2 Questions for you all: Do you find the time stamps useful? And what faction do you want to see covered next ofcourse?! Keep in mind we tend to try to change cultures after each overview. Nomads will probably get a look soon since they were overhauled recently!
@@bibianoalvarez903 Thanks mate that helps me out ! :) Ardiaei will be coming soon for sure! They destroyed me in that online battle I posted last week D:
YES., it is because Pelta was the small shield and not the javelin they were throwing. They just happen to take their name all the javelinsmen as peltasts due to the shield
It’s a big misconception, both for ancient and medieval periods average life expectancy is dragged down by child mortality which was a huge problem. If they survive the first 5 years though their average life expectancy increased dramatically up to 50-60-70 even.
Honestly, I had a much easier time with the Macedonians than I did as Rome. They don’t have any early game enemies that compare to Carthage, and they are so close to so many great resources. So long as you don’t literally try to fight everyone at once, I don’t think you can go too wrong with them.
I can definitely see how this can be a easier start for Rome, your early game military is much stronger than Romes. If you watch Let’s Plays of people as Macedon you’ll see they like to take Rome out early because it’s of course easier to do so
I like to use the Royal Pikemen in a square instead of a line so they can maneuver better. Theyre 3 speed, quite flexible. You can even charge them in if you want.
Thrake is a rich province so liberating Pulpudeva isn't that advisable, I think. The province has slaves and silver so it plays straight to your industry bonus.
I recommend doing it in the early stages if you are overwhelmed by Greeks or others attacking. You can always betray your military ally later on for those resources. But trying to hold it in the 1st 20 turns or so is tough with PO issues. Easier to let the ai deal with it until your ready.
Great video, mate. What I love most about playing as Macedon is their general's bodyguard cavalry. In the early game, I was getting upwards of 800 kills per battle with them against the Celts and Greeks. Really adds to that Alexander-esque warrior-king feeling.
A Peltast was a soldier named for their shield rather than their weapon, Greeks commonly named soldiers after their shield (Hoplite - Hoplon, Scuta - Scutatoi) and the Pelta was a crescent shaped (but could be round) shield that was popular amongst javelin users for its ease of use with a javelin and its light weight but did not always mean the unit threw javelins as their main job. The royal peltasts were heavy infantry, hand picked by royalty, and served a versatile role on the battlefield as both skirmishers and infantry including in a phalanx. they were much easier to move around then the pikemen and still carried a pelta style shield. they were similar to the Alexandrian hypaspists, versatile elite troops you could put anywhere and move quickly. The Agema were the even eliter elites.
Macedon was the 2nd faction I played (Sparta was my 1st) back when I first got ROME-2 and for a while they were my favourite (later replaced by the Selucids). However there was a period of time where I stopped playing Greek factions due to playing as most them and getting bored of Phalanx tactics, so I started playing Romans and Gauls a lot more (mixed in with Armenia). Thanks to mods such as DEI and others spicing up the Greek factions more I got back into them, and am quite pleased to see one of my first played factions getting a good dose of love. Also if what you have said about the Nomads is true then I'd love to see whats been done with the Scythians and Masgatae (or however you spell it), really enjoyed the video where you covered the Roxalani hoping the other Nomads got some good TLC as well.
That's great to hear you have a renewed love for the greek factions mate :) Also yes all of the Nomads were updated, I'll definitely be covering the Scythians soon and then the Saka after. Keep an eye out over the next few weeks
@@Immersaholic Looking forward to that, I did enjoy this one over Galatia. While I do think what they've done with Galatia is a step in the right direction it just felt a little lack luster compared to a lot of their neighbours (Armenia, Pontus, etc.) . Especially when you look at the history of Galatia and see how they became increasing Hellenised (Greek-a-fied) to the point that when Rome encountered them they were for all intents and purposes Greek, mixed in with some Eastern Influence as well. Could be cool to see them do this in future updates for the Galatia faction. Such as with the reforms you start off Celtic, then you start taking on more Greek attributes mixed in with some Eastern attributes as well but only time will tell. And yeah I know this was a Macedon video but I watched both today so figured I'd give my thougts on Galatia as well in short great videos man. Macedon looking good, Galatia shows potential, and looking forward to more Nomad stuff :) .
One thing I recommend always to get when in Greece is Maedi Peltasts (my favourite unit in the game) and/or the Agrianian Peltasts, they have great melee stats (AP melee iirc) and lots of javelins at start which can be buffed a lot with general (from starting 7 to 12 javelins maybe?). Maedis punch way above their paygrade and in recent campaings I haven't lost any of them after recruiting and they get chevrons fast. They wreck enemy elites and after javs double as very good line. With them you can go with cheaper hoplites so you don't need to use your upper classes for fighting that much, of course one or 2 high tier pikes are always nice to have just in case. If I could, I'd propably just make full Maedi Peltast stacks early game.
Love Macoedon, easily my favorite faction (other than Rome, of whom I think of daily). They could've easily taken Rome's place in history, were it not for a series of blunders. One of the only nations that could've threatened them. Game wise, I love the phalanx and cavalry tactics. The area surrounding them is rich and if you're not savvy, you could easily lose with some bad luck and bad timing. Makes it more fun
36:29 I think the word Peltast could either signify the type of shield being used or the infantry was sort of used for fast movement on the battlefield, given their slightly lower Armor.
