im being buried under the pressure from bactria and the selucids

[Kiyan_the_Great]

Hey guys, im playing pahlava, without cheats, and ever since the begining, the selucids and the bactrians have been bent on destroying me, first i only had two cities, i held off their numerous attacks, they even sent their faction leader,and every army sent to me was annihialated, i destroyed them all, most to the last men, thanks to my body guard cataphracts, its quite annoying tho, its really slowing down my progress, i decided to mount on the offensive, i took a third city assak, but that didnt stop them
and doesnt matter how hard i try looks like they dont wanna ceasefire, i keep asking them to do so every turn, they dont listen
what should i do?

[nvm]

Take out Baktria first, they have only 2 cities in the beginning.

Do not put generals to govern your cities. Especially with "Lives on the move" trait.

[CelticPagan]

Take out Baktria first, they have only 2 cities in the beginning.

Do not put generals to govern your cities. Especially with "Lives on the move" trait.

Actually, doesn't Baktria only have the city of Baktria at the start of play? While they have 3 generals, they only have the one city, unless you are playing an earlier version of EB. The problem is will the Seleucids sit by and not attack you while you have forces attacking Baktria? I have found that they usually do attack while you are still besieging Baktria. This is because you have to attack by passing through Seleucid territory, and their small cities north of Baktria are poorly defended, rebellious, and in danger from the Sakai. My advice is to make friends with the Sakai, build forts and watch towers along your border (R:TW seems to have a glitch that causes invading armies to migrate to-wards watch towers) and then attack the Seleucids when they are at one or more of your towers. For some reason, your attack causes your enemy to break alliances, such as the one Seleucids have with Baktria, while Baktria will remain your ally. This will give you a leg up. Sue for peace with Seleucids as soon as you can, and they will leave you alone for a few rounds, especially if the Ptolemaoi are kicking their buts in the west. Usually an Ptolemaic envoy shows up to offer an alliance and trade by then, so take it. Trade doesn't go up much, due to there not being any direct routes to you, but it will be helpful later down the road. Make sure your spies watch for generals coming from the west to bolster forces of the Seleucids, as this usually means an attack is planned.

Also remember your horse archers are your best chance against the Seleucids and Baktrians, at least until they can recruit their own or mercenary ones. Seleucids and Baktria love their phalanxes, which fair poorly against the swift horse archers. Keep some in reserve for when the first wave runs out of arrows. Use the arrow depleted horsemen as light cavalry to harass any light or inferior troops with quick attacks and race away. Them send the reserve horse archers to continue to attack the phalanxes. Eventually they will break, and your swift cavalry are great for running them down. Once you have most of the enemy army on the run, it is usually a quick victory after that. Foot archers should be used against any remaining phalanxes, and keep them in skirmish mode. when the phalanx nears them, have the bulk of your horse archers attack from behind and it will usually break them. At this point have your general attack them and he will gain some exp and possibly some positive traits, since he entered combat (even if it is against a broken unit). Soon you will have very good generals, and very experienced troops, which will help defend against Seleucid and/or Baktrian attacks. Be sure to rest your troops and rebuild unit strength, and you will soon be able to go on the offensive again. Eventually you will have some very nice cavalry units which will bolster your armies. Go slow on building too many units, as you will need your treasury to expand your cities in order to get these units. Once you conquer Baktria, you will be holding the very mineral wealthy Hindu Kush. This will boost your income, and trade with the Sakai. At this point defend your self from invaders while growing your income and in ten or so turns you can start taking Seleucid cities of the east. From there you can start recruiting more infantry units to back up your cavalry, and eventually you can be the scourge of Seleucids!

[athanaric]

Actually, doesn't Baktria only have the city of Baktra at the start of play?

That is correct.

I agree with the rest of your post.
Though Baktria never attacked me until much later into the campaign (when I already had an invincible empire), so I like to leave them in peace and destroy the Seleukids instead.

[dbug]

its obvious they don't want ceasefire.
keep killing them. and gradually eat up their territory, starting with Baktria, of course. lol

[torongill]

Well, you could use force diplomacy to end hostilities. Still, it's not considered cheating if you're winning. If you use FD to stop an opponent that is winning, that's cheating.

[Xerrop]

Well, you could use force diplomacy to end hostilities. Still, it's not considered cheating if you're winning. If you use FD to stop an opponent that is winning, that's cheating.

The problem with FD is that the enemy still attacks you each turn. You must use it every single turn to end the newly declared war. That´s also very annoying.

[alextheseleucid]

what campaign difficulty are you playing on? in my pahlava campaign on M/M the baktrians didn't attack until i got a stable position w/ 5 cities.

[Hound of Ulster]

How to win with the Pahlava...
1. build all-cavalry armies, only recruiting infantry mercs for sieges
2. if attacked by Baktria first, crush them first. Conversely, if attacked by Arche Selukia first, take 'care' of them. If both don't attack you, turtle for the first 20-30 turns.
3. whenever you take a settlement, sack it.
4. conquer Asaak first, make it your capital. Its easier to defend then Nisa.
5. take Media first, then Persia Proper, then the eastern territories, then Armenia, then Mesopatamia.
6. Make all of your border proviences allied Kingdoms.

[dbug]

what campaign difficulty are you playing on? in my pahlava campaign on M/M the baktrians didn't attack until i got a stable position w/ 5 cities.

MY 2 CONSEQUENT Pahlava campaigns in VH/M never saw Baktria attacking me, and of course I had over 5 cities on both cases. but I do keep a spy in Baktra just in case
but then again, every campaign is never the same in RTW

... only recruiting infantry mercs for sieges

pssshh, infantry. leave the besieged to die starving. just my opinion

[torongill]

You can give them some money for a few turns and they tend to relax. Works for me.

[Boriak]

Is there a difference if give the AI regular tribute or single payment? How much minae for how many turns should you use?

[torongill]

of course there is. They can accept your single payment and stab you in the face the next turn. whereas when they receive regular payments, they have a stimulus to keep the peace. It doesn't always work like that, especially if the enemy faction is strong, but then again, FDing ceasefire from a faction that's stronger than you is cheating. I usually give them about 1-2k per turn and set it for 20 turns, because I'm lazy and I don't mind a challenge. But I've seen it work with 100-500 mnai per turn, as well.

[Boriak]

Well, I'm trying to make peace with Seleucids in my Ptolemaic campaign and I'm quite poor at the moment. Can't get past 10k of treasury.