[TE AAR] The Blitz of the Epirotes

[CynicalMagician]

In this thread I'm going to outline my progress as the Epirotes on the campaign map. If something really notable happens on the battle map I'll mention it, but my focus will be on the larger picture.

Of all the factions I've tried with RTE, Epirus has the most potential to do really well or really terribly at the start. They have a divided start with 2 cities each on Greece and Italy, surrounded by potential foes in the Romans, Macedonians, and Greeks. As a result, Epirotes should expect to fight on 2 fronts for a long time. If either front breaks they can expect to get stomped by the expansion of the Romans or the Macedonians, who will simply outpace them with more cities and a strong heartland.

On the other hand, Epirus is very close to a lot of very profitable cities. With a foothold on both the richest parts of the map and with some early successes they could be a mighty empire. Things are really laid out for Pyrrhus, your faction leader, to go on a huge early rampage through Roman territory, as he starts with a large stack including elephants. You also start with a very highly experience although small army in Greece. Here's how I handled my first few turns as Epirus.

Turn 1: (280)

First things first. Italy. Pyrrhus is standing on the Roman borders with a great big stack including elephants, a few units of good calvary, a bunch of hoplites, and some other light troops including archers. Tarentum and Croton also have garrison with governors and some hoplites. First I moved everyone but the governors out of Tarentum and Croton and pushed them as far north as possible. This is a gamble but a safe one, since Carthage will have its hands full with Sicily for a while, and if Greeks or Macedonians want to attack my rear they'll have to go through western Greece first.

The key to my early blitz is my war elephants. Not only do they stomp around and scare troops, but they can knock down wooden walls. Since every Roman city except Rome starts with wooden walls and only a tiny garrison, I'm in good shape. However, I have to divide and conquer and smash these cities piecemeal. If I allow the Romans to consolidate their forces I will have a very difficult battle as their troops are solid. Instead, I want to keep them reeling and on the defensive. The sooner I wrap up the Romans, the sooner I can turn my attention to Greece, where my forces are much more limited.

First on the list is Cannae. They only have 3 units - a general, velites and a hastati. I could send my elephants here, but I want to take Capua and open a road to Rome sooner. I divide my stack and send 2 units of calvary, some hoplites and some archers to lay seige to Cannae. Capua receives the rest of the stack. Capua has the same garrison as Cannae except principes instead of velites. I take my time taking Capua, as I can't afford a pyhhric victory. Elephants knock down the walls, archers soften troops up as they run around near the walls, Samnite mercs act as fodder for the initial charge, calvary flanks the town square, and I take the city with minimal losses. Patience is the key to conserving your men. Next turn after the ram is built Cannae will fall.

In Greece I consolidate all of my forces in Apollonia, including the 5 double silver peltasts I have. When I have small armies like this I'd rather put them all together than have them spread thin between a couple cities. It's critical that I maintain a foothold on Greece, and I know Macedon will come knocking soon. My spy checks out the rebel city to the south, Thermon, and finding it lightly defended I dispatch half my army to take the city. I want to have this city so that Macedon or Greece doesn't, and the stone walls will make it more defensible than anything else I own in the area. The seige will not begin until next turn, so it'll be 2 turns before I have the city and 3 before my army returns to Apollonia.

At this point I note that every turn I'm going to lose about 3000-4000 in upkeep in addition to troop and construction costs. I need to get my economy up in a hurry, as 10-15 turns of deficit spending is not very long. With that in mind all my cities are building basically the same thing - roads, then ports. Ports will make me a ton of money after I get them up in all my cities. The roads are particularly important in Italy because after Pyrrhus is done with the Romans he's going to bring his army across to Greece. To do that he's going to need to run back down to Tarentum and I don't want him on the road for 5 turns. In every city I build the best infantry I can. New troops from Tarentum and Croton will immediately take my one boat across to Greece to reinforce Apollonia.

Finally, my diplomat moves north through Italy. He's going to head to Gaul and see what kind of attitude they have. Best case scenario - I get an alliance and have someone to act as a buffer between Italy and the rest of the world. Worst case scenario, Pyrrhus has to extend his conquest. However, I think I'll be able to get them to ally. Before I talk to them I plan to have taken 2 more cities so my power base should be able to impress the AI a bit. The Gauls also have a ton of space to expand to in the rebel cities of France, Spain and Germany so they shouldn't be too eager to go to war just yet.

End turn, no reprisals from the Romans or Rebels.

Turn 2: (280)

The seige of Thermon starts and ladders are started. My general in Greece, while out placing a watchtower, sees Thracian mercenaries for sale. I buy them and send them to Thermon as they will be useful for taking the walls. A couple units of infantry arrive from Italy and I feel safer in this part of the country.

The assault on Cannae goes as planned and the city falls with ease. The infantry from Tarentum and Croton make it to Capua and act as garrison, while Pyrrhus' army leaves to begin the seige of Rome. He has a calvary, elephants, 4 hoplites and the leftovers of the samnite mercs with him. The victors of Cannae also head to Capua as I'm going to need those archers for when I finally face real Roman stacks.

My diplomat has made it within sight of Gaul but hasn't found someone to talk to yet. This is fine because I want to take Rome before I ask for an alliance.

Thermon is under seige. The watchtower I placed last turn can see a 11 unit Macedonian stack on the edge of its vision. I don't think they can attack next turn, at least, I hope not.

Troop recruitment and building continues as per last turn. I've already spent 10000 dollars and I haven't even paid upkeep for this turn.