Yes, what you said about Peltasts generally is true, but the Royal Peltasts actually were an elite unit for the Antigonids, more like special forces. The Royal Peltasts unit and Royal Pikemen unit are the same guys, just one iteration has them using their swords while the other short pikes
@@georgec3931 Thanks for this. I do remember reading about them. I think the unit had this in their description or could be in a book, but had forgotten it.
Neat - I was playing around with the idea of starting a mecedon dei campaign as I've never tried them before (I'm a simple man, whenever I am itching for some greeks, I kinda always pick Sparta) - so this might come in handy. I quite like those overview videos BUT I would absolutely love to see a full fletched campaign in the style of your Sparta campaign. Your style and the depths of "roleplaying" you manage to instill into your gameplay is absolutely amazing :-)
I'm glad this can help you out mate, I'm very much the same and love a good Spartan campaign! Epirus is great too but Macedon is of course an instant classic choice! I'm in the middle of recording a new campaign although it won't be a Greek one just yet... More like we'll be in the Mithridatic Wars campaign :D Eventually I'll do some more Greeks again though for sure!
Don’t remember if white shield infantry are still foreign pop, but when I did my Macedon campaign I would run garrison/crap stacks of them in my far off conquest. Better stats than other levies and can overwhelm enemy in auto resolve or with another more professional army.
I’d love to do that, it’ll take some serious research and time but I can at least do videos pointing out the most useful units to aim for . What do you think mate?
@@Immersaholic i think that would be awesome! Like i noticed summary in his rome campaign builds up hispania heavly toward AOR recruitment. Guess they have good cav?
One thing I wish DEI had which RIS has (surplus of) is the intensity in certain regions. Take Greece for example in both mods. In DEI most if not every faction is a one hitter quitter, whilst in RIS you have your many regional powers, the boeotian, and aetolian league, Macedon and Epirus, the immersion you get from battling over regions on the map are unmatched. If DEI had that, assuming that they lack the ability to because of however Rome 2 was made, that would make it the perfect mod imo. Also like the "keeping it short approach" as it makes short campaigns more fun and less time consuming, doing something like uniting all of Greece (including Rhodes and Crete) and conquering Asia Minor, possibly even Italy is I think a healthy amount game time, trying to achieve that on RIS is a joke you might as well conquer the entire Rome 2 vanilla map with that time
To be fair DEI does have several campaigns that you can play that give you more intense theaters of war. Such as the Macedonian Wars campaign where you get to play all of Greece really intently. However that's because it's from the Wrath of Sparta DLC. The DEI team can't yet make custom edits to the Rome 2 map, all they can do so far is use the maps provided by CA. There has been some map tools being beta tested (not by DEI) this year, however it's still VERY early in development. I think DEI still provides the best overall experience considering the hand they were dealt in limited mod tools by CA for Rome 2. Then there is also the excellent gameplay added by the DEI team combined with great graphic mods give the experience something truly unique and immersive imo.
Being my favorite campaign in DeI and just Rome/Rome2 in general, Macedon is a tricky start like this video explains for DeI (not as tricky though in the earlier versions where Macedon was fighting for it's life on all fronts). Following tips from this video, I can't help but emphasize the point in this video that you need to take out Epirus within your first ten turns, at least taking their town that they have within the Greek Isles. If you neglect that then Rome will invade within the first ten turns and if they take that town and you will have a hellish war of attrition that Macedon cannot afford during the early game considering it's centralized pop mainly in Pella versus how much of a pool that Rome can draw from. On top of that you will be fighting winnable battles against Rome if that war starts (mainly through the AI cheese that Immersaholic mentions), but it'll be a straight war of attrition and at some point Rome with their stacks upon stacks will eat up even your most well performing army. Taking out Epirus early at least by nabbing their home town will guarantee an easier start where you are not sucked into a unwinnable war, on top of immediately going for trade and non-aggression pacts with Rome there after. From there you have an easy route on either securing the Greek isle entirely, paying Athens and Sparta off through favors and having them just chill, and/or from there just pointing your armies in a general direction.
Yes indeed. It was common to be in a three way war from the first turns. Only Epirus was slower to declare due to being alraedy in a war against Rome. But two hostiles above and three below was standard.
I found that after I conquered Greece and Thrace as Macedon, if I make vassal states of the Illyrians, they can be great allies in the future epic showdown with late Rome. They endlessly harass, raid and use land + navy along the Adriatic. It means Rome has to fight on 2 fronts allowing you to not get swarmed by stacks. Gives you those 1on 1 army fights the Macedonians can win step by step.
Very nice point! Their province isn't really worth the trouble of holding onto imo. Also idk why but I always see the Illyrians do REALLY well in my campaigns lol :P
the royal peltast swordsmen were actually part of the 5000 agema unit, 3k or 2k of them were phalangites ( pikemen ) and 2k or 3k or them again were swordsmen, they were ELITE swordsmen with javelins, shield and swords. Unfortunately DEI guys like fantasy history so they made them a crappy unit in D.E.I :D. Even the vanilla got them more accurate than dei lmao
Macedonian light hoplites are pretty good also they have 4 speed, which is really top tier. Pair them up with a cavalry on the flanks. Thureos spears arent as fast, break easier. better for the center.
