Seleucid Tactics.

Ok, so who out there playing hard/hard or above has had a succesful Seleucid campaign?

I'm about to pull the plug on my current and retry. Basically, I went and allied up with everyone I could and drove hard on egypt. I took 3 provinces from them and thought I had them licked for the time being. I then began to consolidate my positions when Armenia hit me from the north. They slaughtered a garison and took a town. Seleucia was cut off so I pulled that army out and gave the city up to a rebel revolt hoping to stop the bleeding. I had a nice army that I thought was nicely teched, containing Levy Phalanx and Phalanx Pikemen. So I head towards the Nile hoping to finish the Egyptians off and I run into 3 full stacks of Egyptian armies. I lost the entire army in a retreating action hoping to fall back to link up with another army.

Im not so worried about Armenia atm, but Parthia is looking hungry and has yet to attack, however im not sure WHAT I can do to stop the egyptian hordes. Their units are vastly superior to anything I can put out at the moment in numbers.

Has anyone had success attacking Egypt first? Im thinking right now, you've got to attack and attack hard crippling Egypt before they start getting lots of Nile spearmen out. Racing for Archers is probably also extremely important, if you go phalanx heavy, the archer heavy eygptians will simply slaughter your lightly armored phalanxes. Basically it seems you need to enslave populations untill you can start building armored phalanxes otherwise you're hooped.

Hard/hard, are you insane? The AI gets big combat bonuses above Medium. I tested that theory, and with like vs like units, the AI on hard will kill 1.5 to 2 of your men for every one of his lost. Personally, I'm of the camp where difficulty should be in tactics, not in arbitrary stats boosts. It's kind of like boxing, except the other guy has much longer arms than you, or outweighs you by 30-50 pounds.

It's too bad, because I don't know if the AI uses it's best tactical ability at Medium. But I refuse to play above Medium in combat unless unit per unit the sides are equal (given identical valour, morale, unit type, general, etc). If I recall, MTW didn't boost the stats until the highest difficulty level.

I tried the Seleucids on hard, and quit in disgust. Watching a normally poor fighting unit walk right through my spear wall and slaugher my units is not fun. Good luck in your campaign, though. If you win, please let us know. I'd love to find out if survival is possible given the artificial stats boosts that Hard gives the AI in combat.

Well, im almost 100% sure that the AI plays retarded on medium. Its tactics are much more apparent on Hard, as in it actually uses tactics.

Anyways, I stuck with that campaign. I THINK I may be over the hump *knocks on wood*. I gave ground and pulled armies from my outlaying regions down to deal with Egypt. I withdrew almost everything but a token garrison from Sardia and recruited mercs along the way. Just as my two "last hurrah" 2.5k man armies reached Jerusalem, egypt made its push. I caught 3 armies, 2 of which were around 1k men each, the other about 2.7k. I wiped them out in a series of battles and have just conquered Alexandria and am laying siege to Memphis. I think this is all she wrote for Egypt and soon I should be in a strong position to tech up to some decent units and turn my attentions towards those danged Armenians.

I ran into a little luck, although it was annoying at first. Armenia entered an alliance with Pontius which cancelled our war. I took advantage of this and entered into a trade agreement and full alliance with Armenia to get my devasted economy rolling again. The Greeks have been making a serious nuisance of themselves. My countryside is swarming with greek diplomats and its pointless to attempt to ferry any units about without the escort of a family member. I've had 6 Greek Cavalry and 4 Phalanx Pikes bribed away from me.

In anycase I can't wait to execute a coup de grace on Egypt, they are without question the most annoying faction i've fought so far. I have a feeling Armenia may prove to be worse with the scads of horse archers i've seen in their armies.

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Originally Posted by hoof

Hard/hard, are you insane? The AI gets big combat bonuses above Medium. I tested that theory, and with like vs like units, the AI on hard will kill 1.5 to 2 of your men for every one of his lost. Personally, I'm of the camp where difficulty should be in tactics, not in arbitrary stats boosts. It's kind of like boxing, except the other guy has much longer arms than you, or outweighs you by 30-50 pounds.

