The Seleucid Empire - Faction Guide
The Seleucid Empire
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1) Introduction
2) Getting Started - an Overview
3) The First Step
4) The Next Move
5) The First Invasion
6) Future Conquest Plans
7) Economy
8) The Seleucid Army
9) Summary
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Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire.
Introduction
In the fourth century BC, the Macedonian king Alexander, often called "Megas" (Greek for "the Great"), managed to beat and destroy the Achaemenid Persian Empire which ranged from the deserts of Africa to the rivers of India. On the ruins of that kingdom, he founded his own.
However, at the early age of 33 years the famous man died and left his young empire for other people to fight over.
Soon, his generals divided the lands amongst themselves and bloody wars for supremacy began.
One of Alexander's most worthy and capable generals, a man called Seleucus, took the center of the former Persian empire. the vast lands of Persia, Babylonia and Syria for himself. Over the next decades, he and his successors were amongst the most powerful rulers in the known world.
But are they able to face the dangers of the future? A new threat is rising in the east, the Parthian steppe people are deploying armies are near the Seleucid borders. The Egyptians, also a successor state, are more powerful than ever. On the coast of the Black Sea, the kingdom of Pontus has risen and in the northern mountains of the Caucasus, Armenia is waiting for a sign of weakness.
Will the Seleucids be able to live up to their great ancestor, will they be able to honor Alexander?
May the Seleucid Empire live on and become more powerful than ever, crushing all of its enemies and recreating the long-lost kingdom of Alexander!
Map of the Seleucid Empire at its greatest extent.
Getting Started - an Overview
It seems you have taken up the challenge to lead the Seleucids to victory. More power to you!
When you start your campaign, you will have 6 cities, one diplomat and one spy. Your regions range from Asia Minor (modern Turkey) to the mountainous regions of Persia. To the north-east of your small empire you will find the Parthians, a fierce, barbarian horse people. Further to the west, north of you, there are the Armenians and the people of Pontus, two small but potentially dangerous kingdoms. In the far west of your empire, one of your cities (Sardis) will border Greek territory. They are not such a threat to you as their settlements are scattered all over the Mediterranean Sea.
However, south of your kingdom lies the biggest challenge, the mighty Ptolemic (Egyptian) Empire.
While the province Babylonia is very fertile, due to the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, most other regions you own are rather dry and barren as they are full of deserts and mountain ranges. While land trade is an option, sea trade is hardly significant early on as you own few cities with a harbor.
The First Step
After having observed our situation, making a general plan for your campaign would be the logical next step. Where to expand? Which factions to attack, which others to become allied to? What is our main goal?
As the Seleucids, you have to be very careful early on. Your economy is not exactly superb, your cities are not upgraded very much and most of your towns are not the best trade locations.
Furthermore, not only are your early armies rather small, they also consist of pretty poor troops generally. Those early armies are weak, but what's worse is that your early armies are weaker than those of your neighbors.
Last but not least, you have more than four potentially very powerful enemies around you, if you do the wrong thing, they might unite and crush you.
Keeping all of those things in mind during the first few turns of your campaign is very important, a major factor in your success or failure.
In order to survive early on, with cities far away from each other and limited armies, with weak troops and a poor economy you need to stay very defensive.
Another key to your survival is diplomacy - with so many neighbors, making them all to enemies would be foolish and possibly your last mistake. Furthmore, trade relations with them can strengthen your weak economy.
In addition to making (trade) alliances with your neighbor, building up your economy and cities in general is a must. Higher tier cities don't only give you more economical possibilities (such as being able to build paved roads) but also access to very much needed stronger units. Building an empire on the back of militia hoplites is simply not possible.
To sum it up, the first steps should be to defend, gain trade rates with every faction possible, make alliances with everyone possible, especially the factions surrounding you and to upgrade your cities, especially economically.
The Next Move
After consolidating your empire, waiting a bit plus improving your economy and army, you might want to launch the first attack. Now the question is, which target(s) to attack first?
There are several options. Firstly, it depends on whether you were attacked already. If Parthia or another of your neighbors decides to invade you that gives you a good excuse to attack him with all of your force in order to remove one main adversary.
However, if that doesn't happen, you might want to attack a nearby rebel settlement, such as Palmyra, Harlicarnassus or Ancyra.. That will help strengthening your position and enlarging your empire and thus increasing tax and trade income. After doing that, the question arises again: what should the next move be?