Greek swordsmen are actually surprisingly good. Just make sure to keep them in second line so they can throw all of their javelins before you get them engaged in melee. I would use them effectively even against the likes of veteran roman legionaries and they would be able to hold long enough for my cavalry to win the day. Overall they are versatile, reliable and very cost effective.
In my Macedon campaign I had to win like 6 heroic victories to gain a solid foothold in the first 10 turns, after that I noticed how I could only recruit terrible units cause 2nd and 1st class population I had all used up xD
Yeah, compared to other Hellenistic powers, Antigonid Macedon does have a fewer units . But imo when it comes to the elite infantry units, they still have a lot. I did have a talk with Kam from the DEI team before and he pretty much says that the Shield Bearers/Elite Guard pikemen and the Royal Peltast swordsmen/Royal Peltast pikemen are the same units (just re-armed with javelins and spears instead of pikes). But I just find it weird because the units have different sizes with the pike units being 256 while the sword/spear units being 200. If they are the same, what happened to the other 56 men? And it also comes to the shield of Shield bearers, are they re-equipped with a smaller shield from a baggage train when they fight as pikemen? (Obviously, the shield issue will just lead another academic theme topic which will just make my comment way already too long, so maybe in another video perhaps 😂😂😂) To reduce having too much elite infantry units, hopefully the team can add an "Ekdromos command button" and if, only if, that's really possible for the mod. Ekdromos means "Out-Runners" and this makes the hoplites exit a phalanx formation and engage their enemies in a mobile melee combat. The command button would have the pikemen drop their sarissas and be rearmed with javelins and swords. The cons is that this would decrease their melee attack, melee ap damage and bonuses against elephants but simultaneously would increase their mobility and would make them perfectly suited for siege battles. Should be available for elite units only.
Well that button your talking about seems essentially the same as giving them an attack order when out of their phalanx mode. They pull out swords and get into combat when you do so. I’m not sure about the 256 man choice but I swear I read an explanation a few years ago on it
@@Immersaholic Well that's true, but the difference is the once the Ekdromos command is initiated, the unit's ability to form a phalanx is nullified and they literally have to fight as swordsmen only, without a [somewhat cheating] ability to suddenly fight as pikemen. If they have to form a phalanx once again they need to go the area where their sarissas were dropped (very difficult in a siege battle). It's like a cavalry unit's ability to dismount a fight as infantrymen and to fight as cavalry again they had to literally go where their horses were. The thing with the numerical unit size and this command button is to possibly avoid having too many elite units in the roster without sacrificing the balance (Not just for the Hellenistic Kingdoms but other factions as well). But the truth in all things, I don't think this command button is possible anytime soon. I truly wish it was.
Short/shock pikes. Get them around back, charge enemy, then activate phalanx.. a few double clicks and holy hell do those boys hand out a bunch of death. You can also use them to absorb and then counter an enemy flank push. They take a little micro, but those double clicks turn them into a meat grinder. I’ve also used them to decent effect to punch a hole the middle of a battle line, however they’ll take some casualties.
So, someone explain to me how every campaign I start my cities are all in the red for population, losing hundreds per turn, and it's many turns before u can stabilize and grow, but his are all in the green and growing from turn one? Do i have a bug?
Royal pikemen used to be 4 speed before the nerf. that you didn't comment on the Agema gaurd macedone most broken unit is beyond me. if you can recruit an entire frontline of these bad boys and god have mercy on the enemy if they let you flank with them, they don't grind they murder
I did talk about all the units but I’m not going to obsess about every single one that’s super strong or weak. I do emphasize high stats and other features but I’m not going to freak out every single time. For every overview I do most factions always have 1 or 2 units someone is dismayed I didn’t cover super in depth. This is just a faction overview, not a unit highlight. I do intend to do shorter videos pointing out insane units of course, but right now I’m just trying to communicate general knowledge to the general DeI population.
Hello mate! I love your videos- so much great info combined with passion. Keep it going! You convinced me to buy rome 2 but do I need all the dlc or just the base game for me to get the whole DEI experience?
Thanks very much mate, welcome to the community!! The base game will give you the full experience but the DLCs will offer you more factions to choose from. So it really just depends on what factions you want to play as. However, the DLCs don't include any extra gameplay features (besides new campaigns) so you won't miss out on the core experience. What factions are you interested in mate?
@@dimitarnedev5729 I'm pretty sure you don't need DLCs for any of those. But yeah if you see that for example I'm doing faction overviews for factions that you don't have listed in game, it's because you are missing the corresponding DLC. If you have any questions feel free to join our discord and ask :) (Link in description mate)
Thanks very much mate! The best way to do them is to join a community and then ask for people to make custom battles with you. I recommend you join my one as we have a lot of online battlers there. You also need the exact same mod list turned on as your opponent
Awesome video ❤ I'm having a problem with dei, some unit names and descriptions don't appear. Do you guys know if it can be because other mods or if there is a solution? Thanks in advance!
I may be misremembering but couldn't you set your ranged units to melee so you can see their melee weapon? Might be useful especially for units with a mysteriously high AP damage.
