Ptollies approaching, ... from the north?

[Ca Putt]

There I was playing my Pahlavan Campaign beeing at war with noone but the AS tho my alliance with the Saka rauka had just broke up and In constat fear of a nomadic invasion from the north before I'm finished conquering the remaining free provinces, good for me the saka are at war with the bactrians and are somewhat occupied killing of my ally(If I would declare war to the Bactrians my alliance with all my other friends would brake up ;) ) anyway I'm sitting there checking though my settlements and get a shock when I saw the bridge near antiochia margiane:

on second thought: Those are not nomands, those are Ptollies, my allies.

they did not attack me just wandered through my entire empire. not enough of that, a year later one 5 star FM sits on the same spot. another two years later It's an other Ptolly army.

HOW IN THE NAME OF ZEUS AHÛRÂ-MAZADÂ DID THEY GET THERE?!?! they are not even at war with the sakans (or anyone but the AS)

[Macilrille]

I saw something along those lines in the same general area in my hibernating Sweboz campaign. I have no idea how or why, but it happens.

[WinsingtonIII]

Perhaps they had a diplomat bribe the army somewhere up on the steppe and were bringing it home? Or were these factional Ptolie troops?

[Ca Putt]

the first army was fairly semi nomadic: Subeshi archers and other steppe people. but the third army had Peltastai and thureophoroi

[Ludens]

the first army was fairly semi nomadic: Subeshi archers and other steppe people. but the third army had Peltastai and thureophoroi

Those are generic Hellenistic units: they could have gotten them from Bactria or the brigands. The A.I. gets bribe-happy if it has enough cash, so my guess is that there is a Ptolemic diplomat walking around the steppe. We all know how rich those Egyptian provinces are.

[Ca Putt]

Ha, silly me, you're right, I just checked the FM, he's an armenios from babylon, definately a bribed seleucid :D

[athanaric]

Actually, I've seen an even more incredible scenario - an Aedui diplomat bribed some Persian archers and HAs in Central Asia, and they walked all the way to Pannonia, and served as garrison troops there. The fascinating thing about this is that these are just the kind of troops that would come in handy for the Aedui!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Ca Putt]

cosidering the availibility of archers and Horse-Archers for aedui and the low level of armor amung the "barbarians" that's almost a smart move the AI did there :D

[SwissBarbar]

Oh my God, it's a revolution of the AI. Remember the terminator - movies or I. Legend

There's only one way to solve this. You all must play EB 24/7, and watch the AI

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

In my Seleucid campaign in which I was good friends with Makedon for quite some time, they became quite the Graeco/Balkan/Thracian powerhouse and were obviously making bank through trade with me. As it was, they sent numerous diplomats throughout my eastern territories sending back small halfstacks of Persian Archers, Arachosian Cavalry, Caucasian Spearmen among others. There was a steady stream of them moving through my lands but this was a good thing. Cut down on devestation in my provinces and got rid of pesky rebels blocking trade routes. Plus I RP'd it as my empire sending allied forces to Makedon to assist them in their wars in Europe.