The Seleucid Empire

[Stlaind]

I still dont' get the hang of using scythed chariots.... they seem to run amok or die a lot easier than elephants while they also trample ur own guys easier (as they are faster) why is their defense so low that makes little sense when the rider appears to be fully armored...

Best use i've seen is killing off my own generals - rushed one out of a city to knock off some militia cav (what all chariots seem good at is killing cav) and watched helplessly as they routed came back to my town center and instantly ran amok killing both the generals I happened to have there.

[RollingWave]

Lol same, i've had my own general died to amok scyth a few time...
But another funny as hell situation was why I besiged Ankora, Pontus had like 800 men, 2 scyth chariot, a general and afew Pontic light cav along with a load of eastern infantry and hill men... i immideatly send my 2 unit of archer along with 1 unit of merc bedoiun camel archer and pelted one scyth chairot with fire arrow... it ran amok after just 2 volly.. as the Pontic army tried to move from the walls back to the town center, it killed more than 60% of their army (the other chaiort unit ran amok too ) and their general.... that's gotta be one of the easiest seige i've ever done.

[The_Emperor]

I still dont' get the hang of using scythed chariots.... they seem to run amok or die a lot easier than elephants while they also trample ur own guys easier (as they are faster) why is their defense so low that makes little sense when the rider appears to be fully armored...

Do not underestimate those Selucid Scythed Chariots... In my Greek cities campaign I had a lot of trouble when a couple of Scythed Chariots got behind my defensive line and started carving up my missile troops and cavalry. (to make matters worse a unit of Elephants joined in as well)

I was outnumbered 2 to 1 at the start of the battle anyway, and most of both selucid armies were comprised of Militia Hoplites. (compared to my armoured ones)

The first army was easily routed and driven from the field, but the second army arrived too quickly and before I could turn and face them two units of scythed chariots and one unit of elephants got behind my lines... They wiped out all my cav and missile troops and consigned my general to an early grave.

Fortunately they couldn't very well hit my armoured hoplites from the rear because the Ornagers were in the way (even if the crews did get massacred).

My veteran armoured Hoplites did carry the day when a couple of them turned and formed a second front against the enemy.

Needless to say I lost half my army, but when the dust settled I had slain over 2,000 men.

They might not be as powerful as Elephants, but they can sure cause some havoc when used right. Still it was a nice move by the AI.

[RollingWave]

After using them more, i realize their potential, they are faster than elephants and they will mow the enemy down much faster.. where elephants usually require u to have some calvary back up or a infantry wave support to make the charge really count, the chariots will often destroy the enemy all on it's own, however their tendency to run amok at the slightlest wind still make them quiet problematic... (though i guess due to their speed.. u should just simply put them even farther back in ur line and perform a wide angel flanking manuver.)

[mfberg]

The best use of scythed chariots is as a mop up unit. Early in the game use them to mop up routers and as a flanking unit. Doing this I got a 7 man unit from no valor to v5 (silver 2) with only 2 deaths. (600+ kills as the army tried to sally)

mfberg

[Fisherking]

This is the best all-round army in the game, I think. Once you have reached the large city status in a city or two you will become unstoppable with the better armies you can produce. It is mostly a matter of lasting that long.

Your true offensive capabilities come with Cataphracts. They are fully worth the expense & the wait to produce them. All other units from this point on are merely supporting troops. Give them all the experience & armor upgrades you can get & they will truly amaze you. Six to ten Cats are the core to a truly war winning army, just use them in mass. Group them in twos threes or more and attack spears from two directions. Even in city combat they will overpower any adversary with a massed charge of several units. They seldom rout & with eight or more & a few oagers you can take almost any city. A couple or three Armored Elephants are expellant fire support but not front line units so save them for the flanks & rear, especially in cities.

In a Seleucid army about half should be Cats. Infantry is there to protect the Onagers for assaulting cities with stone walls. War Elephants or Armored Elephants are there for braking walls & for fire support. They will shoot over walls while breaking them in fact, but if you find you are loosing Elephants you are using them wrong. A temple of Hephaestus in Antioch is also a good thing as it will give you a nice experaince & armor upgrade for these troops.

I have not played this faction sense the 1.2 patch so I don’t know what may have changed but I know that it is now too expensive to bribe units except in an emergency. I also think that that change has wrongfully changed some things which were common place in ancient wars. Bribes I think should also bring on more of the troops of exotic types into your army….but that belongs elsewhere. LOL

[RollingWave]

Well I finished it, after conquring Asia minor and then destroying Armenia and pushing Pathia to the other side of the Caspian, I took out Thrace and got the Macedonians to be my protectrate as they were besieged by the Romans. Scythia made a half arse attempt to attack me then also became my protectrate, I pushed the Bruttis out of Solona and Apollonia and then landed another army on Italy to take their home town in quick succesion, then I gave the 2 balkan city to the Macedonians letting them deal with the remaining former brutti rebels wondering around there while I sailed my army to reinforce Italy. and also making landings on Africa and Sicily to take undefended or almost undefended towns. the push north towards Rome was not hard as the Romans wasted their army, the Senate army faced me outside of Rome, but decided to retreat when I already closed on them, need less to say my elephant/catapracts/general/companion/chariots ran most of their infantry down. and Rome fell in a seige that followed, game over. (I had all my borders at home under my protectrate LOL)

Thoughts... pikeman have a lot of problems.... they behave in phalanx even more poorly than normal hoplits / sacred band / egyptian etc...) and their offense capability is very unnoticable when they die so quick..... any time I had serious enemy charging against me my pikeman took rather excess casulties while the kill score is not particularly impressive :/ i think the high men number acturally cause them to function even more oddly in phalanx and thus cuase them to do poorly in general... not to meantion their non existance melee capability means when they go out of phalanx they die even faster (unlike say.. spartan or scared band... they still pretty good even when not fighitng with phalanx working)