Ptolemaioi

[Mujalumbo]

Ptolemies, anyone?

Probably my favourite faction, followed by the horse nomads (sorry, Steppe Merc), and the Aedui.

And why not? They have a great starting position; a good mixture of Large Towns in a geographically close location with only one nearby, agressive enemy (the Seleucids).

You start allied with the Koinon Hellenon (not that there's anything you can do to help them at first, anyway). You get a decent lineup of units; pantodapoi phalangitai and pezhetairoi to hold the line. Machimoi and kleruchoi cavalry may not appear so tough stat-wise, but they both have armour piercing attack which seems to more than make up for it. Also, depending on how you rank infantry, they have the third-toughest infantry unit in the game: the basilikon agemata.

I played a couple of campaigns. In my most recent, I abandoned Side and Tarsos. Well, actually, I gave them to Pontos, since the Seleukids wouldn't accept anything I offered them. This decision bode well, as I'll explain later... Anyway, leaving Side and Tarsos meant I didn't have to spend time and money garrisoning them with enough troops to ward off the feeble Seleukid attacks.

Tech'ed up Sidon, so I could pump out pandodapoi phalangitai, and with the Iudean taxeis, and I had a nice, flexible force to ward off Seleukid attack. Economic upgrades, then I constructed a force comprised of theurophoroi and machimoi phalangitai (could've been just all theurophoroi, since the rebel forces are all pantodapoi), had some idle family member take command and head south. You might want to do the same; you can raise elephants in one of the settlements to the south.

Eventually, Pontos will do something stupid, like attack Karia, forcing you to declare war on them. Well, that's what happened to me, at any rate. Perfect opportunity to bring back my experienced army from the south, retrain and re-equip, and send 'em to "liberate" Tarsos and Side.

If you don't move quickly and take Kyrene, Karthadistim will. Which is OK, since the people of Kyrene are your friends and you just can't abide it when some pushy Phoenicians come in and try to muscle your friends around... Generally speaking, I leave Kyrene alone until Karthadistim attacks.

On my way to reclaim Tarsos, Damaskos and Antiocheia just happened to be in my way. Boy, did that ever piss off the Seleukids..

I'm still making about 4K/turn profit, and have two experience armies comprised of machimoi phalangitai, pezhetairoi, machimoi and kleruchoi cavalry, and peltastai and theurophoroi. I also have a fleet of those green ships. There were some pirates with silver-chevron boats commanded by a 4 star general... my "green" (har har) fleet sent 'em to the bottom of the sea without too much trouble.

[jerby]

nice guide....
maybe I'll have to step over my CA-egypt-mess-up-phobia and play them....

[Mujalumbo]

I'd say give it a shot. They're not the same Egypt as in vanilla. ;) No super archers, no magic chariots of Invincibility +5

There are two eleuthoroi towns under Ptolemaic protection: Kyrene, and the settlement in Karia. That's why I wound up at war with Karthadastim and Pontos. You automagically declare war on anybody who attacks those settlements.

In anything west of the Nile settlements, you can recuirt the Libyan Spearmen and Liby-Phoenician Heavy Infantry. (You get heavy inf. of your own, but I like to add some local flavour to my armies, if it's available.) The Liby-Phoeni Hvy. Inf. aren't actually all that bad; a Ptolemaic type 4 guv't gives 'em +1 exp, combined with a blacksmith, and you have yourself a decent elite phalanx unit. My experience (Medium difficulty on battles) is they can stand up to the Elite African Pikemen fair enough. You don't wanna beat those guys toe-to-toe, anyway, just pin 'n' flank.

Is it just me, or are the Karthadistim's general's bodyguards absolute monsters?

[PseRamesses]

Since I´ve been studying ancient Egyptian history since the late 80´s anything related to Egyot is very high on my list. EB has made a very good job on the Ptolemies IMO although some names, provinces etc are wrong. I also miss some important cities in the Gaza strip and around the Nile... it´s a looong river ;) However since the level of research have been so high I´m shure that the things that was decided to be left out with the Ptolemies have come to good use elsewhere.

The Ptolemies are all about rebels, rebels, rebels...... and an occasional Seleukid incursion - nothing you can´t handle. The line-up is good and flexible for multitasking. The economy is.... hmm, how shall I put it... awsome, with EB-measuring ;) Money is NOT a problem with this faction. My personal dilemma is always - where do I expand; Asia minor, Arabia, Africa?
My first armygroup always forms in Judaea, my second in the Delta and my third in Judaea too. Asia Minor is left to its doom initially.
I always wind up with most of Africa and all of Arabia pushing the Seleukids behind Eufrat and Tigris but at this point I´m soo bored between going head to head with the Karth in the middle of nowhere-africa and pursuing the Seleukids beyond Babylonia that I simply stop playing.
I do miss the presence of factions in both Africa and Arabia and I do hope and pray that the EB-team will include the Sabaeans (arabia) for their next release. The Numidians have to replace any already existing faction and I francly can´t see that happening.
For Newbies the Ptolemies are the by far easiest faction to play with closely followed by the Romani.

[MaximianusBR]

Since I´ve been studying ancient Egyptian history since the late 80´s anything related to Egyot is very high on my list. EB has made a very good job on the Ptolemies IMO although some names, provinces etc are wrong. I also miss some important cities in the Gaza strip and around the Nile... it´s a looong river ;) However since the level of research have been so high I´m shure that the things that was decided to be left out with the Ptolemies have come to good use elsewhere.

