tips and guides for arche selukia

[Vasiliyi]

Can anyone offer tips and guides for as? My last attempt went to shambles. I need some advice on what cities are a must to keep, where to expand, foriegn policy, earlier military compostion. And um what ever else you can offer. I want to get as much info so I get a nice campiagn going and I would be very greatful for any info.

[Decimus Attius Arbiter]

I'm only 8 years into my campaign but things are looking good.
Moved my capital to Susa to get my cities out of the red public orderwise.
I basically only focus on my western cities Sardis,Antiochia, Mazaka, Damascus etc. Except for a couple of the big eastern cities, I ignore development and concentrate my spending. I raise taxes in all those small towns and screw growth(do I even have the money to upgrade my governor?)

I also move all of the extra levy pikes out of the backwaters and replace them with skirmishers. Got to get rid of your ships and cavalry as well as those pandapoi spears to reduce costs.

As for diplomacy I stay at peace with Armenia, Baktria, and Parthia and just attack Ptolemoi ASAP. Though they struck first in 3 turns. My current strategy is to trap them in Egypt and I've been attacking south taking Ptolie provinces and as well as those rebel ones. I might take Tarsus too and then consolidate and wait for some Family Members to get some good traits.

Also big tip, FMs are really needed for AS, and attacking rebel stacks to get Man of the Hour is helpful even though they tend to be military focused guys.

Oh yeah, and pandapoi pikes are good units don't waste money too soon.

[Caelus]

What exactly went wrong last time?

I am only as the beginning of my AS campaign (I have several campaigns going on at once), so I may be on the road to doom and not know it. However what I did is first move my capital to Seleukeia, then reset all taxation to as high is it will go without causing revolt or as low as it needs to be to prevent revolt.

I then sent the family member in east central Anatolia (Sarpedon or something like that) south to Antioch with all of the troops I could muster from surrounding areas. I then began an offensive against the Ptolemaioi. I also started building my defenses in the eastern city which borders both the Baktrians and the Pahlava (don’t remember the name). As soon as I could (which was almost right away) I started paying small amounts of regular tribute to all of my allies to try and keep from backstabbing me.

From where I sit now it seems the best option is to ruthlessly destroy the Ptolemaioi and conquer Egypt.

Hopefully a experience AS player can give some more helpful and in-depth advice.

[overweightninja]

Personally at the beginning I simply canibalise my Eastern provinces, and let them rebel if it's costing me too much. The wealth from this helps early on and with a nice Eleuthoroi buffer you can concentrate on the Ptollies withouting being backstabbed by your Eastern allies.
Cheers

[jhhowell]

There's a unique temple in Ekbatana that does nothing and can be sacked for huge amounts of money (17000 IIRC). That's an incredible boost to an AS campaign. If you still need cash by the time you take Sidon, the Cedars of Lebanon work similarly. A few cities (Antioch, Seleukia, and Ekbatana, I think) have large granaries, which are now destroyable - that's a few thousand more mnai for you.

I found my AS campaign disappointing. AS starts weak, but so do the Ptolemies (and everyone else) so it's easy enough to beat them once you've scraped half a dozen units together. Mines in Karmana and Gabai quickly make the economy self-sustaining. I played this campaign on VH since AS is one of the few factions where RTW's "attack the player at all costs!" style of diplomacy makes some sense, yet Pontus, Hayasdan, Parthia, and Bactria have remained completely quiet into the 240s... I've heard the AI has too much respect for stone walls, so fortifying everything as soon as I could afford it, especially in the east, may have something to do with that, I guess.

[Mordecai]

I don't even know how many AS campaigns I have started. But this is what I usually do

On the first turn get rid of all your ships, disband as many troops as you are comfortable with, trade your map information with ptolemy for 1900 mnai. Then build all roads you can, then all the sewers, then all traders everywhere it's needed. The main goal here is to make enough money to be able to build a mine in one turn. So you will need an income of 14000 mnai a turn. Happiness buildings are also important so that you don't have a bunch of rebellions and can put on high taxes on the people.

Ptolemy is the best place to expand since you share MIC buildings you can easily retrain your units. Exterminate every city you take from them and use the cash to build up your economy first. If you think you are going to be attacked by Baktra, Pahlava, Hayasdan, or Pontus; attack first so you can keep your alliances.

The main places to protect IMO are Asaak, Antiocheia-margiane, Alexandria-Ariana, Damaskos, Sardis, Mazaka, and Antiocheia. The Parthians will attack Asaak or Antiochea_Margiane, or Zadrakata. The Baktrians will attack Antiocheia-Margiane or Alexandria_Ariana. Pontus will try to take Mazaka. Local MIC buildings should be good enough until you can afford to have large phalanx armies.

Archers are your best resource for fighting the HA armies in the north. Don't be afraid to take 8 units of archers with your army, but make sure they have sufficient protection. ( I love archers; there's nothing like seeing a volley of 1300 arrows flying toward your enemy )

Expand south to Petra First; After taking Tarsos. Then secure Anatolia, Then Margiana. After that the world is yours.
Ands that's what I do. Hope it helps in some way.