Seleucia

[Locky]

I started a Seleucia campaign yesturday, and whilst Seleucia has the largest empire on the map, i find it's impossible to hold it together even on Medium/Hard. The Rebels start chewing into the eastern part of it, as soon as possible, then Pontus and Armeneia start hacking into it. And jsut when it couldn't get any worse, Ptolomies go straight for Antioch.

So i tend to retreat into Asia Minor, take the entire area there, and secure my position, and abandon the rest of my Empire, to the other factions to fight over, lol. Make Perguremum my new capitial, and start expanding, usually into Greece, and take all the Island provinces in the area. And it turns out fine.

I'll post some screenies latter.

But has anyone even remotely managed to hold together the Seleucian empire, or did you just leave it to the others to fight over, and select a certain area to set up? Maybe's its my inability to mantian large empires, that i didn't forge myself, or it's just damn hard.

[DimeBagHo]

Just started a Seleucid campaign myself, and it is damn hard to hold everything together. I think I have managed to do it, although I did lose some ground to the rebels at the start. Here's what I did:

(1) First thing, gather everything you have in the levant (around Antioch) and drive the Ptolemies out of Asia. You start with one unit of war elephants, which is a huge advantage if you use them wisely. If you can capture Sidon and Jerusalem quickly that usually sets the Ptolemies back on their heals for a while.

(2) At the same time, hire all the mercenaries you can lay your hands on in Asia Minor, and use them to take Side and Salamis.

(3) In the far east you will probably lose some ground to the Seleucid rebels, but I managed to gain it back by sending a family member and all the troops I could lay my hands on up towards Phra. On the way I hired some mercenary Indian War Elephants, which again proved decisive in a couple of early battles with the rebels. I have managed to retake Bactria, which should serve as a good base to hold the east.

(4) After that, focus on taking the rest of Asia Minor.

In the next version I'm thinking of starting the Seleucids off at war with Parthia (only if you play the Seleucids) just to make it even harder to hold the east.

[mmmrrrr]

How about allying the Parthians with the Seleucid rebels at the same time, too?

[Sammur-amat]

isn't the parthia=seleucid rebels on east?

[DimeBagHo]

mmmrrrr: Sounds like a good idea, although the alliance might not last long.

n00kie: The Seleucid rebels are a seperate faction now.

[thoscme]

are there any patches so I can play seleucid-rebel faction?

[Kara Kolyo]

you can play all 4 rebels but when your "father" faction gets destroyed you will turn into it and game will end as far as i know

[Locky]

Well, i've taken Asia Minor, and i've got a small verteran army of levy phalangites and phalangites, and my faction leader, keeping pontus out, Egypt, seems busy with other things, and my economy is stable.

[Locky]

Here it be, lol. My "empire", or tactical retreat, lol.



Wow, that's my faction heir, i thought it was my faction leader, lol. I honestly have no idea where my faction lead is. :tooth:

[DimeBagHo]

That's a pretty good base to start out from. I'd go for Greece next - that's where the money is.

[Locky]

Well, Another update. It appears, Pontus and Ptolemies, have hit conflict together, whilst the Seleucian rebels, have the largest empire, in terms of land masss, so those three are busy battering each other, and i can keep my border's safe. I reclaimed Antioch, with my elite army, the Ptolemies, are bogged down in fighting, most of thier armies consit of a few units of Agema Phalangites, and the rest are leveies, which my silver chevron, and silver weapons phalangites and merc hoplites, plow through. Although the reforms still haven't hit, according to the chart, Rome is doing fairly well, i hope they don't die before the reforms, as i want my Silver shield legioanires. I'll post a screenie latter, it's so much better with the new 17" LCD monitor, i bought.

I'll head over to Greece, once i make sure my borders are secure from the eastern factions. As Macedon is very powerful.

Financially speaking, i make from 8000 Denarii, to 18000 a turn, which is healthy, and some of the cities are rebelling back to me.

[LittleWeiz]

It seems weird, the AI Seleucid was able to expand darn quick. Is it because of the VH setting that causes the AI to not attack each other so often and try to attack the CPU player? They held their place pretty well, even my greeks weren't able to take them down effieciently.