Try to just create army after army. And build build build
Printable View
Try to just create army after army. And build build build
In the sense of spamming a lot...
Militia Hoplites are a great way to crank out lots of armies, just like The Wandering Scholar reccomended.
im still to be convinced about militia hoplites after they got powned by the parthians cavalry. then again i am fighting more infantry now.
Re my army and timescale, I have armoured elephants and cataphracts, and silver shield pikeman. I think the treasury should be ok as I have quite a few citys that can produce decent ish troops, ie scythed chariots in helicarnassus (i have changed my view on them, they are good if you can take out archers surgical with cataphracts then send in the chariots to decimate infantry,) pikeman and elephants in antioch and alexandria, cats in jerusalem and the city below alexandria. OH the most recent troop i can build are onagers, that was a surprise.
i will bear the reasury in mind though. I seem to have quite a few catamites kicking about my family though, even my main assasin has got one! I respect everyones right to live the life they choose, but is there any particular reason for this????
romans have just started fielding praetorian legionaires at me.
sorry to be vague, again im at work. Well i say again, im here very frigging day lolz.
thanks for all the advice btw.
With a few upgrades I like milita hoplites to be holed up in a city, if you get forced to sally against Armenian missile then just auto-resolve.
is it generally best to autoresolve when you have inf against a cav heavy army?
Yes, but in my opinion not in this case, It's true that horse archers fare badly in auto-calc, but militia hoplites fare even worse. They have poor morale and crappy stats-- the computer does not account for the phalanx ability at all.
ahhhh, well im phalanx heavy, whenever i go and make a cup of tea my son starst playing the game, and he autresolves a few of the battles, thats where all my phalanxs have gone.
How about some SS legionaries to guide the flanks.
havent got them yet, im still a phalanx heavy army, although i will buy eastern spearmen cos the unit size is quite big and they make excellent grinding material.
im still not quite sure on the best way to set my troops up tbh, i rely on my general and latterly my cataphracts to try and flank the main force or take out archers, and then generally micro manage. still i get caught out of position with my phalanxs a few times, and no offence to anyone, i dont wanna back my phalanxs into the corner of the battlefield and use the red line.
whats the best set up do you think, to fight romans i mean.
Against the Romans, I find the following strategy to be just what the doctor ordered:
(Works best when attacking) Put your phalanges in a line parallel to the Romans front line. Then command them to go to a destination beyond the Roman front line as a group. Once you lower your spears, the entire roman front line will be egaged as a whole. :thumbsup:
This leaves you free to let your cataphracts unleash their terror on the inferior roman cav and flank the engaged legionairres. Works like a charm. :charm:
SS pikemen makes the core of your army, this is how I would set up my army against he Romans (all my army have at least two exprience + gold weapons and armour):
7 SS pikemen in one single line parralle of the enemy line.
2 SS legionaries on the flanks.
2 Armoured/War Elephants on the sides
2 Archers behind main lines
1 onager
1 General combine with 1 unit of companion cavalry on the left side, these guys are for flanking on the left
1 cataphract combine with another cataphract on the right side, they are for flanking on the right.
2 ramdom companion cavalry for killing enemy archers and range units before the main battle starts, they'll join the battle after.
I try to be defensive, generally they will come right at you, while the main infantry closes in the archers and ranged units will be left behind, the two Companions (at the front) will go around the infantry line and slaughter them (ranged units), any interving cavalry should be killed, given that companions are very capable melee cavalry.
When the main enemy line closes in pull the cataphracts and general further to the sides, let the infantry engage in the fighting, send the elephants into densely packed enemies for maxium effect, hit them with archers(onager will be useless now, I like to have 1 of them in the battle anyway). then use your general and cataphract to hit any weakend units, they should rout straight. The two random companion should of done their job now, use them to assult the enemy rear line. Now all enemy units should be in an total disarry and crumbling. kill all survivers, job done.
thanks for that. i kinda like sitting for them and waiting.
cant build companions or legionaires yet so im relying on generals and cataphracts to do all the hard work of taking out the ranged units.
how tough are selucid legionaires?
Cataphracts shouldn't be running around and chasing ranged units because they're too slow and lack stamina, they are there for the decisive blow. Greek cavalry can kill archers and onagers just fine, while companion is an obivious better choice because of their better melee capabilities. plus they're lighter than cataphracts.Quote:
Originally Posted by carbz
The Seleucid legionaires are same copy as Roman Legionaries. No better, no worse. I only use them to guard the flanks as they don't use Phalanx formation and is therefore less vlnerble on the sides. They are also more flexible and can actually do some running.
Caution: rant ahead.
