The way of the Seluc's

[Lazul]

The East was early on under my tyrannic control... but my ambitions was great.
So managed afters a long war to take control over Egypt and Cyprec (sp?)
Now at this point the Romans was starting to grow in power and became a rather nasty opponent but I at first allied with Them to rebuild my empire and train my elite armies of Silvershield legions and pikes.
When the time came to invade the parts of africa not under my control I stod against the Scipii, now theese bastards can be tough when they send whole armies of Preatorians and other superb infantry.
The Mercenary armies Spearheading my invasion was so totaly crushed after a brief succes that I was almost ready to withdraw and abandon my plans for africa.
The next Big clash was south of Carthage and that Battle must have been the bloodiest ive ever seen.
The Scipii outnumbered me but i had better troops, they wheere all vets.
Now that battles showed me i cant beat Preatorians with Silvershields as easy as i thought.

But the next armie showed to be more effectiv against the romans.

The roman, probably overconfident after the other battles attack my new elite army.
Here is how you totaly smash the romans the seluc way.
My army consisted of 3units of elephants, one that was armored, 2 units of Catas, 2 units of Campanions the rest silvershields and archers.

When the Romans march towards you send all the elephants right at them, even if they have archers and other missile troops... the trick is not to let the elephants stomp around, once the accual charge is over, order them to run to the back of the roman army, then, send the catas, doing the same against the now disorganised romans, first charging then riding straight throught them. After that, you send the Camps. Same tactic.
Once that is done, send all your silvershielders and other supportroops, and at the same time turn the cav around and charge the rear.

I did this at Hard, and i only got a few dead and the whole roman army was slaughtered. ( Roman army was mostly legionaries and preatorians, with aux and archers)

Anyone ells got any good Seluc tactics?

[NightStar]

I'm playing the Seleuc's at the moment and finding it all too easy. I'm fighting both the Brutii and the Scipii at the moment and I use the pincushion method. That is silvershield phalanx, when I engage the romans I send Kataphraktoi at their back...and the momentum carries tha poor units onto my pointy sticks....never seen units die so quickly.

Another method is the steamroller.....just charge your kataphraktois down hill, they will...eh...steamroller everything in their path. The romans once stationed their army sideways down a hill and I managed to place my 2 kataphraktoi units at their flank while I brought my Silver pikes to their front and then I sent the Kat's steamrollering through the flank of the roman army and they just kept going and going and going until they burst through the other flank of the roman army By that time of course the romans were running away like the girly men they are.

I think using elephants is just cheating....I manage to crush entire armies with couple of units of armored elephants. Managed to crush decent sized armies without losing a single man and that is just cheating in my opinion. So now I have stopped using elephants.

[Razor1952]

"I think using elephants is just cheating...."


ahem .... (looking sideways like those spies) I have to agree, elephants(at least Seluc's variant) are awesome, I havn't even progressed my Seluc campaign past 250bc and my ordinary elephants have already wrecked havoc across the known world.

[Zorlag]

"I think using elephants is just cheating...."


ahem .... (looking sideways like those spies) I have to agree, elephants(at least Seluc's variant) are awesome, I havn't even progressed my Seluc campaign past 250bc and my ordinary elephants have already wrecked havoc across the known world.

Yep, elephants are terrifying beasts... I use regular War Phants (not armoured ones) on my Parthia campaign and just mow down post-marian legions like stacks of domino pieces and mop up the survivors with catapracts. I usually don't lose a single elephant and they kill 400-800 men per unit (I have two units in my larger armies, and I use huge unit size).

Z.

[Prodigal]

I've managed to very quickly take all Egypt & am about to march on Carthage, the Brutii are currently my only real opposition, & I've managed to soundly beat them in every combat using nothing much more than normal cav. & chariots; at least they've been the only units really getting involved in combat.

Form line with whatever hop units are available, keep chariots & horsemen on either side, when they get close to within jav. range send a couple of units of cav out round on both of their flanks, far enough out so they don't break to engage & keep going at your line. As they get close the velites hang back, that's the time to attack them with the flanking cavalry, as soon as the velites start to route the hvy.inf tends to mill about without too much cohesion; simlpy charge in with the other cav units from the line.

Oh 3 archer units help & for some reason, javlin throwing cav seems to get thier generals to run screaming into the hills. So far I've used this tactic on them in 5 battles, & have slaughtered them every time. Course if they're still around after the reforms things may get a lot trickier.

