1 turn - Seleucids campagin

[TTRouble]

Started a 1 turn camp with the Seleucids tonight after reading SW comments on playing Sparta:

1. Had to change my startegy from the start - its still to reduce coruuption to nearly 0 but with the 1 turn recruitment has really made me have to rethink what to recruit where etc. Its going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

2. Generals - can only recruit them at Antioch and Seleucia. None of the other cities or barracks levels 2+ allow you to recruit generals that can't be right ? Even constructing level 3 barracks - generals are not listed.

3. Both Antioch and Seleucia have the level 3 barracks already ?

4. Units retrained at Antioch or Seleucia are getting 2+ experience.

5. The games started at 536 AUC instead of 94SE

6. Building construction costs - theyre now back to default RTW settings. Should that be the case ?


TTrouble

[Mulattothrasher]

After the Arverni, the Seleucids are my faction of choice. And as you may know I play 1-turn/ALX.exe exclusively.

You're going to want to have those levy phalagites garrison the Parthian areas unless you are shifting the empire's focus east and sending troops to deal with them. You're also probably going to have to consider your roads, getting extra troops/governors/family members to the east fast is a bonus and has saved my butt a few times. Overall I think you can handle Parthia as long your towns are garrisoned sufficiently and you have some backup from the western areas of the empire. Using only eastern troops and what troops are available in the east could work, but I've always had a hard time with the lower tier troops alone against the Parthians (mercs you say? You're not going to have the $$$ early in the game to hire many of them).

If you are going to let the east fend for itself and concentrate on the west, then the Ptolemies are of course your main rivals. One thing that I have done is to mirror history, and if I win or loose at Raphia, I force the A.I. into a peace treaty. If you do this, make sure to keep a garrison around the border area of the Ptolemies since the A.I. may break that forced peace too soon and catch you while your army/armies are marching in an area too far away to help (yep, that happened to me lol).

Anyway, I think you'll have a lot of fun with the campaign as the 1-turn Seleucids. I know they are a blast to play, and the size of their kingdom is a bane, but also a benefit.

[TTRouble]

Theyre my favorite faction, just the mix of units, building types and their position on the map. My strategy usually for them is:

(1) reduce corruption, increase happiness all round and build a stable economy
(2) not to initally expand other than to take Cyrpus after 15 years or so, let Apema rebel at the start as its not defendable.
(3) prepare to defend and then defeat Parthia by building the merc barracks at Seleucia and field HA/heavy cav based armies to fight them
(4) Defend against Ptolmey and Pergamon until Parthia is defeated. Then take Asia minor - except regions owned by Pontus and Armenia unless they attack, capture Africa as well.
(5) capture all of Hellas and then plan to invade Rome from 3 fronts - through illyria, southern Italy and capture Scilily, Sardina and Corisca.

Right now, I've only been able to work on (1) and am desperatly trying to recruit units for (3) but its not looking too good as the Parthians are on the march and thats really causing me to rethink what units to recruit and where. The only plus point is that the free people are giving Parthia a bit of headache and have stopped them taking Apema.