After Carthaginian gets their phalanx, they are probably the hardest to beat

[Nelson]

Saturnus is right. A fully developed Seleucid army is very, very tough. Strong phalanx, legion style infantry and great cav, including elephants and chariots. Their army is excellent for every occasion.

[Brutal DLX]

The Seleucid Empire has the richest choice, I agree, but I would nevertheless vote for Parthia. Untouchable with the right army composition.

[professorspatula]

Well if you're going to start that kind of thing, I vote for Numidians. All Numidian light cavalry armies are destroyers of the known world.

Carthage does have a very strong army when everything is available, but the Seleucids edge it for me. Their phalanx units are available early on, and are superior to the basic Carthage infantry, plus Silver Shield Pikemen can when on the defensive slaughter even Spartan Hoplites. And their legionaries are a match for their Roman counterparts and provides the Seleucids with a heavy and mobile infantry force. There isn't a great deal between the two really, aside from Carthage's weak infantry early on. Oh, and lack of Archers. No archers makes things a little trickier for the Carthaginians compared to the Seleucid force. Greek archers might be rubbish, but still preferable to slingers in most cases.

[Taiwan Legion]

I find that fighting early field battles against romans to be very easy. Your elephants can stomp through all of their stuff onstoppable.

[Garvanko]

Professor, Armoured Elephants with their missile attack are better than Cretan Archers.

[A.Saturnus]

Professor, Armoured Elephants with their missile attack are better than Cretan Archers.

I think that´s something we can all agree on but the point is that the Seleucids have Elephants AND archers.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Yes, the Carthaginians are great, but if you look (which I didn't remember to), the Seleucid empire has chariots as well as everything else...

[Garvanko]

I won't argue the point with you, saturnus. The Seleucids, Carthaginians, Romans and Egyptians all have flexible and powerful armies. Naturally there is a bit of give and take on all ends.

For example, Egypt has both Pharoah's Bowmen (only Foresters are better) and Chariot Archers. Desert Axemen, Gaurds and Desert cav are all good units too. We know all about the Romans, too. Combination of arms, and flexibility on the battlefied is just as important as having every conceivable unit available in one's unit roster. Ergo, in terms of combination of arms and flexibility in the field, I believe carthage has the edge. Its Infantry is on the whole better than anything the Seleucids can throw up. Sacred band are better than Legionaires, while Poeni are marginally better than Silver Shield Pikemen. Of the Cav units, the Seleucids have the edge with Cataphracts, but aside from that have nothing, including Companion cavalry (overrated unit), to challenge the Sacred band or Long/Round Shields cavalry of the carthaginians.

CARTHAGE
Armoured General
Poeni Infantry
Lybian Spearmen
Sacred Band Infantry
Sacred Band Cavalry
Long/Round Shield Cavalry
Balearic Slingers
Armoured Elephants

SELEUCIDS
Armoured General
Legionaires
Silver Shield Pikemen
Cataphracts
Companions
Archers
Scythed Chariots
Armoured Elephants

basically, the only area where the Seleucids have an advantage is in their Cataphracts.

But then again, it's all hearsay.

[Dutch_guy]

Carthage does have a very strong army when everything is available, but the Seleucids edge it for me. Their phalanx units are available early on, and are superior to the basic Carthage infantry, plus Silver Shield Pikemen can when on the defensive slaughter even Spartan Hoplites. And their legionaries are a match for their Roman counterparts and provides the Seleucids with a heavy and mobile infantry force. There isn't a great deal between the two really, aside from Carthage's weak infantry early on. Oh, and lack of Archers. No archers makes things a little trickier for the Carthaginians compared to the Seleucid force. Greek archers might be rubbish, but still preferable to slingers in most cases.

exactly, the lack of archers I find very annoying, the only reason why I've only tried the Carthaginians for a couple of turns....

I think that's how the AI thinks of it too, since they always seem to - purposely ;)- lose against the ROmans, always.
They never get any elephants ( excludng the starting ones ) let alone Sacred band

The SE have the best al round army, the best of everything ( exept maybe archers, and HA )
So it's hard to compare the SE to the Carthaginians, the thing they have in common though is a hard starting position.