Cons: Weak starting recruitment pool Surrounded by potential enemies (Egypt is the most powerful but keep an eye on Parthia and their heavy cavalry, greek cities are too preoccupied with the Romans) Empire is spread out and difficult to have an army reinforce a besieged city (rebel spawns only exacerbate the problem) Pros: Without a single doubt the best non-Roman army by late-game combining the advantages of the Roman troops (via silver shield legionaries aka a unit on par with post-reform roman troops) with the Greeks phalanx troop (silver pikes) while minimizing their weakness (Roman's lack of good spearmen and the Greeks lack heavy infantry and calvary) Also Starts near the Wonders and has the hanging gardens boosting farm income also farm upgrades allows cities to grow more quickly which allows you to access your late game roster sooner
The Seleucids have a rough start but it's not too bad if you can beat back the Egyptians quickly. (Not too difficult with pikemen and phalanxes.) Pontus, Armenia, Greece and Parthia are never going to pose the same existential threat to you that Egypt will. Once Egypt is subdued, the Seleucid Empire is a total juggernaut. Their units are awesome.
It takes two turns to destroy Parthia by conquering the neighboring city, 3 turns to block the bridge between you and armenia, 3 turns to block the bridge between you and Pontus... with the asia minor general recruit mercenaries and conquer the two rebel cities in 3 turns and then head for the bridges, and you need an alliance with Egypt until you get to build the level 2 stablespractically in 15 turns you are ready to conquer Egypt...
a long time ago, I had an absolute blast with the seleucids. the climactic battle at the end of the campaign was at Arrentium, where the julii had gathered all of their troops, a great showdown between my finest army and eight of their legions in a single battle *Sigh* good times
Well here's my faction guide, at least for the difficult early game, when you have the majority of the east it becomes an easy campaign aided by your good late-game troop roster. Don't bother much with diplomacy, at least on vh campaign, AI's are dicks against the human player and diplomacy is broken, selling trade rights and map information can give you some money though, but assume you'll have to fight all of them, I think I've done early game Seleucids on vh 4 times now and every time I needed to fight all 5 factions surrounding them. I honestly don't know if diplomacy is better on easier settings. I don't agree with an overly aggressive strategy, besides very crappy eastern infantry the AI is going to be making horse archers, jav cav and probably sending all their armies to fight you and only you while you have to prioritize. With that in mind they just have a big leg up early on in field battles, what you do have however are phalanxes which are awesome at winning ridiculous odds in siege defenses if they defend choke points. You won't have enough income to field attacking armies against all factions early on so just don't try that. Instead defend minor settlements with militia hoplites or levy pikemen against the onslaught of eastern spearmen and horse archers, 6 units should be fine against a full stack of eastern spearmen and horse archers. V-shape at the gates or streets works wonders even with crappy militia hoplites. Tarsus can hold against Pontus that way, Hatra against Armenia, Seleucia against Parthia and Damascus against Egypt. You'll want something better for field armies than militia hoplites or levy pikemen though. As for attacking: Get the general in Sardis moving immediately, there's cretan archers, rhodian slingers and mercenary hoplites he can recruit in that area all of which are very good mercenaries, with those he can get a good mercenary army very early on and will be able to take Halicarnassus and Pergamum with them, after that march that army to take on Pontus, there's usually some bastarnea as well near Nicomedia which are also good and the 2 xp mercenary spearmen and barbarian cavalry near Ancyra are alright as well with the barbarian cavalry more of a I'll take any kind of cavalry I can get my hands on this early kind of thing. Meanwhile in Antioch upgrade your barracks to start training Phalanx pikemen and start spamming them, when you get some of those they will have a big advantage against the usual Nubian and Nile spearmen which Egypt usually throws at you. And chariots while annoying die hilariously easy if you can spear them. Sending a ferry with some units to cyprus is recommended as well, Salamis is usually very lightly defended and easy pickings and if you think you can manage economically you can militarize Pergamum as well to also be able to field phalanx pikemen to get a field army against Parthia and Armenia from there. Once Pontus and Egypt are down you'll have plenty to go up against Armenia and Parthia and when you have the east the campaign is very easy, go march some big elephants against Rome or something, go nuts. Extra tip: you can usually snag Susa from the Parthians if you time it right and they have sent their army all the way to Dumatha and they tend to send their two starting units of cataphracts along which you really don't want to be fighting in an open field battle with militia hoplites because it's an insta rout even if they charge straight into the spears, beating them with militia hoplites in a settlement is possible though since they likely won't be getting their charge off and can easily get bogged down on masses of spears, you'll probably still need multiple lines of them to defeat them though. As for temples, early game Hephaestus everywhere and later game still in the recruitment settlements, that +1 attack on hoplites is actually fairly consequential especially early game. Asklepios for settlements that need the growth especially Dumatha the desert settlement, I tend to build them in settlements with base 3 farming or worse. Dionysos where you need the most public order like the three high growth settlements in Egypt or the base 30% unrest Jerusalem.
Fortifications are your best friend in this game. You are right, Ptolemy is the prime target. I always throw my weight at the beginning of the this campaign so i can quickly build a second and third army. Fortifying choke points with loose generals and cheap infantry will slow the enemy as well.
i love this game, good to see people still playing. my campaign tactic was to build a blacksmith in every town asap and produce LOTS OF SCYTHED CHARIOTS! to act as a big old hammer to crush any army, like spamming light lancers as macedon.
I actually really liked playing as the Seleucids. Their late-game troops are by far the best mix. I didn’t find the campaign too difficult except for Egypt. Once I got them out of the way, I cut through Europe easily. I wish their better troops were available sooner, but then they would be OP.
You can let some cities grouwth faster with lower taxes and send some peasants where you need them. In my seleucid campaign by the year 254 Antioch and Alexandria are already Urbes. One will have the maximum barracks and the other one the stables to train their best units.
Played several very hard campaigns with the seleucids. Best strategy for me always was to be aggressive right away with some enemies, while being entirely defensive against others. If you are entirely defensive early, which you can do, the campaign will take very long because all you do is fight on your own land to keep what you have. Basically you want to only produce military units at the beginning and build up your military buildings, the only other buildings should be ports for that big money boost and temples if needed. Don't build walls if a settlemant has none. Get levy pikemen first to abuse the long speers in sieges, then get greek cavalry next to break the low enemy morale with charges. I personally do not bother with chariots, they suck against phalanx so they are useless against Egypt and Greek, and the shitty pyjama warriors of the eastern nations will rout almost instantly against your phalanx anyway even without chariot backup. Targets you want to go for as soon as possible: Greek. Get the horribly underdefended Pergamum as early as you can to kick the greeks out of the land. Go for Rhodes next for that sweet increased sea trade income. They should be busy with fighting macedon then so after you take these two regions they rarely ever retaliate because they usually lose hard against Macedon. The western settlements should never stop producing troops in the early game, you want to take Nicomedia, Ancyra and Halicarnassus from the rebels right after taking out Greek for extra income, then camp the bridges of Pontus to protect your entire western empire with next to no effort. Parthia. Take Susa to stop them from attacking every few turns. Their next settlement is pretty damn far away so each attack will take a long time to reach you. Be aware of the two cataphract units they start with, they can run right through militia hoplites. If they have taken the desert region to the south, let them have it, this is one of the most worthless regions in the game and not worth taking until you have taken almost everything else. They will have the population down to 400 soon and be unable to produce any troops from there. Egypt. Sneaking Memphis and Alexandria is very risky and can backfire spectacularly as these cities are very hard to control due to their ridiculous growth, I'd only recommend it on easy or normal. Usually I recommend blitzing the nearby regions of Egypt, take the poorly defended Salamis island with a small group while simultaniously attacking Sidon, then storm to Jerusalem, the entire region is very badly defended with few troops, most of them black spearmen who are even worse than your militias, egyptian chariot generals will die instantly against any phalanx. Now after taking these 3 cities they have a pretty long way to walk for each attack. Next send a few troops to take Palmyra and Petra, all Egypt has left now are their 3 core cities, take them out when you have enough money to put 2 semi decent armies together. It is never worth to go for Pontus or Armenia early, their cities are far away, surrounded by mountains and dirt poor. You can also defend against both easily by abusing the bridges so you won't even lose money through sieges. After crippling Greek, Partia and Egypt and taking most of the rebel cities you have plenty of money to amass actual armies to kill your neighbours for good. I recommend killing Egypt first as they not only produce the most troops but they also get access to elite units much quicker, you never should allow them to produce their elite archers because you have nothing to counter them properly. After killing all neighbours you can either take Greece, or ignore it and go right for Italy, something you should try and do before the Marius Reform hits because if the romans get pretorian cohorts your life will get really difficult. Africa can be taken as a side project. Ignore Scythia, too annoying to bother with.
yep. Levy pikemen is the goal number 1. These boys do wonders under siege while defending choke points. 6-7 units with general can withstand full stack besiege
Gud sir if you will respond to this 3 yo comment how tf do you deal with horse archer onslaughts like how do u protect a bridge when ur getting rained on
@@gallie3543 Oh, been a while since I played Rome. From what I remember, best counter to horse archers is having more archers and some catapults. Now the seleucid archers are basic and not all that great, but if you place a bunch of them in a way that they all can shoot at anyone who reaches your side of the river, then any unit getting over gets riddled with arrows, routing pretty quickly and barely getting any fire out themselves, so for bridge battles it works even with basic archers. In my experience enemies just try to cross the bridge even if they have archers or horse archers only, so waiting a bit out of range until they finish to do their one line unit placement routine and then taking positions at the bridge as they begin to cross it allows you to do the typical 300 style phalanx victory while taking considerably less casualties from arrow fire. If that all fails then of course you can counter them with masses of cavalry, the ai is usually too dumb to kite you properly, and if they have to cross the river to get to you and you charge them while quite a few of them are still spread out on the bridge they will die quickly and cause a mass panic.
>that sad feeling when you finally conquer a nation and there's no real power left to fight Then you can go after Romans once the Egyptians are dealt with
It just sort of gets boring, maybe more big events in the game would help that could hurt you and make later game factions a bigger threat could help, but of course it’s an old game and there is no changing it.
Just started a campaign last night, went med/med since I heard this faction is quite difficult to start with, to wet my feet. I developed all the towns in early turns to make cash: farm, trader, roads, then started to print militia hoplites like no tomorrow. Tried to get an alliance with Egypt, they refused me, got one with Armenia instead. I attacked asap Palmyra and Bosra rebels and used my Seleucia forces to quickly take the parthian town next to it, declaring war on them. Was a nice catch - decently developed compared to my towns and I can train archers in it ! Parthians sieged Seleucia with 2 cataphracts and 4 horse archers (their starting army), and I BEAT them in a bridge battle ! I'm quite proud of this, I charged the bridge with 2 merc E.I., 2 militia cav, 2 generals, 2 peltasts and 5 militia hoplites. The charge was timed carefully, starting from outside partian arrow range, so all forces arrive across in a quick succession. E.I. crossed 1st to get the brunt of the arrows, mil cav arrived quickly behind them and fanned to the right, immediately tossing javelins at enemy general, generals immediately after and charged into the cataphracts that were pinned by EI by that time. Peltasts arrived next as a distraction, 2 horse archers stupidly charge them in melee ... and were quickly slaughtered by the final wave of militia hoplites emerging from the bridge ! In the west, I took Efesus?(wonder town) on turn 3 or 4, then quickly turned around north and rushed to take the 2 rebel towns there. Pontus beat me to both, so they received a war declaration right in their faces, while they're still weak. Took one of the ex rebels and now I'm taking the one across from Bosforus Straits. In the South all is quiet for now, although I see a stack of egyptians aching for a fight and they just allied Parthia. I'm not gonna wait for them, I have the almost full stack I use to take the rebel towns, they get refitted and retrained in Antioch and I will take Sidon or Ierusalem asap, whichever is less defended. Once Parthia and Pontus have been eliminated and Egypt cut down for size, I will take Armenia and then Greece, to reform Alexander's empire :).
@@ippolit4262 Nope its true I just tested it out in a custom battle and they INDEED DO have armour-piercing maces:You have to be holding the Alt key on your keyboard(AltGr works aswell)and then right-click on the enemy so ur guys charge them. Once the charge ends and they go into melee combat they will immediately switch to their maces. U don't even necessarily have to hit it BEFORE they charge:Even while they're in combat u can hit the Alt/AltGr keys on ur keyboard and right-click to attack the enemy and they will STILL change to their maces,so hitting it before the charge isn't even necessary lol. I tested this out against Sacred Band Cavalry and oh my god the maces are SOOO effective against them:I almost lost against them without the maces,but once my guys had them I didn't lose a SINGLE GUY LMAO,and their general didn't even manage to run away:I💀 him in a charge XD. They are SO freaking effective against armoured opponents like holy💩...
