AS questions

[Roman Ocean]

hi gave the arche a chance finally and have a few questions

1.Any historical or gameplay reason babylon is a type 4 gov?

2.dont have much mnai, is there any area i should prioritise for buildings?

3.Whats the best unit(s) for fighting parthia?

Thanks in advance!

[Arjos]

1. Babylon was very small @ the start date (population wise), so np there...
2. I'd suggest Seleukos Temples and keeping the Iranian Plateau, no matter what...
3. Fight fire with fire, maybe, or build a solid defense behind walls, while u gain control of Anatolia...

[Lysimachos]

I'll just answer no. 1.

Parts of the seleucid empire were private property of the king, governed through a royal beaurocracy. But there were also largely autonomous regions, most notably a great number of Poleis, but also Temple-states or principalities. Those still owed allegiance to the king, but were not part of the seleucid state in the narrower sense. I believe Babylon was one of those places.

[Roman Ocean]

thanks so far remembered another question

4. i did the trick of attacking parthia to keep my other allies, how long before they betray me, and can i delay this??

[vollorix]

I started a campaign with Seleucids a while ago, and after a couple of years i was swimming in money and had no serious enemies aside from Parthians, who could really threaten me. I got bored and quit, because i hate fighting HA´s, and no other faction was even a threat. I didn´t even tried them, since i had no infrastructure for that at that time, but i think "Lonchoporoi Hippeis" ( decent armour + large shield +4 ) would beat the hell out of Parthians, supported by some medium cav. like Median for rear charges and finishing off routing units, combined with your FMs and your own "Raiders". You´d need "Pandotapoi phalangitai" to build an anchor in your battle line, since Parthians do not fight with cavalry based armies only. Armour piercing weapons are the key, i´d say. But well, i only played on "hard", it´s just that i dislike "vh" because then it turns into a real total war. All i had to do was abandon the two north eastern towns on the boarder with Saka and Baktria, improve public order, reduce corruption, and secure the choke points. Asia Minor is unthreatend, actually, and if you provoke the war with Parthians first, then you´d have no enemies at all, aside from Ptoleys, i´d say. But since you share the same "eastern Greek" culture, their towns are your towns, their barracks are yours, you can only win.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

thanks so far remembered another question

4. i did the trick of attacking parthia to keep my other allies, how long before they betray me, and can i delay this??

Pay them long-term regular tribute. At least 250 mnai per turn, that's 1,000 mnai per year, select an 80-turn payment period to last 20 years. That should keep them happy, as long as you don't let one of their armies get too near a weakly-defended town. If they start looking threatening, put a full-stack army on the threatened border and they should leave you alone.

[Atraphoenix]

hi gave the arche a chance finally and have a few questions

1.Any historical or gameplay reason babylon is a type 4 gov?

2.dont have much mnai, is there any area i should prioritise for buildings?

3.Whats the best unit(s) for fighting parthia?

Thanks in advance!

1-No idea,

2-if you have an empire you have corruption so you have to fight corruption first parni later. build law bonus buildings. the last time I played with AS I have more than 7000 corruption per turn!

3- AI pahlava has no Surena who will use camels to maintain endless rain of arrows. use non-levy phalanxes who are arrow-proof to protect your own archers and use archers behind them to hunt them down and spare cavalry for reserve (light ones like katpatuka asabara-kappadokian light cavalry) after pahlava run out of arrows charge! or build stone walls as soon as possible.

[Brennus]

One strategy I used was to abandon my Persian satraps at the start of the game, this means the Parthians/Bactrians take more time defeating larger Eleutheroi stacks whilst having the benefits of allowing you to disband alot of garrisons you no longer need (freeing up revenue for a succesful war against the Ptolemies) and shriking your eastern border so it is easier to defend (like the Hindenburg line in WWI). When you have secured Egypt and if possible Anatolia you will have the revenues to afford a powerful Hellenistic army which can steamroll over the Parthians.

[Drag0nUL]

1. I have no idea. Wondered that myself a couple of times

2. Any place with mines. Give priority to those inside your empire (Gabai, Propthasia(I think), Tarsos, Rkbaktana etc.), then Asia Minor (you should be well enough entrenched by the time Pontos decides to attack) then NE (Hekatompylos, Asaak, Nissa (when taken form parthians) etc.)

3. My standard anti-parthian armies (just killing them in my AS campaign atm, they're down to 1 city under siege) are amde up of : 4x pantodapoi phalagitai (cheap, AP secondary, good line holders), 4x persian archers (also cehap, they destory unarmored horse archers), 4 x eastern slingers(cheap, work wonders vs. parthian armored cavalry and I can replace them faster than PArthia can replace Dahae Nobles and Armored Horse Archers).

[Atraphoenix]

4 x eastern slingers(cheap, work wonders vs. parthian armored cavalry and I can replace them faster than PArthia can replace Dahae Nobles and Armored Horse Archers).

I hate them , I HATE THEM!
HOW CAN ONE STUPID PUNY FARMER KILL ONE OF MY IRONCLAD KNIGHT WITH A PRIMITIVE WEAPON!

[Brennus]

I hate them , I HATE THEM!
HOW CAN ONE STUPID PUNY FARMER KILL ONE OF MY IRONCLAD KNIGHT WITH A PRIMITIVE WEAPON!

Must be Maoists.

[machinor]

LOL @ Brennus!

I have another AS-related question that's been bothering me for AGES:

What's on the AS officer's shield? No matter how often I tried to find out, what's depicted on it, I was never able to figure it out.

Can anyone illuminate me?

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

LOL @ Brennus!

I have another AS-related question that's been bothering me for AGES:

What's on the AS officer's shield? No matter how often I tried to find out, what's depicted on it, I was never able to figure it out.

Can anyone illuminate me?

The officer? I think its a ram.

[machinor]

A ram?

[Brennus]

Anyone got a picture?

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

A ram?

Do you mean the officer or the general? The officer leading various units carries a silver shield with a ram on it. The general has a man playing a flute. Probably a god but I know not whom.

[Brennus]

The ram is likely either a depiction of Ares or Alexander-Zeus Ammon, coins bearing the latter were minted in quantity by Lysimachus.

I would imagine the flute playing individual to be either Hermes or Apollo.

[machinor]

Yes, I was talking about the officer. I am able to interpret this rounded thingy with the lines as a ram's horn but still can't see a whole ram or ram's head on that.

The general is clear. It is probably Apollo, since the Seleucids claimed to descent from Apollo or something like that.