provincial campaigns advice

[Javolenus]

Hi Guys,

I like the XGM provincial campaigns very much - a great idea. But I'm having problems actually winning them. Winning battles is not a problem, but winning the war is.

I've tried the Syracuse and Bosporan campaigns but have given up on them. Now I'm wondering whether to retry them or start a different one.

My strategy is this:

1. Take nearest big rebel settlement and send diplomat out to get trade. This is easily accomplished.

2. Try to get trade with everyone, set taxes on high, recruit cheap troops and keep retraining them after battles.

3. Take next nearest big settlement, preferrably rebel. Try to keep peace with other factions. This is a little harder, as I now usually share a border with another faction, which immediately attacks. I fight lots of battles and win them all, but cannot get a peace deal.

4. Take next settlement. But by now, I'm usually sharing borders with a second faction, which also attacks. Now there is war on two fronts. I fight lots of battles and win them all. But my enemies do not want peace. They have lots of troops and, seemingly, lots of money. I own bigger cities, often ports, but cannot seem to make money, even though I have trade agreements. By now I'm usually in negative figures. No money = no troops.

5. I try to make peace, in order to get space to develop economically, but cannot achieve this. Get bored. Quit.

What I want to ask is: Am I doing something wrong? Are there any tips that could help keep me in the game? I'm not even playing on 'hard' difficulty, but M/M.

I really like XGM and would like to get into a campaign, but I can't develop my cities or recruit good units or even prosecute a strategy - it's all just reacting to constant attacks, which wear out my reserves of money and men.

The provincial campaigns are a great idea. Just wondered if I was missing some obvious tricks? It's not that I'm looking for an easy campaign, but I just can't see how to win without troops or money.

Finally, using the 'force diplomacy' doesn't really help. Even if an enemy agrees to peace, they just attack again next turn.

Thanks for advice!

[TM Is Back]

Blitzing is the key. Attack attack attack. Conquer the enemy, leave few troops as a garrisson and move on to the next.

[Publius Quirinus]

^ Yep, that. I lost a few Bosporan and Baktrian campaigns before I figured out that I needed to blitz. XGM really isn't made for defensive turtling strategy.

[DimeBagHo]

TM Is Back and Quirinal are correct, but I'll add a few details.

1. Enemy factions won't be broken until you capture their founding monument. So your early strategy should be to find the shortest path to the starting capital of your main opponent.

2. Be careful with recruitment. Troops are expensive in XGM, so the difference between a healthy income, and no income, can be just a few units.

3. Exterminate, destroy buildings, and move on. This is particularly effective if you are fighting a two front war. Expand and hold on one front, but on the other front use one army to rip through the enemy territory laying waste, and generating income.

4. If you can't garrison the settlements you capture, give them to another less hostile faction. Playing as the GCS it sometimes works out well to give settlements to the IGCS. They can pay the cost of development, and you can take back a nicely hellenised settlement later.

[Scutarii]

Seeing as I've just completed a Syracuse campaign, I can share some strategies with you: its one of the easiest provincials, so you may want to start out with it.

First, your strategy should be to unite Sicily. This is relatively easy, take Messana on the second turn and your income should be a low profit, and then Lilybauem. Now there's two different paths you can take. a) you can take Sardinia and Corsica from Carthage and build a decent army to seize Carthago. or b) take Kydonia and get peace with Carthage. I took b) and it worked very well. Extra trade with Carthage allowed me to build 2 3/4 stack armies, and I used these to sweep up from Lepcis Magna, taking that and Sabratha, and the other took Hadrumetum. By that time I'm raking in some cash, and both armies can link up and take Carthago. I met no real resistance in taking africa, just take the two armies, and head west from there. Once Africa is taken, begin colonising it and station a cheap stack at Tingi. And invasion of Italy is usually in order here, take your two armies, retrain, and attack.

Syracuse is one of the easier ones because Sicily is an island and easy to defend, so you've got a good base there. Also, if you play your cards right, you can concentrate on one enemy at a time. Carthage first, and Rome second. The reason I didn't seize Aleria and Caralis was Rome had an interest in them and I didn't need the extra enemy.

