I know most people have moved on to H3, but I recently purchased this game and have some questions on how to play.

1. How do you deal with fighting on multiple fronts? I'm currently doing the first campaign, where Philip is basically surrounded by enemies. I know my first goal right now is to defeat Bardyllis, but what about after that? It seems if I expand too far one way, an enemy shows up on another front.

2. How do I keep up with getting more gold? Obviously the charm of this game is you can't just mass up a huge army with ease. Food, expenses, and possible slow recruiting times mean you must be careful with the armies you have.

3. How do I delete a unit from the quick selection bar on the top of the screen?

1. Knowing when and where to expand is part of the challenge! After you defeat Bardyllis, there are a few different areas you can expand to. I suggest heading south to liberate Elimea if you haven't already, to pick up some siege equipment. You can then liberate Olooson and complete an objective to get full-blown catapults. Your early game priority should be freeing any Macedonian cities held by your enemies - the Paeonians hold a few to the north, the Chalcidicean League to the East holds many small cities, and Athens has a handful to the south of your starting area.

As a rule of thumb, the AI won't harass well defended borders. Beat up on an enemy until you have all you want from them, then either make peace with them (don't unless you are sure you don't want to fight them ever again) or put strong garrisons along the entire border you have with them. A good garrison is a phalanx and a city with walls, minimum.

2. Mines, mines, mines! Capture routing enemies as slaves then chuck them into mines (connected to cities or forts you control). Defeating the Paeonians North of your starting area is pretty tough (tons of strong cavalry and annoying archers) but once you step on them good, Stobi is surrounded by 5-6 mines which is 400 gold easily when each is full of size 40 slave bands.

Also objectives will often times give you gold. You can't usually see an objective until you've explored the map section the objective is related to. Put Phil with the Companion Cav and have him run around behind enemy lines exploring the map (and beating up any foolish non-phalanx infantry he finds). When an objective group is unlocked, pause it and check it out - they often include gold rewards that permanently boost your budget. There are objectives for beating up the Paeonians and making Illyrians into slaves that will both give nice gold boosts.

3. Deselect everything (click on empty ground) and then hit control + the number you want to delete.

Thanks for the response!
Yeah, I've actually had to started to notice after attempting to get a good foothold in the campaign many times, that the game rewards those that are patient, and doesn't just blitzkrieg city after city.

I've captured Elimea right now, and now I have a strongpoint from which to attack Osloon. So everything going fine so far. The only problems I might have are the Paeonians, who in previous attempts at the campaign, like to raid Almopia. Also Athens have become a thorn in my side as they like to raid my coasts atleast once a year. But as long as I use some of my troops for defense back at Macedonia, I should be able to hold them off.

I know most people have moved on to H3, but I recently purchased this game and have some questions on how to play.

1. How do you deal with fighting on multiple fronts? I'm currently doing the first campaign, where Philip is basically surrounded by enemies. I know my first goal right now is to defeat Bardyllis, but what about after that? It seems if I expand too far one way, an enemy shows up on another front.

2. How do I keep up with getting more gold? Obviously the charm of this game is you can't just mass up a huge army with ease. Food, expenses, and possible slow recruiting times mean you must be careful with the armies you have.

A handful of tips that might also help you:

Starting a raid depends on whether the raiding faction has raided you recently and on the distance between your cities and theirs. Keep your empire as "round" as possible, and make getting the trireme technology a priority, otherwise you'll be raided to no end by all kinds of different factions. This is no longer true once you get near a map edge, since that will totally stop the raiding from that side (so once you're deep into Illyria, consider mopping them up completely for mines and no raids).

Since the AI keeps bunching up units in one town if you come in with a big army (Tyrants of Pherae, Thebes, Sparta and others do that often), and highly garrisoned cities or big field battles are ... a bit taxing on the manpower, consider going for the easiest targets first. There's no shame in coming back later, with a numerical as well as tactical advantage.

Also, don't send your giant army into the wilderness in the north together with catapults, they're going to starve before they get to the nearest enemy city. Instead, either send slaves or workers with them for extra food, or send the siege equipment first together with cavalry, who can survive longer with what they have. Actually, everything that is not a hoplite or phalanx (or a variation of them) will do.

