Seleucids

[Grazza]

Placeholder to increase post count in order to post images

[Grazza]

So I came back to R:TW after about 3-4 years after somebody showed me Empire:TW and got me interested again, deciding to play what I already have rather than go buy new stuff. I've just finished the first campaign (long) after my install, and enjoyed it immensely, but I spotted something odd: everything I've seen in guides or forums indicates that the Seleucids should be wiped out in the early game by the rising power of Egypt, unless the player intervenes. However, I lifted the fog of war after my game finished to have a look at the rest of the map, and found this:

https://i55.tinypic.com/14xfrch.jpg

If it's not clear, the Scipii and the Seleucids have taken most of the SE map (I left a couple of Scipii provinces there after taking Egypt as a buffer so I didn't have to worry about that front, given the Scipii were quite weak there), while Egypt are down to just Cyprus and 1 other province. What even more odd, is that I know from what glimpses I'd seen previously that not long before I won, the Parthians owned most of that area. So has anybody else seen the Seleucids thrive so well? Do people think it's mostly down to the arrival of the Scipii (though I know that the Seleucids were doing quite well anyway before I decided I wanted Sardis for the temple of Artemis)?

[Alrik]

Yeah the balance swings, I assume the Seleucids are one AI faction that's not favoured by the autocalc early on, but who get better odds as their later units come into play, so if they can just survive, then they might very well do alright. I think Gaul is an opposite of that, tends to thrive early and get their heads smashed in later.

You do nkow how to take a screen cap? For some reason RTW is a bit of a hazzle, you have to go into video options and move the anti-aliazing slider to the left, so that it reads "no anti-aliazing" and then it's just like normal. (alt+print screen on my keyboard and then paste into image editor of choice.)

[Myth]

In my games they have a hard time handling their neighbors. Considering that I myself have a hard time playing as them before i take out Pontus/Parthia/Armeni and the big E, this is no surprise. I would suppose the main thing that happened was that somehow the Scipii cleaved trough Carthage early on. They are programmed to steamroll Egypt after Carthage is no more. You yourself might have helped seeing as how you hold all 3 settlements on Sicily as well as Carthage itself.

[Grazza]

In my games they have a hard time handling their neighbors. Considering that I myself have a hard time playing as them before i take out Pontus/Parthia/Armeni and the big E, this is no surprise. I would suppose the main thing that happened was that somehow the Scipii cleaved trough Carthage early on. They are programmed to steamroll Egypt after Carthage is no more. You yourself might have helped seeing as how you hold all 3 settlements on Sicily as well as Carthage itself.

The other Roman factions started off very, very slowly, although I decided now to get in their way - I just started on the west coast of Greece, working my way first south, then north through Macedon, Thrace and Dacia, and taking the Greek and Rebel territories in Asia Minor. The other factions exploded just before I'd finished with Dacia, which was what gave me the 'Chance at Power' message - I took Carthage and Thapsus towards the end of the game because the Scipii had moved all their troops eastwards after I took Egypt from them - I landed and took Memphis just after they'd rolled through and got as far as Sinai, so I didn't actually give the Seleucids any help at all, and in fact I took Sardis from them and destroyed a couple of stacks they sent to get it back. The Scipii didn't arrive for quite a long time, so they must have done a good job of surviving in the early game, until the roman war machine rolled through Egypt to give them some respite

[Grazza]

You do nkow how to take a screen cap? For some reason RTW is a bit of a hazzle, you have to go into video options and move the anti-aliazing slider to the left, so that it reads "no anti-aliazing" and then it's just like normal. (alt+print screen on my keyboard and then paste into image editor of choice.)
Thanks - I wondered why my screencaps turned out black - I wanted to take a couple at another point but decided it wasn't worth the hassle

[Guyus Germanicus]

Actually, I've found the game to be quite unpredictable over time. As I've played harder settings, I noticed campaign developments that I had not seen in a myriad of previous games. I remember my surprise the first time the Pontids took cities in Egypt proper. I have noticed that the Seleucids seldom ever survive the early game in my matches. But it wouldn't surprise me too much if I saw a game where it ended differently. Your own experience now being the case in point.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Using FRAPS is probably the easiest way of getting screenies in RTW. And it's free:

http://www.fraps.com/download.php

[Sabazios]

yep, fraps is so easy. Perfect for all games. Also you can make vids.