I'm about to give up on the Seleucids. The unit roster isn't *THAT* much better than Macedonia's, but wow, the strategic situation is just horrible. You start with 2 - count them, 2 - useful cities, one of which you will probably lose to Parthia quickly. You have two cities that cannot defend themselves because they have like 17 people (OK, they have 1200 or so people, not that there's much of a difference - a 1200 person settlement can't build much of anything). You're surrounded by hostile factions. Not just any hostile factions, but hostile horse archer factions - joy. Further, you cannot build any of the standard responses to horse archers. You get no horse archers of your own, nor do you have any elite foot archers. You don't even get any quality light cavalry, although militia cavalry isn't totally awful. Your best bet is cretan archers or just massive numbers of militia cavalry.
In exchange for this wretched position, you get the advantage of elephants, chariots (but not chariot archers, which might actually be useful), and at tier 5, after you've already won the game, a legionairre unit. Wow, that's *SOOO* worth it.
Also, your starting faction leader is a geezer and, for some reason, your family doesn't increase hardly at all. I've about had it with hitting "end turn" for the first time and finding out that my faction leader has died. I got enough of that playing as Germania
I've tried to like the Seleucids, I really have. I was prepared to like them even though I start under relentless assault by Egypt, but the Egyptian human wave attacks don't bother me. It's the consistently awful quality of my settlements that really gets to me. Yay, I have cash! Of course, I can't recruit squat with it because most of my settlements are garbage with low population. All that means is that I get to watch my governors (can't use them as generals since I can't actually recruit any decent armies for them to lead) collect awful embezzlement traits. Gee, that's totally worthwhile.
Tempted to upgrade a couple of the starting settlements out of crapdom with a mod just so this garbage faction will be worth playing. In the meantime, I'm done with Seleucids unless somebody has an *EARLY GAME* answer to horse archers that is available to them. Given the wretched respawn rate on Cretan Archers, they're not an answer, and Seleucid foot archers blow goats - although at least they're good enough to attrit away horse archers if I can manage to build them up fast enough. Playing Seleucids makes me wish I'd spent my afternoon going to the dentist of paying taxes or something.
Effective use of Militia Hoplites and Militia Cavalry is key to early survival with Seleucids.
Militia Hoplites will trash anything the A.I. throws at them, provided that they dont get flanked. Thus, you need lots of them. Don't bother with Levy Pikes though, they're utter garbage AND they eat up your population much faster than hoplites.
Militia Cavalry will deal quite nicely with enemy skirmishers and archers.
When the opportunity arises make a couple of Suicide Scythed chariot units. They are perfect for killing generals. At the start of the battle, flank the entire battle line, then send em towards the enemy general. Fire and forget it.
Hope this helps.
That is so true.:thumbsdown:Quote:
Originally Posted by rvg
It's true that the Seleucid starts with an impossible situation and also their early unit rooster are pants. But with a nice plan even mission impossible could be accomplished. Diplomacy is key to their survival. I've said this before, Only Armenia and Egypt are factions that the Seleucid must fight early on. Parthia is a big maybe, Greek and Pontus could be kept out of the fighting with a few trick or two. Sardis and Seleucia are abandonble. The key will be defeating Egypt early on. even if the Seleucid lose all their former lands, but with the newly accuired Egyptian lands, which are super rich with an insane population growth. They are more than capable of spanking Armenia and everyone else. Providing Egypt is dead and buried.Quote:
Originally Posted by Praetor Rick
I once got assaulted by a half stack of :egypt: in a town with wooden walls containing only 2 Levy pikes. Thought I had no chance and with Militia hoplites that would have been true. To my amazement the AI attacked with only one ram to the gate. I put my Levy pikes on either side forming a V to trap the attacking army units as they entered, and routed the whole lot with minimal casualties.:beam:
Since then I have had more faith in relatively small garrisons of pikemen. They are okay against Egypt because the chariots - even the generals can't get anywhere against pikes. In similar situations against other factions I have found that large general cav can break through by sheer weight of impact. Other times my V at the gate with even phalanx pikes has been thwarted by the AI bashing loads of holes in the wall and outflanking you - even taking multiple routes to the town square to stop you blocking roads with a modest garrison.