Experienced troops are invaluable, every upgrade path is viable for one unit type or another, and all are great to have for your phalanges.

Truces are generally not worth it in the Philip scenario, you're almost always better off conquering the cities.

If siege engines don't cut it, build more siege engines.

Be wary that certain factions can and will launch amphibious raids with triremes. As long as you do not rout or kill all the raiding units, however, you can destroy their ships with ease by just slapping some infantry right on top of them. They will auto-attack them once they have their formation figured out. If kill or rout the last raiding army, the AI will send their ships back instead. Still, better to have a navy to prevent all this in the first place.

Thanks!

I've about how the North has a lack of farms, so I guess I should be prepared for that. Luckily, I'm really close to getting siege units.

I can't wait until I get triremes, so I can finally rain **** upon Athens.

Also, it seems alot of people were right about keeping large garrisons in your cities deters enemies from attacking.

I managed to get a few good units in Elimia (I know I probably butchered that spelling), and of course a hoplite brigade from the league Osloon is in began to march toward the city. I thought for sure it would be a devastating attack, since most of my units are still recovering from the attack on Bardylis.

Luckily, since my garrison was strong enough, they managed to get right outside the city perimeter before turning back home!

Edited to break up what turned out to be a massive wall of text...

After playing, and probably restarting numerous times, you'll learn problem areas that need to be garrisoned. I have spent SO MUCH time playing this game, in fact, I recently played through all three campaigns and restarted the Philip campaign just to play differently (different goals and modes of attack) and see what new challenges arise. So yeah, as someone previously mentioned, learning that is part of the fun.

Some basic tips, well places spearmen/Pella militia can destroy triremes that land near Pella or Aegea before the units debark (some land on the North coast near Pella while others land on the West, be ready for that with troops close to both points). Its taking advantage of the AI but if you're struggling it's a good way to handle the raids and sap their manpower. Also, keep note of which cities are sending the raiders. Early on Pydna, Methone, and Potidea provide the bulk of the raiders so I would make taking Pydna and Methone a top priority (there are a couple of other reasons to target them besides). Similarly, if you want Triremes then you need to take out the Chalcidean League just to your east, they hold numerous Macedonian cities as well as harbor Potidea in their midst. Do beware, however, that their cities have somewhat steep garrison requirements and early on is often difficult to keep sufficient food in cities to prevent revolt. Be sure to keep a couple of good combat units in the area as Athens will shift some of their raiding to this region after you take it.

Continuing east will lead you to the Western Odrysian kindgom and Mount Pangaeus. More native/convertible Macedonian cities and a lot of mines in this region. Further, of all your neighbors they are one of the weakest, no hoplites and they lack the powerful javelineers of the other Odrysian kingdoms.

Paeonia is pretty much a requirement early on as well. Their units are strong and fast and will never leave Edomene, Pelagonia and Heraklia Lyncus alone. Toss the abundant mines of the region into the mix and there's all the motivation you need to take them out early. Also, depending on your expansion route they might provide the best cavalry you can field for a while. Food can be an issue here as well and if you take all 4 of the cities (there's a 5th out there but not quite in the same vicinity) you'll be raided from east and NW west. Illyrian raids from Darania to the NW are by far the more serious of the 2 and will likely require a standing army in Bylazora.

In fact, Illyrian raids are a real nuisance. While your Phalangites are generally a match for their hoplites early on you lack resources and units to deal with the accompanying peltasts without taking untenable losses. Consider taking the 4 cities directly to the W (some NW and SW) of Hereklia Lyncus to draw their fangs in this area and force them to focus their attacks on Penestae. In fact, taking a border city of most factions will cause them to shift units from nearby cities from raiding to attacks to take back the city. Provided you have sufficient food and garrisons (and manpower to replenish siege losses) they will frequently dash themselves to pieces on your walls in these attempts. This lets you move valuable combat units to other areas while draining their manpower in the border regions. Following up attacks with one of your own will often find cities deserted. As you move into the remote regions of Illyria, however, food is a serious problem. Striking straight west to the coast of the Adriatic will reveal Epidamos, a city with abundant food resources that might help you out.