[Grazza]

So I decided to test out FRAPS by going back over my old saves and making a progress map of the campaign:
https://i52.tinypic.com/35ncvns.png
The originalphoto was taken in 189BC. Pulling back the FOW reveals a lot of things I didn't know at time - like how well Pontus and Parthia were doing in the early game before the Seleucid resurgence. The Seleucids were fighting Parthia, Pontus and Egypt, but not Armenia, who fought Pontus instead

[Sabazios]

Nice screenies, fun to see them al together as a slideshow :)
What is remarkable to me, is that you dont immediately caputure all the islands. Thats always one of my first goals.

[Grazza]

What is remarkable to me, is that you dont immediately caputure all the islands. Thats always one of my first goals.

I hadn't played in a long time, so I didn't really have any particularly great strategies in mind, except keep conquering whatever was in my way, and especially doing whatever it took to eradicate Macedon and Greece (fortunately Egypt spared me a trip to Africa early on for Macedon). It was pointed out that blocking the other Romans early on would help, but I decided to just let them go, so I had a truly epic civil war at the end (there was a lot of men and money flying around in that war, and despite the fact I'm not great on the battle map, much better on the campaign map, I got a couple of heroic victories I was quite proud of).

[Sabazios]

never seen macedon do that! Did they actualy go there by ship, or did cyrene rebel to them?

[ReluctantSamurai]

Cyrene has Macedon as it's "faction creator", so if it rebels against the first few attempts to claim it, it defaults to Macedon.

[Sabazios]

ah that explains :)

[Napoleon The Emperor Of Europe]

FRAPS is rubbish

[ReluctantSamurai]

FRAPS is rubbish

It's always worked fine for me:shrug:

[Napoleon The Emperor Of Europe]

It's always worked fine for me:shrug:

I tired to record a battle of replay of mine,when i upload on youtube,there's only a little of it!And its nTW!!!You press F9 ,it goes on then stops#!!!

[G. Septimus]

I tired to record a battle of replay of mine,when i upload on youtube,there's only a little of it!And its nTW!!!You press F9 ,it goes on then stops#!!!
you need to pay to do long-term vids
without paying, you can only have 30 secs of it

[Napoleon The Emperor Of Europe]

[QUOTE=G. Septimus;2053277375]you need to pay to do long-term vids
without paying, you can only have 30 secs of it[/QUOTE

oh:(.

[Jaguara]

I have had a couple of campaigns where the Selucids did OK, though in most they are hammered pretty badly. It seems the key is where Egypt does poorly then the Selucids stand a chance.

What really interests me though, is that the Scipii did so much. In my games they usually get around to taking Sicily, but then sit there with 4 regions forever. If anything, they will attack Carthage. Even then I have only seen them successful at that a couple of times.

[ReluctantSamurai]

A few things I've noticed concerning the "life-expectancy" of the Seleucids...

If the Big E get several strong rebel stacks spawning in their territory very early, it slows them considerably, giving the Selkies time to develop and consolidate. Same with getting rebuffed at initial attempts to capture Bostra and Petra.

If the initial tries by Parthia (to take Seleucia) and Armenia (to take Hatra) fail with heavy casualties, this also gives the Selkies time to develop and consolidate.

If the AI then puts together a full stack after the above events, and captures either Halicarnassis or Palmyra, the Selkies will do MUCH better.

I've seen the Seleucids last 75 years into the campaign if at least two of the three above events occur.

[Morgoth101]

I usually see Seleucids go on quite well in my games, actually. In one game, they wiped out Parthia, Egypt, Armenia, Scythia and Pontus. Also, one Seleucid ship had managed to reach Gaul with a full army:shrug:. I wasn't too worried because I was the Senate and I already wiped out the other Romans, Carthage, Numidia, Greece and Macedon. I was preparing to invade Gaul anyway, so I had 4-5 armies ready on that front. The other European factions just kept fighting among themselves.

[Motep]

I've only seen them do well when I took out Egypt.

[Snorri Sturluson]

This happened in the first campaign i went in the Middle east(my second campaign). Strangely enough The Macedons also got Cyrene back then. After this I thought the Macedons started with Cyrene and the Seleucids were the normal winners in Middle east. But normally I have the Seleucids dying first, then the Germans and than the Greeks(without me interfering)