Ptolemies

[Perdiccas]

hello,

I wanted to start a Ptolemy campaign. I searched the forum and didn't find too much info.

I was mainly curious about Army Composition and which family line is best for ruling.

thanks

[Boriak]

As a Ptolemy Pharaoh, you will mostly fight Seleukids which will bring a myriad of phalanxes against you. The way to counter phalanxes is to bring your own phalanxes and something to flank enemy phalanxes; armour piercing swords/axes and heavy cavalry.
If you don't bring anti-phalanx units, battles will water down to tedious battles of attrition between long lines of pike formations.

As for strategy: go first for the cities of Levant (obviously). Going after the cities in North Africa might seem a more reasonable choice but they are all heavily defended small towns so there is no true benefit from that. Meroe in Kush has gold mines, true, but it's so far away you get the corruption penalties which almost make it not worth the trouble.
If you can capture Antiocheia in Syria, you will cut Seleukid holdings in Asia Minor away from the rest of their lands. You can go for Asia Minor from there or go after Babylon. Whichever it is, remember to guard your back because Seleukids can come from both sides.

Don't even try to sign a peace treaty with Seleukids. Even if you use Forced Diplomacy Mod, it will only work for a turn or two. As long as you have a border with them (which you always do unless you do some serious real-estate swapping) they will consider you an enemy.

Once you have Seleukid holdings in Asia Minor, you can afford to fight others there: Pontos, Makedonia, etc. I wouldn't declare war on the others unless you want an extra challenge.

People sometimes say that as Ptolemies they can get invaded by Carthage. That has never happened to me. Carthage is mostly passive in my games or they expand through Iberia. If you actually get lucky and get attacked by Carthage, their hoplites are nothing that your phalanxes can't handle.

Personally, I try to use as few phalanx units as possible. I keep my armies fast, flexible and above all, versatile.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

The Ptolemies were an Alexandrian Successor state, so they fought in the Macedonian style. Historically the Macedonians were the ruling class, and initially all Ptolemaic heavy (phalanx) infantry and heavy cavalry were of Macedonian origin. The native Egyptians served only as light infantry and cavalry. But the numbers of Macedonians dwindled as so many of them died in wars. Because the Macedonians were so few in number, they were reluctant to train native Eqyptians to fight in the Macedonian manner because that would make the Egyptians a serious threat if they decided to revolt against their foreign rulers. But by the time of the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC, the Ptolemies were so short of Macedonians that they had no choice but to train Egyptians as phalangites, and nearly half of the phalangites in the Ptolemaic army at that time were Egyptians.

This indeed led to the native Egyptians feeling their power, and they became rebellious. In The great revolt of the Egyptians (205–186 BC) they liberated all of Upper Egypt from Ptolemaic rule, the Ptolemies retained only the coastal cities. Crushing this rebellion nearly bankrupted the Ptolemies.

Army composition (historically accurate)

In the early years, 272-222 BCE, Machimoi of any kind (Machimoi Light Cavalry, Native Egyptian Infantry, or Machimoi Native Phalanx) should be recruited only in extremely small numbers. Egyptians should serve as light troops, Akontistai, Toxotai and Pantodapoi, and their main duty is as garrison units, putting down bandits and small-scale revolts.

The Ptolemaic army is mainly Macedonian and Greek. The core is the phalanx, of Pezhetairoi (Hellenic Medium Phalanx), on the right-hand edge of which is one block of Klerouchon Agema (Ptolemaic Elite Phalanx). On the flanks of the phalanx are either Thureophoroi (Hellenic Spearmen) or a local equivalent like Ioudaioi Taxeis (Jewish Spearmen). These are supplemented by Peltastai (Hellenic Heavy Skirmishers). Outside these are the cavalry - the general's heavy cavalry bodyguard Hetairoi (Companion Cavalry) of course, but also Lonchophoroi Hippeis (Hellenic Medium Cavalry) or Prodromoi (Successor Medium Cavalry). The Ptolemies also liked to use African Forest Elephants or African Bush Elephants to soften up the enemy before the phalanx engaged.

Also, the Ptolemies were THE biggest employers of mercenaries in the entire Hellenistic world, due to their enormous wealth and shortage of Macedonian and Greek manpower. Hire all the mercenaries you can get your hands on. This has the advantage of not reducing the population of your towns, so that the citizens remain as tax-paying civilians, not soldiers.

Send a general by ship to the tip of southern Greece that can't be reached on foot from Sparta, that looks like three tiny territories in one. That is THE place to hire all the mercenaries you could ever desire, and the AI never goes there so they all yours. Hire whatever you can, Cretan Archers, Rhodian slingers, any kind of Galatian infantry or cavalry, Southern Gallic Swordsmen, Karian warbands, Greek Classical hoplites, Peltastai, mercenary Pezhetairoi, Ethiopian and Nubian spearmen and archers. There's nothing wrong with having half of your army composed of mercenary units.

Indeed, if you want to disrupt what's happening in Greece or Anatolia, and hurt Macedon or Seleukia, you can send a general there and have him hire an entire army of nothing but mercenaries. The Ptolemies had a history of bankrolling Greek rebellions against Macedon and Seleukia, then sitting back and watching the chaos - so you can use mercenary armies to support your Koinon Hellenon and Epirote allies (until you no longer need allies, of course.)

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Oh, and the Ptolemies were the foremost naval power among the Successor states too - don't neglect the navy, build enough ships to keep the eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea clear of Seleucid ships and pirates.

[athanaric]

^ For Rhodian slingers, you'll need to conquer Rhodes, though. Or bribe a stack that has those slingers. And Cretan archers can be recruited from a t4 MIC in Alexandria as well.

Generally speaking, Ptolies have a great variety of troops at their disposal, almost as good as Seleukids, although most of them are only lightly armoured (except for the Macedonian and Galatian elites). They're also the only faction that can recruit four different types of elephant.

In terms of efficiency, medium units, especially Peltastai, Machimoi of all kinds, Jewish Spearmen, and Cretan archers are the way to go. However as with all factions in EB, there are endless possibilities for army composition.

[Perdiccas]

thanks for the info.

I was thinking about abandoning the cities along the Cilician coast and concentrating on taking the Nubian lands and holding in Palestine (I'd like to wait and fight a powerful Seleucid enemy and maybe hope Carthage tries to invade).

Does it matter much about the Ethnicity of my rulers?
I've played a bunch of Makedonian games and had an obsession of only allowing Argeades to live.

thanks again

[Boriak]

Fighting a powerful Seleukid enemy means nothing more than tackling one phalanx only army after another. It gets very tedious after time.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Fighting a powerful Seleukid enemy means nothing more than tackling one phalanx only army after another. It gets very tedious after time.

The solution to that is to launch a big raid into Seleucid territory, going all the way to Seleukia and Babylon - take their towns, and destroy their barracks and government buildings. Doesn't matter if you're not strong enough to hold the captured towns for long, since with their barracks destroyed, the Seleucids have to build them up from scratch again - and until they do, they'll be recruiting pantodapoi instead of pezhetairoi.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

From a gaming point of view, it makes little difference what ethnicity your rulers are from, except they may get different traits. From a role-playing point of view, however, you might want to maintain the Ptolemaic family line.