Finally, to your south resides the Thessalian League and the Tyrants of Phaerae. Attempts by the league to retake Olosson (which should always be one of your first targets so you can build catapults!) will generally fail provided you can keep it fed. If, however, you take (or more often than not have it defect to you) Tymphia, to the W of Elimea and Eordea, Epirote and and League raids (and Illyrian for that matter if you don't take Diabolis and...the name escapes me but its just to the SE of Diabolis and NW of Tymphia) will be a constant source of irritation. Until the borders are secure or you keep a large force garrisoned here (can be difficult early on due to lack of food production and difficulty in dealing with peltasts of all 3 nations and the cavalry from the League which always sends large raids) its not worth manning the mines. since there are no farms in the region a quick unit to repair/retake watch towers after the raiders get bored and go away might be the best way to deal with them. You can stop the League raids by taking Tricca, which has abundant farms and manpower and will ally to you (meaning no revolt risk). Even better, you have an additional source of cavalry at half the cost with better morale (allied units are always better than mercenaries) and Tricca is a great place to launch an invasion on all of Thessaly (which is a good idea because the Tyrants will start raiding by sea eventually).

Anyway, I could go on all day but that covers all the early expansion routes. Once you have triremes your options open up and allow for an entirely different style of play. In my most recent game I chose to remain (mostly) amphibious and launch attacks on the Athenians, easily the most annoying raider, and get to Crete early for some ridiculously powerful archers. Spartan hoplites? More like Spartan blood smears on the ground. I hope you continue to enjoy what is easily one of my favorite games and is, in my opinion, still the best of the Hegemony games.

Wow, thanks for this!

Yeah, so I've had to start over multiple times because I usually get myself in a big mess, with everyone attacking me.

The furthest I've gotten is Osloon in the south, and the H.L city held by the Illyrians. Quick question?

What should be my primary goal after capturing Osloon?

Should I deal with the Illyrians to the west, continue south and wipe out the league Osloon is associated with, or go north for the Paeonians. I heard up north their are gold mines, which could really help.

Also, how do you garrison each city? What troops do you usually leave behind for defense, and what offensive troops do you use.

Lastly, due to costs, it probably isn't feasable to wall every city you take, but which cities do you usually build walls around to make it harder to retake.

I really appreciate the wall of text,as a newcomer to the Hegemony series, I need as much guidance as I can get :D

No problem at all! I enjoy sharing what I've learned with other people!

As long as you learn from each attempt don't feel too bad about having to restart. Its half the fun honestly.

Generally, my first goal is to take back native Macedonian cities since they provide recruits to fill Phalangites early on if/when their home city is drained of recruits. There are...9ish east of Pella (across the river). If you're unsure which are native cities, if you click on them under the name it will say something like Macedonian city under control of Chalcidean League. That means its a native Macedonian city and can train Phalangites. Even if you can't afford to make more, early on you'll have way more cities than Phalangites, you can rebase phalangites to fill up on recruits from untapped cities just like you do with the "a change of address" mission that has you rebase Philip and the Companion Cavalry to Pella.

There are also 2 to the south of Aegea and you can colonize another one (Pydna) to make it a native Macedonian city. The 4th city, Methone, is required to build Triremes. I typically find it a good idea to take Olosson then head back towards Aegea by way of Elimea. From there I detour south and deal with these 4 cities then return north and move my troops to Pella and cross the river and take the cities on the other side, typically starting with the 3 NE of Pella (names escape me but one is Amphaxis). The western Odrysian kingdom, who holds these cities, are an easy early target due to their lack of powerful units. The Chalcidean league will start raiding Pella early on, or the cities to the NE of Pella if you take them early. Crushing a raid or two will weaken them sufficiently to make taking their cities along the gulf easier. Crestonia, in the middle of the area to the East of Pella is pretty easy to take too since its their most isolated city. I have it revolt to me fairly often if they face disastrous losses over by Borboros and they foolishly keep sending reinforcements. By the time you've taken a few cities from them you may as well keep going and wipe them out completely as their capitol is the other city needed to build triremes.

