Why are the Seleucids so much better than the Ptolemys?

[AchillesXX]

In all of the my campaigns except for maybe one (that means about 14 out of 15) the Seleucids have dominated the Ptolemys. It is no surprise when you consider that the Seleucids can recruit Thoraks in all of their settlements. They are nearly as good as the best unit that the Ptolemys can ever recruit (Baskilion Guard), and they need a top tier barracks to do so. I always know that fighting the Seleucids will be a daunting, long, stack after stack affair. But, I can usually take down all of Egypt in about three years with one City Barracks quality stack (playing as a Greek or Roman culture).

My suggestion is to take away the Seleucid ability to recruit Thoraks from backwater podunk towns. This makes them far more resilient than they actually were. What happens to game balance when the Seleucids have no special recruiting power? If that is not a possibility, boost the poor quality Ptolemy stacks in some way. That would give them a fighting chance.

P.S. I have also never seen Carthage do well at all. They are usually destroyed by the Spanish. That would have amazed all ancient observers!

[Grimbold]

P.S. I have also never seen Carthage do well at all. They are usually destroyed by the Spanish. That would have amazed all ancient observers!

It did take the Romans 200 years to conquer the Iberian Peninsula...

[AchillesXX]

There were certainly a lot of Iberian revolts (some led by Romans), but they were never a sufficiently cohesive culture to launch external campaigns of occupation. Of course in the game it is fun to have an Iberian playable culture, and I wouldn't change that, I would just like to see Carthage win more than 5% of the time.

[Diomede]

Do you feel there's a balancing issue with Carthage's/Iberia's unit rostor also?

I sort of agree on Egypt being underpowered conmpared to Seleucia... or them being overpowered. Either way. I kind of feel that weakening TSE would take away a lot from the game though, while I dislike playing as Greek factions usually it is nice to juggle barbarian conversion while fighting full stacks 3:1 usually.

[Ferdiad]

The TSE needs ome Strong units cause of it's situation,The Ptolemys have an awesome economy with mediocre units.

[Unknown Soldier]

Ok Selucids have many greek colonists to enlist - Egypt has a large number of non-greeks.

The cultural background differences are reflected in the quality of their troops...

[Barend]

Ok Selucids have many greek colonists to enlist - Egypt has a large number of non-greeks.

The cultural background differences are reflected in the quality of their troops...

Are you saying that Greek troops are inherently better than non-Greeks, or that this is only so in the game?
Also; the army under Antiochus III that fought at Magnesia (189 BC?) consisted of many 'foreign' troops, so the Seleucids did in fact recruit non-Greeks. IMHO this is underrepresented in the AOR in XGM.

EDIT: And don't say the Seleucids lost thanks to the non-Greeks in the army ...

[Unknown Soldier]

Are you saying that Greek troops are inherently better than non-Greeks, or that this is only so in the game?
Also; the army under Antiochus III that fought at Magnesia (189 BC?) consisted of many 'foreign' troops, so the Seleucids did in fact recruit non-Greeks. IMHO this is underrepresented in the AOR in XGM.

EDIT: And don't say the Seleucids lost thanks to the non-Greeks in the army ...

No what I'm saying is the ptolomaic roster has many egyptian native units in it
The banks of the nile were spilling over with fetility - supported a large native population.
The local main population have been an agarian society for centuries.(peasants in other words)

Selucid lands contain all the old Persian empire possessions where many rival tribes were subjugated and brought together as one nation - tribal society likes to fight and promote warrior virtues.

When the Ptolomaics get higher barracks they can recruit better quality troops.
If they can advance this far then they can win.

Asia minor had greek colonies in it before Alexanders conquest - the selucid lands have a much higher greek colonial ethnic population - with more common cause for their greek rulers than the egyptian natives - selucids have a better quality starting army and roster.

Sorry for the ramble