@@ippolit4262 @ippolit4262 Nope its true I just tested it out in a custom battle and they INDEED DO have armour-piercing maces:You have to be holding the Alt key on your keyboard(AltGr works aswell)and then right-click on the enemy so ur guys charge them. Once the charge ends and they go into melee combat they will immediately switch to their maces. U don't even necessarily have to hit it BEFORE they charge:Even while they're in combat u can hit the Alt/AltGr keys on ur keyboard and right-click to attack the enemy and they will STILL change to their maces,so hitting it before the charge isn't even necessary lol. I tested this out against Sacred Band Cavalry and oh my god the maces are SOOO effective against them:I almost lost against them without the maces,but once my guys had them I didn't lose a SINGLE GUY LMAO,and their general didn't even manage to run away:I💀 him in a charge XD. They are SO freaking effective against armoured opponents like holy💩...
funnily, on a very hard/very hard setting I migrated to near Spain and after I established myself (maybe 30 turns in), I was practically invulnerable with armies made up exclusively of scythed chariots. The barbarians and Roman armies and AI have no counter to them whatsoever and even auto-resolve highly weights the chariots in your favor.
When I heard you say, "phalanx aren't really good on the open battlefield," I thought, "I don't think you've ever tried making them into a circle have you?"
Greek Cities never allows romans to reach Marian reforms because of how easily they get their armored hoplites and how easy it is to beat hastati with even the basic hoplites or mercenary hoplites. I usually conquer Rome before turn 30, having wiped out Brutii and Scipii. By far the easiest faction in the game.
@@Dan-uf2vh you must be running ai mods man. Whenever I hit the central Mediterranean with Egypt or the Seleucids, Rome is locked, cocked and ready to rock.
greece... less aggressive... Also you can battle all 4 factions and take them down if you're good, Armenia falls pretty fast and Parthya can be brought to a single city in the opening stages of the war, the only problems are Pontus and Egypt. I would try to ally with Pontus as Egypt will also betray any alliances you make.
'Romanized' infantry In 166 BC, at the Daphne Parade under Antiochus IV, the Argyraspides corps is only seen to be 5,000 strong. However, 5,000 troops armed in the Roman fashion are present and they are described as being in the prime of their life, perhaps denoting their elite nature.[11] It is possible that the missing 5,000 men of the Argyraspides were the 5,000 'Romanized' infantry marching alongside them. The training of a segment of the royal guard in "Roman' methods was probably down to several factors. Firstly, Antiochus IV had 'spent part of his early life in Rome and had acquired rather an excessive admiration for Rome's power and methods".[12] Secondly, the future wars that the Seleucids might be fighting would probably be in the eastern satrapies against mobile enemies and other large areas of land. Training troops in this way would add to the overall efficiency and capability of the army and make it more manoeuvrable. Indeed, the 'Romanized' troops are seen facing the Maccabees at the Battle of Beth Zechariah in 162 BC.[13] Thirdly, the defeat of the Antigonids at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC was a great culture shock, showing the complete destruction of the Macedonian military system at the hands of the Roman legion. It has been suggested that the fact that these 5,000 men are marching at the head of the army was meant to show Antiochus IV's intention of reforming the entire Seleucid army along Roman lines, though whether or not this complete reform actually took place is unknown.[14] The true extent of the adoption of Roman techniques is unknown, some have suggested that the infantry are in fact more likely to be Thureophoroi or Thorakitai, troops armed with an oval shield of the Celtic type, a thrusting spear and javelins.
So I am playing right now as the Seleucid Empire on Very Hard/Very Hard setting. It's been both amazingly fun and also full of tense exchanges in warfare. I love the challenge and the high potential for this empire and the epic clashes which I think will come later as I consolidate my empire against an expanding Rome. To start, during the first few turns of the game I was approached by all the neighboring empires with the same exchange of "Map Info for Trade Rights." And since I love trade I agreed to them all. Then, like 2-3 turns later they all invaded my territories with armies and started besieging cities. Total war with Egypt attacking Antioch, Pontus attacking Tarsus, Armenia attacking Hatra, and Parthia attacking Seleucia. I learned quickly that for the beginning turns of this campaign, the Militia Cavalry is ESSENTIAL to maintaining the empire intact. Not only do they get the increased map movement points to run across the awkward stretch of the empire, but also having something to provide a counter to the ranged cavalry that each of the belligerent factions have for Armenia, Pontus, Egypt, and Parthia. I'm pretty sure that without Militia Cavalry I would have had an impossible time holding several cities. Militia Hoplites also saved my butt times when under siege, but of course using spears against cavalry is the best of counters in siege battles. I saved all my cities, but I honestly think that if you lose ANY city early in the game, even it if its Hatra which is only a Town to start with no real military buildings, you will have a very difficult time trying to recover your power. Antioch has the infantry production and Seleucia has the Militia Cavalry, and you need all the elements on your side to hold off against the armies. The biggest sacrifice I have had to make so far is the use of my General Cavalry in battle. Because the Seleucids only have weak Cavalry early game, I found that in order to win certain key battles (especially against Parthian Cataphracts as they besieged Seleucia) needed to sacrifice my general(s) to win the day. I lost several generals so far in the game, but also I have been lucky with some opportune adoptions and marriages to provide more general cavalry.
Chariots are AMAZING against ANY non-Elephant Cavalry, their scythes will just SHRED any non-Elephant Cavalry to pieces merely by TOUCHING them. If you use them you can easily decimate any General unit that comes near your forces.
-You ally with everyone and attack Greece. -You take the most rebels settlements you can. -You become strong in Antioch, Seleucia, and Sardis. -Egypt and Pontus will be the first to betray you. So you take on them. -Because the armenians and the parthians will break alliance, you attack Susa and Armenia. -Pontus, Armenia, Parthia are easy take. -Once you conquer Jerusalem, Egypt is done.
I have found that using temples that provide bonus experience and/or weapon and armor upgrades to trained troops in a settlement help tremendously for weaker early game armies like the seulucids. In the past those types of buffs from temples have allowed me to utilize the militia hoplites and levy pikemen as more reliable units against other infantry like Roman legionnaires when defending and other phalanxes when attacking
Playing Seleucids I mainly used the elephants to break down city gates without having to wait a turn to make siege weapons. Then I pulled them back and let the other troops do the job. Possibly use them in the end of taking a city, but I didn't want to waste them
Seleucid is the most fun campaign in the game imo. You start off thorn into the hornets nest. Once you've managed to get a foothold you have to move through Greece which is no picnic before heading into Rome proper. There's challenge from start to finish. Most campaigns you have to go to war with Rome early and once you've taken care of Rome it's a cakewalk from there.
With the access to Cretan archers covering the missile weakness, the Seleucids might just be the most versatile army in the game. Plus the intro is dope.
I like to use the onagers as indirect artillery while using the Phalanx as a defensive wall. It’s a great tactic during Bridge battles. The enemy has only 2 options: Either Stay and be hammered by artillery fire, or cross and be cut down by a spear wall.
I agree, taking down Egypt is the first priority of attack. You can defend Hatra and Seleucia long enough to reach the point where you can train scythed chariots and levy pikemen, which are more than adequate to take out Parthia and Armenia. Halicarnassus can be easily taken with 2 or 3 militia hoplites supplemented by cretan archers/rhodian slingers and a general. As long as you don't allow Egypt to outflank you, you're fine
seleucids were always my favorite. played my first campaign at like 12 hahaha. love the early challenge but the phalanx, cav and elephants are awesome.
I think Numidia is the hardest campaign, weak units, and poor settlements. If you can't take Carthage in the first few turns it game over because you get bankrupt like crazy.
Militia hoplites are god tier! (In city battles anyways) the trick to an easy seluicid campaign is to NOT build walls, walls cause sieges and that’s bad because they will either starve you out or you have to fight them on a field and it leads to rebellions and halts progress. By not building walls the enemy will always engage you immediately and with 4-6 units of militia hoplites wedged into your city street choke points you can beat several full stack armies, and the best part is there’s no pausing your construction or lowering you public order because the siege is over before your turn starts. (Admittedly I only play on very hard and not legendary but it’s so easy to defend a wall-less city with militia hoplites I can’t imagine it’s much harder on legendary, maybe 7 units of militia hoplites to garrison? It’s still very cost effective for how low their upkeep is vs the price of the armies they will destroy every turn)
I’ve always like having siege equipment, very handy for catching a poorly defended city before reinforcements arrive, like if the garrison leaves the city not waiting a turn to build towers can make a big deference
Seleucids a great faction to play, always a shame that they crash out of campaigns early when the AI plays them. I wouldn't say they are quite as spread out as you say, in Tarsus, Antioch and Damascus they have a solid heartland which you can focus on developing while you see off Egypt, holding on to Hatra and Sardis against weakish Pontic and Armenian attacks. Once you've conquered Egypt, you've got it made.
Most challenging & most fun campaign. My tactic: Atack in all directions from start! besiege Susa on turn 1, Partians atack you ( they 2 times stronger) but this battle can be won on easy/normal (try encircle them when they coming thru gates) . 2 units of militia cavalry can capture all this neutral cites in Arabia peninsula
Numidia imo is the most difficult since you cant get any good units at all expansion is pretty damn difficult, with Sele you just put 6 milita hoplites in Tarsus, Hatra and Selucia (most times pontus ignores Sardis and goes for Hatra instead) they will defend them rly well when they attack the settlement but if they decide to seige you out then you need to get crafty, with mercs or generals from other settlemns and soo on to fend them off but for the most part that works, while you are busy with conquering egypt and after egypt the game is won pretty much since pontus armenia and parthia didnt expant only throw units and generals away
you know, they are unplayable for a reason. their roster is trash and i'd say the only good thing about their campaign is their start (half of their borders are map's borders) but then wild Scipii kick in a bit later after start, since your death is their goal.
I always made at least 4 unit militia hoplite each city and never upgrade my walls to stone wall or beyond. It was super easy to defend with that rooster even if youre against 2000 troops. While continously defending i will focus on Antioch or Seleucia to create my OP armies.
Pike units are tanks in the field if you know how to use them properly. You can basically pin almost anything down for a time if you lower or pikes fast enough.
I started playing the Seleucids 3 days ago on VH/VH and i m quite surprised with my progress. My goal was to blitz the all Greece, like going back to where all it begun with Alexander. For this, i tried: -making ships -hiring mercs when needed -getting Athens - to move all of my armies from east on sea, while maintaining VH taxes. Egyptians were kinda ready with many ships. My luck was on my side, because i almost lost 2 generals and 9 troops while getting close to Crete Island. i got it in a siege, but was kinda anoying. After Athens, i looked for Corinth and Sparta. For this, i trained phalanx pikemen, more mercs and Macedon was kinda weak. The cherry on top was using Scyted Chariots +Generala vs Cavalry or archers. Ez win. For getting Sparta, i attacked with few troops, they did respond and my tactic was to win it by lurring all the troops outside and far away, while braking the walls, sneaking into, capturing gates and to prevent spartans to smash my levy or militia. At this time another unit was capturing the center plaza. This got me goosebumbs, ngl.:)) After Corint and Sparta, i managed to get Allied with Greece and Thrace, bcz, why not to let them live while i conquer only Macedon. After Greece, my intention is to Blitz Italy and completly ignore middle east for a while.
If you ask me. Cataphract and Elephants should be the top-prior units to get for this faction. Chariots are also good if you know what you are doing and have balls to play with them. This nation has good hoplites but phalanx is more a defensive unit and legionnaires well they are decent but not as good as Romans and by the time you will get them you will have armies of cataphracts roaming across brutes on balcans most likely. And with those two units I mentioned above you will have a mobile army because no footmen and you wont be needing siege engines because you will have elephants(thats the main reason to have atleast one squad of them. If you face towns with big walls you use mercs to dig tunnels.
