Expanding immediately int he surrounding areas of rebel towns, dont disband your army just push on with campaigns to conquer new cities. It may take awhile toget out of negative but it will happen. After you have secured the immediate area around your homeland you have three options attack india, attack parthia or attack arche seleukia. I suggest to hold good relations with AS as long as possible. I usually conquer india first or as much as possible before im forced into war with Parthia.

Once you have built your empire up some I divide my forces into two seperate types of armies. One army should consist of your phalanxes are elite agema units. I use these armies for crushing cities and smashing Arche Seleukid armies. The other type is a steppe like army consisting mostly of the backtrian horse archer unit with a few kataphract units these armies are for facing forces in the field they will crush all opposition with ease.