End turn and the Romans sally forth from Rome with the help of another stack of 4 units. Out of Rome they are attacking me with 3 units of principes, 1 hastati, 1 velites, and a general. The relief force is 2 hastati, a principes and another general. By holding a small hill on the map that lies in between the two Roman armies I fight them one at a time and absolutely devastate them. Elephants prove to be worth their weight in gold, handling the principes without trouble. Calvary chases down routers and I win the city. I own Rome on the second turn of the game.

Turn 3: (279)

I was wrong about the Macedonians. To my dismay they are able to reach Apollonia and beseige it. They also offer trade rights. I accept.

In Thermon two of my double silver peltasts and the thracian mercs scale the walls with ladders. and bring the city down. Unfortunately I lose almost all my calvary in this battle due to some foolish charges on hoplites in the town square. I was impatient, and paid the price. The city falls regardless and everyone except some militai run back to Apollonia. They can't get there this turn but I want them there before I sally forth. If the Macedonians try and storm the city I should be ok so I decide to let the city stew for another turn. This will also give me enough time to bring more reinforcements from Tarentum and Croton. My spy in the region checks out the Macedonian army. They have 4 units of calvary that's far better than mine, and 7 units of various hoplite infantry. Thankfully they have no general.

Back in Italy my diplomat has made it to the Gauls and they are happy to sign an alliance. This pleases me to no end, as my plan is working well so far. From there the diplomat is going to head to Spain to talk to the Carthaginians and the Iberians. I'd like to get map and trade rights from both of them, but I'm not going to sign any alliances. I expect the Iberians to clash with Gaul sooner or later and I'd way rather have Gaul on my side than Iberia. I don't care much about Carthage at this point, but trade rights with them would be very profitable.

The previous turn I saw that the two Roman cities had 6 units in them a piece, which concerned me to some extent because it would slow down my conquest by a turn. However, they were foolish and changed the split to 9/3, biased in favour of Arretium, the western settlement. Because I have elephants, this was very foolish of the AI. Pyrrhus moves north to Arminium and takes the city in the same fashion as the others. As much infantry as I can muster moves north to the nearest river ford to Arretium, putting them within striking distance for next turn. I put the infantry on the river because I don't want to fight the last desperate Romans without my full army behind me, and they can't make it to Arminium.

To my dismay I see that a Gallic stack of 6 or 7 units is sitting on the Roman border. They are still neutral to each other, but I want that city. All the more reason to get it seiged quick. Next turn the Romans will fall.

End turn. No enemy attacks.

Turn 4: (279)

The Romans beseige Arminium, the city they just lost. As soon as I sally forth they retreat to Arretium. Pyrrhus follows with his army and beseiges the city. It is joined by the infantry from the ford. I think about attacking, but the Romans have divided their forces to 6 in the city, 3 out. I don't want to fight that many Romans in the city, so I decide to wait a turn in the hopes that they sally forth.

In Greece, I consolidate the relief army for Apollonia and attack the Macedonians. They start on a hill with calvary in wedge form and their infantry in a single line. They're hoping I attack from two sides going up the steepest part of the hill, but I'm not an idiot. I join my forces and take the longer but less steep route to their army, while my general and calvary move to flank them from another part of the hill. My infantry are doing a Epirote impression of the manipular system, with everyone laid out in a checkerboard fashion. I'm putting my guys in dense blocks because these will be less vulnerable to calvary wedges and more manueverable for flanking the enemy horsemen.

As my calvary get to the top of the hill they charge the corner of a calvary wedge from even ground and utterly destroy it. The enemy counter charges while my calvary splits and pulls back. Unfortunately my general gets separated from the unit and he goes down. Damnit. The rest of my calvary pulls away without losing altitude. Impetuously the Macedonian calvary charges my infantry where they are soon engulfed in hoplites and peltasts. They pull back and the enemy army retreats.

With that I got rid of the seige on my city and drove their army back towards Thessalonica. However, I trust the heirs of Alexander about as far as I can throw them.

The Future

My short term plan from here is to play a holding game with my 3 cities in Greece against the Macedonians while I build up and retrain my forces. At the same time, as soon as Rome is taken I will load Pyrrhus's army onto a boat and set sail for Greece. My first target will be Larissa, in order to split the Macedonian empire. I suspect I will be able to attack there in 3 or 4 turns, assuming I wait for Pyrrhus. If I have an opportunity earlier I will take it. Diplomacy wise, I need to get a diplomat in Greece so I can talk to the Greeks, Thracians and Dacians. I want Thrace as an ally and possibly Dacia, and I want trade rights and map from the Greeks.

Long term I plan on dividing Macedon and taking their capital, and then moving onto the rest of southern Greece. My other long term goal is to take Syracuse and Messana off the rebels on Sicily so as to prevent Carthage from taking those and having a strong base right near Italy. I suspect that Carthage and I will come to blows within 30 turns unless they really focus on Spain and Africa.

In terms of buildings and economy, I'm looking good. I can pay for my army upkeep while staying in the black, so my only outlay is buildings and recruitment. Now that Rome is basically sewed up I won't need more troops in Italy for a while so I'll be able to focus on building up my roads, ports, markets, mines and farms. My best cities (Rome and Tarentum) will continue building good troops and shipping them to Greece until I can get a good production city of my own over there.

This is as far as I've played this campaign so far, but if there's interest I'll continue updating this thread with my progress. I think the Epirus campaign is really fun and quite challenging. Having to go toe to toe with several of the game's major powers right off the bat is exciting and the diplomacy is cool too. The other TE campaigns I've played have been out east and this Epirote campaign is already more dynamic.

FIRST UPDATE - TURN 5 TO 8

I played a couple more turns last night and there were some interesting developments. Also, I apologize for not using the right city names in the above post. For example, Apollonia instead of Salona. I'm still used to the RTW Vanilla city names. Anyway.

