I have completed my go - very much a turn of two halves.
Up to about 210 things went progressively worse. I was basically being too defensive, Bordesholm I took but then mostly ended up concentrating on slowing Greek attacks. The main issue rapidly became that I was running out of money - and then, soon after, that I was running out of money and the Brutii were attacking. Also Porolissum revolted. And Pontus were attacking again.
The Brutii and Julii both in turn offered us deals to become their protectorate. These were bad moves on their part as they involved giving us enough funds to sort our immediate cashflow needs. The army out of Germany was redirected south, swept past the Alps and, with the aid of a spy, rushed into undefended Patavium, capturing it quickly. From then our fortunes were turning; I took Thessalonica, which unfortunately turned out to have almost nobody living there; Byzantium, isolated, soon fell, and from there it was a case of holding the Julii at Patavium, beating Brutii combat armies in the field and then seizing their towns by whatever means possible (spies, lots of spies). We definitely won a lot of field battles, with occasional losses and particularly nasty casualty figures among our leaders. Apollonia was taken after a hard fight through the southern Balkans, with Salona also falling.
In the East, we beat Pontus a lot of times, not much else to say.
The upshot of which is:
OUTSIDE GREECE
- We still need to retake Porolissum, there's an army going south to do that. Also if it has men left removing Thrace is now probably desirable.
- Keep the German frontier calm if you can, they're fighting the Britons hard.
- Similarly, hold the Julii at Patavium, the Brutii should be next focus
- Consider moving the capital to somewhere like Tylis as we shift west.
- Keep the anti-Pontus forces sitting tight, keep them well stocked, and you'll be fine. Don't let the defences get run down over there.
IN GREECE
- We've got the Dalmatian/Croatian coast but we're holding it by a knife-edge and are horribly outnumbered.
- Horse archers, preferably heavy horse archers. And lots and lots of them.
- Don't get bogged down in lengthy sieges - spies or siege weapons
- Double don't get bogged down in combat, they have places that can make Urban Cohorts and you will be stuffed if they catch you.
- Use mercs, particularly Merc Hoplites, as garrison troops
- If you see an opportunity to take a badly defended city, go for it. Even if it involves going for the Brutii holdings in Italy or something.
- The Brutii hold the Peloponnese and southern Italy, plus Thermon; Thermon seems quite solid, though if you can tempt the armies into losing some field battles they can be whittled down. Consider going for Tarentum though, or if you can build some boats eg in Byzantium (which I started doing) an attack on Athens would help spread the Brutii more thinly.
- Get the Brutii to attack you in the field, not vice versa. This is pretty easy in Greece with all the passes and means they're slogging up to you under a hail of arrows.
I'm sending to Bercor, I think?
