The Egyptians in my Seleucid campaign

[DonRaphael]

I'm playing a campaign with TSE at RTW vanilla and I got to say that it was much easier than I expected. Egypt was extremely inactive before I destroyed them. I took Sidon and Jerusalem the first 3-6 turns and after that they just went completely inactive not even attacking Siwa, which belong to Numidia (who btw are a a huge faction, they have every settlement from Siwa to Tingi except from Carthage and Thapsus) or the rebel settlements at their boarders (Petra, Bostra etc). They just stacked 2 armies 2 turns outside Jerusalem and kept everything else in the Nile delta. Beside that, I was amazed of how easy you could actually fight them off with a couple of phalanx units. When it was time to conquer the Nile delta I just landed an army to conquer the cities and kept 3-4 units of Levy Pikemen at the bridges. Very easy and effective, and honestly quiet boring.

Same goes for the rest of my foes (Armenia, Parthia and Pontus). The only problem was the HAs. Although, the Greek cities are a major power now, but I've just landed in Greece and conquered Athens and besieged Sparta and Corinth. Nah.. not much of a challenge, but a great faction to play. Seems like the whole challenge of RTW vanilla is Egypt itself. The romans are quiet easy to kill of when you've built up your economy by sending stacks of armies to their territories.

What have I missed out? Did someone of you guys experience any problems in your Seleucid campaigns? Was Egypt as inactive as I described without even trying to take back their settlements? Really disappointed. Yes, the first 10-15 turns were quiet intense, but apart from that... its a piece of cake.

[TheFoolOnTheHill]

what difficulty

[DonRaphael]

Oh, forgot to tell that, haha! VH/VH.

[Hopit]

Oh, forgot to tell that, haha! VH/VH.

play on H/VH if you want challenge....
VH campaign difficulty is bugged and is because of that easier than H

[DonRaphael]

Are you sure?

[Primo]

play on H/VH if you want challenge....
VH campaign difficulty is bugged and is because of that easier than H

Everyone keeps on saying that. Do you actually have a proof, a test, or anything which would show it? In my experience VH is harder than H.

[Basil II the B.S]

Well, in my experience Jerusalem and Sidon are their key cities for the onslaught against the Seleucids, if you took them very early, no wonders they literally disappeared from the game.
Want if you want to feel some Egyptian pain, restart the game and give them 10 turns to build up. Considering Armenia, Pontus and Parthia will be after you too, you won't have a totally easy time this way.

[DonRaphael]

Yeah I know it's going to be more challenging if I let them grow, but that shouldn't be a condition to have a challenge. Considering the Nile delta and the huge amount of cash it generates the loss of Sidon and Jerusalem shouldn't damage them so severe that they don't even try to strike back. It's ridiculous since they have/had stacks of armies just sitting out the time.

[Basil II the B.S]

Yeah I know it's going to be more challenging if I let them grow, but that shouldn't be a condition to have a challenge. Considering the Nile delta and the huge amount of cash it generates the loss of Sidon and Jerusalem shouldn't damage them so severe that they don't even try to strike back. It's ridiculous since they have/had stacks of armies just sitting out the time.

As the other guy mentioned, the AI doesn't have a brain. Taking Sidon alone is already a severe blow for Egypt. When Jerusalme falls, it's game over.
The distance counts. The 3 main Egyptian cities are relatively far from main battle front. Sidon and Jerusalem are there to constantly harass Seleucids at Antioch and Damascus. And trust me, having Antioch under siege every 2-3 turns can be challenging.

[Stingray970]

You have a brain, the AI doesn't.

You have to CREATE a challenge, if you want a challenge.

[Genius of the Restoration]

Yes, the first 10-15 turns were quiet intense, but apart from that... its a piece of cake.

All games turn out to be a piece of cake at some point (except those people lose). The point at which you manage to turn the intensity around into an onslaught is very telling. Once you overcome the initial hurdles, you can move into avalanche mode where your units and generals are much bigger and better than anything anyone else can put forward, so you conquer more which makes your units and generals even more numerous and stronger. That you did it in 10-15 turns speaks highly of you.

Congratulations

[DonRaphael]

Haha, thank you. What I mean is, if you take Sidon and Jerusalem, which I usually do in the first few turns, then Egypt are going into a passive mode. Armenia have a fetish for Hatra but defending a siege with phalanx/hoplites is the easiest thing to do in RTW beside fighting battles on bridges. Parthia is a quiet easy task as soon as you've killed their two Cataphract units and got rid of the HAs which is easily done by taking Susa the first 2-4 turns. The rest is history, get access to elephants in Antioch immediately and you are off to a great start. Thought Egypt would be more aggressive though.

I guess I'll add a couple of more settlements to their lands to get more of a challenge. Also, I think adding a couple of more settlements to the Seleucid empire would be cool and let the AI decide which one of the two factions comes out victorious under those conditions since Seleucid gets slaughtered immediately when under AI control.

[Pompey]

Parthia is a quiet easy task as soon as you've killed their two Cataphract units and got rid of the HAs which is easily done by taking Susa the first 2-4 turns. The rest is history, get access to elephants in Antioch immediately and you are off to a great start. Thought Egypt would be more aggressive though.

Or you can bribe that army and have for yourself the Cataphracts.

[Basil II the B.S]

Or you can bribe that army and have for yourself the Cataphracts.

Already tried that in the past. You won't have them. And the cost would be too high at the beginning.

[tudor93]

also try playing H/H, some people say it's actually harder then VH because of some bug or something (I play on M/M so I never tried it); this discussion about VH and H pops out from time to time

[Genius of the Restoration]

People often say this but I haven't heard anything about it. Certainly the AI combat bonuses are higher on VH. I'll defer to someone involved in modding the game who knows more about the workings than I. I think there may have been a bug that was fixed in an update early on, but I'm stretching my memory on that one and shouldn't be taken seriously . There may be some AI campaign inconsistencies with their extra money, but I haven't noticed anything unusual compared to other difficulties.

13) "Which difficulty setting is best?" or "What difficulty setting is RTR made for?" or "What do the difficulty levels mean?" etc.
Many prefer Hard/Hard, others prefer VH/VH, though very few play on Easy or Medium. Some have suggested that a "difficulty bug" exists, which causes Med to be harder than Hard and Very Hard to be the easiest of all. However, this 'difficulty bug' seems to be a rumor, and nothing more. The RTR Team suggests you play on whichever difficulty setting works best for you. Below are the known effects of the difficulty levels:

Battle difficulty:
Easy: +4 morale and +4 attack to your troops.
Medium: No bonuses.
Hard: +4 morale and +4 attack to the ai troops.
Very hard: +7 morale and +7 attack to the ai troops.

Campaign difficulty: Exact effects are not known but the AI cheats on VH by getting an extra $10,000 a turn

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=90516

[Stingray970]

^I like this guys thinking!

[Basil II the B.S]

Not to mention the early cataphracts army often comes with faction leader Arsaces, therefore it's impossible to bribe them.

[Zarax]

You want a seleucid challenge?

Try XC seleucid campaign:

1) fight 2 stacks of angry galatians at the very start
2) have fun with egypt, pontus, parthia, armenia and indie greek plus india later on your borders
3) loose Baktra for an extra (painful) surprise
4) huge, underdeveloped empire and a trait system that will make your empire fail in ruins if you get a bad ruler.

[Punic Hoplite]

Get rid of the dastardly chariots the Egyptians have, and the Seleucids will conquer the Middle East generally (in the mod I'm working on, that's how it works out 4/5 the times)