Turn 5 (278)

My Italian army under Pyrrhus is all together now, beseiging the last Roman city, Arretium. 6 Tarentum hoplites, my elite spearmen, a couple units of phalangitai, 2 archers, 2 generals, 2 calvary, and the all important elephants. I didn't expect to need this many troops, but I underestimated the size of the Roman forces. They must have had a small army outside the city previously, because now they have 14 units behind the walls. I queue up a bunch of rams and hope that they will sally forth. Using the elephants to get in this turn is possible but I'd rather have rams if I'm going to take a city with this many troops inside.

In Greece, with the Macedonians driven off of their seige and fresh troops being shipped from Tarentum to Salona every turn, I'm feeling more comfortable. My spy heads out to do some recon, and I let my armies sit tight for a turn to retrain and have full movement points. Thermon can build peltastsm, so it does.

Salona starts on the 2nd tier calvary building. I notice that Rome can build a city barracks already, so I start it up. Everywhere else continues building traders and ports and the like. Without recruitment/construction costs I'm in the black, but barely, and I'm burning through my stack of cash fast. I'm down to about 30,000, spending about 5000 a turn.

End Turn. No attacks.

Turn 6: (278)

An interesting development - Greece and Macedon have signed an alliance. Damn. I was really hoping they'd tire each other out. Now I'll have to be careful about venturing near Greek armies. However, since I'm on the offensive so far I'm not too worried because I've never seen an ally come to a beseiged city's aid. I'll just have to play this a little more carefully.

5 rams are built at Arretium but I'm still concerned about fighting in the city. That always gets bloody and I want this army intact for Greek campaigning. I can't retrain most of the units in this army so I'm being conservative. I decide to wait another turn and see if they'll sally forth. I thought they would sally last turn, as usually the AI doesn't put up with being seiged unless they have barely any garrison.

My spy in Greece has uncovered some interesting news. First, the army that beseiged Salona has divided into 3 parts, one of 5 units north of Larissa, and 2 parts to the south with 5 units total. Since 2 new young generals just arrived this turn, I decide to advance into Macedonian territory. I can attack the two smaller detachments this turn and march on Larissa next turn. I know I was originally planning on playing defensive, but this is the opportunity I've been waiting for. The other thing my spy turns up is that Corinth is guarded only by 3 bottom tier hoplites and a general. I review my forces in Salona.

I have 4 full strength and 1 half strength double silver peltasts, 2 missile calvary, 2 triple bronze light calvary, 2 green peltasts, 8 units of bottom tier hoplites, 3 midrange phalanx troops, and 3 generals. I decide to divide my stack 3 ways. A general and a hoplite will guard Salona. Another general will take 2 of the good peltasts and 3 bottom tiere hoplites onto a boat across the strait to Corinth. Corinth is seiged this turn, but enough seige equipment won't be done for 2 turns. Everyone else will go east towards Larissa, first striking the 2 Macedonian detachments.

The Larissan bound army catches up with and destroys the two detachments to the last man.

End turn. No reprisals.

Turn 7 (277):

I've had enough of the Romans. They haven't sallied forth and I've been seiging their city for 2 turns now. I assault. They have 3 generals, 5 principes, 4 hastati, 2 rorarii, and a triarii. This will be tough. However, they have no missile troops. I begin by sending 4 rams to open up holes all along one wall while the elephants go to work on the gate. I align my archers so they have a clear line of fire down one of the main roads, and when they're in position I make them fire on a static enemy. I will choose their targets manually so they don't fire on moving targets unless they're moving with their backs to the archers.

By allowing my archers and elephants to unload volley after volley, their forces take serious losses and tire themselves out running around the city. Eventually I move in 3 phalanxes a piece on the edges of the city each with a calvary support and begin the walk down the main road. I time it out so that all 3 of my segments get to the town square at the same time. My phalanxes start getting hit by pila, and I decide enough is enough. All my calvary and elephants charge the town square at once from all 4 directions, and the result is carnage. 3 Roman generals and a hundred or so mixed forces go down with my units barely taking a scratch. Rome is no more.



This is the path Pyrrhus took through Roman lands. T# indicates what turn the city was taken on.

Pyrrhus is 55 now, and although he's a better battle commander than manager, I can't help but think his career has reached its apex. He took Rome and all Roman territory, so he will move into Rome and govern the city until he dies. I give his retinue to his adopted son as well as the vast majority of the army. This army heads to the port of Arminium to await construction of a bireme that will take them to Greece. A watchtower at the northern end of my borders can see both the Gallic cities.

Back in Greece, Larissa is under seige, with my spy inside. In retrospect I shouldn't have left the spy inside because I'm not planning on using the gates for this one. Either way. A couple seige towers and some ladders are constructed. Inside, I see a general and 3 units of midrange phalanxes. Most of my infantry is pretty bad so I'll need to face those phalanxes with some fancy tactics.

Corinth is also under seige. Here I buy some mercenary hoplites, just to make sure I have someone who can take the walls instead of my bottom of the barrel hoplites.

End turn. No reprisals. This is surprising, I suspected the Macedonians would try and end the seige on Larissa. However, I did see some army rallying, so maybe next turn.

Turn 8 (277):

Well well well. The Greeks broke off their alliance with the Macedonians. I don't blame them, but they've still earned my wrath. What a fickle group.

Speaking of alliances, I forgot about my diplomat headed to Spain for a turn or two. I move him again and get him to the edge of Iberia, but I can't find a city or army close enough to him. Next turn I'll talk to them, and possibly Carthage too.

My Roman army hops on a boat and starts the trip to Greece. They'll be at the front lines in 3 turns. I think I'm going to send them to Sparta first, since my other larger stack is already doing well up north.

