Selucids

[RoryLaddz]

this reallybugs me, every campaign i play the selucids are the faction to go. they always get overun by pontus, armenia or egypt. why the hell do they start of so bad

[Mr. Magi]

I think it's because their cities are fairly underdeveloped, and they're sort of surrounded on all sides.

[shikaka]

I think it's because their cities are fairly underdeveloped, and they're sort of surrounded on all sides.

True.
Selucids cannot train replacements, and they are considered the weakest enemy by all their neighbours.

Also, 2/3 of their country is not on the map


This is not a 100% fitting map (timeframe) but still:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Heiro de Bodemloze]

Also, 2/3 of their country is not on the map

Or given to the other factions


But I would say that The Seleucids have the greatest army in the game and if they could build it up they would pawn the others

[RoryLaddz]

but even when playing as them its pretty hard not to get completely oblitareted by egypt

[Xerrop]

this reallybugs me, every campaign i play the selucids are the faction to go. they always get overun by pontus, armenia or egypt. why the hell do they start of so bad

Very simple: bad programming from the developers.
Half of their empire is off the map and their remaining territories are underdeveloped, the weakest starting army and too big other factions: Pontus and Armenia should only have one starting territory while Egypt profits from the overpowered chariots in autocalculated battles as well as from the better developed starting buildings (and the huge economical might).

[Vice]

It certainly is a shame...as they do have one of the best...if not THE best roster in the game...It of course sucks in the begin but if you can either hold off till pikeman or 24+ elephants...may god have mercy on your foes!

[shikaka]

It certainly is a shame...as they do have one of the best...if not THE best roster in the game...It of course sucks in the begin but if you can either hold off till pikeman or 24+ elephants...may god have mercy on your foes!

In the beginning, javelin cavalry spam works well against every foe
Also, while militarily underdeveloped, your provinces are rich, so you can bribe the cataphracts of Parthia and Armenia.

[Mr. Magi]

Which does cost a pretty penny that you might use better to spam units and build things until you can hold them off.

[MrManFreak]

lol i've tried of everything to save the seleucids,the best way to save them is giving them tons of money in the game files and give armies to them in the game files or by cheats but they will still only conquer rebel settlements and possibly susa and if you dont give them armies on every city they will still be conquered because by what i heard if the AI is atacked by 2 factions it will only atack 1 factions and will use everything to destroy it leaving all of their cities with 1 or 2 units the perfect example of this is the persian empire on Alex expansion they will have tons of armies there will be 1 faction besides the macedonians who will atack them (can't remember the name)by the time that this faction atacks them they will have all their armies fighting macedon and the other faction will be free to conquer them,
this also causes most of their cities to revolt by the time that alexander is reaching babylon most of their left cities will be rebels.

[Mr. Magi]

Coincidentally this is why I like EB. Because they redress a lot of things, like the size of Seleucid Empire.

[Shellshock1918]

Take out Egypt FIRST. Ally with Parthia and hold off Armenia/Pontus until you are done with Egypt. Once you capture the Nile you will be in a position to wipe out the Armenians and Pontians. But by the time you conquer all of those territories the Romans will have conquered everything else. The will be very strong. I am currently waging a war of attrition against the scpii Romans.
This screen shot is several turns back from where I am now. I have conquered most of Libya.

[dacder]

Take out Egypt FIRST. Ally with Parthia and hold off Armenia/Pontus until you are done with Egypt. Once you capture the Nile you will be in a position to wipe out the Armenians and Pontians. But by the time you conquer all of those territories the Romans will have conquered everything else. The will be very strong. I am currently waging a war of attrition against the scpii Romans.
This screen shot is several turns back from where I am now. I have conquered most of Libya.

gimme that save

[MrManFreak]

Take out Egypt FIRST. Ally with Parthia and hold off Armenia/Pontus until you are done with Egypt. Once you capture the Nile you will be in a position to wipe out the Armenians and Pontians. But by the time you conquer all of those territories the Romans will have conquered everything else. The will be very strong. I am currently waging a war of attrition against the scpii Romans.
This screen shot is several turns back from where I am now. I have conquered most of Libya.

in my opinion the way you should play is conquer everything you conquered plus the parthian settlements, salamis and crete as fast as you can(you should end conquering everything before the scipii get cyrene and the brutii get greece and macedon), then atack the scythian settlement next to that isolated parthian settlement the scythians will be pretty poor and wont cause you much troubles while you do all this upgrade antioch and possibly damascus and tarsus to the max so that you can use seleucid's powerfull mix of troops as fast as you can,when you're done make quinquirremes fleets to protect your sea trades and destroy any invasion by sea that the romans do,also start mass producing the following armies,

2 Armored Elephants 2 Cataphracts 2 archer units 1/2 Greek cavalry(for killing routers) if you like 1/2 onagers(i don't like how they slow my armies)4 SS Legionaries for the phalanx flanks 1 General and the rest SS Pikemen

you can easily mass produce this armies in your capital use Tarsus Antioch Damascus Sidon Salamis and the other close settlement to produce 1 army at a time and you will have armies like this ready for battle in no time
Also build hephaestus temples in settlements that you use to produce armies

use the following garrison in your settlements 4 Phalanx Pikemen and if you have enough finances 2 archers,
put 2 Phalanx pikemen in the front entry and 1 phalanx pikemen in each side entry and put the archers in the walls if you are being sieged by both sides than put the 1 of the front phalanxes in the rear entry(am speaking of the entrys to the main square)this should be able to defeat any roman full stack and even if it doesnt the enemy will still leave the battle with severe casualties

also the romans will usually go to your capital with fleets covered by the fog of war to block your trade this part of the map is very rich on sea trade specially Salamis,make sure you have about an half stack of quinquirremes here to destroy those fleets and to transport your armies to where needed quickly,

the way that i've found effective to destroy egypt in battles is to make the noob(kidding)phalanx square.

I remember that i could afford all those armies and fleets(and still win easily at least 10 k per turn) with the settlements that i've mentioned plus greece and macedon.

The hardest campaign that you will find is trying to conquer italy all roman factions will have tons of stacks there both pre-marian and post-marian and even mixed ones.

[RoryLaddz]

ok guys did some tweaking and theres a small descr_strat file in the rome total war miscellaneous download section.. Makes the seleucids easier to play

[|Sith| Max]

ok guys did some tweaking and theres a small descr_strat file in the rome total war miscellaneous download section.. Makes the seleucids easier to play

It is a challenge that strengthens us and isolation that erodes us. By making campaign even easier you are making the people here suck even worse.

[RoryLaddz]

well im nt forcing people to download

[daxypoo]

this reallybugs me, every campaign i play the selucids are the faction to go. they always get overun by pontus, armenia or egypt. why the hell do they start of so bad

when you start as selucia just spam hordes of missile cav and archers
this army will beat out all the ai egypt, pontus, armenia, and parthia

usually an army of at least 12 miss cav 6/7 arcs and a general to run around will do the trick

[Zarax]

Vanilla seleucids are easy...

Try them in XC and you'll start thinking hell is a place where to get a good sauna and a nice tan lol

[Alex-Warhammer]

I think it's because they can't back up anywhere in the map, Once they're in a war there done for