Help with Arco

[General Tacticus]

Hmm, I haven't played them much, but as I remember, they have decent heavy infantry (hypaspists and hoplites) and some nice javelin throwers (peltasts). But the javelin throwers on fire closest on the front line, back them with heavy infantry on attack closest just behind, and you have the making of a decent army for the starting game The javelin will act as softeners and shock absorbers for your heavy infantry, which should have a very good survival rate (not so the throwers, but they are cheap). Forget the slingers, the cavalry and the cardaces. When you have the money, you can try elephants, but they are tricky to use : you must plan for them to rout, and leave the way open, or you will feel the pain Also, you need at the very least 5 of them, a little back so they are not the first target of archers, or they will never get to the enemy before routing...

Remember that your priestess can heal afflictions.

Later, you will need to use their mages, but I can't help you there, I have never gotten that far.

[Teraswaerto]

Mix elephants with hypaphists so they are less likely to rout and go trample. Put chariots on the flanks with ordered to "hold and attack rear" for some more trample.

[PDF]

A little trick : put some Hypaspists along with Elephants to boost their morale somewhat.
5 Elephants costs 500 G/100 R, Morale is 9
5 Elephants + 5 Hyps costs 575 G/190 R, avg morale is 11.5

[Unwise]

This is exactly the type of feedback I was hoping for guys, thank you. Soon I will impose my tyranny over the entire map and force everyone to eat olive-based dishes!

Muhahahahaha! Ha!

[Jasper]

Body Ethereal works great on elephants, just make sure to group them with Hypaspists for morale.

LI javelins should be good too, but don't put them front and center. They get massacred by bowfire or melee contact, and you really want to find something less vulnerable to take the brunt.

As was stated before, you should put Hyps and Elephants together, but you should note that the Elephants will far outdistance the Hyps and one or two may die. My common configuration for Indy stomping is 4 Elephants 12~13 Hyps. You can get away with 3 sometimes, but more often than not, a headstong elephant will run out in front of the rest and try to stmapede his way to the back and get caught and killed in the middle.

But with 4 or 5 Elephants, most things will rout by the pure carnage that the elephants bring.

Also using Hyps instead of Hoplites allows Map movement of two.

You should be able to build an army like that every turn or two as you expand. Then have a 4 Astral Astrologer equipped with a Crown of Command play the role of ferry. Have him grab large amounts of troops and Gateway them to your borders (with a lab).

Also never stop making Mystics, with their magic versitility, ability to communion, 2 astral base (for paralyze, stellar fires) and good research capability you'll have a very decent search force (for sites) and an incredibly versatile magic resource for when you can't count on the pure elephant factor. Also save an Astrologer who gets 1 in Death for any SC's you happen to see marching around, and as soon as they enter your domain hit them with a Vengance of the Dead.

[1000yd_stare]

Send plenty of gems and gold to the Tien Chi player. Thus is the way to victory.