Where to invade persia?

[Pandora]

I would like to know what landingplace you think is the best for launching an invasion into Persia. I have personally tried an invasion into Egypt, Schytia and Anatolia, but no matter where i launch my invasions there seems to be at least 4 persian armies ready to counter attack. is there anyone out there who recognise themsemlves in this, if so do feel free to reply.

[Xraider]

well persia very much men so it doesnt care about where you land but i recomend going like alexander but i recomend taking parmenion and take halicarnasus later take alexander to persia and wipe out all of the persians you see but any where u go there will be persians min 1 full army they got 20 of them at the start

[Tony83]

I agree with Xraider, start your campaign in Asia Minor and take Halicarnasus. Keep Alexander's main army as strong as possible and keep Parmenion close behind to feed in replacements for losses. Don't be put of by the number of Persians, the Macedonian phalanx is way superior to anything the Persians have to put up against it, even the Immortals!

Try and minimise your losses by fighting carefully and watching your flanks. One way to do this is to lay siege to cities and let the Persians attack you. This forces them to attack you on the battlefield and you can set out your army in a corner with your flanks anchored. Let Darius' men break themselves on the phalanx and take them in the flanks and rear with your heavy cavalry. Don't be afraid to use Alexander's bodyguard, it is the most powerful body on the battlefield. As long as you don't send him headlong into formed spear-men you shouldn't lose him in melee.

Once you've taken a city slaughter the inhabitants. It's not very realistic but it's the only way to get your finances back in the black and avoid having to leave large detachments behind to keep your conquests. By and large you can follow Alexander's original route of conquest by moving on Egypt after consolidating Asia Minor, before moving on to Babylon. If you keep up a steady but constant pace you should meet the mission objectives with time to spare. I've done the campaign a couple of times now and I don't rush it and have always finished well before 80 turns; so that's over 20 turns to spare.

Alternatively, once you have taken Issus, press on with Alexander's main army and take Babylon and leave Parmenion with the smaller force to sort out Egypt and Libya. This will cut about 10 turns off your campaign and provide quicker access to the resources that Babylon's huge city status affords.

The main thing is to have fun! Once you've finished your Blitzkrieg campaign you can then get back to the more leisurely pace of the full RTW campaign.

[Professor420]

There's a reason there are four persia armies wherever you land. Persia has full-stack armies EVERYWHERE, so you have to be careful where you fight. The best place is always defending rivers, even with no archers. North of Halicarnassus should always be the site of Parmeneon's first battle, east of Issus is a great place to break Persia's back. North of Issus is a good place to defend with a smaller army (I land north of Issus to give Persia two fronts on Asia Minor.
The goal is to break the might of Persia quickly, half way through the campaign (I finished mine on VH/VH in 32 turns) they are no longer a threat. Once you take Babylon its basically just a race to Bactria.

As far as combat goes, defending, especially with a phalanx, is always easier than attacking. Unfortunately, to continue a good place, you're going to have to attack every turn, at least once. Every field battle I use basically the same strategy. Spread your phalanges thin, and march straight towards the enemy, making sure their line isn't bigger than yours. Group all your cavalry on one wing (opposite the weaker Persian wing), keep Alexander in the middle to encourage the men, and there's another reason. As soon as the melee begins (you should manually assign some units, so they don't walk right through the Persian line), send all your cavalry to quickly rout counterpart Persian cavalry, sprint BEHIND (not to the side, but take the extra 10 seconds and get behind) the Persian lines, and attack their weakest unit with all your force. Make sure to keep charging, don't get bogged down in melee.
And what about Alexander? Well, the battle line will rarely be tight, use him to charge through a crack, get behind the Persian lines, and charge, charge, charge home. If Persia has cavalry on your unguarded wing, though, Alexander should take care of them.
It'll all be over in a matter of a minute, usually. Just remember not to chase down routing units without caution, since on higher skill levels they'll all reform and usually destroy whatever cavalry unit was chasing them. Once the enemy routs, try to keep your army formed up, and once you rout them again, follow them till the ends of the earth.

So, now, you barely have a hold over all of Asia Minor, now what? Send Alexander straight towards Babylon (NEVER attack heavily garrisonned cities), and some other generals south, to take over Egypt and the Middle East. Once you take Babylon, get to Persepolis, at which point the campaign is basically won. Its the stepping stone to all of the eastern part of the empire, and the only way there... reach it ASAP.

The goal on the campaign level is a couple things:
-Break the might of Persia early
-Keep slaughtering cities, and with it a healthy flow of income... once you stop conquering, you will be bankrupt.
-Once Persia has lost Anatolia, keep up the pressure, don't let them rebound... each turn you slow down will cost many more than that, because you'll be fighting an increasingly strong Persia.
-Move past heavily garrisonned (4+ units) cities in favor of more lightly defended, interior cities.

Ultimately, even with all the advice in the world, the skill on the battle map is what the campaign comes down to.

[Crusader Invasion]

My Alexander never lost a battle and his veterans had triple gold chevrons. Just recruit a LOT of mercs and leave 2 units of mercs in evry city you conquer. Then just replace em.