At Corinth the seige engines are finally ready, so I assault the city. They've put low quality hoplites on the walls, but my mercenaries and low qual hoplites sandwich them and crush them. Another hoplite is eliminated near the gate, and the city is taken relatively easily. The generals charge was absorbed handily by the merc hoplites.

At Larissa things go equally well. I take the walls from their bad hoplites with my bad hoplites by sandwiching the enemy, and peltasts man the walls. I get all 5 units of peltasts up on the walls and disable fire at will. For some reason the enemy has parked 1 of it's good phalanxes and a general under the walls, and another good phalanx under the gateway. I move all my peltasts above them and then press fire at will on all of them at once. Absolute carnage. 90% of the phalanxes are wiped out in 3 volleys and the general suffers serious losses. Mop up continues and the city is taken.



This pic shows the basic action in Greece. This screen is from turn 10 so you're seeing into the future a little, but not too much.

Note on taking cities: I've found it's best to have a mix of ladders and seige towers. Seige towers are good for taking walls where the enemy is concentrated, but they aren't good for moving large numbers of troops up quickly. Ladders are awful for assault, but they're good for moving lots of guys up. What I usually do is send a seige tower where units are on the walls, and send a ladder up to an empty section. The guys on the ladder make it to the walls first, and the enemy will often run to attack them. Meanwhile, the seige tower finally opens to have a bunch of guys on the wall, and that unit can hit the enemy in the rear or take towers going the opposite direction. I used to rely only on towers, but I've since found both to be equally useful.

Note on city management: Every time I've taken a city I've occupied it rather than enslaving or exterminating, with the exception of Rome which I enslaved because it was so big. Also, I'm running all my cities on low tax right now and have been all game. I'm doing this not only to make garrisoning easier, but mostly so that I have a strong population base as I enter the phase of the game when I don't have scads of cash. Right now I'm still running a severely deficit economy and sooner or later that will have to change. But for now, I want to get as many people in my cities as possible so that when I need to I can get more taxes out of them.

For the record, the treasury has dropped below 20000.

Just before this turn ended I stopped playing for the evening. At the start of this session I was worried about the Greek-Macedon alliance, but not so much anymore. Macedon has been severely humbled and I am now officially a power in Greece. Assuming my Gallic alliance holds I will be in excellent shape for the next few turns, especially since Pyrrhus' son is coming to join the party with my grand army of the Republic.

My plan now is to give the army in Larissa a chance to recruit another couple hoplites and do some recon on the Macedonian capital. If it looks wimpy then I may take it out quickly, but I suspect that'll be a tough slog, since the Macedonians have at least one more city (the island off Athens) and because my infantry in that army is not very good. The Corinthian army is definitely staying put as there's no way that paltry force could go up against Greek Hoplites. I'd prefer to finish off Macedon before moving onto Greece, but that really depends on what's expedient in the future.

Another goal is that I have to get a diplomat up into Thrace and that part of the map. I recruited one to send there but he's still near Tarentum now so it'll be a few turns until he gets somewhere relevant. Then that diplomat or someone else needs to get east so I can get trade rights with Egypt, the Seleucids, and Pontus. I want to get on Pontus's good side especially because they've tended to do well in my TE games.

SECOND UPDATE - TURN 9 AND 10

Turn 9: (276)

This was a busy turn. After I ended turn 8 I found myself under seige at Corinth by the Greeks, and seiged at Salona by the Macedonians. I was pretty worried about this at first because my forces were somewhat scattered. I had the Italian army on a boat, a small force in Corinth, and a larger but still not amazing force in Larissa. Here's how I handled it.

The Roman army was on it's bireme and was north of Cannae when this turn began. I was going to send them to Sparta, but instead I decided to send them to the aid of Salona. The Macedonians only had 2 hoplites and 3 horse, but they were high quality units and I only had about 100 men as garrison in Salona. I could have sent the army from Larissa as relief, but that'd set me back by a turn or two for taking Pella. Instead, I let Salona sit and wait for the Italian army.

The Larissan force wouldn't be able to make it to Corinth in time to attack, and I didn't want to attack the Greek stack anyway because they had a tough army. They had 2 units of archers including some Cretans, some Rhodian slingers, 3 units of solid hoplites, several bottom tier hoplites, and a unit of the dreaded Spartan hoplites. Instead of attacking them I sent the Larissan army to seige Athens. I was betting that the Greeks would lift their seige of Corinth in favour of relieving Athens. The Athenians only had 2 generals and a couple low end troops in their city, so if I lost Corinth the Greeks would lose Athens. I also had a boat with 3 Tarentum hoplites that were en route to reinforce Corinth already, but instead I joined them to the beseigers of Athens. This turned out to be an excellent idea.

Elsewhere, my diplomat made it to Carthago Nova and got me trade rights, map info, and an alliance from Carthage. Excellent news. The diplomat I was sending to Thrace ended his turn near Pella, so I arrogantly decided to give the Macedonians a chance to call it all off and become my Protectorate. Unsurprisingly, they voted no.

End turn. The Greeks pulled back from Corinth and attacked me. Because I was in front of Athens, they would get the city's garrison in the battle. I didn't want that, so I withdrew in hopes that they would attack again. They did.

I was pretty concerned about this battle at first. Their infantry far outweighed mine, and they had a lot of missile troops. I had 6 units of peltasts, but I trust archers more than peltasts. At any rate, I joined battle.

My main line of 6 hoplites formed a single line, with my lower tier hoplites clustered on my right rear with the peltasts. The light calvary were on the left, and the general was with the main infantry body. Luckily as the enemy advanced their entire contingent of missile troops got separated from the safety of the hoplite spears. My fast moving light calvary were thus able to run all 3 units down in the opening phase of the battle. They took some casualties when they got caught on a spearwall, but they performed admirably all the same.

