The Seleucid Empire

Interesting.

I agree that once u establish seucids they re unstoppable. However at the beginning there are more than a few problems. I am fighting parthia, armenia, pontus, egypt and greece. My only ally is numidia lol, and trust em they werent my first choice bloody backstabbing greeks.

Interestingly, i had the most trouble with the parthians. Their ranged cavalry really shook up my militia hoplites, so the suckas routed when it came to the main battle.

Money is ok, but is kinda problematic when you are sitting besieged in your castle for 5 turns whilst your relief force arrives. plus being at war with everyone means my trade isnt exactly great.

levy pikeman defending a breach though, now thats fun. Have also just got armoured elephants and cataphracts, which now makes battles a cake walk,

scythed chariots were a load of crap, units too small and prone to going bezerk!

How did you get into a war with everyone around you? you must be really unpopular, i don't think i could survive that.

Everytime I play as Seleucid it just happens, all at the same time. Its tough but you can take a rather large expanse of land with good reason :P

I survive by using my huge income as a bribing tool.

In my Seleucid campaign i tried to have as few enemies as possible. Armenia always attacks Hatra, that can't be avoided. The Egyptians are your arch-enemy and destroying them was my top prioraty. The Parthian might attack you, i find that the parthian might just leave you by random chance but some regular tributes might help. Pontus will be busy taking control of Asian Minors, i make alliance with them all the time, while there's an outside chance Greece might try to take Sardis, but i believe they have more serious affair in Europe.
In my campaign i attacked Egypt with everything I had, while i was on the defensive against Armenia, trying to avoid open battle if possible. kept the Parthian off my back with Tributes. Made Alliance with Pontus and left the Greeks in a huge scale war against Pontus. All of these factions would be later destroyed of course before taking on Rome.

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Originally Posted by carbz

Interesting.

Interestingly, i had the most trouble with the parthians. Their ranged cavalry really shook up my militia hoplites, so the suckas routed when it came to the main battle.


scythed chariots were a load of crap, units too small and prone to going bezerk!

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Against Eastern Factions i tried to avoid all open field battles. Fight them in seige battles, horse archers lose their value and even catapharacts can't handle a couple of units of pikemen and hoplites.

i personally find Scythed Chariots to be extremly useless. I don't have much love for any sort of Chariots. although i do admit they have their own unique advantages.

I Allied everyone I boarded from the beginning. Then I canceled my alliance with Egypt and attacked them, Taking Sidon as soon as they went to war with numidia. Then Pontus attacks greece and I side with Pontus, then Armenia attacks and Pontus and Parthia break alliances with me...

I'm a poor diplomat.

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Originally Posted by QuintusJulius-Cicero

Against Eastern Factions i tried to avoid all open field battles. Fight them in seige battles, horse archers lose their value and even catapharacts can't handle a couple of units of pikemen and hoplites.

i personally find Scythed Chariots to be extremly useless. I don't have much love for any sort of Chariots. although i do admit they have their own unique advantages.

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I do like the Egyptian chariots, one unit of them (8 chariots, 24 crew) destroyed an entire army by themselves during a siege battle in my current brutii campaign... my bad, all my cohorts where in a big clump in a street and most javelins and pila had allready pincushioned Nubians and Nile people... it was like a mixer!
Though, if you have phalanx units, Chariots are not threat at all (save for the few that shoot arrows... that's why you need militia cavalry and skirmishers)

Sieging and avoiding open combat is the way to go against parthia and Armenia. Pontus uses mostly Eastern Infantry and those Chariots of theirs... no big deal for phalanx units.

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Originally Posted by whtdoesitmatta

I Allied everyone I boarded from the beginning. Then I canceled my alliance with Egypt and attacked them, Taking Sidon as soon as they went to war with numidia. Then Pontus attacks greece and I side with Pontus, then Armenia attacks and Pontus and Parthia break alliances with me...

I'm a poor diplomat.

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Avoiding war with Egypt and Armenia is almost impossible. Pontus always seems to be in war with Greece and i sided with Pontus as well. The only way for Parthia to expand is to fight the Seleucids so it's only a matter of time, but I try my best to delay it, preferable when Egypt is destroyed.

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Originally Posted by QuintusJulius-Cicero

Against Eastern Factions i tried to avoid all open field battles. Fight them in seige battles, horse archers lose their value and even catapharacts can't handle a couple of units of pikemen and hoplites.

i personally find Scythed Chariots to be extremly useless. I don't have much love for any sort of Chariots. although i do admit they have their own unique advantages.

