The powerful city of Syracuse - A quick RSII campaign guide
Table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. Taking Sicily in 4-5 turns
3. Possible Plans for the future
4. Notes
1. Introduction
"Syracuse was founded in 734 or 733 BC by Greek settlers from Corinth and Tenea. The settlers found the land fertile and the native tribes to be reasonably well-disposed to their presence. The city grew and prospered, and in time stood as the most powerful Greek city in the Mediterranean.
The enlarged power of Syracuse made unavoidable the clash against the Carthaginians, who ruled western Sicily. In the Battle of Himera, Syracuse decisively defeated an African force led by Hamilcar.
A temple, dedicated to Athena, was erected in the city to commemorate the event.
A democratic government was installed by Timoleon in 345 BC. The long series of internal struggles had weakened Syracuse's power on the island, and Timoleon tried to remedy this, defeating the Carthaginians in 339 BC near the Krimisos river. But the struggle among the city's parties restarted after his death and ended with the rise of another tyrant, Agathocles, who seized power with a coup in 317 BC.
Agathocles resumed the war against Carthage, with alternate fortunes. However, he scored a moral success, bringing the war to the Carthaginian's native African soil, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. The war ended with another treaty of peace which did not prevent the Carthaginians interfering in the politics of Syracuse after the death of Agathocles (289 BC).
The citizens then called Pyrrhus of Epirus for help. After a brief period under the rule of Epirus, Hiero II seized power in 275 BC.
Hiero inaugurated a period of 50 years of peace and prosperity, in which Syracuse became one of the most renowned capitals of antiquity. He issued the so-called Lex Hieronica, which was later adopted by the Romans for their administration of Sicily. He also had the theatre enlarged and a new immense altar, the "Hiero's Ara", built.
Under his rule lived the most famous Syracusan, the mathematician and natural philosopher Archimedes. Among his many inventions were various military engines including the claw of Archimedes, later used to resist the Roman siege of 214 BC212 BC.
Hiero's historical successor, the young Hieronymus (ruled from 215 BC), broke the alliance with the Romans after their defeat at Cannae, and accepted Carthage's support. The Romans, led by consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus, besieged the city in 214 BC. The city held out for three years, but fell in 212 BC. It is believed to have fallen due to a peace party opening a small door in the wall to negotiate a peace, but the Romans charged through the door and took the city, killing Archimedes in the process."
-Roma Surrectum faction Intro
After such a long period of tyranny, the Syracusans were in the position of a man who tries at the end of a long illness to stand immediately on his feet, and so in attempting to act the part of a free people before they were ready for it, they stumbled in their efforts.
-Plutarch
Syracuse is one of the most developed cities in the known world. Cicero once said it is "the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all". The great walls of Archimedes protect it against any danger, and allowed its citizen to live in prosperity.
The ever growing power of the Roman Republic, and their ruling of all Sicily but Syracuse is the greatest danger to this city. The fight between the two "capitals of the world", namely Rome and Syracuse, is inevitable. However, this is not the only threat to our nation - the Carthaginians, a very strong nation, too, still remember the wounds Syracusean weapons inflicted on them; given the opportunity, they will do everything to destroy Syracuse! However, their war with the Romans draws all their attention - maybe it is time to act like we put all our differences aside, and ally against the Romans; and use the time to prepare for the upcoming military conflict with Carthage ... We will extend Greek knowledge and wisdom, and Syracuse will become the capital of the world!
2. Taking Sicily in 4-5 turns
The first "action" we take is to think about our goals in this campaign. We can quickly determine them:
- 1. Conquer all of Sicily. This is easier said than done, with the full roman legion and the medium garrisons protecting the oppressed cities.
- 2. We need to develop our economy, which is able to support a strong standing navy - for the only way for the Romans to attack us is by making a naval invasion of Sicily.
These are our short term goals. Now, how are we going to accomplish them?
First let's have a look at our proud and noble city, as well as its rulers:
Our noble ruler has reached the proud age of 81 years, and is near the end of his reign. He could still motivate the citizens to pay very high taxes, for they knew that Hiero II would use the money only for the good of the city. Not only taking care of the needs of the citizen, he also ordered the construction of a shrine to Hades - Both making sure that Hades would be merciful when Hiero enters the underworld, and so that the citizen may give our government even more money by donating in the shrine.
