Syracuse, Grand Campaign

[Fareoem]

Does anyone have any tips or strategies for getting the campaign rolling toward success? Carthage is pretty challenging to take on with its ally in Libya and fairly large navy. Rome is kind of useless for an ally and even worse neutral. Like it was in history, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Goal is to complete each bonus and primary objective as the game goes on.

[Alwyn]

Yes, Syracuse has a challenging start!

In my Syracuse campaign, I looked around for a smaller faction to take over. I also wanted to create a client state early on. As you said, north was Rome and south was Carthage (and African states, where my armies would suffer desert attrition). That left east and west. I chose to go east, thinking that my Hellenic roster would be better against factions in Illyria, Hellas and Macedonia than against Iberians.

My first move was to capture Iader and Delminium in northern Illyria (while keeping just enough troops in my capital to discourage either Rome or Carthage from taking it). I turtled for a while, building temples to convert Illyria to my Greek culture and staying out of the way of wars as much as possible. Then, I turned the Ardiaei into a client state, taking the opportunity that they'd sent their main army to attack an enemy. That gave me a safe border, an ally and a source of levy axemen units which would were useful for expansion into Hellas and Macedonia (axemen can be useful against the heavy spear units which Hellenic states tend to rely on). After that, my campaign was rolling in the direction I wanted.

Good luck in your campaign, I'd be interested to hear which strategy you use and how you get on.

[Fareoem]

Update: My campaign so far was slow to start. I focused on building an army to deter any surprise attacks while I sent my navy on a tour of the Mediterranean in search of opening up trade routes. About the time my navy had returned from the Western Mediterranean (sailed to the East first) Rome had gotten the upper hand on Carthage and was stomping through Sicily. Carthage managed to oust them from Lilybaem but lost Karalis. Rome is well on its way to an empire.

I built up my infrastructure to support a farming/trade economy. Snagging Lilybaem from Carthage while Rome recoiled from navy allowed me to expand into a barracks and military port. My economy continues to remain strong, Rome has left Sicily alone, Carthage is trying to mount some kind of defense (Nova Carthego had been ousted from everywhere except a single town in North Africa and is no longer a subject of Carthage). I built my own network of defensive alliances with Knossos, Rhodes, Massilia, and have a military alliance with Cyrenaica.

Currently I face war with Carthage/Libya and Egypt, so future moves will be interesting. I'll keep updates going if anyone is interested.

[MANWHATADONGA]

Yes i am.I play with a mod that gives Carthage all of thoes provances .

[Fareoem]

Update #2: Carthage is no more. Libya was pushed into the desert and requested to become my client state while Rome occupies the majority of the former empire. I retained Lepis and eastern parts of the Libyan desert. Egypt accepted a peace deal as the Selucids have pushed them back to Alexandria. Rome requested a defensive alliance and offered some talents of silver (about 1k) to sweeten their offer. Currently my armies are positioned in the Libyan desert to drive the barbarians out as they declared war on Rome.

Syracuse's immediate future is secure however with Rome's expansion I'm not sure how long it will last. The republic has transitioned to a dictatorship? and the masses are starving. I have noticed a few things however, it seems enemy armies do not suffer attrition from food shortages while force marching in hostile territory. Same applies to navies at sea with their double speed stance.

[Alwyn]

Building a network of trade and military alliances sounds like a good strategy - and playdead222's ideas sound good (and I think you're right, playdead222, that conflict with Rome is inevitable for Syracuse, even if you side with Rome against Carthage).

Good luck in your war with Carthage/Libya and Egypt! If you enjoy reporting on a campaign, you might want to consider writing an After Action Report, they can be posted in the Writers' Study - https://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?1353-The-Writers-Study. (Writing an AAR can be done in the style of a novel, but it can simply be a campaign report - and anyway when you mentioned the dictatorship and starving masses of Rome, that line sounded evocative.)

[Texan214]

Kind of how I feel playing Rhodos 45 turns in. North and east are all selucid clients or selucid itself. South and cyprus are Egypt... West is a strong and expanding Sparta/Athens alliance that has all of greece now. Macedon and Tylis has been wiped out by Odrysian Kingdom and so has my only ally Pergamon on the Anatolian pennisula. My only ally left is Knossos. I may just restart. Everywhere I look is aegean world war and little Rhodos getting wiped out. I do have tons of non aggression and trading pacts though, so I'm sort of a neutral trade island right now. Nobody loves me, nobody really hates me. But just clicking end turn isn't much fun.