What kind of Historical things are wrong on ptolemaioi?
Maybe if you tell they can change...

[edyzmedieval]

Hmmm...I find Ptolemaioi quite challenging.

Or maybe because I lost in about 50 turns 5 million denarii.
I have my own mod, which gives 90 million denarii to each faction and I ALWAYS play on VH/VH. I hate Pantodapoi armies, and Seleukids really pump on me tons of Pezhetairois.

[Avicenna]

Whew, lucky I didn't go for Kyrene yet! Not that I can now though.. needing me to bring my army down to Crete to take Kyrene, leaving my towns vulnerable to Getai and Epirote attack. Would you say that it's possible for the Greeks to defeat Egypt in battle? Because I'm afraid whichever side I pick (Seleukids or Ptolemaics) the other side will get too strong and crush me.

[Mujalumbo]

You know, I've never fought a full-strength successor army as the Greeks/Koinon Hellenon. I've always booted Makedonia out of Greece before they could start fielding pezhetairoi, etc. And the Seleukids never send the good troops my way, they're always tied up with the Ptolemies in the south.

Your hoplites should engage the phalanx line head on, then use your Peltastai, Theurophoroi or Thorakitai to flank and chop 'em up. I'd suggest going a little heavier on the Theurophoroi; you'll need them to defeat enemy cav, which has a tendancy to try to flank you.

The successors' hetairoi bodyguard is some of the heaviest cavalry in the game; don't go up against them with just your KH family member's bodyguards. They'll bust your ass up. A detachment of Theurophoroi or two should handle them. Or at least tie 'em up long enough for you to take a unit of hoplites out of Phalans, and haul ass over to the action...

On, and don't understimate the slingers. Always bring slingers.

Back to the Ptolemies, it seems they can no longer recruit Liby-Phoenician Heavy Infantry as of .74. Oh well. I haven't progressed far yet in .74, so I have no idea what else has changed. Sometimes the slightest change can affect how a campaign turns out.

[Imperator of rome]

Ptolemaioi have been easy for me,I had more problems with the Parthias then Egypt.I get a steady stream of cash and the Seleucids agreed to a peace treaty so now I'm sending my elite agemata armies to carthage and soon I'm gonna backstab the Seleucids.Ethiopian agema will tear through shit too,though I ve only used the pike agema.Personally my favorites will always be Makedonia and Rome but the Ptolemaioi are fun.Thank eb for removing that old kingdom Rtw egypt every developer seems to be doing.

[VandalCarthage]

PseRamesses, we'd all be very happy to hear your suggestions for greater accuracy ~:)

[orwell]

For Newbies the Ptolemies are the by far easiest faction to play

I must be doing it abhorridly wrong then. I've got.... maybe 1 full stack total in troops, thoughs its divided into a 2/3 and 1/3 portion. The larger one for attempting to reclaim any settlement not in africa, and in there I only hold the starting towns. The other smaller army is for defense from naval invasions by makedonia and kionon hellenon, the latter of which is reduced to Rhodes only and yet I can't spare troops to go conquer it due to random invasions by makedonia and sometimes rebels. Right now its been loss after loss, though I finally prepared that 2/3 army to invade the coastal cities. Though a earlier foray lead me to getting my ass handed back to me and my generals head on a seleukid silver platter. I think my campaign was VH/H, maybe next time it'll be E/E.

[Spendios]

I must be doing it abhorridly wrong then. I've got.... maybe 1 full stack total in troops, thoughs its divided into a 2/3 and 1/3 portion. The larger one for attempting to reclaim any settlement not in africa, and in there I only hold the starting towns. The other smaller army is for defense from naval invasions by makedonia and kionon hellenon, the latter of which is reduced to Rhodes only and yet I can't spare troops to go conquer it due to random invasions by makedonia and sometimes rebels. Right now its been loss after loss, though I finally prepared that 2/3 army to invade the coastal cities. Though a earlier foray lead me to getting my ass handed back to me and my generals head on a seleukid silver platter. I think my campaign was VH/H, maybe next time it'll be E/E.

This seem to be very an interesting campaign and historical too (don't forget that Ptolies never managed to conquer seleucid lands)
You should continue to play in VH for campaign setting and maybe reduce battle to medium .

[orwell]

You, or anyone else, want it?

[paullus]

This seem to be very an interesting campaign and historical too (don't forget that Ptolies never managed to conquer seleucid lands)
You should continue to play in VH for campaign setting and maybe reduce battle to medium .

Ah, but your forget Ptolemy III. After Berenike (sister, if I remember correctly, and second wife of Seleukid king) was killed by Laodike (first wife, and mother of next Seleukid king), Ptolemy III, having just taken over sole reign from his father, swore revenge. He invaded Syria, took Antioch, and then according to a single inscription he retook Ptolemaic lands as far as Persis, ie, most of the Seleukid empire.

Ptolemy III, however, did not have the forces to maintain the conquests AND keep the peace at home (this was presumably what drew him back to Egypt, we don't really know), so he relinquished the conquests. The campaign brought about an influx of settler soldiers (heavy recruitment, presumably), which is clearly manifest in the papyrological record, and also explains the presence of four thousand four thousand Galatians and Thracians by the time Raphia rolled around.

Its just too bad the histories of this campaign are gone, at least as far as I know.

EDIT: Actually, here's a preliminary translation of a tablet recovered from Babylonia:
http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/bchp-ptolemy_iii/bchp_ptolemy_iii_01.html