Seleucids

[StayingPower]

Hi,

I want to play as the Seleucids but I don't really want to start with such a huge empire. Is there any mod that makes the Seleucids start off with a smaller empire?

[Quinn Inuit]

You could always just give the eastern half to the Parthians and Bactrians. That'll make both love you.

[Antiochus the Great]

Not really, historically they were the biggest baddest country around in 280 bc but believe me no one likes the seleucids and you are gonna need that huge starting military and large settlement number to wage your wars against the hordes of invading countries.

[lebr]

What you could do is abandon and demolish al settlements you dont want in your starting empire. Just disband the armies in them and demolish all buildings, let them revolt so they become rebel settlements.
It will give you a little buffer against the invading empires and you can focus on the regions you want to expand into.
My strategy would be to abandon all the east desert settlements and let Parthia and Bactria fight over them, it will keep them busy for a while. Focus on Asia Minor and the war with the Ptolemaics, those regions are pretty valuable and will give you the money you need to keep your armies in shape.

[JoeyJubb]

To actually answer the question, the file you seek is the descr_strat.txt file, which is located in data>world>maps>campaign>imperial campaign, in the file there is a section detailing who owns what settlements.

You could simply copy and paste the settlements into different factions' sections to start with (even the rebels if you wanted). Then it'll be best to count up how many settlements you have left, find another faction with the same(ish) amount, and note how big their army is as a guide to trimming down yours. If you have a selucid-sized army without selucid-sized territory, then you'll end up in selucid-sized debt! lol.

I think that "maybe" the peope's names will have to be changed to suit whatever faction you're giving the cities to, you can find those names in data/descr_names (in the data folder).

I would urge you to give all the cities you want to the REBELS though, because giving them to other factions will probably completely ruin the balance of gameplay!!!

[Invoker]

I hate starting out as a large empire too in games; Carthage, Egypt and Seleucia just are too big for me to enjoy the early game. I like to start out small. But I did play about 40 years into a Seleucid campaign, and I have to say once you get into it, it's great. Defending your massive holdings from all sides is a challenge, and their army composition is the best in the game I think as it is highly versatile.

Give it a try, I started liking it a bit into it, maybe you will. Maybe not, who knows?

[StayingPower]

Well all that editing is way over my head (all I'm good for is editing the export_descr_unit), so I'll give it a go as you say Invoker.

If I just abandon and give away the settlements I don't want then I'll end up with a lot of generals, right?

Thanks for the replies =)