AGEOD Forums

I am playing the Caesar vs. Pompey campaign, controlling the Senate side; only a few turns in so far. I have so far held my own fairly well against Caesar's forces; losing Italy and Sicily but doing well in Spain and Greece at the beginning of the campaign. I am now given the strategic choice for Pompey to head East (more money but worse troop quality) or focus on Spain (better troops but less funds). Which of these two choices in advisable? What will, in your experience, be the consequences of those two choices for the campaign?

In my campaign, Pompey is actually in leading the war in Greece, due to the lack of good generals there. In contrast, in Spain, I have quite a number of highy-skilled leaders. Massalia is just about to fall to Antonius (heading an incredible seven legions), while I am about to take Narbo Martius. A small Caesarian force is sieging Dyrrhachium, but I have much larger armies in both Western Greece and Thessalonika. I have also shifted Cato to North Africa, where I am raising legions; I have also just activated the Numidian forces there.

Would appreciate advice as to a winning strategy

Sounds like you found the winning strategy. Your reasoning is sound and likely the best course. Pompey needs the money. Spain can wait.

Incidentally, winning as Pompey is a real challenge. Best of luck.

Nervus belli, pecunia infinita.
-Cicero-

Have won as both and lost both so cannot be too much help answering your question. As noted above, you appear to have found a formula that works for you and I think that AJE benefits from having a well thought out strategic plan. Having achievable long term goals certainly helps with the planning. Please keep us post on how things proceed.

-C

Hmm I'm not sure I ever tried the "Go East" strategy, only because, having played the Caesarian faction, I know the pressure an aggressive Caesar player can put on you. In my last game I managed to at least stalemate Caesar in Spain by gathering all available forces there (Roman and Iberian, another reason I tend to go West with Pompey (his multi-national commander trait) while more slowly building an army under Cato in Greece ( 6 or 7 legions with auxiliary support) that invaded Italy. The campaign ended before victory or defeat could be seen more clearly, but I'm not sure I would have been able to slow Caesar down enough in Spain without Pompey there to gather an army from the East, especially considering they would be "green" against those nasty veterans from Gaul...

But I'm curious the total force you are able to bring to bear by going East! Let us know an update of how it goes!

If I recall correctly, the legions you can recruit in the East are no proper legions, but really worthless troops. So you get more money but
don't have nothing worthy to recruit with it.

I think going to Spain is better.

True the legions are not as robust, but the naval war is decent if you go east. While Caesar can march around the Med, Pompey now can do hit and run attacks and even retake Rome.

Since I last posted, I took a detour and played a full campaign on Caesar's side. This turned out to be surprisingly easy. I defeated Pompey fairly early on in Greece, and he died near Patras about 35 turns into the campaign. After that, I played until turn 59 (October 45) before I achieved a full victory, as the morale of the Pompeians had been shattered. I never quite defeated them in Spain, where a final objective city (Salamantica) still remained to be captured, but in the East, I won victory after victory. Defeating Pontus (again, with surprising ease) seems to have tipped the balance completely in my favour. I only needed to advance as far as Tarsus before the victory screen popped up.

At the same time, I continued my campaign on Pompey's side, but this was a total failure. I did go East and made some allies and raised some funds. However, the troops provided by my allies proved to be fatally weak (or I mismanaged them), and my Roman legions were too few to hold Greece and Minor Asia. I initially did manage to stall the Caesarian armies in Spain, but ultimately found myself overpowered there as well. The Caesarians just seemed superior in terms of troop numbers and recruitment capacity, while their generals were not any worse than mine.

Now I would like to try another campaign, playing Pompey. I have gained some ideas from the earlier posts in this threat, but I wonder if anyone has any further suggestions for winning strategies. I particular, I am interested in how to make more of the non-Roman troops provided by the Roman client states in the East.