How to play Epirus

[Dread]

I haven't played since September and coming back to the game has been a struggle. I played a few games of singleplayer as Epirus and one multiplayer game as Epirus. I've been losing every time. Thing is, when this game first came out. Epirus was actually fun to play. I was able to conquer Rome as Epirus and it wasn't impossible. Did it later again back when mana was removed but now it's nearly impossible. With the new levy/legion system, Epirus is very underpowered. Epirus has in theory a strong starting position and before this new system it was true.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1726361566
(first pic is when mana was still in the game 2019)
https://imgur.com/wOhZ8Td

In the second pic I have an army of 30k with 13k reserves. I didn't even push north or into Greece, hell not even into Magna Graecia. I was basically soloing Macedon. Now Epirus is limited to ~5k starting, with Pyyrhus martial, it's enough to take out Korkya, Apollina and Taulantia and expand north but against anyone with a decent size( Rome or Macedon) it's near impossible now. The size difference just makes being a minor unrewarding.

Now, Pyrrhus for some reason also isn't being offered a bride or the option to help Syracusae and start in Sicily as a base of operations. Alliances are useless any greek or Italian minor is too small to actually do anything, nullifying a large part of the Italian ambition mission tree. Royal marriage and Greek mission tree can help you get a major alliance with someone(I go for Egypt-but unreliable). Thing is, my main point is that I used to solo and not rely on major nations doing all the heavy work. How to beat Macedon and/or Rome.

So any tips and advice would be much appreciated.

[Lymmdan]

I've just had the same complaint. The new mechanics work great, I'm sure, for larger nations. But trying to forge anything yourself as a smaller nation is next to impossible now. The Ai constantly ally themselves with nations far larger than themselves too meaning tht attempting to take on smaller neighbours first before moving on to bigger nations is impossible too.

[Gunteraz]

Epirus is in a really really rough spot right now. In most games AI Epirus gets annexed by Korkyra/Apollonia 9 times out of 10.

[Archer, Emissary of the Gorganit]

i believe i can help you

i play as epirus about 99.9% of the time (Pyrrhus fanboi) and i agree with your overall assesment that epirus is in a rough state of play, but Epirus is in a unique position, being stronger then the greek citys but beholden to the diodochi in terms of power, they are poth your friend and enemy. having had so many hours playing them i now succeed about 80% of the time. of course some rely on luck a fair bit but the best i can offer is my strat i use and can only hope that it helps you

1. make sure Pyrrhus is being tutored to be a great Warrior. unfortunately its unlikely he will gain anymore stats from childhood but the extra Trait he will get at the end only makes one of if not the best General in the game with Age and Martial ability. Also kill neoptolemus Pyrrhus is love, Pyrrhus is life

2. change your law: you start with the ability to build a legion. ditch it. its nice to have but early game you wont be fielding an army of Heavy inf, change the law (I think its called mandatory service?) it gives you an extra 2.5% levies if i remember rightly, giving you the ability to field close to 10,000 combat soldiers.

3. attack Korkyra or Appolonia . they start in a defensive alliance and rarely ally anyone else especilly at game start, blockade Korkyra untill you defeat App, then finish them off. annex and your good

4. KILL YOUR ILYRIAN BENEFACTOR! sadly there is no room for sentimentality when it comes to world conquest and cultural genocide. therefore using your mission tree work to get the mission that gives you claims on your neighbouring Tribe, he is your friend and historically helped Pyrrhus from being executed as a child, but alas i need manpower and gold ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥! annex him Asap

5. from here you have a choice. because of how rome is by now its likely they've taken most of southern italy leaving you with little options. your mission that allows you to get claims and Vasslise a bunch of them become rather useless as most of them are dead. still, this is when Rome is comparatively at its weakest so you can still defeat them, waiting for them to land in greece and quickly jumping them, forcing them to have nowhere to go and be stackwiped. or you can go against Macedon, this is the route id suggest as Intergrating Macedonian culture is key to early game, as almost every Diodochi (actually i think all of them) are Macedonian and will be slowly converting pops throughout the game. with this Knowlage wait until Cassander is balls deep fighting the Antigonids and jump him then, most of his army will be in Anatolia giving you the time to quickly take the war goal and sack as many citys as you can. you might think this would be difficult but ultimately if you use the claims on his vassals in epirus you can jump them and kill them rather quickly, from there you have a ticking warscore protected by a fort. depending on luck you can take almost the entirety of Mace or just his vassals and Thessaly, either way massive buff. its also worth noting the Diodochi alliances are thin, thrace will almost always be wiling to help you, and if Antigonus of Demterius Win, they wont eb shy of a few provences

These are solid tactics that help me in most games, it can feel like being railroaded but honestly, the game will open so many extra doors for you theres always an alternitive choice if you so desire. my most recent games i owned all of magna Grecia all of mace and greece and large chunks of the greek citys on the Anatolian Coast. good luck out there, and beware of roof top slabs thrown by old women!

[Baby Beluga]

^ what that guy said but it will depend on how the initial diadochi wars go. You'll want macedon to be weakened so you can crush them and take almost all of their land. Then integrate the macedonians, there are too many of them and their levies have heavy cav and heavy inf. At this point you will essentially have won the game

[PlayboyMoney]

Thanks for the tips!

[Archer, Emissary of the Gorganit]

Anytime! i wish you all luck and hope to see some successful results :)

[iainfuller]

I allied with Rome very early to keep them from attacking me, then expanded North and set about building up the country so that my economy was ticking along nicely. After the Roman alliance ended I then allied with Macedon and waited. Once Rome went into a massive civil war I attacked the Roman rebels that had taken over Sicily & Magna Greacia, taking them. Then used the wealth from there to build up army & navy and took Peloponese, Crete, Cyprus and anything along the Anatolian coast not owned by the big boys. I did lose half of Sicily to Rome just before the end but when the game ended I was still around and had a nicely functioning state. Not a huge empire granted but lots of fun.

[Gerd]

This is not Civilization or other fantasy strategy game, this is like complaining that you can't 'win' as Italy in a WW2 game

[lemurs2]

The funny thing is that Paradox tried to help you as they WAY over stated the Epirote population. In my mod they have far less pop.
In history they did what they did with troops from Makedon, which they had grabbed with Lysimachus, and with money and Elephants from Ptolemy and Seleucus.
Those are short odds to ever see happen in a game, so we never see an Epirus that threatens Rome.

[homeslice]

I managed to beat Rome after a few restarts by rushing through the first Epirote mission tree (to end it you have to achieve the 2nd down furthest right objective). I immediately allied Syracuse, and started improving relations with the Etruscans in order to all them eventually. To make as much money as possible, I set my diplo stance to Mercantile.

Ideally, once you get Pyrrhus back, you want to click that mission objective as soon as possible to get to the Alexandrine Ambition tree, but I found that in my successful run, I was able to do some of the other objectives in the first tree. It depends on how much the Romans have already conquered.

The Alexandrine Ambition tree gives you access to some events which you can use to get Italian vassals and allies, which are helpful in bolstering your army. Other than that I had saved up enough money to hire some mercs to further help me.

With the way Rome currently expands though, Epirus games can be quite frustrating, usually by the time you get to fight them they can already get like 20K men. This is usually when the Etruscans as an ally come in useful, as the Roman armies will focus on sieging them down allowing you to capture Magna Graecia and maybe even Rome itself.