Population depletion can be a problem early on as Seleucids though - more so than for Macedonia who have the same unit choice at that stage, and I usually play on huge which exacerbates the problem. Later on for larger cities Pike Levies can make a cheap garrison unit for cities not too likely to be attacked but too valuable to entrust to peasants, especially if you're playing on a level with aggressive rebels popping up unexpectedly a long way from the main war fronts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timoleon the Brave
I've exprienced similar stuff. The Egyptian Faction leader and another FM turns up outside Damasacus with a allmost full-stack army. I only had the original FM inside with 3 Militia hoplite. I gave them up for dead. Two turns later they assulted the city with only one ram! Dumb AI:sweatdrop: , the army is made largely of Skirmishers and peasents along with some merceneary. The only formidible units were the Chariot archers and generals. I used all my Militia Hoplite to hold the gate with General behide them. Once the gate is down the peasant charged and routed, then the Skirmishers; still had ammo in hand and charged as well to engage in melee. The gate was stuffed with dead bodies then the Egyptian leader went on a suicide mission, charged his chariots right at the spears. Surprisingly half of them filtered through, only to be finished off by my general on horseback. More chariots charged and ended in a mass rout. My general came out and killed as many as he can. The Egyptians sent more human wave attacks later with tragic results:skull: . After I was able to train elephants my army crushed Egypt and hurried to finish the pest on the Northern frontier.:beam:
So far in my campaign i've gone completely aggressive against Egypt(page 1 of the guide gives some tips)and conquered sidon and Jerusalem. Next i'm going to take cyprus and alexandria. I haven't given Egypt any time to breathe because if i do it's full stack armies i'm up against. In all my settlements i've built many militia hoplites to withstand the armies of pontus and armenia(who've beseiged hatra). I'm also going to take the southern settlement of pontus if they don't own acyra(is that how it's spelt?).
The Seleucid Empire isn't that hard to play actually ...
I usually attack from the very first turn almost everyone around me ..
Parthia will lose Susa and Egypt Sidon in turn 3 ...
Will take Halicarnassus with some mercenaries and rush towards Ancyra (I always tend to lose general there .. do not know why :thumbsdown: )
After the first 5 or so turns I regroup and retrain ... after that I just use bridge battle tactics against Egypt (they really really love to send there FMs against my pikes :inquisitive: ) and avoiding Parthians/Armenians in a field battle and the east will belong to me then ...
Pontus is a tricky one .. but not that hard ... just have to wait till they lose one of there big armies and then just attack there cities ... they always have some chariots in them .. so sometimes you just do not have to fight at all .. the chariots will finish the Pontic defenders if you are lucky ..
I once besieged Mazaka with Pontic leader and heir in it .. also 2 scythed chariots and some eastern infantry .. after couple of volleys from my cretans the chariots started to run amok .. the rest was just unbelieving .. they killed leader and heir and most of the bodyguards and the eastern infantry :laugh4: .. I think I just used the general to kill those who had survived ... this is why I do not like keeping my chariots inside the city ...
Anyway .. in the hands of a human player the seleucid can win .. but in the hands of the AI they will be gone before 250 :no:
Well, I've managed to get a Seleucid start that doesn't make me want to scream and throw my computer out of a window. Attacking Egypt early was absolutely *KEY*. By enslaving Sidon and Jerusalem, I was able to get the generally lame settlements on my northern frontiers large enough to finally start defending themselves. The other key is to go with the flow. Building tons of economy structures may be needed in other factions, and is useful even when you're as wealthy as the Seleucids - but what you really need isn't roads and ports, it's barracks and stables. The settlements generate absurdly huge amounts of cash with minimal development, but they're under assault regularly, so keep those military units flowing, and don't let up on Egypt.
I think I may make up a guide, called "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Militia Cavalry," because that's been the mainstay of my armies so far. Militia Hoplites, Levy Pikemen, and Peltasts are nice, but it's the Militia Cavalry that have allowed me to actually win battles. Somehow melding a sub-par missile cavalry unit with a terrible light melee cavalry unit has produced a good, solid, workmanlike unit of versatile cavalry.
My Seleucid campaign is going very well,i own all of the middle east,turkey,egypt,libya and cyreniaca. Egypt was the main enemy who attacked you constantly with full stack armies,however parthia,armenia and pontus only attack you once which if pontus conquers Tarsus they start attacking Antioch and armenia stay at Hatra. The key to a good start is to attack Egypt as soon as possible.