Meanwhile, the Spartans continued to advance. Luckily, they advanced directly into the middle of my line and hit my mercenary hoplites. This was great, because I can't retrain the mercs anyway and they were costing me money. After they engaged I ran 2 units to their rear and hit them, eventually killing them to the last man. As this happened, the enemy army started to retreat. With my general and 2 light calvary I ran them down, forced them to engage, and routed them all. This was an epic victory, as the road to Athens was now clear.

Turn 10 (276):

This turn opened with 2 Macedonian units beseiging Larissa - a general and a phalanx. I only have a couple units in Larissa myself, but still, they could have at least made an effort. I moved my general from Corinth and a couple peltasts from Thermon to scare the enemy off. As soon as the battle map opened the Macedonians fled.

The Italian army landed on Greek soil and promptly chased away Salona's beseigers. When they withdrew I didn't have enough movement points to attack them, so that will wait until next turn.

Athens is under seige by the army that beat them last turn. Greece is in bad shape. Between Athens and Sparta they have only 9 units, although to their credit 4 are generals and 2 are high level phalanx infantry. In a baffling move, 4 of the 5 units in Sparta move into the province of Corinth. Perhaps they are a relief force for Athens? I don't know what the AI is thinking. All I know is that my elephants would love to beat down their wooden walls when there's only one defender...

I noticed that this turn Macedon's borders expanded, as they've taken the city to the north of Pella from the Rebels. That's fine, it's a worthless city and it's one more place for them to spread their garrison. I won't get to it for a while though, as I'm going to take both Athens and Sparta before I attack Macedon again. The plan of attack is to take Athens next turn with the army that's already beseiging it, and at the same time the Italian army will crush the Macedonian force that beseiged Salona. The following turn the elephants will board a boat and head to their original goal of Sparta, which they will beseige and take on the same turn. Meanwhile, the victors at Athens will hop a Bireme to Chalcis to eliminate another Macedonian stronghold.

At least, that's the plan. More news as events warrant.

UPDATE THREE - TURNS 11-20

This was a long session of playing and I didn't keep notes of exactly when things happened, so this update will be less detailed than the others. My empire is getting big and it's tough to keep track of everything. Anyway, on with the show.

Turn 11 (275):

Athens falls to the beseigers with ease, as no army comes to their rescue. Greece is down to Sparta and Rhodes. The army that took Athens breaks into two parts, with the bulk heading to Larissa and 2 archers, 4 spearmen and 2 peltasts waiting for a boat to take them to Chalcis.

The Italian army smashes the Macedonians, but several units escape back to their capital. The elephants, 2 archers, 2 light calvary and 3 hoplites jump on a boat and head to Sparta. They will land and take the city next turn.

The Larissans continue recruiting hoplites for use in taking out the rest of Macedon and the stack stays in the city. The Macedonians aren't in my territory so I don't feel the need to leave my city until I'm ready to actually take a city.

Because I'm making enough money to recruit a lot in Roman territory, I decide to launch a Sicilian expedition to Messana. 8 hoplites and a young general gather near Rome to get on a boat. This is an unbalanced army, but it will do the job, especially if I can pick up some mercenaries when I get to my destination.

End turn, no attacks.

Turn 12 (275):

The Chalcis bound army hops the straight and beseiges the city. 2 rams will be constructed next turn and I will take the city.

The Italian army lands near Sparta and thankfully the Greek army is not close enough to help defend the city. Sparta's 2 defending hoplites fall and the Peloponnesus is mine. The Italian army will wait a turn to retrain before heading north to Pella.

The Macedonians have parked a fort near their borders and filled it with bad hoplites and a family member. I don't know what the goal of this is, because I can still march up the coast and hit Pella from Larissa.

Messana is under seige. Only 3 units defend, so it will be taken next turn. As a point of interest I notice that the Carthaginians don't have much of an army on the island, which suits me just fine.

My cities are starting to come of age and are finally making me lots of cash. I've been sinking tons of money into shipwrights, markets, and farms for the whole game and it's finally paying off. I'm making about 9k per turn before recruitment/construction.

End turn, no reprisals.



Turn 13 (274):

As expected, Chalcis falls and I've taken my first island city. In the battle there were 3 low end hoplites in the city and 3 more coming as reinforcements. I expected the reinforcements to beeline to the city square, but instead they hit me as I was entering the city gates. I had to rush my units in and turn them about face to repel the enemy.

The Italian army advances, and hoplites continue to be recruited in Larissa. I will move out all my forces from Larissa next turn and hit Pella.

Messana falls, and my faction heir moves his army on to beseige Syracuse. I would have retrained, but Messana didn't have the right buildings. Syracuse will be tough, as they have 2 Cretan archers and 4 double silver hoplites. My army would get butchered trying to storm the city, so I sigh and resign myself to starving it out. 7 turns, ouch.

With a boat I see that Mytilene (Macedon's other island city) is poorly defended. I decide that I will take the army from Chalcis and use them to attack Mytilene, hopefully speeding up the elimination of the Macedonians.

Meanwhile, my diplomats continue to gift small amounts of money and my map to Carthage and Gaul every couple of turns. I continue to interact with them because I don't want either to renege on our alliance. A Gallic rampage through Italy would be a disaster right now with the limited number of forces in the region. I also introduce myself to Thrace and Dacia and sell trade rights and map to both of them. A bit of luck helps me spot German and British diplomats far from home and I negotiate the same deals with them. The Seleucids are not so friendly, allowing me trade rights but not giving up their map, even when I offered to pay for it. Uppity easterners.

