Ideas for roleplaying as a Selecuid family?

[ooji]

I tried to roleplay as a Selecuid family but nearly all of their starting families have the same family name, Syrios. How am I supposed to roleplay there?
On a side note, I am finding it incredibly annoying when AI besieges my city even though I have clearly superior forces. Like Pahlava would siege my city with 3 archers when I have 5 archers 3 phalanx units and 4 cavalry. Not that it really matters, but it is annoying to fight them each time on a battlefield.

[Nad]

Your family will spread through marriage and adoption. Long term you could have your Syrios family govern the heartlands of your empire, around Seleukia and Babylon, and award other provinces to new families that join your dynasty. You could use their ethnicity to help decide what they get, like having Hellenes govern the western Hellenic portions of your empire and giving Iranians or Easterners provinces further east.

Silly AI sieges are frustrating, but it's easier to deal with small stacks than have your opponents merge all those units and attack you with a big stack. If you are a significant favourite you could always autoresolve to save time if you don't want to fight on the battle map, although that is disadvantageous in terms of routing the AI army and minimising losses (but it does grant better XP to your troops).

[ooji]

I like the idea of giving provinces to specific families. Do you normally allow your family members to lead armies on their own or do you limit your main army control to faction leader or heir?

[Nad]

Well I generally do not use the faction leader and heir to command armies - in my view, their job is to govern.

I tend to only have one or two armies active at a time and they are led by specific family members who are full-time generals. So the way it works for me is, my army (led by a general) conquers the settlement and stays there until unrest has died down a bit. I then "appoint" a governor (an available family member who isn't doing much) to govern the settlement (in practice the governor often accompanies the army or is behind it), and once the governor is in place, the army moves on less a couple of units to garrison the province.

Over time, governors get shuffled around provinces as the borders of the empire expand and the family tree grows. For example, in my current Roman game, I have the Cornelii family governing southern Italy and Sicily, the Iulii governing northern Italy, and Aurelii governing Africa. I also have some other families that only have one representative (e.g. one Aemelius, one Sempronius, one Claudius and one Octavius) "filling in" some provinces or commanding armies until their family tree grows (and my empire expands) so I can assign them a proper area to administer. Also over time, if the Cornelii family grows, I may have to give them northern Italy as well and move the Iulii somewhere else.

Everbody has their own ideas on roleplaying so do whatever you feel is appropriate .

[ooji]

I like your roleplaying idea. Just one curiosity though. Faction leaders did command their armies right? I remember a Roman emperor dying in battlefield in battle of Adrianople.

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

I like your roleplaying idea. Just one curiosity though. Faction leaders did command their armies right? I remember a Roman emperor dying in battlefield in battle of Adrianople.

Yes, especially a Hellenistic Basileos, apart from governing, which was done by others anyway, a Hellenistic monarch had to be successful in war! It was all part of the Makedonian tradition.Conquered land γῆ δορίκτητος (spear won territory)belonged to the king so he had to be a great warrior, in perhaps the Homeric tradition. In the case of your Seleukids the Basileos historically would rule in the western half, and the heir in the upper/eastern Satrapies. Other family members and/or trusted friends would be given Strategos duties in other Satraps- who taxed, managed and defended the territory.
Of course the αἱ βασιλικαὶ δυνάµεις (kings army) would be gathered for a campaign against, for example the Ptolemies, or Parthians.

[Nad]

Yeah, it's perfectly reasonable to use faction leaders as generals if you want and has historical precedence.

