Arke Seleukiea

[Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom]

Has anbody had any luck with the Seleucids yet?
Like does anybody have any good strategies, that would allow one to rebuild the great empire even though threatened from all sides with constatnly rebelling cities?

[vizigothe]

I often tried a slow retreat followed by a counter attack once my enemies overextend themselves.

[Joeokar]

Has anbody had any luck with the Seleucids yet?
Like does anybody have any good strategies, that would allow one to rebuild the great empire even though threatened from all sides with constatnly rebelling cities?

You will lose one of your frontiers most likely no matter what attack the Egyptains with all your might till there wiped off the map. That some help i can give ya

[Mujalumbo]

I've thrived as the Selekids only on Hard campaign difficulty. This is the strategy I've formulated. The biggest difference on Very Hard should be the veracity of the rebels/brigands, and the aggressiveness of the AI.

Cash, unfortunately, is a problem. Your middle eastern cities are going to explode in population; this is a good thing. The larger the settlement, the more of the army upkeep they pick up. Also, notice you have a whole pile of them. It's OK to loose a few - let the north-eastern ones rebel. (They're just sucking away valuable cash at the start, anyway.)

First thing, go through all your settlements and take off automanagement.

Second, relocate your capital back to Seleukia.

Third, try and get your towns to large town size. This is necessary to build the MIC for pezhetairoi and mad asabara (where applicable). So build farms and traders, and if you really wanna hurry, sewers and the healer. Set the policy to Growth. (Yes, you lose cash, but you gotta think long-term or you're sunk). The grain storage buildings are nice - the second level one adds a tradable resource - but pricey. I generally skip them. Don't panic if you can't build everything all at once, take your time.

I don't build mines until the settlement (or one nearby) can crank out pezhetairoi, pantodapoi phalangities at least. I find that once mines are built, the AI aggression is upped and they generally make those settlements a top priority.

The Ptolemies are going to be a huge pain in the ass. It seems they're able to pour Kleruchoi and Galatian Agemata up by the dozens within just a few years. You'll want to toss them all out of the Levant as soon as you can. Just take one town at a time, and don't be afraid to give it up if it means saving your battered army.

Tactics wise, you'll need pezhetairoi from anyplace you can recruit them and mad asabara from the town east of Antoicheia. Pin and flank, basically. You COULD make do with chariots - but be warned, they're fragile. You could also make do with pure infantry - peltastai, theruphoroi and akontistai. Send 'em 'round the flanks and unload all the javelins they carry, then charge. Yes, even with akontistai.

In the east, the Pahlava's heavy cav will mash up your pantodapoi phalangitai, but you can generally count on your guys to win.

I know it's next to cheating, but there's a foolproof way to defend your eastern settlements when beseiged. Just recruit piles of those eastern archers, and don't build stone walls in your settlements. When the enemy attempts to assault your wooden walls, set your archers to stand their ground and use fire. Direct their fire until all the enemy rams are toast. Yes, it's cheap.

Oh, it sounds counter-intuitive, but don't bother with the eleutheroi towns. Pontos and the Hayasdan should ground themselves against all those stacks for a little while. Particularily Ankrya. Don't bother until you've got your core cities stabilized. Do keep a hefty garrison in your western towns, though, to discourage them.

That's it and good luck.

[Mujalumbo]

Oh yah, midstage advice - build Academies.

Otherwise, your mass of family members will all be idiots.

After I get things stabilized, I like to send all my younger family members to Seleukeia for 'training.' Also try to keep track of your older family members - some of them have kick-ass retinue that you don't want gone. A high management dude with a silk merchant, clerk, mathematicion, etc., who has good trading traits can really turn your economy around.

[Simmons]

Personally I do a few things different to Mujalumbo first off I stay right away from anything that gives a population growth, pop growth is seemingly the number 1 cause of unrest in cities (well maybe spys but you don't know they are there) only once I have temples, gaming fields and theaters built do I start growing a city otherwise they will require a huge garrison to keep under control which is expensive.

Second Mad Asabara I don't use them once again because of expense I use family members they rack up experience fairly fast are more powerful than Mad Asabara and are usually lying around doing nothing anyway.

Thirdly I build mines a fast a possible yes they are a target but they can give you an extra army in the field even if its only composed of Pantodapoi Phalangitai and Akontistai which is a huge benefit to such a spread out empire.

[Mujalumbo]

Yeah, people do things different. Regardless of what strategy you use, I think this advice can still be useful:

Enemy spies can cause a ton of unrest, forcing you to increase the garrison and/or lower taxes. That's not cool. Worse off, they have a chance of unlocking a gate in the case of a seige. Very not cool!

So you kinda wanna stock a spy or two in each city. After a while, they'll get the "spy-guild" trait, giving them hefty bonus to their skill. This will help you ferret out enemy spies. (Also, I'm not sure, but does a spy's skill level, when in the city, increase the difficulty of enemy assassins from pulling off sabotage or assassination?)

Similarily with diplomats. Especially in settlements which aren't managed by a family member. Last damn thing you need are Ptolemaic diplomats roaming around, bribing settlements with impunity. Leave a diplomat in a settlement long enough, and they'll acquire the ambassador trait, increasing their influence and making it more difficult to be bribed.

