Help with Selucids

[Excalibur Bane]

I just started a game as the Selucid Empire (I'm working my way through all factions at normal/normal before I move up to hard). I'm not very many turns in but I'm getting solidly thumped. Three turns into the game, three units of rebel troops with about 300 units per army, popped up scattered within my territory. There isn't much I can do about them, given my resources.

I tried to smooth things over with Egypt but they are not at war with me and are threatening to take one of my more remote territories. The Greek seem to be otherwise occupied. I repelled a siege by the Pontac's on my northern city but I'm sure they will be back before long.

The inital unit offerings really aren't that great. Milita Hoplites aren't particularly useful, they are basically peasants with long sticks. They seem to almost always get tangled up and manage to get themselves surrounded or don't point their spears in the right direction, while an enemy wails on their sides and flanks. Military Cavalry and Peltasts suffer much the same problems, they have too little ammo and they simply don't kill enough units per volley to make them a tactically viable unit. I hope I can survive long enough to be able to train better units then these hopeless bunch.

The roads seem weird. Are paved roads the best the Selucids can get? I checked the tech tree and I didn't see any better. Or do I need one of those tech messages before I can build better ones? It takes me three turns to go from one province to another and that's just unacceptable. I don't care how big the province is, it should never take more then a turn to go from one city to a directly adjacent city. One of the reason that I miss the provincal level movement of MTW.

Anyway, some tips would be great right now.

[Tricky Lady]

Have a look at the Guides section: The Seleucid Empire: Guide. This link should give you a handfull of tips and different strategies for the Seleucid faction.

[Mr. Juice]

What I am doing as Seleucia:

Number 1, get rid of Egypt ASAP. They will hit you with a non-stop barrage of troops until they are gone. They are also richer than you, so a battle of attrition is one you can't win. Leave just enough troops up north to fend off your neighbors, all your other troops head south to get rid of Egypt.

Number 2, grow Antioch's population as fast as you can. You need phalanx pikemen, and (though I haven't gotten to them yet) elephants.

Number 3, and it looks like you are doing this, roads roads roads. I guarantee before long every single one of your neighbors are going to attack you. You need to be able to move around your armies every turn to counter them.

Also, you will learn to love Militia Cavalry. Disorganize the enemy with your javelins, while your pikemen take care of their scattered forces. Also, when you fight HA heavy armies, you and Militia Cavalry will become best friends. I'm also scooping up as many Cretian Archers as I can, as Seleucia's ranged troops are quite mediocre.

[Arakasi]

Yeah the main problem with the Seleucids is lack of range and how spread out their empire is. Expect within 10-15 turns to be at war with Parthia, Pontus, Armenia and Egypt. Taking Egypt is good, but I also like the idea of taking Pontus. They're easier to get rid of and fairly quickly you can own most of asia minor, which should be easy to defend.

Problem is Seleucid is an infantry heavy faction (with some decent cav and specials but almost no range) surrounded by enemies who are either cav heavy (Pontus, Parthia, Armenia) or archer heavy (Parthia, Egypt).

[Mr. Juice]

Don't forget about GCS. They broke their alliance with me maybe 10-15 turns after Pontus did. I only now have a friendly neighbor because Thrace is invading Pontus... Which helped me out quite a bit...

I wonder what Seleucia did to its neighbors to piss them off before I gained control of the empire.

Edit:
Hah, Thrace just sailed around and attacked one of my lightly defended cities. So much for having a friendly neighbor...

[Magraev]

You should be capable of generating a positive bankaccount. Use those money to bribe any would-be invaders before a war breaks out. This is a good way to pacify the parthians and your other neighbors. Just make sure you have a diplomat ready when they approach. You have to keep seperate field armies in Seleucia and the west, since reinforcements won't arrive in time from your central areas otherwise.

And you have to kill the egyptians quickly even though it will be painful. Once you have the three southern egyptian cities your worries are over (except for squalor).

Watch out for jerusalem btw - it seems to be permanently rebellious.

[Excalibur Bane]

You should be capable of generating a positive bankaccount. Use those money to bribe any would-be invaders before a war breaks out. This is a good way to pacify the parthians and your other neighbors. Just make sure you have a diplomat ready when they approach. You have to keep seperate field armies in Seleucia and the west, since reinforcements won't arrive in time from your central areas otherwise.

And you have to kill the egyptians quickly even though it will be painful. Once you have the three southern egyptian cities your worries are over (except for squalor).

Watch out for jerusalem btw - it seems to be permanently rebellious.

Indeed. I just figured this one out earlier. I'm getting far more denari then I need, and can thus afford to bribe every army the Eyptians send at me. I've battled my way down to Jerusalem. I just took it, with an intense battle. I've finally got some decent Greek Cavalry. All of the nations north of me haven't even bothered to go to war with me. Pontac seems occupied, as does the Greeks and Armenia.

I'm moving at a slow pace to try and gain some experience off of slaughtering them. I'm maintaining two armies right now. One to patrol my northern borders and one to focus on destroying what's left of the Egyptians. Keeping a good general alive is a difficult task. I hate it that they age. I wish I could turn that off.

[Lord_Winter]

Just use the near unlimited supply of money you got to bribe everything and get stabil alliances with both the pontic and parthians....while you use the horde tactics against egypts few armies you cant bribe....

On vHard/vHard I had no problem becoming allies with all northen nabours except GCS (monitarian gifts seems to be the thing...as well as bribe any serious armies entering your territory...)and seriously whip egypt...Selucides however must blitz the Jerusalem and Sidon never allowing the egyptians to get outside Egypt for long...else all is lost...or at least very very dificult...

[The_Emperor]

The Selucids can afford to play the diplomatic game with so much money...

Offer gifts of cash and map info, on the following turns encourage them to attack their neighbors. If you can get Pontus and Armenia to duke it out, they will probably both be too busy to fight you... If you manage to get Parthia to join in the fun as well this can only help your cause.

Divide and conquer mate, but by all means go for Egypt first.