Greek Cities are too hard to play

[Papay]

I picked Greek cities for the first time because i love Spartan warriors.Here is the problem:No matter what i do i end up in a very difficult situation.Syracuse is almost impossible to defend since Roman armies arrive one after another.In Greece you must be engaged in war with Macedon to consolidate your power in Greek peninsula.While dealing with the Macedonians is relatively easy the key problem is Rome.They Keep sending armies and besieging my towns in a frustrating rate.No matter what i do i always end up defending my cities unable to expand my influence.Any tips?

[Lord Minotaur]

well i advice you if your in such a bad situation - emigrate to kyrene or chersonesos ( i think thats how its called) and then sell your native cities and then start conquaring new setlements and you will have no worries cause rome is far from you

[cenkiss]

Take on macedon and brutii.Syracuse is not much of a positive in that sitiuation.You don't need to sell or move anything because greece is one of the most valuable place in the map.

[Lord Minotaur]

i know i just wanted to make it more dramatic

[Fireright]

Any luck using diplomacy and getting one of the factions off your case for a while? ceasefire, alliance and all that?

[Papay]

No luck on very hard

[Sportiva Societá Latium]

You must try 4 or 5 risky battle at the start, and make an invasion first on Athens and just after that on Corinth meanwhile blitzing an expedition force towards Byzantium, and seek for an early capture of Apollonia, because with that you will be able to fight rather there. With spying look for sneaky capture of either Larissa or Thessalonica. With these cities you should get 10000 able to produce all basic units without building anything military, and that should be enough to deal with romans.

[Achea]

Here is a good guide- http://rtw.heavengames.com/rtw/strat...ce/index.shtml

Ensure you construct City Barrracks in Sparta as quickly as possible. Armoured Hoplites are remarkably cheap, take one turn to recruit and are the best unit in the early stages of the game. They will give you a HUGE advantage on the battle map.

[MrManFreak]

well just keep the romans busy at Thermon and while that conquer athens and corinth after that i dont think you will have to worry with macedon because they will be busy with the thracians and dacians after that you can focus on the romans altough i wouldn't recomend you to destroy the romans completely because you will get no challenge after that(except if you let the egyptians rule the entire asia minor)
one way to keep the romans busy with not many troops is keeping about 4 hoplites in a city the greek citys have 4 entrys to the main square(i think),put 2 hoplites in the front entry and 1 on each side entry dont worry about the rear entry they wont try to atack by that way,this way you will be able to defend effectively against the romans with the militia hoplites until they have better troops like principes when they have principes upgrade your defensive troops to Hoplites,i don't think you should do this against the macedons since their phalanxs have bigger spears.

[Vice]

Also you most likely allready know this but...Playing as the Greek Cities if you are under siege dont bother to defend the walls...Just have your mean at the town square stay there with the unlimited morale buff and the Romans and Macedon's will walk right into your spears and have a good time.

You would be astounded how decent Militia Hoplites can be in defense

[underworld965]

for the greeks I recomend: besiege athens, fortify Syracuse, and use Carthaginians to help stop romans, alternatively you can just beat the roman force when it besieges your city (greek hoplites are unbeatable in the center ).
send a small expedition force to that island below Sparta, and buy mercs on island if nessacary. consolodate in lower greece until you have a good army then spank macedon or brutii/

[empr guy]

if you have enough money build a fleet, and when the romans get on their boats sink their fleet and thats one less roman army to fight. it worked very well on M/M but idk about the difficulty you are on. immediatly crush any enemies that actually border you and then you should probably attack the romans in italy. iirc the romans are a much greater threat then other factions, especially their late game units.

[Pericles of Athens]

I picked Greek cities for the first time because i love Spartan warriors.Here is the problem:No matter what i do i end up in a very difficult situation.Syracuse is almost impossible to defend since Roman armies arrive one after another.In Greece you must be engaged in war with Macedon to consolidate your power in Greek peninsula.While dealing with the Macedonians is relatively easy the key problem is Rome.They Keep sending armies and besieging my towns in a frustrating rate.No matter what i do i always end up defending my cities unable to expand my influence.Any tips?

just up garde barracks till you get some sweet Ahoplites then its smooooooth sailing. just cruse the roman city no prob then crush southern italy and make the other romans give up.



and take athens right away and corinth make athens your capital its what i do crush crete and take all of sicily and southern italy then just push north till you hit poorer lands then stop then move into asia minor(very rich) then egypt(even more rich) then take carthage if you went to war eith thm then the world is your clam

[daxypoo]

dont neglect your navy

sinking those roman ships with full stacks on board before they can disembark makes life much easier


also leave generals in asia minor and rhodes to recruit rhodian slingers and cretan archers

[Genius of the Restoration]

Here is a good guide- http://rtw.heavengames.com/rtw/strat...ce/index.shtml

I don't think this is a good guide. Don't leave Syracuse. You can defend it with a couple of units, and it's possible to take Messana on the first turn.

Advice for the OP:
Take plenty of Militia Cav and upgrade your barracks buildings when you can. Never stop recruiting fighting units. Hmm. I've did a Greek campaign a while ago that you might find helpful with different aspects of campaign and battle strategy.

[Fireright]

Three things are certainties in this world, death, taxes, and Ronnie Corbett does not dispense duffers on the campaign advice trail

When I play Greeks I usually try the diplomacy option to get Macedon or the Brutii guys off my back for a while. Fighting two factions early doors gives me the hump.

