posted 24 January 2013 16:11 EDT (US)
I usually find the guides to first turns rather interesting and helpful (altgough they are often rather defensive) and found adders guide to greeces opening moves a good one. However, I tried playing as the greek cities myself and found adders description rather defensive. I did this playing on the very hard difficulty so it should be possible for everyone.
I will here lists tips and thoughts where i differed in view to Adder:
1. Sicily:
You dont have to lose Syracuse! (saying this without any intent of bragging, you have to be a rather capable general for my strategy to work). I didn't build any new troops or any buildings because I followed Adders manual. When Scipii attacked I didn't have the time to move my troops so i decided to march out and take them on. I smashed Scipii totaly and killed everyone except his general (4x80 hastati, 80 roman archers and 80 velites) and only took 27 casualties (In the end I include a quick recap of my strategy against Scipii). Having done this i Marched on Messana and captured it the next turn. I now started buildning up Syracuse and Messana and started producing hoplites in Syracuse to create an army that could take out Lilybaum and defend Sicily! This gives you great money and really keeps Scipii down.
2. Mainland Greece and conquering Macedon quickly:
Rush your troops from Thermon to Athens from the beginning so that you can use your forces from Sparta which have conquered Corith for assaulting Larssa directly. Your troops from Rhodes should directly hop on your boats and join the forces from thermon in taking Athens. This force can then be divided into one part which will run up to Apollonia to take it before Brutii. The other will join your victorius forces from Larissa to take on Thessaonica. The forces that have taken Appolonia might have to defend against an invading Brutii force and will probabely need help from all units you have managed to build in your greek cities (which should be loads
). The army that took Thessalonica will need a bit of reinforcements from the south and can then finish the macedon job by taking Byzalora. Finaly your enemy i down!
3. Using your fleets to keep brutii from landning in Greece to fast!
This is very important if you want to be able to use your land forces to conquer macedon. Build ships as soon as you can in Syracuse, Thermon, Corinth and Sparta and send your fleet from Rhodes to attack any brutii navy you can find. If you plan it well you might even be able to sink his boats with his army on them!!! This is just an awesome way of killing a dangerous army
4. Planing for the future:
I find that going directly for Italy is rather difficult because all the Roman factions will throw anything they can at you if you land in Italy. Instead I wait and build myself up by building a strong fleet to knock out Brutiis and Scipiis attempts to land armies to fight you. You also want to expand south and east. I recommend taking crete, halicarnasus, nicomedia and other rebel settlements to start with so that you don't risk any unnecessary wars. Then there are some options. I like to keep from fighting the egyptians for a wile even though the nile is a great place for economic growth. Instead i focus on easy coastal settlements to maximze your profits (holdning rhodes gives you 40% extra on sea trade) before finally going for Italy and Rome herself!
Quick guide to my victory against Scipii:
Tho odds given where 3:2 in Scipiis favour which really isn't to bad. I realized that Scipii with Hastati would easily take out my militia hoplites in a heads on fight so I had to eaven out the odds a bit. Having almost exactly the same troops as Scipii (2 hoplites, 2 militia hoplites, 1 archer, 1 peltasts and one General) I came up with the solution that i had to make my ranged units win against his so that I could force him to come to me making his hastati have to charge my hoplites which would give them the edge. Standing on my walls seems like the obvious choice but I didn't think scipii would stay in range long for such a fight. So i decided to move all my troops to the right exit out of syracuse and get them up the hill outside so that I had the higher ground and could fire on his archers whn they were out of range which made Scipii move them forward and i responded with my peltasts to try to lure out his veltes. I then ran down his Velites with my General and scared away his archers. I now focused my fire on his Hastati which moved forward and got heavily pepperd by my ranged units. By moving my middle units back (my militia hopplites) I created a hole in my line which locked in his Hastati making it easier for my genral to charge in their backs and giving my ranged units better angels to work with. When I started his Hastati chain rout his general and remainig archers started running away and I managed to chase down his archers.
Good luck, and please comment with alternative strategies or other stuff
I will here lists tips and thoughts where i differed in view to Adder:
1. Sicily:
You dont have to lose Syracuse! (saying this without any intent of bragging, you have to be a rather capable general for my strategy to work). I didn't build any new troops or any buildings because I followed Adders manual. When Scipii attacked I didn't have the time to move my troops so i decided to march out and take them on. I smashed Scipii totaly and killed everyone except his general (4x80 hastati, 80 roman archers and 80 velites) and only took 27 casualties (In the end I include a quick recap of my strategy against Scipii). Having done this i Marched on Messana and captured it the next turn. I now started buildning up Syracuse and Messana and started producing hoplites in Syracuse to create an army that could take out Lilybaum and defend Sicily! This gives you great money and really keeps Scipii down.
2. Mainland Greece and conquering Macedon quickly:
Rush your troops from Thermon to Athens from the beginning so that you can use your forces from Sparta which have conquered Corith for assaulting Larssa directly. Your troops from Rhodes should directly hop on your boats and join the forces from thermon in taking Athens. This force can then be divided into one part which will run up to Apollonia to take it before Brutii. The other will join your victorius forces from Larissa to take on Thessaonica. The forces that have taken Appolonia might have to defend against an invading Brutii force and will probabely need help from all units you have managed to build in your greek cities (which should be loads
). The army that took Thessalonica will need a bit of reinforcements from the south and can then finish the macedon job by taking Byzalora. Finaly your enemy i down!3. Using your fleets to keep brutii from landning in Greece to fast!
This is very important if you want to be able to use your land forces to conquer macedon. Build ships as soon as you can in Syracuse, Thermon, Corinth and Sparta and send your fleet from Rhodes to attack any brutii navy you can find. If you plan it well you might even be able to sink his boats with his army on them!!! This is just an awesome way of killing a dangerous army
4. Planing for the future:
I find that going directly for Italy is rather difficult because all the Roman factions will throw anything they can at you if you land in Italy. Instead I wait and build myself up by building a strong fleet to knock out Brutiis and Scipiis attempts to land armies to fight you. You also want to expand south and east. I recommend taking crete, halicarnasus, nicomedia and other rebel settlements to start with so that you don't risk any unnecessary wars. Then there are some options. I like to keep from fighting the egyptians for a wile even though the nile is a great place for economic growth. Instead i focus on easy coastal settlements to maximze your profits (holdning rhodes gives you 40% extra on sea trade) before finally going for Italy and Rome herself!
Quick guide to my victory against Scipii:
Tho odds given where 3:2 in Scipiis favour which really isn't to bad. I realized that Scipii with Hastati would easily take out my militia hoplites in a heads on fight so I had to eaven out the odds a bit. Having almost exactly the same troops as Scipii (2 hoplites, 2 militia hoplites, 1 archer, 1 peltasts and one General) I came up with the solution that i had to make my ranged units win against his so that I could force him to come to me making his hastati have to charge my hoplites which would give them the edge. Standing on my walls seems like the obvious choice but I didn't think scipii would stay in range long for such a fight. So i decided to move all my troops to the right exit out of syracuse and get them up the hill outside so that I had the higher ground and could fire on his archers whn they were out of range which made Scipii move them forward and i responded with my peltasts to try to lure out his veltes. I then ran down his Velites with my General and scared away his archers. I now focused my fire on his Hastati which moved forward and got heavily pepperd by my ranged units. By moving my middle units back (my militia hopplites) I created a hole in my line which locked in his Hastati making it easier for my genral to charge in their backs and giving my ranged units better angels to work with. When I started his Hastati chain rout his general and remainig archers started running away and I managed to chase down his archers.
Good luck, and please comment with alternative strategies or other stuff
