Successor Kingdom Campaign Guides

[Blaze of Macedon]

Here's my take on Macedon (my first ever R2TW campaign, very hard).

Steps:

1 - Eastern border: take out the Thracian tribes;
2 - Northern border: Northern barbarians did not give me breathing time so i had to go after them (ended up holding a region in Pannonia and Illyria). The plan was to just get total control over Macedonia without the diplomatic hit but because of the barbarians Sparta beat me to it;
3 - The Aegean: Sparta and Athens are my allies and like me a lot so i took to the sea - Crete and Rhodos;
4 - Macedonia: finally! I had to backstab Sparta, since they were loyal and had smth like +200 relations but it got me my second whole province after Thrace;
5 - Athens: and voila the third province is here. I managed to make Athens brake from being my vassal and attack me too;
6 - Cyprus and Asia Minor: Pergamnon, Pontus and Bythinia are my vassals and since Parthia was massive at this point and i already was at war with Egypt and Cyprus i just decided to keep those 3 as vassals (actually now it's 2 since Arminia as Parthian ally killed Pontus). So i went forward and conquered Cilicia and kicked the Parthians back to the desert. While i was doing this in the east, the Bastarnae and Gatae were giving me trouble back home but i had 2 armies left defending and pacified those two. I made them my vassals... they hate me though so it's just a matter of time before they turn on me again. Still i don' intend on getting deeper into poor barbarian lands so i just retreated my armies back to Thrace and Pannonia;
7 - Syria and Persia: This is still in progress - a march from Antioch to Babylon;
8 - Egypt: Egypt is long gone due to a civil war and Alexandria is now in the hands of a desert ally of mine. In time it will come back under Macedonian rule though
9 - Rome: Once the east and south are secured and the northern barbarians are held in check i'm going after Rome (not a real threat atm, since the Dalmatae rule half of Italia).

Diplomacy:

- At first Athens and Sparta were my loyal allies but i had to dump them in order to secure the Balkans;
- The Ardenai (spelling? The tribe in Illyria, above Apolonia) are my trusted ally almost from turn 10 and i don't think i'll backstab them;
- Barbarians get into alliances only by force (so after conquering them);
- NAP's are pretty helpful as a step towards better diplomatic deals;
- Asia Minor small kingdoms were relatively easily made my vassals as the campaign moved on;
- Trade agreements were relatively hard to get at first but with time i managed to get a bunch which really helped my economy.

Armies and characters:

- First tier armies: it's levies and militias, so you're going to need to use the generals to hammer and anvil (so maybe zeal generals are the best option). Used peltasts for supprt and flexibility. I learned the hard way how OP field artilery is - you do not have to! Get a ballista soon and watch how it gets you 200 kills per battle!
- Second tier armies: normal pikemen and hoplites. Also: archers and agrianians and citizen and sarissa cav. Hoplites in square on the wings when you're defending are great. Don't forget to put your pikes in bracing mode - it makes a difference for me. I like to have my generals with the cav and i like to have generals with different attributes: zeal are tanks, cunning are ambushers and authority are boosters. Now i have a good champion in one army and a diplomat in the second field army (the diplomat is great for reducing costs and if you do not need a diplomat in some province to keep income hig and unrest low - then put him in an army);
- Third tier: here's where i am now - 4 Thorax pikes, 2 Hoplites, 2 Theuros spears, 2 Royal Pelts, 2 Light Javs, 3 Archers, 1 Ballista, 3 Cav units (usually one Thessalian cav and one or two Citizen cav), 1 Companion cav general;
- Fourth tier: i'm no there yet but i guess i'll swap the Hoplites for Shield Barrers and Thorax pikes for Foot Companions.

*** I totally skipped the mercs building. Cretean Archers are great though so maybe i'll add some merc building later on. I upgradede my guys with armor and weapons every time i conquered a province that had the building that was required. but immideatly after upgrading i tear the building down since it's usually -10 public order.

