Alright, retreat into Egypt. Very nice. :-D As good as Asia Minor ;-)
Alright, retreat into Egypt. Very nice. :-D As good as Asia Minor ;-)
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
How come the Seleucids can have elephants, cataphracts, phlanxes, and legionaries at the same time!? Doesn't this make them overly powerful compare to, say, Parthia (sucky infantry) and Egypt (not much heavy cavalry)?????
Unfortunately, they are underpowered!
They almost always die by the time you reach them from... say - Rome.
And they were that diverse in reality - even more. The entire Seleucid empire at its zenith actually covers virtually all of Alexander's Asia - Europe and Africa belonged to rival kingdoms like (Antigonid) Macedon and Ptolemaics.
Edit: Egypt IS overpowered and utterly weird! The Pharoahs' age are long gone and the Ptolemaic ruling dynasty is Macedonian and fights like any other Macedonians. Parthia's sucky infantry is historically realistic and it is actually making the faction unique.
Last edited by AntiochusIII; 05-26-2005 at 06:29.
Seleukeia ought to at least have better armies or something...there's no point in having such a good array in the game if the AI is going to screw it up so all you face is either Egypt-in-Seleukeia or mere levy pikemen. It's getting boring.
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
Yes, the Seleucids have an awesome lineup but only if they survive the Egyptians. However, in the vanilla game, they never do.
I've tried in 1.0 as Romans to send over a diplomat ASAP and bribe away Egyptian stacks. This strategic weakening of Egypt helped ensure that the Seleucids won the conflict.
When I fought Seleucia, the result was simply awesome spammage of pikers, chariots, and eles. Their combo is even crazier than Egypt's.
Thats crazy.
How much money did you end up spending bribing eggys, katank?
Doing it so you can fight S.E. stacks with their lineup definitely gotta be worth it though.
I do it in my game by modding the eggy units extensively. For example, horse units are now strictly reduced to 108 apiece on huge. Chariots are given slightly less hitpoints than Britannic equivalents since they were supposed to be really light in the past anyway.
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
@ Marquis, it was 1.0 so rather cheap. A full captain led stack was about 2-3k. A full FM led stack was about 5-10k.
I could bribe Memphis for 60-70k. I even bribed some cities and gifted them to the S.E.
I was the Scipii and was concentrated in the west though I took Greece as well.
The S.E. owned practically all of the middle east and asia monir when I fought them and were quite powerful.
I saw a few units of silver shield pikers, many phalanx pikers, hordes of chariots, and even war eles! Well worth it.
i find the seleucids very hard, even on M/M, is there an uber easy way to kick ass with them?
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb...
Proud Supporter of the Gahzette
Yes, go after Egypt ASAP. Push them very very hard right away.
Blitz Sidon and Jerusalem in the firsft 3 turns. Read my posts earlier in the thread about detailed opening blitz moves against Egypt.
Once Egypt is destroyed, you will be rolling in dough and things will be quite easy.
To be exact, read posts #67 and 71 in this thread.
To make the early S.E. campaign easier, definitely gotta take out Egypt ASAP, in fact try to do it before Pontus, Armenia, Parthia, Greece, and any other annoying neighbors turn on you (you will probably have 10 turns before this happens?).
I bribed me Parthia's starting cataphracts, they helped out a lot in the early game (think fighting Jedi generals and their katank units in MTW). Get those scythed chariots out ASAP as well. I personally found levy pikemen unwieldy and unreliable sometimes (of course at the time I never played with a phalanx faction before, so the level of crapiness had something to do with my inexperience too). Militia hoplites are trash, never use them.
Towards the end of my S.E. campaign, I have made multi-city exterminations a bi-annual event. I give whoever I'm fighting about ten cities (they're all over 30k pop., some are 40k) as gifts and walk right back in and liquidate everyone. Thanks for the tip, Katank.
Go for the Wonders early on. You'll rake in the cash, and taking Egypt will be a cakewalk.Originally Posted by ian_of_smeg16
I got to 50 in 60 years..
Octopus strategy is very nice. My western army went after Halicarnassus then Athens and is now pushing Macedon and Greece hard, having taken Corinth and sieging Larissa as well as Sparta.
My eastern army took Susa right away and bribed cataphracts have joined it to go after poorly defended Arsakia.
Egypt only has Thebes left which is under siege. The year is 267BC. Careful use of boats is necessary for smashing Egypt and going into Greece.
SE definitely have an advantage on pikemen over Egypt. Phalanx (and even Levy will do) will whoop those numidan and nile spearmen easily. But definitely no Pharoh's guard...I found it out the hard way. (sob) So right now I'm besieging Alexandria w/ my best general meanwhile those stupid Eastern bastards (namely Pontus, Armenia and Parthia) on the back kept besiging my cities and I kept beating them. (line up my pikemen along the wall and poke anything that moves) so after I made myself the Pharaoh I'll sent a liberation army into Perisa and Turkey and slaughter those sorry son-of-a-gun.
You need stacking though or the Egyptian phalanxes will win.
