I'm dying as Seluecids

[R3dD0g]

I've played all the Romans and the Greek City States to victory, so I thought I was pretty capable; until I tried the Seluecids! Is it possible to win as that faction? I've restarted the game a dozen times, trying every strategic angle I can think of to fend off all my neighbors.

Tonight I thought I had it. I fought off all the attacks from the Egyptians, Parthians, Pontiuns, Armenians and well hell, anybody who knew me was my enemy. Of course I had only one field army and it was pretty piss poor. After every engagement I had to run it back to Antioch for retraining. No other city could retrain all the different units.

That was allright, a pain in the butt, but I could manage it. Then all of a sudden my treasury went to crap. I raised taxes on the cities, cleared the sea lanes and paved roads of enemies and still my 8 cities were generating negative money.

So, I cheated. I opened the console and gave myself D 20,000 and in 2 turns I was back to negative income.

Is it possible to win as the Seleucids? How?

[lars573]

I can't help you. I alter the descrp_strat file to start with 5000000 denarii evert time I start a new imperial campaign. Buuut if you were inclined to do as I do you may have a chance. With 1.2 now and even before if you can last the first 20-25 turns as the Seleucids then your probably going to make it. You see eventually Parthia and Pontus will drains either their monetary or manpower resources, or both. Then you only have to worry about Egypt on land and the Greeks on sea. To hamstring Egypt take Sidon, Jerusalem, Salamis, and Bostra from them. This reduces their income to the point where they can only manage half stacks of nubian spears every 5 turns or so. Then deal with Pontus and Parthia, reduce their lands to 1 or 2 provinces this effectively cuts them off at the knees. If Armenia gets uppity roll them too.

[JazzyAnimator]

Yeah, if you can make it past the first 10-15 years your good. Pontus, Parthia, and Armenia aren't much of a threat. You can run over eastern infantry easily. Just be weary of Parthia's Horse Archers. You have to be very picky in your first years with your building and army. Don't build anything that won't net you money somehow. Dedicate two provinces to building armies, I use Tarsus & Antioch. Get as many alliances at the beginning as possible to buy you some time. They eventually will always attack you. Weaken Egypt first, then head north wiping out Parthia and Armenia. Pontus will probably keep trying to take Tarsus, just leave a decent army there and you'll drain there military. Once that's done, wipe them out. The greeks will usually be in a war with the romans or the Macedonians, and will more then likely be on the losing end, take Rhodes & Pergaminmum (I can't find my map, there northern most starter province.) If you made it that far, then Egypt, Pontus, Armenia, and Parthia have gone the way of the Dodo and you can play them as if you were playing the Romans. Just pick who you want to fight next and expand.

[hrvojej]

A there is a recent thread on this here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=43601).

[Kaldhore]

I really like the seleucid Empire and ive beaten 3 games (1 being when I left the desert to go to Ireland).

Ok well in terms of allies - get the greeks on side right away. *Sometimes* you can fend off egypt with an alliance with them for about 10 turns. Dont bother with Parthia - in fact by turn 3 you should be taking their cites from them in the east. Make each city a builder of 1 unit type at the begining i.e. 1 city producing archers etc.

Ignore the rebel towns at first and go for the 2 nearest Parthian towns. Then take Damascus, If you can get Jerusalem off the egyptians early - you'll net a good unit producing town. Enslave the towns to bolster your other towns with governors and raise trade a bit.

I usually find im good for cash - its just getting those good units pumping out asap. Dont bother at all with levy pikemen - theyre useless - go for phalanx asap, militia cav and archers asap. Because I usually have a good cash flow I can usually bribe some cataphracts off the rebels or parthia.

[The Stranger]

I can't help you. I alter the descrp_strat file to start with 5000000 denarii evert time I start a new imperial campaign. Buuut if you were inclined to do as I do you may have a chance. With 1.2 now and even before if you can last the first 20-25 turns as the Seleucids then your probably going to make it. You see eventually Parthia and Pontus will drains either their monetary or manpower resources, or both. Then you only have to worry about Egypt on land and the Greeks on sea. To hamstring Egypt take Sidon, Jerusalem, Salamis, and Bostra from them. This reduces their income to the point where they can only manage half stacks of nubian spears every 5 turns or so. Then deal with Pontus and Parthia, reduce their lands to 1 or 2 provinces this effectively cuts them off at the knees. If Armenia gets uppity roll them too.

