Selucid Empire difficulty

[Lordwims]

Hi.

I was just wondering if you guys find the Selucid empire campaign difficult. Its moderate I would say considering the money you get.
But I havent really gotten far, so give me a heads up on difficult scenarios.

[RedGuard]

playing it right now. will keep you updated. it is my first Seleucid campaign as well

[sleep_well]

it would depend on how you play really. im always short on money so i find it quite hard, but it's bcz i expand everywhere and surrounded by enemies (some attacked me first!!!). mostly i spend on the east where large armies of slingers are the only solution for those horse-archers early on

But i think it's a tough one (on VH/M):
strategically: u are surrounded, ur cities scattered, with very little natural borderline, and no roads!!!
diplomatically: u were a bully, guess what happen when those boys grow up?
politically: u'll see rebels everywhere, eastern cities (the furthest ones) really like to govern themselves
economically: vast empire, poor development, lots of expense
militarily: after a few turn, everyone just loves to come for u, luckily, u got the lousiest phalangites, and they are ur best bet, treat them well

Put all these together, i think it's quite frustrating for the first turns, and u should be really picky in ur spending, good news, u got (imo) the best collection of troops, and the truest heirs of Mega Alexandros on ur side, godspeed

[delra]

Just let everything past Susa/Ekbatana line rebel from you and use Eleutheroi as garrisons there (easier if you upgrade barracks first). While Baktrians and others are busy fighting over your former cities, you work on Asia Minor and Egypt - where you can reduce your borders with AI to 1-2 provinces per frontier (and put some phalanx of them to dare AI attack you, autoresolve or not), and where all the money is.

[The Kybrothilian]

Build mines, and law increasing buildings (to reduce corruption) Don't recruit units for the first 10 turns, try to fare with those you start with. I've been lucky on my campign, that Ptollies, Pontos and Hayasdan haven't tried to attack me yet and I only lost 4 provinces in the east (1 to rebellion, 2 to Pahlava and 1 to Saka)

[Anubis88]

Of course the best way to play Seleucia imho is to play historically... Try to hold on to every settlement you get, don't attack Egypt proper, and before you attack Armenia, Pontos and Parthia in an all out war, try to conquer Macedonia first... Now that's a fun campaign.

Also, the best way to keep you eastern cities safe is to build stone walls, and have an army full of slingers and archers defeanding it... Parthian armies are mostly cavalry, so you can destroy their towers pretty easily, since they only have 1 or 2. In the mean time your slingers destroy their cavalry and get more experince... You can hold the east with this tactic forever

[delra]

Just put some Phalanx in the cities, no Parthian or Saka army will be able to beat them and even Baktrians will have trouble unless they bring Elephants or Guild Warriors (and even with those it'll be a hard one for them).

Since I mostly play Baktria, which is like being "eastern cities" but without the backing of the rest of the empire, nothing deters Nomads better than two or three (even levy) Pantodapoi Phalangites. Even the toughest nomad bodyguards can't break their formation in the streets and just die on the pikes. As Baktria, I do 2+2+2 (phalanx+javs+slings) in border cities while I'm not at war and add third phalanx and more skirmishers and axe infantry if I'm at war. It makes AI become hesitant to attack and I can see their stacks turning back as phalangites are recruited.

Problem is you have to sally/defend 3-4 times every round which quickly becomes a tedium if you're at war with your neighbours. Letting Eleutheroi do that for you, you can have a much easier campaign abandoning the chore and going for easier and more fruitful battles first. Maybe it's lame to abandon cities, but it's also kinda tiring to keep defending from all sides and being bankrupt all the time.