game is broken

[Jikot]

I played this game for years on end, for hundreds of hours.
I started playing a new campaign as Baktria last week after about a year of not playing at all.
And i have to say, this game is simply broken.

1) There is no way at all to keep the seleucids off my god damn back. Nothing works, not tribute, not regular tribute, nothing at all.
It has degenerated to the point where seleukia is now constantly besieging my capital baktra with what seems like an endless chain of half-stack armies. I am now using force diplomacy to lift their relentless sieges after each turn (during which they will invariably besiege me again), but as you understand, that's no fun.
I thought starting as a petty kingdom in the fringes of the alexandrian empire would be tons of fun, keeping my head low until i reach a certain point where i can challenge the big guys. Alas, there is no way in hell you can ever play that way in this game.
As a still puny power I am pressed for resources (see point 2 below) and am mustering all i can to attack taksashila to the east.
I have tried from the very start to keep from confronting the seleucids, placating them at every turn.

2) From the very beginning i have focused 90% of my resources on economy buildings, and was gaining revenue at a pretty decent rate (about 2500 per turn).
But then i got besieged ONCE. I decided to wait it out and let them bust their teeth on my walls, which they did after three turns. BUT, despite being in the exact same economic position as i was just before the siege (with less troops and thus less upkeep) i found myself bleeding money out the bunghole.
What kind of mechanic is that anyway? Seriously, i would greatly appreciate someone explaining this one to me.

So yeah, i'm done screaming at my computer screen. Just thought i'd put in some feedback at least.

[Captain Jazzy]

As a matter of interest are you on Very Hard difficulty? This makes the AI relentlessly attempt to destroy you and as a result isnt very funny for many people. The game isnt broken but if you play in a certain way of the higher difficulty as a small power it becomes very difficult. Personally I have done a Bactria campaign on Hard and while it was very challenging I found this to be one of the best campaigns in EB. Try rapidly expanding East and capture part of India, then build up an army and strike at AS first, once you gain a few cities off them it becomes fairly "easy". Either this or go for AS straight off, none of its easy but that's the point of the campaign. :)

[Jikot]

medium difficulty. And i am no rookie at this game either.
I did everything i could to mollify the seleukids, and was indeed expanding east, to no avail.
I seriously hate it though that you start losing money after one siege (or any other economically detrimental event) even though you were gaining money like no other right before that siege (or any other economically detrimental event).

[Rahl]

But then i got besieged ONCE. I decided to wait it out and let them bust their teeth on my walls, which they did after three turns. BUT, despite being in the exact same economic position as i was just before the siege (with less troops and thus less upkeep) i found myself bleeding money out the bunghole.

Have you been at peace with the Seleucids before? Then you lost them as trading partner when they attacked and with paved roads Baktra has a good amount of trading income to lose.

I'm playing a campaign with them myself. The first one in 1.2, but I played them 2 or 3 times before in earlier versions. I never got defeated...
But what did you expect? EB tries to be as realistic as the engine allows. It would be very hard even without the bad AI.
If it's to hard why don't you play on hard or medium difficulty? I'm playing at very hard and had 6-8 years peace with the AS before they attacked (I payed tribute). I know there's some luck involved, sometimes the AS has enough problems with their other neighbors and can't attack you as easily as in other campaigns were they throw everything at you they've got.
To tell the truth, some years in the war with the AS I began to use the money cheat to take away some of their mnai since they where winning on most fronts because of their higher aggressivenes the AI has when it's neighbouring the player. Though I did this to make it more realistic and allow me to play slower. I don't like blitzing anymore.

EDIT:
I wrote my post before you had send your second one. That's why I thought you were playing on very hard like most players do. I actually don't understand why you were unable to hold peace with the AS on medium. The AI shouldn't be too aggressive then. Maybe you should play on easy? Or read some more threads about the gameplay? There's a lot to learn about how to hold peace and how to defeat the AI. It's hard to give you advice because I don't see where you lack skill or experience and because I'm so deep into the gameplay that everything is easy for me in EB.

[Jikot]

Have you been at peace with the Seleucids before? Then you lost them as trading partner when they attacked and with paved roads Baktra has a good amount of trading income to lose.

They attacked me before the siege, and i didn't lose that much on income from their trade.

I play medium because otherwise the AI gets to cheat way more with money and army stats.

i usually played makedonia (few forested areas, awesome availability of low-tier hoplites, good horses) and never bothered much with AS, so it was never really that much of a problem until i decided to start attacking them. When i decided to play baktria i knew AS would be able to steamroll me within the first few years if i disregarded them, so i made a solid point of keeping them on my good side. I've read a bunch of threads on pacifying enemies in the long term, applied those tips, and generally stayed out of their way.

[ayekides]

Here are some tips that might help:

In my experience with Bactria you have to make good use of your BGs early on.

I find that field battles are the way to go with the early attacks from AS.

Using forts at the river passing near Bactria can also buy you some time, especially if you try to expand towards far away cities of India.

I tend to use horse archers and BGs early on, hence field battles being most effective for my early forces.

The archer-spearmen are also very effective if used right.

After you expand a bit you can start making some nice Hellenic armies.

[XSamatan]

Your first point is somewhat out of reach for the dev-team (and other RTW-modders), CAI is not modable and designed to hate the human player. Playing on medium campaign difficulty just delays this point.
As you already use FD, maybe you want to move attacking stacks away to maintain peace in the beginning.
Btw: Baktria has a difficult starting position, no doubt.

Concerning the second point I advise to check the settlements detailed income and trading screen, you should find a devastating malus, quite sure some of the economic loss comes from this.

XSamatan

[Ca Putt]

Btw: Baktria has a difficult starting position, no doubt.

you can say that again :D

With Baktria there is a lot of luck involved as three things can go wrong
your case - the largest empire in ye known world sizes their chance to reintegrate a rouge Satrap into their Realm, in other cases they are often helpless prey to an agressive eastern faction as they are showing two of the factions with most potential(and the Sakans) their soft underbelly, which they can actually defend, if they choose so ;)
my case - the Saka Rauka are not ruled by a compleate Idiot and regard your weathy citiesy as a golden opportunity for Income and a Springbord into India where they get their cheap reform(not like the AI knows that). they may not be as mighty but increadibly more annoying to fight, as you can't just Heroic victory them with a BG and a Horse archer.
the unlikely but most deadly case - the Pahlavans get their ass up and show that they(and the romans) are the only ones who you can play without fearing your empire getting ahistorically big right away.

often enough all three are occupied elsewhere/Misguided/sitting ducks. This gives them the rateing of beeing easier than Pontos or Hay as they fight the AS EVERY BLEEDING TIME, but personally I think that (In one of the cases mentioned above) a Baktria early game is much more difficult than one with Pontos or Hay. oh and the Exellent roster of the Baktrians also decreaces their difficulty in lategame.

so, game is not broken, you just had bad luck that the AS favors taunting lil Balkh with their Stormtroopers(ok no they don't have them yet but you get the point) over defending It's real assets in the west. Come to think of it, which provinces did you take, as when getting sieged it's all about how centralized you are - as Makedon your early empire consists mainly of high income cities thus a siege is bad but not the end of the world, baktria on the other side of the Alexandrinan empire has, Baktra ... and ...
the other places you conquer need to be developed before they can give you an ample profit.

I'd just start another game as Baktria(as they are awesome) and just hope you don't get the Empire of Christmasthe East present, Yet to come or the evil Horse guys knocking on your front door.