Quote Originally Posted by Lord_Megahertz
Yo ! Does anyone have a good campaign strategy for the Seleucids? I love their units, but whenever I play as them, I end up with a bunch of 20-unit stacks of generals, mercenaries, and, militia hoplites. LOL!! Any advice?
Greetings Lord Mega, Seleucids are an interesting challenge. I tend to play them on the easier settings and I usually try to turtle my pace. As you've probably noticed, the Seleucids usually end up in a four front war before too long into the game. If you aren't at war with at least two factions by turn 5, it should surprise you. Hence, having a good income, and reasonably solid armies to defend Tarsus from Pontus, Hatra from Armenia, Seleucus from Parthia, and Antioch from Egypt requires a very fast build up. That usually can't be done without buying up mercenaries and playing smart with the low level troops you can recruit. You've experienced that frustration, no doubt. I usually purchase mercs for their cavalry,except around Sardis where I go for the hoplites and archers.

The problem you're facing (from your question above) is typical for the Seleucid faction. You're having to use Antioch as your main recruiting city for cavalry and phalanx pikemen which keeps taking away from its population growth. This means it will take longer for Antioch to get to the higher city population levels where the better barracks and stables are available. Taking Sidon will help with recruiting and take some of the burden off Antioch, but for the most part your recruiting bottleneck is not going to go away until you've knocked Egypt out of the running and acquired its big three large cities. (Seleucus and Antioch are too far away from each other to be mutually supportive for army buildup. It's a bummer.)

Egypt is your most critical enemy as they are not cash poor like your other three early adversaries. They have more staying power and they field much better infantry units. Knock out Parthia's cataphracts army early, and Susa is vulnerable. Take Susa, and Parthia is all but finished for they have no other city that makes good money and they won't recover. Often Pontus will give you some breathing room before they attack because they're distracted early by going after Nicomedia and Ancyra first. Armenia will likely come at you early, however, at Hatra. So I usually recruit a couple jav-cav and send them to Hatra early, along with my first new faction member as a general. I try to recruit a couple jav infantry in Seleucus and send them to Hatra early as well. After I've got Egypt on the run, Parthia subdued and Pontus battered, I finish off Armenia. Their important cities are few, so they can't raise armies very fast to be a constant menace. I keep my 'shield raised high' at Hatra and ward off their blows until I've disposed of the greater dangers of Egypt and Pontus.

So, perhaps I haven't helped you much with your original concern. But here are a couple tidbits of counsel. (1) Build a new farm in Sardis in first turn, to get it's population over 2,000 early so that you can knock out a port and stables making them self-sufficient in cav and getting the sea trade profits perking. Have your Sardis governor buy up mercs, but try to slip him some jav-cav from Antioch early so he can defend Sardis from the opportunistic Pontids.

(2) Get stable built in Seleucus ASAP. Then recruit jav-cav like mad. Even the horse archer/cataphractish Parthians can be beaten with lots of jav-cav backed by some solid militia infantry.

(3) Don't put off improving farms for too long. With the Hanging Gardens wonder, the Seleucids are getting big bonus profits from farming for all their cities. Bigger/better farms mean bigger and better profits. And until you've taken the big Egyptians cities - Alexandria, Memphis and Thebes - population growth is not going to be a big worry for squalor and public order.

(4) Recruit Cretean archers at every opportunity. Their long range archers are important for reducing your own casualties and I find them especially effective against the annoying Pontids and their scythed chariots. The chariots panic easily under a hail of fire arrows. If they're trapped inside besieged cities you can panic the chariots and they'll kill huge swaths of their own infantry.

(5) Phalanx pikemen will be your infantry backbone after you get the city barracks built in Antioch. You probably won't be able to upgrade to silver shields until after Egypt has been subdued and you're involved in Greece proper. The most important cities in Greece for you will be Sparta for its Nike Temple, Corinth for the Zeus wonder (public order benefit), and Athens for its trade profits.

(6) I try to build stables early in Seleucus, and get to city barracks and second level cavalry stables in Antioch ASAP. I build temples of Hephaestus in both Antioch and Tarsus (since Tarsus is extremely slow growing and doesn't need the extra public order percentage) so that I get the extra military development features for the soldiers and ships I recruit there. That edge is important.

I've found that the Greeks don't usually give me much trouble until I've developed some strength. But once you've taken Rhodes beware of the Brutii and amphibious landings. They want Rhodes too. This is where Hepahestus temples and owning the Alexandrian light house wonder gives your navy its edge over all comers.

You're going to notice a lot of annoying encounters with bandits and rebel armies. The Seleucid faction and the territory it covers seems to be bandit prone.

Have you noticed that every Egyptian city is a port? Lots of trade profits there. Farm profits too as the big Egyptian cities are fast growers.

I just don't have a formula for getting your Seleucid cities to higher levels of development faster so you can get those Armoured elephants and the silver legionaries fast. Perhaps one of our super guild players has some thoughts.

I think the key for you, however, will be to slow the game down so you give the cities time to grow.

Best wishes, big guy, and enjoy!