- Used my champions mostly to calm down the population home. Sometimes i used them to neutralize an enemy army (military subversion with the champion - so that they can't reinforce which made some battles much easier). I used my diplomats to convert some of the barbarion regions but mostly i used them in my armies to keep costs down. Spies i used for a multitude of purposes, mostly doubled with champions to weaken enemy armies and settlements.

All in all the start was very confusing but i think i'm getting a feel for things now...

[lawandorder82]

how do you do with the food shortage with macedon

[Blaze of Macedon]

Poseidon temples are your friends early on.

Thrace is a major food consumer but it is also an unmatched cash cow later on (~4k per turn atm with money making ports in both Black Sea settlements and commerce enhancing industry buildings).

In Apollonia early on i've also built a fish port and a farm in Larissa and both of the Tracian regions. Plus an Inn in Pella. Those kept me going for a while...

Now i alway wanna keep my food surplus above 30, since i'm building a lot (spending most of my 17,5k income per turn on building).

[Zantesuken]

Egypt

This guide is based on my experience on VH/VH in patch 10/11

Initial State

Egypt's passive bonuses are fairly strong. A reduction to invasion resistance will help you if you like rapid warfare, while the experience for ship recruits will be useful for securing your position in the Eastern Med. The small research bonus is relatively inconsequential.

Egypt is blessed with a strong consolidated starting set of provinces. Aegyptus is a full four settlement province with two world wonders, while you also start with two further settlements to your East in Nabatea, Jerusalem and Petra, the latter of which is a walled city.

Politically Egypt is also strong. Cyreneica to the West hold all of Libyra but are weak militarily and economically. To the south, the Aethiopian tribes are largely defensive and will not bother you. The largest threat comes from the East. The Seleucids are large and have the potential, depending on how the dice roll, to be your greatest rival. The Arabian tribes (Qidri, Mascat, Himyar etc) are generally wildcards and can be tentative allies or potential threats. Your vassal of Cyprus is a significant weakness, but fret not, they will almost certainly be killed off sooner rather than later, freeing you of their burden.

Opening Turns

It is worth noting before you begin that Egypt gets a varied and strong unit roster in the late game, but early game your options are dire. Your priority is to research Hellenisation and unlock the third tier barracks so you can recruit Royal Peltasts and Companion Cavalry which are reliable, strong units even into the late game.

You start at war with Cyreneica. Consolidating your armies, recruiting some slingers and buying whatever mercenaries you can should allow you to take all of Libya without much difficulty within a handful of turns. The difficulty is not in defeating Cyreneica, but in warding off threats from the East while you consolidate Libya. War with the Seleucids is largely inevitable unless you get lucky. Galatia, Armenia, Parthia and Persia are all baying for Seleucid blood, but who ends up on top in the opening turns is largely up to chance. Someone will grow powerful in Syria / Mesopotamia, and you will have to deal with them.

Form alliances and trade with all the Arabian tribes you can to try and establish secure flanks in Nabatea. An army of pikemen supported with javelinmen can hold off in Jerusalem or Petra for years from one direction. Preventing incursion into Aegyptus is your priority. Play defense in the East until you have all of Libya wrapped up.

Early Game to Civil War

As is often the case with campaign guides, the key to success is attacking the weak while avoiding the strong. Consider this when examining expansion options. Once you have Libya unified your choices are, in order of benefit: Africa, Aethiopea, Nabatea, Arabia Felix, Arabia Magna and Syria. Note, if you can take Africa, do so. It is incredibly rich and well positioned, but the natural inhabitants of Carthage / Libya / Nova Carthago can be very strong in the early game. Only engage them if they are under pressure from Rome / Desert Nomads / Celts. Otherwise, establish trade. Carthage and her allies can grow to be a powerhouse that likes making wars in Europe; they won't bother you.

Aethiopia is easy pickings. Again, hold your Eastern border from any agressive neighbours (Seluecids, Parthia). With that under your belt you should have three large, well protected provinces.

