How do I kill them?!?

[saienga]

These Greeks! Agh!

In my 7.0 campaign I never had anything but passing contact with greek troops on Sicily.
Now, in my new one, the Greeks have taken Beneventum and are landing stack after stack to reinforce.

My trouble is this: Beneventum is in a really strategic place. It bottles up the pass that cuts through the mountains on the peninsula, and with all those stacks swirling in the area, I can't isolate and attack any one army. So I've resorted to inelegant hammering, throwing Hastati and Latin Hastati at them (along with velites and slingers) both under my control and under AI control.

And nothing works. Why? Because of the damned Spartans. The army that occupies the town, which is roused and mobilized every time I attack or they attack in the area, is made up of at least 4 full regiments of Spartans, and the remnants of two more regiments that I've had the fortune of whittling down.

Their numbers are so overwhelming (because I can't seem to coordinate with my allied AI, so the two or three enemies always plaster me first) that my infantry don't hold out long enough for my velites or slingers to get a clear shot at the Spartans. I try, lord knows, but by the time the Spartans engage, the javelins are landing in blended units of militia, sword, Spartan and regular hoplites all bashing the crap out of my line.

HARUMPH!

What can be done about this?

[Abmong]

You can scream like a little girl

Not come across that problem myself since I've only just installed 8.0... Have you tried softening them up with repeated Cavalry Auxilia attacks?

I'd use a pre-marius Support Cavalry Army (1 Gen, 4 equites, 4 Cav.Auxilia) to scout and weaken a much larger enemy force first. attack and retreat from the field when you run out of missiles. Repeat next turn if you're lucky enough not to be attacked first.

Not exactly House Rules but you could also do the same with Velites and Slingers if you haven't got Cavalry Auxilia yet.

anyway That's how I'd tackle it. my general rule is to treat spartans like elephants

[saienga]

my general rule is to treat spartans like elephants

Yeah, really. Half an army full of elephants.

Have I mentioned that I've thrown away so many troops on this that Capua and Paestum are nearly depleted of population?

I've got to try that slinger/velite army idea. Toss as much missile as possible and then prance away like a girl.

Not exactly a masculine way of approaching the issue, but it might just save me a few family members.

[BiggBudd]

Get a boat, go hire some merc elephants! Hannibal his butt!

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Use a lot of slingers, they have more ammunitions then velites. Try to hold the line with your Hastati as long as possible and get those slingers to the flanks and rear of the line.

I had to create an alarm company my self to repel those greeks i used about 10 Hastatii, 1 general 2 cav and the rest slingers. They did a wonderful job. Try to get military recruitment in capua as fast as possible so that you are able to create full legions with triarii and principes.

Once your able to recruit some extra legions greeks will stop invading Italie.

[saienga]

Ya, ya! I had to back up to my 212.1 save point (I was at 211.2)...but I think I have a plan now.

I generally try to lock down any enemy's line and blast their flanks with slingers, but what was crushing me around Beneventum was that I just couldn't draw any one of the stacks away from the other far enough to beat them singly. I would attack one army in the field, but the garrison in Bene (with all the spartans) was close enough get drawn out and then I'd just get swamped. They'd lock up all of my Hastati and envelope my flanks, and still have enough troops to clobber the slingers I was trying to swing around the flanks.

So, yeah, I chickened out a little, and backed up the game...but keeping on where I was at...it would have been 200 or later before I would have regained population to the point where I could recruit for offensives. I'm talking Paestum had 400 people in it, and Capua was below 2000, Taras was down to under 5000...I was bleeding Italy dry.

I've resolved to lose what I lose this time, but I think I've re-acclimated to the game mechanics (I've been away for a year), so that I can avoid the stupid mechanical mistakes (attacking an enemy too close to the city, running out of move points before I thought I would), and take risks that I expect to take, instead of going, "Oh, #$(*%! That's not supposed to happen!"

Thanks for the thoughts, guys!

[Abmong]

Yeah the Garrison script can be a bit unforgiving in those situations...

[saienga]

Yeah the Garrison script can be a bit unforgiving in those situations...

I wish it was the garrison script!

It's just a special torture, is all. The first army they landed took the town, and it's the one with all the Spartan Hoplites, and because of the "reinforcements come to the defender from any of the 9 adjacent spaces" rule (and because, apparently, I'm poor at seeing that box before I attack) that stack gets sucked into almost all my battles in the area.

If it was an empty city with a spawned garrison, I would have reduced it long ago.

It is fun, though...in a masochistic sort of way.

[Abmong]

lol suddenly "THIS IS SPARTA" doesn't sound so cool. Think maybe Hesus needs to write another "How to survive the first 14 turns guide" what your going through sounds painful.

[czePowerslave]

Spartans are tough no doubt. But can be killed.
Take your time to maneouver, move around the map, get a shot at their backs, that will bring them down, as in dead!

Also, use strategy on the huge map. Night attack to kill surrounding stacks is excellent. Control 2 stacks by tactical withdrawing, cavalry auxilia...plenty of ways to take em down

[saienga]

Indeed, I had success today. Sieging the town and fending off reinforcements.

I think I was just re-teething on the gameplay. Dusted rust off and now we should be able to get down to business.

[czePowerslave]

Exactly. Once you get hang of it, you can steamroll pretty much everything. Which explains why I was fighting Gauls in my 7.0 with about 10:1 kill ratio >.>