Is Macedonia really a good starting nation?

[AFnord]

I read the "Which country? A Guide to choosing your faction" sticky, and in it it says that Macedonia is supposed to be a good beginners nation. The strategy guide (found in the FAQ forum) also mentions Macedonia as a good starting point.

The problem is, and I don't know if things have been changed, or if I'm just doing something seriously wrong, you start at a war against a militarily superior nation. First game started with me going on the offense, trying to grab the first province that I could. Suddenly a 21 unit strong army comes slamming down into my army, killing thousands of soldiers, and then taking most of my provinces. Fair enough, I start a new game, producing soldiers and backs my big army one province, to get the defensive bonus from the river, and also some extra time. This big 21-unit stack still comes slamming down into my army, and pushes it aside as if it was nothing, again taking most of Macedonia in the process.

So what am I doing wrong here? My army is not leaderless, in fact it has the best leader it can have, and yet Macedonia seem to be incapable of standing up to this killer stack. I've tried to pick both military civic upgrades (heavy infantry & cavalry), the enemy stack consists in large of heavy infantry, so I've tried to build plenty of archers & horse archers (plus heavy infantry), but I still can't stand up to this force.

 

[Camara]

Yeah, things have changed. Now Macedonia starts at war against a big Tylis, before Tylis was a minor so Macedonia was free to take over any neighbour at your will.

I suggest to restart until you defeat Tylis, then you get some provinces and you get back to Best Macedonia

 

[Milo]

Like Camara says, Tylis has been beefed up since those guides were written. What I do is take advantage of the fact that Tylis has no navy: split off some one units stacks right at the start and load them into your ships. When the huge enemy stack invades your territory land your troops in their coastal provinces and siege them. If the enemy stack turns back to attack your stacks just move them back onto the ships and restart the siege when the enemy goes away. You can also send single cavalry units to siege the inland provinces as they can move faster than the infantry in the Tylis army and can always escape if the enemy moves towards them.

You can move your main army onto Euboea for safety and if the AI tries to attack it just move a ship into the sea zone between Argos and Euboea to stop them crossing. If you can tempt the AI stack onto Euboea while you have no troops there you can move in a ship to stop them ever getting back out while you take all their provinces and retake your own.

You may also find that the AI does weird things like marching off into barbarian territory instead of breaking your sieges - I've seen it do it a few times. But mainly use the fact that it's faster getting on and off ships than it is marching between provinces and that the AI is too dim to split its big stack into smaller ones to chase your cavalry down to siege every province that the AI isn't actually in.

 

[Cheexsta]

As above, Tylis has been hugely beefed up since those guides were written. If you're still looking for an easy monarchy, then it looks like the Seleucids or Egypt will be the easiest ones to play. Everyone else is simply threatened too much by other large neighbours (Numidia, Pontus, Sparta, etc) to be considered "easy" for beginners.

And yeah, the advice given above for defeating Tylis is pretty sound. Follow that if you still want to try Macedonia

 

[icon41gimp]

You can usually take Rome into dictatorship within the first 3 consuls if you want as well. I think it makes the game waaaaay too easy though.

 

[AFnord]

Thanks everyone! I think I'll try Egypt or Selucids then, and give Macedonia a try once I feel more comfortable with the game.

 

[Lofman]

It is also possible to take advantage of the fact that it is possible to start at any date and just start a few years later, after the war with Tylis. The situation outside of Greece will not have changed that much (Rome will start in a slightly better position as will Egypt, while the Seleucids are slightly weaker) so it should be quite similar to what Macedonia was before Tylis was buffed.

 

[AFnord]

Ah, good idea! I'll try that now.