Pyrrhus Scenario: Difficult?

[kvnrthr]

I notice a lot of people mentioning that the Pyrrhus scenario is very difficult but I'm not really seeing it.

From the Roman POV, Pyrrhus generally attacks on the western coast and the Tarantines the eastern coast. I take two turns to build up my starting army, then get a general with 2 attack and make sure I am getting an attack, not a defense (if Pyrrhus is still besieging a town, he is still considered an attacker.)

The Roman legions march faster so you're guaranteed to get the jump on him if you two are moving into each other. Pyrrhus is only a 2-1, and phalanxes and elephants are weaker on defense than offense, so with autoresolve it is straightforward to roll through him. With your high movement you can also knock out the Tarantines if they are besieging a city on the east coast.

After that, there are generally no substantive enemy armies left so grab Tarentum (maybe the neighboring province if you need to blockade his port) and you win. The "seize ships" decision also gives you a strong navy that smashes through the Tarantine/Epirote one easily, but its not really necessary.

You also don't really need to worry too much about the Celticii since I don't believe you can actually lose by having your northern provinces taken. I've played through the scenario 3-4 times but I've never seen the Etruscans attack very early.

The victory condition is very simple, to take Tarentum, so you don't even need to do much economic planning or worrying about CDR.

[Batman6794]

Playing as Rome is very easy, playing as Epirus is not. It does say Epirus will be more difficult if you select them, but I suspect the people that say its too hard are the ones that tried as Epirus.

I had an easier time on the grand campaign first play theough than I did as Epirus in the starter.

[kvnrthr]

OK that's more understandable. Some people were complaining about everyone declaring war on them so I thought they were talking about playing Rome.

As Epirus what I did was prioritize attacking into Roman armies whenever possible before doing sieges. If you plan your march right you can beat their starting army once, then chase it where it retreats (I think they tend not to retreat to Samnium) and wipe it out. Italy has low movement costs so you can go far. Then I would do 1-2 turns of marching to crush any army they raised before finally sieging Rome.

But definitely a much more difficult situation, and I can say some dice went in my favor. Can't really remember how I dealt with their navy either, but the balanced AI didn't handle it particularly aggressively (or they just bought the 8 light ships).

[jhornborg]

The Pyrrhus scenario is difficult as Epirus, but it would be doable if the objective system didn't make it completely pointless. My first objective city was Tarentum (owned by my Ally). The next 2 objective cities were Messana and Syracuse (owned by Syracuse). I wasn't assigned an objective in Roman territory until turn 13.

[kvnrthr]

You don't have to take any of the objective zones on the map. Take Rome and you win automatically.

[jhornborg]

You don't have to take any of the objective zones on the map. Take Rome and you win automatically.

If Pyrrhus can only win by capturing Rome then what's the point of the objective cities?

[Altipueri]

Well I've finally got a victory as Rome with 1.03.

It was on Easy though.

The dice must have run for me, but thousands died in the previous attempts. Time now to read the manual and try a main campaign.