chunkeymonkey13q said:
I just purchased this game today (the strategy 6 pack) for ten dollars! Can anyone give me some hints on playing as the Roman Empire?
Before you do anything, make sure to download the latest patch 1.08 - it has several changes to rules without which the below strategy will not work as well as otherwise.
I take it you are playing AGC mod for EUII? If so, you start out rather hard; Morea is your vassal and ally, but you only have one province, and Morea is pretty worthless. First thing you should do is dump Morea from your alliance, and look around for easy pickings. I would suggest going for Smyrna/Aydin, they only have one province, and I don't believe they are in any alliance at the start, so you can pound them mercilessly. Sometimes I go after Duchy of Athens first, but beforehand I check to see if they are allied to anyone of importance. If they are not in any alliance, I say go for them, but watch the Ottomans who will want to stab you in the back. If the Ottomans cancel the military access agreement, you know an attack is coming. If you go after Smyrna, make sure to do it in the first two years of the game, since around 1425 the Ottomans inherit them.
If you are lucky and do not have to fight Ottomans right away, it will be easier from there on, but when you do, divide your navy into two, and position one part in Sea of Marmara, and one in the region just south of it. This will prevent the Ottoman armies from Europe and Asia from crossing over and reinforcing each other. Try to go for Ottomans' European possessions - build an all-cavalry army, and try to have a decisive battle in Macedonia or, at the worst, in Thrace - do not fight in Bulgaria or Dobrudja unless you are either really desperate or outnumber the Ottos by a large margin. Don't worry if Smyrna falls to the Ottos, they cannot do anything with it, and you can always retake it after you've mopped up all Ottoman resistance in Europe.
Usually the Ottomans will offer peace at this stage. Take it ONLY if they offer Macedonia AND Bulgaria at least - if they offer more, take it, but make sure Macedonia is one of the provices you end up with, because it has good tax value, good manpower, and is strategically located for your naval blockade to work well. The first Ottoman war will cost you quite a bit, but even if you have to take loans, it is a must. Fight the second Ottoman war once you have sufficient strength troops, and at least 5 years passed from peace - you cannot afford too much badboy rating, and you need stability.
In the second Ottoman war, basically take everything they have left sans Anatolia, which you will not be able to take as it is their capital. You should have a good amount of manpower and resources to do that, and strategy of blocking the straits with your navy and therefore dividing the Ottomans in half (assuming they still have some European provinces) should work well. After that, it is mop-up work. Everything going your way, you should be able to finish the Ottos off before 1450 or so; then, it is free for all. Just be careful about your badboy rating, and put lots of money into your Land tech research so that you are not too far behind everyone else; your techgroup is Orthodox, which is only second-best in the game after Latin (Western European), and as such advances will come slower for you.
If you don't have too many provinces when Council of Florence event (1439, I think) fires, you can go for Catholic conversion, and get Italian culture - then, you will get an event for converting back (if you are playing ACG-EEP modification, the latest version of which should be on Paradox forums available for download). You will need to convert back to get Byzantine Renaissanse events, so that way you will end up as an Orthodox Byzantium with Italian culture, amongst others, and a way to expand into Italy.
Hope this helps, at least to get you started. From there on, make sure you keep up in military tech, and go for Centers of Trade. Alexandria is a good one to go after, since you already have many Muslim provinces by then and probably have Muslim tolerance slider fairly high, it is done at the expense of the Catholics - do not try to conquer Catholics until after 1521 - when the Reformation begins, you can simply not tolerate Protestants, and as such will not always get religious revolts in Catholic provinces. If you do end up with Catholic provinces, try to set them free as vassals, or station troops there, because until Luther shows up, these are going to be your rebellion hotspots, unless you are willing to lower risk of rebellion there for higher risk everywhere else.
Above all, try not to get too many non-state culture provinces - in your case, try to keep only to Greek, Slavonic, and (if you go through the Catholic conversion event) Italian provinces, releasing everything else as vassals whenever you can - this way you tech costs will stay relatively manageable, and you will not lag too far behind.
Hope this helps!