Edit: heck, I'd advise doing this right off the bat.

[Simmons]

Edit: heck, I'd advise doing this right off the bat.

To true this is an important one although it can get costly so keep an eye on how much they are costing you.

[Conqueror]

I think the upkeep costs of spies and diplos are negligible compared to the cost of units. They're well worth the price.

[Trithemius]

Third, try and get your towns to large town size. This is necessary to build the MIC for pezhetairoi and mad asabara (where applicable). So build farms and traders, and if you really wanna hurry, sewers and the healer. Set the policy to Growth. (Yes, you lose cash, but you gotta think long-term or you're sunk). The grain storage buildings are nice - the second level one adds a tradable resource - but pricey. I generally skip them. Don't panic if you can't build everything all at once, take your time.

In EB, to my knowledge, you do not need to have settlements of a certain size in order to build MICs. In theory, a town could support an MIC5.

[Reverend Joe]

Has anbody had any luck with the Seleucids yet?
Like does anybody have any good strategies, that would allow one to rebuild the great empire even though threatened from all sides with constatnly rebelling cities?

Lower the difficulty level to E/E.

[Sdragon]

Population growth is a problem, if you grow too quickly you can't afford the palaces that cost a huge amount and suck up all your cash. Plus the extra garrison means the taxes are already spent. I never gave up my eastern settlements, even if it means holding just 1 unit in it. That settlement is putting money in your pocket so keep if for as long as you can. Even if it means keeping a minimum force just to stop rebellion. In face in my game I only lost 2 settlements to a large stacks of rebels. 1 I took back immediately and the tother I was going to leave till I noticed it had a mine. About mines, you need to build them. what I did was build mines in cities that couldn't be attacks, ie, well defended or not a boarder province.

I knocked the Ptolemy back as far as Alexandria, by that time I had money so I took Asia Minor and whipped out Pontus and Armenia. I decided to send 1 army to be ready to counter Bacteria, they had a lot of stacks on my turf. As fate would have it Parthia betrayed me just as my army happened to be passing by. So glad I chose to follow the more northingly path. :)

The East of my empire was left to fend for itself basically, I had little over a militia there and I left the rebels unless I had something to face them. I had 1 city pumping out Archers who would duck and dive their way past enemies to reach the other towns. This let me throw everything at Ptolemy and once Pontus betrayed me I was already strong enough to deal with them. Armenia was whipped out just to be on the safe side.

To hold your towns a tip can be to stick the junk you have in the town square and let them come. Most the rebels have horse archers and other low moral troops so you can usually beat them. Especially since you normally have to keep increasing garrison size to keep the population in check, those guys ended up saving the day a few times despite never intending them to do anything more than bully peasants.

[Mujalumbo]

Er, a larger populace means more taxation. It also means that settlement picks up more of the army upkeep tab. Family members with high management and high influence scrolls also count towards happiness somewhat. Also, higher levels of temples increase happiness (due to public order or health or what-have-you), and increase tradable goods. You shouldn't need more than four units to garrison a Large City adequately, and tha's just so you can put down the rebels and brigands that crop up occassionally. Are you guys keeping 80% happiness worth of units in settlement's garrison?

edit: nevermind. I was wrong, re MIC's.

[Sdragon]

The thing is though the higher level buildings cost a fortune to build and take ages to make. It's very common that a city can't make such buildings fast enough and you have to keep raising the garrison size, some of the cities I had garrisons of 8 or more units since the number of people were rising so fast, and I never build farms unless population growth stops and I'm happy at the state of the rest of the empire. Plus lets not forget how expensive the government building is to rise the settlement size. Its far cheaper to let the city grow slowly so you can work on markets and mines in other cities.

[Simmons]

I think the upkeep costs of spies and diplos are negligible compared to the cost of units. They're well worth the price.

True the cost is not that great compared to military upkeep but Arche Seleukeia starts with from memory around 20 cities what is the upkeep for a spy/diplomat 150 or 50 I can't remember either way it all adds up when you have so much land to cover.

[Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom]

Thanks yall for the info. I will definetly target the egyptians, and stock up on spys and such.

[Trithemius]

I decided to send 1 army to be ready to counter Bacteria, they had a lot of stacks on my turf.

Under the leadership of the noted stratego, Antibioticos...

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Under the leadership of the noted stratego, Antibioticos...

[CountArach]

Under the leadership of the noted stratego, Antibioticos...

lol

Well, I haven't played Arche Seleucia for any extended perios of time, just started campaigns, but never really got anywhere (I am waiting for 0.8).

The build startegy I would suggest though would be prioritise road networks. you have a large empire (Though incredibly centralised), and if you are going to defend any stretch of it, this is how you will do it.

After everywhere has basic roads, I would build Traders, then basic farming, then Paved Roads.

Also the first thing I always do is to make peace with Ptolemaioi. They can be tough to take down, and even just a few turns of peace will allow you to get your road system working and thus kick-starting you economy.

[Sdragon]

Something else I forgot to mention, move your capitol. The Western side of the empire is pretty safe and for the most part has good public order. I tend to move the capitol East to make holding those provinces easier to manage. Also makes corruption less so you get a bit more cash in pocket.