Concur with Irishmafia2020, Baktria is a great choice. I must have gotten really lucky in my Baktria campaign, as I did not go to war with AS for quite some time (even after taking their easternmost settlements using the spy/rebellion method). In the meantime, I had expanded into India. When they did go to war with my, I could afford some posh units. I quit the campaign once I realized it was all over but the crying. Never got the Demons of Death. Nor the chance to use my Indian units against anyone!

Maybe I'll return to them once my current Ptolemies campaign gets boring. But I'm roleplaying to a certain extent this one and am going the slow and easy route with it. In the middle of my Second Syrian War, how many more to go?