How do people start as Pontus?

[kostas84]

I play on M/M and AS is a defensive faction, they never attacked one of my settlements, but the fear of getting attacked is there, because they build huge armies and i cant because of my starting Cash Problems.

I start by conquering Sinope with my spy opening the gates and winning before i end my turn to avoid the War Triggering script, now heres the Debate, do i conquer Mazaka from AS or go and conquer Rebel settlements further west/east?

Which settlements should i conquer first and what should i do?


I saw some huge Pontus empires and im a bit jealous.

[lmt96]

BLITZ!!!
I started it like this:
First Turn!
Disband the Medium Cav Unit.
Send a spy to open Mazaka's gate. Use the nearby army to take control of the city.
Ignore Ankyra, go to Ipsos to gain some money, they have mines in the region!
Use the army only army remaining to attack Sinope.
Second Turn:
Assault Sinope
Assault Ipsos.

Well when you have 4 or more settlements, the remaining should be easier. I succeeded 2 Pontos campaign, one M/M & one H/M.

[wiande]

VH/M,

blitzing all seleukids settlements in asia minor, starting west then south then taking ptolemaics settlements, and then finishing the last seleukids city in asia minor.
Should take 2 turns for a city, so in like 10/12 turns, all asia minor is yours (should be)

[gaius valerius]

BLITZ!!!
I started it like this:
First Turn!
Disband the Medium Cav Unit.
Send a spy to open Mazaka's gate. Use the nearby army to take control of the city.
Ignore Ankyra, go to Ipsos to gain some money, they have mines in the region!
Use the army only army remaining to attack Sinope.
Second Turn:
Assault Sinope
Assault Ipsos.

Well when you have 4 or more settlements, the remaining should be easier. I succeeded 2 Pontos campaign, one M/M & one H/M.

Second that.

[Ferdiad]

Second that.

You advocate cheating??

[Populus Romanus]

You advocate cheating??

The Art of War is the Art of Cheating.

[lmt96]

What do you mean?

You advocate cheating??

[Ferdiad]

Blitz with your starting army.

[Faramir D'Andunie]

Many different strategies to start with Pontos but the one that I found working best (been months and months since I started or played a Pontos campaign but anyway)

Attack Seleucids straight away. One army heads for Mazaka and the other for Ipsos and Sardis. Before taking Mazaka (something that can be turn 1 or 2, depends on your luck with your spy) you sign a ceasfire with Ptolemies (asking for some 8000-6000 mnai for it) and an alliance later on(asking for another 1000 for it). Use your starting money to recruit and don't be afraid to get into dept early on. I do not recommend disbanding the Cappadokians straight away they make ideal enemy FM killers when supporting your bodyguards with those axe secondary weapons they carry.

Once Seleukeia is out of Asia Minor, ask a ceasfire from them (and ask around 5000 mnai or more if you can AI tends to agree when you share no land border). Send your sharpest manager into Sardis (the mines give 1200 mnai, and every little bit helps), go around selling your maps for 1000mnai and you will get yourself out of dept. Then build new cheap army. From there you can
1) Declare war on Ptolemies and take over their asia minor holdings, and buying a ceasfire from them afterwards.
2) Leave a general with a few archers to support the Ptolemies in case they have Tarsus besieged by Seleucids and focus on taking the rebel cities of Asia Minor. Nikaia, Ankyra, Sinoppe, Trapezous, Pergammon. Most are very well garissoned so be prepared to starve them out.

Those will keep you busy for a long while but most provinces have mines, which means soon you will be overflowing with money,

Just remember to focus on creating regional barracks (Way better early units from them as Pontus), grouping and using the most of your bodyguards, and pray Seleucids don't throw Ptolemies out of Asia Minor too quick, for that will slow you down as AI tends to drop everything and start focusing to kill you once it has borders.

Oh and always use all those river crossing to your advantage.

Oh and have that mine beeing built in Mazaka as soon as you can(and any region you conquer afterwards)

Try to focus on cheap armies early on. Mixes of Native phalanxes, Militia hoplites, armenian archers and various axemen.


Have fun!

edit.

Started a quick Pontos campaign since I wanted to check all that I wrote on practice. So a few small corrections.
1) You can't actually sign a ceasfire with Seleukeia so early, since Mazaka has a land border with Karakiothe.... bleh whatever that city in Sophene is called.
2) The option for an Alliance with Ptolemies will not become available till they sign a ceasfire with Baktria.
Soo I felt that moving straight for Ptolemies after beating the Seleucis out of Asia Minor might be best. Afterwards you can slowly pick those rebel settlements one after another.

[ULTIMATE 999]

When I was Pontus I attacked some Rebel cities including Byzantium. The Selucids kept declaring war on me and seiging my cities but I used a diplomat to keep getting peace agreements. I would attack one of their armies and then sue for peace at the end of the turn. Eventually I took their cities and had a huge empire. It was in some ways unbelievably hard at the begging but unfortunately easy at the end.

[Boriak]

After reading this thread, I made up my mind to try a Pontos campaign. I use Alex Engine, VH/M. I blitzed the three Seleucid cities in Asia Minor which gave me enough income to start a successful economy. The Seleucids made two feeble attempts to retake their land but as soon as I put my phalanxes on the bridge they had to cross they turned and ran.

The biggest military concern comes from the Eleutheroi. On VH they are very aggresive and most of their cities are heavily defended. I've had me a problematic Eleutheroi general named Alkibiades coming dangerously close to Sardis with a couple of Greek Hoplites, mercenary phalanxes, Thracian horse and some slingers. I put two levy phalanxes and a Hoplitai Haploi unit along with two FMs on a bridge. Alkibiades was crushed and my FMs never needed to intervene.

[Ferdiad]

Gotta love the HH, they pwn ass.

[Boriak]

Gotta love the HH, they pwn ass.

Indeed. These guys are the most-effective unit I've used so far.

[-Duke Nukem]

Being evil : VH/VH
Open console :Type in add_money 40000(many times)
Type in process_cq Rome (That was an example)
Recruiting a lot of 0 turn troops.

Being good : H/H
Blitz......pure blitz..........realy an blitz

[Ferdiad]

Being evil : VH/VH
Open console :Type in add_money 40000(many times)
Type in process_cq Rome (That was an example)
Recruiting a lot of 0 turn troops.

Being good : H/H
Blitz......pure blitz..........realy an blitz

I bet you like being evil.

[lmt96]

Being evil : VH/VH
Open console :Type in add_money 40000(many times)
Type in process_cq Rome (That was an example)
Recruiting a lot of 0 turn troops.

Cheater

[Ferdiad]

He agreed with cheating!!!>_<

[Entropy Judge]

How is blitzing cheating?

[jirisys]

How is blitzing cheating?

Cheating the lack of real-time movement system.

~Jirisys ()

[Diomede]

Cheating the lack of real-time movement system.

~Jirisys ()

huh, now I'm just confused. It takes more than 3 months to move the distances represented?