your advantage. The rebel stacks will spread out, hit your walls and forts, be broken, and thus allow you to retake your capital in a few turns. If you can do this without losing a province, all the navies will now begin to suffer attrition. Mopping them up should be simple once their forces have degraded.

Remember, the rebels are a faction like any other. They have food to worry about, they have civil unrest, they have diplomacy. Get your allies to declare war - spread the rebels out; divide and conquer.

Post Civil War

Normally things become very easy after the civil war, but you are not playing Rome, Sparta or Seleucia who get amazing military units. You're stuck with your royal pikes and companions, so you're auto resolve stats will never be fantastic but your in battle success should be high. With southern Greece, the Italian Peninsula and Africa under your belt, your choices for expansion are either into Egypt, Maruetania or Northern Italy. Any should be fine - just keep the same principles in mind; strike only when you know you can win, keep your borders peaceful as much as possible and always look for weaknesses (or create them with agents).

You have the advantage of using allies and client states to fulfil your victory conditions, so peace with Asia Minor / Thracia / Dacia is welcome throughout the game. Slowly expand along into Iberia and Gaul in a clockwise fashion if you took Mauretania, or simple head East into Arabia and Mesopotamia if you took Egypt. From this point victory is almost certainly assured.

Closing Thoughts

Epirus is not a faction of awesome units or colourful charm. They are instead the faction for those who prefer the underdog. Savvy diplomacy with savage military ruthlessness make playing Epirus a rewarding if not dynamic experience. You'll need to think playing the Epirots - the early game is critical. Build alliances, seek out weakness, consolidate. Following those simple ideas, Epirus can become the mighty power it once was.

[Shadeslayer]

Sparta! (very hard)

Just a short guide to help with the basics and with the relatively hard start of Sparta.

TURN 1:

Basically, you start only with a minor city and without a provincial capital. However, it is not just any city, IT-IS-SPARTA!!! (Srsly, does anyone expect a Sparta guide without 300 quotes?). You also have 2 armies, led by Areus (leader of your faction) and Galenos (Other Families). You have a Defensive Alliance with Macedon, and a Trade Agreement (and possibly NAP - not sure and I can't check atm) with Athens. Move your Northern army to the "bridge" towards Larissa (but not too far, lest they attack you) - a good spot is just a bit southeast of it, so you can attack Larissa on next turn, but they can't see you from FOW). Recruit 3 Perikoi Pikemen. Move all units from your 2nd army (the one in Sparta) to the first Army. I suggest to Replace the "main army" general to one of your young family members - Nikon or Cleomenes - as Areus will die within a couple of turns, and Galeons is in opposing political faction so we don't want to give him any glory. Start researching the first Military Technology, open Diplomacy with Athens and Demand that they join the war against Epirus - they should accept without taking any money from you. Then set Larissa as the "allied target". Finally, send your spy just south of Larissa and activate her ability (the passive one). Now... PREPARE FOR GLORY, while pressing End turn.

TURN 2:

Now, in my Campaigns Epirus tends to move their army from Larissa somewhere. Move your spy a bit to the north, and if you see an Epirus army within reinforcing range of the city, try to Poison their provisions. Move your main army north and earn these shields, boys! Meaning, assault and take Larissa. Recruit 3 Periokoi Pikemen in Sparta again. Convert the buildings in Larissa if needed - I like to get a Muster Field there and dismantle the one in Sparta on next turn, replacing it with a +4 Public Order temple. Send your spy north of Appolonia to discover Ardeiei (?) and sign a NAP with them. These guys are AWESOME; so try to get a Military Alliance, Military Access and eventually make them your client states. They dont declare stupid wars (for the most part) and usually become very strong, and are reliable.

And from hereon it is kind of impossible to predict how the game will proceed. However I will try to cover combinations that I've seen happen and to give tips on how to proceed.

The most important thing is - the game is currently bugged, so that if you don't own Athens you won't be able to trade EVER, with any faction other than Athens. It DOES NOT matter if you get 10 Ports, you can't trade while Athens isn't in your possession. So that's why we essentially *HAVE* to wipe them out. All of 'em. Basically, from here on your short term goals are to take Appolonia and Athens. I suggest to have the main army (led by Nikon) consisting of 6 Pikemen, 4 Helot Javelinmen, 2 Spartan Hoplites and 3 Perikoi Hoplites, and a smaller army consisting of 2 Perikoi Hoplites and 3 Helot Javelinmen, that will serve for defensive purposes while your main army conquers. Basically, wait until either Appolonia or Athens are empty of any troops, then move in and take from them everything. The problem is declaring war on Athens means getting into a war with Macedon too, so it'd probably be better to take Appolonia first. In one of my games Macedon even declared war on Athens (!) which gave me a perfect opportunity to declare war on each of them separately as I saw fit. Meaning first Athens then Macedon.