My starting Seleucids strategy was attacking Egypt as well, and trying to keeping everyone else around me happy at the same time. Major war with Egypt is impossible to avoid, they'll send human waves at you, full stack armies made of low quality troops. Parthia is likely to take Seleucia, for me Seleucia is too far away to matter anyway, Parthia can have it if they wish. Although I found bribing them could delay the fight for some time. Armenia is another fight which I found can't be avoided. They will come for Hatra no matter what. If they choose to batter through then they'll be slaughtered, as the formidible horse archers are almost useless in seige warfare, but if they camp outside they you got little chance of defeating them in the open, my strategy is to leave a few Militia Hoplite in Hatra, the first time Armenia comes they'll assult, and lose. They'll come again, after that they'll stay outside and happy to let you starve, I sally at the last turn, knowing it's a lost course anyway but don't want to give in without a fight, but one I loses. They won't keep Hatra for long, I don't mind losing Hatra but it's the gate to Antioch, and also it's between Seleucia and Antioch which makes Hatra a strategic place. Straight about Hatra is taken I'll move a army from Antioch, consisting of elephants and Milita Hoplites to Hatra, using the elephants to knock the gate open and send my Hoplites in, the idea is to use this oppertunity to slaughter all Armenian troops inside, they don't stand a chance in the cities and most Armenia family members died this way, retake the city and leaves some Milita Hoplites as garrison, if the Armenia try this again then repeat this action, the key is to NOT fight Horse Archers in the fields but to trap in the city walls and redure them useless. This will keep the Armenians at bay. War with Greece and Pontus for me is definitely not hard to avoid. leave Ancyra alone and Pontus will take it, after taking Ancyra they'll will either move for Nicomedia, or go for Pergamum. Either way the Greeks and Pontics will clash, Pontus always end up victorious and then they might think of betraying you but by then you should already destroyed Egypt and ready to take them on. Move all your family members to Antioch in turn 1 as there is no need for them to be elsewhere. Have 5 family members in one single army can definitely be an advantage. Wipe out Egypt, then deal with everyone else. It always works well.:beam:
The greek cities will eventually attack you,but they wait for years. You can't lose any cities,they're all important. If you lose one,like Hatra,the income of seleucia will go down by at least 2000 denarii. All the cities hold a strategic position:Antioch feeds armies to Damascus,Hatra and Tarsus,Seleucia is near Parthia,Hatra near Armenia,the settlement near Pergamum is near halicarnasus,Ancyra and Pergamum. Another vital settlement is the rebel Palmyra near Damascus which can feed armies to Antioch mand Damascus.
But as i said gather all your armies in Antioch and Damascus and attack sidon as soon as you start,then retrain your armies and train some militia hoplites then attack Jerusalem one turn after taking Sidon. By now the Egypt are left with Alexandria,Memphis,Salamis and Thebes. Don't give them any time and attack alexandria and Salamis then memphis then thebes. You can't go wrong. By now armenia and parthia(you should attack pontus instead of letting them attack you)have attacked you at Hatra and Seleucia. While you do all this train tons of militia hoplites in every settlement. When the time comes you'll have enough hoplites and peltasts to be ready to attack armenia and parthia. Take halicarnasus and Ancyra. Leave Nicomedia because the greeks like that settlement. At Mazaka train militia hoplites and militia cavalry to attack Sinope. When Pontus are left with Nicomedia attack Pergamum and Nicomedia and Rhodes. At Seleucia attack Susa and Dumantha. Then attack the Parthian capital. Armenia are left in the east now. Take the originally rebel settlement belonging to Armenia and Armenia should have a half full stack army near their capital. Take the other settlement belonging to Armenia and then gather a big army to attack their Capital. By now you should own all of the Middle East,Egypt and Asia Minor.
This is what i've done so far and it worked for me. Do what i say and you'll have an empire bigger than the Persians,mightier than the Romans and Richer than Carthage! Brign glory to The Seleucid Empire!:beam:
I think the main flaw of the selucid's is their geographic location. If you look on the map, they are just one strip of land all the way from the Aegean to the middle east. They are a cross-section that is placed between five hostile factions. With their borders being strung out the way they are, its impossible to dedicate troops to all your borders. Thus you have to place your troops where they will have maximum effect, and leave everywhere else to fend for itself and pray. Now for the average human player this is not too big of a deal. But for the aimless AI, this is the Achilles' heel. One from which the AI cannot remove itself from.
I also found a sweet screenie of the selucids, and then I turned it black and white. It looks pretty BAMF...! enjoi
https://img159.imageshack.us/img159/...3003yw4.th.jpg
Nice picture,Good Ship Chuckle. Thanks for the pm about my sig. Before it said "a brave man may full,but he cannot yield".
Nice picture.:beam: What's the background unit, or is it from a mod?Quote:
Originally Posted by Good Ship Chuckle
@Darkvicer98
No problem dude. Just helping a brother out.
@QJC
I don't think it's a mod. I believe that it's a screenie of RTW when it first came out. Some units looked different then. And to be honest, I'm not quite sure what unit it is. I found it on IGN. :juggle:
No, it's a pre-release screenshot. IIRC it was either a unit that was not included or the skin of the Seleucid officer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Quintus.J.Cicero
It's pretty historical though. True, the Seleucids collapse faster than in history, but then the Romans expand way faster than they did historically.Quote:
Originally Posted by Good Ship Chuckle