So I went with Macedonia, what now?

[Total Roach]

Ok, thanks Dime and Soviet Thracian. I thought about the advice and have managed to survive and kick some butt. I did not have to decide who to attack as the AI did that for me. 1st GCS and once I had destroyed them the IGCS declared war on me the turn after. Anyway, here is the situation:



According to the faction graphs Thrace has 6 provinces but a military as strong as mine. I am very wary of them because in my 1st 2 campaigns they have grown very quickly and I am wondering whether an early strike on them would be best. However they are for the moment my allies along with the Germans. Or do I turn to Asia Minor now and let the barbarian factions hopefully fight it out amongst themselves. I am about 5-6 turns away from having a full stack of city barracks troops. My normal mix like the ones I used in my GCS campaign. So, where is it best to go next? Rhodes is my next target, but thankfully that doesn't give me another front.

[C-Rob]

mm... I, on a greek cities campaign, ignored most of Thrace- once you take too much land, especially if its' too quick, you'll find it very annoying guarding those, really, worthless territories to the north. or you can invade, exterminate, sell all their buildings, and then retreat back, to silence that border for a good long time. XD.

if you want, go and conquer around the Black Sea, but I wouldn't move any where inland to europe, preferring an invasion of Asia minor. Pergammum is extremely rich, and hallicarnassus has a wonder. So if you have landbridges engaged, that invasion will be easy by invading the eastern kingdoms guys next to byzantium, if not, then a straight shot at pergammum would be good, eventually get everything down to Rhodes(or north from Rhodes, as you seem inclined to do)

[Total Roach]

mm... I, on a greek cities campaign, ignored most of Thrace- once you take too much land, especially if its' too quick, you'll find it very annoying guarding those, really, worthless territories to the north. or you can invade, exterminate, sell all their buildings, and then retreat back, to silence that border for a good long time. XD.

if you want, go and conquer around the Black Sea, but I wouldn't move any where inland to europe, preferring an invasion of Asia minor. Pergammum is extremely rich, and hallicarnassus has a wonder. So if you have landbridges engaged, that invasion will be easy by invading the eastern kingdoms guys next to byzantium, if not, then a straight shot at pergammum would be good, eventually get everything down to Rhodes(or north from Rhodes, as you seem inclined to do)

Well, I just took Rhodes, so I guess I could go straight to Halicarnassus, that will bring me into conflict with several different powers in the region, TSE, Pontus, Armenia, Ptolemaic and Eastern Kingdoms, all those factions on top of ICGS still have a number of the territories in the region. If I chose to ransack Thrace 1st who should I give the territories too, or should I just let them rebel?

[DimeBagHo]

You have three good choices available: (1) Asia Minor, (2) Egypt, (3) Italy/Sicily. Asia Minor is the easy way to go. The income is good, it's mostly Greek already so you don't get much in the way of culture problems, and there are some nice AORs to be found. Egypt is also a good way to go. It's easy to defend once you take it, the income is good, and you get big cities for turning out high level troops. Italy will probably be a tougher fight, and if you kill Rome too early you won't get the reforms.

I often attack Thrace early and take their capital, which makes them much weaker and easier to deal with. Of course they will also be a much weaker opponent for other AI factions. But I don't expand beyond the Danube (that's the river that runs north of Seutopolis). Those regions are not worth the cost of defending them. At some point it might be worth taking the Crimea but I wouldn't recommend doing it early on - fighting the Scythians can be expensive.

[Total Roach]

Ok, well I have just taken Halicarnassus, I am going for Perganum next. Was thinking to stop at after taking the IGCS cities on the coast of Asia Minor and then taking Cyrene and pushing into Egypt from there. Would that make good sense?

The Ptolemaics just declared war on me anyway by blockading Crete, and TSE are massing troops around Halicarnassus, think the **** is about to hit the fan anyway. The Ptolemaic DOW caused my alliance with Carthage to break, don't know why they would choose them. Rome is about to take the last province in Sicily so I guess I can expect them soon as well. Yep TSE just joined in too, haven't they got enough to do?

[DimeBagHo]

It's probably best to press on in Asia Minor. If you just take the coast then that leaves you with a long border to defend. If you have to keep troops there for defense you might as well use them for offense.

Definitely take Salamis as soon as possible. It's worth a lot. Invading Cyrene might be worthwhile, but only when you can afford to spare the troops from Asia Minor.

[Total Roach]

It's probably best to press on in Asia Minor. If you just take the coast then that leaves you with a long border to defend. If you have to keep troops there for defense you might as well use them for offense.

Definitely take Salamis as soon as possible. It's worth a lot. Invading Cyrene might be worthwhile, but only when you can afford to spare the troops from Asia Minor.

Cool, didn't know about Salamis being good for cash. Pontus has landed a very small force at Byzantium announcing it's intentions and Tracian diplomats are starting to appear in my territories. May have to resort to force diplomacy if they both DOW me. Anyway I guess you are right about Cyrene, can't be too spread out. Any particular reason why Ptolemaics would attack me even though I was no threat to them, same with Pontus, don't they have other factions to deal with at this point in the game? Thinking I should swap the Macedonian emblem for a target picture

[silentsam74]

The Ptolemaic DOW caused my alliance with Carthage to break, don't know why they would choose them.

This is just my experience, but the AI seems to always choose the aggressor regardless of any advantages that may be had by picking one side over the other.

[Total Roach]

This is just my experience, but the AI seems to always choose the aggressor regardless of any advantages that may be had by picking one side over the other.

Yeah, odd that isn't it. At least when it happens it doesn't cancel your trade rights too.

[silvathegod]

how does taking there capital make them weaker?

[Publius Quirinus]

The global AI bonuses in the game is given to the AI via a special building ("monument") at a certain city, sometimes its capital. If you take their capital (and hence their monument building), they won't have access to the bonuses anymore. The net effect is that they become a lot weaker.