Turn 14 (274):

The Italians try to advance on Pella but to my dismay I find I'm one square short. Damnit. The Larissans advance beside them and the 2 full banner armies sit for another turn. These armies are certainly overkill, but I'd like to keep the option of pushing further north into Thrace and Dacia open. Seutopolis is certainly alluring, and I'd like to have Byzantium too, which I believe still belongs to the rebels. These targets are also enticing because Dacia only has 2 or 3 cities and Thrace only has 1. If I eliminated both of them now my northern front would be safe until the Germans or Sycthians came knocking, and that won't be for a while.

The army on Chalcis boards a boat, but since they can't make it to Mytilene this turn I decide to leave them near Athens so they'll be safer from the rebel fleets that still roam the seas.

Near Rome I notice a tiny Gallic army get rejected by Genua, a settlement I didn't even know was there. I don't know how they lost, but I don't care. I decide to take the province for myself with 4 hoplites I have in the area. Genua is beseiged.

End turn. The rebels hit my Chalcis army fleet and defeat them, pushing them towards Crete. I see that Crete has no walls and decide to take that island instead of risking my fleet in the north Aegean once more.

Turn 15 (273):

Crete is beseiged. I see that there are 2 gold weapon double silver cretan archers (19 missile attack!!) and a highly experienced hoplite in the city. Even though they have no walls, I decide to starve them out since it will only take 3 turns. If I stormed the city I would get cut apart by those Cretans and I don't want to take the chance.

Pella is also beseiged, finally. A bunch of seige towers and the like are queued up, but I'm expecting them to sally forth.

Sooner or later I'm going to have to get to Mytilene, so I start building more Triremes in Larissa and Athens so I can clear out some pirates.

Genua falls, as suspected. I place watchtowers on the provinces borders to better help me spy on the Gauls. Judging from the colour of their borders, they've taken a couple more rebel cities in the area.

Elsewhere, I see that the Iberians are doing well. Carthage hasn't taken any of their cities while the Iberians have taken a couple rebel settlements. This suits me fine, as I'd like the Iberians to drive Carthage out of Spain and be forced to compete with Gaul for territory.

End turn, and Macedon attacks my seige. They pulled their fort army back to fight me, so all told they have 1800 men against my 2400. However, I decide to prevent the AI from using my other stack because I don't want them to do anything stupid. I face them down with the elephant army and by forcing them to march a long way up a hill I smash the Macedonians. I take 300 casualties to their 1700, but unfortunately one of them is one of my generals. Luckily, not the 25 year old with a silver. My surviving general earns another experience and a command star for this battle, making him a real up and comer on the battlefield. This battle also nets me Pella, knocking the Macedonians down to 2 cities.

Turn 16 (273):

A misclick from Pella sends my elephant army the wrong way, setting my conquest of Sardica back by a turn. The other army will hop on a boat next turn after retraining and will head to Mytilene next turn. I notice that Pella can already train my second highest level spearmen. Sweet. I think their next 5 turns got booked solid.

Syracuse is still under seige, with 4 turns remaining.

Pyrrhus takes a quick trip away from Rome to stomp some rebels in my lands. Before I attack them I pull some diplomatic acrobatics by gifting both of my allies an attack on one of their enemies, namely, the rebels. This earns me some brownie points with Gaul and Carthage. I also give them 200 denari a piece.

End turn, no reprisals.

Turn 17 (272):

Sardica, Macedon's last mainland city is hit by the elephants and their army and it falls under a hail of arrows. The faction leader puts up a good fight but is put to the sword. A watch tower in the region reveals several Dacian and rebel armies skirmishing, as well as a giant Thracian infantry stack near their only city.

En route to Mytilene my army runs into a rebel fleet they are forced to fight. They are defeated and forced back to Greece. I reinforce the fleet and resolve to clean up the Aegean. One of my vessels also notices that Halicanarssus has been taken by the Greeks.

End turn, and the Cretans sally forth, only to go down on my spear men and peltasts. They did a bad job of using their archers or this could have been a costly victory.

Turn 18 (272):

The Mytilene bound army decides to wait for more boats before attempting the crossing again. I can't afford to lose 12 units, including some of my best horse.

Greece lands a tiny stack on Chalcis consisting of their faction heir and two bad hoplites. After sinking their boat, I ferry some troops over and crush them. I don't know what they were thinking.

Syracuse is 3 turns away from capitulation.

I decide to await more good quality phalanx before I go after Thrace. They have a lot of falxmen, and they are not to be underestimated.

End turn.

Turn 19 (271):

The Mytilenes quake in terror as I land my stack on their island. The Macedonians will be no more next turn. Nothing else of note happens this turn. The Roman lands have been working on producing an army, but it is still a 4 or 5 turns away from completion. Peace time is boring.

End turn. The Macedonians sally forth with 2 good hoplites, 4 bad ones, and 4 units of horsemen. I line up all my phalanx and archers on a slight rise, and as their low quality troops collide with my high quality ones, their empire comes to an end. I get a really solid man of the hour out of this fight, but unfortunately don't get to keep him as he dies before I can officially adopt him. I wonder how this happened.



With that, I've conquered Macedon and mainland Greece, and taken a good portion of the Aegean. Rhodes still needs to fall, but that will wait until pirates are cleaned up a little more and a good army is in the region. From here I plan on continuing to take cities, but not so much in blitz fashion anymore. I need to take 5 or 8 turns to build more troop production buildings, solidify my garrisons, and reorganize my army. The way I see it I have 4 fronts I could fight on in the coming years.

First and most obviously is Thrace and Dacia. I have armies in the region, these factions are weak, and eliminating them would free up my north. Seutopolis and Byzantium are definitely on The List of places to conquer in the next 8-10 turns.