Seleucid Silver Shield Legionnaires actually have the same stats as Roman Legionnaires and the same abilities including the Testudo formation. The only units that are better are the Praetorian and Urban cohorts which both take 2 turns to train compared to the Legionnaires 1 turn build, and the First Legion Cohort which are only trainable in Rome itself. Numidian and Armenian Legionnaires actually have the same stats and abilities as Principes and can't use Testudo. Fun facts :)
One Good Tip for all of you. For Units As long as you get levy pikemen your good! The Sarissa they have is match to any kind of early game infantry so pleanty of time to upgrade your buildings while your army of less expensives levy clear the way also If you want more reach and advantage go for silver shield, i dont know if every single one of you know this but They have the longest sarissa in this faction but ( Macedonian still the longest reach by my experience) , so once you have Silver shield theres no possible way for any eastern faction that have phalanx formation unit that can stop you. For Mounted units you just need 2 elephants or chariots ( if you know how to use them ) to destroy there formation or to counter any planking maneuvers and 4 cavalry (Catahpracts for assault and Companion for fast attacks or greek if you dont have enough resources) Once you destroy east and you have to go to war to the west i suggest you destroy scipii they are isolated and will be taken off easily if you already know the army composition you need by what i already say above! As for the strategy Pontus can be ally armenian can be ally ( will betray but maybe later after 15 or 20 or much less turns depends on when you make the pack early game or mid game) Parthia too weak, too far can easily be defeated by levy and elephants. Egpyt Never trust this cunts you could make alliance to them but they'll just keep betraying you so Making allaince with them is futile but it can give you time to prepare ( they betray as long as they send there armies to your region so as long as you have allaince with them it will take 3-6 turns before they betray you so yeah time to prepare)
About the Seleucid Empire. One of my favorite factions to play on Very Hard/Very Hard, pure save-game. At first it's interesting because under the A.I., they always seem to be destroyed. Secondly, I always thought it to be a difficult campaign until I found the right strategy. After taking over the Egyptians, Pontiis, the Armenians as well as the Parthians, I then I wanted to protect Macedonia from the Romans, but came just too late as they got destroyed right before I could enter the invading Roman army. This gave me an idea, to play with the severe handicap of not being able to destroy any factions, by making sure each and every one of the factions remain with at least one city and a king. I thought it would be highly stressful, but it is not impossible. So far I took Egypt and managed to leave them with one city on Cyprus, then defended against the Pontii invasions and the Armenian invasions while two big armies with nine generals were sent to Sicily and Magna Graecia. Sicily was slowly taken but ridden with plagues, and two of our generals died there. One from the plague in Messana and one from the failed attack on Syracuse. Then the plague left Messana and because of that, I made it our new capital. Meanwhile, in Italy, Tarentum was taken, then left, then bribed by the Romans, then retaken, then left alone and retaken by the Brutiis. But we moved to the north and took Ariminium, which was also lost to bribes the next turn before we moved even further northwards in order to take Patavium. Taken after many battles, with almost nothing left of the army. In Sicily, we slowly took Syracuse and Lilybaeum from the Scipians. Then we followed the Scipians into Africa to lay siege on Carthage. Then we took Carthage. In the east, we were constantly on the defensive against the aggressive Pontics from the northwest and the Armenians from the northeast, then the Parthians came from the east, while the Egyptians were roaming our lands with ships from Cyprus. We held our own with heroic and patient defensive victories against the Pontics. The Thracians were, however, about to be destroyed, so our contingency sent under a general towards Crete, had to get there quickly. Having played a bit further, it seems impossible to save the Thracians from extinction as their last city in the north is under siege with max 5 turns left. I have a diplomat in Italy, who is in contact with a Thracian diplomat, so I can hand over Crete to them when I have taken it, but unfortunately time is very much against me here and it's more than likely that the Thracians would be extinct, hence Game Over acc. to handicap, so I had to move quickly. My diplomat in Rome went to Capua and talked to the Thracian diplomat again. My treasury was getting emptier and emptier, we were losing 7000 gold per turn and I had only 20.000 left, but finally after some negotiation, the Thracians accepted being given Halicarnassus, but not until I had given them 10.000 of my dwindling gold. Next turn, the Macedonians had lifted their siege of Campus Getae, so there was a chance the Thracians now could survive.
This is probably the only faction where I would make the case for militia cavalry. Their javelins are still effective at dealing with chariots, that Egypt and Pontus love to use to frustrating effects. Especially against egyptian generals, who skirmish away from your phalanxes while wearing them down with arrows. Being cavalry, they can more easily get away if the chariots turn on them, and avoid a slaughter. It cannot be overstated how dangerous chariots become when you're not the one who's using them. You also have to worry about the parthian and armenian horse archers, who your slow moving phalanxes cannot catch, and who will die to their arrows. Militia cavalry can not only keep up with them, but their javelins give them something to hurt the horse archers in a chase before closing to melee. While both are crappy melee fighters, 9 times out of 10 the horse archers will be running away from militia cavalry chasing them, giving you an enormous rear attack advantage, resulting in very high casualties in a short amount of time, triggering a rout. This won't matter if they move up to persian cavalry/cataphract archers, who are vastly superior to militia cavalry, but against only horse archers, that extra bit of breathing room at the start is important as the Seleucids.
Awesome faction. Pikes? got those, Legions? got those too, Cav? i mean you only get Companions, Cataphracts, Scythed Chariots and Elephants! Missiles? Ok maybe not so great on that front but they can get Cretan Archers or Rhodian Slingers in most cases. Sure theyre hard but they sure are fun.
I like the Seleucids. Yeah, the early game is a bit challenging because you're the first target for Egipt, Pontus, Armenia and Parthia. If you weather the storm though and get a couple of cities to lvl 4 the only weakness they have is the archers, so get the cretan archers as many as possible. The elefants make it easier to take towns and cities without stone walls. Even the militia hoplites are good in certain situations: for town defense (the infinite morale helps) and for draining enemy missile ammo during sieges (they have a larger sheild than all the other seleucid spearmen, and unless their numbers get very low, they won't run from range attacks). I can bet that 80 militia hoplites can tank more arrows than 120 phalanx pikemen. The pantheon roster is also good. You have upgrades, health and pure happiness minor cities with Lvl3 Hephaestus temple and lvl2 forge give +2 to weapons and armor which is decent. If you use a minor city to recruit militia hoplites and send them to border regions as garrison they will suprise you how good they can defend the town/city square. In my campaign I have armies of 4 upgraded militia hoplites that travel after my main armies to garrison the freshly conquered towns. My point is that even if they are crap, they can be useful in certain situations.
I like playing the Seleucids, they have the longest pikes, you put pikes behind a wooden wall, and nobody gets past them. The ennemy units try to attack the pikemen but they can't reach them while getting slowly killed.
Things that could make the Seleucid better. 1. Rebalance Egypt, Parthia and Pontos. Egypt should be the greatest priority they should be a Hellenistic faction with a few native Egyptian auxiliaries. Follow the link below for the Egyptian Faction guide and look through the comments section until you find my suggestion. th-cam.com/video/zIy08Wy7iCI/w-d-xo.html 2. Make the map larger especially towards the east, the biggest problem is that the map is too small and does not fully represents the scope of the Seleucids. This way the Seleucid can be properly represented as the over extended superpower it was historically in the 3rd century BC. 3. Rebalance the Seleucid roster so it has both a Hellenistic core and local native auxiliaries. 4. Change the icon to the more historically accurate anchor
Play defensively. Use Militia Hoplites/Levy Pikemen to garrison border towns/cities. All your adjacent enemies (barring Egypt and Greece) rarely use infantry better than Eastern Spearmen. Just turtle at your town centre (buildings offer blind spots to stop ranged cavalry shooting your units) and funnel their forces into your spears/pikes. Focus all offense into killing Egypt ASAP.
As a beginner to Total War, Seleucids are my favorite faction lmao. I started with Julii but quit when i got gang attacked by Brittania (who conquered all of Germania) and Spain while fighting gaul. Mostly because my troops suck. Started as seleucid, Allied Egypt (they only betrayed me after 20 turns) Focused on Destroying north of me (Parthia, Armenia, Pontus). It's not that hard, the only downside is that a lot of your enemies have Horse Skirmishers which You can only really counter with Archers or Phalanxes in sieges. But you can compensate with great Mercenaries like Bedouin Archers, Cretan Archers etc
@@a.e.9821 Your idea of "the world" seems to be terrible close with that of north americans: it covers one or two continents, a limited area displaying your poor geographical knowledge.
early game i LOVE the militia cavalry. they are deadly when flanking troops and can easily chase and annihilate routing troops. they are literally the best for this! combined with militia hoplites and u got a basic and flexible army. just bring many of each. militia cav are good in everything except a direct melee engagement. avoid it as much as possible, except for maybe a small charge on the rear of a wavering unit, ideally one engaging your hoplites already. with these units u can basically annihilate huge armies of poor morale infantry. btw the chariots are an easy and cheap version of elephants...i once annihilated a huge army with only 1 general, 1 chariot and 1 militia cav unit. the chariots charge, break formations. the scattered soldiers stand up and turn around to face the chariots (which i passed through them and kept going), which is exactly when they get rear charged by the general cav, breaking them easily. then the militia cav hunt them down with ease. repeat as needed. for ranged, later i just get cretan archers as well as horse archer mercenaries. army with mostly silver shield pikes, some legionaries for flank defense and city walls, cataphracts and maybe some companions, a few armored elephants or chariots, the maybe some onagers and also the mercenaries i talked about.
Never mentioned the maces on the cataphracts, which gives them an effective against armor attack and makes them the best melee cavalry in the game after egyptian and british chariots. And war elephants are not more numerous than regular elephants the added number on the unit card is the two archers on top of each elephant. Regular elephants dont have mounted archers. And the capital is Antioch not Seleucia.
My usual late game infantry is mostly silver likes (usually 4/6) with 1/2 legionaries on the wings (so2/4 total). This is against roman factions/infantry factions. Against cav I have a different formation. Basically the legions stop flanks so very long spears can mulch legions.
Tbh you use the silver legionaries for differentiation. If you stick to pikes and shock cav you win every battle hands down. The Seleucid roster is good enough. Add in some cretan archers and rodian slingers as they are better missile units and you are good to go.
The Seleucid is so good, i had 2 ten star generals and like 5-8 five to eight star generals, and i was just steam rolling Bruti and the rest of rome. in the begining its hard but once u get rid of egypt its basicaly gg. my favourite faction so far. I think i won with the 2nd generation, also i tried out Carthage and they are just shit in comparison, no misile units is just wack also the infantry they start off with cant do shit.
I ended up once beating Egypt, Armenians, Pontus, Parthians and basically owning all hit like 2 wonders with Seleucids and that was with just spamming militia and levy pikeman.
My strategy is basically: Max out Sardis' population for militia hoplites, then move south to take Nicomedia and Rhodes for the 40% trade bonus. Simultaneously, blitz Sidon and Jerusalem - by the time you've taken them, the main Egyptian armies will have arrived and you can use the nearby mountains to defend before launching an offensive against the Egyptian homeland. Also, build up a decent army in Seleucia and take out Susa - Parthia can't field anything that will endanger your cities until the very late game. I don't bother with allying with Pontus or Armenia - typically, I let them throw their armies at Tarsus and Hatra, respectively, each garrisoned by about 6 Militia Hoplites or Levy Spearman who can mince up the Eastern Infantry. Once Egypt is out of the picture, consolidate Asia Minor, launch an army into Greece, while simultaneously building an army in Egypt to sneak attack the Romans. Once Egypt is destroyed, your priority is to take Italy before the Marian Reforms kick in and the Romans become twice as hard to beat.
The only difficulty I've had with the Seleucid Empire is their start and the consequences of that. You play defensively for the first 10-20 turns, as Egypt, Pontus, Armenia and Parthia, will all want to have a go. I focused primarily on my economy and building enough phalanx units to hold out in the event of siege, it can get pretty exhausting when all four of your regional rivals are besieging you! Once you're out of the worst of it, I found that my armies were at least 1 tier inferior to my enemies: Egypt was using Armored Chariots, Parthia and Armenia were both using cataphracts when I was stuck with Levy Pikemen who on VH mode have a tendency to rout when mass advancing on an enemy army 🤦♂️. In general, I've found that Scythed Chariots are the most effective unit when dealing with most of the above, especially early game - you don't have long range archers (other than mercenaries) to take down horse archers, your cavalry is light/missile (apart from elephants). Scythed Chariots cut horse archers of all types to ribbons along with most other types of cavalry, they can also be used to suicide enemy chariot units in a pinch. However, once you start seeing Cataphracts in enemy stacks, stop making chariots and focus on getting Cataphracts of your own and War Elephants - these are by far the most cost effective units in the roster, as they can pretty much kill anything they are put up against, just don't charge the Cataphracts into a spear wall and you're good!
I have very fond memories of playing as the Seleucids, I never made that much money with any other faction. I didn't remember the campaign as particularly difficult. I like to watch your videos for the nostalgia, but I find the faction analysis very shallow and uninformed, unfortunately. It sounds a lot like you are improvising everything on the spot or just wrote down the first thing that came to your mind. Especially for the unit roster, you completely neglect the cost of different units or the fact that by the time good units become available, most players will have more or less won the game. I would expect to fight the important first wars as Seleucid with pretty much just levy/militia phalanx amd Greek cavalry. Your analysis is also not very helpful for MP either because you ignore that some units have very small or sometimes very large gaps in recruitment costs. That's what I would focus on. Your analysis doesn't go much further than: "This unit is cheap and bad, that unit is better..." For SP advice could also talk more into detail on specific unit/army matchups in the early game. You should make some tests and demonstrate some typical early campaign battles/sieges/situations. That's just my 50cts. Would love to see you improve your content.
I think they are more fun in custom rather than actual campaign. Rome, Macedon, Parthia, Egypt, Carthage - all in 1 faction basically. But, do you get to use its diverse roster to full extent in campaign? most of time you're just a macedon with some fun stuff for mid/late to toy with but it would never actually matter for your victory. and your start is bad.
If you manage well your empire by the year 250bc you can train the best of them like Silver Shield Legionaries or Companion Cavalry and have plenty of money too.
