The Seleucid Empire

My campaign is going great. I own half of Africa,all of the middle east,asia minor,today russia and i'm still going(hint:i'm bribing some of my enemies cities). The big empires are(in order from biggest to smallest):

1.The Seleucid Empire(me,32 settlements)
2.Britons(15 settlements)
3.Roman Julii(14 settlements)
4.Roman Scipii(8 settlements)
5.Roman Brutii(8 settlements)
6.Spain(5 settlements)
7.Numidia(4 settlements)
8.Gauls(4 settlements)
9.The Greek Cities(2 settlements)
10.Scythia(2 settlements)
11.Thrace(2 settlements)
12.Rebels(2 settlements)
13.Carthage(1 settlement)


Dacia,Macedon,Pontus,Armenia,Parthia and Germania have all been destroyed.

Hhhmmm....

You seem to be missing Egypt. They are niether existing nor destroyed.

LOl. It's not that I'm trying to find mistakes with your posts Darkvicer98, it's just that they seem to grab my attention so well. :laugh:

Yes Egypt is destroyed. Thank you Good Ship Chuckle.

I played some with the seleucids last night (M/M). You have to learn to use militia hoplites to succeed!

I attacked Parthia and Egypt right away. Maybe I should have left Partia alone, but I managed to take Susa after a tough battle where my heir's bodyguard was down from 40 to 5 men.

I took Sidon and Jerusalem asap with my king and his army.

That's when the problems begin to show up. I have a hard time building anything resembling quality troops, relying on militia hoplites, peltasts and militia cavalry. Against a full stack of chariots, spearmen and bowmen from Egypt they are really overmatched. I bought every mercenary I could find too.

On top of that Pontus and Greece have declared war, and Armenia are marching towards Hatra. I really should have left Parthia alone...
:oops:

I think I can hold on though. Pontus is sieging Tarsus, but I think my militia hoplites can hold the town when the assault comes. They still only have eastern infantry. Hatra has also been reinforced against the suspected Armenian attack.

I just took the middle Egypt town (Memphis) when they stupidly withdrew their supporting army. I hope to hole op here and build some more militia...

On the western front I bribed a greek army and laid siege to Pergamun, while marching another (smallish) army with 2 units of cretan archers and some (you guessed it) militia hoplites toward Pontus' homelands.

Finally I am marching some you guess who's against parthias last town - this time supported by *gasp* archers!

All in all I'm having lots of fun with this faction. I fear I'll be too strong if I manage this crisis, and the game will become boring.

This is very likely. Once you are done with Asia Minor, Egypt and the Caucasus, you're settled. The only challenge that remains then is the Romans and the battles against them will eventually become repetitive too.

So for me, the only fun phase of the game with the Seleucids is the beginning.

Magraev i think you should have left Parthia alone,however they would have attacked you if you had not declared war. Armenia and Pontus would have attacked you eventually and the Greeks wouldn't have declared war unless you insulted them in some way.

As with Egypt time is precious. If you give them space and time they build huge armies so i recommend attacking them at Sidon straight away with all armies in the surrounding settlements. After you take the East theres Scythia,Numidia and The Greek Cities. Recommend you conquer Greece then Numidia and Carthage. Try to avoid war with the Romans as long as possible until your ready.

I absolutely agree about attacking Egypt asap.

I once tried a game where I defended against Egypt while attacking Pontus, Armenia and Parthia first. It went well at first, but after a while Egypt had several full stacks wandering about north of Sidon, withing striking distance of Antioch - not good. They can simply out-produce and out-fight the seleucids in a straight fight in the desert. Better archers, axemen and killer chariots are more than a match for the one advantage (elephants) that the seleucids have.

I got tired of that campaign after a while of endless full-stack battles. This way lets you actually fight with something other than militia hoplites though.

I agree that I should have left Parthia alone, and maybe tried to bribe their cataphracts over to my side first. I did abosolutely nothing to annoy greece other that grow strong. All my neighbours are allied against me now, so I have never had any alliance. I hope to ally with macedon, who are at war with greece too.

If you take Sidon straight away the Egyptians have loss part of their big income and taking Cyprus is also a good way to split up their income.