Second, I would like to finish the Greeks. Because I have so much sea trade, Rhodes would make me very wealthy and would lead to the conquest of Halicanarssus, Sardis, and Nicomedia. Unfortunately this would also put me in competition with Pontus, the Seleucids, and Egypt.

Third, I could unite my lands through Illyricum. This is somewhat attractive, but not very because Illyricum has such bad cities. On the other hand, better me owning them than someone else.

Finally, with Syracuse almost mine, I could take the rest of Sicily and start a war with Carthage. Although this would give me a place to retrain my elephants (Carthage) and would make me a lot of money, I'm not sure I want to bother with them yet. I want Carthage to check the Iberians. Also, since I have virtually no navy, I'm not sure I want to face them yet.

Regardless, after this 20 turn rampage through Italy and Greece, I'm in good shape to take on whoever I want. I have 21 territories now, which means I averaged just under 1 per turn during this campaign. Now that I have a solid heartland and am making close to 20k per turn, the Blitz of the Epirotes is complete. I hope you've enjoyed it.

[Tzif]

Awsome! Maybe some pictures?

Tzif

[Jamoid]

well your thread kept me from playing the game for a while, so it must be decent.

extremely well written. could do with pictures as tzif said i guess, but i didn't think about that once while reading.

anyway, more please. =p

[CynicalMagician]

I'm glad you two are enjoying it. Part 2 has been added just now. As I mentioned at the end, I'll get a couple pics tonight.

[Tzif]

Can't wait! I was thinking about playing an Epirot campaign after my Greek campaign, this makes me want to do one more.

Tzif

[CynicalMagician]

I'd definitely recommend it, I'm having a lot of fun with them so far. There's something for everybody. You've got a lot of choice on where you go with the campaign, since instead of focusing on Greece I could have easily gone straight for Sicily and the Carthaginians, or pushed through Gaul. Epirus has a foot in a lot of camps, so to speak. I think the only thing you can't do is ignore the Romans at the start. In every other TE campaign I've played Epirus loses their cities to Rome and from there they usually get booted out of Greece because they have no power base.

[Tzif]

Ya, I crushed Epirus on my Greek campaign...

Anyway, the Epirots have Elephants right? That would make the perfect army if they did.

Tzif

[CynicalMagician]

Yes, they start with a unit of war elephants with Pyrrhus in Italy. I don't know where/if they can retrain them though. They start with elephants because historically Pyrrhus had them with him on his invasion of Rome.

[Tzif]

I know Pyrrhus had them, I was just wondering if they could train them. If you can later on in the game, please tell me.

By the way, I just saw your update. Good luck on taking out Macedonia. Are you going to let them keep one of their provinces, or are you waging total war?

Tzif

[CynicalMagician]

It says in the description of the Royal Stables that, "They can even train elephantai!" so I guess Epirus can train elephants eventually. However, I'd have to take a city with the elephant resource to do that, and that's a long way off since I'd have to go to Carthage, Egypt, or Ethiopia.

Regarding Macedon, I won't let them keep anything. It may take me a while to get to all the island cities so it may be another 15-20 turns before they're completely eliminated, but it'll happen. I don't like leaving factions with just one city because their generals respawn quickly, allowing them to lead tiny garbage stacks out all too often. I don't like having to leave fighting garrison unless I have to.

[Tzif]

Ok, I am the same way with enemy factions. If someone has the guts to attack my, then they shall all be put to the sword!

Can't wait for update 3!

Tzif

[thoscme]

nice reading
i like the way you've made epirus a grat empire, in just 10 turns!

greetings, thoscme

[Gaius Baltar]

A most exellent and well done AAR. Keep us updated!

[CynicalMagician]

This was the last update for a few days at least. I'm going to keep playing it, but I'm not planning on being at war against anyone major for a few turns. More news as events warrant.

[cherryfunk]

This was fun to read, thanks for posting CM. One thing I love about this game is the sheer amount of detail it encompasses, and a write-up like this shows how many things are going on in a good campaign in just a few turns... Did you mention what difficulty you're playing?

[CynicalMagician]

This game is on hard/hard. The last time I played VH/VH I was the Iberians and was getting mauled by rebels so I turned it down a notch.

[Tzif]

Wow, H/H huh. I play all mine on M/M.

Tzif

[CynicalMagician]

Well, TWC isn't letting me edit my first post (the message I have submitted is too short, please make it at least 1 character), so I'll post the final update to this thread here:

FOURTH (AND FINAL) UPDATE:

270-266:

As outlined in the last update, once I finished off the Macedonians I had to decide where I was going next. I outlined a few possible courses of action earlier. As it turned out, I decided to go after almost all of them.

First was Thrace. My experienced elephant army was in the neighbourhood after finishing Macedon in Sardica, so I decided to stomp them first. Thrace had a very large infantry stack, but by seiging their city I forced them to attack me. By cracking their morale I destroyed their entire army and took their only city. This was very much a veni, vidi, vici moment.

Meanwhile, I had been building up a shiny new army in Rome, and it was finally ready. A full stack of spearmen, a couple calvary, and archers, all upgraded as high as I could get them. I sent them across to Segestica first to take that city and then push through Dacian lands from the west. Another army came into Dacia from Pella to the south. The elephant army split into two, with half heading to Byzantium and the other half heading north onto a Dacian bridge. The Dacians had just expanded into a city to their west and Tomi to the east, so their armies were away from their capital city. Using elephants to break down wooden walls, the Dacian faction was eliminated in only 3 turns after a devastating series of battles. With me sending almost as many full banner armies as they had cities and attacking simultaneously, they had no chance to survive. Working through their faction from west to east, the Dacians came to an end at their recently acquired Tomi.