During this early time I usually keep a strong force in the Heraklia Lyncus/Pelagonia region to deal with Illyrian and Paeonian raids. I usually find it easier to deal with Illyrian raids in Tymphia rather than Elimea and Eordea so taking it early on can help keep the heat off you in that region. I think it starts out unwalled and after a failed raid or two sending Philip and the Companion Cavalry is usually sufficient to take it.

After getting access to Triremes and most of the Macedonian cities I usually target Paeonia next. Their raids are harder to deal with and they have tons of mines. After that I usually start picking off Illyrian cities one at a time but taking Lychnidos directly to the west of Heraklia Lyncus and the 2 to the south of Lychnidos and the 1 to the north of it will take a lot of the heat off you on your western border. Just be sure to keep Pirustae well garrisoned and fed!

Garrisons depend on how likely/often a city is to be attacked. Cities that are safe I garrison with the cheapest units and as close to the minimum necessary to prevent revolts as possible. Native Macedonian cities that are safe usually don't have more than a spearman but many don't even really need that if they never get attacked. Still, its convenient to have someone around to pick up sheep and whatnot. Your coastal cities are generally never safe unless the Athenians, Tyrants of Pherae, Corinth, Boeotian League, Sparta and Crete are dead. Sometimes the Persians too, if they ever build boats. If a city isn't safe and you need to deal with raiders then it depends. Usually I leave behind some of my Phalangites since mercenaries aren't very good and will just route if you try to use them to take out equivalent units (hoplite vs. hoplite for example) because of their low morale.

As for walls and funds...build walls in every city unless it is guaranteed safe from attacks. This increases the number of troops needed to keep it from revolting but you don't want to be losing cities because you didn't notice the Illyrians were raiding when you were paying attention to the east. Early on no cities are safe except for maybe Almopia. Once you start pushing the borders though you'll see where walls are no longer necessary. Really though, if you're taking as many slaves as you possibly can and using them in your mines (I never bother with workers but on higher difficulties you get raided more which means more defeated soldiers and thus slaves for the mines) as you expand then you should be making enough money.

Regarding offensive units, until I get access to allied units (Olosson can produce cavalry but due to attempts to retake the city you don't really want to drain manpower) I usually just use Phalangites, peltasts, and catapults. I consider 2 Phalangites (or unique heavy infantry units such as Hypapists or Amphyticons), 2 Peltasts, and a catapult to be my general minimal offensive force. Amphibious forces can make due with this and sometimes only 1 each but once you start making more money you'll want more catapults but 1 is sufficient for a while. Once I have a bit more leeway with troops I usually double that for ground forces and throw in allied Thessalian or Paeonian cavalry. Phalangites are solid units and generally win in 1 on 1 fights but their weakness is ranged units. Cavalry to rundown ranged units (and attack enemies from behind) are a huge boon. I never try to take walled cities without a catapult, and, depending on the enemy units I will usually try to draw the enemy out rather than lose a bunch of troops to a siege. Standing out of city defensive range you can attack it with catapults and draw defenders out to die on your spears.

Thanks!

So far, I've captured all of the cities you're able to retake before confronting Bardylis. I've managed to repel a raiding force from Athens, as well as a raiding force from the Illyrians with little to no trouble. I've learned for taking cities with walls, it helps to try and cut off the cities supply routes before sending in my troops to take it. That way the city will began to lose food and it'll make it easier to capture.

Also, I've beginning to understand the A.I patterns, which really helps since you know when to expect and prepare for a raid. From my understanding, Athens likes to send in raiding parties in Early spring. I began to suspect this and moved some of my troops from Elimia over to defend my coast, and sure enough, as soon as Spring hit they began to send 3 naval squadrons out for me. Although now I'm ready for them, and it won't come up as much of a shock or surprise as before.

Lastly, what's your recommended army composition for defeating Bardylis? Before, it seems as soon as I attack him, he sends swarms of hoplites against me. I usually defeat him, but it comes at the cost of my army being severely crippled.
Is it supposed to be somewhat challenging to beat Bardylis when first starting out?