If you play your hand right, you wouldn't even see axemen let alone Pharaoh's guard.
I managed to take out Egypt on a bridge battle on H/VH in 259BC. They were down to Thebes and Alexandria, with the faction heir on the move with a large army and the faction leader besieged by my tertiary army (mainly militia hoplites and militia cavalry). The turn after I laid siege, though, the big Egyptian army turned away from Memphis (which I presume they were going to lay siege to - and most definitely lose) and attacked my army.
The battle that came up had my men on one side of the Nile, with the enemy armies attacking with one unit of slingers and a lot of chariots.
Of course, the silly Egyptians decide to not wait for the three reinforcing units to arrive with an extra unit of slingers, and charge across the bridge... right into a wall of militia hoplites, pikemen, and a lot of arrows, sling bullets, and spears being hailed down on them. My general and some camels chased down anyone who tried to runaway through my lines.
And, of course, their towns ended up going rebel.
In my own experience, chariots can't cross bridges, they just fall into the water, much to my chagrin using scythed chariots
Originally Posted by Marquis of Roland
If I recall correctly, you posted that in your "Playing RTW while drunk" thread.
Fighting isn't about winning, it's about depriving your enemy of all options except to lose.
"Hi, Billy Mays Here!" 1958-2009
In addition, this "falling into the water"-issue has been fixed in v1.2...at least in my experience. However this does not change the fact that chariots become the more useless the less room they have --- as in towns or on bridges.
Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni.
It is possible to settle for diplomatic solutions, and this is very helpful for factions that are besieged on everyside such as the Selucids.
In my own game, I quickly too Sidon and defeated two counter attacking Egyptian army in heroic victories... and then the Egyptians agree to become my protectrate for Sidon.... and that was the way it remained even till i took Rome and won the game. so I was able to solve the Egyptian nightmare within 10 turns.
This obviously made my Selucid campaign rather easy. The Pathian also allied me until I backstabbed Susa quiet a while later, the Armenians went after me but besides the first few attacks they lost steam quickly.
My only real trouble was holding on to Sardis, EVERYONE attack it. Pontus send 3 huge army against it. just as i thought i finally have a moment of breath the Greeks pop up with a huge hoplite army... in both cases i barely made it thx to mercenary and in one case utterly dumb AI (I beat the first 2 Pontic invansion on the field, the 3rd i had no choice but to hide in the city, luckily the AI's only strategy in seige assult is "ram ur chest against those pointy pikes")
But as i quickly put an end to my Egyptian problems my attention turned north, and my northern expedition went through the mountain passes and took out Pontus, and at long last Sardis is free from isolation.
From then on it was basically a steam roll with me taking Asia minor then Armenia and Pathia, then making Macedon and Scythia my protectrate as well, then going to Italy and ending the game
Interesting. What were the dates for some of the events? Sounds interesting.
Also, was the protectorate thing in 1.2 after reload? I've had great trouble getting other factions to accept unless those conditions hold.
It certainly was regrettable that you didn't continue the war against Egypt. Making Egypt your protectorate gives you the risk that they will reinitiate war after strengthening, and it would definitely have been far more profitable to take the wealth of the Ptolemaics for yourself. After all, they are your traditional rivals. Might as well fight to the death, and add *the* richest area on the map to your asset portfolio.
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
I just found my old seleucid campaign, and started playing it again. I've finally got a few cities now capable of producing Legionaires (sp?) and Armoured Elephants, and have taken over all of Africa, Asia Minor and the Middle East. I currently have a foothold in mainland Europe with Corduba in Spain, and am about to capture Byzantium as well. I have also established a foothold in Sicily by capturing Syracuse, and have almost captured Lilybaeum (sp?). The tide is gradually turning on the Romans. But, lets forget me and discuss the AI. Well, for one, i didn't succeed in destroying Armenia, so now they're new capital is Chersonesos in the Crimea, and they are waging a bloody war against Scythia and Thrace. The only Roman faction to have got anywhere is the Brutii, who have expanded everywhere in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. As is usal, the Britons have taken over all of Gaul, and the Gauls have been relegated to Spain. This game should be quite fun...
I started this faction for the first time and I blitzed Egypt as soon as I could so I could take in Alexandria, Memphis, and Thebes. Phalanx are really useful on Bridges I parked near Alexandria and I wasted so many of those armies.
Though I'm annoyed at the Eastern factions in that their all backstabbers even with an alliance.
A problem I've encountered are the Armoured Elephants, their nice but I'm having trouble controlling them. I try to get them to do melee attacks in a fight but they just SIT there and shoot arrows. I try to move them towards the enemy, right click past the enemy but they don't even try meleeing anyone in their range. How do I fix this?
turn skirmish mode off?
may help
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb...
Proud Supporter of the Gahzette
Try alt+right clicking. Their melee attack is secondary, not primary. So you have to secondary-attack for the elephants to banzai the enemy's ranks.
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
turn of skirmish mode , then double click behind enemy ranks ( not phalanxes though ! )
that should do what you want them to do.
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