Syracusae, Bithynia and Bosporan Kingdom swap factions: info and obsevations

[Bradley]

Hi everybody!

When I dowloaded RS II 2.5. I didnt hesitate and after my first (lets say obligatory) Roman campaign, I became curious about so called swap factions. But I didnt found any info about them, any guides or "tips and tricks". But I tried them and after trying a lot of other factions, I consider swap factions as extremely funny, often heavily challenging and most of all "out of stereotype-isch". So, with my massalian "sort of guide" Im going to give you some basic info on swap factions, perhaps all of them.

Today, Im going to talk about Syracusae, Bithynia and Bosporan Kingdom and Ill try to keep it short, s only basic info.

Lets start with the Syracusae because it is well known, I suppose a lot of people tried them already and it is really easy faction to play.


SYRACUSAE:

Syracusae is fancy town with fancy high walls, fancy people, fancy cavalry and fancy hoplites. Really, Syracusae has some of the best units Greeks can offer except Macedonian phalanxes (well, we are in the "West" with Syracusae, no phalanxes here).

You have Royal Syracusean hoplites who are really hardcore. You have a lot of cavalry which is extremely good considering factions that are around and even on par with most East can offer. You have very good map position - you are on island and you can conquer it in two turns. Then you are protected by sea and are in center of trade. Really: Syracusae is very easy faction to play and you have perfect option to play it as 0-turn or 1-turn.

Tips and tricks:
1) send diplomat to make trade rights with everyone.
2) wait two (three) turns until Romans leave with all their armies
3) conquer Sicilia (you have siege engine from the beginning, that helps)
4) conquer rest of the world

Only problem is, that your faction leader is going to die really soon, but hey, it would be too easy if it would be otherwise.

Conclusion: Syracusae is really fine faction to try, especially if you like one turn campaigns, hoplites and good cavalry. It has nice position, good capital and great potencial to overthrow Roman/carhaginian rule of the area. Even those skilled in RTW will find it challenging later in the game, because, after all, you are between two superpowers and it is quite hard to set and keep a foothold on coast of Africa or Italy.


BOSPORAN KINGDOM:

Nice Crimean peninsula has a jewel on its shore city of Pantikapaion. This is a capital of Bosporan kingdom, one of my most favourite factions. Why? you ask. Because Bosporan kingdom has one of the best unit rosters in the game, it has interesting position on the map and potential to rule wealthy Black sea and surroundings.

Yes, I said one of the best rosters
- you have excellent infantry: hoplites that are on par with any other hoplites (and look nicer), Bosporan heavy spearman, Elite thorakitai, all those excellent thracian mercenaries, your archers are amongst the best aviable in the game.
- you have horse archers that are on par with horse archers of Sarmatia, Scythia, Armenia
- you have cataphracts
in short you have all that surrounding factions have and you have a little more. Against Scythia, Armenia and Sarmatia you have much better heavy infantry, against Macedonia, Pergamon or Romans (and we can say Dacia as well) you have horse archers and cataphracts, if you talk about Pontos, I consider your infantry better and again, your cavalry has an edge over theirs. As paradox I consider, that most of your problems will be rising from fighting Cimbri/Boii if you star taking northwest areas. Mainly because you will fight in woodland areas and that will limit your cavalry advantage over these factions. And Boii and Cimbri infantry is diplomaticaly talking "solid" (with huge swords/axes/clubs).

All factions in RS II (well, maybe there is one or two exceptions) have one neighbour you have to kill to survive. In case of Bosporan Kingdom it is Sarmatia. You simply have to destroy them. And it is exceptionally hard to accomplish. Your problem is to find the right strategy/tactic (and there is one that worked extremely well against HA armies of Sarmatia) and second (and worse) is to keep the conquered Sarmatian cities from rebelling, because if anything, that lies north from black sea, rebels, it will automatically join Sarmatia. So you have to keep all those cities calm and quiet and that costs money. But it can be done and than, there is nothing, that can stop you.

After killing Sarmatians, you have your back covered and you can focus on Scythia/Armenia/Pontos... whatever you want and as I said, you will be able to make army that will perfectly exploit weaknesses of your chosen enemy.

I really love Bosporan, nowhere you have as good choice of different units, you can build "pure greek" army of hoplites/peltast infantry, you can recruit HA army, you can make Dacian like hordes. All of that is backed by rich cities with good trade lines across black sea.

Conclusion: try this faction, I think you will like it too. I consider it good "bridge" between infantry factions of west and cavalry factions of east and therefore solid faction for players of those two camps who would like to try the opposite. Only problem I see is the 0-turn only game mode.


BITHYNIA:

Bithynia is quite an opposite to the Bosporan kingdom. You have nothing that is special, you have nothing surrounding factions cant do better, your infantry is mostly "okay-ish" same with your cavalry and archers. Bithynia is simply a "Meh" faction. And to be honest, it is its greatest strenght. Bithynia is challenging, very hard to play, but very rewarding if you succeed against the odds.