Parthia attack Seleucia early in the game,about 3-5 turns in with Cataphracts and Horse Archers. Armenia attack Hatra and Pontus attack Tarsus like you said if left alone for too long. The Greek Cities may sometimes be your ally and sometimes your enemy but the eventually attack you when you become the power in Asia Minor(Turkey).

Macedon will be a powerful alliance. They have a good income and they fight both the Romans and Greeks so they'll be a good ally. Plus the Aegean is a good place for trading.

I found it slightly boring after i conquered the East. It was the challenge in The Seleucid's Campaign but after you've done it you feel theres nothing more to do really....

This thread has indeed been a treasure grove for advice in playing TSE, a faction i'd avoid due to its very challenging position and its starting units, despite its awesome roster and rich lands.

Advices that i adopted from this thread:
1. "Destroying egypt from the get-go" (sidon and jerusalem first, cyprus, and final thrust south from alexandria before they expand).
TOP Priority of early campaign, higher than taking a rebel settlement nearby) Gone by at most turn 15.
Seeing egypt as the first 'Faction Destroyed' can make you shed a tear in pride:medievalcheers:

2. "siege halicarnassus with general and 2 militia hoplites strategy on the 1st turn, rushing to the gate to bottle-up sallying defenders" strategy.
Pure genius. ~:lightbulb:An insane idea, considering the towns garrison (cretan, rhodian slinger, mil. hops, and 2 greek hops!!!:shocked2:) that i just had to try it out. Was so surprised when i somehow got it to work (save file a must!!!) with battle ending in a Draw, but a ram and 1 cretan merc later, and the towns yours.
*Followed this with taking rhodes (once garrison is smaller, + a port in aegean very early is very valuable) and pergamum followed by rebel kydonia.
*always be on the look out for cretans, followed by rhodians slingers (can deal a ton of damage to a garrison via a hole on the wall by ram, eles, or spy, makes sieges more manageable), hoplites (more reliable early access troops), or thracians (offensive troops for flanking, defending flanks, which u lack early, optional).
* sea trade wonder + farming wonder, means money ain't a problem, and can afford to put most towns to growth/low taxes.

(continued)
3. "start building cavalry stables in antioch by at least turn 3."
early elephants are a must not for trampling, but for ramming gates, wooden walls. same movemnt points on the campaign map as cavalry, more reliable than spies early on.
Helps a lot in when trying to finish off egyptians (nile cities) or pontic starting towns or establsihing a quick base in greece or italy/sicily before reinforcement arrive to help in sally.:7ninja:

4.cythe chariots (via blacksmith) are excellent cavalry killers, chasing foot missile troops from harassing your infantry line and killing the general. watch out for spears and missile troops aiming at them, chase them off with militia cav. to give the chariots the opening to whatever their target. Always needs to be on the move once committed and may need a bit of micromanagement to be effective. Double-click ahead of it once they slow down, to keep them from stalling, or by playing with the loose/tight formation button after the charge impact.
High risk (run amock anyone?), high reward (general killer, unit that instills fear, and can start the "rout train"):smash: . effectiveness lessened in sieges

Something i found useful, concerning the opportunistic Parthians in Susa.
1st turn move all infantry to be used in taking susa on the border, keep gen +other cav in Seleucia as garrison, build peasants.
2nd turn: merge gen +cav to infantry and attack the the parthian army that moves out of the city. Auto-resolving usually leads to victory (add mercs prior to battle for better guarantee), since horse archers are a pain to face on the battle map, they suck at auto-resolve. You can now siege Susa with what's left of its garison, and take it with less hassle due to their depleted garrison. Better than facing their full garrison.

As everyone mentioned here, the 1st few turns are crucial and can make or break the rest of your campaign:knight:

Milita hoplites suck at auto-resolve as well. However most of the Parthian force will be around their capital at the start. So it gives you time to take Susa.

General information:

Seleucids are basically Macedonians with elephants and chariots. You have access to the inexpensive and reliable phalanx pikemen, the pricier but practically unbeatable silver shield pikemen, in addition to cataphracts (best heavy cavalry out there), armored elephants, scythed chariots, and even legionary copycats. You'd be hard pressed to find a faction with a lategame lineup half as diverse or as powerful. Unfortunately, lategame I personally leave most of their lineup untouched, though it all sees use throughout the game. Silver Shield pikemen, Armored Elephants, Cataphracts, and maybe a few heavy onagers are pretty much all you could ever need to crush anything out there on the field. Silver Shield Legionaries do see occasional use on my part if I hit a heavily fortified city that I can't wait on, they're just as good as the roman ones but in the field I feel pikes are still superior in most cases.