It's too bad, because I don't know if the AI uses it's best tactical ability at Medium. But I refuse to play above Medium in combat unless unit per unit the sides are equal (given identical valour, morale, unit type, general, etc). If I recall, MTW didn't boost the stats until the highest difficulty level.

I tried the Seleucids on hard, and quit in disgust. Watching a normally poor fighting unit walk right through my spear wall and slaugher my units is not fun. Good luck in your campaign, though. If you win, please let us know. I'd love to find out if survival is possible given the artificial stats boosts that Hard gives the AI in combat.

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This is quite true. I don't have the game yet but i have played the demo mod and i agree. At "hard" there are some extreme morale bonuses given to the opponent while my units rout with 25% casualties as if they were the peasants in Medieval. I find this really annoying. I would prefer the higher difficulty setting to be based on better tactics rather than "cheating".
Therefore, i'm probably going to use the "medium" difficulty-setting for battles, once i get the game. I'm just afraid that there are also lesser tactics employed by the AI at this level, thus making the "medium" level unchallenging.

I'm finding most battles fairly easy to moderate on hard, if it takes a bonus for them to fight atleast this good then so be it, any weaker and I would be falling asleep.

Have to agree with Thoros. Even on hard the battles are relatively easy. Then again, it's been awhile since I fought with anything less than veteren hoplites commanded by a 3+ star general.

I don't think the bonus in combat is that apparent. Just pretend you're fighting generals with a couple stars. The MAJOR difference i've noticed is that on hard the AI will attempt to actually flank with cavalry. On medium it simply frontally charges with cavalry. In the event you are attacked by two armies, the AI will link them up on hard. On medium they usually attack individually.

My medium campaign as Brutii got so incredibly boring that I had to quit. Nothing was challenging and I was SO far ahead in the game that it was just tedious. I'll probably play it a little yet, at the very least to see the senate DoW me.

I did fairly OK as a seleucid campaign, I think the key is to immediately take your diplomat up North and gain an alliance with Pontus and Armenia. They always agree (in my experience, but then I'm only playing on med camp map) so thats your northern frontier secured. Dont leave it too long or else Armenia will attack Hatra. Then you need to take Cyprus ASAP off the Egyptians. It will earn you HEAPS of money with trade, then strike down to SIdon and Jerusalem. Forget about conquering the Nile Delta, the Egyptian citites are too close together and can easily reinforce each other. In Antioch you need to build cavalry stables first up to get Elephants. Elephants will save you here, get two to three units in the army and use them to stomp over the Egyptian spearmen (from the side or behind). They are also very good at taking a charge from chariots and cavalry, you'll be unlucky if you lose one. You also need to reduce Antioch's taxes to low, you want it to grow as fast as possible to get your elite units. Once your city reaches 12000 pop, you can train silver shield pikemen and cataphracts/war elephants, and thats when your domination starts to begin ~:) In the west, try to take Halicarnassus as sson as you can, the rebels there are fairly strong with some units of cretan archers/merc hoplites, but your generals cavalry units will help out there, plus your own mercenaries. The Greeks will likely start eyeing you off, so when they attack (with mostly hoplites) counter with cretan archers/rhodian slingers plus some mercs and take Pergamun. Beseiging is the best bet, plus you dont need to massacre the pop to reduce unrest because their culture is Greek too. On your estern front, the Parthians are fairly manageable if you keep a healthy garrison in Seleucia as they usually try and find easier prey in the rebel cities. Your main concenr is the two uits of cataphratcs they start out with, once they are gone you can strike quickly and take Susa off them. This deals them a nearly fatal blow for the whole game. Once you have your elite units, finish off the Egyptians and conquer whoever wins the Pontus/Armenia war (usually Pontus). THe challenge still isn't over though! By this time, the Romans will have dealt with most of their immediate opposition, and the Marian reforms are just around the corner! Try to take Greece and Sicily, then when the Romans are weakened you can take Rome. Your Silver Shield Legionnaires have same stats as post marian legionnaires, plus you get good pikemen and cataphracts/armoured elephants. Cretan archers and Rhodian slingers help here too. Its certaily a challengeing game as Seleucid! Dont build too many fleet, the AI opponent will always waste money on building several 1000 man fleets and domiate the ocean.