Now a main target is definitely needed. In order to decide on that, we need to give a brief overview of our neighbors:
The Egyptians (yellow) are located south of you, their empire which consists of 6 regions (just like yours)is stretching from mainland Egypt to Palestine. Their armies consist of archers, light to medium cavalry (also skirmisher cavalry), light to medium spearmen (Nubian spearmen for example) and some chariots early on. Later they will add stronger units of each type, namely even more chariots, stronger cavalry and pharao's guard, a strong pike units. Egypt is clearly the wealthiest and militarily most powerful of your opponents.
To your north-east there is the Parthian kingdom (purple), having 3 regions in total. However, one of them is located north of the Caspian sea, cut off the others by that and thus out of the picture for you. Parthia fields weak infantry (such as Eastern Infantry) but strong cavalry, powerful horse archers and cataphracts.
Parthia is undoubtedly a main adversary as well, having historically caused the downfall of the Seleucids. Their horse archers are never to be underestimated.
(Armenia to the right and Pontus to the left)
Directly north of your kingdom there are the Armenians (teal/green), a proud mountain people owning 2 towns (Kotais and Artaxarta). They are similar to the Parthians with their strong horse archers, but they are also able to train Armenian legionaries later in the game, a strong heavy infantry unit (although luckily for you not as strong as its Roman counterpart). While the Armenians are strong without a doubt, they don't pose a direct danger to you as their kingdom is somewhat distant to yours and as they are not quite that powerful early on, due to a weak economy.
The kingdom of Pontus (blue) is yet another main possible enemy, located at the north-east of the Seleucids. Their army is made up of mainly skirmisher cavalry, skirmishers, archers, light infantry, chariots and later on also cataphracts. They own 2 regions (Mazaka and Sinope). Pontus is dangerous as they tend to be aggressive towards the Seleucids. Their army composition and wealth are deadly as well.
The Greek Cities (beige)are the last close faction to you, located at the far west of your kingdom. They aren't a big danger with their region being seperated from other Greek towns. However, their town (Pergamum) is still not an easy grab. They field mainly hoplites of all kinds, with a few skirmishers and skirmisher cavalry.
Now that we had a look at our neighbors the hard decision which of them to choose as our first target has to be made. Personally I'd advise against going for either Pontus and Armenia - neither tends to be a direct threat to your existence early on and they aren't that strong yet. If you concentrated on them, it's possible that Egypt might crush you in the meantime. Going for the Greek city in Anatolia is a possibility but not necessary, as there are enough rebel cities in the area to conquer anyway and as you don't need more enemies but rather more trade partners. Personally, I prefer going for Parthia first while building a strong army in Syria to eventually attack Egypt and or defend against their attacks. Why Parthia? Parthia is a thorn in your back, invasions from the mountains can really catch you off-guard and hurt you badly if you don't do something about it. If you don't take them out early, your towns, namely Seleucia, will be in constant danger. Egypt is too big of an opponent to take on early, Armenia and Pontus are too insignificant. Parthia is the obvious choice.
The First Invasion
In Seleucia you have the necessary buildings to prepare a proper army. Start building up a force from the start of the game on and increase it steadily as your economy improves. Skirmishers and skirmisher cavalry can be very helpful against Parthian horse archers, but having several units of hoplites is also a necessity because of the Parthian cataphracts. You should build a healthy mix of ranged and melee units, until you have about or almost a stack of troops ready. Whilst, use your spy from Seleucia to scout their cities, armies and troop movements.
Eventually, pack your belongings and attack those Parthian barbarians! Susa, the city right to the east of Seleucia, should be your first goal. Taking it should not be that big of a problem, as long as you prepare well.
However, you need to keep in mind that this Parthian operation is merely a "side quest", do not put your whole strength and power into it! If you spend too much on taking out Parthia, chances are that Egypt will take you out whilst.
After Susa has fallen to your forces, spend some time building it up, improve its infrastructure, rebuild your forces and add some new ones. Defending it should be no problem anyway, sieges are always good when facing Parthia as their horse archers are awful at taking cities. Eventually keep moving northbound. On the way you will meet several Parthian armies, but with proper preparation and good battle tactics they should be no big problem. Eventually, Parthia's capital, Arsakia, will be reached. If you have done everything correctly and according to plan, this battle should be winnable. And you have done it! Your first enemy is gone. While Parthia has a last town left far to the north, that is no threat to you whatsoever. Thus, the Parthian kingdom has essentially been removed from existence.
