I'm in the mission where you have to conquer Sardis and Delos, but I keep failing to conquer either of them.

I'm attacking with 3 legions of 8 hoplites, 3 trirremes and 1 allied city... I'm very far from the power needed to success?

it's really difficult to support more hoplites because of the amount of basic resources I have to import, they are limited to 12 units a year (oil, fleece, armors...). And I can't upgrade the rich houses to the max because competitors building is disabled, they only support 2 hoplites per rich house.

I dont recall the exact situation you are in but two things... One, the size of the army will depend on the difficulty level to some degree. So Olympian will take more than Novice, etc. Two, that sounds like a very small army to take Delios which from my memory is a 5+ shield military strength city. Not just kind of small, but very small. I would say 8 full Hoplite companies is the way to go. Making it a nice easy transition to 16 Horse Companies when you get the ability.

You could also stack up a few more Triremes. I find them to be somewhat weak in the attack calculation but they can always help and are generally easy to build and maintain since you dont need to staff them 100% of the time.

If that sounds like a lot, give me some details and perhaps we can suggest some possibilities. There are also plenty of quality walkthroughs available that can assist.

I agree, I am having the exact same issue. I have even a stronger army with almost 35 hoplites and 5 tiremes, but still no luck, even on the easiest "beginner" setting. I know in the orignial version this was a tough episode, but it was never inconquerable! I remembered to wait until the "military decline" message at both Delos and Sardis. I was able to conquer Delos with help from an ally, but Sardis crushes my invasions each time with no degradation of its defenses.

I think this is a bug in the GOG version.

Do you have two Armor merchants for a quick turn around so that you can hit them again and again.

Only one city is selling armor, and it's also very difficult to beat (but doable on easy level). Even with that little supply, I attacked them three times in a row and didn't make a dent. My allies didn't even want to help me anymore and I have to gift them thousands of drachmas to gain their favor again.

Thanks for trying to provide some input! Unfortunately I still cannot get through.

Wine as a gift can create a request for more Armor. I think it is around 18 bottles of wine for 8 armor.
(That wasn't clear. There is one City, I forget which that doesn't sell but has armor. Get them really happy drunk and then request Armor. But you have to give a lot of wine.)

In a few missions you have to complet a quest or other objectives before being able to conquer some cities. It's not explicitly stated everytime when that applies but it has happened to me in several missions.

3 triremes and 4 hoplite companies are needed with allies to beat em.
At least it says so in zeus heaven. Wasn't there a mission you were supposed to send a hero to defeat some strong walls or something in between, my memory could be wrong about this.

But i did beat zeus game only have to beat the bonus scenario and poseidon now.

Went back and tried again. 4 Hops doesn't cut it depending on the difficulty level. Few things...

1 - Make sure you have a solid military. Fully upgraded, 8 units min. (if you are on Olympian, it takes a lot more. I had 16 units)
2 - As many Triremes as you can support. Reasonably 3 or 4
3 - You MUST wait for the military stand down and launch your attack within the month.

I had to simply cycle through years of time before notice came again. Otherwise it is unassailable. If you miss it, don't worry, it will come around again. Though its certainly easier to catch it the first time.

4 - Lastly, if you are having trouble, load form a save and adjust the difficulty down to the lowest. You can pretty much steam roll them with a reasonable number of troops.


Just to confirm, this is not a bug, simply a goofy mechanic that has gone awry. It does make it a challenge protecting everyone and launching the attack but bottom line it just creates more frustration than anything else.


@Fonzer - That's the Troy scenario string with Odysseus. This one is the Athens line. At least that's what I think you are referring to.

make an unreasonably large army and attack them with it.

i maxed the army size in a few scenarios just for laughs (something like 16 mounted and 20 infantry with 6 ships) this normally crushes everything on the map.

after a certain amount of elite housing it game just stops adding armies. but on the + side you get quick reinforcements when you take losses as the uncounted soldiers instantly fill in for the dead.

something around 30-40 elite housing should cap it out. been a while since i did this last so might be off by a bit.


as i see it. if you cant make at least 10 infantry units with max ships then youre sending in a small army. but i also make unreasonably large cities when the map allows it.

