Defeating Pyrhuss

[Jacen]

Hi. I'm using the Extended Realism Mod for Platinum 1.9. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=86638 I'm having trouble getting started. I can't seem to defeat Pyrhuss and Carthage keeps attacking one or two turns in, before I can really get my defenses up. I'm using M/M. Any tips the players here can give me?

[Quinn Inuit]

Ave Jacen!

Yeah, Rome has it pretty tough. I recommend letting Pyrrhus take Corfinium and then sieging him with all of your armies. Build troops in the meantime and use them to hold off Carthage until you beat Pyrrhus, then swing back and stomp them. Life gets easier after the first few turns.

In battle, I recommend keeping your battle lines tight, since his cavalry will stomp yours. Don't flank him until you can support the flanking movement with some spearmen. Deal with the elephants by having everyone with javelins save them until the elephants attack, then unload. Or hire some Tarentine mercs from down south and take them out with those guys.

[Jamey]

Yeah, Rome has it pretty tough. I recommend letting Pyrrhus take Corfinium and then sieging him with all of your armies. Build troops in the meantime and use them to hold off Carthage until you beat Pyrrhus, then swing back and stomp them. Life gets easier after the first few turns.

This is good advice. Pyrrhus usually takes a good deal of casualties in taking Corfinum. The AI is then likely to shift troops around as garrisons in south Italy. Use spies and pick your time to attack.

I'm not playing ExRM, but my experience with Rome is that once you gather a full stack army, you can roll over anything you encounter.

[Jacen]

Thanks for the reply. ^^ I'll see if that helps.

[morteduzionism]

My two cents:

-try to upgrade your armor/attack before fighting
-definitely fight Pyrrhus in a city, try to wait-out the full siege term
-you could also flank* them: use a ship to land your army between Paestum/Rhegium; sieze Croton; attack Tarentum; lay siege to Corfinum

*they tend to move small forces back-and-forth around southern Italy, attack these small armies so they can't/won't come to Pyrrhus' aid if/when you catch him in a city. In the best case scenario you might be able to take Croton/Tarentum and only have to face small forces(4 units and less) and you might catch Pyrrhus alone** in Tarentum...

**it's probably better to kill the faction heir(he should be the other family member in Italy) before you kill Pyrrhus the reason is that if you kill Pyrrhus first the heir gets the extra bodyguard boost when he becomes the new faction leader making him more difficult to defeat later...

[Sorceri]

Also, I have found that building an extra trireme and adding it to the Capua fleet early on makes this fleet strong enough to turn back the initial invading carthagenian invasion fleet. This always buys me a few precious turns to build my consular army before I take on that rat Pyrrhus. I usually put a spy on this defense fleet to find those carthage transports as soon as possible. Of course this means that YOU have to declare war on Carthage, but that conflict is inevitable anyway.

[Tiberius Tosi]

Sometimes in the games I play, Phyrrus' army divides into much smaller groups and either goes south and one group goes north and I take them out one at a time, or the army just garrisons a city, and it is much easier to take them out like that.

[Artax]

Try beating Pyrrhus in IMP II. There he is even tougher.

Just try to wait a bit and he will usually divide his forces. Picking them one by one is much easier. If you get lucky you even might catch Pyrrhus himself with small garrison inside the city. Then you can just starve him.

Either way: Divide and conquer! (sometimes old quotes helps a lot )

[morteduzionism]

Try beating Pyrrhus in IMP II. There he is even tougher.

:hmmm: I wonder if we came up with the same advice because we play the same mod?

It takes some serious generalship to beat him with those early Romans...

[Artax]

:hmmm: I wonder if we came up with the same advice because we play the same mod?

It takes some serious generalship to beat him with those early Romans...

Probably . Beating him in IMP is not enough. You have to beat him with relatively small losses. Tried to take him head on once. Won a pyrrhic victory, but considering how hard IMP is (as the illrians and carthaginians soon will land on Italian soil and you will need forces to defeat them) it was a wrong choice. So on the second try I used divide and conquer. It worked way better.