After winning the war against Parthia, you have a multitude of options. Firstly, you could be happy with what you achieved and keep on building up your economy and army, hoping to reach the powerful Seleucid late game. Secondly, you could keep up the aggression and take on the next foe. I personally prefer that option, as it strengthens your empire and doesn't give the enemies much time to prepare. However, which faction should be our next victim? That depends a lot on their own actions. By now, Egypt will probably have attacked you already. Moreover, Pontus will most likely have invaded your lands as well. That's two good reasons to attack those factions. In addition, they are the most agressive and also most dangerous of your surviving neighbors. However, you also have to keep in mind that the (surviving) part of your army will be in the Parthian capital, rather close to the Armenian lands. Also, Armenia is an easier target than both Egypt and Pontus.
To sum it up, your next step is really based on what they do. If Egypt is particularly aggressive or is amassing plenty of armies, I highly suggest to face them next. Otherwise attacking a different faction might be your last move. Same goes for Pontus, usually they will only be somewhat annoying with their constant raids. However, if they become a serious threat, they must be put down quickly. If neither of those is particularly aggressive towards you, Armenia should be your next target. Support your army coming from Parthia with fresh troops from your heartlands (namely, from Antioch, your capital).Hopefully you will have more advanced troops available by now, as militia hoplites and skirmisher cavalry simply do not cut it.
Future Conquest Plans
From then on, everything is really up to you and depends a lot on the actions of others, something you can't influence.Generally what has to be kept in mind is:
1) don't make enemies when there is absolutely no need
2) don't attack factions if you cannot deal a heavy blow to them right away,
3) try to face as few factions at once as possible, due to your position surrounded by so many others,
4) don't blitz too fast, otherwise your troops and resources will be very thinly stretched, revolts will be very likely,
5) don't conquer settlements you do not need, try to direct your invasions towards rich lands (don't try to conquer the northern steppes, go for the cities on the Mediterranean with their rich trade instead)
A war with Egypt will be pretty much inevitable in the future, may it be sooner or later. They are an aggressive and strong people and you certainly don't want to let them have all of that trade in Phoenicia and Egypt. It would be wise to deal with the Egyptians quickly, in order to stop them from becoming a major superpower and a major thorn in your side.
Later on, I would suggest to move into Asia Minor (modern Turkey) heavily, in order to remove the Pontic threat completely and to build yourself a foundation for future operations in Greece. Furthermore, the Aegean Sea is very rich of trade, owning harbor cities on its shore will make your treasury grow considerably.
The caucasus, the vast mountain range in the north, would be a good border for the Seleucid Empire. It's easily defendable (for example by forts on mountain passes) and nothing of big worth is behind them anyway. Expanding into the steppes beyond will only stretch your army and settlements there, far away from your capital, will be impossible to control. In the West, the Bosporus and Aegan are a good natural border, until you have the power to expand into Europe.
In the south I suggest taking all settlements in order to ensure having peace and a safe back. Once you have taken Egypt, the Libyan desert will be a good natural protection against possible Carthaginian „excursions“. After having secured such a massive landmass, I'd advise for just building up your empire for several years. Getting top tier barracks and stables along with high-end roads is a necessity later in the game.
Economy
As the Seleucids, your early economy will be rather poor. You have little access to sea trade, fertile lands are rare and tax income could be better. So how do you get your economy rolling?
First of all, roads are a very important economical tool. Not only do they speed up your army movement considerably, they also contribute to your trade significantly.Since your empire is very land based, at least early on, roads are a necessity. Always try to have at least low level roads everywhere and upgrade them as soon as possible.
Another big source of income are of course taxes. Always have your taxes at the maximum possible before the happiness goes below 70%. As long as the happiness is at 70% or higher, the city will not revolt.On top of that, markets are necessary to further increase your trade. As mentioned above, trade relations with many other factions helps a lot as well and also makes them less likely to attack you. Later in the game, sea trade will become a major topic as well. Once you conquer the cities of the Levant, and later, the Aegean, your money will really shoot through the roof. A few harbors in those rich regions and you are set. Obviously it will take some time until you are ready to conquer those wealthy lands, so for the first part of the campaign you will have to be satisfied with land trade and taxes.
In order to fill your treasury quikly, you need to constantly build economical buildings everywhere. Roads, markets and harbors have priority before military buildings, walls and sewers (unless you immediately need happiness buildings to stop a city from revolting, of course). Having high tier barracks and stables is nice but of little use without the money to pay for those expensive troops. In the long run, building up your infrastructure will strengthen your empire much more than a quick, military based aggression.
