Quote Originally Posted by Morte66
I'm playing Pontos on VH/normal, and finding that "adequately" hard. The Seleucids start a war (the EB diplomacy scripting screws you), and they can come at you from multiple directions. You'll have to take about 4 neutral cities before that happens to fund an army that can fight them off. Then you have to take about 8 of their cities in Anatolia before you have any sort of defensible border.

I've taken Antioch and built strategic forts now, I've got them at arm's length and I'm picking some of the battles. I'm wondering whether to go for steady expansion (which will make the border longer) or to just send an army on a self-fuelling "slaughter, destroy buildings, loot, hire mercs" campaign to punish the bastards for never sticking to a deal.
Go for the killing spree. If you check the EB maps thread you'll see the provinces where the Seleucids can build type 1 govs. Destroy them all. Once your done the best troops the bastards will be fielding are the various mercs and Katapractoi they can recruit in the east. But never again will you need to face those insanely though Thorakitai Argyraspidai, Silver shield phalangites, Hypaspistai or Pheraspidai.
Not only will you get stinking rich looting their cities but you will cripple their ability to make decent stacks for a very long time.