Well here it is, as decided it will be:
So what do we have, well first we have three provinces, Epirus as well as the cities of Megale Hellas. Threatened by the Romans the Tarentines invited our great king to come to their aid, but more about that later. We produce grain and wood, the wood comes from Croton and other cities at the toe, which actually can have two trade routes. So for trade, should we do some internal trade, or try to have all provinces conduct external trade which is much more profitable, and if so, what trade goods should we attempt to get our hands on first?
Here we see that we are a Federal Monarchy, and that by having one economic, one civic and one religious idea we can get +25% in tribute income. However we might wish to have a military idea (there are five available, but I feel Professional Soldiers is the most appropriate choice of them. The others are Horse Lords (better cavalry), Martial Ethos (better morale), Naval Ethos (as Martial but for our navy) and Tribal Recruitment (better reinforcement speed)).
Economic ideas available are Organized Recruitment and Naval Blockades. Civic ideas are Civic Duty (our cities will withstand sieges better), Citizenship, Diplomacy and Duplicity. As for Religious there is Deification (more popular ruler) and National Faith (more powerful omens).
My suggestion is Professional Soldiers, Civic Duty and Deification, which will not give us the 25% increase in tribute income.
Our government and available laws, don't mind the lack of a Prytanis, appearantly we don't have anyone old enough (that was not assigned to some other job) yet, but when we do one will be assigned. My suggestion is simple, Use Pike Phalanx and Discourage Piracy. The first for the fact we should probably already have it, the other since enacting it gives a nice +1 in stability. There is still the matter of which Citizenship law (they are mutually exclusive; service improves our army while sale improves income, both have a minor effect on how many freemen becomes citizens, more with sale less with service) and wether or not we should go with this Omen Law (increases power, reduces chance) or wait until we fail one omen and take the other one (increases chance, reduces power).
This is Italy. We are as you are all aware of at war with Rome. And their Etruscan and Massilian allies. Pyrrhus stands with a 16,000 men strong army of heavy infantry, archers, cavalry and elephants near Taras. Back home 11,000 militia (some are archers) wait for whatever we decide to use them for. Our navy of 150 triremes (well actually 15 in game, but that number do sounds too small considering it can transport 15,000 men across the sea) under the command of Hieron is at the moment in Epirus.
Rome have an army of roughly 17,000 in Rome, both heavy infantry and archers, if I recall correctly but no navy. They have the capability to raise more armies. Their allies are of little concern as they lack heavy infantry.
The Lucanians and Samnites may pay tribute to Rome, but while they are unlikely to do anything despite how grand our victories may be, military access could theoretically be negotiated (remember Rome already have that ability as they receive tribute from them) or we could just "liberate" them from Roman oppression.
Sicily is nearby, and Syracuse may be threatened by Carthage. We could either try to get an alliance with Syracuse or just guarantee them to make sure Sicily does not fall to the Carthaginians.
So any ideas for goals of our initial war? Any brilliant strategies we should try? Also how should we respond to alliance offers from the Leagues and other powers in Hellas?