This is the first major choice I faced in my campaign: to engage the major faction in Syria or unify Arabia. (Parthia, at this time, had all but eradicated the Selucids who had retreated to Cyprus. However, the seleucids had allied with Pontus and were slowly making a comeback against the purple menace.) I chose to use the ongoing war in Syria between Seleuia and Parthia as an opportunity to take over Nabatea and both Arabia Magna and Arabia Felix with impunity. Note, the desert nomads will swarm you with low quality spears while hammering you with a horde of high damage javalinmen. I reccomend a balanced composition of mobile cavalry, medium infantry (thureos spears or royal peltasts) and archers for easy wins.

Northern expansion is now on the cards. Once you are economically developed, you should, with six full provinces, be able to win any war with anyone in the East unless there is one unified force. Bide your time. Even if there is a strong empire holding Syria / Mesopotamia and beyond, wait. Large empires often crumble. Pick off weak provinces where you can (Rhodes, Crete, Asia are all often held by weak, minor hellenics that you can bump off).

Civil War

Once you have Syria and Mesopotamia under your belt, your Imperium will be creeping towards the civil war mark. Ensure you have at least two provinces capable of making good quality units (I chose Syria and Aegyptus). In terms of expansion, follow the path of least resistance. East into Parthia, Persia and Bactria is a good option, as it North into Caucasia and North West into Asia Minor / Galatia. Keep a strong defensive army (lots of pikes, heavy swords, archers and peltasts) in walled cities such as Cyrene, Petra and the one in Aethiopia in preparation for civil war.

Once the Civil War hits, don't panic. Allow the AI to take Aegyptus and whatever minor settlements beyond that, but contain them at Jerusalem / Petra, depending on your ability to fight large battles against the odds. Pikemen in narrow streets can hold off vast odds while elephants and peltasts will do your flanking. Using spies to split up, damage and delay armies is critical.

Eventually, after 5 or so turns, the AI will starve itself to death. Continue to hold your key cities and wait for their armed forces to implode. It's a simple matter to retake what you lost with the enemy running around with 100men per stack. Once you take the last province any navies will suicide into your ports.

Late Game

After the civil war the world is your oyster. To win militarily, you need Macedon. If you have everything East of the Dardenelles (the water between Asia and Thrace) then marching into Hellas / Macedon / Thrace should be a natural next target. Invading Africa as a springboard to Italia and Iberia is an option if you are needing provinces. Otherwise, with your position consolidated in the South East, you should find it hard to lose at this point.

In my game, Averni, Carthage and I were superpowers. Averni held everything in Iberia, Gaul and Britain. Carthage, everything in Africa, central europe and italy. Me, everything in the East. The resulting world war was quite an affair!

Closing Thoughts

Egypt is a fairly straightforward faction. You have only a few choices to make, but, sitting on the crossroad of the world as you are, the choices you make are far reaching and impactful. With a varied unit roster, a rich heritage and a natural stronghold from which to expand, Egypt makes for a relaxing and enjoyable playthrough that has something a little different to your otherwise samey Hellenic romp.

[-iceblade^]

[guide]

Great guide and thanks for posting it. I agree with a lot of what you said. Although I played in Patch 6/7? as them I really enjoyed the challenge, and a lot of what you said still holds true. They may be my favorite faction.

[fokke85]

Played Seleucid on VH/VH. I don't think it's possible to keep all of your satrapies. But that doesn't matter, Usually Media, Sardes and Drangania will stick with you and provide a nice bufferzone with the East and West. The other ones you can shake down for 3500-5000 for a peace treaty to earn some hard needed cash. You have a diplomatic bonus with all Hellenic factions so make good use of that, everybody will think twice before they mess with you if you have good relations with half the Hellenic world. I try to support the Galatians whenever I can because they either provide me with a powerful ally or a great enemy for good sport and variety. First war target for me is usually Cyprus. Not only do you gain a full province but it also robs your enemy of a perfect staging point for a naval invasion which threatens Asia, your most important province. Speaking of Asia, I would recommend building a barracks there early in your campaign for early troop recruitment but aside from that turn it into a full blown economic province. Not only is this one of the most profitable provinces (especially with the right build order) you also don't want this puppy to spew out gold chevron silver shields when Civil war hits. I would recommend focusing your troop recruitment in either Nabatea or Aegyptus since they are both nice 4 city provinces in the near vicinity. I use them both actually one for infantry, cavalry and training and the other for ranged, siege weapons and upgrades.

