Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!

[King Henry V]

Help! I'm playing the Seleucids and have been attacked by the Egyptians, the Parthian, Pontus (or should I say Pontius) and now Armenia. The Parthians took Seleucia but now they're off my back, Egypt captured my capital Antioch then enslaved it (bastards!!!!!!) but I took it back. My army then captured Jerusalem. However, this did not seem to stem the barbarians banging at my gates. Pontus is besieging Sardes, Egypt Damascus and Armenia Hatra. I only have one army. To add to all this, my treasury, once the greatest in the known world, is now bleeding dry. Please help, if not I might not be able to cope with the shame of defeat..................................
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[Tricky Lady]

Sounds like you are playing on Hard or Very Hard Campaign level?

I guess Egypt should be Enemy No. I. The other armies are relatively easy beaten with a Militia cav/Militia hoplite army but I found the Egyptians pretty nasty to beat...
But if you already lost Hatra, Sardis and Damascus the situation's looking grim already...
Perhaps you should have a look at these guides for the Seleucid Empire (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=36850) here at the Org. Read them all and pick one that might suit your playing style...
Good luck!

[Parmenio]

It may be time to dig out the diplomats and see if Egypt can be tricked into making you their protectative. With Egyptain gold flowing into your coffers it may then be possible to bribe your way out against your other opponents, rebuild your armies and expand again.

[mfberg]

You missed on the first move. Take Susa, fortify the passes into your lands, make peace with Parthia, buy their 2 cataphract units. Never lose Seleucia, the money from the hanging gardens is keeping you afloat in the beginning game. Egyptian chariots are mean in the open, get them in a narrow alley with a militia hoplite some dark night and make them pay.

mfberg

[Oaty]

2 ways to start with the Selucids, bribe or mercanaries. I used mercanaries, and I'm against bribing except on occasions when theres a rebel army with mercanaries in them. You have 2 important cities populationwise and that's Antioch and Selucia. Those are 2 cities you can't lose as that is where your best troops can cone from.

[lars573]

I'm just surprised that you even lost Seleucia to the Parthians. The Seleucids are the best faction for the one two puch of brute force and bribery. When they siege a city sally in the first turn to whittle the army down and kill the general if they have one. Then bribe the rest away the next turn. The Parthian and Pontic units for the most part when in the hands of the AI can't stand up to your units. Egypt however is another story. Ironically the best unit against chariots that I've found the Seleucids don't have (hillmen), so vs the Egyptian chariots they will be at a disadvantage but if you send out levy pikes to get massacured by them they should die soon enough.

[AntiochusIII]

I've always found the early all-out war factions like Carthage and the Seleucids appealing... As the Seleucids, you are the richest man in the game. So use it! The Seleucid's early military powers sucks, so rely on mercs, and though normally I was against bribing, as the Seleucids I used it all the time. Crush Susa! It's by far Parthia's best city and you have like only three mountain passes to close up. The AI are dead scared of the forts. In the west you should strengthen your position by taking on Halicarnassus early on. Use mercs in the area to crush anything foolish enough to challenge you there. The reason I think Halicarnassus needs to be yours is because I let the Pontic armies to besiege Sardis as my general then engaged them in the back together with the garrison's sally. So it's an easy victory in the west. As for the Egyptian issue... BLITZ!!! Use the money to bribe away small Egyptian stacks and tear their cities apart with the overwhelming numbers of mercs and cheap Antioch's units. Chariots don't fare well in cities so crush them there. For Tarsus.. building a fort can effectively close it, at least long enough to get an army from Antioch in case the AI wants to attack a fort. Hatra, however, will become a center of Armenian-Seleucid conflicts. PROTECT IT AT ALL COST!

P.S. Use the archer bug to your advantage. Your militia cavalry are much better than they were supposed to be... Be wary of Egyptian bugged archers!!!

[Fridge]

Everyone else's advice, plus...

Use lots of mercs, as someone above said, but for the added reason that the Seleucids have very slow growing cities, and recruiting 160 hoplites in a city with 1000 people and a 2% pop growth - it would take 8 turns just to get back to your original level.

Also, you'll be very good in sieges. Many of the people you're facing have armies based heavily on cavalry - and you've got phalanxes. It's very easy to defend a gap in the wall. If you ever get a single hole made in your wall, don't repair it! The enemy will abandon all their siege equipment and attack that one gap. If you can concentrate your forces at just one point, you should be ok. Alternatively, just arrange your phalanxes in one unbroken line across your square (overlap if you have to), with their flanks against buildings. Tuck your general behind them, and any skirmishers in front. Since your phalanxes can't be flanked at all, and they can't rout on the town square, it would take a massive army to beat even three units of militia hoplites. If you can do both - defend the wall and have a couple of phalanxes left in the square, it would take something pretty heroic to defeat you in a siege.