In my opinion Macedon is one of the easiest campaigns in DEI and vanilla. Yes you're a one hitter one quitter but your city is walled and doesn't need many troops to be defended. And the city has a port so it takes a very long time to siege it down. Your armies are superior to all of your early game enemies, be it the Greeks, the thracians, the illyrians or even the Romans. The other cities in your province are not walled so you can rush them easily and you will gain a lot more manpower because they are all Greek culture. You even have the choice to stay friendly with the Greeks in Hellas or to wipe them out. After securing Macedonia, Thrace and maybe even Hellas and illyria you have the choice to go west and wipe out rome early on probably get an alliance with Carthage or you can stay friendly with Rome (rome will love you for fighting epirus) probably even get an alliance and turn east to restore the alexandrian empire. The only people that could match you at that point are the nomads and the bactrians, probably the Egyptians. The seleucids could be dangerous but usually they're constantly under attack from all sides so they're rarely able to reach full strength
I couldn’t agree more mate, overall the difficulty rating could’ve even been lower but I kept it where it is as this is for more casual players. They may not realize how to deal with having multiple enemies
Research certain techs and build buildings that will benefit your higher tier pops. It’s a slow turn over but once you do these things you’ll get tier 2 and 1 all across the kingdom
I have the mod in the correct order but the cities interface are white and i cant see the cities names and how many soldiers defend the city, how i can fix it? Also i play with Dei part 1,2 and 3 but my interface and traits are different when you are playing the campaing
Are you playing with a steam copy? Sounds like you may be using an "unofficial" copy of the game. If you do have the steam version, make sure you have no other mods installed and also "verify" your game files.
Macedon can feel a bit overwhelming with all of these declarations. The main thing you gotta do is move quickly, within the first 10 turns you should knock out at least a couple enemies, maybe even liberate one of the cities so you make yourself an ally. Your army is far better quality than those around you too.
@@Immersaholic Take the challenge of not using them, and play on hard difficulty. Talking about rl, theres a reason Rome didnt use them, too inflexible just like in game.
For now this series is just about the DeI factions without submods, however I’d be happy to check out the Etruscan submod where I talk about the mod and faction overall 🤓
You know what I like of the Macedons? Not the pikes, but the swordsmen. Those folks are close enough to the earlier Legionnaires and I can build up even legions with them. Sometimes I even fly with fantasy... A distant polis, away from the rising Roman empire but surrounded by barbarians to fight. And a good legion made by macedonians, greeks, some italians. Damn that was good. 😌👌
@@Immersaholic yep, great units. Macedons are really underrated. Well, maybe I'm a bit of part here since as Italian I love greek units as like I love my Roman legions. But still those armies was really great.
@@Immersaholicthere effective against everything. haha except long pikes but the AI is usually retarded and walks in closely to your shock pikes making them Tear through them
2 Questions for you all: Do you find the time stamps useful? And what faction do you want to see covered next ofcourse?! Keep in mind we tend to try to change cultures after each overview. Nomads will probably get a look soon since they were overhauled recently!
Definitely some Eastern factions
The time stamps are really convenient I really appreciate them! Can’t wait to see the Ardiaei
@@bibianoalvarez903 Thanks mate that helps me out ! :) Ardiaei will be coming soon for sure! They destroyed me in that online battle I posted last week D:
@@dietricklamade7417 Maybe Maurya? I have already done Parthia in the 1.3 series so far.
@@Immersaholic theyre very strong.
YES., it is because Pelta was the small shield and not the javelin they were throwing. They just happen to take their name all the javelinsmen as peltasts due to the shield
"29 is quite old"
-Checks family tree
-Dynasty founder died at age 81... in battle
Ha! I was thinking the same thing.
i think the medeaval ear had worse life expectancy than the ancient era
It’s a big misconception, both for ancient and medieval periods average life expectancy is dragged down by child mortality which was a huge problem. If they survive the first 5 years though their average life expectancy increased dramatically up to 50-60-70 even.
@@ares106and depends if its a time in which there were many pandemics
Honestly, I had a much easier time with the Macedonians than I did as Rome. They don’t have any early game enemies that compare to Carthage, and they are so close to so many great resources. So long as you don’t literally try to fight everyone at once, I don’t think you can go too wrong with them.
I can definitely see how this can be a easier start for Rome, your early game military is much stronger than Romes. If you watch Let’s Plays of people as Macedon you’ll see they like to take Rome out early because it’s of course easier to do so
What if everyone declare war at you? 🤣
yes, Rome on turn 1 has to deal with invasion from Tarentum.
I was at war with every neighbor on turn 2 xD
I like to use the Royal Pikemen in a square instead of a line so they can maneuver better. Theyre 3 speed, quite flexible. You can even charge them in if you want.
Thrake is a rich province so liberating Pulpudeva isn't that advisable, I think. The province has slaves and silver so it plays straight to your industry bonus.
I recommend doing it in the early stages if you are overwhelmed by Greeks or others attacking. You can always betray your military ally later on for those resources. But trying to hold it in the 1st 20 turns or so is tough with PO issues. Easier to let the ai deal with it until your ready.
Great video, mate. What I love most about playing as Macedon is their general's bodyguard cavalry. In the early game, I was getting upwards of 800 kills per battle with them against the Celts and Greeks. Really adds to that Alexander-esque warrior-king feeling.