So the goal is to take the entire Macedonia province, and Athenai. After you have those 2, the next logical goals are Thracia and Knossos. In taking those, the general tips apply - use your Spy to cut off enemy reinforcements - divide et impera - meaning adapt to the Diplomatical situation and don't Declare War unless you really must, rather do it through diplomacy with a 3rd party (Offer to join war). Once you have Athenai, your income will improve drastically through trading, and you will (likely) be able to field 2 decent armies soon (6-8 Perikoi Pikemen - 4-6 Spartan Hoplites - 2 Citizen Cav - 1-2 Ballista - General - 4 Peltasts).

I do research as Sparta the following way - get the first Military tech (the one that allows Holosideros Barracks - tier 2), then get Water Sluicing from Construction tab (as all the settlements around here are very undeveloped), then the military tech for Workshop. After that proceed according to personal preferences.

I build the provinces the following way - Hellas is a food/ commerce province meant for income. Also, a possible Navy production province - so maybe a Military Wharf in Athenai, wealth-increasing buildings in Athenai, some temples of Poseidon, Sacred groves and farms in Sparta and Hiareptyna (spelling?). Macedonia is also a mostly farming/ income province - same as Hellas, but I include a Workshop in Larissa which will be my place for recruiting Ballistae (I use 1-2 in every army for range superiority - to make them come to me or die). The dedicated Military Province will be Thracia - 4 settlements, so plenty of room for many Military buildings - you can go crazy here. Hoplite Barracks, Skirmisher Camp, upgrade buildings, military temples... Just exempt the province from Tax if needed to negate its food loss and unhappiness.

Once you have all of this in place, the World is at your feet. You can move whichever way you like after this.

[wealthmonger]

Epirus

If you're looking for a more peaceful start with Epirus or at least a more controlled start, perhaps try this. Legendary difficulty, vanilla, tested twice with patch 7.

Turn 1: Move your fleet into the appolonia harbor(when I talked to macedon first they wouldn't do the deal that I wanted but then I moved my fleet into appolonia and talked to them again and they accepted, maybe more military strength in your cities? otherwise who knows)

Diplomacy

Macedon- NAP, TA, break defensive alliance with Sparta
Ardiaei- NAP, TA
Macedon- defensive alliance for 3400 this reveals the odyssians and tylis in diplomacy
Odryssians- NAP, TA they might accept or you might have to give them 200-300 this reveals bythinia in diplomacy
Bythinia- NAP, TA (same as above)
Tylis- NAP, TA (same as above)
Pergamon- NAP
Triballi- NAP

Turn 2: If you want you can attack rome and take brundisium on turn 1 or 2(it shouldn't effect your deal with ardiaei or wait for rome to declare bringing macedon and ardiaei in on your side)

Diplomacy

Ardiaei- Defensive alliance for 900-1000

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://imageshack.us/a/img43/9664/qshr.jpg

Depending on what happens with Carthage/Syracuse/Rome you might want to join war against Rome(which might get you a NAP with whoever is at war with them) or go after Sparta or wait for them to make the first move.

[wealthmonger]

Turn 38 and it's been pretty brutal trying to get my client states to grow. Where should I go from here?

Knossos and Ardiaei are doing well, Rhodos just sits there and recently I added Daorsi.

I'll have to wait 10 turns before doing anything against the odryssians so I don't mess myself up in diplomacy.
I'm on decent terms with rome but they won't do a non aggression pact or trade and they just now took lilybaeum.
Sardes is doing well and their still a satrapy of the seleucids. I can't see the seleucids but I think their stable.
Last I checked carthage/Libya/nova carthago are stable except for the loss of lilybaeum, I'm not on good terms with them.
Trading and non aggression pact with Egypt, their doing reasonably well except the loss of Jerusalem to sardes and petra to someone else but they gained 3 more regions to their west.

Should I go after Scordisci, Breuci, Veneti or someone else? Should I make any other factions into client states, I'd like to know if you've had any success with any particular faction as a client state?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://imageshack.us/a/img18/7650/rl0o.jpg

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://imageshack.us/a/img855/7907/ibxu.jpg

[Summary]

I have prepared a detailed guide for Sparta that works on any difficulty level. Which is the best way to go about uploading it to this site. It has about 4000+ words. I have it in .docx and .pdf format.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/222809627/...Campaign-Guide

[BlackS0ull]

I have prepared a detailed guide for Sparta that works on any difficulty level. Which is the best way to go about uploading it to this site. It has about 4000+ words. I have it in .docx and .pdf format.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/222809627/...Campaign-Guide

WoW .... this is exactly what I wanted.