Ive seen a lot of posts about the poor AI in RTW and im not experiancing it myself. The only bad play I have seen is the AI standing there defending while you pepper him with arrows.

I have had the AI lead one of my armies once and did a steller good job, I have also had it do a very BAD job too.

Playing against factions with fast light infantry the AI will always stop your flanking attempts. Now some people have mentioned how bad the AI is at protection its flanks and I guarentee you these people are referring to hoplite armies.
Barbarian armies with quick fast infantry I always have difficult getting around the AI's flank until the melee is well engaged.

The AI also likes to hit your flanks with cavalry, and draw out anti-cavalry troops with one unit of cav and charge your unprotected lines with another.

All in all the battle AI is about 10 times better than MTW, its just a few things such as the AI being ineffective with slow moving hoplites and letting you pepper it with arrows when its defending.

I lost probably about two battles against the AI in MTW on Hard in my entire campaign as the English. Most of the time if you were outnumered you were fine.
Ive lost far more in RTW and I actually fear being outnumbered now. Yeah the Gauls are easy , but try playing against some of the other more advanced factions and you will be surprized.

The AI can be spotty, but it somewhat depends on the leader. I can recall one battle where Numidian light cavalry were far to eager and out paced their accompaning infantry by far.

Well, i've conquered all of Egypt now except Cyprus. Im about to turn my attentions to Parthia as they've got a couple large armies roaming around out in the desert. I'll be building Silver Shields in Thebes/Alexandria/Memphis within a couple turns. I'll probably fortify against the Numibians and then head north up into Pontius/Armenia.

In the end, the key for me beating Egypt was simply out archering them. Once I decimated their main forces which were pushing on Jerusalem there was no way for them to rebuild those forces so I simply sieged Memphis/Alex at the same time then Thebes.

Parthia on the other hand is going to be a pita. Those Persian Horse Archers just race around and I can't catch them with anything unless I bring masses of Greek Cav and individually encircle each unit.

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Originally Posted by Osbot

Well, i've conquered all of Egypt now except Cyprus. Im about to turn my attentions to Parthia as they've got a couple large armies roaming around out in the desert. I'll be building Silver Shields in Thebes/Alexandria/Memphis within a couple turns. I'll probably fortify against the Numibians and then head north up into Pontius/Armenia.

In the end, the key for me beating Egypt was simply out archering them. Once I decimated their main forces which were pushing on Jerusalem there was no way for them to rebuild those forces so I simply sieged Memphis/Alex at the same time then Thebes.

Parthia on the other hand is going to be a pita. Those Persian Horse Archers just race around and I can't catch them with anything unless I bring masses of Greek Cav and individually encircle each unit.

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This sounds like a lot of fun, playing as the Romans all this is practically a world away from me. Im sick of snow covered forests infested with half naked barbarians. I cant wait to start fighting battles out your way.

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Originally Posted by Osbot

I don't think the bonus in combat is that apparent. Just pretend you're fighting generals with a couple stars. The MAJOR difference i've noticed is that on hard the AI will attempt to actually flank with cavalry. On medium it simply frontally charges with cavalry. In the event you are attacked by two armies, the AI will link them up on hard. On medium they usually attack individually.

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I have had the completely opposite experiance. I am playing as the Brutii, Medium, Medium, and the enemy are very smart with their cavalry and two armies.

Here's an example;

I was defending somewhere near Egypt. The enemy attacked me with a small, 400 man army, but they had a 2000 man army (with a seperate leader) coming in. I decided against taking a central position as I felt that the small army wasn't worth dangerous maneuver (the enemy were 50% cavalry, whereas I only had about 3 units of equites, so they were a lot faster than me). The enemy armies quickly joined together and began attacking me. They had their infantry attack my center, while their cavalry harrassed my flanks. I managed to win due to the devestating barage my 4 units of Cretan Archers, supported by 2 units of Archers and 2 units of Rhodian Slinger, as well as all of my pila were able to lay down (only about 2 of their units made it into contact with my line).
In my experiance, the AI is a major improvement over Medieval's, and I am very happy with it.