Their body guard is insane! I’ll be posting videos of our tournament this week and you’ll see how well Macedon does with its bodyguard
A Peltast was a soldier named for their shield rather than their weapon, Greeks commonly named soldiers after their shield (Hoplite - Hoplon, Scuta - Scutatoi) and the Pelta was a crescent shaped (but could be round) shield that was popular amongst javelin users for its ease of use with a javelin and its light weight but did not always mean the unit threw javelins as their main job. The royal peltasts were heavy infantry, hand picked by royalty, and served a versatile role on the battlefield as both skirmishers and infantry including in a phalanx. they were much easier to move around then the pikemen and still carried a pelta style shield. they were similar to the Alexandrian hypaspists, versatile elite troops you could put anywhere and move quickly. The Agema were the even eliter elites.
Cheers for the info mate
Macedon was the 2nd faction I played (Sparta was my 1st) back when I first got ROME-2 and for a while they were my favourite (later replaced by the Selucids). However there was a period of time where I stopped playing Greek factions due to playing as most them and getting bored of Phalanx tactics, so I started playing Romans and Gauls a lot more (mixed in with Armenia).
Thanks to mods such as DEI and others spicing up the Greek factions more I got back into them, and am quite pleased to see one of my first played factions getting a good dose of love.
Also if what you have said about the Nomads is true then I'd love to see whats been done with the Scythians and Masgatae (or however you spell it), really enjoyed the video where you covered the Roxalani hoping the other Nomads got some good TLC as well.
That's great to hear you have a renewed love for the greek factions mate :) Also yes all of the Nomads were updated, I'll definitely be covering the Scythians soon and then the Saka after. Keep an eye out over the next few weeks
@@Immersaholic Looking forward to that, I did enjoy this one over Galatia. While I do think what they've done with Galatia is a step in the right direction it just felt a little lack luster compared to a lot of their neighbours (Armenia, Pontus, etc.) .
Especially when you look at the history of Galatia and see how they became increasing Hellenised (Greek-a-fied) to the point that when Rome encountered them they were for all intents and purposes Greek, mixed in with some Eastern Influence as well.
Could be cool to see them do this in future updates for the Galatia faction. Such as with the reforms you start off Celtic, then you start taking on more Greek attributes mixed in with some Eastern attributes as well but only time will tell.
And yeah I know this was a Macedon video but I watched both today so figured I'd give my thougts on Galatia as well in short great videos man. Macedon looking good, Galatia shows potential, and looking forward to more Nomad stuff :) .
One thing I recommend always to get when in Greece is Maedi Peltasts (my favourite unit in the game) and/or the Agrianian Peltasts, they have great melee stats (AP melee iirc) and lots of javelins at start which can be buffed a lot with general (from starting 7 to 12 javelins maybe?). Maedis punch way above their paygrade and in recent campaings I haven't lost any of them after recruiting and they get chevrons fast. They wreck enemy elites and after javs double as very good line. With them you can go with cheaper hoplites so you don't need to use your upper classes for fighting that much, of course one or 2 high tier pikes are always nice to have just in case. If I could, I'd propably just make full Maedi Peltast stacks early game.
Very nice unit for sure! They are surrounded by amazing AoR and Merc units!
Love Macoedon, easily my favorite faction (other than Rome, of whom I think of daily). They could've easily taken Rome's place in history, were it not for a series of blunders. One of the only nations that could've threatened them.
Game wise, I love the phalanx and cavalry tactics. The area surrounding them is rich and if you're not savvy, you could easily lose with some bad luck and bad timing. Makes it more fun
Really like your work. Nicely to the point.
Thanks very much !
36:29 I think the word Peltast could either signify the type of shield being used or the infantry was sort of used for fast movement on the battlefield, given their slightly lower Armor.
Oh yes indeed, I was more-so trying to describe it in the context of what we are TW players use it. Typically peltast means a sort of javelineman :)
Yes, what you said about Peltasts generally is true, but the Royal Peltasts actually were an elite unit for the Antigonids, more like special forces. The Royal Peltasts unit and Royal Pikemen unit are the same guys, just one iteration has them using their swords while the other short pikes
@@georgec3931 Thanks for this. I do remember reading about them. I think the unit had this in their description or could be in a book, but had forgotten it.
@@georgec3931 Not special forces, special forces are more like the SAS or SEALs. These guys are more like Royal Marines or US Rangers
Neat - I was playing around with the idea of starting a mecedon dei campaign as I've never tried them before (I'm a simple man, whenever I am itching for some greeks, I kinda always pick Sparta) - so this might come in handy.
I quite like those overview videos BUT I would absolutely love to see a full fletched campaign in the style of your Sparta campaign.
Your style and the depths of "roleplaying" you manage to instill into your gameplay is absolutely amazing :-)
I'm glad this can help you out mate, I'm very much the same and love a good Spartan campaign! Epirus is great too but Macedon is of course an instant classic choice!
I'm in the middle of recording a new campaign although it won't be a Greek one just yet... More like we'll be in the Mithridatic Wars campaign :D Eventually I'll do some more Greeks again though for sure!
Don’t remember if white shield infantry are still foreign pop, but when I did my Macedon campaign I would run garrison/crap stacks of them in my far off conquest. Better stats than other levies and can overwhelm enemy in auto resolve or with another more professional army.
They are tier 4 pop yes
Would love an overview over aor units as a whole. What is gamechanging, what areas could i go for based purely on aor
I’d love to do that, it’ll take some serious research and time but I can at least do videos pointing out the most useful units to aim for . What do you think mate?
@@Immersaholic i think that would be awesome! Like i noticed summary in his rome campaign builds up hispania heavly toward AOR recruitment. Guess they have good cav?