The best way to beat Bardylis is to use the chokepoint that divides Eordea and Heraklia Lyncesus. Set up a Phalanx and your Hypaspists so that they will only face one or two Illyrian phalanxes at a time, and just let them grind futilely against the wall of Macedonian spears.

Typically the phalanx unit gets chewed up and I would keep another one in reserve in case it breaks, but that should be enough.

It really depends on your playstyle which way you want to go after Bardylis:

- Pydna can be spear-won (converts to Macedonian culture), so getting that and Methone because of the raids can really bolster your recruit count. Alexander already mentioned the Macedonian cities east of Pella, so that is another possible source of manpower. More Macedonian recruit bases can be gained all over the map (one in Illyria, several in the Odrysian kingdoms, another one from Athens), so if you run out of manpower, look around for objectives that say "Capture X to unlock another objective." Likely as not they are gonna be spear-winning that same city.

- The Companion cavalry and the Hypaspists are your strongest units, able to battle it out with all but the strongest of enemy elite units. A number of objectives gives the reward "The brigade of X will grow in size", ultimately reaching I think 35 Companions and 80 Hypaspists. These objectives are mainly situated on the road to Persia, along the Northern shore of the Aegean Sea. I personally prefer getting as many of them as possible.

- Thessaly has strong cavalry and loads and loads of food. Additionally, all the Thessalian cities can become allied to you through completion of objectives, so they end up pumping out food in several hundreds of units per week in autumn. I always construct a 100/week road from Larissa to Pella as soon as I can afford it and then directly connect Pella with any cities that are in danger of running out of food. I also connect Pella with Pydna and then one of them with every major city (Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Epidamnos, Dardanos, Olynth, and several others). It works WONDERS once you can afford to run it all on 100/week. (if you don't know, you can make roads of arbitrary length by holding shift and creating waypoints for the road to take)

- The north is full of mines, but if you're short on gold, the harsh mountains and their tribes are not your only option. There is a mountain that historically brought Macedon a lot of wealth called Pangaion which is situated to the east of the Chalcidian League, a short way from the shore. It boasts loads of mines and probably the first city that you will see that - historically - was renamed in honor of Philip: Philippi. Unfortunately, there is no such mechanic in the game.

- Finally, you will find out that no matter how tidy and well-defended your borders, there will always be raiders. So stay calm and conquer on! There is much left to explore.

As a final note, triremes seem to have some pathing issues when ordered to move in a group. You can get around that restriction which can make the difference between a successfull Athenian raid and them sinking to the bottom of the sea by starting your triremes from a port city, sending one out, but letting the rest stay in port, then select them all (a control group key helps here) and sending them to their destination. They will now go wherever you sent them to separately, but any further instruction you give them will group them until at least one is back in a city and another one is not. Same works for catapults.

Thanks @Alexander for the tip, it worked really good.

Also, thanks GiftGrun for responding. Which faction in your experience is the hardest to take on?

Also, how do you deal with recruiting shortages, as well as strategically placing troops to be able to effectively counter raids. As well as what troops types and how many of them do you have this early on.

1. Up North, the city you take from Bardylis is constantly under attack from mainly peltasts( I've seen up to 10 units in a group before, totaling 100 individuals units), as well as Paoneia's large Calvary units and archers.

2. Pella and my starting Macedonian cities become under attack from Athens, but I seemed to have ceased that since I siezed Methone and Pynda.

3. Now it seems I've gotten the attention of the Tyrants of Pharae, you now send armies and naval squadrons to attack me.

Again, thanks for responding! Soaking all this in is really helping me become a better player since I started playing

Thanks @Alexander for the tip, it worked really good.

Also, thanks GiftGrun for responding. Which faction in your experience is the hardest to take on?

Also, how do you deal with recruiting shortages, as well as strategically placing troops to be able to effectively counter raids. As well as what troops types and how many of them do you have this early on.

1. Up North, the city you take from Bardylis is constantly under attack from mainly peltasts( I've seen up to 10 units in a group before, totaling 100 individuals units), as well as Paoneia's large Calvary units and archers.

2. Pella and my starting Macedonian cities become under attack from Athens, but I seemed to have ceased that since I siezed Methone and Pynda.

