The fall of Arche Seleukeia- a question about AI faction progression in 1.2

I'm about 70 years into my 1.2 M/M Romani game, and i've been observing a phenomenon i've never seen in any other EB game. Until recently, i've played on versions .80, 1.0, and 1.1, and i'd say eight times out of ten the seleukid empire domniates the eastern map. The other two times the Ptolemaioi would triumph and begin eating away at the Seleukids, pushing east but usually not getting past Babylon. For the first time, I've witnessed Baktria, Pahlava, and to a lesser extent, Hayasdan, swallow up the eastern stretches of the Seleukid empire. I would post a map if i knew how to do screenshots, and i may in the future, but to get an idea of what i'm describing, Baktria and Pahlava have split the AS north and south almost perfectly, with Baktria getting the south and Pahlava getting the north. Hayasdan has actually taken advantage of this and pushed south, which led to these three "breakaway" factions uniting around Babylon. Pontus has also cut off the last few AS territories in Turkey by holding eastern Anatolia, and Egypt swallowed up everything that was left. This is only my second real game of EB 1.2, and i'm amazed (and pleased) that the Arche Seleukeia has actually broken up the way it was supposed to. Is this mere chance, or was something corrected in EB 1.2 so that the "breakaway" factions actually aggressively attack Arche Seleukeia? Has anyone else seen this happen before, and on what version of the game? I apologise for the lengthy background for this question, but until i can post maps, i'm somewhat limited to descriptions.

not even in dreams.... In my games AS satrapies always manage to break away from her rule since the first turn (maybe one or two of them stay loyal) but those rebellious always get beaten by the Grey Death, pahlava can't push south and ends heading north. Baktria is the only of them which usually does pretty good is Baktria, conquering the indian provinces and some of the most eastern AS ones

press print screen and open your TGA folder in your Rome installation, convert the TGA files to JPG using Irfan View.

BTW : Everytime AS Falls, it usually started by a large Ptolemaic army besiege Antioch and wander off into Mikhra asia, so that gave AS economic down, and let another factions kick the rest of AS

I have a different experience ; ive played 3 games in EB; Saka; Seleucids survived but were getting kicked pretty hard by ptolies s; Hai expanded north and there was no one gobbling the east beside me.

Getai and Epirus; seleucids get kicked pretty bad, easter factions push south and hai pushes north, to my surprise, pontus has 2 stacks besieging Byzantion and Ptolies are super aggressive

Also in RTR, Eleucids always get kicked by Ptolies as well as in RS

The AS starts losing its stride if Antioch falls, and they're completely doomed if Babylon and Seleuka fall.

there are 2 common option if the human player do not mess with AS.
if AS holds its main cities Antioch, mesopotamia. AS will dominate the estern part if she fails Ptolemy so on what exe you play we have either yellow or white death.

Most of the time, AS prefers focusing on the weak estern factions, emptying the western part of its empire which face a greater danger. The AI is really stupid.
Altho i've seen the AS wipe out the ptolemioio but its very rare, and annoying.

Also, i've never seen any of the eastern faction really gain any permanent ground on the AS. Pahalva usually manages to take the caspian cities, then the AS counterattacks, retake everything,and wipe out the pahlava; imo the main problem of the pahlava is a quickly stretched out front, add to that a complicated building chain the AI cannot (seem to) handle, and eventually the population of its starting cities depletes too quickly when cornered.

Rarely as well, baktria manages to expand into india and take a few AS cities to its west, but eventually the AS manages to retake everything.

The other main problem of the eastern factions is that AS has major advantages in autoresolve. Boosting the secondary HP of horse archers might help pahlava. Baktria is a hopeless case i'm afraid.

hell, i even tried cutting down money assistance of the AS? but to no avail, they have mines in almost all their cities, and their income remains pretty good until they get steamrolled by the ptolemaioi.

I have never seen the AS totaly dominate in any game, Everytime I havnt interfered in the east as a faction like Rome, Carth, Casse or the Adeui the AS has always lost a large portion of its eastern empire (although In one game they did retake a fair part of it once) and tend to hold fairly well in the west apart from once. In my experience they always take a battering but are rarley totaly wiped out and I have never seen them become super powerfull. Ofcourse if you gun for AS from quite early on the other AI factions will normaly gobble them up. Also I realy dont think Bactria is hopeless I cant think of a single game where they havent done well.... apart from when I have destroyed them.

Most of the time I play with Pahlava, so I conquer AS lands when I enter Syria Ptolemy attacks me I got tired of white and grey dead so as to handle it I have to be purple death myself. :-)

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Originally Posted by Cute Wolf

press print screen and open your TGA folder in your Rome installation, convert the TGA files to JPG using Irfan View.

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I couldn't find it anywhere in the Rome's folder

In my exceedingly, extremely, volatile, long, hard, timely, and professional experience, the AS almost always gets chopped up in 1.2. That's why I migated them to Africa in my Massalian AAR; I hate seeing a faction slot put to waste, especially since they cannot be revived.

That's odd...all the friends i talk to who have EB have concurred with my situation-grey death all around, all the time. It's weird to hear how so many people have it the other way around (but also pleasing, because it gives me hope for playing an eastern faction). So far, what has been said here is true for my previous games; Baktria/Pahlava chunks away at AS, then get annihlated by the counter attack. This time, there was no counter attack, if maybe a tiny one. Based on what you are all saying, I believe it was Pontus who struck the death blow by taking Antioch (out of nowhere....Pontus usually can barely hold its own in Anatolia, let alone go on the offensive), and from there everyone else just pounced. But mesopotamia wasn't taken until the last five years or so, and the Seleukids have been dying out for probably over thirty now. So i really think it depends mostly on Antioch, and if Mesopotamia is taken, they have no hope of recovery (no more elite units). I just thought it was significant that for once i wasn't experiencing neither grey nor yellow death.

I have played every single EB campain except the steppe ones on Alex.exe and there are two things I always saw:
If the AS is neighbouring the player they mainly atack in that direction, even on the cost of loosing their empire.
If the player isnt neighbouring them, than the AS focusses on one direction at a time. Sometimes they conquer minor asia first, or they conquer in the east. :book:

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Originally Posted by Metaluis90

I couldn't find it anywhere in the Rome's folder

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/Rome - Total War/tgas

In my experiences AS always falls to Ptolemies unless I am playing a neighboring faction in which case they usually take a few Levant cities. And yes, if they lose Antioch, they really have a small chance of revival.