Advice for Arverni/Greek States campaign.

[dahooscarl]

Nearing the end of my Carthage campaign and was thinking of either the Arverni or one of the Greek States as my next. If possible, can I get some feedback on a couple things from you guys.

Which would you recommend? Gauls or Greeks? Why? Whose more fun to play as? Who has a more interesting start/mid game/unit roster? Tactics for enemies? Which Greek state do you prefer and why? General tips and advice.

I'm asking all this cause your guys' advice for my Carthage campaign worked really well, and I've never been able to get a good Gallic or Greek campaign going.

[godwrote]

What Greeks? ^^ Athenian, Spartan, Cimmerian, Kolchys, Pergamon ect ect ???^^

[KAM 2150]

I would recommend Pergamon, they are unique nation among Greeks since their main focus is not on hoplites and pikemen or shock cavalry. Their army is made of semi professional troops inspired by Rome and other nations so while they lack elite units in sense of high nobility, their average troops are much better then other average troops. They also have the best javeliners among all Greek states and they have strongest melee cav among those factions.

[FlashHeart07]

I would pick the Arverni. A couple of reasons for this choice.
Interesting starting point with good options of expansion. You start out with enemies to the north east but will also quickly find enemies in the south and Iberia. You have a good mix of units with some pretty decent cav. You also get the chance to fight greeks (Massalia) and eventually the Romans.
As for tactics. I often tend to use the Boars Head formation. I can upload a picture in a few moments of how I set it up.
And finally, I would wait to play any Greek faction for now

[dahooscarl]

I would pick the Arverni. A couple of reasons for this choice.
Interesting starting point with good options of expansion. You start out with enemies to the north east but will also quickly find enemies in the south and Iberia. You have a good mix of units with some pretty decent cav. You also get the chance to fight greeks (Massalia) and eventually the Romans.
As for tactics. I often tend to use the Boars Head formation. I can upload a picture in a few moments of how I set it up.
And finally, I would wait to play any Greek faction for now

Yes indeed! I would love to see your Boars Head formation.

I've never been able to get a good Arverni campaign going (hence the thread) I always get bumrushed by like 4 different enemies at once.

Why wait for a Greek campaign?

Better javeliners than Maedi Peltasts? This I gotta see. I was initially leaning towards Athens or Sparta. Sparta for obvious reasons(it's Sparta) and I've never once played as Athens.

[FlashHeart07]

Yes indeed! I would love to see your Boars Head formation.

I've never been able to get a good Arverni campaign going (hence the thread) I always get bumrushed by like 4 different enemies at once.

Why wait for a Greek campaign?

Better javeliners than Maedi Peltasts? This I gotta see. I was initially leaning towards Athens or Sparta. Sparta for obvious reasons(it's Sparta) and I've never once played as Athens.

You can ofc tweak it till satisfied but this is generally how I use it.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The AI will most likely attack the two infantry units at the tips. If you keep these walking and begin to accelerate the rest of your army. You can get some nice flanking bonuses towards the units attacking your tips (2x Heavy Infantry). Javelins should also move up and get a few volleys after which the medium infantry in the middle will move through and lock in the attacking enemy. If your javelin men are good enough you can actually sacrifice a couple of them and let them recieve the javelins from the enemy infantry. Archers are there to pepper the enemy or take out enemy missile troops behind their lines. The heavy defense infantry (it should say spears but you get the point) is there to intercept any enemy cav that tries to flank you. Move the edges up and around the enemy and watch them crumble.
I have been able to actually break through the enemy's battle lines with the tips of my formation and actually split them in two. Looked nice.

Pergamon as KAM suggested is also a nice one.
Rhodes could also become an option.
I would generally avoid some of the classical greek city states. They are alright just not as fun as the odd ones.

[xC0DEB10C]

Why wait for a Greek campaign?

Oh, why wait for a Greek campaign? Is there a major update planned?

Seriously Flash, he's asked twice and I've been waiting for an answer as well, don't say something and not give a reason.

[FlashHeart07]

Seriously Flash, he's asked twice and I've been waiting for an answer as well, don't say something and not give a reason.

Hold your horses mate. I havent read the replies, until now.
But as I actually wrote in my previous post. Rhodes may become an option... With emphasis on may.
Either way, Pergamon would atm be my choice if I were to start a campaign with a Greek faction.

[dahooscarl]

Seriously Flash, he's asked twice and I've been waiting for an answer as well, don't say something and not give a reason.

Yay! Someone supported me! Eat that Dad! But yeah. For serial, an answer to that question would be great.

Edit. Just read the above post. I was leaning towards Macedon or Pergamon. Trying to knock out some achievements. Won as Rome, Carthage is dragging(own all but two of the required settlements for military victory). I was kind of shocked I've put in over 2k hours total into R2 but wouldn't ever know it from my achievement list.

