Cany anyone point me in the direction of a Seleucid guide?

[Sam I Am]

There isn't a guide in the Wiki and nothing came up when I searched the forum (nothing relating to a Seleucid guide anyway).

[Forsworn]

I dont think anyones tackled making a guide on The Seleucid Empire since you're surronded by enemies. You could, realistically, expand any which way but still be in the red since everyone around you at the start will hate you till you fall or conquer them. That and The Seleicid Empire has very bad unit roosters at the start with only levy's. My advice there is to invest in roads, in cities that dont have them, and military buildings in your largest cities(Antioch and Seleucia are two) on the first few turns.

While that's happening try and get trade rights with everyone, even those around you since they 'usually' dont rush you in the first few turns.

Once you have a semi-decent army, from your larger cities and trade/walls in your small ones, you should look for expansion. What I've learned from expansion is that fighting many factions is more annoying than fighting one. Thus my stragety is to leave a border guard to watch Egypt and conquer Armenia, Pontus, Partia, and kick the greeks out of Pergamum and Rhodes at some point. This task is long and it isnt recommended to fight them at the same time if possible.

However, if you're unlucky like me you'll have to. Here's what happened. I blitz'd Partia, when I could get a half-decent army with 1 Mercenary War Elephant(They're life savers!), and as soon as I crushed them under my heel I was mass betray'd by Armenia, Pontus, Greek City States, and Egypt at once. This lead to my unprotectored northern border in danger and all my northern cities were seiged at once.

I, personally, didn't lose any cities since I was able to ger Herioc victories in cities I couldn't reinforce(I love archers) and got crushing victories in places that I could reinforce. However, how the mass invasions play against you is up to your skill and prior planning and no guide can compensate for that.

Oh... I also was saved from Pontus when an Earthquake came(they outnumbered me 3 to 1 when I intercepted them on their way to Sardis) and killed my best General, 3 of their best, and wiped out both of our armies. Since I was outnumbered... Well, the Earthquake became a boon for me in the end since pontus never recovered.

I also recommend that when Egypt declares war on you that you take Jerusalem and the other coast city just above it. They're great money makers and it'll protect Antioch which will be your prime military builder for some time. Not to mention that Egypt will overlook your other cities, for the most part, and send endless waves of stacks only to Jerusalem to try and retake it.

PS: A strange thing happened aswell for me. My lone General was building towers around Sardis border alone and was ambushed by half a stack. I couldn't retreat and my General wasent that great(He was young though and I needed young generals at that time) so I auto'd and to my surprise the General, by himself, survived and killed 1/3 of the enemy forces(Pontus infantry sucks!). He came out with 2 Gold Bars, but sadly they reverted to Silver Bars after he was retrained.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

I would have thought Seleucids would be the easiest to play. It has the widest range of units in the whole game, a bit territory to start with.....

[Scutarii]

I would have thought Seleucids would be the easiest to play. It has the widest range of units in the whole game, a bit territory to start with.....

In vanilla their territory is actually quite small in comparison to Egypt or the likes. Plus they start of in the middle of Armenia, Parthia, the GCS, and most importantly (and detrimental) Egpyt and Pontus. Their roster is 2nd best to the Romans, IMO, and the most diverse in the game, so once you've overcome the initial obstacles, your well on your way with high-end units that can kick Roman behind. Altogether, their early campaign is definitely the hardest in the game, late-game on the easier end, but a hard campaign all things considered.

[Ludens]

There is a topic on the Seleucids in the Org guide forum. However, keep in mind the older entries are for previous patches.

[Sam I Am]

I actually started the campaign right after I made this thread since I was too angsty to wait (meaning I didn't get to read your advice). However, I did take a pretty similar approach to what you did. I took all the military units I started out with (except Peasants), divided them into three armies, and started war on three fronts; Egyptian, Parthian, and Pontus. I haven't declared war on Pontus yet, however my army is about to siege one of their two starting settlements. I also made an alliance with Greece.

I rushed all three of these factions as fast as possible, with the exception of my Pontus army since it ran into many bumps along the way. So far I've managed to obtain Salamis, Jerusalem, and the other coastal Egyptian city north of Jerusalem. I also captured one Parthian city east of Seleucia (I believe the city is called Susa).

In my games, Parthia always takes an army from Susa and heads south to take a rebel settlement (Dumatha?). This leaves Susa open which is the only reason why my small army was able to take it. I also managed to bribe the army that Parthia sent south before they could take the rebel settlement. After I build up my army in Susa I'll head north with it and take one of the last two Parthian cities and after that I'll send them to fight Armenia.

On the Egyptian front I've captured the three settlements mentioned earlier, but now Egypt is sending about two and a half armies toward Jerusalem (none of them are full stacks though). I'm hoping that one of the armies is being sent to take rebel settlements so I only have to face roughly one full stack. I'm not sure what to do though since my Egyptian army is in need of retraining due to one battle where my 800+ men had to fight off 200+ men and 600+ reinforcements (my Militia Cavalry saw a lot of fighting in these battles and so they lost a lot of men). If I can survive this wave of assaults though then I can march onto Alexandria and Memphis.

Like I said before, my Pontus army hasn't seen any action and is about to attack a half stack of Pontus men (my Pontus army is also a half stack). After that I'm going to have to take one of their cities.

Armenia is sieging one of my settlements. I forget the name (possibly Hatra), but it's the least developed settlement I own and it's just south of Armenia. I plan on letting them take it and I'm hoping I'll have enough money to bribe it back.

