Hey guys,

I've been playing EB on and off for a years now. My old rig couldn't really handle the increased memory usage but my new machine blitzes through EB. I've always loved the Seleukids on account of their merge of Persian and western military. I'm a fair bit along now, I've just taken Zadraka and Asaak back from the Parthians, conquered most of Anatolia and just took Sidon and Salamis from the Ptolemies.

I'm not exactly sure I'm playing optimally however. A lot of my conquests, particularly in the east, are done with mercenary armies - in fact my entire front against the Parthians essentially consists of mercenaries and bodyguard troops. Is it better to train up my own guys from the region? Also, I've been playing on Very Hard battles and Medium campaign settings (I read the recommended wrong), so I've been having a great deal of trouble when I play the battles myself. Is it better to reset and run on VH/M? I hear from some posters that VH for campaign is too much - the enemy attacks on multiple fronts much too aggressively and it's not as fun. Thoughts?