Greek Cities or Macedon

[Bourne]

Having decided on the mod I plan to use; XGM (thanks for the suugestions by the way) I wanted to request just some basic information on the two factions in question. I believe Macedon is more cavalry orientated, whereas GC has the Spartans, non? Beyond that what else is their factoring differences unit wise and etc and which is more fun to play? I admit I am leaning toward the Greeks as I have a possible AAR in mind but any recommendations would be appreciated; even of different factions.

[Prince_of_Macedon]

Having decided on the mod I plan to use; XGM (thanks for the suugestions by the way) I wanted to request just some basic information on the two factions in question. I believe Macedon is more cavalry orientated, whereas GC has the Spartans, non? Beyond that what else is their factoring differences unit wise and etc and which is more fun to play? I admit I am leaning toward the Greeks as I have a possible AAR in mind but any recommendations would be appreciated; even of different factions.

Welcome to the forum.

Macedon is always a winner in my book.

In any case, I'm moving this to the XGM forum.

[DimeBagHo]

Macedon and the GCS have similar rosters. The GCS have somewhat more variety in the units available, including some nice Spartan units. Macedon does get Agema Hypaspists (a very good sword/javelin unit) and Kestros slingers (a post-Marius unit armed with slings that fire a type of heavy dart).

At the start of the GCS campaign you usually face a tough fight winning freedom from Macedon. At the start of the Macedon campaign you face a tough fight against a gallic horde invading from the north (the Galatians, who over-ran Macedon and invaded Greece c. 280 BC).

Hope that helps.

[Cmdr_Sdxo]

I'd go for GCS. I'm playing my current campaign as them and have played earlier with Macedon. GCS has many things in their favour, one of them being getting early access to the mediterranean islands and a foothold in Sicily right at the start of the game. Also, their settlements in Turkey allow for multi-front expansion without being completely surrounded as they have a secure location in the Greek peninsula.

[Scutarii]

^^In XGM the GCS don't control Syracuse.

But you really just have to consider what Dime said, GCS get Spartan unique units, Sacred Band and the Athenian hoplites, plus have a similar roster to Macedon. They start with a foothold in Turkey, but with the land bridge the Maks can easily just conquer that too once you've dealt with the Galatians and the GCS in Greece. I don't prefer either, but when i started playing XGM, I had a string of campaigns as the GCS. They're very well done, and I couldn't get enough of those Spartans. Now I lean towards the Maks when I want to play either of those two, just because I played the GCS so much.

Whatever you decide they're both great, although if you have an AAR in mind, GCS might be a better choice as there is already a Mak one, and no GCS one, plus the "families" (of Sparta, of Athenai, etc.) make for some role-playing posibilities.