I've tried bum-rushing Egypt as Seleucids on Very Hard-Very Hard campaigns and always got stalled out and eventually beaten back. Unfortunately, you're units are just inferior to their's from the start. Their infantry (Nubian Spearmen) is basically a clone of your infantry (Militia Hoplites) except their's gets a bonus when fighting in the desert (ie everywhere you're fighting them), they get archers way earlier than you, and they have better early game cavalry. At the moment, I'm trying a different strategy which is consolidating in Turkey. Pontus is perhaps the one neighboring country whose units are inferior to your's in the beginning. Their Eastern Infantry will lose to your Militia Hoplites every times and the only other unit they seem to field is a basic skirmisher, which your cavalry can mop up pretty easily. Beyond all this, however, I've found that the Seleucids need to rely pretty heavily on mercenaries since their early game armies are garbage. Going into Turkey, you have access to some of the most powerful mercenaries in the game (Rhodian Slingers, Mercenary Phalanxes, and [my favorite] Cretan Archers). By the time Egypt starts knocking on your door, you'll ideally be able to field a proper army and will be able to outpace them in missile units (since Cretan Archers have a stupidly long range). Of course, let's not forget the final cherry on top; Rhodes is right there just waiting to get stolen from the Greeks, which will give your economy an amazing boost.
Dilettante_Elite _ Also, maybe try to as quickly as possible to replace the militia hoplites with militia pikemen. While they still have the low morale at least they have the reach advantage unlike the nubian spearmen. It will help you in the early game
I got thumped trying to play defensively as the Seleucids, Egypt just becomes to powerful if left alone. So I tried again on H/H with a bum rush on Egypt and Parthia with good results, I haven't tried it on vh/vh though.
You have to act fast as the Seleucids. Because whilst the initial challenge is hard, your neighbouring factions are STILL not the biggest threat to you. Rome is out there, its expanding fast, and you've got to match that rate of growth and expansion if you want to have a chance at the late game. I found that taking out Pontus and the Greek cities early is a move that works. the Greeks are the least powerful and aggressive, easily conquered by a few big armies and you'll never see them again in Asia once you get rid of those few cities. And the early Pontus infantry is powerless against even your levies. You'll suffer some casualties against their skirmisher cavalry, but you've got enough expendable numbers of your own to take it. Next on the plate is the Armenians and Parthians. Similar story to the Pontus, worthless infantry but irritating cavalry. But you'll have enough resources at that point to overwhelm them, in addition to holding out against the Egyptians which should be attacking you by now. Once they're done, and with near enough all of Asia Minor plus Rhodes in your corner, you should have enough to wear down and destroy Egypt. This is the longest war you've had so far, but conquering the Nile is a pretty nice prize for your troubles. Finally comes the late game challenge. You've got the Greek Mainland to worry about now. And Rome should already be mopping up whatever Greeks and Macedonians are left clinging on to life. The only way to beat the Romans is through attrition at that point. But with a strong economy and late game units, you should be able to out produce even them by this point. What I like to do is play defensively in Egypt, holding the Scipii between those three cities where its easy to re-train units, which allows me to focus on the Julii and Brutii. Maintain a good navy to stop naval invasions, and blockade Roman provinces. And slowly but surely inch your way across the map from then on. Keeping a few armies in reserve to stop any barbarians from getting ideas.
Take the Greek settlement in Turkey on first turn( general to boat,land,buy greens take no wall city). May them pay for peace and trade next turn. Move general up to defend from Armenia recruit chariots. Focus on getting archers against Parthia. Go after Egypt very early use militia cavalry in large groups and charge with general to take out Egypt starting with slingers and bowman then general then infantry. Go all in on getting Egypt fast using boats to get there fast. After that it’s all much easier from there.
Phalanx are better than legionaries for front line because the pikes will last longer and due to the long spears they will hold their ground against top tier troops better. Also going against other phalanx armies you definitely want the long pikes rather than legionaries.
@@vnversion Phalanx armies have a screening force. I keep at least 6 militia cavalry with any phalanx stack. I'd like to see them try to get at my flanks lol !
Late game the thin silver line is one of the strongest formations in the game. 1 silver shield legion, 2 silver shield pikes. Spread all 3 2 rows deep stacked one in front of the other. Legions first rank followd by the pikes. This formations is extreme powerful and I've found nothing in the game that can stand up to it head on not even urbans
Does anyone know why I don't have the second or better general even though I'm pretty late into the campaign and all if not most of my starting cities are huge?
Egypt must be taken down very fast! Chariost are so op in this game so remember to never automatically resolve battles here Rush Barrack upgrades in Antioch and get Phalanx Spearmen ASAP build 2 or 3 militia hoplites in Hatra,Seleucia,Tarsus and Damascus so if they attack you you can defend the city,and phalanxes can't be beaten in cities if managed properly Rush Egypt as fast as you can Use the offer map information to get some money early on if you think you might have problems in this and you can use Sycthe chariots against Parthia and Armenia and they'll be very useful so I reccomend automatically resolving battles if you have chariots(The game gives insane bonuses in automatic resolves to chariots so Egypt always wins and so does Britain
Yeah Egypt will attack you anyway so it should be your number 1 priority to take down. Otherwise you might face a situation when you will be attacked by Pontus and Parthia and will have to fight 3 fronts and also it has very valuable provinces.
Chariots are imo the most weak units, especially if you play with a faction who has Phalanx units to their disposal, one hit with a Phalanx tears them down. Bridge battles are fun with chariots and Phalanx 🤣
Chariots are not that difficult to counter. Just hire 2 eastern infantry units to cover your flanks. You can even use peltasts since they have a bonus against chariots
Yeah, taking down Egypt is the main priority when playing Selucids. The way I do is - take their northern town (Sidon, was it?), park an army of Militia Hoplites on a river crossing near Jerusalem, build up an army of Phalanx Pikemen, and send them into mainland Egypt. The way it works is simple - Egypt throws everything they have at you. Literally everything. You, on the other hand, don't have anything to counter it on the open field. So, don't. Force them to fight you in the choke point. Militia they are, they're still Hoplites, and they still form a Phalanx. This way you can seal the river crossing, Egyptians will walk right into you Phalanxes. Meanwhile, they have almost nothing in the mainland, so an attack there does the job. Finally, once they lose their territories and go broke, taking Jerusalem is a pretty easy task.
Strategy wise understand you have a lot of bridges. Do your best to hold the west and east at the bridges and go after Egypt as hard as you can. Egypts early army isn't very strong. Once you take the Nile you will have the east.
What I did is put Al my armies on a boat to conquor greece and gain a lot of money and give de settlements near Egypt to pontus to create a buffer between me and Egypt cuz I hate fighting them lol
Playing them right now. Very Hard Campaign Medium Battle Difficultly. Armenia, Parthia, Pontus, Egypt have been attacking him in unison since turn 15. Super fun and challenging Campaign. But man they are all tough.
Hi buddy. I give you some tips. First diplomacy is important. Talk with your enemies by give trade rights and maps in exchange of money. Second capture Sidon and Salamis from Egypt to weaken their economy at the same time take Susa from Parthia. Made your armies according with the enemy you fight. Egypt/Pontus mostly infantry with cavalry support. Parthia/Armenia/Scythia use ranged cavalry and try to attack from the sides. Use peasants like arrow sponge to make the Horse Archers attack in melee faster. Third. Build you empire wisely. Some cities are for military others are for economy with high taxes meanwhile upgrade your cities when grouwth to get access to the best of the Seleucid can make.
@@hernanreipp6983 Yeah I was able to beat Egypt once I got the Phalanx Pikemen. With Egypt Gone most of the difficulty has disappeared. It’s understandable why the Seluecids fell apart. Pontus,Egypt, Parthia, Armenia were attacking me since the Early game. I lost a lot of the Empire but consolidated around Antioch and focused on Egypt and took it all. Diplomacy in Rome Total War sucks so much dick.
@@alexandrostheodorou8387 I agree about the diplomacy. Must of the time get attacked after I made a trade right for no reason (with Seleucia either Pontus or Armenia backstabbe me). To avoid losing cities know what enemy attack first but also who destroy first (Pontus or Armenia when dealing with Parthia and Egypt are my first targets). When you can fight, bribe. Taking the Cataphract in the beggining is very useful.
Their silver shield legioners can skirmish with romans in loose formation and run behind the pikes very effective combo in the flanks the cataphracts are gonna come on top aganist roman cav this is strongest faction in game elephants can combined with leginores in the front for more effect
Seleucia is landlocked and far away from the coast, difficult to defend, and doesn't seem that prosperous. I think a viable strategy would be to shift the capital to Antioch (as the Seleucids did historically), abandon Seleucia and Hatra (which is poor and also difficult to defend) and focus on building up the cities on the coast and expanding along the coast (towards Egypt and Asia Minor). Let the other factions take the landlocked regions, or even better trade the regions to them (or even to Rome/Macedon or something) in exchange for gold to build up your coastal settlements and temporary alliances. Once the coastal settlements become strong, the prosperity and unit roster will kick in and you can punish the Eastern factions. EDIT: I stand corrected, Seleucia is worth holding on to due to the Hanging Gardens of Babylonia. So it would be good to just leave a reasonable garrison there to defend it against the cavalry heavy factions there, but focus most of the military efforts on the coast. Keeping Hatra may not be be necessary.
Militia Hoplites and MIlitia Cavalry will win you the early game. It won't be much fun, because MilHops suck and MilCav are about the worst cavalry in the game, but it will work because they play together so well. And it just makes it all the sweeter when you can finally spare some time and money to build up and start fielding armies of *REAL* units.
I tried this faction once..... and man those eastern factions are so annoying, those damn horse archers running around and you just have the militia.... but they have a really cool army
Just garrison your border towns with militia hoplites/levy pikemen. Those Eastern Factions have no counter to them once they're funnelling towards your town centre.
i dont understand 1 thing i have sterted campaining with seleucid and my generals got 1 shoted by armies in early game i charged hoplites from behind and my general died instantly
@@danielboggan2479 I was playing on VH . Didnt know that they get raw stats instead of better AI. Learned it the hard way. Now i kite them with skirmishers and flank with light cav. xd
Polis griegas para mi es la mejor facción. Lo veo por lo original de sus oplitas pesados y Espartanos. (El mejor ataque con ellos es la defensa) Yo veo a seleucida cómo copia de Italia y Cartago y macedonia.
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selucids are my favorite faction simply due to the variety of units they have.
Same. And for the challenge they provide.
Silver Units are really strong Cataphractori, Legionaries, and Pikemen. They look cool too.
They lack archers but we can recruit cretans as them easily
They lack good archers, otherwise they cover all aspects. Bets faction in the game.
Its like playing full tech tree in aoe1, haha
Cons:
Weak starting recruitment pool
Surrounded by potential enemies (Egypt is the most powerful but keep an eye on Parthia and their heavy cavalry, greek cities are too preoccupied with the Romans)
Empire is spread out and difficult to have an army reinforce a besieged city (rebel spawns only exacerbate the problem)
Pros:
Without a single doubt the best non-Roman army by late-game combining the advantages of the Roman troops (via silver shield legionaries aka a unit on par with post-reform roman troops) with the Greeks phalanx troop (silver pikes) while minimizing their weakness (Roman's lack of good spearmen and the Greeks lack heavy infantry and calvary)
Also Starts near the Wonders and has the hanging gardens boosting farm income also farm upgrades allows cities to grow more quickly which allows you to access your late game roster sooner
Bro I ended up having to fight egypt, pontus, parthia, armenia, and the greeks at the same time.
@@sbastianbrilyanto4722 the key is to defeat egypt as soon as possible, once you have egyptian cities you are almost unstoppable
@@sergiusko4327 I ended up conquering all of their cities and just let some of them be rebel states just to rid of the hassle
I always ignored them, seeing as how they died out early on. Them I played as them and discovered them to be the very best faction in the game
I think germanias beserkers are too busted to not be the best faction
@@fatnootz3466 yeah but germans lack money early on while seleucids have a lot of port cities that can generate the mullah
@@fatnootz3466 ranged units melt berserkers way too easily
@Robert Taylor yeah but the only way to play macadon is by modding the game, and that can be buggy so i never play as them.
@Robert Taylor If you edit the game files you have modded the game! Congratulations, you do know how! :D
Thank you for doing a guide on my
empire.
Our glorious emperor!
The Seleucids have a rough start but it's not too bad if you can beat back the Egyptians quickly. (Not too difficult with pikemen and phalanxes.) Pontus, Armenia, Greece and Parthia are never going to pose the same existential threat to you that Egypt will. Once Egypt is subdued, the Seleucid Empire is a total juggernaut. Their units are awesome.
Egypt is pretty ez
It takes two turns to destroy Parthia by conquering the neighboring city, 3 turns to block the bridge between you and armenia, 3 turns to block the bridge between you and Pontus... with the asia minor general recruit mercenaries and conquer the two rebel cities in 3 turns and then head for the bridges, and you need an alliance with Egypt until you get to build the level 2 stablespractically in 15 turns you are ready to conquer Egypt...
a long time ago, I had an absolute blast with the seleucids. the climactic battle at the end of the campaign was at Arrentium, where the julii had gathered all of their troops, a great showdown between my finest army and eight of their legions in a single battle
*Sigh* good times
Well here's my faction guide, at least for the difficult early game, when you have the majority of the east it becomes an easy campaign aided by your good late-game troop roster.