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yes this makes sense.

However i find that money isnt as great as everyone makes out. I was beseiged by the greeks in that town above hilicarnassus, ponts in the town to the left of my capitial, Hatra by the armenians, and parthia wwere beseiging the town to the right of hatra. Egyptians beseiging my capital!

(forgive me im at work, cant remember town names.)

this seemed to have a rather adverse effect on my income and people started rioting, i had to sally forth cos i was on the rack financially!

I think i should have tried a bit harder diplomatically........

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Originally Posted by carbz

However i find that money isnt as great as everyone makes out..........
this seemed to have a rather adverse effect on my income and people started rioting, i had to sally forth cos i was on the rack financially!

I think i should have tried a bit harder diplomatically........

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For me diplomacy was key to my survival as the Seleucids early on. Get trade rights with as many faction and avoid war. Your weak early troops don't help either. as in your situation i propably would of quited already. start fresh I would take out Egypt as soon as possible. This gives you enomorous income and also set loose your troops of the Egyptian front. War with Armenia and Parthia is unaviodable and an Helensic betrayal is highly possible. Sarifices had to be made. I personally would of abandoned Sardis & Seleucia if attacked, move all your family members toward Antioch for the big offensive against Egypt. after that you could commit all your troops on the Eastern factions. Elephants can also be vital. all this hard work is worth it knowing what sort of troops the Seleucids could field later on. after Asia it's all the player's choice how to advance to Rome. I personally rampaged Brutii Balkans before storming Rome, becoming Imperator.

well i did get creamed omed for several games, until i managed to hang on and build a stables. Im thinking the balkans is the way forward now i have smashed the egyptians, although i do fancy trying to kick the scipi off the african continent.

just got silver shield pikeman, they are quite useful!

Temple to Hephaestos (upgrades) are an absulote advantage, not only they upgrade weapons and armor but also give exprenice. Invalueble. build them in troop producing cities. While the one that gives health bonus can also be handy in numerous ecasions.

Getting Carthage could be your platform for Rome. One advantage is it's ability to retrain and recruit Elephants. a source not found in the Balkans. but with the late tier units you could crush the Romans with them anyway.

im building elephants in antioch, those armoured ones. I find they run amok pretty esily as well though, probs is i dont like 'spiking them' so i leave them running amok so i can have them in the next battle!

carthage has been creamed already by the scippi, carthage are reduced toone lame assed little city in southern spain. They still didnt want to share map info though despite me being their only ally!

why does everyone hate me?????/ Im just not getting the diplomacy thing.


thanks re hephaestus thing, didnt realise they give a bonus like mars.

im building elephants in antioch, those armoured ones. I find they run amok pretty esily as well though, probs is i dont like 'spiking them' so i leave them running amok so i can have them in the next battle!

carthage has been creamed already by the scippi, carthage are reduced toone lame assed little city in southern spain. They still didnt want to share map info though despite me being their only ally!

why does everyone hate me?????/ Im just not getting the diplomacy thing.


thanks re hephaestus thing, didnt realise they give a bonus like mars.

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Originally Posted by carbz

im building elephants in antioch, those armoured ones. I find they run amok pretty esily as well though, probs is i dont like 'spiking them' so i leave them running amok so i can have them in the next battle!

carthage has been creamed already by the scippi, carthage are reduced toone lame assed little city in southern spain. They still didnt want to share map info though despite me being their only ally!

why does everyone hate me?????/ Im just not getting the diplomacy thing.


thanks re hephaestus thing, didnt realise they give a bonus like mars.

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Somehow I also finds armoured elephants to be more proven to running amok than war elephants. I rarely spike them as well. these guys could be a real handful in battle. Never went without them as Carthage.

For diferent reason I was also very unpopular as the Seleucids and Carthage later on. After crushing early foes (Romans & Numidians). In my Carthage Campaign The Greeks and Germania were my only ally. but neither wanted to share map info with me, I offered money, tributes......... Once I offered 10,000 K for Greek map they snubbed me differently, very rude of them. I don't see the point of this alliance.

Hephaestus only Gives exprinence in Patheons and awsome temples, early on they only give armour upgrades.

recently i start a Seleucid campaign,i get a conclusion after few days,that since everyone around you are going to go into war with you,then the best way to survive is to gather all your troops and recruit as many as you can to attack egypt at first turn.

why?becoz if you can take egypt teritories as your new base(better income,higher level military buildings to recruit better units),then you are survive(coz you can recapture your old teritories after egypt teritories are taken).the numidians?they will not bother you since Scipii are on their back(North africa).That means you only need to fight at 1 side.then the rest is up to you......:yes:

do you have the troops necessary to fight egypt at the start though? esp if yo9u are sacrificing antioch etc.

