Why Hayasdan always go for the Steppes?

[Marcus Ulpius]

in one of my last camp. I saved them from extinction that AS was besieging their last city.
So it is logical for hayasdan to move north than to south. Early war between hayasdan and AS normally ends with AS victory.

I don't think it's logical considering their background. Surely, they can grab a rebel settlement or two, but the kind of extensive northern campaign for north-eastern Black Sea towns is not something Hayasdan should be interested in. As for the war against the AS, the success of it depends not only on Hayasdan. And the same can be said also about Pontos and Pahlava. If the Ptolies are successful in their campaign and those small factions make even minimal advances, then some of them have a good chance of building a nice empire. If the Ptolies are pushed back and AS can relocate some troops, not many of them will survive that war.

In my current Romani campaign Pahlava were pushed back, Pontos lost Ankyra to AS just after taking it. The Ptolies lost Alexandria. AS were ready to swallow any opposition, but the entrance of Saba and my monetary help to Pahlava changed the direction of the war (at least it seems that way now). AS are being attacked in Asia Minor by Pontos, KH and the Ptolies from their last city in the region. The Ptolies have regained Alexandria and Syria was cut off from core AS lands by Saba. At the same time, Pahlava survived initial onslaught and are starting to gain territory. Now the prospects of Pontos and Pahlava look much better, and the reason - Ptolemaic success in Egypt and surprising Saba attack on Antioch. It proves that the secret of defeating AS for small AI factions is in the successful collective efforts and, most important - strong Ptolemaic pressure from the South.

[Atraphoenix]

I never met an aggressive Ptolemy against AS, in fact this may be the reason I usually play with the factions that are neighbours of AS. BTW monetary motivation kills AI, without any FD or money support, AS in the east getai or Epirot (in fact sometimes they both ) dominates the game.
Baktria is quite happy to conquer rebel india, and getai mostly push back sarmatians, Romani quite passive, though in fact as the game CTD after hours, and the AI strategy resets itself after restart.
so Is a fortunetelling how the campaign will be...

[Marcus Ulpius]

I saw mostly Yellow Death in 1.1, but I see more and more Grey Death in 1.2. I don't know what was tweaked, but more often than not AS manage to defend Antioch , push the Ptolies out of Asia Minor and Syria and go for Egypt proper. When this happens (and sometimes it doesn't take them too much time to do that) all the small factions nearby are doomed, we have AS from Asia Minor to Lower Egypt to India.