At the same time, another full banner had set sail for Rhodes, to take the Colossus and finish the Greeks once and for all. I had no intention of allowing them to regroup in Asia Minor. At about the same time as Dacia fell, the Greeks were eliminated as well. Pergamum, still rebel owned, came under my control shortly after.



My plan from here was to regroup my Dacian armies and send them around the coast of the Black Sea. I've never owned the 3 cities on the Chersonesus penninsula and they would give me a nice power base on the north side of the Black Sea. However, the Seleucids decided to declare war on me about now, seemingly on a whim. They blockaded Rhodes for a turn, but took no other aggressive action. This didn't surprise me that much because they had been diplomatically cool towards me all campaign.

266-263:

Because the Seleucids stepped up to the plate and I already had a foothold in the area with Pergamum and Halicanarssus, I decided it was time to go stomping through Asia Minor. At this point Pontus controlled 4 cities along the south coast of the Black Sea, from Nicomedia through Sinope and their capital and on towards Armenia. I was still diplomatically neutral to them, but they had nice land, and controlling it would net me a lot of trade across the Black Sea. Ancrya was still rebel owned, and Sardis, Ipsus and Mazaka were Seleucid. Egypt owned Side, but Tarsus and Antioch were Seleucid.

Since I would be soon taking on big eastern stacks, I decided that the Dacian armies would go to Asia Minor instead of Scythian lands. Pontus had the majority of their military at Nicomedia, that being their most recent conquest, while their heartland was relatively unprotected. With this in mind, when I loaded the 2 big Dacian stacks onto boats, I sent them to Sinope and the Pontic capital rather than sending them straight across the Hellspont. Another army took Sardis and then Ancrya before going back for Nicomedia, and within 5 turns Pontus was destroyed.

Around now Numidia was destroyed by the Carthaginians, who I found owned all of western Africa after I traded maps with them. So far 7 factions have been destroyed: Rome, Macedon, Greece, Thrace, Dacia, Numidia, Pontus. The most powerful factions are myself, Egypt, Carthage, the Seleucids, and Gaul, in that order. I'm still allied with both Gaul and Carthage, while recently the Egyptians and Seleucids have sign an alliance. The Seleucids are also allied with Armenia, making this a very east vs west game.

Back in Rome I'm producing units with 2 experience and bronze weapons and armour. I've been putting together standard stacks with 9 phalangatai (Epirus' 2nd best spearmen), 4 archers, and 2 prodomoi (light calvary) and shipping them out east. I leave room for a general, so whoever needs a stack when it shows up will get one.

This is as good a place as any to share some strategies on how to produce high quality stacks quickly. I long ago designated the ex-Roman cities to be my main troop production center, because they started with relatively advanced buildings. Since then, I've only built the largest experience temples and smith buildings in Rome, as well as the most advanced troop buildings I can make. Then, the other cities in Italy skip the smiths, build the trade temples to make cash, and each pick a type of troop to focus on. For example, Capua does calvary, Arretium and Arminium do infantry, and Cannae does ranged units. Everyone builds the best unit they can and sends them to Rome, where they're retrained to have 2 experience and upgraded weapons and armour. The stacks get organized there, and then hop on a boat and head east.

This method of building units costs more than if every city had all the right buildings, but that takes a long time to set up. By spending a bit more money and time by retraining first, you can get advanced armies quickly while freeing up your other cities to construct more lucrative things like ports, farms, and what have you.

263-260:

Egypt has been sniffing around my borders, and since they signed an alliance with the Seleucids it's only a matter of time before they jump into the fray. With that in mind, I've been building up a big navy and gathering my troops to my eastern borders. A big stack has been sitting on a bridge next to the Seleucid city Mazaka for a few turns, but they haven't taken the bait.



These turns were basically a consolidation period, where I built up forces and gathered them for the coming assault against the two big eastern powers. While I'm confident that I will eventually prevail, I know that both of these empires field big armies so I want to make sure I'm prepared. The basic plan of attack is to take the remainder of Asia Minor in one fell swoop - Side, Tarsus, Antioch, and Salamis. Antioch is especially important because it has the elephant resource, which I sorely lack. I will likely take Tarsus and Antioch first, so as to put off declaring war on Egypt until I have time to rally navies to blockade all their ports.

Long term, I will push down the coast through Egypt while simultaneously landing a stack or two near Alexandria and the Egyptian heartland. As you've probably noticed by now, the strategy of seizing the enemy's heartland while their armies are elsewhere is a favoured tactic of mine. It's an excellent way to deal with a faction with coastal cities. I will ignore the land locked Seleucid heartland for now as I don't feel the urge to go tromping through the desert just yet. If I did push through to Seleusus or Ectbana I'd be opening myself up for attacks from Armenia, Parthia, and Bactria as well, in locations where reinforcements would be difficult to rally. The rich coastal cities will have to do.

----------

As it turns out, the Egyptian/Seleucid invasion won't be happening, since I don't think I'm going to play this campaign anymore. I looked at the charts, and I have a higher overall and financial ranking than the other 11 odd factions combined. No matter who I want to go after, I will be able to crush them. Although it precludes me getting to the really advanced units, I always quit games when it gets to this point because it isn't really a challenge. I find the beginning of the game when you're struggling against enemies who are about the same size as you to be much more rewarding and exciting than when you're a superpower gobbling up little factions. With that in mind, I'm going to rest my Epirote laurels after conquering 38 settlements and start a new game as Thrace. I'll report on that campaign in the same fashion as this one, but in a new thread.

[Marcus Marcellus]

you sure have a nice empire but u dont have so much money though. I've only played original rome so i dont know but shouldnt u have like 3.000.000 by now??

Just wanna know how much effort u put on income
Marcellus

[gennosuke43]

His last post was 2 years ago. I'm suprised you even found this thread.