One thing I wish DEI had which RIS has (surplus of) is the intensity in certain regions. Take Greece for example in both mods. In DEI most if not every faction is a one hitter quitter, whilst in RIS you have your many regional powers, the boeotian, and aetolian league, Macedon and Epirus, the immersion you get from battling over regions on the map are unmatched. If DEI had that, assuming that they lack the ability to because of however Rome 2 was made, that would make it the perfect mod imo. Also like the "keeping it short approach" as it makes short campaigns more fun and less time consuming, doing something like uniting all of Greece (including Rhodes and Crete) and conquering Asia Minor, possibly even Italy is I think a healthy amount game time, trying to achieve that on RIS is a joke you might as well conquer the entire Rome 2 vanilla map with that time
To be fair DEI does have several campaigns that you can play that give you more intense theaters of war. Such as the Macedonian Wars campaign where you get to play all of Greece really intently. However that's because it's from the Wrath of Sparta DLC. The DEI team can't yet make custom edits to the Rome 2 map, all they can do so far is use the maps provided by CA.
There has been some map tools being beta tested (not by DEI) this year, however it's still VERY early in development. I think DEI still provides the best overall experience considering the hand they were dealt in limited mod tools by CA for Rome 2.
Then there is also the excellent gameplay added by the DEI team combined with great graphic mods give the experience something truly unique and immersive imo.
Top Quality Immersaholic, I find Macedon difficult to play in the early game,2.time stamps yes very usefull .3. Selucids next lol...😎
Thanks mate! Appreciate you as always
Being my favorite campaign in DeI and just Rome/Rome2 in general, Macedon is a tricky start like this video explains for DeI (not as tricky though in the earlier versions where Macedon was fighting for it's life on all fronts). Following tips from this video, I can't help but emphasize the point in this video that you need to take out Epirus within your first ten turns, at least taking their town that they have within the Greek Isles. If you neglect that then Rome will invade within the first ten turns and if they take that town and you will have a hellish war of attrition that Macedon cannot afford during the early game considering it's centralized pop mainly in Pella versus how much of a pool that Rome can draw from.
On top of that you will be fighting winnable battles against Rome if that war starts (mainly through the AI cheese that Immersaholic mentions), but it'll be a straight war of attrition and at some point Rome with their stacks upon stacks will eat up even your most well performing army. Taking out Epirus early at least by nabbing their home town will guarantee an easier start where you are not sucked into a unwinnable war, on top of immediately going for trade and non-aggression pacts with Rome there after. From there you have an easy route on either securing the Greek isle entirely, paying Athens and Sparta off through favors and having them just chill, and/or from there just pointing your armies in a general direction.
Yes indeed. It was common to be in a three way war from the first turns. Only Epirus was slower to declare due to being alraedy in a war against Rome. But two hostiles above and three below was standard.
@immersaholic
Peltast arrives from the use of the Pelta shield.
Though it's usage varied
Cheers mate
Boii please! 😁 Keep the good content coming
Soon for sure! Thanks mate 🤓
Lmao "Tolistobogii boogie boogie tonight" caught me off guard
Been loving the videos! Keep up the great work!
Thanks mate!
I found that after I conquered Greece and Thrace as Macedon, if I make vassal states of the Illyrians, they can be great allies in the future epic showdown with late Rome. They endlessly harass, raid and use land + navy along the Adriatic. It means Rome has to fight on 2 fronts allowing you to not get swarmed by stacks. Gives you those 1on 1 army fights the Macedonians can win step by step.
Very nice point! Their province isn't really worth the trouble of holding onto imo. Also idk why but I always see the Illyrians do REALLY well in my campaigns lol :P
the royal peltast swordsmen were actually part of the 5000 agema unit, 3k or 2k of them were phalangites ( pikemen ) and 2k or 3k or them again were swordsmen, they were ELITE swordsmen with javelins, shield and swords.
Unfortunately DEI guys like fantasy history so they made them a crappy unit in D.E.I :D.
Even the vanilla got them more accurate than dei lmao
Macedonian light hoplites are pretty good also they have 4 speed, which is really top tier. Pair them up with a cavalry on the flanks. Thureos spears arent as fast, break easier. better for the center.
I'll never use them!! :D
Haha they cannnnnn be useful though... Your right
@@Immersaholic try them out on the flanks in with the cavalry, works well.
@@hia5235 haha I'm too much of a hater mate :P
Although I'm sure I will try eventually
Greek swordsmen are actually surprisingly good. Just make sure to keep them in second line so they can throw all of their javelins before you get them engaged in melee. I would use them effectively even against the likes of veteran roman legionaries and they would be able to hold long enough for my cavalry to win the day.
Overall they are versatile, reliable and very cost effective.
In my Macedon campaign I had to win like 6 heroic victories to gain a solid foothold in the first 10 turns, after that I noticed how I could only recruit terrible units cause 2nd and 1st class population I had all used up xD
That sounds like a typical Macedon start, your armies are very strong but your early game will still have a lot of early battles
Yeah, compared to other Hellenistic powers, Antigonid Macedon does have a fewer units . But imo when it comes to the elite infantry units, they still have a lot. I did have a talk with Kam from the DEI team before and he pretty much says that the Shield Bearers/Elite Guard pikemen and the Royal Peltast swordsmen/Royal Peltast pikemen are the same units (just re-armed with javelins and spears instead of pikes).