Trust me. focus on eygpt. Destroying them will end the short campaign and I dont find it surprising the greeks turned on you. The selucide empire used to belong to greece and as you probaly know this game is based on history. The computer will know this and make the greeks turn on you. My advice....
Join the greeks other enemies, the House of Brutii and with them wipe out the greek peninsular!
MWAHAHAHAHA!

In my campaign the Greek Asian province was taken by Pontus. By the time I unified Asia they (Greeks) were long dead and buried. along with Macedon, with the Brutii controlling the Balkans.

well egypt are now out of the game for me, and I have taken carthage and, then given iot back to the carthagians who are the only people who will ally with me. I hoped to try and help the carthagians develop in the are again so they could help me fightthe scippi.

However i didnt exterminate the populace, and the city promptly rebelled on teh carthaginians lolz.

I took it back and by that time my diplomat over by the only carthagian city (in spain) had died and i cant get another one over rthere cos the scippi boats are bloody everywhere.

have taken athens, brutti just keep coming though dont they?Plus the scippi have some hard arsed diplomat that keeps bribing my captains away! the assassins i have, event ones that are quite experienced cant get at him ! I had quintus the killer or someone like that, he had two courtesans, a dancer, a monkey and a catamite hanging round with him, still got slain! Mind you anyone rolling with a crew like has gotta look suspicious......

Is there any other faction left in Asia?

dacia are massive, although their lands are crap, and they keep wanting to attack me over the mountains, near the old parthian capital city, so i built a fort, and now they come though that pass where there is a watchtower

Parthia is still in the top right hand corner of the map.

I think the lightblue faction is still going, thrace is it?

gaul and the Germans have bit the dust though.

Carbz:

The Selkies always get the shaft diplomatically. All of your neighbors have your death as a victory condition, so it really is a question of time before they're after you. Early on, war with ANY is likely to bring war with all as each subsequent group sees you as a weaker target as you're already at war.

By all means get trade early and keep them off your back as long as you can. Concentrate in Antioch and be ready for war to the knife when it kicks off. Sardis, Seluekia, and Hatra will pretty well have to defend themselves without help. If you have alliances with Greece and Parthia this will slow the onslaught on the two former.

Egypt first is, ultimately, your best hope. Crunch them and hold Antioch and you can bounce back well with Eggy monies. The longer the outliers hold -- without you just running -- the longer it will take your enemies to hammer at Antioch. Antioch is vital for its temple, hefelumps, and monies -- and you can hold it while killing sheaves of baddies with a good mixed garrison. Unfortunately, you'll barely have enough for this garrison and one stack going into Egypt at first -- tricky balance to work.

Have the Dacians got Scythian lands. Also how are the Romans doing? who controls the Balkans.

thanks seamus, im gonna do another game after this one on the hardest level cos i really enjoyed this fight thuus far.


re my current round, dacia have got some of scythia, but scythia are still hanging on.

Juli have wiped out gaul , brutti took out greece and i think control the balkans, cant see cos of fog of war. I have athens and the coity to the left of it though.

Scippi are in africa and the islands off the coast of italy.

At this stage, is it worth trying to cultivate the dacians? the refused an alliance before, but im thinking i could forget about trying to breath life into the carthaginians and cultivate the dacians.

The Dacians seems to be controlling the poorest regions in the game. You don't need to fight them. An alliance would be nice, the area around Soviet Union has the most remote settlement in the map. You don't want these lands. There are two ways for you to push into Italy. One is the Balkans another is Africa, in my campign i simplely wiped out Brutii controlled Greece and Macedonia and went into Italy next. The Balkan regions are some of the richest in the game. The Aegean sea is paved with gold, control all the lands around this and you'll sure never to run out of money again. How's your financial situation, what's your treasury.

im running at 10-15 k profit per turn after upkeep etc.

Im going to try and get the dacians on side, purely in the hope they may do some fighting of the brutti for me.

thanks for the tip re the balkan areas, i thought egypt was the richest bit, i will push on into greece and concentrate on the brutti there.

Watch out for the treasury, once you get more than 50K then your family members are more likely to receive corrupt traits. Which isn’t helpful at all.

What year is it? What sort of units is in your army which you fight the Romans with?