3. Now it seems I've gotten the attention of the Tyrants of Pharae, you now send armies and naval squadrons to attack me.

Again, thanks for responding! Soaking all this in is really helping me become a better player since I started playing

Unfortunately, I'm the type of player who says "When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail.". Meaning I hardly ever build any Macedonian unit except phalangites and the special units you are awarded. Marrying the Elimean princess gives you a boost to your Companion cavalry (19 + 1 general), and your hypaspists start out with 45 units which are nearly impossible to kill, especially by missiles. This makes them the elite siege unit, but catapults make short work of enemy walls as well. In the late game you'll have the money for batteries of 10 or 20 catapults for one city, but for now use the old siege equipment from Elimea and maybe one or two catapults that you can build once you take Olooson. I find these units plus however many phalangites I can afford together with one or two scout cavalry and spearmen for garrisons to be the strongest when you have more money than recruits.

I've started a new game yesterday and now I am past Bardylis, and conquered Tymphaia (well, it rebelled), Pelion and soon Diabolis in the west, Amphaxis (unwalled) and Edomene near Pella, and Mygdonia deep in the Chalcidian League for ... uhm, well, just for shits and giggles. Pydna and Methone are valid first targets as well, consider taking the other two Macedonian cities near Mount Olympus (Dium and Heracleum) because they are Macedonian and usually ligthly defended. Heracleum belongs to the Tyrants of Pherae at start, though, so if you have never met them until this point, chances are they were massing troops and will not give up Heracleum easily.

Which faction is the hardest depends on what troops are in the vicinity and how hard I failed at estimating the enemy's strength. Raids are usually never going to be much bigger than 100 men, depending on difficulty, but factions like the Thebans (Boeotian League), Sparta and the Middle and Eastern Odrysian kingdoms can field a rather large army for field battle as well as raids. Those armies are scary. 300 Theban hoplites (better than regular ones), an elite unit (as good as your hypaspists) and some peltasts for example.
After them probably the Tyrants of Pherae because they're massing troops (unlike the Illyrians for example who never seem to gather their strength to attack with units from the hinterland) and you are still comparatively weak and your forces distracted when you try to tackle them the first time. Don't be discouraged, though, taking Larisa is an important step and awards you the Amphictyon brigade as well as a big city for a lot of Thessalian cavalry (the city is Thessalian, the Tyrants just occupy it). The Tyrants don't have any cavalry themselves, though.

Countering raids is one of those situations where you can still issue a surprisingly far away brigade to come help you (make use of the run command early then they'll be able to run again when the raid arrives) most of the time. The important aspect is that you have some small counter-raid force in the vicinity to attack the enemy, even if it is suicidal, as soon as they are about to capture a city or mine, because that would lose you your road network and in the case of mines all the slaves within (they kill them). Attacking one unit of a raid usually makes the whole raiding force chase you down, so keep a scout cavalry ready for a quick hit'n'run tactic. They are great at stalling the enemy until the phalangites arrive.

For large groups of peltasts, they are best countered by cavalry charging into them, but don't expect wonders. Scout Cavalry lose 6v10 against peltasts unless they use their charge bonus, which is considerable.

Athens will always send ships from cities near you to harass you at least once a year, unless you have a defensive force to take them down, and even then they'll try. They have cities all over the Aegean islands, and the money to build lots of ships. If you don't have the money to build four triremes, don't even bother, they'll usually sink your fleet since theirs is faster (Athenian triremes > the regular ones you can build) and naval combat revolves around maneuverability. Thankfully, the AI is not the smartest at times, though.

The problem with Heracleia Lyncus I think is that it's attacked from two factions, so conquering a city from either Illyria or Paeonia to distract them and instead make them target two different cities with their raids is the only solution I can think of.

So right now my goal is to quell the raids from Illyria in the northwest by taking some of their cities before moving south. Instead of going for Heracleas Lyncestis, I'm sweeping around towards Tymphaia and going around before capturing the city.

Luckily, Athens haven't raided my borders in atleast a good 2-3 years, but I still have a good bit of troops garrisoned there because you never know.

