tips for dealing with Macedonia

[malfuriouspete]

Its about 245bc in my game, and the black tide seems to be seeping out of greece... i see stack upon stack of Macedonian armies comprised of nothing but hoplites and the like... and I think to myself, how in the hell do I take that on with my roman armies??

I guess its probably my own fault since I left them alone to take over the greek penninsula... but I had more pressing worries to attend to, taking over carthage, sending some armies into asia minor to make sure the seleucids don't become a powerhouse, blah blah... well I found out that the seleucid empire has too much money and they can replace their armies pretty quickly.. or I need to send more troops into their territory and start taking some cities

In any case, Macedonia is starting to worry me know.. anyone have ideas about how to deal with them if they start churning out stacks of hoplites???

[Delvecchio1975]

hoplites are not that bad, i suppose you're talking about all the different phalanx units? best way to deal with them at this stage is keep them busy with one stack in north italy/illyria (wherever you meet them there), and then after two or three turns send two full roman stacks into the greek peninsula, when they have sent most of their army north to kick your behind.
assault the cities you siege as soon as you can, exterminate, and start building barracks. You'll need to fend off sieging armies for a while transporting fresh troops there (while you can't train them there yourself), but romans are superior on the walls anyway.
gradually take over the greek peninsula while you keep the pressure on in the north. With their money cow gone, you'll breeze through.
good luck

[malfuriouspete]

thats a good idea, I'll try that out. I'm also going to try bribing some of their bigger armies, maybe I can get a few of them over to my side

[joerd9]

You may try to bribe them but they won't join your side. They'll simply disperse.

[Delvecchio1975]

You may try to bribe them but they won't join your side. They'll simply disperse.

sometimes part of the army joins your side, but to my experience only units that you could get too, like AOR units and mercenaries.
I think it's wiser to spend your money on bribing settlements than armies ...

[joerd9]

sometimes part of the army joins your side, but to my experience only units that you could get too, like AOR units and mercenaries.
I think it's wiser to spend your money on bribing settlements than armies ...

That is correct. Units that your faction is able to build will join you. I'm not sure that mercenary units will.

[magpie]

When you land your Roman stacks on the Greek pennisula leave a couple of spaces in these stacks hire Hoplites.So when you face the black horrors Put your hoplites in the center of your battle line place most of your roman heavys on the flanks.Pin the macedon phalanx with your hoplites then swing your Roman heavys into their flanksI love seeing the macedon rout.magpie

[joerd9]

True. Sometimes you can even create proper encirclements with this tactic. I love seeing macedons want to rout and can't...

[magpie]

True. Sometimes you can even create proper encirclements with this tactic. I love seeing macedons want to rout and can't...

Hi joerd9,The trick is,not to completely encircle them give them escape route and they will most likely take itmagpie

[Delvecchio1975]

Hi joerd9,The trick is,not to completely encircle them give them escape route and they will most likely take itmagpie

why would you want to give an escape route? as far as i'm concerned a good macedonian is a dead macedonian!

[magpie]

Hi Delvecchio1975,If you give them little opening a good chance they will waver,and once they start moving for the opening and lose formation they will rout.If you encircle they will fight to the death causing your troops more casulties,easy to kill them when they are running.magpie.

[Delvecchio1975]

magpie, they will indeed fight to the death, but once they're doing that, they cause nearly no victims at all to your men. plus you make sure no one leaves the battlefield alive, which can otherwise be difficult with infantry based armies.

if you want to let them rout, make sure you have one or two units of fast cavalry to sweep up the mess. "fast" is important, i've seen skirmishers and archers outrun my generals and other heavy cavalry ...

[malfuriouspete]

so far, in my game, macedonia owns all of greece and are now expanding north into thraican and Sarmatian lands... why they wouldn't go for asia minor confuses me.

So as of right now, I'm gonna send over 2 stacks to southern greece and try and draw their armies down there... they don't seem to have a lot of forces in the south and then send in another stack from the north and slowly but surely hope to weaken them enough.

Then after that, its time to deal with the seleucids...

[Switch]

I'd suggest going about it the other way around. Send a stack to attack them in the North, to make absolutely sure they're concentrating their forces away from the Peloponnese. Then sail down to their juicy, ill defended cities with a couple of stacks and rip their best cities out from under their feet. You could probably get at least all of the Peloponnese before they can reroute some troops, if you make sure to split your armies up against ill-defended cities.

Once you get the Greek settlements, they'll really start feeling the hit to their funds (and you'll get a nice enough boost to maybe field another legion) .

[CiusFortius]

I second the diversion to the north strategy. They will often send stacks north into Sarmatian and Germanian lands. Once the bulk of their strength is tied up there the incredibly rich Southern Greek cities are like apples waiting to be picked. In the time it takes them to bring the armies down South they will be bankrupt and you can meet them behind the walls they built or on terrain of your choosing (steep mountians are good )

It also pays to start early. Give a little cash to factions opposing the macs. The Greeks, thracians, Illyrians, etc. slowing their advance a bit.

[Delvecchio1975]

Hell! that's what i was trying to say from the beginning!?!? was i that unclear??

[Switch]

We were merely echoing support for your fine proposition .

Also, a frequently cited strategy is to exploit any appearance of Plague to slow down Macedonia's development. If you spot a plague anywhere, train four or fives spies, ship them over to Macedonia and spread it in every settlement you can find. If a city gets rid of the plague, simply infect them again!

It's not going to stop them becoming a superpower by itself, but if you're tied up dealing with other foes, or don't have the strength to meet the Black Death head-on, then if you keep their homeland cities plagueified for a good decade or so then they will feel it. Less taxpayers and troops (plus the AI tends to impose a quarantine on infected settlements, which helps mess them up a bit as well).

Anyway, good luck!

[Companion Cavalry]

I said this in a similar thread EXPAND INTO MACEDON WHILE THEY ARE

STILL FIGHTING THE GREEK FACTION it is so easy to take them from the north

while their main armies are busy (or stretched) in greece

If they already captured the balkans and are expanding northwards, capture

their homeland while their armies are busy in central Europe and train

a lot of soldiers to garisson river bridges in forts and have four stacks as

mobile behind this fort link and prepare to face their armies one by one and

retrain after majour battles. Once their manpower is crippled beyond

replacement, conquer their northern cities as well.



edit: Forts, because it takes at least four turns for them to take one giving you time to move your mobile

army to help the garisson

[Companion Cavalry]

question answered. Thread closed?

[svramj]

Macedon is not balanced and there are some mods like MC's 4tpy mod and AEE have Macedon FIXED you can manually mod it or try RTR with these mods you'll have a balanced Macedon.

btw the thread is not closed. i think flourin can only close it....