The most solid general Seleucid tactic is the hammer and anvil, a tactic used heavily throughout the ancient world. Line up a bunch of pikemen, these are your anvil. Seleucid pikemen are difficult to break through. After your pike line is established, put the best cavalry you can muster (cataphracts for seleucids) or elephants on the flanks. Elephants have the added effect of lowering enemy morale, which is good, but elephants also have fewer men per unit and are slower for the ensuing butchery of running down your routed enemy, I find it is best to have one or two units of elephants in addition to your cavalry. All elephants can be expensive and will let more enemies escape. Anyways, maneuver your cavalry further out to the sides and get behind the enemy. When they meet your line of pikes, charge your cavalry in, it will usually cause mass routing and mass routing results in mass death.

Chariots tend to make the newer Seleucid player ask "why? I have elephants and decent light cavalry! Why bother with chariots?" Chariots have two big advantages on eles. They are faster and they work better against loose formations while being stronger than light cavalry, they are also cheaper than elephants. They're worth having around at least until you can hire Cataphracts, which also obsolete your light cavalry.

Basic tactics against each faction:

Egypt: You're fighting them early game, your best units against them are elephants and money. Bribe when possible, it's all about survival early game. Use levy pikemen to distract their superior spearmen while you charge them from behind with your elephants, that will usually rout them. Their archers can rout your elephants, use generals and other cavalry to handle them when possible. Their chariots and chariot generals are extremely difficult to deal with early game no matter how you do it, as they destroy your generals and your greek cavalry. I've found that Peltasts do a decent job but of course need support, and something to distract said chariots while the peltasts are hitting them. If you can kill Egypt early game, you essentially have the game in the bag imo.

Pontus: Early game their armies consist mostly of cheap infantry and militia cavalry, all easily routed. Elephants and Chariots will pretty much deal with anything they throw at you.

Armenia: Essentially the same as Pontus but with horse archers. HA's are best dealt with via bribes or Greek Cavalry in a pinch.

Parthia: Horse Archers are a pain, same deal as Armenian HA's though, bribe them. The big difference here is Parthia also gets great heavy cavalry fairly early on, which decimates your greek cavalry. Elephants help but not much. The best thing that can be said about Parthia is they're bad at sieges and only have two provinces near you.

Scythia: Same deal as Parthia, lots and lots of cavalry, hard to handle. Again, they're terrible at sieges, bribe away their stacks in the field and smash their cities.

Greek States: Their spears are shorter than your pikes, you win. Their ranged troops die to chariots and light cavalry, their own cavalry is very limited and the AI seldom uses it. Anvil and Hammer ruins their hoplites even more than your pikes do alone.

Macedon: They're basically Seleucids without elephants or chariots and faster teched heavy cavalry. Elephant charge the phalanxes from behind once they are distracted by your own phalanxes. Macedon tends to be weak or dead by the time you're in any position to come into conflict with them due to your enemies keeping you busy for the first half century or so of the game.

Thrace: hahaha I love fighting Barbarians with phalanxes. Their troops are mostly lightly armored which lets a phalanx work as a true meatgrinder. Rhompia or not, they don't really hold a candle to your pikes. Standard tactics here really. Use cavalry to kill their ranged units, let them massacre themselves on your pikes, bring cavalry around to rout and run them down.

Dacia: See Thrace, buncha unarmored barbarians. Phalanxes ruin them.

Romans: The only things that Elephants really fear are Javelins and pikes, romans don't do either that well. Use chariots to cut out their javelinmen and use cheap phalanx pikes to absorb the pilas. Elephant/cataphract charge from behind or flanks will decimate them. Greek Cavalry doesn't really work as well here due to their lack of armor and the Roman's love of it. This is unfortunate because Greek Cavalry are cheap and have cool hats :( . Armored Elephants are almost an ideal counter unit for pretty much everything rome has. Up until the reforms, you can kill most roman armies simply with an upfront large scale war elephant charge, though standard elephants tend to lack the punch needed to break through the sea of principes they love to build. Chariots also decimate the early romans, the only units they have that stands up to a good chariot attack are the principes.

