Let my people go!

**Deiphobos** · January 31, 2007, 04:27 AM

Yesterday I started a Seleucid campaign. I am playing 1.5 RW without any mods. As soon as I had pressed the button to start turn 4, an Egyptian army comes through the fog of war, ready to attack my cities. It was an army with a bit more than half a stack (unfortunately I couldn't see most of them, I haven't sent a spy to them yet), while my towns were struggling to build up their town garrisons and allow enough men to join an offensive army. I thought, now wait a minute, what is going on here? I have never experienced the Egyptians so early in the game, it is my first time as a Seleucid, but Egypt has always fascinated me, because it could always send stacks after stacks, when I was finally in their lands.... what the hell is the game doing? Is it meant to be like that? How can they manage this and have cities with enough men to make me sweat? Or am I just paranoid?

**Ciaran S** · January 31, 2007, 05:19 AM

Egypt is incredibly rich and most of the cities are far developed at the start of the game. They provide a real challenge to any Seleucid player, since they´re able to quickly field massive armies against you.
So, no, you´re not paranoid, you´re just fighting a well-established empire

**Roy Batty** · January 31, 2007, 04:02 PM

Yes, Egypt benefits from a pretty good beginning. I would almost recommend restarting your Seleucid campaign and buggering them right from the get-go. Good luck and cool signature!

**Deiphobos** · January 31, 2007, 06:43 PM

Thank you, you two. Well, I lost one town against them, but I came back with a vengeance. I usually dislike sieges (open battle is my thing), but this time I played everyone of them and took their cities one by one. Thankfully, my neighbors in the north are behaving. It's 1:39 in the morning now and my first mission was accomplished! Egypt is no more!

Crab Apple Tea, thank you for the sig comment!

I've been working for years with photoshop, but never for sigs. I've always wanted to do something similar to all the cool sigs on the net in my old days, so your praise means a lot to me!

I'm off to bed now. I've deserved it!

**Mrtickles** · February 01, 2007, 08:10 PM

Are you kidding? How did you manage to keep Armenia, Parthia and Pontus from blitzing your northern flank? What campaign difficulty are you playing on because I'm stuck in a defensive moshpit of nations here.

**Dulce_et_Decorum_Est** · February 02, 2007, 12:24 AM

Originally Posted by Mrtickles

Are you kidding? How did you manage to keep Armenia, Parthia and Pontus from blitzing your northern flank? What campaign difficulty are you playing on because I'm stuck in a defensive moshpit of nations here.

The Armenians have an obscene fascination with Hatra. I think it's some sort of regional holiday to attack the place yearly.

Fortunately, militia hoplites mean that you can turn the place into a death trap for anyone foolish enough to attack it repeatedly.

**Deiphobos** · February 02, 2007, 04:23 AM

Well, I am not playing on very hard settings. My settings are on medium at the moment, with hard battles. I'm only starting to get the hang of the game again and I wanted to remember everything or/and relearn it. But fear not, as soon as I had Egypt down (with some pretty impressive battles for my nearly non existent skill... for now I hope), Parthia and Armenia started knocking on my door. The Armenians quickly realized their mistake and Parthia is now only situated in the north. Their two regions are mine. The rebels to the south east have been quiet so far and I will have to take care of them before I deal with the west and north. Pontus has been very friendly.

What bothers me is that the Romans are expanding in Greece. Whenever I don't play the romans myself, I absolutely detest them, so I will have to find a way to help the Greeks and Macedonians to keep their territory. I am already allied with the Greeks, so I might offer some help in form of armies or money (and I am lacking in both at the moment!

). Unfortunately, Greece started attacking Pontus and now I'll have to decide which way to go.

I know VH/VH is the way of the samurai on this forum, but I kinda enjoy being a bit relaxed everynow and again. And because the whole thing is not on VH I was even more surprised by the effectiveness of Egypt.

**Roy Batty** · February 02, 2007, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Dulce_et_Decorum_Est

The Armenians have an obscene fascination with Hatra. I think it's some sort of regional holiday to attack the place yearly.

Fortunately, militia hoplites mean that you can turn the place into a death trap for anyone foolish enough to attack it repeatedly.

Yes indeed. In my current Seleucid camaign my Militia Hoplites in Hatra are up to two silver chevrons of experience each. All of that experience comes from Armenian skirmishers, archers and horse archers trying to force their way through my gates. It's very amusing to watch a unit of men charge into a phalanx with nothing but knives and maybe a shield. I eventually got tired of this constant attacking however and blocked off the mountain passes with some cheap Eastern Infantry mercenaries and peltasts in forts.

Deiphobos my own personal reccomendation would be to side with the Greeks against Pontus. No alliance will last forever but I think that an alliance with the Greeks will certainly last a few more years than that with Pontus, especially if Pontus manages to take Pergamum.

**Primvs Sextvs Loverlord** · February 01, 2007, 08:41 PM

The Selucid Empire DOES have a slow start but you can easily sell your map information to nearby factions for a lot of money that you can use to develop your cities.

At VH/VH, I agree with Mrtickles, the Armenians and their Heavy missile cavalry pose a lot of problems, not to mention the trecherous Pontics. However, only the first few turns are difficult and in most cases, Egypt will just leave you alone. However, you CAN sneak a half-stack through to Thebes and Alexandria because they're never defended.

**raodox** · February 06, 2007, 04:03 PM

I started a Selucid campaign last night. I had no problems with anyone but Parthia. Everyone else came and asked for Trade rights and Map info. I granted the Trade Rights and then asked for Alliances. They all accepted, but Parthia. Poor stupid little Parthia, now they own one little disconnected northern province and I'm not even going to try to reach them. I'm at least ten turns in and after having had my way with Parthia, Egypt is attacking now. They lost the first battle, now I have to hold while trying to expand into some of the still rebel owned provinces. Oh and I still have alliances with the rest of them (Pontus, Greeks, etc.) this seems rare. Is it?

**Kamos** · February 06, 2007, 04:20 PM

It won't last never does after all their can only be one ruler of the world

.

**Hannibal the destroy** · February 06, 2007, 04:27 PM

first, take all the citys egypt has by jeruslem.
that should break their economy.
next, do nothing and rienforce your citys in the north.

optional: finish of egypt.

**Deiphobos** · February 07, 2007, 02:49 AM

Egypt is way too strong. It is getting ridiculous. I had to reinstall the game two days ago... and by mistake I deleted my save games (never do stuff around your computer with a splitting migraine). Now I am playing a new Julii campaign and Egypt has swallowed the Seleucids, is swallowing Pontus (2 cities left) and pressing Parthia, who has decided to spread towards Armenia. But the speed and strength of Egypt is mind stunning.
EDIT: It is not the fact that it is prevailing that I find ridiculous. It is the speed with which Egypt is accomplishing it. I am still at the beginning of the campaign and Egypt ist nearly owning all of the southeast.

PS: Off topic, but I finally got BI, but unfortunately it is in German. Is there a way to change the language of the game (mods etc)? I have installed RTW again as BI and RTW were on one DVD (Gold Edition). Now both my RTW as well as BI are in German... and I kinda hate it.

**Scutarii** · February 07, 2007, 11:47 AM

I read about a campaign once (I believe it was Severous' long German defensive campaign) where Egypt conquered from where they start, the seleucids, all of Asia Minor, Pontus, Armenia, Parthia, and even Scythia. They rounded the bend that was the Russian steppes and began to destroy Thrace, Dacia, and (him) Germania, then the time limit was up. It was dinda scary that they could just pwn everybody like that.