Quote Originally Posted by Son of Perun
More poor then Saba? I think there are enough east arican units to make a faction: Ethiopian spearmen, Aithiopikon Agema, Elephantes... And I can imagine also Nubian archers, skirmishers and light cavalery. Later after the conquest of Egypt they could get Egyptian and Hellenic units or they could expand to Arabia and get some Arabian regionals.

In almost every game I've played the Ptolemies crushed the Seleucids and started endless wars with Bactria or Carthage. I think the game needs a faction that would weaken Ptolemies.
Yeah... that isn't going to cut it. To add to what Krusader said, you're strongly delving into unfair conjecture by just listing off units you would think they should have rather than what they did - including the thought that they could somehow recruit Hellenics.

Like I mentioned - this region is well below the military horizon. There is no way they would be able to do much to worry the Ptolemaioi. I doubt they had the logistical know-how to even create a field army, let alone march it north, and then somehow actually defeat a Ptolemaic army. They wouldn't have the tactics or the fighting styles capable of doing that. They would just simply be skewered by the phalanx.

If the Ptolemaioi need to be weakened, feel free to mod a higher rebel spawn rate for the region or something instead.