Don't bother much with diplomacy, at least on vh campaign, AI's are dicks against the human player and diplomacy is broken, selling trade rights and map information can give you some money though, but assume you'll have to fight all of them, I think I've done early game Seleucids on vh 4 times now and every time I needed to fight all 5 factions surrounding them. I honestly don't know if diplomacy is better on easier settings.
I don't agree with an overly aggressive strategy, besides very crappy eastern infantry the AI is going to be making horse archers, jav cav and probably sending all their armies to fight you and only you while you have to prioritize. With that in mind they just have a big leg up early on in field battles, what you do have however are phalanxes which are awesome at winning ridiculous odds in siege defenses if they defend choke points. You won't have enough income to field attacking armies against all factions early on so just don't try that.
Instead defend minor settlements with militia hoplites or levy pikemen against the onslaught of eastern spearmen and horse archers, 6 units should be fine against a full stack of eastern spearmen and horse archers. V-shape at the gates or streets works wonders even with crappy militia hoplites. Tarsus can hold against Pontus that way, Hatra against Armenia, Seleucia against Parthia and Damascus against Egypt. You'll want something better for field armies than militia hoplites or levy pikemen though.
As for attacking:
Get the general in Sardis moving immediately, there's cretan archers, rhodian slingers and mercenary hoplites he can recruit in that area all of which are very good mercenaries, with those he can get a good mercenary army very early on and will be able to take Halicarnassus and Pergamum with them, after that march that army to take on Pontus, there's usually some bastarnea as well near Nicomedia which are also good and the 2 xp mercenary spearmen and barbarian cavalry near Ancyra are alright as well with the barbarian cavalry more of a I'll take any kind of cavalry I can get my hands on this early kind of thing.
Meanwhile in Antioch upgrade your barracks to start training Phalanx pikemen and start spamming them, when you get some of those they will have a big advantage against the usual Nubian and Nile spearmen which Egypt usually throws at you. And chariots while annoying die hilariously easy if you can spear them. Sending a ferry with some units to cyprus is recommended as well, Salamis is usually very lightly defended and easy pickings and if you think you can manage economically you can militarize Pergamum as well to also be able to field phalanx pikemen to get a field army against Parthia and Armenia from there.
Once Pontus and Egypt are down you'll have plenty to go up against Armenia and Parthia and when you have the east the campaign is very easy, go march some big elephants against Rome or something, go nuts.
Extra tip: you can usually snag Susa from the Parthians if you time it right and they have sent their army all the way to Dumatha and they tend to send their two starting units of cataphracts along which you really don't want to be fighting in an open field battle with militia hoplites because it's an insta rout even if they charge straight into the spears, beating them with militia hoplites in a settlement is possible though since they likely won't be getting their charge off and can easily get bogged down on masses of spears, you'll probably still need multiple lines of them to defeat them though.
As for temples, early game Hephaestus everywhere and later game still in the recruitment settlements, that +1 attack on hoplites is actually fairly consequential especially early game.
Asklepios for settlements that need the growth especially Dumatha the desert settlement, I tend to build them in settlements with base 3 farming or worse.
Dionysos where you need the most public order like the three high growth settlements in Egypt or the base 30% unrest Jerusalem.
Fortifications are your best friend in this game. You are right, Ptolemy is the prime target. I always throw my weight at the beginning of the this campaign so i can quickly build a second and third army. Fortifying choke points with loose generals and cheap infantry will slow the enemy as well.
i love this game, good to see people still playing. my campaign tactic was to build a blacksmith in every town asap and produce LOTS OF SCYTHED CHARIOTS! to act as a big old hammer to crush any army, like spamming light lancers as macedon.
Chariots plus cavalry after them: easy wins even against urban cohorts
I think the Seleucids are the most interesting faction for the roster and starting settlements. I love the silver theme too!
I actually really liked playing as the Seleucids. Their late-game troops are by far the best mix. I didn’t find the campaign too difficult except for Egypt. Once I got them out of the way, I cut through Europe easily. I wish their better troops were available sooner, but then they would be OP.
You can let some cities grouwth faster with lower taxes and send some peasants where you need them. In my seleucid campaign by the year 254 Antioch and Alexandria are already Urbes. One will have the maximum barracks and the other one the stables to train their best units.
Played several very hard campaigns with the seleucids. Best strategy for me always was to be aggressive right away with some enemies, while being entirely defensive against others. If you are entirely defensive early, which you can do, the campaign will take very long because all you do is fight on your own land to keep what you have. Basically you want to only produce military units at the beginning and build up your military buildings, the only other buildings should be ports for that big money boost and temples if needed. Don't build walls if a settlemant has none. Get levy pikemen first to abuse the long speers in sieges, then get greek cavalry next to break the low enemy morale with charges. I personally do not bother with chariots, they suck against phalanx so they are useless against Egypt and Greek, and the shitty pyjama warriors of the eastern nations will rout almost instantly against your phalanx anyway even without chariot backup.
Targets you want to go for as soon as possible:
Greek. Get the horribly underdefended Pergamum as early as you can to kick the greeks out of the land. Go for Rhodes next for that sweet increased sea trade income. They should be busy with fighting macedon then so after you take these two regions they rarely ever retaliate because they usually lose hard against Macedon. The western settlements should never stop producing troops in the early game, you want to take Nicomedia, Ancyra and Halicarnassus from the rebels right after taking out Greek for extra income, then camp the bridges of Pontus to protect your entire western empire with next to no effort.
Parthia. Take Susa to stop them from attacking every few turns. Their next settlement is pretty damn far away so each attack will take a long time to reach you. Be aware of the two cataphract units they start with, they can run right through militia hoplites. If they have taken the desert region to the south, let them have it, this is one of the most worthless regions in the game and not worth taking until you have taken almost everything else. They will have the population down to 400 soon and be unable to produce any troops from there.
Egypt. Sneaking Memphis and Alexandria is very risky and can backfire spectacularly as these cities are very hard to control due to their ridiculous growth, I'd only recommend it on easy or normal. Usually I recommend blitzing the nearby regions of Egypt, take the poorly defended Salamis island with a small group while simultaniously attacking Sidon, then storm to Jerusalem, the entire region is very badly defended with few troops, most of them black spearmen who are even worse than your militias, egyptian chariot generals will die instantly against any phalanx. Now after taking these 3 cities they have a pretty long way to walk for each attack. Next send a few troops to take Palmyra and Petra, all Egypt has left now are their 3 core cities, take them out when you have enough money to put 2 semi decent armies together.
It is never worth to go for Pontus or Armenia early, their cities are far away, surrounded by mountains and dirt poor. You can also defend against both easily by abusing the bridges so you won't even lose money through sieges. After crippling Greek, Partia and Egypt and taking most of the rebel cities you have plenty of money to amass actual armies to kill your neighbours for good. I recommend killing Egypt first as they not only produce the most troops but they also get access to elite units much quicker, you never should allow them to produce their elite archers because you have nothing to counter them properly. After killing all neighbours you can either take Greece, or ignore it and go right for Italy, something you should try and do before the Marius Reform hits because if the romans get pretorian cohorts your life will get really difficult. Africa can be taken as a side project. Ignore Scythia, too annoying to bother with.
yep. Levy pikemen is the goal number 1. These boys do wonders under siege while defending choke points. 6-7 units with general can withstand full stack besiege
Gud sir if you will respond to this 3 yo comment how tf do you deal with horse archer onslaughts like how do u protect a bridge when ur getting rained on
@@gallie3543 Oh, been a while since I played Rome. From what I remember, best counter to horse archers is having more archers and some catapults. Now the seleucid archers are basic and not all that great, but if you place a bunch of them in a way that they all can shoot at anyone who reaches your side of the river, then any unit getting over gets riddled with arrows, routing pretty quickly and barely getting any fire out themselves, so for bridge battles it works even with basic archers.
In my experience enemies just try to cross the bridge even if they have archers or horse archers only, so waiting a bit out of range until they finish to do their one line unit placement routine and then taking positions at the bridge as they begin to cross it allows you to do the typical 300 style phalanx victory while taking considerably less casualties from arrow fire.
If that all fails then of course you can counter them with masses of cavalry, the ai is usually too dumb to kite you properly, and if they have to cross the river to get to you and you charge them while quite a few of them are still spread out on the bridge they will die quickly and cause a mass panic.
>that sad feeling when you finally conquer a nation and there's no real power left to fight
Then you can go after Romans once the Egyptians are dealt with
It just sort of gets boring, maybe more big events in the game would help that could hurt you and make later game factions a bigger threat could help, but of course it’s an old game and there is no changing it.
Elliot it needs something like the mongols and timurids from Med 2
Just started a campaign last night, went med/med since I heard this faction is quite difficult to start with, to wet my feet. I developed all the towns in early turns to make cash: farm, trader, roads, then started to print militia hoplites like no tomorrow. Tried to get an alliance with Egypt, they refused me, got one with Armenia instead. I attacked asap Palmyra and Bosra rebels and used my Seleucia forces to quickly take the parthian town next to it, declaring war on them. Was a nice catch - decently developed compared to my towns and I can train archers in it !
Parthians sieged Seleucia with 2 cataphracts and 4 horse archers (their starting army), and I BEAT them in a bridge battle ! I'm quite proud of this, I charged the bridge with 2 merc E.I., 2 militia cav, 2 generals, 2 peltasts and 5 militia hoplites. The charge was timed carefully, starting from outside partian arrow range, so all forces arrive across in a quick succession. E.I. crossed 1st to get the brunt of the arrows, mil cav arrived quickly behind them and fanned to the right, immediately tossing javelins at enemy general, generals immediately after and charged into the cataphracts that were pinned by EI by that time. Peltasts arrived next as a distraction, 2 horse archers stupidly charge them in melee ... and were quickly slaughtered by the final wave of militia hoplites emerging from the bridge !
In the west, I took Efesus?(wonder town) on turn 3 or 4, then quickly turned around north and rushed to take the 2 rebel towns there. Pontus beat me to both, so they received a war declaration right in their faces, while they're still weak. Took one of the ex rebels and now I'm taking the one across from Bosforus Straits.
In the South all is quiet for now, although I see a stack of egyptians aching for a fight and they just allied Parthia. I'm not gonna wait for them, I have the almost full stack I use to take the rebel towns, they get refitted and retrained in Antioch and I will take Sidon or Ierusalem asap, whichever is less defended.
Once Parthia and Pontus have been eliminated and Egypt cut down for size, I will take Armenia and then Greece, to reform Alexander's empire :).
Cataphracts have armour-piercing maces as an alternative weapon in melee.
Only in Barbarian Invasion..
@@ippolit4262 Nope its true I just tested it out in a custom battle and they INDEED DO have armour-piercing maces:You have to be holding the Alt key on your keyboard(AltGr works aswell)and then right-click on the enemy so ur guys charge them. Once the charge ends and they go into melee combat they will immediately switch to their maces.
U don't even necessarily have to hit it BEFORE they charge:Even while they're in combat u can hit the Alt/AltGr keys on ur keyboard and right-click to attack the enemy and they will STILL change to their maces,so hitting it before the charge isn't even necessary lol.
I tested this out against Sacred Band Cavalry and oh my god the maces are SOOO effective against them:I almost lost against them without the maces,but once my guys had them I didn't lose a SINGLE GUY LMAO,and their general didn't even manage to run away:I💀 him in a charge XD.
They are SO freaking effective against armoured opponents like holy💩...
@@ippolit4262 @ippolit4262 Nope its true I just tested it out in a custom battle and they INDEED DO have armour-piercing maces:You have to be holding the Alt key on your keyboard(AltGr works aswell)and then right-click on the enemy so ur guys charge them. Once the charge ends and they go into melee combat they will immediately switch to their maces.
U don't even necessarily have to hit it BEFORE they charge:Even while they're in combat u can hit the Alt/AltGr keys on ur keyboard and right-click to attack the enemy and they will STILL change to their maces,so hitting it before the charge isn't even necessary lol.
I tested this out against Sacred Band Cavalry and oh my god the maces are SOOO effective against them:I almost lost against them without the maces,but once my guys had them I didn't lose a SINGLE GUY LMAO,and their general didn't even manage to run away:I💀 him in a charge XD.
They are SO freaking effective against armoured opponents like holy💩...
funnily, on a very hard/very hard setting I migrated to near Spain and after I established myself (maybe 30 turns in), I was practically invulnerable with armies made up exclusively of scythed chariots. The barbarians and Roman armies and AI have no counter to them whatsoever and even auto-resolve highly weights the chariots in your favor.
When I heard you say, "phalanx aren't really good on the open battlefield," I thought, "I don't think you've ever tried making them into a circle have you?"
Lugo is very basic in the combat section when talking about infantry, remember that he likes cavalry, specially horse archers.
There's also corner camping against non-missile enemy troops too XD
Seleucid army is one of the few that can go toe to toe with the Romans in the end game.
Greek Cities never allows romans to reach Marian reforms because of how easily they get their armored hoplites and how easy it is to beat hastati with even the basic hoplites or mercenary hoplites. I usually conquer Rome before turn 30, having wiped out Brutii and Scipii.