Egypt is your main problem, and you should try and take Sidon first or second turn, then march straight on to Jerusalem. If you haven't got enough troops to hold them, kill everyone and raze every building before abndoning them - you'll get some useful cash and make the cities useless for the Egyptians, and it'll be very easy to take them back in a few years.

But keeping Seleucia (and taking Susa) is vital - as mentioned above, you need both the hanging gardens and the large population to survive.

Good luck, if you can survive the first few decades and cut the Egyptians down to size, the Seleucids are one of, if not the, most powerful faction to play...

[King Henry V]

Thank you everybody, for your most kind and gracious help :bow: . However, some of you have not seemed to have read part of my posting. I'M ALMOST BLOODY BANKRUPT!! It's quite difficult even on Normal level to recruit mercenary armies and bribe enemy armies on a shoestring. I lost Seleucia because it was isolated and my Army Of Having To Defeat Everybody was of defending Jerusalem. I tried to sue for peace with the Parthians but they seemed to have a sadistic streak in them, telling me in short that they wanted to see me suffer.

[King Henry V]

No!! Now the Greeks have declared war on me! I would just like to know what is a viable opposition to chariots. They can smash through your infantry, it's costly taking them out with cavalry and they're too fast for archers to be very effective. I'm thinking of taking Petra in Sinai so that egypt is sealed of the other possesions, but I don't know if that will work. Interesting thought about becoming a protectorate, I might try that. Thank you for the link on advice for the Seleucids, it seems that all the possible enemies are my enemies at the same time.Hah! And people say that the AI isn't challenging enough.

[Fridge]

Yeah, about the money thing, I think the subtext of alot of the posts was... start again! Seriously, I had to start a few new campaigns before I succeeded with the Seleucids. If you've lost Seleucia and haven't bagged Sidon and Jerusalem, I'm afraid things are pretty hopeless...

As for chariots, if you can entice them on to (the front of) your phalanxes they should just melt. Otherwise, archers are really your only hope (I know you haven't got money now, but when you can use your provinces in Aisa Minor to recruit all the Cretan archers and slingers that appear).

You're obviously playing on VH campaign, are you on H/VH battle as well? If you are, then the enemy gets a straight +3/+7 bonus to attack, which makes all normal 'this unit is good against this unit' advice a bit redundant. If it makes you feel any better, I reckon those Egyptian chariots are the most annoying unit you'll face, which makes it doubly important to go on the offensive against the Egyptians in the first few gos - the best way of beating their powerful combined armies are to make sure they have difficulty making them in the first place...

Good luck!

[KyodaiSteeleye]

ditto the above - I on my first campaign on VH with the Seluecids i got attaked by all five neighbours in the first 10 turns odd of the game, and got utterly swamped. Because of your appalling starting units, i found that i had enough funds to bribe one enemy out - eg: Armenia - bribe two or three of their stacks coming through the mountains to attack your northern cities and they'll agree to a ceasefire because you've weakened them too much (plus you'll get some cataphracts out of it as a bonus). Use your numerous family members in one army as an elite cavalry force - don't be stupid with them, but with some militia hoplite units to pin the main enemy forces, they are very effective as flankers and can keep the hordes at bay. Try to get to a situation where you have three armies - one for selucia, one for your southern cities and one for your western cities - eventually, you'll be able to start coming off the defensive and start taking out the enemy cities - start with Susa, Halicarnasus and the lone greek city in the west.

[King Henry V]

I'm not on Hard or Very Hard, I'm on Medium.

[King Henry V]

All Hail The Great Conqueror!

Today the citizens of Antioch and Jerusalem are avenged! The great Egyptian City of Alexandria has been captued by the valiant Seleucid troops under the command of our most brilliant and Triumphant Leader, Ariphron The Mighty. The inhabitants of Alexandria have been sold into slavery, so that they may properly serve their new masters. Their Great Temple has been defiled and they will learn to worship the true Gods of Greece. The armies of egypt are reeling from such a great victory and it is only matter of time before the other cities fall one by one. Then our armies will turn east and with the riches of Egypt, the Parthians, the Armenians and the Ponitans will cower under the might of Seleucia!!!

(And no I did not cheat nor did I restart on easy)

[Svean]

Better, beter ;-) I was playing Seleucid on hard. First turna I've made 2 diplomats (in Seleucia and Antioch) and just in the 2nd I had to birbe 1 pathians army and the second of egypt :) Then I used them to birbe cities on Asia Minor and to sign alliance with Pontus - they betradet me after 3 turns but that was entough to take Jerusalem and Sindon (deal with Egypt for a while) and support Tarsus. And in the meantime I birbed I armenian army and took 2 Partian cities. The pain in the ass is partian leader wandering on the desert near Seleucia - I can't birbe him (leader) and I can't beat him - his with big army with 2 cataphracts and stuff. I'm creating some forces to deal with him but the Armenian leader came and besieged Hatra :P
But it makes game interesting ;-)
Seleucids are rich and have so many possibilities but EVERYONE wants their territories. And I havent even met any romans ;-)