But I just find it weird because the units have different sizes with the pike units being 256 while the sword/spear units being 200. If they are the same, what happened to the other 56 men? And it also comes to the shield of Shield bearers, are they re-equipped with a smaller shield from a baggage train when they fight as pikemen? (Obviously, the shield issue will just lead another academic theme topic which will just make my comment way already too long, so maybe in another video perhaps 😂😂😂)
To reduce having too much elite infantry units, hopefully the team can add an "Ekdromos command button" and if, only if, that's really possible for the mod. Ekdromos means "Out-Runners" and this makes the hoplites exit a phalanx formation and engage their enemies in a mobile melee combat. The command button would have the pikemen drop their sarissas and be rearmed with javelins and swords. The cons is that this would decrease their melee attack, melee ap damage and bonuses against elephants but simultaneously would increase their mobility and would make them perfectly suited for siege battles. Should be available for elite units only.
Well that button your talking about seems essentially the same as giving them an attack order when out of their phalanx mode. They pull out swords and get into combat when you do so.
I’m not sure about the 256 man choice but I swear I read an explanation a few years ago on it
@@Immersaholic Well that's true, but the difference is the once the Ekdromos command is initiated, the unit's ability to form a phalanx is nullified and they literally have to fight as swordsmen only, without a [somewhat cheating] ability to suddenly fight as pikemen. If they have to form a phalanx once again they need to go the area where their sarissas were dropped (very difficult in a siege battle). It's like a cavalry unit's ability to dismount a fight as infantrymen and to fight as cavalry again they had to literally go where their horses were.
The thing with the numerical unit size and this command button is to possibly avoid having too many elite units in the roster without sacrificing the balance (Not just for the Hellenistic Kingdoms but other factions as well). But the truth in all things, I don't think this command button is possible anytime soon. I truly wish it was.
@@thegermaniccoenus2525probably not possible in the engine
@@cal2127 Yeah, that what I thought as well.
Short/shock pikes. Get them around back, charge enemy, then activate phalanx.. a few double clicks and holy hell do those boys hand out a bunch of death. You can also use them to absorb and then counter an enemy flank push. They take a little micro, but those double clicks turn them into a meat grinder.
I’ve also used them to decent effect to punch a hole the middle of a battle line, however they’ll take some casualties.
They are savage mate!
What other mods are u using? My building slots dont look so polished and good like yours... mine are the old style
I list submods in the description although I’m not sure if I listed the buildings submod here… I’ll check shortly mate
So, someone explain to me how every campaign I start my cities are all in the red for population, losing hundreds per turn, and it's many turns before u can stabilize and grow, but his are all in the green and growing from turn one? Do i have a bug?
Hallo, i have noticed that there is no Epirus in my grand campaign, do you know what is going on? Thanks!
Royal pikemen used to be 4 speed before the nerf. that you didn't comment on the Agema gaurd macedone most broken unit is beyond me. if you can recruit an entire frontline of these bad boys and god have mercy on the enemy if they let you flank with them, they don't grind they murder
I did talk about all the units but I’m not going to obsess about every single one that’s super strong or weak. I do emphasize high stats and other features but I’m not going to freak out every single time. For every overview I do most factions always have 1 or 2 units someone is dismayed I didn’t cover super in depth. This is just a faction overview, not a unit highlight.
I do intend to do shorter videos pointing out insane units of course, but right now I’m just trying to communicate general knowledge to the general DeI population.
@@Immersaholic you could simply said these units are great if you can recruit an entire frontline of these do it
@@King.Leonidas I often do mate, just in this specific case I didn't bother.
@@Immersaholic its the main unique unit for the Macedonians. i wrote a longer reply but it went away. i guess you should make special unit videos ;)
Hello mate! I love your videos- so much great info combined with passion. Keep it going!
You convinced me to buy rome 2 but do I need all the dlc or just the base game for me to get the whole DEI experience?
Thanks very much mate, welcome to the community!!
The base game will give you the full experience but the DLCs will offer you more factions to choose from. So it really just depends on what factions you want to play as. However, the DLCs don't include any extra gameplay features (besides new campaigns) so you won't miss out on the core experience.
What factions are you interested in mate?
@@Immersaholic Carthage, Maurya, Swebi and Rome ofcourse. I guess a little bit of everything 😄
@@dimitarnedev5729 I'm pretty sure you don't need DLCs for any of those. But yeah if you see that for example I'm doing faction overviews for factions that you don't have listed in game, it's because you are missing the corresponding DLC.
If you have any questions feel free to join our discord and ask :) (Link in description mate)
@@Immersaholic Thank you very much mate! You are real good gatekeeper for the community and great content creator. Have a good evening! :)
Thanks very much mate 😎
Which mods are you using for the city image cards? Very nice.
Cheers, I love them too tbh. Its Better Building Icons steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1949072970
Hey man. Really nice channel. How do I get in online battles in DEI? It seems like all games in search are vanilla.
Thanks very much mate! The best way to do them is to join a community and then ask for people to make custom battles with you. I recommend you join my one as we have a lot of online battlers there. You also need the exact same mod list turned on as your opponent
Awesome video ❤ I'm having a problem with dei, some unit names and descriptions don't appear. Do you guys know if it can be because other mods or if there is a solution? Thanks in advance!
Thanks mate! All of the units should have descriptions so I’d say yes you probably have a mod conflict.