By far the easiest faction in the game.
@@Dan-uf2vh you must be running ai mods man. Whenever I hit the central Mediterranean with Egypt or the Seleucids, Rome is locked, cocked and ready to rock.
greece... less aggressive... Also you can battle all 4 factions and take them down if you're good, Armenia falls pretty fast and Parthya can be brought to a single city in the opening stages of the war, the only problems are Pontus and Egypt. I would try to ally with Pontus as Egypt will also betray any alliances you make.
Vlad s your wrong. Brutti will rush you so fast and scipii wont stop attacking u too.... 2 roman factions at once
@@noscope7809 That's late game !
'Romanized' infantry
In 166 BC, at the Daphne Parade under Antiochus IV, the Argyraspides corps is only seen to be 5,000 strong. However, 5,000 troops armed in the Roman fashion are present and they are described as being in the prime of their life, perhaps denoting their elite nature.[11] It is possible that the missing 5,000 men of the Argyraspides were the 5,000 'Romanized' infantry marching alongside them. The training of a segment of the royal guard in "Roman' methods was probably down to several factors. Firstly, Antiochus IV had 'spent part of his early life in Rome and had acquired rather an excessive admiration for Rome's power and methods".[12] Secondly, the future wars that the Seleucids might be fighting would probably be in the eastern satrapies against mobile enemies and other large areas of land. Training troops in this way would add to the overall efficiency and capability of the army and make it more manoeuvrable. Indeed, the 'Romanized' troops are seen facing the Maccabees at the Battle of Beth Zechariah in 162 BC.[13] Thirdly, the defeat of the Antigonids at the Battle of Pydna in 168 BC was a great culture shock, showing the complete destruction of the Macedonian military system at the hands of the Roman legion.
It has been suggested that the fact that these 5,000 men are marching at the head of the army was meant to show Antiochus IV's intention of reforming the entire Seleucid army along Roman lines, though whether or not this complete reform actually took place is unknown.[14] The true extent of the adoption of Roman techniques is unknown, some have suggested that the infantry are in fact more likely to be Thureophoroi or Thorakitai, troops armed with an oval shield of the Celtic type, a thrusting spear and javelins.
So I am playing right now as the Seleucid Empire on Very Hard/Very Hard setting. It's been both amazingly fun and also full of tense exchanges in warfare. I love the challenge and the high potential for this empire and the epic clashes which I think will come later as I consolidate my empire against an expanding Rome.
To start, during the first few turns of the game I was approached by all the neighboring empires with the same exchange of "Map Info for Trade Rights." And since I love trade I agreed to them all.
Then, like 2-3 turns later they all invaded my territories with armies and started besieging cities. Total war with Egypt attacking Antioch, Pontus attacking Tarsus, Armenia attacking Hatra, and Parthia attacking Seleucia.
I learned quickly that for the beginning turns of this campaign, the Militia Cavalry is ESSENTIAL to maintaining the empire intact. Not only do they get the increased map movement points to run across the awkward stretch of the empire, but also having something to provide a counter to the ranged cavalry that each of the belligerent factions have for Armenia, Pontus, Egypt, and Parthia. I'm pretty sure that without Militia Cavalry I would have had an impossible time holding several cities.
Militia Hoplites also saved my butt times when under siege, but of course using spears against cavalry is the best of counters in siege battles.
I saved all my cities, but I honestly think that if you lose ANY city early in the game, even it if its Hatra which is only a Town to start with no real military buildings, you will have a very difficult time trying to recover your power. Antioch has the infantry production and Seleucia has the Militia Cavalry, and you need all the elements on your side to hold off against the armies.
The biggest sacrifice I have had to make so far is the use of my General Cavalry in battle. Because the Seleucids only have weak Cavalry early game, I found that in order to win certain key battles (especially against Parthian Cataphracts as they besieged Seleucia) needed to sacrifice my general(s) to win the day. I lost several generals so far in the game, but also I have been lucky with some opportune adoptions and marriages to provide more general cavalry.
Chariots are AMAZING against ANY non-Elephant Cavalry, their scythes will just SHRED any non-Elephant Cavalry to pieces merely by TOUCHING them. If you use them you can easily decimate any General unit that comes near your forces.
I think map should have been much larger especially towards the east that way the Seleucids can be much larger in territory
One of my favorite factions
I still use these guides often just before a new run for a refresh. Wish you'd not stopped making content
The SelAYAcids are one of my favourate factions, for sure xP
Pommit really I pronounce it as seleuuucids.
-You ally with everyone and attack Greece.
-You take the most rebels settlements you can.
-You become strong in Antioch, Seleucia, and Sardis.
-Egypt and Pontus will be the first to betray you. So you take on them.
-Because the armenians and the parthians will break alliance, you attack Susa and Armenia.
-Pontus, Armenia, Parthia are easy take.
-Once you conquer Jerusalem, Egypt is done.
It’s the easiest faction in custom/multiplayer, hell in campaign (thank god for that excellent Sheild bonus on the militia hoplites am I right)
Kennan Hottinget haha yes that's very true!
I have found that using temples that provide bonus experience and/or weapon and armor upgrades to trained troops in a settlement help tremendously for weaker early game armies like the seulucids. In the past those types of buffs from temples have allowed me to utilize the militia hoplites and levy pikemen as more reliable units against other infantry like Roman legionnaires when defending and other phalanxes when attacking
Playing Seleucids I mainly used the elephants to break down city gates without having to wait a turn to make siege weapons. Then I pulled them back and let the other troops do the job. Possibly use them in the end of taking a city, but I didn't want to waste them
Personally years ago I always went to war with Parthia THEN Egypt - I always took Susa as a first priority
I disagree, I kept a friendly but tense relationship with parthia until I could bribe their cataphracts, then I blitzed them
Seleucid is the most fun campaign in the game imo. You start off thorn into the hornets nest. Once you've managed to get a foothold you have to move through Greece which is no picnic before heading into Rome proper. There's challenge from start to finish. Most campaigns you have to go to war with Rome early and once you've taken care of Rome it's a cakewalk from there.
With the access to Cretan archers covering the missile weakness, the Seleucids might just be the most versatile army in the game. Plus the intro is dope.
I like to use the onagers as indirect artillery while using the Phalanx as a defensive wall. It’s a great tactic during Bridge battles. The enemy has only 2 options: Either Stay and be hammered by artillery fire, or cross and be cut down by a spear wall.
I agree, taking down Egypt is the first priority of attack. You can defend Hatra and Seleucia long enough to reach the point where you can train scythed chariots and levy pikemen, which are more than adequate to take out Parthia and Armenia. Halicarnassus can be easily taken with 2 or 3 militia hoplites supplemented by cretan archers/rhodian slingers and a general. As long as you don't allow Egypt to outflank you, you're fine
seleucids were always my favorite. played my first campaign at like 12 hahaha. love the early challenge but the phalanx, cav and elephants are awesome.
As a 13 year old I took the entire map with seleucids and mass cataphracts.... was pretty awesome
I think Numidia is the hardest campaign, weak units, and poor settlements. If you can't take Carthage in the first few turns it game over because you get bankrupt like crazy.
Numidia is certainly a very hard faction
True
Militia hoplites are god tier! (In city battles anyways) the trick to an easy seluicid campaign is to NOT build walls, walls cause sieges and that’s bad because they will either starve you out or you have to fight them on a field and it leads to rebellions and halts progress. By not building walls the enemy will always engage you immediately and with 4-6 units of militia hoplites wedged into your city street choke points you can beat several full stack armies, and the best part is there’s no pausing your construction or lowering you public order because the siege is over before your turn starts. (Admittedly I only play on very hard and not legendary but it’s so easy to defend a wall-less city with militia hoplites I can’t imagine it’s much harder on legendary, maybe 7 units of militia hoplites to garrison? It’s still very cost effective for how low their upkeep is vs the price of the armies they will destroy every turn)
Unit Scale not set to HUGE.
THIS IS A SHAMEFURR DISPLAY
Why
In remastered edition there is extra huge setting.
I’ve always like having siege equipment, very handy for catching a poorly defended city before reinforcements arrive, like if the garrison leaves the city not waiting a turn to build towers can make a big deference
Seleucids a great faction to play, always a shame that they crash out of campaigns early when the AI plays them. I wouldn't say they are quite as spread out as you say, in Tarsus, Antioch and Damascus they have a solid heartland which you can focus on developing while you see off Egypt, holding on to Hatra and Sardis against weakish Pontic and Armenian attacks. Once you've conquered Egypt, you've got it made.
Most challenging & most fun campaign.
My tactic: Atack in all directions from start! besiege Susa on turn 1, Partians atack you ( they 2 times stronger) but this battle can be won on easy/normal (try encircle them when they coming thru gates) . 2 units of militia cavalry can capture all this neutral cites in Arabia peninsula
Numidia imo is the most difficult since you cant get any good units at all expansion is pretty damn difficult, with Sele you just put 6 milita hoplites in Tarsus, Hatra and Selucia (most times pontus ignores Sardis and goes for Hatra instead) they will defend them rly well when they attack the settlement but if they decide to seige you out then you need to get crafty, with mercs or generals from other settlemns and soo on to fend them off but for the most part that works, while you are busy with conquering egypt and after egypt the game is won pretty much since pontus armenia and parthia didnt expant only throw units and generals away
MrEuromanijak too expensive
Ill put 4 militia and thats all
As long as they can defend the gate in v formation no problem at all
The game is won after that? So post Marian Roman's that have conquered half the world is not a problem?
@@noteimporta2880 I just rush Rome and then go into northern Europe to get the lonng victory conditions
you know, they are unplayable for a reason. their roster is trash and i'd say the only good thing about their campaign is their start (half of their borders are map's borders) but then wild Scipii kick in a bit later after start, since your death is their goal.
Sadly I never met Marian romans while playing any non-roman faction, bcz mostly I ending campaigns arounr 250-235 BC... I WANT LATE GAME CHALLENGE
I always made at least 4 unit militia hoplite each city and never upgrade my walls to stone wall or beyond.
It was super easy to defend with that rooster even if youre against 2000 troops.
While continously defending i will focus on Antioch or Seleucia to create my OP armies.
Pike units are tanks in the field if you know how to use them properly. You can basically pin almost anything down for a time if you lower or pikes fast enough.
I started playing the Seleucids 3 days ago on VH/VH and i m quite surprised with my progress.
My goal was to blitz the all Greece, like going back to where all it begun with Alexander.
For this, i tried:
-making ships
-hiring mercs when needed
-getting Athens
- to move all of my armies from east on sea, while maintaining VH taxes. Egyptians were kinda ready with many ships. My luck was on my side, because i almost lost 2 generals and 9 troops while getting close to Crete Island. i got it in a siege, but was kinda anoying.
After Athens, i looked for Corinth and Sparta. For this, i trained phalanx pikemen, more mercs and Macedon was kinda weak. The cherry on top was using Scyted Chariots +Generala vs Cavalry or archers. Ez win.
For getting Sparta, i attacked with few troops, they did respond and my tactic was to win it by lurring all the troops outside and far away, while braking the walls, sneaking into, capturing gates and to prevent spartans to smash my levy or militia. At this time another unit was capturing the center plaza. This got me goosebumbs, ngl.:))
After Corint and Sparta, i managed to get Allied with Greece and Thrace, bcz, why not to let them live while i conquer only Macedon.
After Greece, my intention is to Blitz Italy and completly ignore middle east for a while.
If you ask me. Cataphract and Elephants should be the top-prior units to get for this faction. Chariots are also good if you know what you are doing and have balls to play with them. This nation has good hoplites but phalanx is more a defensive unit and legionnaires well they are decent but not as good as Romans and by the time you will get them you will have armies of cataphracts roaming across brutes on balcans most likely. And with those two units I mentioned above you will have a mobile army because no footmen and you wont be needing siege engines because you will have elephants(thats the main reason to have atleast one squad of them. If you face towns with big walls you use mercs to dig tunnels.
Seleucid Silver Shield Legionnaires actually have the same stats as Roman Legionnaires and the same abilities including the Testudo formation. The only units that are better are the Praetorian and Urban cohorts which both take 2 turns to train compared to the Legionnaires 1 turn build, and the First Legion Cohort which are only trainable in Rome itself. Numidian and Armenian Legionnaires actually have the same stats and abilities as Principes and can't use Testudo. Fun facts :)
One Good Tip for all of you.
For Units
As long as you get levy pikemen your good!
The Sarissa they have is match to any kind of early game infantry so pleanty of time to upgrade your buildings while your army of less expensives levy clear the way also
If you want more reach and advantage go for silver shield, i dont know if every single one of you know this but
They have the longest sarissa in this faction but ( Macedonian still the longest reach by my experience) , so once you have Silver shield theres no possible way for any eastern faction that have phalanx formation unit that can stop you.
For Mounted units you just need 2 elephants or chariots ( if you know how to use them ) to destroy there formation or to counter any planking maneuvers and 4 cavalry
(Catahpracts for assault and Companion for fast attacks or greek if you dont have enough resources)
Once you destroy east and you have to go to war to the west i suggest you destroy scipii they are isolated and will be taken off easily if you already know the army composition you need by what i already say above!
