Seleucid Help

[Gilad]

Hello,

Just picked the game back up again after a few month break and don't really have a lot of time irl to do some extensive testing on this. But can anyone offer advice on how to deal with the political start of the Seleucids to not have to fight wars on 2-3 sides or instead of that, how to retain some of your eastern satrapies so it's not essentially a solo act?

Thanks in advance.

[Hoplitus]

Try to appease Egypt and the factions on your northern border. Your eastern satrapies will fall off anyway so you have to ally with their (potential) enemies. Parthia might be good for that. Also secure your southern border. Those Arabian tribes are usually willing to trade cause you have nice goods to offer. Invest some money in diplomacy and your have a stable stand!

[Mithridates_Eupator]

Let your eastern satrapies go and focus on Anatolia. Just keep an eye for any faction that manages to unite the Iranian Plateau, because they will go for you next. Same with the Arabian peninsula.

[Ygraine]

I've played a few Seleucid campaigns (which I usually stopped about 50~ turns in due to patch, new submod etc) and I'm currently on a campaign with them that I intend to finish (unless they kill me - difficulty is VH/N).

I'm playing with tons of sub-mods and extra mods, including the overhauled CAI by Bodemloze (which makes getting pacts and stuff way harder, at least early on), stuff like PO nightmare mod (which hampers quick expansion), slower movement mod, 12 tpy etc~
My tips on the diplomatic part is to hope that Persia and Drangiana won't leave you as satrapies (think the game is pretty lost then, they'll just zerg Mesopotamia together), because they can and will stall the whole eastern part of the map long enough for you to build up your defences and forces. In my case they're slowly losing, but they've given me plenty of time to upgrade to tier 3 cores in Mesopotamia (and elsewhere). Pact up with Armenia as soon as possible (you start with good relations) and they'll keep your northern border safe and help against Pontus/Galatia etc. Also pact up with Cappadocia since they will act as a buffer for you against (once again) Pontus/Galatia. In this campaign Galatia actually teamed up with me against Pergamon/Bithynia and Pontus - but usually they will go to war with you.

If you have Persia and Drangiana on your side, and good relations with Armenia - it comes natural to remove Media Atropetane as soon as possible. They are a threat to you and they have like -40 cultural affinity to the Seleucids (not counting other negative stuff). Getting them to pact with me was impossible, even when I joined their war against Ardhan. Looking at the map, taking Media would mean that you got Armenia covering the west and once you got Ekbatana (Medias walled city capital) you'll have a strong defensive location against the east too.
In the south/Mediterranean - take Cyprus in the first 10~ rounds or they'll be raiding you from the sea and trying to take Tyros. After I took them out, I just captured Jerusalem & Petra (Petra is another strong defensive location against both Nabatea and Egypt) and put one army in patrol mode behind Jerusalem - also keeping a spy at the Egyptian border in case they send stuff north. So far Egypt is busy with Blemmyes & Meroe and haven't attacked much.

The Arabian area is very random - seems that Qidri wants to pact up often and early. They're the closest to you and also dislike Nabatea so it's a good move! Other than that it all seems random, they fight each other randomly and you should just pick whoever really. As long as Charax has a decent defense in case the eastern arab factions decide to take a stroll north towards your land.


Sorry for the wall of text & hope this helped at least a tiny wee bit!