Thank you, I will try this.

I reached the army limit you can support in that map, in which you have to import almost everything and capped to 12 a year. If you buy a large amount of elite housings, they come with 100 armour, but they start to spend them and the 12 cap a year isn't near enough.

I didn't notice the "military decline" message, that may be it.

I played all Impressions Games since Caesar II in the 90s and I didn't recall nor expected such a mechanic.

Wow, that's dedication to a save file!

Been stuck for a few days on this mission on Olympian difficulty but I finally reset and beat it yesterday.

As you might find yourself struggling to get enough fleece, oil as well as armors to sustain your army in the end game, there is actually a way to get all you need and more if you use your army smart.

I have ended up completing this level with little above 4k population and 12 phalanx formations as well as 6 thiremes ... yeah, I went a bit far.

The armor issue is the easiest to overcome as you can take over Mt. Pelion rather easy in the early stages of the mission. They will provide a bit of bronze which you can use to make some profit off the sculpture industry but most importantly you will be able to use that profit to buy armor and not just wait for the very few items Olimpia gives you every year. Another bonus of taking on Mt Pelion is that they buy wine so you can make a little more extra cash by buying grapes and selling wine. Of course, the profit will be marginal, but every dime counts.
Mt Pelion was rather easy to take, I think I just sent 3 formations as well as colony support (your colonioes will go as high as 4 shields in military strength which is something you can use)

The oil issue will be covered by simply not selling olive oil to your residents, no matter how much you have. You will have considerably more in the following missions, but for now use all available olive oil on your military. The oil you get from commerce will be enough to stockpile 4 oil vendors, all assigned to military areas.

The fleece issue will be slightly harder to solve as you will need the imports Corinth and they will become hostile after a point. It is crucial that you have control of Mt. Pelion by this point. They have a 4 shield defence and probably not have a lot of power now. I had just 6 phalanx formations and that would not be enough.
I degraded their military defence by asking allies to attack them alone and once I got them to 2 shields (one attack from Olympia and one from Odessa) I hit them alongside my colony. I timed this with one of their attacks which I defended with rubble troops. I am not sure if timing your attacks right after their failures has any bearing on this difficulty, but I take what I can get.
With Corinth on 2 shields and with the colony besides my, the 6 phalanx did their job on the second attempt. That opens up more fleece commerce which means you finally have enough of an economic edge to setup your army. Sparta will never attack you and Sardis and Delos will only hit by sea which, with proper positioning of your thiremes, you can fend off without a casualty.

Once I had this, I just grew my military to 12 phalanx (don't think you need to go above 10, which will be the cap as you grow these houses more to get 20 formations). It took some time, but there was no threat anymore. With 12 phalanx and 6 thiremes I simply crushed first Delos and then Sardis and I did not have too many casualties either.

If you go around using this tactics for the mission, the rest of the campaigns will be a breeze. You will have some fun in the Vengeance mission where you might have to send defensive troops to two allies at once as well as defend yourself, but with 20 formations and 6 thiremes, that becomes incredibly easy.

It is also worth mentioning that you need to cover all the things you are buying as there is not a lot you can sell. The drahmas will have to cover for wages (even very high wages sometimes), buying olive oil, buying fleece, buying some armor. And especially when there is not much you can sell, having collection coverage is essential. The drahma inflow will be slow, but you will make a profit if you are patient enough (I finished this mission with nearly 100k drahmas)

And the last point, don't bother requesting resources from allies... you lose favor really really fast and you will only get 3 of each on the olympian difficulty. You can bother to ask Corinth for fleece once after it turns enemy, it will give you 7 if it is respectful). Having them on good terms and willing to give you military support is much more important

PS: When I later conquired Sparta in the 5th mission it had a tribute of 20 armors... not sure if this applies in this mission as well, but it might be worth it.

sorry for the long post :)