Numidia: All I have to say is ugh. Numidia is probably one of the most solid Anti-Seleucid factions out there if played correctly due to javelin cavalry being like horse archers that can kill elephants. Fortunately, in the campaign they usually get killed off by the much easier to deal with Scipii before you deal with them. In multiplayer though a well played Numidia is the most reliable way to crush elephant spam from my experience.

Carthage: Your pikemen destroy most elephants. I don't have a ton of experience with Carthage because the Scipii almost always kill them off before I get to them as Seleucids, almost a nonfactor faction.

Spain: Similar to Romans, Elephants decimate most of their units but watch out for Javelins, use the standard chariots/cavalry to keep them busy.

Gauls: Barbarians, usually weakened to a nonfactor by the time you're near them. Same as the Thracians/Dacians really. Phalanxes ruin lightly armored troops, period. Another thing to keep in mind with barbs is that they tend to have poor morale, and are dependent on that initial charge to pull through for them. Once you've halted their charge they will generally rout easily.

Britons: They are no different than the Gauls to the Seleucids, chariots work against loose formations of light and heavy infantry, not against pikes.

Germania: oh look barbarians that don't tend to wear a lot of armor and rout fairly easily, I wonder what absolutely slaughters these?

Hope someone finds it helpful.

Hello Kietharr, welcome to the guild. That's an excellent first post there as well. :beam:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kietharr

Egypt: You're fighting them early game, your best units against them are elephants and money. Bribe when possible… you essentially have the game in the bag imo.

---

I absolutely agrees with you on this one, if you’re able to wipe out the Egyptians and ocuppy their former land, then even if you had lost all your former land its still a much easier task than having the Egyptians around. :egypt:

Quote:

---

Pontus: Early game their armies consist mostly of cheap infantry and militia cavalry, all easily routed. Elephants and Chariots will pretty much deal with anything they throw at you.

---

I find the best way to deal with Pontus early on is to ally with them, keep them off attacking you long enough until you’ve dealt with your other many enemies, then take Pontus. Although the chances are that they will betray you when you least want them to. :sweatdrop:

Quote:

---

Armenia: Essentially the same as Pontus but with horse archers. HA's are best dealt with via bribes or Greek Cavalry in a pinch.

Parthia: Horse Archers are a pain, same deal as Armenian HA's though, bribe them. The big difference here is Parthia also gets great heavy cavalry fairly early on, which decimates your greek cavalry. Elephants help but not much. The best thing that can be said about Parthia is they're bad at sieges and only have two provinces near you.

---

Bride does work, but is it better to spend the money on your own troops than theirs. I find the best way to deal with Eastern Factions is to fight them in sieges. And it works! City fights makes the HA obsolete, and pretty much does the same to other cavalries since there is no space for them to fight to their best plus with phalanx troops even a couple of militia hoplites could deal devastating blows to even the mightiest of Parthian or Armenian armies.
The above are really the only essential factions, by the time you have to fight the rest you should beat them silly with your high-tier units. The Seleucid boast the most diverse unit rosters, and there is no stopping you from winning the imperial campaign providing you deal with all the early threats, which is very hard situation for most players. :yes:

I have noticed a few things. Pontus,Armenia and Parthia only attack once at the settlement closest to them, you beat them and after that its just war but nothing happens for a long time. Egypt is your main enemy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Darkvicer98

I have noticed a few things. Pontus,Armenia and Parthia only attack once at the settlement closest to them, you beat them and after that its just war but nothing happens for a long time. Egypt is your main enemy.

---

I found it rather easy to keep Pontus and Parthia at bay, with alliances, bribes and tributes. But Armenia is really something else, they will try to take Hatra, no matter what you try, no matter how many times you beat them, no matter how big your force is.

If you're having trouble in the early game, I have a couple of pointers:

- Set taxes in all cities at very high. Yes, this will limit growth. However, starting with Turn 2 you should be financially set for the rest of the game. It allows you to support all required armies as well.
- Susa is the key. Take it quickly. It's a city at the start of the game, which is rare. Upon capture, enslave the populace which will more than make up for the loss of population caused by high taxes.

