Sextus Pompey: Any tips at the start?

[A]

I kinda like an underdog/resistance to the ruling power experience. How should I play out Pompey's campaign? Do I focus on economy for my ports? Military wharfs? I get the sense that not being able to train legionaries at the start means I need to focus on fleet power instead.

I played 12 turns on hard before calling it quits because after I splendidly conquered carthage, Numidia had a huge stack of men marching by turn 12.

[Blazing]

Play very slow. Get 3-4 Trading Ports and the food required to maintain it. Get rid of the Vigiles and Velites. Play very defensive for a lot of turns. Don't engage in war until Mark Antony and Octavian are at war. Once they are and you can maintain at least one full army of Legionaries, "join the war" against Lepidus with anyone that is at war with them (for me Lepidus joined Octavian so I just Join the war'd with one of Mark Antony's city states against Lepidus). This avoids you having to fight Numidia (I had a trade agreement with Numidia the whole time). Numidia may eventually still attack you, but at least you can delay it while you take Africa and strengthen your foothold and economy there. Ideally you want to be able to financially maintain two full armies of legionaries while or before you take Africa (which was doable for me with the Trading Ports).

Also, a full stack of men from Numidia shouldn't be that scary as they tend to just send Levy Spearmen units, which your legionaries should demolish.

[IGX]

No. Just build a military barracks turn one and then after recruiting Legionaries aggressively invade Italy. Have Lepidus and Antony break treaties against Octavian before declaring war. Antony will be occupied with the east and when you have enough momentum you can move against another of the Roman separatists. Keep a small navy defending south Sicily.

[Asterius]

Agree with IGX.

[Dæn]

I won the campain a few years ago. I attacked Marco Antonio first with some Legionaries at Apollonia, then built up there. I don't remember why but Marco Antonio didn't put a strong defence. I recommend to keep some troops on Sicily or a Small navy. I apologise if the comment is grammaticly incorrect, English is not my main Language.

[Welsh Dragon]

Originally posted by A:

I kinda like an underdog/resistance to the ruling power experience. How should I play out Pompey's campaign? Do I focus on economy for my ports? Military wharfs? I get the sense that not being able to train legionaries at the start means I need to focus on fleet power instead.

I played 12 turns on hard before calling it quits because after I splendidly conquered carthage, Numidia had a huge stack of men marching by turn 12.

Not tips exactly, but the excellent (and funny) Derc Plays Through World History AAR did a Pompey campaign as part of the series, so you might get some ideas from seeing how another player did it:

https://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?789730&p=15790917&viewfull=1#post15790917

At worst you'll probably have fun reading it, as Derc is a very entertaining writer in my experience.

Hope that helps.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[A]

Originally posted by Welsh Dragon:

Originally posted by A:

I kinda like an underdog/resistance to the ruling power experience. How should I play out Pompey's campaign? Do I focus on economy for my ports? Military wharfs? I get the sense that not being able to train legionaries at the start means I need to focus on fleet power instead.

I played 12 turns on hard before calling it quits because after I splendidly conquered carthage, Numidia had a huge stack of men marching by turn 12.

Not tips exactly, but the excellent (and funny) Derc Plays Through World History AAR did a Pompey campaign as part of the series, so you might get some ideas from seeing how another player did it:

https://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?789730&p=15790917&viewfull=1#post15790917

At worst you'll probably have fun reading it, as Derc is a very entertaining writer in my experience.

Hope that helps.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

Neat, somehow this reminded me of "A Scotsman in Egypt"

[Herr Cabal]

Doing a Sextus campaign right now, currently have all of Italy and France and all but 2 settlements in the Isles. What I did for my start was focus primarily on econ tech and development in the starting islands, getting my ports and food up (I did research mil enough to get 1st cohorts) and got two-three standing armies, one full stack with cohorts and legionaries plus one supporting half stack cav (using the cav experience buff event to recruit them), and I think a half stack of cheaper inf but I can't remember. I kept my eye on the diplomacy bars for a while, and when Antony and Octavian went to war with Lepidus I kept checking strength ratios. The moment the bars showed significant movement I knew that Octavians armies had probably engaged Lepidus somewhere and chose my moment to march on Italy, taking the southern provinces in a few turns and beating their sole defensive armies in the field outside Rome, leaving it without significant garrison. From Rome into France, and from France into the isles.

Essentially your best bet is to choose your first opponent (I think marching on Carthage and joining the war against Lepidus would have been equally viable, but attacking Antony is very out of the way for your starting position) and wait for them to leave you an opening. If you can get key provinces fast and start denying their food you will severely hinder any chances at them flipping the situation on you as long as you keep your agents scouting and don't walk into any 2v1 3v1 situations.

I also built my navy but they were solely used to prevent Octavian from raiding Sicily and Sardinia, or eventually retaking provinces on the Adriatic.

[A]

Originally posted by Herr Cabal:

Doing a Sextus campaign right now, currently have all of Italy and France and all but 2 settlements in the Isles. What I did for my start was focus primarily on econ tech and development in the starting islands, getting my ports and food up (I did research mil enough to get 1st cohorts) and got two-three standing armies, one full stack with cohorts and legionaries plus one supporting half stack cav (using the cav experience buff event to recruit them), and I think a half stack of cheaper inf but I can't remember. I kept my eye on the diplomacy bars for a while, and when Antony and Octavian went to war with Lepidus I kept checking strength ratios. The moment the bars showed significant movement I knew that Octavians armies had probably engaged Lepidus somewhere and chose my moment to march on Italy, taking the southern provinces in a few turns and beating their sole defensive armies in the field outside Rome, leaving it without significant garrison. From Rome into France, and from France into the isles.

Essentially your best bet is to choose your first opponent (I think marching on Carthage and joining the war against Lepidus would have been equally viable, but attacking Antony is very out of the way for your starting position) and wait for them to leave you an opening. If you can get key provinces fast and start denying their food you will severely hinder any chances at them flipping the situation on you as long as you keep your agents scouting and don't walk into any 2v1 3v1 situations.

I also built my navy but they were solely used to prevent Octavian from raiding Sicily and Sardinia, or eventually retaking provinces on the Adriatic.

So for the first few turns it was just end turns and econ management or did you do any conquering in Italy? I reckon it's just pure econ management just to avoid upkeep and get money faster?

[Herr Cabal]

Originally posted by A:

So for the first few turns it was just end turns and econ management or did you do any conquering in Italy? I reckon it's just pure econ management just to avoid upkeep and get money faster?

Pretty much, I just recruited and built until I was ready and confident enough to march on Cosentia. You start off in prime position to get some good money making ports so once your conquests start you can start raising armies as needed pretty easily. I recommend putting a lot of focus into econ research in particular since you can get into some food trouble early if you try to build too tall too fast, but make sure to get those cohorts researched.

They'll give you everything you need as an infantry force until late game, even in to late game. You don't need a full 20 stack of cohorts, but 3-4 supported by legionaries and velites with vigiles to fill the gaps to keep things affordable makes a very formidable 20 stack that can only really lose if they get caught out by a superior roman force.

Also try to bait their defending armies out of Rome proper and into the region you are invading, you need way more build time to do a proper siege of the city and odds are the AI is going to use that time to extend their starting advantage, if Octavian can secure his fronts before you invade he will have numerical and financial superiority and you'll be in a tricky spot

I should add that I'm not quite an expert at the total war games, this is just something I've learned from trial and error in my current campaign. Any of the above mentioned strats are probably equally valid if not more so.