As far as Osloon and its league, they've sent 1 hoplite through Elimia, but they always seem to run out of food, which in turn lowers there morale, so I just sweep in and finish them off.

They've also sent 1 hoplite bridgade along with a peltast and a calvary unit towards Tymphaia, but I have 2 Phalangite units there, so they've managed to hold back any armies they send.

Also, how did you guys deal with the food problem in Tymphaia? It doesn't have any farms I believe, so it makes it a little hard to get food. I did send in a sheep unit to feed them, but now they're out of food again. I have my few phalangite units in camp mode to try and conserve food though.

Finally, I've learned in this game that it rewards those who are patient, and don't just rush into the fray without thinking. After every battle, I've learned to wait for recruits to replenish, secure my borders, and check over defenses to make sure it's suitable in case of an invasion. It also helps to send in raiding teams to burn the enemies farms, to try and destroy their food supply.

As far as Osloon and its league, they've sent 1 hoplite through Elimia, but they always seem to run out of food, which in turn lowers there morale, so I just sweep in and finish them off.

They've also sent 1 hoplite bridgade along with a peltast and a calvary unit towards Tymphaia, but I have 2 Phalangite units there, so they've managed to hold back any armies they send.

That's not the Tyrants, though, they're defensive afair, meaning they tend to concentrate their troops in their own cities and send them all at once if one of their important cities is in danger. You're thinking of the Thessalian League, who are rather weak because the Tyrants recently took their capital city of Larisa.

Also, how did you guys deal with the food problem in Tymphaia? It doesn't have any farms I believe, so it makes it a little hard to get food. I did send in a sheep unit to feed them, but now they're out of food again. I have my few phalangite units in camp mode to try and conserve food though.

To the south of Tymphaia lies Tricca, and Thessaly in general is very rich in food. I recommend building a road directly to Pella and upgrading it to a 100/week capacity whenever you need food for your frontline. If you have the gold to spare that is.

Finally, I've learned in this game that it rewards those who are patient, and don't just rush into the fray without thinking. After every battle, I've learned to wait for recruits to replenish, secure my borders, and check over defenses to make sure it's suitable in case of an invasion. It also helps to send in raiding teams to burn the enemies farms, to try and destroy their food supply.

On normal and casual difficulty, that is very much true, since your main battleline troops are just so, so much better than your enemies' troops, and have a higher range, meaning more troops can attack the enemy than vice-versa in most circumstances. And since everyone regenerates recruits at the same rate on normal, having higher-quality troops is a huge long-term advantage.

For Tymphaia, you should construct walls and garrison at most one phalanx and one thessalian cavalry unit. Connect it to Elimia or Edessa (you may want to upgrade the road a few levels) and then just use the cavalry to capture sheep periodically. It cannot support troops as a staging area.

Tymphaia is a natural end point to Macedonia on that flank. Typically after doing all of the objectives in Illyria and Epirus I keep only the cities I need then set up a truce with them. Then you don't have to worry about raiders in Tymphaia and I withdraw the garrison.

So I've taken Pelion, and have managed to set up a solid defense against the Illyrians there. I did try and take Stobi, and while I managed to get rid of all its units, it left my 1 brigade of troops pretty weakened, and my two catapult squads are destroyed, so I've decided to fall back and replenish before coming back to siege the city. It should be relatively easy though, since they've exhausted most of their recruits.

This is the farthest I've ever gotten into the game (not very far lol) but I actually started to run into my first real food problem now. Most of my core Macedonian cities, (Edomene, Pella, Agaeae,) are out of food. I do have a few sheep coming along, the last bit of flocks from a few years ago that I never used, but I doubt that'll hold them for long. I have quite a large force in Tricca, and I'm tempted to just wipe out the Thessalian League and capture all the farms, which will really help out the situation before I go campaigning anywhere else.


Also, do you guys choose to have troops supply when exiting the supply range, or when exiting the city?

Yikes! The Tyrants have sent out 6 full hoplite brigades to Krannon. I haven't seen an enemy force that large grouped together since fighting Bardylis. I'm thinking about keeping my troops inside the city until reinforcements arrive.