After my Hayasdan campaign was unsuccessful I've started a Pahlava one. Their initial situation is bad. They have 2 tiny armies, which are most likely capable of taking about 3 AS towns. But what after that, when AS will start sending reinforcements from Mesopotamia? Those towns will most likely not be enough to generate enough income to both fight off the influx of AS forces and to develop the economy and infrastructure. How people are talking about raiding core AS territories when all you get is one army with 3 HA units and another one with 2 foot archers and 3 HA's. Immediately after start you are in red and your new cities will only give you peanuts, barely enough to slow down your sliding into deep debt. I'm currently trying to survive and I have enough men to defeat those pantodapoi and akontistai, but even one decent half-stack from Babylon will finish me off.