You should now have enough both money and people to comfortably construct your armies. Parthia should be crippled by this point, aside from their one starting army with cataphracts. Up to you whether you want to finish them off by taking Arsakia. I did. Armenia is a bigger problem and *will* go after Hatra. If you beat them off, be careful about counterpunching too quickly - I took a 500-strong army (and 200-ish of them were peasants) deep in enemy territory and encountered a full stack (+/- 1500) waiting for me and it took some serious magic to come out of that one with a victory.

Egypt, naturally, is difficult, but having Antioch and Sidon should supply you with enough troops to stay on the offensive. Keep enslaving all large towns or above until all of your cities are at least at large town level (shouldn't take too long).

It is possible, since you're both rich and populous, to successfully run several wars at a time, even in the early game. Just make sure you devote the proper amount of attention to each front. Another benefit to taking Susa is that it seals the back door early.

I haven't been to this guide in a while but i see others are making their strategies. But i doubt breaking up Parthia will help, Parthia have the weakest economy and infantry in the game. As your strategy, GeneralHankerchief is to enslave the population i guess your playing on Huge army settings?

No, I do Large. But I also don't even attempt building Levy Pikemen (120 per unit) as opposed to militia hoplites until I know my cities can handle it.

Last time I played the Selucids I dominated the entire Mediterranean before I was even able to build Companion cavalry. I blame the militia hoplites and their ability to defend cities so well at such an early stage. So to make the game more interesting I decided for this next time I would give myself a handicap....and so far it has made the game more fun and challenging. Here's what I did:

I promised not to go on the offensive in the east. This means no attacking Pontus, Parthia or Egypt. No matter how tempting the ill defending city was, I would not attack it. The only area I gave myself consent to attack is in the west. So I began attacking the Greeks relentlessly straight from the beginning, while in the east I prepared for the worst. I drained most of Damascus to make a militia hoplite horde and upgraded walls in all settlements.

The effect:
Once past the beginning stages of the game I have suffered on average 1.5 seiges per turn in the east. I've had some really epic ones where I was fending off cataphracts with militia hoplites. I've lost count the number of Egyptians that have died beneath the walls of Antioch. I've seriously had some fun defending my towns against astonishing odds.
>In the west I was forced to improvise with what ever I got. Hiring the unit of Cretan archers is critical at the beginning in Anatolia was essential. I have fought stack after stack to get a foothold on mainland Greece, whether it be Greek, Macedonian, or even Scipii!

I seriously recommend playing with this handicap for those players who are serial winners with Seleucia (settings on VH/H). It'll get you some amazing sieges in the east and some intense all or nothing battles in the west.
:2thumbsup:

Sounds very tempting, i'll give it a try sometime. At the moment i'm playing with Brutii on conquering the East but strangely I've gone from Apollonia to Thermon to Athens to Halicarnassus~:confused:. But Halicarnassus is a great place for recruiting Mercenaries: Cretan Archers, Rhodian Slingers, Merc Hoplites, Thracian Mercs and Peltasts.

All the way the Halicarnassus eh? You sound a little strung out, even if you're getting some good mercs in the process. I imagine the Macedons would have you hard pressed on mainland greece, to prevent such an endeavor.

Great advice here! By using Katank’s blitz guide and my good friend Franconicus’ cavalry army tactic, I have nearly doubled the size of the S.E. in the first ten turns. I play VH/VH with huge units and no mods, so my only problem so far is finding enough citizens to man my armies.
One trick I use against the all cavalry armies of Parthia and Armenia is to trap them in a siege. After I took Susa, I built a fort at the bridge south of that settlement and stationed one Militia Hoplite there to slow down the returning Parthians. The AI put them under siege. Right before they took the fort, I stationed an army next to it. The Parthians took the camp and then could go no further due to my zone of control. Now I put them under siege and the next turn my hoplites had four HA and some skirmishers in a nice little box. I did the same thing to the Armenians who had taken Hatra with a FM and three HA. The AI cavalry force can’t retreat and gets annihilated in close quarters by men with pointy sticks.
I have not been able to bribe anyone, although the most cash I’ve had at any one bribe was only about 6k. So I can’t recommend bribery as a tool anymore and I have not needed it. The S.E. can beat anyone with a solid hoplite center and militia cav with FM’s on the flanks. I habitually encircle and annihilate the AI forces. I’m getting ready to attack the Nile settlements with my army’s brand new elephants!
One other hopefully original thing I did on the first turn was to have my diplomat barter with Egypt for trade rights, my map info and my assurance that I would attack the rebels in return for 2750 denari. This slightly stunted their initial turn and enabled me to hire more mercs.