[Legio]

The provincial campaigns are downright addictive!!
Also, for the barbarian prov campaigns horde early. You have no units.
The Galatian campaign is my favorite!
Keep your eyes on one or two goals and do that. Then, do all the random conquering once you have established yourself.

[Javolenus]

Hi There,

Many thanks for these replies, which have really helped me.

I posted a similar question a few weeks ago and received similar advice, but I didn't fully appreciate just how aggressive you need to play.

The points given above have clarified the picture for me and I feel better placed to continue with a new gameplan. Thank you!

As I said before, I actually really like the provincial campaigns, so many thanks for the work that's gone into them. I think I'll start afresh with Syracuse and see if I can do better.

[Javolenus]

Hi Guys,

OK, Following the good advice I received, I retarted the Syracuse campaign. I now occupy the three Sicilian towns and have concluded a peace with Carthage. I have trade rights with neighbouring factions and my economy is in the plus.

My instinct - and preference - would be to 'turtle' and build up my cities. But now I realise this is NOT how to win a prov. campaign. And so the question now is: which settlement do I target next? Or rather, which faction do I start a war with? Both Rome and Carthage are more powerful than my fledgling Sicilian state. According to the ingame stats, Rome is more powerful than Carthage. And so I'm thinking that I should gain an alliance with Rome and break ties with Carthage prior to an invasion. But what do you guys think? I'd be happy to hear any views on this.

[TM Is Back]

Invade Carthage. Put many spies in the city, and then besiege it. They will have the gates open for you for sure(if they had 100%+) and then you can easilly conquer the city without facing the garrison scirpt.

If you want to fight the garisson script, then just besiege the city and in the second turn, march to the bridge just south of Carthage(if possible).

[stormer]

Hi guys, I also have started a syracusian campaign, got sicily Carthago and Hadrumentum, can you give me advice of where to go next

[Legio]

I personally would invade Rome. They are more powerul. Take them out first.

[Webba]

Don't forget to take the rest of the islands there. They can be conquered easily and with few repercussions.

[Scutarii]

Hi guys, I also have started a syracusian campaign, got sicily Carthago and Hadrumentum, can you give me advice of where to go next

Take a small army (this can be mercs if you want) and take Sabratha + Lepcis Magna + Cydaus, while you take your main army and sweep west. Hippo Regius, then Cirta, then Saldae, then Siga, then Tingi. With Carthago taken they shouldn't put up too much of a fight.... Stop at Tingi, take the small merc army that took Sabratha etc. augment it with new soldiers an post it in Tingi to hold the front. Move your main army (or two armies if you trainied another...) back to Sicily for retraining. At this point, if you don't have another army, train one. You should then have 3 armies, one in Tingi (a cheap one to hold the front) and two in Sicily. Use the Sicilian stacks to invade Italy from the South.... Rome should fall within a few years.

[Barend]

I have a question about the strategy for the Epirus campaign. I started it, but after a few turns I (sort of) gave up. Not that it was to difficult, I won every battle, but my army is just too expensive to maintain. On the other side; I need it to continue to fight the Romans. I have besieged Rome, but the garrison script fired leaving me outnumbered and I'm afraid that Macedonia might attack me in my homeland. So does anyone has some advise for me?

[Javolenus]

OK, back to my Syracuse campaign. I followed advice and quickly took the 3 Sicilain towns. Rome looked too strong to take on, so I opted to attack Carthago. I put in 6 or 7 spies but together they had less than 50% chance of opening the gates. Well, I risked it and attacked. Gates didn't open, garrison script fired, I was massively outnumbered. I quit.

OK, I reloaded my previous saved game and tried something else. I thought I'd try to pick up Greek Indie cities instead. I easily took Cydonia and Cyrene. But this has kicked off wars with Macedonia and Carthage. I won all battles to date but am running out of men and money. In other words, I'm in the same situation I was when I first asked for adice on prov. campaigns.

