Egypt Starting Strategy

[Caledoni]

I had a couple of goes at Egypt on Realism and ending up at war with cyrene, Nasmones and selecids very early. This prompted Carthage, Knossos, rhodes etc to declare war aswell. I tried using Nabetea as an Ally but that seems to make things worse if anything.

Anyone got any rough starting Strategies for Egypt?

Also how do you deal with dual culture? Seem's to cause PO issues. Do these straighten out as the game goes on or get worse? any advantages to the dual culture?

[Jurand of Cracow]

In my experience, you cannot compete with the Seleukids unless they're at war with their vassals: you'll have 10-15 full-stacks knocking on your doors soon. If you're not so lucky and they attack you in the first dozen of turns, you've got not hope in hell.
You probably can fight the rest, although if you're the first enemy of Carthage, there'll again be many armies coming.
Anyway, I lost my Ptolies game even after having some initial successes - but the Seleukids didn't give me a chance, and you cannot have so many armies and so much money, and PO is low in the provinces. Perhaps one can sell away some of your provinces in Asia Minor, but I didn't try it.

[struckat]

Either make friends with the Seleucids or rush them.
I made friends in my last go at it. They had enough other problems and I ended up absorbing them.
Or build a stack and attack. You can break them in just a few battles.

[Garbad]

I would avoid war with carthage and selucids at all cost. Mop up the weak africans and you should have a very wealthy base. The problem is your roster isn't as elite as some, so you need to be opportunistic against the great powers - only hit them when they are already struggling.

[struckat]

The thing is that most of the time the Selucids will declare war on you. You must break their first stack. Once you do that, I have yet to see them recover. They then become your punching bag making you seem tough to the rest of the world.

If you leave them alone, and they are allowed to get stronger, you will have a big problem.

[gangster19]

I'm currently at turn 250 or so and managed to completely conquer all Seleucid empire. The main thing you have to consider is to be very smart with your diplomacy. Greek city states as Athens, Spart, Aetolians, Rhodos and Pergamon can be great and valuable allies if you spend the first 20k in stablishing trade and alliances with them. They will support you in all wars and use to be very generous sending armies. Also I recommend declaring war on Epirus (they won't last long and you will befriend Rome and Carthage doing so) and Makedon (they last a little longer but all the greeks together and some barbarians from the north use to destroy them).

That first alliances made that Seleucids don't declare war on me till very late, when I was ready. When you feel comfortable, secure Cyernaica and Lybia province, and launch a campaign on Ethiopia to secure your southern borders. Arabian factions can be very useful as allies, but a lot harder to befriend.

[Caledoni]

Thanks for the replies. I've got some idea's now to roll with when I get round to starting another campaign. Currently playing Macedon so I guess once I finish that.

Anyone have issues with the dual Egyptian/Hellenic culture or does that level itself out as the turns go by?

[Caledoni]

Got round to trying this out again and found it pretty easy. If anyone is interested here's what I done and how it went:

Defensive alliances with Athens, Sparta, Knossos, Rhodes. This stops factions declaring war with you. I'm about turn 30 and still no war with Selucids. They are at war with Nabetea though and this has happened everytime I have tried so I just got trade with them. There has been no Satrapy revolt script which is apparently turn 15. maybe a conflift with Realism or another mod not sure. They are down to 4 satrapys though for whatever reason.

Army to Nasmones asap and wipe them out. Managed to get out of Client state with Cyrene when Carthage declared war on them but I would have attacked them, after Nasmones anyway. Getting rid of them and good relations with Carthage gave me Libya and a stable Eastern border. Avoid treaties with Syracause, Epirus and Rome also if you want to keep good relations with Carthage.

By this time Meroe had taken all of Ethiopia and had sent 2 stacks over the red sea to Arabia. I invaded and built a navy. They managed to get one stack back across to defend but I sunk the other. Took all of Ethiopia with 2 stacks.

Side rebelled and I let it go then made peace and trade with the faction that appeared. Have had rebellions in Yehuda that I've sorted out with a small stack moving between where it spawns and using garrison troops to attack once it gets big enough to put a dent in the PO. Now I can easily afford to maintain PO by hosting games.

Turned Eqypt into a big money maker, Built a Barracks in Jerlusalem and everywhere else is food and trading materials. Pretty rich now.

[gangster19]

Got round to trying this out again and found it pretty easy. If anyone is interested here's what I done and how it went:

Defensive alliances with Athens, Sparta, Knossos, Rhodes. This stops factions declaring war with you. I'm about turn 30 and still no war with Selucids. They are at war with Nabetea though and this has happened everytime I have tried so I just got trade with them. There has been no Satrapy revolt script which is apparently turn 15. maybe a conflift with Realism or another mod not sure. They are down to 4 satrapys though for whatever reason.

Army to Nasmones asap and wipe them out. Managed to get out of Client state with Cyrene when Carthage declared war on them but I would have attacked them, after Nasmones anyway. Getting rid of them and good relations with Carthage gave me Libya and a stable Eastern border. Avoid treaties with Syracause, Epirus and Rome also if you want to keep good relations with Carthage.

By this time Meroe had taken all of Ethiopia and had sent 2 stacks over the red sea to Arabia. I invaded and built a navy. They managed to get one stack back across to defend but I sunk the other. Took all of Ethiopia with 2 stacks.

Side rebelled and I let it go then made peace and trade with the faction that appeared. Have had rebellions in Yehuda that I've sorted out with a small stack moving between where it spawns and using garrison troops to attack once it gets big enough to put a dent in the PO. Now I can easily afford to maintain PO by hosting games.

Turned Eqypt into a big money maker, Built a Barracks in Jerlusalem and everywhere else is food and trading materials. Pretty rich now.

I'm glad you finally sorted your start out! You chose a pretty similar path as mine, now you can be more relaxed and enjoy yout campaign