Easiest to hardest faction

[RusaHGPATX1821]

IMHO, taking out Pontus is precisely what you have to do. Going after Seleucia, in my experience, at the highest campaign difficulties, gets you into war with Egypt rather quickly, and the early Armenian roster is verrrry weak. If you do not eliminate Pontus quickly, they almost always form an alliance with Egypt, and that bodes very bad for Armenia (ie a two-front war against stronger units and robust economies). Pontic cities are rich enough to send Armenia well on its' way to a thriving economy (and therefore a thriving military) whilst hanging out in relative safety behind the mountains.

Read my Guide to Armenia if you have the time. Your thoughts would be appreciated

Interesting idea. I've played two campaigns as Armenia. The first was a total dumpster fire. I tried what was easy and went after Parthia. I had debt problems and had to deal with Egypt when they were far more powerful. Once I completed the slog through Egypt, Pontus, and even the Seleucids (who had massed Pikemen) I got to the Romans who were pretty much overpowered at that point. I could have tried to win that Campaign, and most likely would have, but it would have taken so much time. So learning from that, a year or so later I tried again, and the bum rush Seleucid strategy is what I tried, and it was more successful. The settlements on the Mediterranean in general were the reasoning. You will get two minor cities in Sidon and Antioch early on, which are max profitable and can train CA's early on. The network between Salamis, Sidon, Tarsus, and Antioch (add Jerusalem and Alexandria to that) is the best trade area in the map IMHO. That was my reasoning-fast economy.

I digress I shouldn't have said that the Pontic settlements weren't rich, but they just aren't as rich as the Mediterranean settlements I mentioned. I can see your argument for that, especially after taking Sinope, you can establish a safe trading network between Sinope and Kotais. I see your argument, and I concede that my strategy is more risky. However, if you can micro Horse Archers rather well, you can fend off Egyptian Chariots quite nicely. They pack a punch, but are flimsy in defense, making general sniping rather easy.

But what comes with taking Antioch so early on is that you might have a Horde problem before hordes were a thing and that would be a mass amount of Egyptian troops knocking on your door. I was able to defeat them and they had 4 decent stacks to my one. Just the thought of having Sidon and Antioch early is a great proposition for me. Build Cavalry Stables in Antioch and a City Barracks in Sidon and you have a solid troop production base at that point rather early on. And it might prepare you better to take on Rome in the long run, if you can keep pumping troops out from those two settlements. The earlier, the better.

I'll give your guide a read. I'll tell you what my ideal armies are for each stage of the game:
Mercenaries: I tend to like the Sarmatian Mercs, Cretan Archers, Arab Cavalry and Scythian HA Mercs early on, but I'll hire anything early on. Anything to strengthen the meager army that I have, even if it's trash like Eastern Mercs. I start to avoid the camel types or most dismounted units though as the game progresses, and as soon as I can get heavy spearmen, goodbye to any Eastern Inf/Hillmen. The only dismounted mercs I like are the Cretan Archers and any Slinger type. Those are great for sieges.

As for trainable armies, early game I try and mass Horse Archers plus any available merc types, but preferably the ones I mentioned above and a tiny mix of Hillmen and Eastern Infantry, just so I can put them on Rams if I absolutely have to siege a place. Anything with walls requires the use of a draw out for the most part early on.

Mid-game- A mix of mercs, Heavy Spearmen (for walls) and Cataphract Archers plus always a general.
Field battles- a small amount of light archer cav and melee cav, a general, and mostly cataphract archers.

Late-game sieges- A mix of Legionaires (for sieges on Roman settlements), Heavy Spearmen, Cataphract Lancers (more lancers though) and Archers, plus a general and maybe some Cretans and Rhodian Slingers.
Late-game field battles- just a horde of Cataphract Lancers and archers. Maybe one light cav/ archer cav unit thrown in there to run down fleeing enemies and obviously a general.

I digress that I prefer draw-outs to actual sieges, and generally just like to have a nice horde of cavalry.