Best 'small Successor'?

[Watchman]

Pontos and Hayasdan (who are someone's successor realms, if now not specifically Alex's) are fairly interesting due to their locations, which results in a *lot* of practice at destroying rather heavy Seleukid stacks with rather small, light and generally piss-poor units 'cause you can't afford anything better for quite some time. If you don't mind the certain degree of repetitiveness that comes with the package, that makes for some tactical challenge and a definite sense of having to work hard to get your burgeoning Neo-Persia off the ground...

[Imperator Invictus]

hey madbriton, makedonia had Alexander, epeiros had Pyrrhus, greeks had Achiles and others, seleukides had Seleucus and so one.
I say that BACTRIA will have YOU.

[Xurr]

...That was my point. I was being ironic. >.>

Sarcastic, not ironic.

[ziegenpeter]

Ehm, is epeiros actually a successor state? I mean have they been conquered or submitted by alex?

[Maion Maroneios]

No, they weren't. I believe we have a problem of definition here. "Successor" or "Diadochi" is a term used to describe the states that were created after Alexander's death by his officers.

Maion

[Subotan]

Sarcastic, not ironic.

Really? I knew I was being sarcastic, but I thought that it was for ironic effect.

[Mikhail Mengsk]

Pontos and Hayasdan (who are someone's successor realms, if now not specifically Alex's) are fairly interesting due to their locations, which results in a *lot* of practice at destroying rather heavy Seleukid stacks with rather small, light and generally piss-poor units 'cause you can't afford anything better for quite some time. If you don't mind the certain degree of repetitiveness that comes with the package, that makes for some tactical challenge and a definite sense of having to work hard to get your burgeoning Neo-Persia off the ground...

But it's annoying to fight only Seleukid's stacks for years and years...

[Xurr]

Really? I knew I was being sarcastic, but I thought that it was for ironic effect.

Irony is coincidental or unexpected, sarcasm is intentional.

[Prussian to the Iron]

But it's annoying to fight only Seleukid's stacks for years and years...

thats why baktria is a nice choice; you can fight seleukids, or you can go north and try your luck against the factions up there, hoping you make it hooking around the dead sea until you reach thrace and show the makedonians what a real phalanx looks like (baktrion agema anyone??)!!!!!

[Watchman]

But it's annoying to fight only Seleukid's stacks for years and years...

Well if you want to you can go pick a fight with the other - right next door after all - and the Macs (at the westernmost end of Asia Minor) or Sauromatae (right north of the Caucasus, and immediately reachable with Pontos once you build any kind of fleet) for variety... but I for one would first at least torch Seleukid domains all the way down to Mesopotamia just to take the pressure off your back. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean taking the territory for good - that'd likely leave you quite overstretched - but rather nuking their main recruitement centers to keep them from spamming too many nasty stacks on you. Although after that the Ptolies will probably roll in an likely go into Yellow Death mode, but at least their elite recruitement zones are at the Nile and they'll still have to rebuild the infrastructure from burned rubble...

[Prussian to the Iron]

ah yes, the scorched earth tactics. good times....goood times.....

so basically, you just blitz, tear down all buildings, then retreat to a bridge and get ready for a $@**-load of AS stacks.

[Watchman]

...but at least there won't be too many TABs or silvershield pikes in those stacks, and for a while at least you should be positively swimming in loose cash after all that pillaging and razing.
I know I've had some tense moments when a spy found out a Sele stack worrisomely approaching the valleys had one of those TAB juggernauts along - sent me on an axe-recruiting spree something fast. Thankfully they went away (probably to deal with the Parthians) after a lenghty standoff on a bridge.

[Mikhail Mengsk]

Well if you want to you can go pick a fight with the other - right next door after all - and the Macs (at the westernmost end of Asia Minor) or Sauromatae (right north of the Caucasus, and immediately reachable with Pontos once you build any kind of fleet) for variety... but I for one would first at least torch Seleukid domains all the way down to Mesopotamia just to take the pressure off your back. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean taking the territory for good - that'd likely leave you quite overstretched - but rather nuking their main recruitement centers to keep them from spamming too many nasty stacks on you. Although after that the Ptolies will probably roll in an likely go into Yellow Death mode, but at least their elite recruitement zones are at the Nile and they'll still have to rebuild the infrastructure from burned rubble...

