What next

[Quirinus]

The Seleucids have a very good late-game roster, and they're a challenge to play early on, when Egypt, Armenia, Parthia and Pontus (plus the odd Greek Cities) are all gunning for you.

However I hate their temple selection-- there's no decent temple for ordinary, cash-cow cities-- the health temple can greatly exacerbate the mid-game population pressure in your core cities, brought on especially by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (farming bonus) ; the happiness temple is a drinking one, so your governors will all be drunk. iirc the Seleucids don't have a law temple.

Another disadvantage imo is the lack of challenge once you wipe out Egypt and the other surrounding factions-- you have a secure power base, no significant enemies in the neighbourhood, and more money that you know what to do with. Depending on your skill, that can happen pretty soon.



Parthia is one of my favourite factions (next to the Greek City States) because of their awesome horse archers. The basic Eastern horse archer is cheap, low-tier and almost unfairly cost-effective-- I've dismantled whole Seleucid stacks with barely any casualties on my side using the Parthians and their horse archers.

A bit later in the game you get the Persian Cavalry, which is my personal favourite unit in the entire game. It's a superb horse archer unit, as well as a capable cavalry unit (short of heavy cavalry, this unit can take on most other cavalry in the melee and win). Not to mention it looks awesome. =D Late-game you get cataphracts, including camel cataphracts (the ultimate General-slayers, I swear) and elephants.

The drawback to the Parthians is their utter lack of decent infantry-- the one infantry unit the have access to is the lousy Eastern infantry, so expect to sit out quite a few sieges (which, incidentally, can lead to some hairy battles-- watch out for the battle for Antioch if you decide to play them).

Another gripe I have about the Parthians is that their building selections, especially their temple set, is awfully limited. In fact, it's not "temple set", you only get one temple, a very boring law temple. Though of course you can always mod it in.

And another thing to note: Parthia is heavily cavalry- and particularly horse-archer-reliant, if you like the idea of horse archers but would like a more varied roster, try Armenia. You'd have to mod the files a bit, but it's well worth the trouble. You get the always-reliable basic horse archer unit early-game. Two of the more awesome late-game units are the unique cataphract archers and the phalanx-capable Heavy Spearmen. Also, like the Seleucids, you get imitation legionaries in the late-game.



For an entirely different flavour altogether, try the Britons or the Germans. The campaigns are relatively easy early-game, but it heats up as the game progresses due to Rome. The Britons and especially the Germans get some pretty awesome units, including the German berserkers and night raiders, or Briton woad warriors and chariots. I also particularly like the Britons' start position in vanilla-- a secure island base, plus a mainland settlement. If you want to be slightly atypical, abandon Samarobriva and go for an empire in Spain instead. Personally I don't really like playing barbarians, but you know that saying about one man's meat.....

[Quintus.JC]

I agree with Quirinus, Parthia is too cavalry reliant, the Seleucid is too hard early on while far too easy late on. You should try Armenia and Germania, Armenia have a good combination of troops, while the Germans get some awesome troops that can be a match for any elite unit in the game.

[ReluctantSamurai]

The Macedonians are a lot of fun to play.......good cavalry, phalanx infantry, and a good merc pool to recruit from.

My personal favorite is Pontus. Pontic HC rule!!! If you can take out Armenia early, and survive the onslaught, you will easily rule the known world

By the time you get to Italy, you will run circles around cohort armies

Another fav is Scythia. Horse archers, good foot archers, good merc pool, and once again, you'll run circles around cohort armies......

[El Diablo]

This may sound a bit basic but if are still struggling with some of the basics of the game mechanics why not try the romans?

Brutii are my favourtie romans although going "Gaul hunting" with the red coats can be fun.

Romans are the strongest for a reason. Give them a go.

[King Kurt]

This may sound a bit basic but if are still struggling with some of the basics of the game mechanics why not try the romans?

Brutii are my favourtie romans although going "Gaul hunting" with the red coats can be fun.

Romans are the strongest for a reason. Give them a go.

I am not so much struggling with the basics as suffering from playing nothing but MTW for the previous 3 years!! Initially I was trying to play RTW in the same style I play MTW but that doesn't work. In RTW you have to pay more attention to your cities, troops do not move about the map so quickly and so on. I have now played all 3 roman factions so I am desparate to try something new. After my initial dabble with the tutorial the 2 serious Roman campaigns went wrong due to one campaign disappearing off my saved games and the other went wrong because I thought outlast did not mean defeat totally. So I had severally weakened the Numidians but not defeated them. I went off conquering Gaul, got to 15 provinces and nothing happened. I found out my mistake - thanks to this forum - but I had to get my field armies back from Normandy to the borders of Egypt via a couple of cities on the edge of the Sahara to defeat the remaining Numidian cities. Just as I had nearly done that, some other faction won!! I then turned to the Carthaginians who I swiftly won the short campaign with.

I have now tried the Selucids for about an hour - they are interesting and challenging. I think that achieving something with them will teach me a lot. I suppose my problem is that I want to run before I can walk. With MTW, I felt in total control, my play was instinctive and my style was definately blitz based - I knew what chances I could take and how to keep momentum going. I haven't got to that state with RTW yet - but heh that is the fun and the challenge of the game.

When I have played a bit more I will return to this thread with an update and maybe the odd request for advice - I really appreciate the assistance people give me via these boards and I am an avid reader of the guides etc. So - I will return!! - it may take some time as I don't get to play as often as I want - family and work keep getting in the way!!

[Ashen]

Armenia are a fun faction (My favorite besides the Julii) to play; They have no particularly brilliant units - Their cavalry is almost Parthia, their Legionaries almost Rome and their Spears almost Greece, but they have the flexibility to function adequately in all 3 styles, to mix and match, and even combine all 3 for flexiblity.

Can't beat playing as the Gauls or British for pure fun and mayhem though of course :)

[Quirinus]

Armenia are a fun faction (My favorite besides the Julii) to play; They have no particularly brilliant units - Their cavalry is almost Parthia, their Legionaries almost Rome and their Spears almost Greece, but they have the flexibility to function adequately in all 3 styles, to mix and match, and even combine all 3 for flexiblity.

D: Blasphemy! What about the cataphract archers? Actually though I wasn't a fan of the unit until I've really used it in a campaign-- I'm not a fan of cataphracts in general. But dang, try assembling an army of five to ten cataphract archers..... and witness their awesome as they steamroll anything in their path.