[Fridge]

Form line with whatever hop units are available, keep chariots & horsemen on either side, when they get close to within jav. range send a couple of units of cav out round on both of their flanks, far enough out so they don't break to engage & keep going at your line. As they get close the velites hang back, that's the time to attack them with the flanking cavalry, as soon as the velites start to route the hvy.inf tends to mill about without too much cohesion; simlpy charge in with the other cav units from the line.

Oh 3 archer units help & for some reason, javlin throwing cav seems to get thier generals to run screaming into the hills. So far I've used this tactic on them in 5 battles, & have slaughtered them every time. Course if they're still around after the reforms things may get a lot trickier.

What level is that on, Prodigal?

[Prodigal]

I'm using the RTR mod. on hard/hard. But surely the level setting only increases the "strength" of the AI units rather than the intelligence/tactics?

I'm not certain if this should effect the AI troops overall, but the general, has always tried to flank me, essentially leaving his main body of troops behind, engaing him with a jav.cav unit, & he just runs off, (not routing), so I guess they're using skirmish tactics. This means that the troop units are left without a leader nearby.

Also the previous is by no means a way to wipe them out without losses, archer & hop. units took a savaging in all the battles from javlins, I just use the horse prior to the roman troops running out of jav's & charging the line, maybe this has an added effect, although I'm not certain how it could be of benefit.

[Australianus]

Thanks to all the contributors. I had a hard time once I first upped the difficulty to med/med. Your tips showed me a way forward.
I am now in a position, I think, to conclude a successful short selucs campaign.
I envy those of you with 300k in sesterci and am still working out the finer points of diplomacy - no one will buy my map info.
Engrossing stuff and the guide author is a dedicated person.
Look forward to becoming more proficient.

[Vanya]

GAH!

Vanya sez... Vanya not play Selucids yet, but play Parthia. Have cats.

Vanya fought two roman pigdog armies and won easily. Both were pretty good size, one full, one about 2/3 full. Had pretorians and legionaries, with some aux and archers, plus heavy cav gens.

Vanya had:
4 merc hoplites. They were mere spectators, and did not even lift a finger during battle.
1 archer from Crete. He popped a few arrows, but mostly just sat around like the other mercs.
2 Horsearchers.
The rest was ALL cats.

Vanya's plan: 2 horsearchers run to serenade second roman pigdog army. The cats then focus on first. Cats basically charge wings, walk middle. When close, charge all from 3 directions. Impact close to simultaneous on 3 sides.

Result: First army routed instantly. Cats gave chase and collected many heads.

Total Vanya dead was less than 20.

Second army had no chance as tactic was same.

GAH!

[Razor1952]

I'd hate to face you Vanya on the battlefield.!

Have you tried Sythed Chariots? , great for a Uber Suicide squad.

[The_Emperor]

Those Selucids are great.

In my Selucid campaign I am currently fighting a war against my Pontic "Allies", (those backstabbing bar stewards, I'll collect my tab soon enough!) the funny thing is that I have been a superpower for ages when they backstabbed me with an army of Eastern Infantry and Hillmen...

It was so pathetic watching them dive right into the front of my levy Pikemen I could almost feel sorry for the little Pajama men.

The thing I like about the Selucids is they truly have great Cavalry and Elephants to place on the flanks of a great Phalanx. I haven't yet teched up to Silver Shields but I am getting there, with War Elephants & Cats around the corner as well.

Essentially the best Selucid Strategy is to hold them with the Pike Phalanx and then charge home on the flanks with a Devastating Elephant/Cataphract/Companion Cavalry strike... Adrenaline is then truly brown.

[Kraxis]

Essentially the best Selucid Strategy is to hold them with the Pike Phalanx and then charge home on the flanks with a Devastating Elephant/Cataphract/Companion Cavalry strike... Adrenaline is then truly brown.

Interesting how Alexander's tactic is reproduced rather than the Successors'.

[Basileus]

Seleucids are an easy faction cause you can use alot of diffrent tactics, my tactic usualy is with pikes to hold the line archers behind and flanking with cav, early phalanx/greek cav/archers, mid silvershield/companion/archers i dont use elephants or catas anymore.

[The_Emperor]

Interesting how Alexander's tactic is reproduced rather than the Successors'.

Yes but Alexander had the right idea.

The problem with the successors is that they used the Phalanx as the decisive factor in battles and relegated Cavalry to a secondary role screening the flanks... But that is what happens when you do not keep up the level of horsebreeding that Alexander did.

But I agree the Selucids have a varied battle lineup. A Good cavalry range, a solid Phalanx, Archers, Silver Shield legions, Elephants and Scythe Chariots. It can make for some interesting armies.