Help with the Seleucids

[Hackworthy]

Hello all, I have been a member of these forums for a while but haven't been on them much. I took a long break from Total War when I got my 360 but I have gotten back into it lately. Particularly I've been having a lot of fun with Rome but have encountered a predicament. I really like the Seleucids they are one of my favorite empires to study and in my opinion have an amazing unit roster (I use them a lot in custom battles) but I'm having some trouble playing them in campaign. I am surrounded by a lot of people who hate me and the only faction that honors it's word with me is Armenia. I've lost control of my Anatolian holdings and the Egyptians and Parthians are pressing on my borders. Antioch is my only city not being barraged by enemies and from there I have to produce phalanx non-stop to reinforce Damascus, Hatra and Seleucia. I am in a tight spot, anyone have any tips?

[Basil II the B.S]

Some tips I've learned playing the Seleucid campaign over and over.
When Romans declare war on Greece, send a diplomat to Pergamum, offering alliance/trade rights/map info and maybe even some money (2k is enough) for the city of Pergamum itself. It strenghten your position in Anatolia in your earlier turns.
Either bribe,buy or rush Salamis. Why? Because it's economically strong, and the ai will never try to take it back. It's money taken from the Egyptians straight to your pocket. Sidon is your first objective after that.
Build barracks in Seleucia, you need at least levy pikes and start creating them. The Parthians will come with Cataphracts, you should get a Pyrric Victory when the besiege you, but once cats are gone, rush to Susa, and Parthians are pretty much dead. With only Arsakia in the area (campus sakae is way too far) they won't be a problem.
Armenia should be blocked on the bridge North of Hatra. As for Pontus, boost your armies with mercenaries from Anatolia, + some levy pikes for their crappy infantry.

Doing this in the first 20 turns gives you a strong position, you could even just sit there and fend off any attack just for the lulz. I actually gave the other factions some time to get their best units and fight them on the battlefield.

[MortenJessen]

Hi there.
Some of my favorite strategies and tactics when playing as the Seludics:
Use the first few turns to build up your economy. The seludics are so rich that one can not believe it untill they see it. And then build some walls in your cities.
As for units: use what ever phalanx or hoplit unit available in the cities, as most of your enemies has a lot of cavalry units. And you do not early on. Archers in the cities are also a must, hence the walls. When your defence is set, look for your most upgraded city, and begin to recruit the best units available to you there, and send them after what ever enemy who annoys you the most.
When the emediate threats has been dealt with, the Seludics are just plain unstopable.
For better advice, look here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=202882
Have fun.
Y.S.
M. Jessen

[daxypoo]

easiest way to play selucia early game is to spam missile cav and archers

and army of 5/6 arcs and 12 miss cav + 2/3 general cav will be able to handle anything the ai pumps out early game

use missile cav to swamp enemy ai horse archers; use them to pelt enemy ai infantry; use them to mop up routers; etc

use archers to fire on scyths and other chariots

as you get further up the techno tree you can put a couple of phalanxes to cover your archers

this army only becomes obsolete versus the roman stacks that show up when you conquer egypt

good hunting

[MarsRising]

Do you want the cheap way or the fun way? The cheap way is to train four Scythed Chariots and auto battle any stack----99.9% chance of victory. Now the fun way is to really learn how to use phalanxes and then take it to Egypt, Parthia, Armenia and Pontus with Hoplite Militia. Man, I really love the Two to Three gold chevron militia I end up with after all that battling.

[Punic Hoplite]

Could use the surrender_regions egypt cheat, but that's TOO easy.

Take the Nile cities from Egypt, their economy will take a hit and yours will take a boost, plus they'll be far more advanced than most of your cities. As for Parthia and Pontus and Armenia, stall them while you take Egypt. Once you have the Nile you should be unstoppable. Once I was making cataphracts in Egypt before I had phalanx pikemen in Syria. Plus the Nile cities grow fast.

[Ruprecht]

The seleucids are my favorite faction, and the most over powered, probably why i like them hehe. This is Rome's way of compensating, basically telling you *If you want the best unit roster, the strongest starting economy and good location, you're going to have to fight for it* Early game with Seleucids is always chaotic and i believe the campaign was purposefully structured this way. Otherwise it would be cake from start to finish.


As for tactics, i'll leave that to you .. i don't want to spoil the most fun part of the campaign for you.

[Hackworthy]

Thanks, this has been helpful. I usually play Carthage and this was a hell of a lot different. I have retaken Sardis and Halicarnassus and have captured Salamis, Sidon and Arsakia. Things are going well now. Especially with Aristarchus as king. Almost max stats all around.