How do I survive as Hayasdan against the Grey Death?

[Paktu]

I've played several campaigns as Hayasdan (either VH/M or H/M) and I seem to hold my own early on. I'm able to take most of the surrounding rebel provinces and get to the point that I can field almost two full stacks. Problem is that the Seleucids declare war within 10-15 years of the game start. They can simply send full stacks of high quality infantry (better than Caucasian Spearmen, anyway) and while I can win some initial victories they simply keep coming. There's no way to get the Seleucids to agree to a ceasefire, and giving them regular tribute early on doesn't seem to hold off war at all.

Is there a way to keep them from attacking until I can do the Hayasdan reforms or get a strong enough economy to field more armies? Or, if war is inevitable, how do I defeat them?

[IndianPrince]

Use raids and try to split their armies. Use minimal units (horse archers) and inflict as much damage as u can. Try to divert the attacks & use the main force to attack the nearest Seleucid town. This is a big risk & take it only if you think you can win for sure. Be sure those spies do their work. Also this way you can take the attack to the Seleucids. This is what i did in 0.81 ... and survived for a very long time & even built a mini-empire and then lost interest. Haven't played it for 1.0

Prince

[gaius valerius]

i had the same problem, i was building this great empire with the hayasdan conquering all the caucasus and rly left the seleucids alone then these evil no good boy loving mofo's came up (for once not down) the mountains with their phalanxes to attack my capital.

at that time i had a nice little empire making some money, around 8000 a turn, but expansion got kinda hard after having taken the caucasus and i wasnt rly looking forward for a showdown with the elite seleucid armies. it didn't matter cuz as you said, they come to you how i hate them...

anyway at the time i had the first good armenian unit, the swordsmen dude. with those in my capital i could fend off all the seleucids threw at me but it has one fatal flaw... i get confined to the caucasus! upkeeping an army with my small economic basis is clearly insufficient to recreate the persian empire. i can at best keep up 1,5 fully stacked army, problem is i cant use it cuz i need to defend my capital from seleucid incursions.



i wonder how to deal with this. indeed you could try to take the first step and use your best troops to quickly march through mesopotamia (since its their main recruitment region) and gain succesive victories (for which you'd have to command them yourselves). if you'd do this early on you'll have less resistance but on the other hand your troops would suck ass as well. if you then would try to do it with your better troops, you'll be facing a tremendous resistance.

perhaps another way is - after you've take control of the caucasus - to rush for northern anatolia, take out pontus and hope those extra provinces provide ample aid to face and destroy the seleucids and give you an extra base of operations to threaten antioch. i haven't tried either but i think i'll try the latter in the near future.


the main problem as i see it is that the seleucids are facing to much resistance from the rest of the world. when i play them they get economically screwed right from the start (especially the eastern prov's are a pain) but the AI seems to be pretty quick in bringing out the big guns. i mainly think the ptolemaic empire is screwing itself bigtime cuz they lose their anatolian and palestine possessions to fast! perhaps if they could hold their ground - and make some aggresive moves against the seleucids - it would keep them a little longer from marching up the slopes of the zagros mountains

[IndianPrince]

Another thing u can do is use one army to defend and others to attack their surrounding cities. Do that & sack it ... and then eliminate all buildings especially the Barracks or MIC's. Then move ur army out of there & attack other settlements ... this way you can create a ring around you from where the Seleucids cant recruit & thus you will be better prepared. Also like gaius said attack Mesopotamia ... main recruiting area. Take the fight to them ... Dont get bogged down due to the defense.

Prince

[Paktu]

Another thing u can do is use one army to defend and others to attack their surrounding cities. Do that & sack it ... and then eliminate all buildings especially the Barracks or MIC's. Then move ur army out of there & attack other settlements ... this way you can create a ring around you from where the Seleucids cant recruit & thus you will be better prepared. Also like gaius said attack Mesopotamia ... main recruiting area. Take the fight to them ... Dont get bogged down due to the defense.

Prince

I've been testing out this strategy. I'm attacking the Seleucids right from the beginning and it seems to be working so far. I've already taken most of northern Mesopotamia as well as Antioch. Most of their cities contain only two or three units, and I've seen very few of their stronger infantry thus far.

[IndianPrince]

Thatz becuz they're prolly occupied with the Ptolemies. But yes hitting them when they're preoccupied is a good idea. Deal them blows in their recruiting areas & their empire shall collapse. Beware of the ptolemies then

Prince

[Paktu]

Thatz becuz they're prolly occupied with the Ptolemies. But yes hitting them when they're preoccupied is a good idea. Deal them blows in their recruiting areas & their empire shall collapse. Beware of the ptolemies then

Prince

Yep, it's 260BC and I now control all of Mesopotamia. The Ptolemies attacked Antioch but I've built large walls and have a substantial garrison, so I'm gradually weakening them elsewhere in the region (I just took Tyre from them). The Seleucids have yet to pose a serious invasion threat and seem to be constantly on the defensive.

[karo]

After the first reform kicks in get some horse archers and two general units that you'll use to protect your caucasian Kingdom. And get an army to attack them in Asia-minor. After you take Asia-Minor you can start an all out war against the grey dead. Hope this helps.

[Zenith Darksea]

I haven't played Hayasdan properly in 1.0 yet, but in 0.8 my strategy was to just keep pushing the Seleucids all the time. This worked quite well actually, and I had horse archer armies ranging deep into the Iranian plateau and nailing all opposition.

Then the Ptolemies declared war. All my troops were in the East, fighting the Seleucids, and I was screwed.