@@Immersaholic mmm then I'll download again the same mods that you had in the description and in that order. Thank u for the help!! Glory to Macedon!!
I may be misremembering but couldn't you set your ranged units to melee so you can see their melee weapon? Might be useful especially for units with a mysteriously high AP damage.
I believe you have to have the battle running, it doesn’t work during the deployment phase for me.
In my opinion Macedon is one of the easiest campaigns in DEI and vanilla. Yes you're a one hitter one quitter but your city is walled and doesn't need many troops to be defended. And the city has a port so it takes a very long time to siege it down. Your armies are superior to all of your early game enemies, be it the Greeks, the thracians, the illyrians or even the Romans. The other cities in your province are not walled so you can rush them easily and you will gain a lot more manpower because they are all Greek culture. You even have the choice to stay friendly with the Greeks in Hellas or to wipe them out. After securing Macedonia, Thrace and maybe even Hellas and illyria you have the choice to go west and wipe out rome early on probably get an alliance with Carthage or you can stay friendly with Rome (rome will love you for fighting epirus) probably even get an alliance and turn east to restore the alexandrian empire. The only people that could match you at that point are the nomads and the bactrians, probably the Egyptians. The seleucids could be dangerous but usually they're constantly under attack from all sides so they're rarely able to reach full strength
I couldn’t agree more mate, overall the difficulty rating could’ve even been lower but I kept it where it is as this is for more casual players. They may not realize how to deal with having multiple enemies
Need help with te population, I always have more tier 3 population than other ones
Research certain techs and build buildings that will benefit your higher tier pops. It’s a slow turn over but once you do these things you’ll get tier 2 and 1 all across the kingdom
I have the mod in the correct order but the cities interface are white and i cant see the cities names and how many soldiers defend the city, how i can fix it? Also i play with Dei part 1,2 and 3 but my interface and traits are different when you are playing the campaing
Are you playing with a steam copy? Sounds like you may be using an "unofficial" copy of the game.
If you do have the steam version, make sure you have no other mods installed and also "verify" your game files.
@@Immersaholic Thanks for answer me fast, i fixed the problem verify my files :D
Great, enjoy yourself friend!@@pablorp4234
I LOVE light hoplites 🥺
Everyone does but me mate haha 😆 I’m just a hater 😋
I am finding it impossible to play as Macedon. 5 neighbors declare war with me in the first 10 turns. Including all the barbarians in the North.
Macedon can feel a bit overwhelming with all of these declarations. The main thing you gotta do is move quickly, within the first 10 turns you should knock out at least a couple enemies, maybe even liberate one of the cities so you make yourself an ally. Your army is far better quality than those around you too.
Hey could you make the music mod available?
pike vs ai is so cheese, which is why when i play macedon or any pike heavy faction i dont use them, closest i get is the long spearmen
It can feel quite cheesy to be honest. But pikes were super tough irl so maybe it’s okay to abuse it
@@Immersaholic Take the challenge of not using them, and play on hard difficulty. Talking about rl, theres a reason Rome didnt use them, too inflexible just like in game.
Do the Seleucids next!
A lot of people have been asking! I reckon we can check them when we come back to Greek factions. We gotta show barbarians and the East some love too
Etruria next. But don't forget the links to the mods you using
For now this series is just about the DeI factions without submods, however I’d be happy to check out the Etruscan submod where I talk about the mod and faction overall 🤓
@@Immersaholic Very well mate.
@@Immersaholicid love it. the mod needs some love
Hmm mabye Armenia or massalia soon? Dont remember if you've done recent updates on them but two of my favs
I haven't updated them actually, I don't think Armenia has had too many changes to be honest but I'll still probably cover it :)
@@Immersaholic awesome haha, I also love me some Nabatea. Thanks for all the content mate
@@dylanzipperer7103 Thanks very much mate! The Arabic factions will get some love here for sure too :)
Put the unit in melee stance and they will put away javelins.
I believe you have to have the battle running, it doesn’t work during the deployment phase for me.
You know what I like of the Macedons? Not the pikes, but the swordsmen.
Those folks are close enough to the earlier Legionnaires and I can build up even legions with them.
Sometimes I even fly with fantasy... A distant polis, away from the rising Roman empire but surrounded by barbarians to fight.
And a good legion made by macedonians, greeks, some italians.
Damn that was good. 😌👌
Their swords can be proper insane mate, I like using the epirote units though
@@Immersaholic yep, great units.
Macedons are really underrated.
Well, maybe I'm a bit of part here since as Italian I love greek units as like I love my Roman legions. But still those armies was really great.
short pikes would be much more useful in the east against cav armies
You think so? I see them being most effective against infantry as they act as sort of shock pikes.
@@Immersaholicthere effective against everything. haha except long pikes but the AI is usually retarded and walks in closely to your shock pikes making them Tear through them
Probably an unpopular opinion but the ai get way too much money
Spoiler Alerts! 24:25
You want all the spoilers mate? 😁
All pale in comparison to mighty and illustrious Baktria!
Mate your not wrong lol 😆 one of the best factions out there!
@@Immersaholic Next to them you have Pergammon who have by far and hands down the most beautiful and well decorated troops in the entire mod.
They are indeed pretty sexy mate. Although.... I'm a Roman man :D Can't beat the sight of a Legion of legionaries!
pd