I would recomend this faction only to those, who played RS II few times and are able to use any advantage they can.

ARMY:
Core of your army will be Bithynian hoplites (average), Bithynian phalangites (under par), Allied phalanxes (on par with "normal phalanxes) or Khaldean mountaineer, probably few thracians (Rhomphaiaphoroi, psiloi) Scythian archers. In terms of cavalry, there is nothing like Lonchophoroi, after time you can have Phrygian cavalry, but there is one little ace: you can have medium scythian horse archers from the beginning. These are good light/overall cavalry, but canot fight more heavily armed HA like Cappadocians or scythian nobles. But in Asia minor and in Greece/Macedon, they work well. What is good about this: your army will be cheap thus you will be able to make more armies and fight on multiple fronts.

LOCATION:
Your capital Nicomedia is nice city, but cannot compete with Pergamon, no sir. It cannot best any Capital in my opinion, but is solid. You have some buildings, solid trade potential, enough citizens to conquer surroundings. But it is essential to kill Pergamon. As long this city is independent (not in your hands) you are in danger. And as you can imagine, when you siege it, a lot of Agema phalanxes, Argyraspides, Hypaspistai, Basilikoi peltastai, Pergamon cataphracts and Machiaraphoroi epilektoi pops out. With silver weapons/armor and two chevrons. Against your no chevron, no armor/wepaons upgrades. That IS challenging. And it takes a lot of time to be able to sustain your income, improve your armies and levy more.

But if you succeed, there are only few Ptolemaic cities and these are easy to take. Than, you have excellent economic position to make tons of your not that good armies. Especially in obligatory 0-turn mode.

Conclusion: Bithynia is challenging and I suggest it only to experienced players those can use any advantage game or engine allows. But than, it is extremely rewarding campaign.


Excuse my english.

[Basileos Predator]

Very nice descriptions. Pretty useful and good to enthice new players to try those factions.Good Job.

[Alavaria]

For various reasons, I ran off to the east. For whatever reason, sometimes you can build Mercenary & Levy Center units using other faction's barracks to satisfy the pre-req. In my game, Sparta was one of these, also Pella, Thessalonike. This lets you get just about the best pikes you really need: Levy Pikemen.

I recommend beating up Carthago fast, you can then just drop two forts to block off the city and that will let you get defensive troops if needed. Most of Africa isn't worth the bother, Carthago is special because it'll give the AI big bonus from treasury.

And rush Rome as fast as possible, a nice south-> north approach to Italy will work well, Roma should have a Large Foundry that will prove useful.

Hoplites: not great, they are tier3 and very bad. (Royal Hoplites are ok, they boost morale). I rely on the Syracuse Levy Thureophoroi and the Thureophoroi units a lot.

Horse: Syracuse has a nice horse unit (Syracuse Cavalry, Beltistoi or something) which frighten nearby enemy infantry or something. Good lancers, handy to have even if they just stand behind your lines scaring people while slingers murder them.

[LoGaL]

you should download RS2.6 , otherwise your tips might not be up to date

[Bradley]

I have 2.6 and played all described factions in RS II patch 2.6. But I see the problematic place in my post. What I tried to say there is, that I started playing swap factions in 2.5, when they become available. But I cannot edit my posts yet, so... people will have to go through discussion till here

[Ovidius Empiricus]

I thought Syracuse was only 0-turn. Is there some setting I'm missing (or a folder I need to move around) to get Syracuse 1-turn? I'd really love it if all of them were 1-turn, especially the Bosporan Kingdom. As it is, for me, I think only Massalia is 1-turn ... and maybe Capua, which I've never tried.

[tungri_centurio]

no no no. i love 0turn and don't want to play 1turn campaigns

[romanius24]

Check IMPORTANT_STUFF for 0 turn or 1 turn changes.
I think DVK might add some options in the next update.To be honest its annoying to go through that folder even if you know what you are doing.

[Bradley]

In 2.6., there is a file with data for both 0-turn and 1-turn for Syracuse, You only need to copy/paste them. Info how to do that is there also. Massalia is by default (and only) one turn, but Bosphoran and Bythinia (as far as I know) are only 0 turn (unless you change data and mess with economy). Galatia is AFAIK 0 turn only and Capua I didnt try yet, but should be 1-turn (as I read).

[LuciferM]

Bosporus is incredible with the combo of nomad cavalry and Greek hoplites. I didn't have to worry about Sarmatia though, they declared war on me after I took Campus Iazyges but I beat them back to the steppes and they didn't come back. I pretty much walked all over the Macedonian Successor Factions from there with that powerhouse of HA and elite thorakitai.