Minor polis in Makaranda?

[alpharomeo]

I can't build minor polis in Makaranda as Baktria even though it has 49% hellenistic culture and huge stone walls. Is that normal? Government type is satrapy, if I recall correctly.

[QuintusSertorius]

Do you have any colony points? You need a point to establish a new polis, even if all the upgrades after that need no colonists.

[myarta]

There's more on this in the Baktria thread in the Faction Guides subfolder, but I recommend pushing your points from your mission into driving the capital up to a Metropolis, then you can start spreading it out to Marakanda and the others. Spreading them out thinly will just help you get a modest amount of culture everywhere but not have enough to start generating more points sustainably. I think you get 6 points total on the missions (or is it only 5?) so in theory you could spread them out as minor polis + helcol 1 in each province, but then you'd only convert up to 30% and be stuck trying to climb up to 49% in each to get Poleis manually.

If you don't have any more points and didn't get all the way to helcol3 in Baktria, then just keep your highest influence general there and wait. Or use your spy and find some Seleukid territories with Poleis (assuming you can get up to 3 of the mid-tier ones) and capture them. Greek colonists is hard as Baktria but it's really rewarding if you focus on it exclusively, with all the cool Greek and Indo-Greek units in your sphere of influence by the time of the Marian reforms (500+) if you have the patience to sit out the conversion wait. You can also try just buying a city with a Metropolis off of the AS who is strapped for cash, but that feels a little gamey. In my last one they sold me Antioch for like 50k and that supplied lots of settlers. But it felt weird and I gave up on that game eventually.

[alpharomeo]

Thanks for the replies. I didn't read the Guide before starting my game so I learned the hard long way. I waited until Baktria, Oskabara, and Marakanda got to 69%, 49%, and 49% hellenic culture (~250 turns). I thought that would bypass the points requirement. Oskabara got to build a polis at 49%, then Baktria at 69% (a few turns later) but no option came up for Marakanda at 49%. Now QS says I still need points? I'm confused.

[QuintusSertorius]

To build a new polis_one (Minor Hellenistic Poleis) you need colony points, the same as you do for every level of helcol (Hellenistic Colony). To upgrade an existing polis, you just need to meet the building requirements.

You get colony points by completing the missions the Seleukids give you, representing them facilitating the movement of Hellenising people eastwards to supply you with manpower. Otherwise you get them when you have a polis_three, or three polis_two's. You've probably spent them putting a polis in Oskobara, because if you had any available, you'd get the option in Marakanda.

[alpharomeo]

Ok thanks for the clarification.