Now we send both Gelo, Hiero's son, and Hieronymos, his grandson, inside the city of Syracuse. There we take a good look at them:
Our faction heir Hieronymus is only 17 years old, but already known for his lack of morality, for him being conceited and filthy minded. You can search for his abilitys, but will find nothing. His father, Gelo, is much better suited for being king of our noble city, even though he is already 53 years old. However, with the gods help he will still have a long reign, and this is why we name him successor:
Patience is a virtue, and this is why we wonīt attack the Romans this turn. If we send our spy to Lilybaeum, we quickly discover the full legion under the command of Publius Cornelius Scipio. Instead we send our diplomat to propose the Romans a trade agreement and an exchange of our maps. They will think we have no intention to attack them, and think themselves to be secure, pah!
Turn 2:
Our Treasury has expanded, and we have more than 13.000 denarii. It is time to tax our citizens even more effectively, so we build the building "Communal Tribute".
We also see that our patience starts paying of, for the Roman Armys leave Sicily, leaving only minimal garrisons behind:
Turn 3:
Almost all Roman forces have now left Sicily; one Legion is still near the coast though, so we won't start the war yet.
In the meantime we notice that our proud King has new retinue members - However, we quickly transfer them to Gello, so that he may use their knowledge in his upcoming reign. After that we start to prepare for the war: We recruit 4 triremes and 2 briremes, as well as a spy. In the meantime a temple to Demeter is constructed in our capital.
After sending our spy to Messana, we end the turn.
Turn 4:
Almost all Roman troops have left Sicily - Which is our opportunity to free Sicily!
Note: If in your campaign the Romans haven't yet left Sicily, and they are still strong, just wait another turn.
First, we move our freshly recruited navy here:
From here it can attack any roman navy attempting to bring reinforcements to Sicily.
Our second move is to make Gelo inofficial "King of Sicily":
Then we rush the romans: We take our army -commanded by Hieronymus - and besiege Akragas - the large Lithobolos will open the gates, and they have no real garrison! Why Hieronymus? Because he is the youngest general we have, and both our king and our heir are old and not as fast as they used to be. The young Hieronymus can move more in one turn, which is needed here.
The battle shouldnīt be challenging. After that, Hieronymus recruits some mercenarys (2x Greek Akonsistai) to garrison the city, and takes his army to take Lilybaeum:
Naturally we attack in the night, so that we donīt have to battle the big reinforcing army. After we took the city, we depopulate it, freeing it from it's rebellious citizen. Since we are out of moves with our large Lithobolos, we canīt attack the roman army - but that has no consequences, they canīt do any damage.
Note: You don't have to fight a night battle, if you want to, you can battle the reinforcing army immediatly. However, both ways have no real consequences for the later campaign, as you should be able to easily beat them.
Now only one roman city is left. We send our other spy in the city, and then take Hiero and the rest of our army to attack it.
If you are lucky, the spies will manage to open the gates, and you can claim the city immediatly:
If you arenīt lucky, hire all the still available mercenarys, build some siege equipment and take it the turn after.
So, what do we do now with Sicily? It is completely under our noble rule. In this turn, you should build a small shrine to Ares in any conquered city, as well as destroy all the Roman Oppidums. Why? Because they have no positive effect for you, but would allow the romans to recruit if they retake the city. You also get some money from destroying them.After that you have to concentrate on developing those cities, so that they can support your large armies.
3. Possible Plans for the future
The next move should be to claim the two Roman cities in Corsica and Sardinia, and get a strong navy to fight the Romans. However, after that you have several possible ways to expand:
1. Attacking Carthage. You can directly land at the capital and take it, which weakens Carthage immensely. That and their war in Italy should make them a very easy target. Once you have taken Africa, you can expand towards spain and claim the rich cities.
2. Ally with Carthage, and protect their sea invasions of Italy. Both the Romans and Carthage should be weakened through this war. You go in the meantime after the mainland of greece.
3. You can also go Total War and attack the Romans head-on. Definitly ally with Carthage first. This is the most challenging of the three options. I'd advice though that you let the Romans build up and Reform first, so that they provide a good challenge.
4. Notes
I played the campaign on H/H several times. Every time the events unfolded like described above, apart from the first campaign, where I attacked the romans directly and even lost the campaign. 
I also deactivated the Fog of War when writing this guide - after all, a guide should give you as much informations as possible. I predicted the moves of the AI accurately (not very hard, it almost always does exactly the same), so I didnīt need to deactivate it, but still. The one spy you have at the start of the game should give you all the information anyway, Sicily isnīt exactly big.
The powerful city of Syracuse - A quick RSII campaign guide
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Originally Posted by Luke Vader
pity Syracuse is a wrong-turn campaign. 
