Where to go now?

[Ciaran]

I found Egypt a very enjoyable faction, right at the start you have a big war going on with the Seleucids and since several of your cities do have some developement you don´t need to put up with just the basic troops for too long. The Seleucids are fun as well, but if I recall correctly, they do need a bit of developement before they reach their full potential of their very diversified armies.
If you´ve unlocked all factions, Pontus is similar to the Seleucids in terms of diversity and Armenia is a realy challenge, wedged in as they are, though I´ve yet to play with them, the same goes for the Greek and Macedons.
I´m not entirely sure, but Spain could be interesting as well, they´ve got a more diversified army, combining Carthagian and Barbarian elements, than the other barbarians, but I don´t know if their city development stops at level 3 as well.

[naut]

Egypt or Pontus.

[Karo]

I would say try Armenia or Seleucia i playd with both of them and they are fun to play and are very challenging

[PaulTa]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Lately, I've just found myself completely frustrated with the lack of troop selection in Rome. The only nation that gets a really decent kick start along the lines of diversity is Germania, and the tech lvl 3 restriction means that I can't necessarily turtle since squalor will kill me.

I think that I'm going to settle on either Seleucids or Macedons. Macedons have the awesome temples, while seleucids have the most diversified unit line-up.

Off topic- Why in the name of all that is holy did the Greeks get stuck with no usable cavalry? :(

[Byzantine Emperor]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Lately, I've just found myself completely frustrated with the lack of troop selection in Rome. The only nation that gets a really decent kick start along the lines of diversity is Germania, and the tech lvl 3 restriction means that I can't necessarily turtle since squalor will kill me.

I think that I'm going to settle on either Seleucids or Macedons. Macedons have the awesome temples, while seleucids have the most diversified unit line-up.

I say Seleucids. They have a very good unit roster, if you live against the Egyptians long enough to use them!

Off topic- Why in the name of all that is holy did the Greeks get stuck with no usable cavalry? :(

Because historically the Greeks were not very good horsemen.

[The Teacher]

go with eygpt, they are strong with money and citys, but they have nice big wide open borders that attract armys like bees round honey. Currently im fighting a way with four of my neighbours ! brill ..

[jhhowell]

I think that I'm going to settle on either Seleucids or Macedons. Macedons have the awesome temples, while seleucids have the most diversified unit line-up.

Off topic- Why in the name of all that is holy did the Greeks get stuck with no usable cavalry? :(

I'm having a blast with the Seleucids - awesome faction! Read up on the faction guide, it has very useful tips. Attacking both Egypt and Parthia by turn 2 works exceptionally well. Remember, everyone is weak and unprepared at the start of the campaign - including you, but aggressive play plus mercenaries fix that quickly. The Seleucids will never have money problems thanks to the Hanging Gardens and their nice trade position.

And I strongly dispute your claim that the Greeks have no usable cavalry. Play a Greek faction and you will learn differently. I grant that Militia Cav is the worst of all the jav cavs, and Greek Cavalry seems to be the second worst of the light cavalries (better than the Macedonian Light Lancers - avoid Macedon since they don't get Militia Cavalry). But that's a strictly relative judgement, in absolute terms Militia Cavalry is a campaign winning uber-unit. The fact that it's a basic stable unit is very helpful as well - one could argue that that fact alone makes it superior to Cavalry Auxilia despite the weaker stats. Also note that horse archers have terrible melee stats - this is key to crushing Parthia in the first few turns, since your militia cav can just run them down and kill them. As an aside, it's also helpful that the toughest units you'll face in the east (2 Parthian Cataphracts, one Armenian Cataphract) are on your unit list, so when you bribe them you get those units for yourself.

The person who complained about slow phalanx combat may also share this mistaken view of Greek cavalry. In my experience, phalanxes rarely see much actual combat (except street fighting and some small rebel engagements). Their role is to be really unpleasant mobile terrain around which your generals and militia cavalry (and archers, chariots, elephants, cataphracts, and companions) operate. It's not at all unusual for my phalanx line to get zero kills even in a large battle. From what I recall reading up about the Seleucids on wikipedia, this is historically reasonable - they were successful with combined arms, but had a lot of trouble when they tried to use phalanxes alone as the decisive arm.

Macedonian temples are indeed nice (my 3-4 experience Militia Cavalry are loving the gold weapon upgrade from Thessalonica!), but Seleucid temples are adequate for their needs. Dionysus is good for Jerusalem and the Nile cities (Athena or another law temple would be better, but Dionysus is good enough); Asklepios is good for the Arabia and Armenia cities with terrible population growth; and Hephaestus works well everywhere else. Like the Scipii, you'll have quite well upgraded troops by midgame.

[PaulTa]

I've got a question for the old timers on the forum... Before CA altered the Chariots, were the Heavy chariots useful? Currently, they seem like more of a handicap for two turns and around a thousand denari.

[jhhowell]

I've got a question for the old timers on the forum... Before CA altered the Chariots, were the Heavy chariots useful? Currently, they seem like more of a handicap for two turns and around a thousand denari.

I'm not an old timer, but since nobody else is speaking up I'll comment.

Looking at the stats, the British heavy chariots seem comparable to the Seleucid/Pontic scythed chariots and the Egyptian chariots. I know for a fact that both of the latter are quite effective (far too good, in fact) and well worth their ~1000D, two turn cost. I consider chariots to be the centerpieces of rebel-quashing groups, and optional but effective additions to main armies. If chariots have been nerfed, CA didn't go far enough. Take away the magical cavalry massacre ability and reduce their speed to camel speed, and chariots would be pretty reasonable IMHO.