Pontus - RTW guide

From TWC Wiki

This is an article about campaign strategy in Rome: Total War. It can be found here.

[edit] Introduction

Pontus... are they RTW's most obscure faction? Does anyone truly know their contribution to history? Does it matter? For the precious few who care, here is my version of the road to Pontic glory. This campaign was done on the normal level, so I apologize to those who like a challenge, but I'm sure some of this applies to hard/very hard levels too.

[edit] Initial moves

The first thing to do as Pontus is deal with Armenia. If they are not swiftly contained or destroyed then they will be a constant thorn in your side. Several things point to containment rather than desruction:

• You don't have the army to kill them early on, and later they're just not worth it
• They are a tediously large nation for their 2 cities, destroying them involves trekking across vast mountainous areas on the edge of the world, particularly if they go east to Parthia
• You have FAR bigger fish to fry almost from the start
• One well-stocked fort is all it takes to hold them off for the entire game.

Build a fort and stock it with eastern infantry/peltasts, 3-4 units should do. If the Armenians get discouraged they'll go home and concentrate on annoying the Seleucid Empire instead. Immediately offer them nice things for an alliance, trade rights and map information should provide you with a deal they will not break.

You need high taxes to raise funds fast, and raise money through trade rights with Greece and Seleucia early on to fund some expansion in Asia minor. The Bosphorus has to be taken. Bribe Nicomedia and then move in a couple of units to ensure order, and it will grow to a massive economic powerhouse. Send the diplomat+units combo to Byzantium and repeat. These two cities have to be converted and their Greek culture helps. If, as does happen, you find Thracians or Macedonians besieging Byzantium, attack or bribe them because Byzantium is the key to success. Armies and strong defences are necessary as the Macedonians are always led by a classical Hitler who will ignore any treaties you have, and Thrace is little better, but will hopefully have barbarians on the northern borders. Next, turn your attention to Asia minor. Ancyra needs a military solution as it is puzzlingly a barbarian island in a civilized Hellenic sea... never quite got that. Next take a diplomat and an army (you'll never go far wrong with that combination) to Halicarnassus, and bribe and conquer. This is not urgent, as for some reason neither Seleucia nor Greece will touch the place. You will now have a solid base from which to plot your conquests. The main point is to remember that you need trade to survive. Always build ports/roads/markets if possible, and send out diplomats to obtain trade rights from Egypt, Thrace and Macedon. If you can still see the road between the ox-carts, you still have more to do (well, neary). You can really rack up the cash fast at this point. I personally got to about 600,000d by about 320BC. Next, its time to rule Turkey. If Seleucia hasn't already betrayed you, which they will do if you leave it long enough, you should do it now (when you have a budget of 200,000+). Have a couple of diplomats and a substantial military presence ready. Try to persuade Egypt et all to help you if they haven't already gone to war, and when Seleucia is in a multi-front war, roll into Sardis. Bribe any troops around the city and besiege it. It often has a full banner of troops, in which case you could let your siege erode them a while, but assault the city asap and take it. Leave an adequate defence force at the city and then head off for the heart of the Seleucids with 2 or 3 armies. Capture as much land as you can of the Empire, which will be dissolving completely if you've brought enough enemies in against it. Grab Antioch and Tarsus (2 more massive trade ports) before Egypt gets a chance at them. Avoid annoying Egypt, leave them for later.

Capturing the fine Seleucid trade ports is all you need from them so you can turn your attention back west. With Pontus, you need a Carthaginian outlook on foreign affairs: no long held rivalries or endless wars - if it doesn't make a profit, ditch it. You now have modern Turkey in your empire, except for the Greek strip of Ionia. The Greeks are in an awful position from the start. They may have a strong navy, which is annoying because Pontus almost always get away without any naval presence, which saves tremendous expenditure, but their land army is poor, and can be defeated using pikeman to hold the phalanxes and chariots to rip them apart from behind. Destroy Ionia, capture Pergamum and then ferry an army to Rhodes, the sweetest prize of all. 40% bonus to trade, pas mal, as well as a useful trading outpost. Give it the same treatment as other port cities- trade and economy all the way, and a good governor, and it should be injecting 3000+d a year into the now (hopefully) booming Pontic economy.

Now is the time to expand into the Balkans. Macedon and Greece are always in an endless war with each other, with Thrace, Rome and the Dacians also getting involved. All you have to do is take diplomats and strong armies (mercenaries are a major help here- hire them) and mop up what's left. Thessalonica is a first class city, and will boost your cause no end if you take it quickly. Now you have a choice. You can finish off Greece, take the modern lands of Greece, and end up in a massive war with post-Marius Brutii armies, or face the Romans head-on, by-pass the irrelevant Greeks and drive the Brutii back to Italy. The Macedonians, unfortunately, have to be killed proper, or driven over to the Greek-culture city in Africa that occasionally joins them, as they NEVER give up, so deal sufficiently with them, which may involve cultivating a Greek revival so that they do the dirty work, while you concentrate on Rome. DO NOT be drawn into an attack on Italy. By the time you get there, the Scipii and Julii will be considerable powers, and they will always return to help their cousins in considerable numbers. An Italian campaign often ends in an ill-fated showdown with 2 or 3 well commanded armies outside Rome, where your phalanxes are surrounded and pulped, and your chariots fall apart for no reason.

Achieve a balance between blockading the Adriatic, thus blocking off the Brutii, or deploying strong forces and diplomats on the coast of Thermon to throw the Romans back into the sea when they land. This done, its back to the East. Egypt will eventually go for you, such is the level of their ambition and treachery, so the trick is to simply betray them first. This will require at least 3 diplomats and 4-5 high level armies. Move down the coastal provinces - bribe the armies, enslave the cities, until you reach the borders of Egypt. Have a strong base here, and then move inland eastwards. Remove what is left of the Seleucids, at Seleucia itself, thus taking the only prosperous Asian provinces left. Ignore Arabia, but take all the land around it, either Egyptian or rebel. If you need a reference for how your Asian empire should look to be at its optimum cash-capacity, find a map of the Ottoman Empire c. 1900 (man I'm sad!!!). This still leaves Egypt. By my experience, these provinces are rich but nigh on impossible to control. The sensible way to rid yourself of them is to capture the cities and exterminate the people. If they still are discontent, which always leads to negative income, pull out. You'll leave a rebel buffer state between you and Numidia or the Scipii, depending on who has prevailed in west Africa. Egyptians still not dead? Cyprus. From here, you have by far the largest, most powerful, and best of all richest empire on the map, and there will be no factions that can stand before you for long. The next step will be to take Rome and the north-eastern eastern kingdoms (Armenia, Parthia etc), but for now, you can safely say you have mastered the obscurest of the obscure factions. Congratulations.