Pontus Campaign

[Rob003]

Hey All,

Started a campaign as Pontus to test out 1.2.
Just on M/M with Reduced Upkeep and No PO negative from garrison sub mods.

Really enjoy the new build, battles are especially awesome.

I've never played as Pontus before so wasn't sure what to expect from their roster.

I fought wars with Galatia, Armenia and Seleucid. I've defeated them all and now I have a decent sized faction, 15 or 16 regions. I found my roster fairly well suited to fighting all 3 factions. I've gotten Thureos reforms now as well. Appears they have a roster heavily based on pike units and some heavy infantry.

However, now I've been pulled into a war with Partha and Parsa? Something like that, anyway they both make use of a lot of cavalry. Archer cav and shock\heavy.

As Pontus how do I best counter them? I feel like my heavy pikes and hoplites will get ripped by the ranged cav. Should I use a lot of thureos and archers?

Any advice will be helpful. Any spear unit I feel will be an easy counter for the non-ranged cav.

I have some cav options as well but they seem rather expensive to field a lot of them.

Thanks,

[hippacrocafish]

Hoo boy, Pontus is rough, but I sure do love their faction's whole aesthetic (the fact that they have unique voice lines is a plus too). I've attempted it a few times and I'm in the middle of a decently enjoyable campaign ATM, so here's my tips:

-DO NOT build a barracks in Amaseia. I know it's tempting but your economy will suffer and public order will get out of control, build a temple that gives PO and conversion at least (I usually built a temple to Ares to help with defense).
-Build the tier 2 town building to get Phyrigian axemen and the unique pikemen (whose name I can't currently remember) these are the best, cheap-ish units you can afford with your pitiful income at the start. Pontic archers are deceptively useful especially against the Galatians. Phrygian (?) horsemen are really terrible, but some cavalry is better than none. As Pontus, your army is going to be like 80% AOR units at first. I don't recommend using levy hoplites in place of the pikemen, the pikes have unusually high attack and can shred other infantry in the right circumstances.
-Defeat Trapezos, then Sinope ASAP. You get a good food surplus from Trapezos and wood/income from Sinope. Taking Nicomedia is a little trickier, but Bithynia is usually getting their ass kicked by several neighbors so you may be able to take advantage of that.
-Try to make friends with the Bosporan Kingdom. Attacking Trapezos should help, but you really do not want to go to war with them in the early game because their economy is massive and taking Pantikapaion is a nightmare when you can only afford 1 army stack and no navy.
-Taking Galtia et Cappadocia is a good option. Use Pontic archers (very cheap + decent stats) to shred their lightly armored units, but watch out for the Tolistobogii Spearmen they love to spam (16 armor!). Pikes should be able to take those guys with a bit of help.
-Try not to anger Armenia or the Seleucids.

That's about the best advice I can give on Pontus.

EDIT: This was more general advice for anyone, not really directed at OP. Sorry if that was confusing.

[Augustusng]

As far as countering horse archers, slingers are the way to go. Your hoplites will be fine, as their armor is heavy enough to withstand a few arrows.

[Dresden]

Also, a little tease, you may be excited to see something for this faction in the upcoming hellenic overhaul

[Little Legionaire]

Also, a little tease, you may be excited to see something for this faction in the upcoming hellenic overhaul

It was my favourite faction from old EB times and would gladly go back to the Anatolian turmoil. Fingers crossed for surprises

[eaenidu]

Slingers Don't seem that Good as they always hit my hoplites in the back of the head, Archers always seem to work better and cost less Friendly Fire.

[Augustusng]

I've never had issues with friendly fire; of course I put a little space in between my main line and the slingers. The advantage of slingers is that they have longer range than archers and do AP damage.

[eaenidu]

Slingers and the Crossbows always my other units in the back unless I put them far enough back that their range doesn't matter in the end and most slingers have the same range as archers, IDK about pontus haven't played it yet in 1.2 but I always thought their heavy archers were just flat better.

[RollingWave]

No, the real key to deal with eastern army is actually this:

DO NOT build any Hoplite / Pikemen in the army, ZERO.

Instead, make sure all your line infantry are Theuroes Spears that have JAVELIN.

First, Theuroes are much better against arrows than Pikemen, next is that their javelin is slightly beyond the range of when most skirmish cavalry start to back off. so the combination of their Javelin + your range units (slinger is ok, but really any is fine. I prefer to have at least one archer with fire arrow. and two ballista so I can force them into the fight. and take down cities fast.) is enough to devastate them. While they're not quiet as strong in the melee against cavs, they will easily crush any light cavalry and because you soften them up already with javelin and they can move around fast to help each other, they usually do fine against heavy cav as well, it's not like a cataphract is going to just run over a unit strait up. they will last quite a while. you may think two rounds of javelin don't matter, but when it comes from 12 units it sure as heck matter, two unit of these guys with their javelin alone should rout light horse archers (especially with a little help from behind them.) and do a significant number on heavier cav as well.

The weakness of this lineup is actually against heavy infantry, of which the east offer little.

So composition is something like

1 general
2 cavalry (probably javelin medium type.)
2 ballista
3 range units
12 Thureos spear.

After you defeat the east and need to start tackling more western armies (Hellenic / Roman / Non Nomad Barbarians ) disband most of the spearmen (maybe leave two as flank guards) and make your line infantry the best pikemen you can build.

[eaenidu]

For facing the west as pontus isn't something like General, 6 Pike/Hoplite, 5 Thureos/Thorax, 4 Range, 2, Artillery and 2 Cav a good build, I've been messing around with pontus since reading this thread and that seems to work on the west best for me out of what I've tried.

[mercenary715]

Pontus ended up being my first big campaign on 1.2 (playing H/M). I was able to secure most of asia minor without much struggle. Where I ran into issues was when the Seleucids were defeated and all the Eastern factions came after me at once. I launched an offensive (4 full stacks) into Media Atropakan (or however its spelled) but Takashila and parthia came to their aid with half a dozen armies. That combined with low regional supplies and not being able to replenish doomed my offensive. One of the cities in Media that I captured came with two building slots with slums in them which did a number on my food production. For some reason, even after my armies were wiped out, my economy had tanked and I couldnt afford to rebuild the armies I had lost. Rome and Sparta declared war on me from the west and thats where that campaign sits right now....I think im gonna lose.

[Rob003]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I don't think Pontus has slingers? Or maybe I've just over-looked them, I remember only javelins and archers.

Nevertheless, I've added a lot more thuroes spears (not hoplite ones) and foot archers. I've engaged one army so far but it turned out not to have many cav units, mostly light and medium infantry so I wasted them!

Have a major battle coming up, the next army has at least 7 cav units, some archer, some skirmisher, I'll see how that pans out.

As a side note, I made some allies from minor eastern factions and they are helping me a lot. On my eastern Flank pushing into Iran, they are along the northern and southern borders of my empire. So putting the squeeze on Partha, just pumped 4.5 stacks into the Center so I'll soon crush them, muahah.


@Dresden - Oh wow! Didn't know Pontus was included in the Greek overhaul being an Eastern Empire faction. Look forward to it.

[eaenidu]

Hey Quick Question posting it here since it's about Pontus, Do the Thorax Pikemen's Shields give them better defense against Range Compared to the smaller Bronze Shield Pikemen's Shields? Like would it be better to bring the thorax if I have to deal with some range Compared to the Bronze Shield?