no make them start with 5000 that's the fair amount. each playable faction started with that exept the seleucids. if you want to start real big type this
at the seleucids in desc strat.

denarii 9999999999

and you'll have 1.4 billion

btw i've conquered the world with the seleucids they're not that tough as you get th silvers

[RollingWave]

Main suggestion is to survive early, like others said giving Pathia a big hurt early is a good idea as Pontus have somewhat limited routs to you while the Egyptians USUALLY don't come that fast, another thing with early money is to sell traderights/maps/alliance to anyone you come across, a couple of extra thousand gold is pricesless early on espically for the Selucides.

I would suggest early on exterminate the first few town you capture (espically non rebels) give u more gold to work with, as long as u get the hanging garden pretty quickly ur pop will go up quiet fast anyway... ensalve later on to get those town pop back up too.

If you want to use levy pikman make sure you don't expect too much from them and try to keep their moral high with various ways (keeping general near... don't let them get outnumbered... don't expect them as ur main tank) they are acturally pretty good... IF they are fighting and not running :duel:

Also as others suggested, don't put all unit production in one city, espically for some of the more general and lower tech units (Archer and infantry and lower lvl cavs) make sure u can get them from a lot of places.... espiclaly pike and archer as those alone can defend against quiet a bit of onslaught.

[SpencerH]

As everyone has said the selucids are tough early but have a lot of good points later. Manage your money well. My answer with 1.0 was to build trade and use mercs to fight along with the cheap, basic, selucid spearmen types. After you've taken the two nearby egyptian cities they'll calm down and you can focus on obliterating the annoying northern factions.

[Dutch_guy]

I went strait to egypt knowing that once you let them be they will become unstoppable, just like the selucids as a matter of fact.
once you take sidon and jeruzalem don't stop keep on pushing on to their main land, ignore the rebel settlements ( it's tempting I know but let it rest )
when you are doing that block the mountain pass near tarsus ( both ) , it will stop the early attacks off pontus. taking the parthian city of Susa is an option if peace doesn't seem to work with them, as in my case
armenia will accept protectorate status if you beat their main army.

the Selucids can destroy the Romans easily, with silvershields ( pikemen, legionnares ) and companion cavalry (never used those never built the royal cavalry stables ) cataphracts are just as usefull.

if you survive the first 6-8 turns, you will be unstoppable

[Kaldhore]

One point about the Silver shield Legionaires - although they are good, the best legion copies out there, they are only copies of the ordinary Roman Legionaires. They will NOT beat the Praeoritan or Urban cohorts. But the Silver shield pikement will beat them with legionaire or cav support on the flanks.

So my point is not to ignore the building of silver shield pikemen just because you can now produce the legionaires.

[soda]

How come the silver shield pikemen are so good when they're stats appear so low (only 14 defence)?

[Kaldhore]

Because they are in phalanx formation

[SpencerH]

One point about the Silver shield Legionaires - although they are good, the best legion copies out there, they are only copies of the ordinary Roman Legionaires. They will NOT beat the Praeoritan or Urban cohorts. But the Silver shield pikement will beat them with legionaire or cav support on the flanks.

So my point is not to ignore the building of silver shield pikemen just because you can now produce the legionaires.

Yes. The bulk of an army should be Silver shield pikement with some Silver shield Legionaires (especially for city defence) and cav on the flanks. Lots of archers and onagers (I like to use 2 units of onagers).

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I had a very horrible experience with the Seluecids. I fought tooth and nail to gain dominance of the east and eventually took on Rome and won, it took longer than any other campaign and many hard fought military victories.
Then my friend tells me he is having no trouble as them. He went out gathering alliances and easily overcame the Egyptians without fearing for his flanks. I had attacked the Egyptians who then allied with Parthia, Pontus, Armenia and the Greeks. I suggest getting as many alliances as possible, at one point I became an ally of Greece stopping the war for a year. Then Armenia attacked me and her three allies were dragged in, but the Greeks stayed out and remained my ally. This gave me a brief respite in which I gathered my forces to land a crushing blow on the homelands of the Ponts and Parthians, effectively ending the resistance of their grand alliance.
Get alliances, even if they will fail quickly you need as muchg times as you can get to build up and move into offensive positions. Without their homelands the neighboring factions are helpless.