The Seleucid Army
One reason for the strength, power and might of the Seleucid Empire is its incredible army. In such a huge empire, connecting the east and the west, many cultures meet each other as its military reflects. Parts of its army are taken directly from its great Macedon ancestors, elephants were adopted from the lands of India in the far east, and later on even units, very similar to Rome's legions, were added. Thus, the Seleucids field a very diverse unit roster, ranging from several types of phalangites over skirmishers, archers, missile cavalry and Macedonian companion cavalry up to legionaries, dangerous scythed chariots and massive armored war elephants. With such a variety of units there are plenty of possible battle strategies. However, the most fitting one for the heirs of the great Macedonian king would definitely be the „hammer-and-anvil-tactic“, used by Alexander to great success already several decades before. This famous strategy consists of a strong center, preferably powerful phalangites or hoplites, which will nail the enemy army and pin them down. Once they cannot move anymore and are desperately trying to break through the phalanx formation, your other forces will move around his army, outflank him and crush into his flanks and back, preferably with cavalry.
Picture of the hammer-and-anvil strategy in action.
Seleucia's forces are suited very nicely for that purpose. Not only do the Seleucids have a lot of phalanx units including the strong Silver Shields, they also have a lot of strong cavalry units and legionaries which can also be used for flanking. Skirmishers are also helpful for luring enemy units into your phalanx or for decimating the opposing army from behind with their javelins. Same can of course be done by skirmisher cavalry.
The only unit which is missing in this great roster are horse-archers. While that somewhat hurts, especially against other horse-archer nations, your other great units more than make up for it. Early on not having good archers nor other long ranged units (skirmishers get outranged) can be painful. However, once you are able to build elephants, this problem will be fully solved. Elephant archers are practically invulnerable to arrows and can deal a lot of damage as well.
For the standard battle strategy described above, you obviously need a specific army composition. Generally speaking, roughly 6 units of hoplites/phalangites are a must. On top of that, about 4 units of ranged units, both for shooting into the backs of the pinned down enemy and for luring him into your army would help. At least 2 units of cavalry are necessary, but 4 would be preferable.
Here is a standard early Seleucid army, consisting of militia hoplites, skirmishers and skirmisher cavalry. While you won't have proper cavalry at this early stage (aside from your general's bodyguard), skirmisher cavalry can still do a decent job by utilizing their javelins and eventually charging into the backs of engaged units after they run out of ammunition.
Later on, with upgraded barracks, archery range and stables, you will have access to troops necessary for a medium Seleucid army. The phalangites used now are definitely stronger than the militia ones in the army above, Furthermore, you also have access to archers now, which is an advantage over skirmishers, due to much longer range and much more ammunition. The skirmisher cavalry got switched with Greek melee cavalry for more „hammer“ - punch.
Here you can see a late Seleucid army, available at a (as the name suggests) late stage of the game. The phalanx pikemen are an even stronger phalanx unit and an obvious choice in any Seleucid army. The Greek cavalry got exchanged for war elephants and scythed chariots. Greek cavalry is simply too light and fragile to survive on late game battlefields, elephants are a much safer and stronger choice. Scythed chariots give you even more options as they can be used for breaking up enemy formations and scaring the enemy to death.
And this is the final stage, the most advanced army the Seleucids can field, the very late army! While phalanx pikemen are a strong unit, silver shield ones are simply a class of their own. Once you can build them, you definitely should! Archers have no place in late encounters anymore, as the Seleucids don't get particularly strong types of unique archers. Also, you now have access to silver shield legionaries who can double as ranged units with their pila (javelins). The amount of cavalry has also increased, not only do you have incredibly strong (and expensive) armored elephants now, cataphracts and compagnion cavalry have also joined your ranks. Both cavalry units are very powerful, while companions utilize speed and incredible strenght, cataphracts are simply tanks. As a result, your cavalry is theoretically strong enough to form an army of its own at such a late stage.
Those are only the most basic and regular strategies and army compositions, obviously there are plenty of other possibilities. However, this is a good foundation for many things and, if used correctly, can lead to many glorious victories.
Summary
While the Seleucid Empire is certainly an appalling faction to choose, due to its size, strength, history and incredible late-game, it is also a rather hard one to play. If you are not careful, defeat is very well possible. In order to achieve victory, you have to concentrate on your economy, on improving your infrastructure and making as few enemies at a time as possible. Only by intelligently choosing enemies and battles will you come out victorious.
Early on playing as the Seleucids can be quite a pain, due to a severely lacking economy and poor troops, but if you manage to survive that stage, you will be rewarded greatly with lots of fun, amazing units and plenty of possibilities!
A smart and strong leader can undoubtedly lead the heirs of Alexander the Great to new peaks and build the greatest empire the world has ever seen.
I hope you liked it,
Oceanus
PS: This is posted in the Scriptorium as well. However, I thought I might also put it here so it gets some more publicity and more people (who might not read the scriptorium often) will take notice of it.
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Originally Posted by Ar-Pharazôn
