GREEK MOD strategy question

Okay,

So I've been playing CIV4 for awhile now and have just now started appreciating the true depth of this game. It's the BEST. GAME. EVER.

I've completed the Greek Mod about ten times and keep getting my @$$ handed to me! I'm playing on the Noble difficulty level and do fairly well at defending against the waves of barbarian archers, axemen and swordsmen. But I'm obviously missing some key strategy element because Cyrus comes out ahead in each game. I actually went to the library this week and checked out a few books on Greek history to see if there's a political angle I've missed.

Also, I've attempted multiple strategies, including attacking Pericles early in the game to capture the southern penninsula, building out toward the North, East and West (in which Ceasar and I get into a protracted military campaign). Any recommendations?

I assume you're Alexander. Based off this...
Do your normal strategy. Declare on Pericles once you're strong enough, then destroy him. Grab all the lands to the east (the barb cities). The main barbs attack in the west. Find the outskirts of your culture, then build Forts on hills and in forests. Put Longbows on these forts. Caesar can be ignored until he conquers Dido. If that happens, grab Hatty's land as a buffer, then create a massive force to invade Persia. Once that's over with, you'll have enough land for a Domination.

Thanks,

I'm on it!

Long time stalker, long time Civ player, first post!

Just bumping this trend to see if we can come up with something more specific for a Greek strategy for this scenario. It seems to me that things aren't quite as simple as presented here. I've been playing the scenario on Monarch difficulty, and I've lost four times, each one differently.

I started each game by destroying Pericles as soon as possible with my initial forces. In the meantime, I founded my first two cities in Macedonia (Northwest of the Eagean sea) and proceeded to chop forests to accelerate two granaries (for whip value). I ended my opening by taking Byzantium easily.

This is where things tend to get real, because there are great decisions to make. By going East, you can conquer many barbarian cities, and I did it in the first two games. However, the value of those cities was so desperately low that I ended up with a score 300 points under the Persians, even after fending off the barbarians (and that wasn't that easy, because I was also fighting the Romans in the West). It seems that the Persians basically beat this strat just with their initial tempo (which is by far the most impressive of all the civs of this scenario).

So the third time, I tried to go for the Romans first. It's easy enough to destroy the Romans after your initial expansion either by pushing North or (if you like boats, like me ) with a carefully planned expeditionary force directly form Greece to Italy. Even if the Preatorians are a nuisance, they never seem to have enough of them.

The Romans are an easy target. To GFTW after wreaking them should be a formality, as all the those civs are just too puny to prevent you from steamrolling them. It should be easy... but it's not.

The thing is you don't have neither the time nor the ressources to makes these war happens, or at least, I was never able to concretely capitalize after killing the Romans. Each time, as my score skyrocketed from those conquests, the Persians ended up declaring war with about 70 turns left to the game.

And boy, what a war.

You know, thow kind of wars that you get from the AI when you let them capitalize on their initial buffs. Too. Many. Units. Stack of Doom after stack of Doom of war elephants and mounted archers, with the occasional infantry. The first time, I played my military game badly and I lost utterly. The second time, I really had this "300" feel when my 8 phalanxes and 3 axemen held Aegea by themselves against approximately 200 Persian units (thanks to a favored position, city walls, Surgeon skill for everybody and of course +100% against mounted units for the phalanxes). I shrugged about 15 turns of relentless AI assault on my Aegea/Miletos honeypots, until I was finally able to mount a counter-attack... just to see that longbowmen had filled their cities, making them basically impossible to conquer without an extreme commitment. I ended up short of 200 points and lost again, but I wasn't "winning" either, as the tempo was still in the Persians favor.

Note that the barbarian assaults are very serious on Monarch level and you must protect adequately your cities. This makes settling France and Germany extremely risky, because they are hard to defend even in middle game. Also, the cost for settlers is higher (Edit: not sure, I'll check this tonight) in this scenario, making conquest of already built cities far more valuable IMO that settling new ones.

That being said, there must be something I'm doing awfully wrong. Have you encountered the same situation with the Greeks? How do you beat the Persians with them? Any strategy to suggest? I'm still playing this scenario btw, so I'll post it if I find my own solution.

Thanks!

A settler costs 200 hammers in this mod. Pretty much invalidates any settler REX strategy. It seems far more valuable to invest in military units and conquer cities instead of founding them (as you are going to need lots of units to defend your border cities anyway).

Holy mother of necro, batman!