Who to invade?

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

Im playing EB Baktria on my friends comp since i cant play on mine. i was wondering as Baktria should i go strike India first? i really want to have indian bowmen and elephants in my armies. and if i should is there a hindu kush? if so then is it hard to cross them?

thanks

[Avicenna]

Baktria's probably a bit too poor to attack India, with full stacks in practically every single rebel settlement.

Take out the Selucids when they're still weak, after gaining trade rights from them. Their settlements are poorly defended and are more financially rewarding than the rebellious settlements to your east and North.

[Imperator of rome]

Im playing as Seleukia and fighting with the ptolemaics while the computer baktria is taking all the rebel areas.Try to take the Indian areas if you can.Btw I'm not going to screw with baktria anytime soon,they have about 4full stacks and I have only 1.

[Avicenna]

That's because the Baktrian AI gets 30k bonus every turn. The human will be struggling to keep in the black without extracting money from the Ptolemaics and Selucids via diplomacy and careful troop management.

[stalin]

I love the "give me 800 and I attack Eleutheroi" to all factions every turn bit

[NeoSpartan]

I love the "give me 800 and I attack Eleutheroi" to all factions every turn bit

I think I will try the same thing on my Aedui campain so can finanse my war with the Romani.

p.s hey can any of you tell me how I can put the Aedui faction button on my signature. I saved on my pictures but i can't put it here.

[Rodion Romanovich]

My tip is - attack the seleucids as early as possible. Make sure to have all your general's bodyguards cavalry, a few pantodapoi phalangitai, and a few archers (eranshar arsthbara or thanvabara) and you should be able to deal with most early opposition the seleucids send after you. After you take the first of their cities you can expect numerous counter-attacks. I advice going south rather than north when continuing with the war vs the seleucids, because you'll want the northern seleucid settlements as a buffer between you and pahlav and yuezhi. You'll need a lot of money and many settlements under your control before you can assemble an army of horse archers capable of wiping out pahlav and yuezhi so it's good to take out as much as possible of the seleucids as quickly as possible. The strategy worked very well for me.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

So invade sleucid empire THEN India? you kinda lost me

[GMT]

don't attack the Seleucids, they bring in valuable trade money which you can use to build up a decent miliairy/economy.

I usually use spies to make the seleucid settlements rebel and then I'll take them. Most of the Seleucids border settlements have a pretty low loyalty so they rebel easily. This way you can still get the trade money and expand your territory.

Eventually you'll piss them off and they'll attack you but by then your economy will be a lot better and you'll be able to maintain a stronger army.

[GMT]

Take out the Selucids when they're still weak, after gaining trade rights from them.

I really don't get this.. trade rights are kind of useless if you're going to attack them right away, not?

When you declare war on them they automatically cancel them so what's the point?

[Rodion Romanovich]

So invade sleucid empire THEN India? you kinda lost me

yes, the seleucids first. You can later attack India at any time you feel you have a decent army up to the task. But Yuezhi and Pahlav would be my top priority over India because they can attack you or expand far and it's your faction objective to eliminate their factions so it's easiest to do that before they've become too powerful. I took India AFTER taking both half of the seleucids, and eliminating Pahlav and Yuezhi.

[Kralizec]

I haven't played Baktria, but GMT is right about making Seleucid towns go rebel. It should be pretty easy if you manage your spies and assasins well (infiltrate and then destroy buildings like temples, bathing houses etc- stuff that raises public order). Since they belong to the same culture group as you, they'll be easy to cling onto since your capital is closer.

In addition, send out diplomats. First to get trading rights with the Seleucids (odd that you don't have them at the beginning), and to sell your map information to everybody you come across. Some factions will even pay you money to become your allies.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

OK well i got my plan here:
1. make seleucid cities rebel and then take them
2. eliminate the yeuhzi
3. get trade rights with ptolemiac's
4. attack seleucid empire
5. then invade india

How was it? and also is there a Hindu Kush you have to pass to get into india?

[Rodion Romanovich]

don't underestimate the yuezhi. I wouldn't attack them until getting a full stack of horse archers, because their cavalry is extremely powerful. Plus you can't reach them until taking a settlement in between which is also full of horse archers. I think you need some seleucid land before you can afford to raise an army capable of dealing with the yuezhi cavalry.

[paullus]

Yeah, be careful with the horse archers. I remember when a full stack wandered down near my capital, and I figured a few units of slingers, some cav, and some pikes might be enough to beat them off. Nerp. Their starting formation is way cool too...spread all over their zone. If you start off your pikes in a sort of hedgehog you might be ok. I was in a longer crescent, and everything was enveloped.

So yeah, don't underestimate the yuezhi, or the province in between. In my game that province curtailed yuezhi expansion pretty well (240 and they still haven't taken it), while I focused south and east (since its a game, its a lot of fun to invade India, plus elephants are cool once you have the mines to support them militarily!).

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

ok thanks guys

[The_Mark]

Their starting formation is way cool too...

[pezhetairoi]

I tried taking haomavarga with my combined baktrian army at the start. It had 7 horsearcher/lancer units in there. My battle plan was to skirmish as much as I could with them with my 4-5 units of archers, while under archer cover my two pantodapoi phalanxes came up and blocked the main street while the cavalry charged straight into it and got routed when my cavalry came in from the other side of the enemy mass.

I was so wrong. The horse archers beat my archers by weight of fire and mobility, then resisted my phalanx bait, then mowed down my phalanxes when I got impatient and got them to advance (hence putting them out of phalanx), then turned around and smashed my generals whom I sent in to try and turn the tide. They're nasty.