That is a pretty nifty tip--whereby you trap the HA in a fort. Though my personal favorate way to deal with HA as the Seleucids is to cajole the Parthians/Armenians into a siege with militia hoplites. The computer always says that the odds are terrible in your favor because of the militia hoplites poor stats. However the computer is not taking into account human skill and the phalanx ability. When they breach the walls, the hoplites act like a new wall (except this wall has got spikes!). The best part is that now the computer thinks it can its units through the breach. However the HA's get impaled on the pikes, and shamelessly rout themselves. :shame:

I prefer that tactic when dealing with the HA armies of Parthia/Armenia. However the only down side compared to your method is that mine requires a siege which hinders population growth, trade, and varnishes your beautiful countryside with devastation. My method is easier on the battlemap, while yours is better on the campaign map. It really boils down to taste and where one feels most strong.
:7teacher:

Interesting. Don't the AI cav eventually rout off the map though, i.e., survive to trouble you another day? Also, on VH/VH they actually wait and starve you out. My way the whole AI stack dies to the last man in one battle. :)

Quote:

---

Don't the AI cav eventually rout off the map though, i.e., survive to trouble you another day?

---

Nope. Because they are usually exhausted from running into the city and fighting. Then as they rout my fresh cav pursue them and cut them to pieces.

Quote:

---

Also, on VH/VH they actually wait and starve you out.

---

Maybe you're AI is unusually smart. I play the campaign on VH and the AI can never resist from assaulting my city full of levys and militia phalanges. :tongue3: All the computer calculates are the stats. It can't calculate that I am a cunning human that uses the almighty phalanx to my complete advantage. :whip:

I don't recall seeing this posted before. You can hide your phalanx troops in the woods by taking them off the Phalanx mode.

lol that explains things :P

In my Campaign as the Selucid Emire I think the unit I used the most was the mighty diplomat,mainly to bribe anything Egyptian and Pontus that attempted to siege my cities,much easier than fighting them. I started with one stationed at Antioch,one around Halicarnassus and one around Susa. I also bribed a egyptian Diplomat that was hanging around Damascus for some reason,as it was making me nervous that they'd try to bribe me,and he acompanied my invasion force into the heart of the Egyptian homelands and bribed armies that attempted to stop my march on Alexandria.

I also found a use for the Elephant,mainly countering those Egyptian Chariot General charges that would try to get into the rear of my Pikemen formation. True the elephant goes berserk around 40% of the time,but not having my Levy Pikes diced my chariots seemed to be worth it,also mainly my elephants went amok into the heart of the opposing force and watching them create havoc while I ran my pikemen up,and proceeded to impale the emeny on my spears was funny as hell.

Strange faction this. it has a great roster, and the money to buy the units, but not the population to do so.
What I did was be horribly offensive, I notice I wasn't the only one who figured attacking Halicarnassus on the first turn was a good idea. I do the same with Palmyra, while moving the troops of antioc down so that I can attack Sidon the turn after that. While the Palmyra army goes down to Bactra and then Petra and I moved the Halicarnassus force to Creta, hence I retained peace with Greek Cities, but I wonder if perhaps taking on Rhodos would be just as good an option, or to do so after Crete has been taken (The forces Brutii land on Crete are beyond pathetic and there's 3-4 years between the landings as well, enough time for any army to become bored and restless.)

What I really don't get in this guide is the constant praise of two worthless units, the militia hoptilites, while not useless, they don't hold anything on the levy pikemen, who do everything they do, but twice as well at least and they have the same upkeep (150 denarii for 120 men is the same as 100 denarii for 80 men.) The difference being that the militia can hold up to a cavalry charge and the levy litterally slaughters a cavalry charge, they also have the issue of a larger unit, so they can take a whole lot of punishment before they become small useless units. Same thing with holding a line of infantry, the levy keep the foe out of harms way for quite a while, the militia gets engaged right away.

