Is this a good army comp as seleucids?

[ImperialForce9]

4pikes
5swords/spears
3sling
1archer
2art
1General
3cav
1elephant

[Sebasta]

Get rid of the artillery and get some cav instead is my advice.

[ImperialForce9]

Can u explain why?

[Sebasta]

Cavalry are swift and can deliver a final blow when infantry is locked in melee (so called 'hammer and anvil' tactic). Also, they can break enemy lines if used the right way or chase down enemy archers/javelins.

Artillery is powerful, but slow or even immobile, therefore vulnerable. Only useful in the opening, but becomes pretty useless real quick.

[Legs]

Artillery is great for knocking holes in walls in siege assaults and attacking armies in Fortify mode, where the artillery either lures the defending army out of their encampment effectively turning it into a normal battle or they sit there and take serious casualties.

I'm playing Armenia in a Grand Campaign at the moment so have taken on a few cavalry armies in defensive mode and they just sit in their encampment like a fenced field full of horses and get blown up

[Sebasta]

Originally posted by Legs:

Artillery is great for knocking holes in walls in siege assaults and attacking armies in Fortify mode, where the artillery either lures the defending army out of their encampment effectively turning it into a normal battle or they sit there and take serious casualties.

I'm playing Armenia in a Grand Campaign at the moment so have taken on a few cavalry armies in defensive mode and they just sit in their encampment like a fenced field full of horses and get blown up

Well, abusing the AI works indeed for siege battles. Those are the only exception since you are always the offensive party.

In all other scenarios, I do not see the value of artillery over cavalry.

[Alwyn]

Who are you fighting and what units do they have? Are you playing the campaign or multiplayer?

This looks like a decent army. Even so, I use different units depending on who I'm fighting. If you're fighting Rome or Sparta, for example, you may want fewer skirmishers and more swords and artillery. If you're fighting a horse archer faction, you may want fewer cavalry (melee cavalry usually can't catch horse archers), no elephant (too vulnerable to ranged fire) and more spears and skirmishers.

[Salty Nobody]

Single Player that is fine. Unless this army is specifically for sieges I would drop the artillery to just one though.

Art gives you two advantages. The first is that it encourages the AI to come to you, since the range of the art will usually make them think you have missile superiority. Second is that if you use manual fire once the enemy gets close the art will get more kills than any cav unit. Depending on how blobbed the enemy ends up and how good your aim is point blank manual fire can take out the equivalent of over ten enemy units. Plus you can still knock a hole in a wall if you need to.

[ImperialForce9]

im playing ssingleplayer and i took out Cappadocia pretty early and Egypt's satrapy and nearly wiping out Nabatea, and likely will eventually take out Egypt.

Any suggestions on who else I sould conquer?

[Sebasta]

Originally posted by ImperialForce9:

im playing ssingleplayer and i took out Cappadocia pretty early and Egypt's satrapy and nearly wiping out Nabatea, and likely will eventually take out Egypt.

Any suggestions on who else I sould conquer?

Kush.

[ImperialForce9]

im already making a ton of money from trade, but i im still new to rome 2 buildings any tips?

[Vanessa777]

artillery is also good to just snipe general or elite units before the battle gets going. far better than another cav

[Canadian Ninja]

One arty can kill well beyond its cost / roster space, especially if you're playing an infantry heavy army and can spend time microing it, (or use the alt fire mode to ground target a choke point). I don't think I'd go beyond two mobile arty pieces though. I think the army comp is good but I usually value archers over slingers when its a faction that gets ++ archers and mediocre slingers.

[freerangechikn]

My Hellenic faction armies in single player (currently playing Athens) usually look like this:

6 Pike
2 Melee Infantry (thorax swords, hoplites)
2 Skirmisher (peltasts, or 2 thureos)
4 Archer
4 Cavalry (including general)
2 Ballista

This has always been effective against most factions (excluding Persian/far eastern). Slowly advance pike phalanx line while you shower them with arrows. I usually use the Alt + targeting method for ballista as the AI tends to clump in the center, with explosive shells. Melee infantry on either side of pike phalanx to protect flanks.Once lines are engaged you perform your cavalry flank and rout enemy ranged, standard TW tactics.

Peltasts for Hellenic factions are surprisingly decent in melee once their ammunition is spent, don't be afraid to charge them into the flanks. Especially if you have Royal Peltasts (I think all successor kingdoms do).

With a faction like Seleucid you could mix elephants in for a cavalry unit like you said.

You can drop one of the ballistas and add an extra ranged/cavalry as you see fit.

When I am engaging eastern factions that are loaded with light and skirmisher cavalry, I have to switch it up to include fewer pikes and heavy cav and more skirmisher/ranged infantry. You probably have this issue right away as Seleucid so keep that in mind.

Hope some of those suggestions will be helpful. Good luck in your campaign!