The Seleucids are second to none in their unit roster and can field any army you can imagine; Light and heavy infantry, spears and pikes, a great variety of cavalry and ranged units and even chariots and Elephants. They pretty much have it all and their top units can take on the best of any other faction in the game. They also have a great pick in Generals and while I don't have a favorite and pretty much choose the one which fits my specific army composition best, the elephant generals are absolute beasts early game and can tank anything in their path. Especially considering you are mostly facing levy/desert/eastern spearmen and ranged units without the flaming arrow/javelin option.

[Luqueasaur]

Is there any way Seleucid can maintain all of their satrapies? I don't think so, because Baktria declares war on Aria. Sure, you can just decline and break your pact - I always do that - but sooner or later other nations will declare war, and you will lose them. My best was Sardes, Media, Dragiana, Persia and surprisingly Sagartia until a lot of Asia Minor's declare war on me.

[Slaists]

Is there any way Seleucid can maintain all of their satrapies? I don't think so, because Baktria declares war on Aria. Sure, you can just decline and break your pact - I always do that - but sooner or later other nations will declare war, and you will lose them. My best was Sardes, Media, Dragiana, Persia and surprisingly Sagartia until a lot of Asia Minor's declare war on me.

I guess, it depends on the difficulty you're playing at. On Easy, Normal, maybe. On legendary: no way to keep them all since they're hard-coded to rebel to replicate what happened to Seleucids in this time in history.

One way to keep the satraps friendly is counter intuitively to lose them asap by declaring war on Cyprus (and Egypt by implication) on turn 1. This will trigger several satraps to declare independence. The trick is: you offer them peace on the same turn and ask for money in exchange. They all are likely to accept and become reliable trade partners/allies, which paves the way to make them into friendly satraps in the future (if you have enough cash and political weight to bribe them).

[ZocomRaider]

Curious question, playing as the Seleucids, regardless of using mods or vanilla (though i play with DEI). What are your experiences with the satrapies? which satrapies normally declare independence first in your games? which ones give you the most trouble if any? and if you manage to keep them all or some as satrapies what's your method of keeping them or is it just luck that they don't rebel or perhaps a bit of both?.

In most of my experiences playing with the Seleucids, normally the only satrapy that is pretty much guaranteed to stay is Sardes. Most of the time Drangiana stays as well and a little less often than them is Persia, as for Sagartia, Parthava and Aria...9 times out of 10 they rebel and the only time they don't is when i've been lucky enough that nobody declared war for at least 10 turns and i gave them loads of cash as gifts to make them happy which eventually got them neutral, then once i finally declared war on someone they all joined me and from there on i had all my satrapies backing me plus i managed to convince Cappadocia to become a satrapy.

So again, what are your experiences with the satrapies of the Seleucids?.

[eXistenZ]

I guess its for everyone different, I played them on Hard, and although most of my eastern satrapies turned their back quite early on, Media stuck with me, which was enough to be a buffer for most of the game, since my old satrapies started fighting among themself and bactria

[the lightning legion]

if you pay tribute you can ensure drangiana and Persia remain loyal within about 10 turns but the others are borderline impossible to keep hold of

[ZocomRaider]

if you pay tribute you can ensure drangiana and Persia remain loyal within about 10 turns but the others are borderline impossible to keep hold of

Yeah that's what usually happens to me to, Drangiana sticks with me 9 times out of 10 especially if i pay them a bit, Persia probably only about 7 times out of 10, i have to pay them a lot more to keep them loyal as for the others, Sagartia, Aria and Parthava....that's mostly luck, i have to be lucky enough that nobody declares war on me for a while so i can just keep paying them all and then hopefully by the time i do go to war they stick with me. As eXiztenZ mentioned though, usually even if they do betray you they usually aren't a problem if you still have some satrapies left like Drangiana, Media and Perisa as they can usually handle the traitors, i have had trouble with Baktria in the past as sometimes they get too strong for my satrapies but even if they do my satrapies keep Baktria at bay long enough until i can join the fray and push them back. On the other side, Galatia often goes to war with Sardes and usually wins that war fairly quickly unless i step in, Sardes is loyal but they get overpowered by Galatia often.

