Seleucid Mega Empire. too strong?

[Plow5655]

Hi, I was just wondering if the Seleucid empire is WAD. every game Ive played so far it crushes the egyptians and is usually growing exponentially faster than any other power out there. Even if I was to win almost every battle decisively I doubt I could muster enough troops to fend them off.

[despot_of_rhodes]

I don´t know the reasons, but in most of my games it´s the Ptoleys, who steamroll over everything.
There are some changes coming in next updates for the "big boys", to stop them from destroying smaller factions too quickly and too easily. But this needs time to balance it properly.
A piece of advice: If you can´t beat your enemies on the front, plan some D-Day missions to sack the main cities of your foes, while you keep their armies busy on your boarders. I.E: Land a stack or two in the Middle East, sack Sidon, Jerusalem etc., let them rebell and march forward, till you run out of troops. The AI garrisons it´s cities quite lightly, so you can cause lots of damage hitting into the heart of an enemy empire.

[Irenaeus]

The Ptolemaics have steam-rollered all the way into almost India in my latest (Briton) game - they have taken pretty much all the Seleucid land eastwards. I've had to cheat to beat back the other (Western) power-house, the Macedonians, who are pushing into Germany now.

[Scutarii]

Every single one of my games, the ptolemaics absolutely crush the Seleucids. I think they should be nerfed a bit, then see about TSE's dealings with the smaller nations...

[Arkaeyn]

Really? In my games the Greeks and Seleucids tend to smash the Egyptians. So that's good, I guess.

[lelouchx99]

Everygame it's either the Ptome or Seleucids became the steam roller. It's too uncertain

[Quinn Inuit]

Welcome to the forum, Plow and Irenaeus!

I find the alternation between the Ptolies and Big Blue promising. It's nice to see them balanced so finely, but I'm still sad to see them steamrolling. Ideally, we'll push up unrest across the board to encourage more revolts in the larger empires, which should apply some brakes to their expansion.


Irenaeus: The Macs are up in Germany? Darn it. I thought I finally had them moving eastward. Do you remember the path they took to get up there?

[despot_of_rhodes]

But, Quinn: If Ptoleys took over everything that was former Seleucia, Pontus, Galatia etc., then the way to the North is the only one for the Macs, without starting a war with them... Somehow big empires try to avoid the war against each other, especially, if there is a human player in their range. I think, they just go the way of the lowest resistance in general.

[AqD]

Hi, I was just wondering if the Seleucid empire is WAD. every game Ive played so far it crushes the egyptians and is usually growing exponentially faster than any other power out there. Even if I was to win almost every battle decisively I doubt I could muster enough troops to fend them off.

It's all random behaviors. Sometimes Seleucid launches full invasion into egypt, and sometimes Ptolemaic does it on mesopotamia. When one side is attacking and another side is busy with something else, the result is always the latter gets steam rolled within a few decades.

Only in rare chances you'd see Seleucid and Ptolemaic fighting a full-scale total war... I have seen it once: both sides had fought continously for more than 60 years, and all cities in near east were reduced to 400-population villages and they began to recruit whatever cavalry and chariot units available

[Irenaeus]

Welcome to the forum, Plow and Irenaeus!
Irenaeus: The Macs are up in Germany? Darn it. I thought I finally had them moving eastward. Do you remember the path they took to get up there?

Thanks for the welcome! I will post a screenshot tomorrow, but from what I remember, the Illyrians were pushed northwards by the Macedonians, who then conquered them. They haven't got into Germany yet, but only because I keep auto-winning in my most south-eastern city (as British) - I would definitely lose against the armies they send.

To be honest, I was more surprised that the Ptolemaics had gone all the way to the Indian border, and that Bactria had conquered the far east. But then it is the first time I'm playing as a smaller faction

Edit - reading despot's post reminded me - the Macedonians are slowly pushing into Asia Minor as well, fighting lots of wars against the Ptolemaics. I think they've got as far as Galatia at the minute.

[Arkaeyn]

It's all random behaviors. Sometimes Seleucid launches full invasion into egypt, and sometimes Ptolemaic does it on mesopotamia. When one side is attacking and another side is busy with something else, the result is always the latter gets steam rolled within a few decades.

Only in rare chances you'd see Seleucid and Ptolemaic fighting a full-scale total war... I have seen it once: both sides had fought continously for more than 60 years, and all cities in near east were reduced to 400-population villages and they began to recruit whatever cavalry and chariot units available

That's actually kind of the intended historical effect, yes? Maybe not to that degree, but the Middle East became much more of a battleground and less of an economic force around the rise of Rome. Diadochi Wars, Rome vs Parthia, Byzantines vs Sassanids vs Arabs vs Crusaders vs Mongols vs Turks really kind of took the luster off the region.

[Irenaeus]

Quinn - You can see my screenshot here. The Bactrians seem to have pushed their border with the Ptolemaics a bit west, and I'm starting to get big Carthaginian armies arriving in France now (but I don't need to cheat to beat them).

[Quinn Inuit]

I see. Interesting. It looks like the problem is that the Macs are pushing in both directions, but getting more pushback from the Ptolies. We may need to cheapen barb units just so they have a better chance. For the record, though, barb units have already had a 10% cost reduction relative to civilized troops.

[Oddball_E8]

heh... the galatians are kicking both the ptolys and selucids out of turkey in my game...


of course, they took one of my cities by a very nasty and annoying tactic so ill have to destroy them now (im playing greece)

[AtlasGR]

For me the Seleucid Empire always crasher the Ptolemies.

[Quinn Inuit]

Really? We were having trouble with that until 3.5. How's 3.5.2?

[Carados]

Hopefully the Seleucids won't be too much of a problem with 3.5.2.

I have a screenshot here of something I've never seen before:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

When I clicked yes my army in there immediately moved and attacked that small rebel army despite it being the Galatians turn...


Incidently, one can also get some idea as to how the world is panning out. The Seleucids and Ptolies have naturally allied themselves against me and that is leading to a very tense situation in Syria where my armies are very slowly getting worn down by the much larger empires. The Galatians have been a wonderful ally of mine and my west flank is completely secure - I have recently helped defend Nicomedia with just a general and two units of those armoured jav cav. I managed to rout two units of Athenian hoplites and defeated the Spartans as they fought to the death on the plaza!! Truly, tiredness kills. Armenia are behaving themselves too. The Greeks decided to be awkward and blockaded some of my ports, so I retaliated by booting them out of the Bosphorus area. The Sarmartians are also proving to be noble allies and are refraining from attacking me up there.

[Quinn Inuit]

That's pretty cool. I haven't seen that before, either.

Interesting game. Things look pretty tough for you, but pretty balanced overall. You might have a better chance of pulling through if you try to divest yourself of borders with the Seleucids, possibly by conquering a neighboring province and gifting it to Armenia.

[Delvecchio1975]

I have seen it once: both sides had fought continously for more than 60 years, and all cities in near east were reduced to 400-population villages and they began to recruit whatever cavalry and chariot units available

Now THAT's why I call Total War!