[philler]

I would pick the Arverni. A couple of reasons for this choice.
Interesting starting point with good options of expansion. You start out with enemies to the north east but will also quickly find enemies in the south and Iberia. You have a good mix of units with some pretty decent cav. You also get the chance to fight greeks (Massalia) and eventually the Romans.
As for tactics. I often tend to use the Boars Head formation. I can upload a picture in a few moments of how I set it up.
And finally, I would wait to play any Greek faction for now

I must support this advice as every single Arverni campaign I played was really enjoying. It is quite hard from the start, before you develop good units (the first technology I research are always army focused), but after that, you have a lot of possibilities. I like to start with Iberia conquest first (after conquering your initial enemies), since it is very rich area and you can get copper and iron very quickly - that enables you to level up armour and weapons to golden levels. After that comes the most funny times with fighting the Rome, that usually had enough time to develop further. From the army standpoint, Arverni has one of the best meelee infantry and with better equipment they are really formidable force. Arverni is also good choice for people, that likes roleplaying (like me) as you can reverse the history and subjugate those roman bastards!!! And as to the culture, eventually there is no more satisfying thing than to spread barbarian culture in Bactria

[godwrote]

ok serious, for a really easy game i would choose greek cimmerians, they have already a whole provence, a lot off money, decent troops and no real penalties. And them are far away from the real big other countries so you can easy develop.

[FlashHeart07]

Why would anyone who just played Carthage and enjoyed a good campaign, want a really easy game?

[godwrote]

Why would anyone who just played Carthage and enjoyed a good campaign, want a really easy game?

Because he didnt asked for a hard and difficult game. He asked which greek faction we would play and why .

[gornoviceanu]

Are you set on Arveni as the Gallic faction? I would recommend Boii, holding Hyercina (spell check :p) and Raetia and Norricum as a seat of power and then proceed to sack Rome, Carthage, Athens etc.

If you prefer Greeks, Massalia is imteresting, you can chose to fight either Romans or Gauls, Germans, Iberians and the starting position is pretty interesting.

[TFCAliarcy]

Epirus is probably one of my favorite Greeks, they have a very difficult start on the lower levels and on the high levels you can die just by having bad luck. They do however have easy access to great core and AoR units such as Mossolian Hounds, Thessalian Cavalry, Agrianian Peltasts, Spartan Hoplites, and Kretan Archers not to mention that they start with a unit of War Elephants that wipe Hoplites from Sparta and Athens to the floor. A few tips for their campaign as their campaign is probably the hardest in the game:
make allies where you can (Illyria, Triballi, Carthage, Makedon, and Thracians can be good allies), DO NOT DISBAND YOUR ELEPHANTS EVER (they will be your only elephants for a long time as it can take up to 100 turns just to take Rome out if you are safe), try to go for Sparta first as your pikemen and elephants make their unwalled settlement easy to take, try to postpone a war with Syracuse or Rome as long as possible but if you do make sure to have some naval units in Allponia, you will likely need 2 armies to attack Rome and you will need this to be a war of attrition, try to get Carthage to go to war with Rome to distract them for a while, and lastly: Do not anger the Asian Greeks as they will attack you if you provoke them, they have not declared war on me but I know that if they do they could do some serious damage and risk a war with the Seleucids. Epirus can be a very fun and challenging campaign and even experienced players can lose if they get a bad hand so try to be safe and good luck.

[dahooscarl]

All great options and advice. Thanks peeps! Looking like a toss up between Arverni or Pergamon.

Oh, why wait for a Greek campaign? Is there a major update planned?

[Irishmafia2020]

I would suggest Athens - they have high survivability in the early game and the possibility to mature into a rich seaborne empire with battle winning marines... If you are really pretty good at the game, then Syracuse would also be a good Greek state to play with - they have Greek and Italian units with some decent cavalry and crossbowmen. The problem with them is that they are between superpowers, but they have a unique roster and you could play the central Mediterranean from a Greek perspective. The Cimmerians have steppe units for flavor, and Massalia has some Celtic units. Pontus is a Hellenic/Eastern faction that can be a lot of fun... Epirus is my favorite Hellenic faction, but I struggle to survive twenty years, so if you are a top player they might seem like an easy choice.

[drillmaster]

Epirus has no cavalry though and its just a pike faction. The Seleucids have better versions in everything, Cav and elephants. But as far as i can tell, you re not looking for a super power

[projectcorner]

Epirus actually has a variety of good cavalry similar to Macedon.

Its unique Molosson Agema is a very elite shock cavalry. According to Europa Barbarorum, they still use xyston and kopis as weapons like other elite cavalry (companions) from successors, but they have lighter horse armor move faster.

In both DeI and vanilla, Epirus has aspis companions, thessalian cavalry and tarantine cavalry. So it actually has almost the best cavalry roster except for horse archers.

[KAM 2150]

Epirues has cavalry on almost equal level to Macedon.