[Ownager]

Mithradates, (The Seleucid King, not the Poison King) led a campaign against Egypt with tremendous success. Kings leading Seleukeid armies is not a new thing. I always seem to role play them as brothers with differences. My inspiration for the role playing of the family comes from various places.
The Arche Seleukeia is ruled by one man. No senate. The King answers to himself, and usually has utter control over his subjects in most matters. At the beginning, I always assume Sarpedon is the scheming one, yet he is very intelligent. Meanwhile, I assume Theodoros is the loved one and the favored heir. Jealousy and unhappiness in the family like the one seen in Thor. Sarpedon is Loki and Thor is Theodoros. At the beginning, I let the faction leader take control of the army. However, here there can be changes, as well as at many parts of the role playing. That's what makes it unique. Theodoros could be a lame drunk, the King could be a sniveling coward, and only Sarpedon can save the empire. There are many possibilities.


The Southern Front- Here, there should be sadness, grim tales and misery for your generals. They are not faced with as daunting a task as the generals of the East, but they need to fight their own brothers, friends of the fabled Seleukos Nikator, fellow Greeks. The news should be coming in thick and fast from this side. Battles should have overall strategies in mind, as well as neatly executed tactics. Diplomacy should be refined.


The Eastern Front- Here, news should be scarce. With the twin threats of Baktria and Pahlava at your borders with more where that came from from the Sakae, there will be little time to celebrate wars. Identically, Lucius Verus partied in Antioch while Avidius Cassius did the dirty work. Same way, while the Southern armies duke it out strategically, the East should be a mix of gathering as many forces as possible, and rushing to save a city. It should have the overall effect of a single fire truck attempting to put out fires all over the city. When they leave one and go to another, the same fire sparks where they just put it out. That is how nomads fight and that is how the role playing should be. If I went further, I could say that the Eastern armies should be made mostly of rag tag mercenaries and should be retreating gradually, in a zig zag pattern.


The Western Front- This is the front of expansion, and where you will face your second biggest threats after your primary ones are dealt with. With forces to the East and South, Sarpedon will find it hard to keep Mazaka in Seleukeid hands from the expanding Pontic kingdom. He will be forced to show bravery to save his own skin. There is no safer place for him. He will become a better man, or maybe a worse man depending on how you want to play him. This should be your most organized front. The East should be stable, the South should be stable, next is West. Of course, you will need to send armies into the Caucasian mountains, but once again you can role play the wandering through the mountains on the quest to eliminate Hayasdan. At the West, your Emperor might be probing enemy defenses, or just going on all out conquering, again depending on who he is. However, don't send a weak general or an unproven one out with a large army, since it is hard to justify their use when battle tested veterans like Theodoros exist. Send them to Greece. Be merciful to the Greeks there. Set up a colony and begin to conquer Makedonia and the Greek City States. Leave Epirus, but leave a strong Garrison at your borders. Now, you should have the VC done, but if you want to keep going, you might choose to wait and march West across the desert to destroy Carthage. Leave Epirus, as they will march North and most likely engage the Romans head on. By now, either Rome or the Gauls have triumphed, and now they are in conflict with Epirus, who need to expand north. Let them struggle with the barbarians, and depending on how you want to play, you can either assimilate them or aid them against the Getai/Sweboz/Gauls whoever they need help with. Use them as an ally against Rome, Greeces greatest natural enemy.(Besides themselves)


Hope this was useful, I think I got a bit carried away, but Seleukeid role playing and basically role playing as a whole is one of my passions, especially with the immersive EB.

[ooji]

The only thing with Hayasan and Pontos is that they never seem to attack me when I'm playing Selecuid empire. Pontos had 1 full stack of army right outside their capital and my city next to them was relatively undefended with 4 units only. They simply stayed there with their full stack and expanded with another full stack to the west and north. As for Hayasdan, they simply conquered rebel cities near them and just stayed there, not bothering come south where my cities are. Baktria is very pacificist towards Selecuid too, preferring to expand east. Only actual enemies I face are Ptolemies, Pahlava and Saka. I wish all my neighbours would attack me at the same time. I play on VH/M, so the AI is supposed to be aggressive.

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

Provoke them, but you might regret what you wish for. I give all capitols top level barracks to start campaign, just guaranteed a half decent fight!