I've started with Sparta and man ...everything is HARD ... I'm playing on Normal difficulty but is still HARD.

Let me explain you guys, what I've did after I read few posts on this page.

In the first turns, I've taken Larissa without any issues, then I've moved up in north in order to take also Appolonia, so now Epirus has been vanished from the World of Rome 2

Well, now the tough times are started, because someone told earlier, that in order to have some trades route opened, you have to take out Athens. Ok, I want to do that, but is impossible since they are client-state for Macedon empire which is very big and powerful.

I've did an alliance (trade/military) with Ardiaei and another state that is up in the north, after Ardiaei. So let's say that maybe they will help me if I will start a war towards Athens, but dudes ....immediately after I'm declaring war to Athens (let's say that I will conquer them) Macedon will declare WAR upon me and from that moment everything will very hard, because immediately they will take Larissa and Appolonia from me, because I don't have any army available (both 2 units are in/next to Athens) and let's assume that are partially damaged after the attack to Athens, and after that, they will attach me by sea and by land to Athens so I will end in a DEFEAT.

So don't know how to proceed further.

I have an alliance (military) with Ardiaei and another state (forget the name - is after Ardiaei)
I have a Defensive Alliance with Macedon
I have taken out Epirus by conquer Larissa & Appolonia.

Thanks mate in advance for any advice that you can give me

Meanwhile I will read the above guide.

Thanks Summary for this.

[Condottiere 40K]

I disbanded the Athenian army and sat there for around a hundred turns, accumulating a healthy balance of a quarter of a million

In the meantime, the Spartans conquered the Balkans, asked for a loan of eight thousand and offered to become my clients. Occasionally, they ask for their allowance.

[Summary]

WoW .... this is exactly what I wanted.

I've started with Sparta and man ...everything is HARD ... I'm playing on Normal difficulty but is still HARD.

Let me explain you guys, what I've did after I read few posts on this page.

In the first turns, I've taken Larissa without any issues, then I've moved up in north in order to take also Appolonia, so now Epirus has been vanished from the World of Rome 2

Well, now the tough times are started, because someone told earlier, that in order to have some trades route opened, you have to take out Athens. Ok, I want to do that, but is impossible since they are client-state for Macedon empire which is very big and powerful.

I've did an alliance (trade/military) with Ardiaei and another state that is up in the north, after Ardiaei. So let's say that maybe they will help me if I will start a war towards Athens, but dudes ....immediately after I'm declaring war to Athens (let's say that I will conquer them) Macedon will declare WAR upon me and from that moment everything will very hard, because immediately they will take Larissa and Appolonia from me, because I don't have any army available (both 2 units are in/next to Athens) and let's assume that are partially damaged after the attack to Athens, and after that, they will attach me by sea and by land to Athens so I will end in a DEFEAT.

So don't know how to proceed further.

I have an alliance (military) with Ardiaei and another state (forget the name - is after Ardiaei)
I have a Defensive Alliance with Macedon
I have taken out Epirus by conquer Larissa & Appolonia.

Thanks mate in advance for any advice that you can give me

Meanwhile I will read the above guide.

Thanks Summary for this.

Sorry for the delayed response but if you have read my guide, the you will have known that I do not try to get Athens directly, the bigger threat after Epirus is gone is Macedon. Besides Athens is friendlier and less likely to join Macedon in the war, so that way I will have Macedon cornered, and will not have to worry about fighting multiple enemies at once. I will use Athens to fight Macedon because most likely their declining to join the war will break their client state relationships and since they already have bad relation with Macedon they will most likely declare war. Then when they are armies are far North fighting the likes of Macedon in Pella and Pulpudeva weakening them considerably, and I have taken over Macedon, I will declare war of them and take Athens in a coup d'etat, leaving their bewildered armies suffering from attrition and exterminate them.

By waiting just a few turns to gain trade, you have taken a secured root to establishing an empire.

[Condottiere 40K]

I'm working on Athens.

Is it just me or using full stacks of Mobs as garrison troops, battlefield support, and counter insurgency is a remarkably cheap way to maintain order?

Well, at least for the first half of the game, when insurrectionists suddenly become silvered veterans.

[Slaists]

I'm working on Athens.

Is it just me or using full stacks of Mobs as garrison troops, battlefield support, and counter insurgency is a remarkably cheap way to maintain order?

Well, at least for the first half of the game, when insurrectionists suddenly become silvered veterans.

Nope, that's a known "trick" which some consider an exploit

Not completely ahistorical though. Cesar and Pompey (probably others too) were known for hiring mobs, not as much for keeping order as for advancing their own agenda.

[ZocomRaider]

So, who has played as Pergamon? I've tried them a couple of times but haven't gotten very far as they have a difficult starting position, Bithnyia to the East, Sardes to the south...both factions have allies.