The second of that I've seen lots of people recomending that I really don't understand, is the horrible peltasts. The peltasts are good for three things, dieing emptying your coffers whith their whopping 170 denarii upkeep and worst of all, killing your own troops. Since they have such a horribly short range, if you want them to fire their missileweapons at all, you have to deploy them behind your front line, but this creates the problem that when they can fire at the enemy then they are usually charging your front line and oddly enough infantry is fast enough a target for the peltasts to set their aim smack in the middle of your own front line, which true enough is where the foe should be by the time they've fired, problem being that that's where your troops are and you're fireing into the fronts of your enemy, where thay are well protected and the best way of killing troops is by striking them from behind and that's where the peltasts are attacking your own troops. When I've deployed peltasts they have often been the cause of over half of my casulties! That's my own troops killing my own!
Peltasts only use is at wooden walls where you can run them up all the way to it and have them toss their javelins at the units defending the gate, a job archers later does a much better job at.

Yeah regarding archers, you want those and quickly, Susa and Sidon are two cities that can produce them after just a few turns (Susa being able to build the needed upgrade straight away and you want them against all the damn horse archers you're going to face. While Sidon needs to upgrde the city firs and might not have the first building of the archery tier either.) In the meantime there's beduin archers and Scythian mercenaries to be had. (Go to the bridge north west of Hatra for the Scythian HA)

You really want to attack the Egyptians straight away, because like everyone else they start with their armies dispersed, which means that if you give them a few turns of peace they will move them both towards you and then they will attack instead, but most importantly they will merge all their useless little miniarmies into huge stacks of possible doom. Remember divide and conquer and in the beginning the Egyptians are already divided, so all you need to do is conquer!

The Armenians will come for Hastra, but if you push firmly in the east you'll find the Armenians' cities lined up nicely with Parthia's capital, so all you need to do is keep pushing and soon enough Hastra will be out of harms way.
The most immidiate threats are actually to Petra and Tarsus as Egypt will try to bribe Petra and Pontus will try to bribe Tarsus and failing that sieging it. Likewise will Pontus go for Sardis. Luckily Pontus has the worst troops of all your enemies, might have the most troops and the largest armies, but nothing that a line of levy pikemen can't handle even in the open field.
Thus again, make sure you produce levy instead of militia as quickly as possible, militia will get overrun by the Pontian hoards, levy will shrug them off and ask when the battle will begin. Remember that Pontus really likes to flank, so guard your flanks, create a friggin' O of spears if you need to. In other words, against Pontus, it's a really bad idea to put all your spears in your front line because you'll probably find yourself flanked if you do.

I'm sure there's more, put that's what pour out of the top of my head at the moment. :P

Started this today. Set up alliances with Pontus and Parthia as quickly as possible and I have a diplomat en route to Armenia for the same purpose. I've never played as the Seleucids before but I can imagine they'll be a nuisance around Hatra with or without an alliance.

Took Jerusalem and Sidon in the first 3 turns, according to the katank method detailed way back in the first few pages of the thread. Faction leader (Antiochus) attacks Sidon from Antioch, Demetrius attacks Jerusalem from Damascus (had to hire 1 unit of eastern infantry and 1 unit of bedouin warriors for the Jerusalem battle). I then leave as little behind as possible and march on the Nile Delta.

And then Antiochus dies, on the 4th turn, at age 61. What are the chances? Aristarchus becomes the faction leader all the way over in Seleucia and I've lost a 90-man heavy cavalry unit that would have been vital in the blitz on Egypt. I stopped there so I'm not sure what my next move is. Maybe I'll see how young Demetrius gets on without his Dad.

Salamis is probably priority #1 for the next turn. I've only got 1 ship at Antioch but hopefully I can get my army there in one turn. I'd quite like to prise Rhodes off of the Greeks but I'm not too keen on starting a full-blown war because I want to give them the best possible chance against the Romans. I'll probably target Parthia and Armenia after Egypt, not a fan of fighting horse archers and I'd like to spend as little time as possible chasing them around the battle map.