[kelsen]

My strategy as Seleucid on legendary:
1) Make Syria province economic monster. At the beginning you need fast full stack armies, not quality. Recruit as fast as possible 2 spies, 2 champions and 2 dignitaries.
2) After Egypt declares war at you (which happened on me on turn 1 ) conquer fast Cyprus and ensure second whole province. Then try to not provoke conflicts in Mala Asia and focus on southwest front against Egypt. Try to take Petra and Jerusalem and then usually Egypt will accept peace. By that time most if not all your satrapies would have declared war on you. This is the time you focus to the east. Don;t attack Quidri because they could be your best ally later as they are at war with all your satrapies.
3) Start conquering east provinces while having one full stack and champion near Jerusalem to push back Egypt if they attack again. One army should stay near Armenia and one in Tarsus to prevent threats from other factions. The other 3 stacks should be enough to conquer east provinces one by one with the GREAT help of the spy and the second champion.

[ZocomRaider]

I usually have to change my strategy each time, Egypt sometimes declares war but usually they seem to just sit there or they go to war with Carthage instead. Usually my main enemies are Armenia and Galatia, Galatia normally goes to war with Sardes, which means going to war with me and other Satrapies. Then Armenia sometimes decides to go war with me as well and often they bring Media Atrapatene with them. Then of course there's Parthia and Baktria in the east who sometimes steamroll their way through my satrapies forcing me to join the fray and hold them back. My main strategy though provided the right circumstances happen, i advance south and conquer all the Arabian factions below me then after that i return north and take out Armenia, Galatia and Pontus depending on who is still alive up there. If any of them go to war with me though then i just conquer the north first then i go and conquer the south. Also Cappadocia is often happy to become a satrapy early on if you pay them or ask them when Pontus is about to wipe them out, usually Pontus will make peace with them if you do this as well, then you have an extra satrapy to help you.

[kelsen]

I usually have to change my strategy each time, Egypt sometimes declares war but usually they seem to just sit there or they go to war with Carthage instead. Usually my main enemies are Armenia and Galatia, Galatia normally goes to war with Sardes, which means going to war with me and other Satrapies. Then Armenia sometimes decides to go war with me as well and often they bring Media Atrapatene with them. Then of course there's Parthia and Baktria in the east who sometimes steamroll their way through my satrapies forcing me to join the fray and hold them back. My main strategy though provided the right circumstances happen, i advance south and conquer all the Arabian factions below me then after that i return north and take out Armenia, Galatia and Pontus depending on who is still alive up there. If any of them go to war with me though then i just conquer the north first then i go and conquer the south. Also Cappadocia is often happy to become a satrapy early on if you pay them or ask them when Pontus is about to wipe them out, usually Pontus will make peace with them if you do this as well, then you have an extra satrapy to help you.

Nice tactics with Cappadocia, i have never tried it before. Armenia have never declared war on me, maybe because i always hold one garrison on the region next to them and they seem scared from me, i don't know... The march on Arabia peninsula seems a little risky because you spread too much on too many fronts and on my campaign the Quidry from the south were very trustful ally, they even conquered some regions from Parthava and Persia which was very suprising for me The games in the East part of the world are very interesting in the beginning, but later the enemies keep using crappy units like Eastern spearmen, which reduces the difficulty a lot.

[ZocomRaider]

That's true, still it's pretty fun playing as the Seleucids, starting off with a lot of land and having to manage it as well as all your satrapies, then there are factions around you who could declare war at anytime like Galatia, Egypt and Armenia not to mention Baktria in the far east. That being said though Baktria is also fun, the temptation of seeing if you can take on the Seleucids and their satrapies, usually i go after Aria once they break ties then take out Parthia, Dahae, Khorasmii and Arachosia and then either go on to take over Scythia or if i'm feeling lucky take on the remaining Seleucid satrapies.