Right

[Watchman]

Rather than "enslaving" for fun & great profit ("exterminating" in Vanilla terms) you might also consider "deporting" ("enslaving" in Vanilla) the populace of some cities to help bulk up the not-really-that-large taxpayer base back home. Fairly historical too actually; both Mithridates the Great and his in-law Tigran variously did and attempted that kind of thing when they were particularly annoyed by some locale or just needed "volunteers" to fill a newly founded city... might be particularly appropriate for Hayasdan under the excuse of "temporarily relocating" the people until you can later properly "restore legitimate Persian rule" to the region.

[Prussian to the Iron]

....im pretty sure they are still called 'exterminating' and 'enslaving' in EB. unless it didnt edit mine every time out of 4 installs on 3 different computers.....................

[Xurr]

....im pretty sure they are still called 'exterminating' and 'enslaving' in EB. unless it didnt edit mine every time out of 4 installs on 3 different computers.....................

actually eb replaces "enslave" with "expel" and "exterminate" with "enslave".

[Prussian to the Iron]

oh yeah i think those are right

[Subotan]

Irony is coincidental or unexpected, sarcasm is intentional.

Ahh, OK.

[antisocialmunky]

Irony is coincidental or unexpected, sarcasm is intentional.

Irony only appears to be coincidental, unexpected, or clever. Hubris is unintentional though.

[Xurr]

Irony only appears to be coincidental, unexpected, or clever. Hubris is unintentional though.

ahh yes, but being derisive or insolent is often intentional.

[Fluvius Camillus]

Wasn't the difference between sarcasm and irony, that sarcasm is being hurtful and irony more a fun way.

Example:

Irony:
Son comes home with his school results, all awesome grades. Dad tells: "Pff... Couldn't you do any better?"

Sarcasm:
Son comes home with the message he has to do the year all over again. Dad: Wow, you really did an awesome job at school, congratulations!

~Fluvius

[Subotan]

Then there's the other definition of irony, where the exact opposite to what you'd expect happens, like an optician going blind or Advice Dog.

[Xurr]

Wasn't the difference between sarcasm and irony, that sarcasm is being hurtful and irony more a fun way.

Example:

Irony:
Son comes home with his school results, all awesome grades. Dad tells: "Pff... Couldn't you do any better?"

Sarcasm:
Son comes home with the message he has to do the year all over again. Dad: Wow, you really did an awesome job at school, congratulations!

~Fluvius

Sarcasm does have the element of mockery. Take for instance the comment that started this tangent "Internets is srs business." The author was commenting on how other posters were taking things too seriously and mocking them. Thus it makes sarcasm. In your too examples do you see how the sarcastic one is mocking or denigrating the the son where in your first example the dad is actually using irony to praise the son? There is your difference one is humor and the other while it can be humorous is mocking or insulting.

[Zeibek]

Baktria, Epeiros, Pontos, Hayasdan successor states??

Isn't Baktria considered one? I mean sure they weren't directly descended from Alexander's empire but were at some point a part of it unlike for example Epeiros, and were also Hellenistic unlike Pontos and Hayasdan.

[Hax]

Son comes home with his school results, all awesome grades. Dad tells: "Pff... Couldn't you do any better?"

Irony is when a situation unintentionally gets a humourous tone to it; a cardiologist having a heart-attack for example. A police station getting robbed, a firestation being ablaze, etc.

[option]

A reason that hasn't been mentioned yet for why Epeiros is the best: their elite heavy cavalry is insane. Picture the speed and stamina of Prodromoi combined with the charging ability and staying power of Hetairoi, and you'll have an idea of them. Fast enough to catch horse archers and skilled enough to stand up to legionnaries in melee. LOVE those guys.

[satalexton]

yes, but a bronze cuirass alone makes them more vunerable to stabbas and choppas. They die much faster than the Hetairoi when the charge wears off.

[Prussian to the Iron]

theres this thing called charge and re-charge.

[vartan]

And then there is the death blow--or the death of the charge.

[Companion Cavalry]

My favourite successor is the Arche Seleukeia. They have an extremely varied unit roster, a challenging starting position, and most land of Alexander's former empire under their control.

I'm even starting up on a national anthem for them mirroring the "All Hail Makedonia!" one.