As for the strategy Pontus can be ally armenian can be ally ( will betray but maybe later after 15 or 20 or much less turns depends on when you make the pack early game or mid game)
Parthia too weak, too far can easily be defeated by levy and elephants.
Egpyt Never trust this cunts you could make alliance to them but they'll just keep betraying you so
Making allaince with them is futile but it can give you time to prepare ( they betray as long as they send there armies to your region so as long as you have allaince with them it will take 3-6 turns before they betray you so yeah time to prepare)
About the Seleucid Empire. One of my favorite factions to play on Very Hard/Very Hard, pure save-game. At first it's interesting because under the A.I., they always seem to be destroyed. Secondly, I always thought it to be a difficult campaign until I found the right strategy. After taking over the Egyptians, Pontiis, the Armenians as well as the Parthians, I then I wanted to protect Macedonia from the Romans, but came just too late as they got destroyed right before I could enter the invading Roman army. This gave me an idea, to play with the severe handicap of not being able to destroy any factions, by making sure each and every one of the factions remain with at least one city and a king.
I thought it would be highly stressful, but it is not impossible. So far I took Egypt and managed to leave them with one city on Cyprus, then defended against the Pontii invasions and the Armenian invasions while two big armies with nine generals were sent to Sicily and Magna Graecia. Sicily was slowly taken but ridden with plagues, and two of our generals died there. One from the plague in Messana and one from the failed attack on Syracuse. Then the plague left Messana and because of that, I made it our new capital. Meanwhile, in Italy, Tarentum was taken, then left, then bribed by the Romans, then retaken, then left alone and retaken by the Brutiis. But we moved to the north and took Ariminium, which was also lost to bribes the next turn before we moved even further northwards in order to take Patavium. Taken after many battles, with almost nothing left of the army. In Sicily, we slowly took Syracuse and Lilybaeum from the Scipians. Then we followed the Scipians into Africa to lay siege on Carthage. Then we took Carthage. In the east, we were constantly on the defensive against the aggressive Pontics from the northwest and the Armenians from the northeast, then the Parthians came from the east, while the Egyptians were roaming our lands with ships from Cyprus. We held our own with heroic and patient defensive victories against the Pontics.
The Thracians were, however, about to be destroyed, so our contingency sent under a general towards Crete, had to get there quickly. Having played a bit further, it seems impossible to save the Thracians from extinction as their last city in the north is under siege with max 5 turns left. I have a diplomat in Italy, who is in contact with a Thracian diplomat, so I can hand over Crete to them when I have taken it, but unfortunately time is very much against me here and it's more than likely that the Thracians would be extinct, hence Game Over acc. to handicap, so I had to move quickly. My diplomat in Rome went to Capua and talked to the Thracian diplomat again. My treasury was getting emptier and emptier, we were losing 7000 gold per turn and I had only 20.000 left, but finally after some negotiation, the Thracians accepted being given Halicarnassus, but not until I had given them 10.000 of my dwindling gold. Next turn, the Macedonians had lifted their siege of Campus Getae, so there was a chance the Thracians now could survive.
This was the first faction I ever played, never had any context for the challenge until I played other factions.
18:38 Which makes sense in history because the Seleucids and Ptolemies were at each other throats, though I think Seleucus was the actual aggressor.
Ptolemies were the first aggressors. In the end they lost the Syrian wars too
This is probably the only faction where I would make the case for militia cavalry. Their javelins are still effective at dealing with chariots, that Egypt and Pontus love to use to frustrating effects. Especially against egyptian generals, who skirmish away from your phalanxes while wearing them down with arrows. Being cavalry, they can more easily get away if the chariots turn on them, and avoid a slaughter. It cannot be overstated how dangerous chariots become when you're not the one who's using them.
You also have to worry about the parthian and armenian horse archers, who your slow moving phalanxes cannot catch, and who will die to their arrows. Militia cavalry can not only keep up with them, but their javelins give them something to hurt the horse archers in a chase before closing to melee. While both are crappy melee fighters, 9 times out of 10 the horse archers will be running away from militia cavalry chasing them, giving you an enormous rear attack advantage, resulting in very high casualties in a short amount of time, triggering a rout. This won't matter if they move up to persian cavalry/cataphract archers, who are vastly superior to militia cavalry, but against only horse archers, that extra bit of breathing room at the start is important as the Seleucids.
Awesome faction. Pikes? got those, Legions? got those too, Cav? i mean you only get Companions, Cataphracts, Scythed Chariots and Elephants! Missiles? Ok maybe not so great on that front but they can get Cretan Archers or Rhodian Slingers in most cases. Sure theyre hard but they sure are fun.
By the time u get those units u are unstoppable and that makes the campaign boring IMO
Alliance means nothing in TW games without mods
Even with mods...
I like the Seleucids. Yeah, the early game is a bit challenging because you're the first target for Egipt, Pontus, Armenia and Parthia. If you weather the storm though and get a couple of cities to lvl 4 the only weakness they have is the archers, so get the cretan archers as many as possible. The elefants make it easier to take towns and cities without stone walls. Even the militia hoplites are good in certain situations: for town defense (the infinite morale helps) and for draining enemy missile ammo during sieges (they have a larger sheild than all the other seleucid spearmen, and unless their numbers get very low, they won't run from range attacks). I can bet that 80 militia hoplites can tank more arrows than 120 phalanx pikemen.
The pantheon roster is also good. You have upgrades, health and pure happiness minor cities with Lvl3 Hephaestus temple and lvl2 forge give +2 to weapons and armor which is decent. If you use a minor city to recruit militia hoplites and send them to border regions as garrison they will suprise you how good they can defend the town/city square. In my campaign I have armies of 4 upgraded militia hoplites that travel after my main armies to garrison the freshly conquered towns. My point is that even if they are crap, they can be useful in certain situations.
I like playing the Seleucids, they have the longest pikes, you put pikes behind a wooden wall, and nobody gets past them. The ennemy units try to attack the pikemen but they can't reach them while getting slowly killed.
Things that could make the Seleucid better.
1. Rebalance Egypt, Parthia and Pontos. Egypt should be the greatest priority they should be a Hellenistic faction with a few native Egyptian auxiliaries. Follow the link below for the Egyptian Faction guide and look through the comments section until you find my suggestion.
th-cam.com/video/zIy08Wy7iCI/w-d-xo.html
2. Make the map larger especially towards the east, the biggest problem is that the map is too small and does not fully represents the scope of the Seleucids. This way the Seleucid can be properly represented as the over extended superpower it was historically in the 3rd century BC.
3. Rebalance the Seleucid roster so it has both a Hellenistic core and local native auxiliaries.
4. Change the icon to the more historically accurate anchor
Coming back & watchig these videos makes me so sad Lugotorix is dead
Play defensively. Use Militia Hoplites/Levy Pikemen to garrison border towns/cities. All your adjacent enemies (barring Egypt and Greece) rarely use infantry better than Eastern Spearmen. Just turtle at your town centre (buildings offer blind spots to stop ranged cavalry shooting your units) and funnel their forces into your spears/pikes. Focus all offense into killing Egypt ASAP.
Seleucids were ridiculous. Elephants, Scythe chariots, cataphracts, companions and the full phalanx tree.
It's lit🔥
As a beginner to Total War, Seleucids are my favorite faction lmao. I started with Julii but quit when i got gang attacked by Brittania (who conquered all of Germania) and Spain while fighting gaul. Mostly because my troops suck.
Started as seleucid, Allied Egypt (they only betrayed me after 20 turns) Focused on Destroying north of me (Parthia, Armenia, Pontus). It's not that hard, the only downside is that a lot of your enemies have Horse Skirmishers which You can only really counter with Archers or Phalanxes in sieges. But you can compensate with great Mercenaries like Bedouin Archers, Cretan Archers etc
Very long spears means 5 leyers of spears compares to standard 2.
Levy pikemen are a huge upgrade because of this.
The Greeks could rule the world.
Alexander did
@@croatianSplit he took a Greek army to the far indus. There was nothing left to conquer...
@@a.e.9821 There was, he didn't conquer India, that's where he stopped and went back. Too many indians !
@@Zamolxes77 the world was his. but alexander is dead. His empire is gone. And so we live in evil days...
@@a.e.9821 Your idea of "the world" seems to be terrible close with that of north americans: it covers one or two continents, a limited area displaying your poor geographical knowledge.
early game i LOVE the militia cavalry. they are deadly when flanking troops and can easily chase and annihilate routing troops. they are literally the best for this!
combined with militia hoplites and u got a basic and flexible army. just bring many of each.
militia cav are good in everything except a direct melee engagement. avoid it as much as possible, except for maybe a small charge on the rear of a wavering unit, ideally one engaging your hoplites already.
with these units u can basically annihilate huge armies of poor morale infantry.
btw the chariots are an easy and cheap version of elephants...i once annihilated a huge army with only 1 general, 1 chariot and 1 militia cav unit.
the chariots charge, break formations. the scattered soldiers stand up and turn around to face the chariots (which i passed through them and kept going), which is exactly when they get rear charged by the general cav, breaking them easily. then the militia cav hunt them down with ease. repeat as needed.
for ranged, later i just get cretan archers as well as horse archer mercenaries.
army with mostly silver shield pikes, some legionaries for flank defense and city walls, cataphracts and maybe some companions, a few armored elephants or chariots, the maybe some onagers and also the mercenaries i talked about.
Never mentioned the maces on the cataphracts, which gives them an effective against armor attack and makes them the best melee cavalry in the game after egyptian and british chariots.
And war elephants are not more numerous than regular elephants the added number on the unit card is the two archers on top of each elephant. Regular elephants dont have mounted archers.
And the capital is Antioch not Seleucia.
My usual late game infantry is mostly silver likes (usually 4/6) with 1/2 legionaries on the wings (so2/4 total). This is against roman factions/infantry factions. Against cav I have a different formation. Basically the legions stop flanks so very long spears can mulch legions.
Tbh you use the silver legionaries for differentiation. If you stick to pikes and shock cav you win every battle hands down. The Seleucid roster is good enough. Add in some cretan archers and rodian slingers as they are better missile units and you are good to go.
My tip is to be agressive at ur first turn and dont worry bout getting atacked bc u have hoplites and also take rhodes instead of pergamum
The Seleucid is so good, i had 2 ten star generals and like 5-8 five to eight star generals, and i was just steam rolling Bruti and the rest of rome. in the begining its hard but once u get rid of egypt its basicaly gg. my favourite faction so far. I think i won with the 2nd generation, also i tried out Carthage and they are just shit in comparison, no misile units is just wack also the infantry they start off with cant do shit.
I ended up once beating Egypt, Armenians, Pontus, Parthians and basically owning all hit like 2 wonders with Seleucids and that was with just spamming militia and levy pikeman.
My strategy is basically: Max out Sardis' population for militia hoplites, then move south to take Nicomedia and Rhodes for the 40% trade bonus. Simultaneously, blitz Sidon and Jerusalem - by the time you've taken them, the main Egyptian armies will have arrived and you can use the nearby mountains to defend before launching an offensive against the Egyptian homeland. Also, build up a decent army in Seleucia and take out Susa - Parthia can't field anything that will endanger your cities until the very late game. I don't bother with allying with Pontus or Armenia - typically, I let them throw their armies at Tarsus and Hatra, respectively, each garrisoned by about 6 Militia Hoplites or Levy Spearman who can mince up the Eastern Infantry. Once Egypt is out of the picture, consolidate Asia Minor, launch an army into Greece, while simultaneously building an army in Egypt to sneak attack the Romans. Once Egypt is destroyed, your priority is to take Italy before the Marian Reforms kick in and the Romans become twice as hard to beat.
The only difficulty I've had with the Seleucid Empire is their start and the consequences of that. You play defensively for the first 10-20 turns, as Egypt, Pontus, Armenia and Parthia, will all want to have a go. I focused primarily on my economy and building enough phalanx units to hold out in the event of siege, it can get pretty exhausting when all four of your regional rivals are besieging you!
Once you're out of the worst of it, I found that my armies were at least 1 tier inferior to my enemies: Egypt was using Armored Chariots, Parthia and Armenia were both using cataphracts when I was stuck with Levy Pikemen who on VH mode have a tendency to rout when mass advancing on an enemy army 🤦♂️.
In general, I've found that Scythed Chariots are the most effective unit when dealing with most of the above, especially early game - you don't have long range archers (other than mercenaries) to take down horse archers, your cavalry is light/missile (apart from elephants). Scythed Chariots cut horse archers of all types to ribbons along with most other types of cavalry, they can also be used to suicide enemy chariot units in a pinch.
However, once you start seeing Cataphracts in enemy stacks, stop making chariots and focus on getting Cataphracts of your own and War Elephants - these are by far the most cost effective units in the roster, as they can pretty much kill anything they are put up against, just don't charge the Cataphracts into a spear wall and you're good!