I understand that you need to blitz, massacre, pillage and loot your way around the Med. in order to win, but it seems to me that, even with 5 big cities and many trade agreements, you still can't raise/retrain sufficient troops to fight the inevitable wars on two fronts against more powerful enemies.

Well, I started using 'force diplomacy' just to keep myself in the game, but I really don't like doing this, as it feels like cheating.

I'm a big fan of XGM and have completed several successful main campaigns. The prov. campaigns are a great idea - I'm certainly finding them a challenge.

I don't know how this campaign will go. Maybe it was a mistake attacking Greek Indies? Perhaps I should have attacked Roman territory anyway, even though that faction is much more powerful than mine?

Finally, no matter what you do as Syracuse, it seems that Carthage wants to wipe you off the map!

[Publius Quirinus]

OK, back to my Syracuse campaign. I followed advice and quickly took the 3 Sicilain towns. Rome looked too strong to take on, so I opted to attack Carthago. I put in 6 or 7 spies but together they had less than 50% chance of opening the gates. Well, I risked it and attacked. Gates didn't open, garrison script fired, I was massively outnumbered. I quit.

OK, I reloaded my previous saved game and tried something else. I thought I'd try to pick up Greek Indie cities instead. I easily took Cydonia and Cyrene. But this has kicked off wars with Macedonia and Carthage. I won all battles to date but am running out of men and money. In other words, I'm in the same situation I was when I first asked for adice on prov. campaigns.

I understand that you need to blitz, massacre, pillage and loot your way around the Med. in order to win, but it seems to me that, even with 5 big cities and many trade agreements, you still can't raise/retrain sufficient troops to fight the inevitable wars on two fronts against more powerful enemies.

Have you tried chipping away at the rest of Africa first? I've never tried a Syracusan campaign, but it worked pretty well for me in my Iberian Roman migration campaign. The vast nothingness that was Libya Deserta hepled immensely, it's relatively easy to defend (compared to, say, Iberia or Gaul).

[Javolenus]

Hi Quirinal,

Thanks for this - definitely worth trying. That said, the Egyptians have just besieged my settlement at Cyrene, though I think I'll beat them off OK. Thanks again!

[CaesarVincens]

The Epirus campaign is difficult; there are basically, two routes you can take: one, blitz until you can afford your army, usually after about three or four cities are taken, or two, take a couple cities and disband most your army. The garrison script will leave you in a very bad place unfortunately, but don't worry about Macedon too much, some thureoporoi and some Illyrian peltasts will take care of them in the wall defense.

[CaesarVincens]

The key to winning a provincial campaign is doing more with less.

For example, in my recent Epirus campaign I mostly kept Pyrrhos's first army, and that went everywhere. First they went to Rome via Cannae and Capua, then they went to defend against Roman rebels, then back to beat off some Romans and Carthaginians between Roma and Capua. Then down to Syracuse, then over to Macedonia.
Through all this I had been gain money slowly and was starting to build up a second army, and when my first army went to Macedon, the second army took over in Italy. This was about 10 years, 20 turns, into the game. So you will have a hard time for a long time.

[Scutarii]

Quirinal's right. And don't take Cyrene, it just pisses the Ptolemies off... You need to get a decent 3/4 stack out of Sicily + Kydonia (or Corsica + Sardinia if you opted for that). I managed to get 2 3/4 stacks out of Sicily and Kydonia, then just move up from Lepcis Magna. Taking Lepcis Magna/Sabratha/Cydaus/Hadrumetum before taking on Carthage allows for some merc to be recruited and really helps the economy.

You should be trying for just one front: Carthage in Africa. Abandon Cyrene and try to get peace with the Ptoly's, they'll just prove a headache when you need all your armies for taking on Rome later on. Kydonia shouldn't get Macedonia to declare war for a while: I didn't have them declare war until I had already half conquered Italy, and had Africa as well. There navy is easily beaten off, and they never landed any troops, so Kydonia is still worth it.