So, overall, rushing worked really well initially, but now I'm facing large armies in Pontus and Egypt so I'm not sure if this is going to work (if it doesn't I'm screwed).

By the way, I play on H/H with Fog of War off. I know that's cheating techinically, but I just can't play games with FoW on. If anyone has played Advance Wars you know what I'm talking about. It's not like I try to find out enemy troop movements by disabling FoW, I just like FoW off.

[Aisis Julius]

Here is your Guide.
Ja it just a guide of a guide for another guide but alas it is a guide for vanailla rome total war.

The Seleucid Guide

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/dos...e/589390/41899

[Aristarchus]

I disagree with the posted guide's criticism of the militia hoplites. They are really no more unreliable than any of the other early faction units with no experience. Once they get battle-hardened, the militia hoplites are a tough foundation for the Seleucids. I avoid the levy pikemen all together and keep to the militia hoplites until silver shields are possible.

[Benz282]

I disagree with the posted guide's criticism of the militia hoplites. They are really no more unreliable than any of the other early faction units with no experience. Once they get battle-hardened, the militia hoplites are a tough foundation for the Seleucids. I avoid the levy pikemen all together and keep to the militia hoplites until silver shields are possible.

Agreed. Militia Hoplites are pretty weak, but you can make them in just about every settlement. If you know how to defend a city with pikes alone, then Militia Hoplites can literally save your ass while playing as the Selucids.

I did a Selucid campaign a long time ago and managed to conquer all of the East. I don't remember much since it was so long ago, but I'll give my advice.

Considering where you are right now, I advise against bribing. The costs are too much and the rewards just aren't worth it. You are better off spending the money to upgrade your own cities/making pikemen.

As far as your Pontic expedition goes, your best bet would be to find a defensive position. I'm not sure what your army is composed of, but I'm assuming it's made up primarily of pike units. The thing about phalanx units is that they aren't really made to be aggressive. In history they were, but against R:TW AI, their best use is defensive. If you lure the Pontic army into a trap, then you will have a much greater chance of winning.

Just a note about early Pontus; they've got light skirmishing cavalry and their generals have javelins. Javs = not the best friend of a phalanx.

Egypt...try to get as many phalanx units to Jerusalem as possible and let them siege it. When they do, do a "V" at the gates made up of phalanx units. When they breach the gates, they will rush inside, only to be skewered on your pikes. If Jerusalem has Stone Walls already, then let the Egyptians take the walls, but camp the base of the towers with phalanx units (preferably making "V"s like at the gate).

Egypt's got killer chariots, so avoid open battle!!! I can't stress that enough. The trick to killing chariots is to reduce their mobility and (hopefully) use pikes to take them out. Better yet, use archers to kill them before they even have a chance to strike at you.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

The Seleucids have one of the best unit selection in later game but also have it rather tough at the start being surrounded by enemies and only the militia hoplite as it main starting unit. On VH/VH expect Egypt, Pontus, Armenia, Parthia and Greek Cities to attack within the first moves, so strike first!

I didn't bother about alliances or rebels towns for the start. Instead I took my faction leader and all he could muster and headed for Sidon. Take your nearby Diplomat to negotiate trade rights with Egypt and ask 1500 dinari. They will agree. On turn two besige it. It only contains a small force and easily taken on turn 3. Retrain and recruit what you can and on turn four head for Jerusalem. At this point hope your faction leader doesn't die of old age. After taking Jerusalem Egypt shouldn't be a problem for a while. I chose to enslave to help my under-developed towns grow a little quicker. During these first moves I used any new family members to build a fort in the pass NW of Tarsus. This is where Pontus normally like to attack from. Hatra also gets repeatedly attacked very early by Armenia and with all my resources already stretched to deal with Egypt and Pontus I chose to keep my forces to 3x militia hoplites + militia cavalry + general (if available). The strategy was that with a small force Armenia would choose to assault the town rather than starve it. Besides, this early in the game there is no relief force possible and fighting horse archers with hoplites isn't much fun. Instead 3x hoplites just on the very edge of the town square right next to the road that leads from the gate should do the job perfectly. Armenia is so persistant that my hoplites soon had silver chevrons.
Seleucia should also deal with Susa as soon as its force leaves to take the rebel town of Dumatha. If you don't you will soon have to deal with a very large force of horse archers coming down from the mountains.
Finally, Sardis should be built up to produce a few cavalry units and attack the rebel town of Helicarnasus and then on to Crete. By now Greek Cities will be at war with either Macedon or Scipii so attack Pergamun. Besides they probably would have declared war on you by then. Your borders are now mostly secure and free to take the rebel areas and expand in any direction you wish. I tend to leave Egypt the three main cities and watch until Memphis has the largest temple of Horus built. It will upgrade all units (except missile troops) to gold and thats when I want it. For me its onto Sicily.

Guides for all the factions
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=78

[Aristarchus]

All good advice, I guess. All I remember about Seleucia is unending tension on all fronts, as described above. Agression is particularly important against Egypt to stop them from making an economic powerhouse along the coast. I remember on my first Seleucia game losing nearly my whole family fighting huge Egyptian armies. Kill them all! Keep Pontus a friend as long as possible.

[Forsworn]

I would also like to note that when Pontus goes against the Greek City States you should use the oppertunity to nvade their mostly undefended cities since they will be sending bulk after bulk untill they take Pergamum.

[NobleNick]

Moved to battle planning.