I have very fond memories of playing as the Seleucids, I never made that much money with any other faction. I didn't remember the campaign as particularly difficult.
I like to watch your videos for the nostalgia, but I find the faction analysis very shallow and uninformed, unfortunately. It sounds a lot like you are improvising everything on the spot or just wrote down the first thing that came to your mind. Especially for the unit roster, you completely neglect the cost of different units or the fact that by the time good units become available, most players will have more or less won the game. I would expect to fight the important first wars as Seleucid with pretty much just levy/militia phalanx amd Greek cavalry. Your analysis is also not very helpful for MP either because you ignore that some units have very small or sometimes very large gaps in recruitment costs. That's what I would focus on. Your analysis doesn't go much further than: "This unit is cheap and bad, that unit is better..." For SP advice could also talk more into detail on specific unit/army matchups in the early game. You should make some tests and demonstrate some typical early campaign battles/sieges/situations. That's just my 50cts. Would love to see you improve your content.
Excellent constructive feedback
They are the coolest faction by far. Bc they get LEGIONARIES!
I think they are more fun in custom rather than actual campaign. Rome, Macedon, Parthia, Egypt, Carthage - all in 1 faction basically. But, do you get to use its diverse roster to full extent in campaign? most of time you're just a macedon with some fun stuff for mid/late to toy with but it would never actually matter for your victory. and your start is bad.
If you manage well your empire by the year 250bc you can train the best of them like Silver Shield Legionaries or Companion Cavalry and have plenty of money too.
I always use those chariots against enemy cavalry. They absolutely wreck all cavalry
I've tried bum-rushing Egypt as Seleucids on Very Hard-Very Hard campaigns and always got stalled out and eventually beaten back. Unfortunately, you're units are just inferior to their's from the start. Their infantry (Nubian Spearmen) is basically a clone of your infantry (Militia Hoplites) except their's gets a bonus when fighting in the desert (ie everywhere you're fighting them), they get archers way earlier than you, and they have better early game cavalry.
At the moment, I'm trying a different strategy which is consolidating in Turkey. Pontus is perhaps the one neighboring country whose units are inferior to your's in the beginning. Their Eastern Infantry will lose to your Militia Hoplites every times and the only other unit they seem to field is a basic skirmisher, which your cavalry can mop up pretty easily. Beyond all this, however, I've found that the Seleucids need to rely pretty heavily on mercenaries since their early game armies are garbage. Going into Turkey, you have access to some of the most powerful mercenaries in the game (Rhodian Slingers, Mercenary Phalanxes, and [my favorite] Cretan Archers). By the time Egypt starts knocking on your door, you'll ideally be able to field a proper army and will be able to outpace them in missile units (since Cretan Archers have a stupidly long range). Of course, let's not forget the final cherry on top; Rhodes is right there just waiting to get stolen from the Greeks, which will give your economy an amazing boost.
Dilettante_Elite _
Also, maybe try to as quickly as possible to replace the militia hoplites with militia pikemen. While they still have the low morale at least they have the reach advantage unlike the nubian spearmen. It will help you in the early game
I got thumped trying to play defensively as the Seleucids, Egypt just becomes to powerful if left alone. So I tried again on H/H with a bum rush on Egypt and Parthia with good results, I haven't tried it on vh/vh though.
You have to act fast as the Seleucids. Because whilst the initial challenge is hard, your neighbouring factions are STILL not the biggest threat to you. Rome is out there, its expanding fast, and you've got to match that rate of growth and expansion if you want to have a chance at the late game.
I found that taking out Pontus and the Greek cities early is a move that works. the Greeks are the least powerful and aggressive, easily conquered by a few big armies and you'll never see them again in Asia once you get rid of those few cities. And the early Pontus infantry is powerless against even your levies. You'll suffer some casualties against their skirmisher cavalry, but you've got enough expendable numbers of your own to take it.
Next on the plate is the Armenians and Parthians. Similar story to the Pontus, worthless infantry but irritating cavalry. But you'll have enough resources at that point to overwhelm them, in addition to holding out against the Egyptians which should be attacking you by now. Once they're done, and with near enough all of Asia Minor plus Rhodes in your corner, you should have enough to wear down and destroy Egypt. This is the longest war you've had so far, but conquering the Nile is a pretty nice prize for your troubles.
Finally comes the late game challenge. You've got the Greek Mainland to worry about now. And Rome should already be mopping up whatever Greeks and Macedonians are left clinging on to life. The only way to beat the Romans is through attrition at that point. But with a strong economy and late game units, you should be able to out produce even them by this point.
What I like to do is play defensively in Egypt, holding the Scipii between those three cities where its easy to re-train units, which allows me to focus on the Julii and Brutii. Maintain a good navy to stop naval invasions, and blockade Roman provinces. And slowly but surely inch your way across the map from then on. Keeping a few armies in reserve to stop any barbarians from getting ideas.
Cretan archers are op!!
Take the Greek settlement in Turkey on first turn( general to boat,land,buy greens take no wall city). May them pay for peace and trade next turn. Move general up to defend from Armenia recruit chariots. Focus on getting archers against Parthia. Go after Egypt very early use militia cavalry in large groups and charge with general to take out Egypt starting with slingers and bowman then general then infantry. Go all in on getting Egypt fast using boats to get there fast. After that it’s all much easier from there.
Phalanx are better than legionaries for front line because the pikes will last longer and due to the long spears they will hold their ground against top tier troops better. Also going against other phalanx armies you definitely want the long pikes rather than legionaries.
Less mobility though, which can mean the difference between victory or defeat if the enemy decides to flank
@@vnversion That's why you get lots of good cavalry with them.
@@vnversion Phalanx armies have a screening force. I keep at least 6 militia cavalry with any phalanx stack. I'd like to see them try to get at my flanks lol !
I subscribed, subscriber count jumped from 1k to 1.1k , so I must count for 100 peoplez
rtw classic !! 4 liyfe
hahaha thanks man
Late game the thin silver line is one of the strongest formations in the game. 1 silver shield legion, 2 silver shield pikes. Spread all 3 2 rows deep stacked one in front of the other. Legions first rank followd by the pikes. This formations is extreme powerful and I've found nothing in the game that can stand up to it head on not even urbans
Does anyone know why I don't have the second or better general even though I'm pretty late into the campaign and all if not most of my starting cities are huge?
You only get upgraded generals when a ROMAN faction gets a Huge City.
@@PlanetZoidstar when YOU get a huge city
Egypt must be taken down very fast!
Chariost are so op in this game so remember to never automatically resolve battles here
Rush Barrack upgrades in Antioch and get Phalanx Spearmen ASAP
build 2 or 3 militia hoplites in Hatra,Seleucia,Tarsus and Damascus so if they attack you you can defend the city,and phalanxes can't be beaten in cities if managed properly
Rush Egypt as fast as you can
Use the offer map information to get some money early on if you think you might have problems in this and you can use Sycthe chariots against Parthia and Armenia and they'll be very useful so I reccomend automatically resolving battles if you have chariots(The game gives insane bonuses in automatic resolves to chariots so Egypt always wins and so does Britain
Yeah Egypt will attack you anyway so it should be your number 1 priority to take down. Otherwise you might face a situation when you will be attacked by Pontus and Parthia and will have to fight 3 fronts and also it has very valuable provinces.
Chariots are imo the most weak units, especially if you play with a faction who has Phalanx units to their disposal, one hit with a Phalanx tears them down. Bridge battles are fun with chariots and Phalanx 🤣
Chariots are not that difficult to counter. Just hire 2 eastern infantry units to cover your flanks. You can even use peltasts since they have a bonus against chariots
Yeah, taking down Egypt is the main priority when playing Selucids. The way I do is - take their northern town (Sidon, was it?), park an army of Militia Hoplites on a river crossing near Jerusalem, build up an army of Phalanx Pikemen, and send them into mainland Egypt. The way it works is simple - Egypt throws everything they have at you. Literally everything. You, on the other hand, don't have anything to counter it on the open field. So, don't. Force them to fight you in the choke point. Militia they are, they're still Hoplites, and they still form a Phalanx. This way you can seal the river crossing, Egyptians will walk right into you Phalanxes. Meanwhile, they have almost nothing in the mainland, so an attack there does the job. Finally, once they lose their territories and go broke, taking Jerusalem is a pretty easy task.
My chariots catch boddies
Strategy wise understand you have a lot of bridges. Do your best to hold the west and east at the bridges and go after Egypt as hard as you can. Egypts early army isn't very strong. Once you take the Nile you will have the east.
What I did is put Al my armies on a boat to conquor greece and gain a lot of money and give de settlements near Egypt to pontus to create a buffer between me and Egypt cuz I hate fighting them lol
Playing them right now. Very Hard Campaign Medium Battle Difficultly. Armenia, Parthia, Pontus, Egypt have been attacking him in unison since turn 15. Super fun and challenging Campaign. But man they are all tough.
Hi buddy. I give you some tips.
First diplomacy is important. Talk with your enemies by give trade rights and maps in exchange of money.
Second capture Sidon and Salamis from Egypt to weaken their economy at the same time take Susa from Parthia.
Made your armies according with the enemy you fight.
Egypt/Pontus mostly infantry with cavalry support.
Parthia/Armenia/Scythia use ranged cavalry and try to attack from the sides. Use peasants like arrow sponge to make the Horse Archers attack in melee faster.
Third. Build you empire wisely. Some cities are for military others are for economy with high taxes meanwhile upgrade your cities when grouwth to get access to the best of the Seleucid can make.
@@hernanreipp6983 Yeah I was able to beat Egypt once I got the Phalanx Pikemen. With Egypt Gone most of the difficulty has disappeared. It’s understandable why the Seluecids fell apart. Pontus,Egypt, Parthia, Armenia were attacking me since the Early game. I lost a lot of the Empire but consolidated around Antioch and focused on Egypt and took it all.
Diplomacy in Rome Total War sucks so much dick.
@@alexandrostheodorou8387 I agree about the diplomacy. Must of the time get attacked after I made a trade right for no reason (with Seleucia either Pontus or Armenia backstabbe me).
To avoid losing cities know what enemy attack first but also who destroy first (Pontus or Armenia when dealing with Parthia and Egypt are my first targets). When you can fight, bribe. Taking the Cataphract in the beggining is very useful.
Chariots are rly good against cav from what I remember
Their silver shield legioners can skirmish with romans in loose formation and run behind the pikes very effective combo in the flanks the cataphracts are gonna come on top aganist roman cav this is strongest faction in game elephants can combined with leginores in the front for more effect
Nothing beats them late game.
Parthia doesnt have as big armies as egypt or pontus , but they have cataphrakts in the early game so they took seleucia befire i got leavy spearmen
Its actually very easy levy pikes do really well at start as long as nothing is in the flank
Seleucia is landlocked and far away from the coast, difficult to defend, and doesn't seem that prosperous. I think a viable strategy would be to shift the capital to Antioch (as the Seleucids did historically), abandon Seleucia and Hatra (which is poor and also difficult to defend) and focus on building up the cities on the coast and expanding along the coast (towards Egypt and Asia Minor). Let the other factions take the landlocked regions, or even better trade the regions to them (or even to Rome/Macedon or something) in exchange for gold to build up your coastal settlements and temporary alliances. Once the coastal settlements become strong, the prosperity and unit roster will kick in and you can punish the Eastern factions.
EDIT: I stand corrected, Seleucia is worth holding on to due to the Hanging Gardens of Babylonia. So it would be good to just leave a reasonable garrison there to defend it against the cavalry heavy factions there, but focus most of the military efforts on the coast. Keeping Hatra may not be be necessary.
You know that cataphract have a 9 AP damage secondary attack no? with is better then the 12 normal secondary attack for the companions.
Companions > cataphracts
Militia Hoplites and MIlitia Cavalry will win you the early game. It won't be much fun, because MilHops suck and MilCav are about the worst cavalry in the game, but it will work because they play together so well. And it just makes it all the sweeter when you can finally spare some time and money to build up and start fielding armies of *REAL* units.
you can still take advantage of peasants combined with cavalry
Currently getting my butt kicked as them in the remaster XD Came here for advice cause they look like they have fun units.
probably a bad tactic but i always abandon my other settlements and take greece
I tried this faction once..... and man those eastern factions are so annoying, those damn horse archers running around and you just have the militia.... but they have a really cool army
Just garrison your border towns with militia hoplites/levy pikemen. Those Eastern Factions have no counter to them once they're funnelling towards your town centre.
i dont understand 1 thing i have sterted campaining with seleucid and my generals got 1 shoted by armies in early game
i charged hoplites from behind and my general died instantly
You need to have a really wide formation. Your general is usually in the front. But it’s RNGish even at its best
@@danielboggan2479 I was playing on VH . Didnt know that they get raw stats instead of better AI. Learned it the hard way. Now i kite them with skirmishers and flank with light cav. xd
Your general didn't take it like a champ.
Polis griegas para mi es la mejor facción. Lo veo por lo original de sus oplitas pesados y Espartanos. (El mejor ataque con ellos es la defensa) Yo veo a seleucida cómo copia de Italia y Cartago y macedonia.