Macedon in RTW

[Swiss Bezerker]

In rome total war, Macedon has to be the strangest faction ever.

1) Strangly enough, you c'ant play as it. Id rather play as macedon then, say, Parthia.
2)Levy pikemen, even though they are higher in barracks requirement than militia hoplites, Have worse stats. I mean, i know you get alot more units, but its still wierd.
3) even though you cant play as it, it still has a description set for it when you edit the playable nations list.
4) Whenever i play against it, it seems to pull armies out of nowhere. Im playing as schythia, and they have larissa and corinth left. Larissa has minimal troops, and athens and thermon are Brutii. out of nowhere, 2 full sized macedonian armies come out of nowhere full to the brim. With 2 cities, how can you afford unit upkeep costs and keep pumping them out?
5) When played as the computer, they seem to head up and capture illiria. How can they afford to move those troops there?

Any ideas about any of these things?

 

[Commodore]

3) even though you cant play as it, it still has a description set for it when you edit the playable nations list.

I was told that the reason there is a description is because they were originally supposed to be playable, but were cut out from the playable factions list just before release. I agree that Macedon should have been playable and one of the first things I did was make them playable (trying to restore the greatness Alexander's homeland just seems too fun to pass up).

 

[Dell19]

RTR makes them playable I believe.

 

[Takhisis]

I don´t know. When I played the Brutti campaign the Macedonians kept bringing thousadns of levies from nowhere... and they completely overran the Greek Cities except for Rhodes (and Syracuse, which I conquered with the "help" of the Scipii). Somehow a couple of Light Spearmen (or whatever their 7/5 cavalry are called) and some Levy Pikemen can defeat Heavy Hoplites+Spartans...
btw what´s RTR?

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

I've noticed that the Macedonians have no idea what planning or strategy is. I was playing with I think the Greeks, and the next thing you know, out of the blue, they attack me, all the Roman factions, the Dacians and the Thracians. Attacking me at the time was very foolish as I had just finished massing an army for an assault on the Brutii, and I had two full armies just waiting for the fleets to be made. I sent one army to attack Macedon, and sent the other on its original mission: establish a toe hold in Italy (which they did with remarkably few casualties).

 

[Dark Ascendant]

In rome total war, Macedon has to be the strangest faction ever.

2)Levy pikemen, even though they are higher in barracks requirement than militia hoplites, Have worse stats. I mean, i know you get alot more units, but its still wierd.
Any ideas about any of these things?

You do know that there are two different classes of phalanxes, don't you? There's the traditional Greek hoplite, which fights with the spear, and then there's the Macedonian phalangites, who fight with the pike, or sarissa. I think in the unit description, all pike phalanxes are said to have 'very long spears'.

Basically, the traditional 80 men spear hoplites used by the Greeks can have the first 3 ranks fight at once with their spears. The 120 men Macedonian(and Seleucid) phalangites' pikes lets the first 5 ranks fight at once. Phalangites have more men per unit so you can enjoy the extra rank bonus, yet still make a line as wide as a Greek hoplite could. Downside is, yeah, unit stats are weaker than hoplite units are.

I must say, Macedon looks a lot more appetizing than the Greeks. You can argue over hoplites vs phalangites but Macedonians just have the Greeks beat when it comes to cavalry; Light lancers, Macedonians, Companions. Plus, due to the location, you can hire Thracian and Basternae mercs for seige assaults, especially for those stone walls; something all-phalanx-Greece suck at doing. I still like the Seleucid troop roster better, but man, Royal Pikemen, Basternae, Companions, and Cretian Archers

 

[Takhisis]

With Thracian mercs you won´t do anything up a wall, they´ll be thrown off by everything except militia Hoplites.
The Spartans are awesome when fighting on a wall: they can fight with their spears, whereas the pikemen have to fight with their swords. Also, it´s better to starve them out in some cases.

 

[Dark Ascendant]

Macedon doesn't exactly have a choice. Phalanxes without phalanx suck. And Thracians aren't expensive to maintain.

Yeah, Spartans rock at everything they do. The Greeks certainly need them.

 

[Takhisis]

The Heitaroi are the best cavalry after Cataphracts and Cataphract Archers... the Greeks should have a little better cavalry, at least like the Barbarian mercs.

 

[toxicseagull]

go check out some mods, RTR or EB i would say, (rtr- rome total realism, EB - europa barbaroum)

greeatly increase difficulty and playabilty.

 

[Sashie VII]

I still like the Seleucid troop roster better

Who wouldn't? Companions, elephants, Silver shield pikes n legionnaires, man they've got it all!

 

[Swiss Bezerker]

Their troops are quite missmatched though. Elephants and cavalry are very fast, while hoplites are slow. And with elephants, chariots are pretty useless for what i use them for most: getting rid of light infantry, which elephants already do.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Technically speaking, Levy pikemen or phalanxes are less skilled as they are Levy troops (Levying is a form of conscription), and the levied men are generally just simple townsfolk or farmers who are called up in a time of need to serve their country. They are by no means a professional army. Levying troops quickly increases the size or your army (in this case unit) but you generally get jipped on the training aspect of things.

They are however more trained than conscripted troops who are basically handed a pike, shield, helmet and armor and sent to the field with little or no training.

The definition posted by dictionary.com is: To draft into military service.

 

[Takhisis]

They are however more trained than conscripted troops who are basically handed a pike, shield, helmet and armor and sent to the field with little or no training.

who are more trained, etc. etc.?

Anyway, the Seleucid troop rooster is good, but somehow the Egyptians, with relatively poor cvalry, and no elephants run them into the gorund ALWAYS!

 

[Dark Ascendant]

The late Seleucid roster is good.

Early, it's ****; except for the chariot.

 

[toxicseagull]

depending on your version, the egyptians get some highly unfair bonus's that virtually every mod has nerfed.their basic axemen cav got a awesome bonus agasint armour (same with the footmen) etc, plus selicuid's are faced on all sides with opposition, like armeinian catapracts/parthia/pontus etc.

 

[Sashie VII]

depending on your version, the egyptians get some highly unfair bonus's that virtually every mod has nerfed.their basic axemen cav got a awesome bonus agasint armour (same with the footmen) etc, plus selicuid's are faced on all sides with opposition, like armeinian catapracts/parthia/pontus etc.

Yeah, somehow everybody just loves their land.

Just like Macedon

 

[Takhisis]

Yeah, why do the axemen in general have bonus against heavily armored units?

 

[Dreadnought]

In rome total war, Macedon has to be the strangest faction ever

2)Levy pikemen, even though they are higher in barracks requirement than militia hoplites, Have worse stats. I mean, i know you get alot more units, but its still wierd.

You know what "Levy" means, right? It means drafted. I won't want a good citizen unit.

 

[Swiss Bezerker]

You know what militia means? it means they fight in their spare time. Just should be worse.