My Near Eastern Nightmare

[Saldunz]

This is a problem.

I'm playing as the Saba and this is my reality every single turn. In fact, all my armies are on this screen right now. The composition of the one army highlighted is my largest army, and, really, is no worse than any of the besieged garrisons. These units are up against constant waves of phalangitai. The Ptolemies are now at war with no one else - they've completely wiped the Seleucids off the map!

I've been enduring, and while they were once distracted with the Seleucids, I took this nice big chunk out of the Levant. But now I'm not sure how I should/can proceed.

So does the EB community have any suggestions or ideas on that?

[Arjos]

Garrison Sidon and Hierosolyma, while the rest of your troops invade the Nile delta...
You could sack those wealthy cities and move south, consolidate your power there and then push into Mesopotamia...

[Sylon]

Several tips:

-Ditch the skirmishers and get more Pantodapoi instead. Phalangitai tend to be too heavily armoured for skirmishers to do much damage, even from the back.

-In battle, set your Pantodapoi to guard mode and get them to stand in front of the enemy's phalanxes. This prevents them from committing suicide by running into a wall of pikes.

-All the provinces that border the Arabian desert allow you to recruit Arabian Skirmishers, which make a good line infantry; Arabian Slingers, Arabian Archer-Spearman, which use composite bows; and finally Arabian Light Cavalry. I would suggest adding more Archer-Spearman to your ranks, thanks to their relatively high ranged attack. Furthermore, getting some units of Arabian Light Cavalry would be extremely helpful. Though the unit card doesn't say so, they're actually armed with .33 lethality AP lances, making them an Arabian version of the vaunted Leuce Epos, recruitable from Lvl 2 Factional MIC's. Take note that Babylonia and Seleukeia are counted as bordering the Arabian desert as well.

-Mercenaries are key. Forget the heavy infantry and Mistophoroi Phalangitai- what you need is heavy cavalry. In particular, you can recruit Thracian Podromoi in this region- though they may cost a lot, they're well worth it.

-Armour-piercing is key. Get those red sea axeman out and use them to chop the enemy Phalangitai into bits.

-Finally, rely on stone walls for asymmetric warfare. With several regiments of archer-spearmen and red sea axeman, along with some filler Pantodapoi, you can easily butcher armies far larger than your own. Phalangitai, as a rule, don't tend to work very well when they're assaulting a wall garrisoned by AP axes.

EDIT: Also, if you're planning to leave a front and focus your efforts elsewhere, stick a level 4 government in there and recruit a Mercenary Governor. It's expensive, but you'll be surprised how much damage a full unit of regenerating heavy cavalry can do to your enemies.

[d'Arthez]

Agree with Arjos. Garrison Hierosolyma and Sidon in particular, and create a strike force to take Alexandreia and Memphis. Preferably with an army containing some slingers and archers, which will come in handy when defending both these cities. Since Homeland governments for the Ptolemaoi are restricted to the Nile Delta, taking these cities will have a massive impact on their capabilities to wage war effectively, and should significantly reduce high level phalangitai spam. Even if you just take Alexandreia, it should significantly reduce your problems; it is a lovely place to defend with sallies.

You don't really want to extend shared borders, but limit the number of cities that border the Ptollies, preferably with natural defenses (rivers), so once Alexandreia and Memphis are secured you may want to move to Antiocheia.

[NikosMaximilian]

I agree with everything stated above, and couple of tactical advices:

- Garrison your settlements with Sabaen Archers, Arabian Archer-Spearmen, Arabian Slingers and Red Sea Axemen. As soon as you are besieged, attack. Man the walls with the archers and slingers spread right in front of their position with fire at will ON. Since they have not built any siege equipment, you'll get to inflict quite a few casualties, because they will run through the map, usually parallel to the walls. Once that happens, they'll either a) withdraw or b) you'll get to fight a depleted army, and when you are moving out of the town they may even charge and expose themselves to the slingers, archers and towers again.

- Once you field a decent battleline capable of holding the Phalanxes, use your skirmishing infantry, cavalry and slingers to envelop and shot them in their backs or pepper their reserves/Family member.

and a few of strategical tips:

- When you have some money to spare, train a diplomat. The Parthians and Makedonians are bordering the Ptolemies, try to seek alliances with them.

- Also send your diplomat to trade (if possible sell) map information with everyone, not only for the income, but to have a better idea of what's going on around you (unless you use toggle_fow). Which leads me to...

- Send a spy up the Persian Gulf coast! Check if those settlements are yet under eleutheroi control. If the Parthians or Ptolemies made it all the way to Charax and kept expanding south, you may find yourself surprised and fighting at two fronts.

- Once you have some breathing room, go for the Nile cities as others already mentioned, but also try to take Antiocheia. The Ptolemies have acess to some (not all) of their best units there and is usually a very populated city. Taking it would reduce the spamming.

Hope it helps! It always challenging as Saba fighting the two Hellenic superpowers.

[athanaric]

- Take Cyprus. It's usually weakly garrisoned. Also, it has a gold mine and trade routes to Greece.
- Take Maketa, unless the neighbouring province is already held by Pahlava (you'd risk war then). It makes for good trade along the Persian Gulf.
- Fighting as Saba is somewhat similar as fighting as Swêboz (except that Saba has weaker melee but better missiles). You have to run around a lot so as to get behind the enemy, but your units have great stamina. Don't get yourself entangled in static warfare unless you have phalanxes.
- For field battles, Panda phalanx supported by Red Sea Axemen (or Kappadokians if available) and Arabian Light Infantry should be the base on which your battle line is built.

[Cute Wolf]

I'll only second anything that involve sacking egypt, but don't neglect your eastern garrison in levant.