[tudor93]

I'm not such a pro player like most of you who replied, oh well.... whenever I play the GCS I always siege in the first turn Corinth, just take all your army from Sparta except for your FM (who is the king if I remember corectly), also, from the first turn build Militia Barracks in Syracuse (because you need some Hoplites to defend against the Scipi), IDK why the majority of you advise him to just leave Syracuse, IMO Syracuse is very important, you conquer the whole of Sicily with the help of it and the south of Italy.
Also, from the first turn build the army barracks in Sparta to get armoured hoplites. In Rhodes and Asia Minor build economic (and cheap in the first turns) buildings and in Thermon you should build the Barracks to recruit militia hoplites (good at defending against the Bruti)
I don't like blitz, the game isn't fun anymore, I don't see the fun in conquering in 20-30 turn 50 cities or more .... You play the campaign to enjoy it, not just to finish it ASAP.

[MrManFreak]

I'm not such a pro player like most of you who replied, oh well.... whenever I play the GCS I always siege in the first turn Corinth, just take all your army from Sparta except for your FM (who is the king if I remember corectly), also, from the first turn build Militia Barracks in Syracuse (because you need some Hoplites to defend against the Scipi), IDK why the majority of you advise him to just leave Syracuse, IMO Syracuse is very important, you conquer the whole of Sicily with the help of it and the south of Italy.
Also, from the first turn build the army barracks in Sparta to get armoured hoplites. In Rhodes and Asia Minor build economic (and cheap in the first turns) buildings and in Thermon you should build the Barracks to recruit militia hoplites (good at defending against the Bruti)
I don't like blitz, the game isn't fun anymore, I don't see the fun in conquering in 20-30 turn 50 cities or more .... You play the campaign to enjoy it, not just to finish it ASAP.

Totally agree with you in the blitz part,i usually only conquer early the towns of a certain region just so that when the romans come i dont have to worry with some other faction like when im the seleucids i usually conquer the entire asia minor to egypt then let the brutii conquer greece and then get my SS pikemen ready(which i usually have ready by this time) for lots of action , much funier when you let the AI build up.

[Fireright]

Some players like to blitz...others like to turtle and plod. Name of the campaign game is having fun!!

Campaign & Prosper




And don't forget the console

[Sportiva Societá Latium]

Totally agree with you in the blitz part,i usually only conquer early the towns of a certain region just so that when the romans come i dont have to worry with some other faction like when im the seleucids i usually conquer the entire asia minor to egypt then let the brutii conquer greece and then get my SS pikemen ready(which i usually have ready by this time) for lots of action , much funier when you let the AI build up.

That's ok, but in very hard/very hard dificulty you gotta grab all of your chances.

Previously:
You must try 4 or 5 risky battle at the start, and make an invasion first on Athens and just after that on Corinth meanwhile blitzing an expedition force towards Byzantium, and seek for an early capture of Apollonia, because with that you will be able to fight rather there. With spying look for sneaky capture of either Larissa or Thessalonica. With these cities you should get 10000 able to produce all basic units without building anything military, and that should be enough to deal with romans.

I tried this tactics in life, but nothing turns out as planned.
You gotta grab Athens sooner than Corinth, because Macedon will have it sieged, that was ok, I arrived half turn before macedonians. I've brought a ship from Rhodes with reinforcements and all possible mercenaries from that region, my king and the spartans with mercs joined them in taking the city.
Then I splitted the troops, the king, spartans, rhodians and cretans sailed towards Byzantium, reinforced with MHoplites on the way from Pergamum, and took the town 1 turn before thracians arrived. I made alliance with them. I took Corinth with the Athenian army and reinforcements from Sparta, the siege wasn't succesful for the first time, because of the divide of the troops, but then the whole army was able to eliminate the macedonian armies in the region. Meanwhile I reinforced Syracuse all turns, and taken Apollonia leaving no units garrisoned. I hoped macedonians would have taken it, and go war with the Brutii Then Macedon started to gather near Larissa, and there was a good chance of taking the lightly defended Bylazora. My army had to rest in Thracian territory, and I've made a fort, because Thracian king with his main forces were close, and I were betrayed. At that level of diff, falxmen are crushing hoplites, so I've decided to wait, but nothing happened, except for the thracian king disappeared, and I had to fight them. It was a lucky battle, credited to my cretan archers, so my invasion force could have gone towards Macedon, but Alexanders' had a larger force in all areas, so my blitz was collapsed. I've brought some reinforcements of MHoplites and mercs from Pergamum. Meanwhile back in Thessaly, some battles were fought with either side grabbing the win. I used a fort to gather my forces at the south passage between Larissa and Thermon. First with a 2/3 army of hoplites Mhoplites and Peltasts laid siege on Larissa but i was forced to fight an open battle due to Macedonian reinforcements. They had a larger army than mine, and they arrived to the battlefield just after wiping out the attacking force and in a close battle they defeated my troops just with their reinforcment infantry left for them. After 3 turns I've managed to dipatch a full army in the garrison with Larissa left lightly defended, and their main forces monitored that turn the Brutii landing near Apollonia and taking the undefended town. They didn't arrive to attack me, but they managed to reach the other side of the town. The battle was epic, I breached their gate defenses quickly, and managed to get to the main square with troops just warmed up, but without cavalry I've failed to secure the gates on the other side, then the battle for the main square began, and just when we were about to take it arrived the enemy cavalry, and in the end crushed my army with no one left. They suffered severe casualties too, but with the arrive of the Brutii the situation is highly unstable. Meanwhile my king riding with a full army of mercs the spartans and the MHoplites towards Thessalonica died just before the day of the battle, so agonizing. At Syracuse, I've managed to get some ArHoplites mercs and archers inside the garrison, while 7 MHoplites waiting outside. I'm planning to invade Messana shortly.
Is it a blitz, or a fight against distinction?