[ImperialForce9]

Originally posted by freerangechikn:

My Hellenic faction armies in single player (currently playing Athens) usually look like this:

6 Pike
2 Melee Infantry (thorax swords, hoplites)
2 Skirmisher (peltasts, or 2 thureos)
4 Archer
4 Cavalry (including general)
2 Ballista

This has always been effective against most factions (excluding Persian/far eastern). Slowly advance pike phalanx line while you shower them with arrows. I usually use the Alt + targeting method for ballista as the AI tends to clump in the center, with explosive shells. Melee infantry on either side of pike phalanx to protect flanks.Once lines are engaged you perform your cavalry flank and rout enemy ranged, standard TW tactics.

Peltasts for Hellenic factions are surprisingly decent in melee once their ammunition is spent, don't be afraid to charge them into the flanks. Especially if you have Royal Peltasts (I think all successor kingdoms do).

With a faction like Seleucid you could mix elephants in for a cavalry unit like you said.

You can drop one of the ballistas and add an extra ranged/cavalry as you see fit.

When I am engaging eastern factions that are loaded with light and skirmisher cavalry, I have to switch it up to include fewer pikes and heavy cav and more skirmisher/ranged infantry. You probably have this issue right away as Seleucid so keep that in mind.

Hope some of those suggestions will be helpful. Good luck in your campaign!

Thanks for the tips everyone :D

My capital province has both local commerce bonuses and industry bonuses.
Should i focus on 1 only?

And should i focus on money buildings that give like 20% bonus to itself like i build something thats industry which also gives bonus to local commerce (or do i focus on buildings that give maximum money?).

Im plying on Hard still with 3 satraps that are CLOSEST to me like Persia,Media,and the other one on my North-West.(the others have broken off by refusing to join war)(Managed to other get peace from some by extorting them for money or they extort me for money)
(Peaced out with Quidri for some nice cash,then managed to get them to trade with me by demanding more cash :D$$$$$$$$$$)

I know people dont tend to do this but quiet like having satraps cuz i get half their income and trade which makes me 250 from each trade route i have. Im basiccally making about near 7k a turn after i take out Nabatea including their ONLY PORT. Any facton that isnt likely to break off from me if i make them a satrap?
(i like to have them as a "buffer" even if im just roleplaying :D , its sad that i CANT give provinces or buy provinces since thats hardcoded)

Im about to take Alexandria(already took out Egypts Satrap) and eventually the other 2 settlements below it with another army. But one of my satraps is sending an army on forced march to get there. I took out Cappodocia early on which made Galatia stook on 1 settlement.
(for some reason they havent bothered to build a farm in THEIR Province Capital.
but i started trading with them earlier so ill join a war they have on their enemys side to complete the province)

Im thinking of getting an actual navy (i disbanded the starting a few turns after dealing with Cypru's island). Just to support in autoresolves or just to make things cooler.
(I dont wanna spam 1 unit, i like my army's to have flavour,any suggestions?)

And for settlement main buildings the "CITY" you could say.
which should i pick? 4% for all sources or 6%for farm provinces/localcommerce.

I made a decision once things settle down to turn the recently captured Galatian province and another below it for more military buildings.
(having 2 provinces to do that makes it so that i can get an army up and running in half the time by getting 2 generals in diffrent provinces)
Since im bout to take Egypt , il probably wont have to worry much about food for a good while

[Salty Nobody]

Bonuses to income from (whatever) vary in usefulness by culture group. Barbarians tend to heavily rely on this to earn enough money, civilized factions not so much. Eastern factions usually want to maximize their commerce and cultural income, while Barbarians lean more heavily into agriculture. The Hellenics and Romans tend to lean havier into industry. These are just generalizations. Everyone has many different sources of income available and a well optimized economy uses as much of it as possible.

Income bonuses from all sources is almost always better than a bonus from just one thing. I tend to have a wide mix of income sources in my provinces so that is always the best for me. Even if you are trying to specialize you will end up with multiple types of income in a province and the bonus to just one thing is rarely high enough to make it more valuable than a slightly lower bonus to everything. Not that single thing bonuses are useless. If you have a bonus to industry and a bonus to commerce then just make sure you have actual sources of income for both. As long as it makes mathematical sense to have multiple bonuses to different income types you are fine. Same when choosing which buildings to build. When choosing a building to construct, which one will earn you the most money when whatever else is in the province is taken into account?

Satraps are extremely useful to players who know how to manage them. They are like military allies but are bound to your diplomacy. You can also levy units from them. The minor Eastern factions don't really have any units worth the trouble but going the other way around if you satrap the Selucids as Parthia you get access to their much more formidable infantry roster, including pikes.

Unfortunately without roster mods the game highly encourages the spamming of just a few types of units. The Selucids are one of the few factions that does not have to do this, with at least one elite option in almost every unit category. Just mix and match your ten or so best units and it will be hard not to have diverse army compositions while still being highly effective.