In my Pontus campaign I just got destroyed by the silver chevroned Pergamun (cant spell it right) army, I split my army up and tried to ambush them, ambush failed and 90% of my army died in true pontic style. Egypt decided then to attack me, I fended them off but I literally had only 1 unit of garrison in each city and FM's. Egypt comes back next turn with a offer- protectorate-. I accepted and they havent attacked me yet and its been about 15 years. They even sent troops in my territory and past it to attack the Saka's.