Saba advises plz

[Arzeal]

Hi EB fellas :D
I'm currently playing Saba faction which I found quite amusing for their starting postition: from 245+, I have to start fighting along AS against the Ptolemaioi (bad choices, since most of the main cities is in the northern part of Arabia lands, so keep contact w. Ptolemaioi in trading may result in a better way)

The most problems I ran in is the money ... I spent most of my treasures on building 3 mines in my main cities and they all gave me 600 per turn , trading and farming gave little as well, I barely support a decent army and trying to build up economic at the same time, always have to be saving.

It seems that ~250-240, there will be a script giving u a town in upper part of Arabia, litterally throwing u direct at the cat fight of both mighty nations right away.

My plan currently is building a city wall asap in the newly given town and defend them w. slingers and eastern archers while trying to get a stack and ship them to Ptolemaioi land and taking 1 or 2 cities to boost the income throgh trading, but I still wondering if the India cities across the sea may have more trading potiental. Or just go wild up and go raiding rich SK cities and build up my homeland (quite adventurous I say, the economic in Arabia is quite annoying even w. big cities)

So any advices on this situations, guys remember that right after this conquest campaign, I will have to face Ptolemaioi (may be worse if I choose raiding SK cities, 2 big guys at once) with their wraiths.

Btw, I played Saba in 0.81 and I think it has been improved alot in 1.0, new units filled up holes in Saba army as well, thumb up for EB team

[stefan25]

in my two saba campaigns the ethiopian sistercity ( homeland there ) rebels to saba and the war with the ptolemai begins ( the two city horizontal from saba arabia can have big mines and seatrade helps with money because of opposing ports ) . from that city i began the struggle which lead to the nile delta and pushed back the ptolemai . that's a bit difficult because of the long distances off course .

you gotta cross to ethiopia . it's the easiest and closest .


It seems that ~250-240, there will be a script giving u a town in upper part of Arabia, litterally throwing u direct at the cat fight of both mighty nations right away.

this is true , i think . i haven't heard of the script but it happened to me twice . i had to discard the cities then they were to long away for the moment .

[Teleklos Archelaou]

No script, just stupid AI doesn't garrison enough people in the cities it takes. If you don't want to get involved in that place, just make a diplomat with your first turn possessing that province, then take him to the enemy and give the province over to them in exchange for peace again. Or help your "brothers" who have appealed to you and serve as their protector.

[Arzeal]

I got it town handled to me once in 0.8 (a rebel town) and again in 1.0 (Ptole town)
I see, here I come, conquering Africa!
btw new Red sea hoplite rules :P

[johnhughthom]

I agree, those hoplites make a big difference to the Sabean line up, though I havent actually used therm yet.
I managed to get a good economy going with the Saba, probably because I haven't recruited any units in the 15 years my game has been going. I used the starting units to take the three city nearby and beat a few rebel armies wandering about, though I did take the cities when they sallied forth which is much easier than assaulting and I let the rebel armies attack me rather than attack them.
I'm going to have to decide soon whether to take on the AS or Ptolies, not much fun playing the game if I'm going to hide away. Guess I'll have to see how good those red sea hoplites really are.

[Bootsiuv]

I can't wait to play Saba in 1.0.

My current Saba campaign has been one of the funnest ever in .8x.

Assuming much hasn't changed (except the tougher Eleutheroi of course)once you take Meroe, Axum, and the entire Arabian coast, save perhaps that province that AS is obsessed with obtaining (the name escapes me right now, but it consists of most of the western persian gulf coast), you should start to make good money.

Peace with the Ptolemies is a big boon....I've been peacefully trading with them for nearly 50 years, even though I share their entire southern border in Africa. I don't think they place a very high priority on Ethiopia....they've been eating up the AS. They now control all AS lands west of the Euphrates, Antioch and Seleukeia included.

It's good, very good. In fact, talking about it has gotten me in the mood to go play.

[johnhughthom]

On my Saba .81 campaign it was the east coast of Arabia the AS were obsessed with. To be honest I didn't find the Eleutheroi in 1.0 any tougher. I took the three cities near the capital as quickly as I did in .81 and actually lost far fewer men, though this may be due to my being more experienced using general cam with a general on foot.

[Bootsiuv]

Hmmm....western coast of the persian gulf = east coast of arabia...that's really what I should have said.

I don't know if western coast of the persian gulf is really proper.

[antiochus epiphanes]

No script, just stupid AI doesn't garrison enough people in the cities it takes. If you don't want to get involved in that place, just make a diplomat with your first turn possessing that province, then take him to the enemy and give the province over to them in exchange for peace again. Or help your "brothers" who have appealed to you and serve as their protector.

in my koinon hellenon campaign, thats the way i got those two bosphoran cities, karia, and cyrene lol.

[johnhughthom]

Hmmm....western coast of the persian gulf = east coast of arabia...that's really what I should have said.

I don't know if western coast of the persian gulf is really proper.

I think the problem was me not reading your post properly, in my defence it is 5 am here

[Bootsiuv]

No worries.

[Ludens]

A bit off-topic, but what happened to those Greek colonies on the Red Sea historically? Where they abandoned, overrun by angry natives, incorperated into the Roman empire or did they simply disappear in the native population?

[keravnos]

A bit off-topic, but what happened to those Greek colonies on the Red Sea historically? Where they abandoned, overrun by angry natives, incorperated into the Roman empire or did they simply disappear in the native population?

Mostly abandoned or tuned down into simple "emporion" status from some years after creation to a century or so later, with only Ptolemais Theron remaining there for centruries as a major trade hub. (It must be noted also that as Ptolemaioi grew weaker and became Rome's best client kingdom they gradually lost interest in retaining far flung colonies, or the Elephants they could provide) As Axum became more powerful, its cities, like Adoulis grew more important and took on some of the tasks of those failed colonies, aka providing an outlet for the inland african produce, and a VERY important stop in the " periplous" meaning the trip towards India from Egypt, which must be the first transcontinental sea trade route.

[Ludens]

Thank you for the explanation.

[Basileus Seleukeia]

These Red Sea Hoplites are a weird thing. They are Greeks, but can't be recruited by Greeks, only by Arabians. Well, whether they can be recruited by greeks depends on whci hthing you believe: The factions section of the EB main page, or the recruitment viewer. Even if Ptoelamaioi can recruit them, Seleukids should have them too. I can't imagine a unit in the seleukid roster that would share a model with them. But, argh, I'm no member of the EB team, so there are perhaps reasons which I do not know.