Opening Moves – Pontus

By Adder.

Pontus is a non-playable faction. If you wish to play as Pontus download the Fixed Factions Mod. This tutorial was written while playing on Very Hard/Very Hard, it applies to all difficulty levels, however.

Pontus is a very difficult faction to play. While playing as Pontus your enemies are the deciding factor in what you end up doing and how you play the civilization.

Pontus has a pretty simple first turn. You’ll want to build a Shrine of your choice in Sinope and Mazaka. You will also want to train a Peasant garrison in both of these cities. Gather the all your military units and move them towards Ancyra to the West. You may need to adjust taxes slightly in Sinope. Move your Spy towards Ancyra as well. Your diplomat should head North to the Armenians, an alliance would be very helpful to start off the game. That’s it for turn one!

Now you’ll want to build Roads in both your cities. Continue to move all the units you started to move in turn one. None of them are where they need to be yet. Readjust the taxes in Sinope and your turn is finished.

Continue to move all your units. One unit should reach Ancyra, you will not be able to attack though as the enemy highly outnumber you. The next unit will arrive on your next turn. That’s it for this turn.

Group your units near the city and assault it. The battle should be a very easy win. Occupy the settlement. You don’t have enough money to build/train anything. Your turn is over.

At this point you should be able to ally yourself with the Armenians. Now you should train a unit of Peasants in Ancyra and build a Shrine of choice. You’re all done for that turn.

This is where it gets really tough on very hard/very hard. On easier levels just continue to capture Asia Minor with your existing force and everything will be fine. After capturing Asia Minor (Including Parsus), you’ll want to attack Armenia and then move south attacking Parthia, Selucia (If they’re still around) and Egypt. On very hard/very hard chances are Armenia will break it’s alliance with you and attack either Sinope or Mazaka. You really have to wing it as I cannot figure out rhyme or reason to the AI’s moves at this point in the game. I advise keep trying to make friends with them, sometimes you’ll have luck and sometimes you won’t. Good luck fighting them off and bring glory to Pontus!