My empire is crumbling

As Pontus I've managed to take most of asia minor *except pergamum, the rebel city below sardis and the ptolemaic ones* and from tarsus to judea and I was just taking Damascus and palmyra when order began to crumble in my domain. Almost all of my cities are rioting every turn, I live in constant threat of revolt *Antiochea just went back to the seleucids right after I took back byzantium from rebels* and the endless silver tide pounds at my empire from the east and refuses peace, even when I force it on them they just attack again the next turn. Any ideas? I'm thinking about either focing peace on the seleucids every turn or giving the chunk of land I grabbed from them to the ptolemies, pulling back the troops I used garrisoning it to guard the pass to tarsus and working on solidfying Asia Minor before trying to expand again. The second idea seems good but I hate to give up that land I fought so hard for, atleast it'll be fun to watch the ptolemies and seleucids duke it out and I can trade for salamis and their other asia minor city.

Good luck, rebellions in nearby settlements are usually due to spies in that settlement.

For the Seleucid and Ptolemoi.... u know they may just NOT go to war UNLESS ur allied with the Ptolemoi, the AI has the tendency to gangup against u.

I would train 1 stack and 1/2 stack and send it on a "plundering mission" into Seleucid lands. This will give u some extra $$, plus buy u time as the AI has to rebuild its barracks. ALso, send spies into the far east section of the Seleucids and have those towns rebell.

Oh I almost forgot.

-use forts and guard them with 1 unit to block key passages. HOWEVER, leave one passage OPEN for the AI. Don't have an army sitting close by that open passege other wise you will block it.

Why do u want to leave an open passege?
-The AI will funnel its stacks through there allowing u to defend only 1 area, instaed of having to speard ur forces to defend posible entry points all around. Not only does this saves u from loosing a town or 2, it also saves u a lot of $$ since all u have to do is retrain that one stack. AGAIN, don't have it sitting close to the open space. UNLESS it is hiding in the bushes.

well i went through with the trade, salamis is worth more then I imagined and Sides a pretty well developed city. Now I have to retake Sinope and Nikaia from rebels and conquer the rest of Asia Minor while evacuating my troops from the middle east which is thankfully no longer my problem. I just hope the ptolemies can hold their own atleast long enough to keep the silver beast distracted. Maybe I could raid seleucid alexandria and memphis, burn down everything but the barracks and give them back.

As long as I'm conquering asia minor are their any regionals I should look out for? I know about galatians and thracians *is their anyway to get thracian infantry?* but what else is their?

Well, if you go to Thraicia then you will get Thracians. You probably want to look in the area between Makedonia, Byzantium and Dacia.
There are some very nice regionals in there. Taxeis Triballoi, THraikoi Peltastai, Dacian Shock Infantry and Light Cavalry. Just go with what works best for you.
A note, the city to the east of Buridhava allows you to get Scythian Horse-Archers, I learned this from my Makedonian Campaign, where for some reason that city has more Hellenic/Makedonian troops than Ambrakaia.
Look out for Toxotai Siriakoi too. They are very powerful archers (in the top three probably. Toxotai Kretikoi and Indian Longbowmen are the other two spots), and they do not have to be babysat as much thanks to their neat Armor points. Heck, they can even be used as shock troops if they run out of arrows. Just protect them from Cavalry charges.


Public Order problems like yours generally mean spies and assassins are roaming around. Get your own to fix the problem.
The best you can really do against the Seleucids is to have two stacks in the most advanced cities with a large amount of Towers to keep you appraised of the situation.
Hold the Seleukids off with that army, then invade the Ptolemaioi and take their cities. They are very lucrative, and all you need is a stack in the easternmost part of the Ptolemaioi territory to keep the Carthaginians in their place.
The way to beat the Successor states is to use your own pike to hold them, assault units and skirmishers to hit the flanks, and Cavalry to charge their rear.


btw, what faction are you using and what year is it? How well developed are your military and economic infrastructure?
Those questions will help us to help you.

UPgrade those rebelling cities to the next city level - it will be a big boost to their happiness if they are no longer primarily western greek in nature.

Agreed with TA. Seek to upgrade as many buildings as possible to get rid of the culture penalty. Governors' buildings are the most important here, since they contribute a disproportionately high amount of culture penalty. Then I'd say go for temples, since you get the dual effect of reducing penalties as well as gaining public order bonuses. Always ensure that you destroy any non-essential enemy buildings such as barracks buildings, government types, Ptolemaic stele and so on.

Also, train 3-4 spies in all towns bordering with an enemy faction. There may be a few enemy spies causing dissent in your newly-conquered towns, but they usually stick to border settlements.