Advice on egypt

[Peahatche]

How did you play the opening moves on egypt, What are your favorate units/combo of units and how did you play them

[Knox]

Let me preface with I just suffered a horrible defeat as egypt due to mistakes so maybe I am not to great of an advisor (accidentally left my largest army in forced march and they got attacked, could not retreat).

First turn I move my navy in forced march up to crete so I can get a trade agreement with the people there. I waited for those guys starting to the west to attack me as they go for Alexandria and can you can easily crush their forces before moving in to take land.

For units I like the Karian axemen and which ever the spear men are that can form a phalanx. I use the spear men to brake enemy charges and then charge the axe men into the now slowed enemy.

Does any one go to war with the three small groups south of Egypt early on? seems like it would be nice to own that land but preperation for war with the Selucids seems more necessary.

[MACIORELLA]

Cut off deal with Cyprus, then no one will attack you anymore, game will become boring, and You will basically steamroll whole north africa and arabia.

[Peahatche]

Yeah a united Egypt would be quite dangerous But I looked a the unit roster and after playing none stop rome I was left scratching my head I've not even had the chance to fight egypt as rome as they get wiped out before they become a target for me

[Korburss]

In 3.0 Cyprus doesn't attract war anymore.

[Rond]

Just finished an egypt campaign on vh myself. Start by conquering to the west your initial default enemies. Then send out two single ship fleets to encounter all factions around the mediterrean all the way to north europe. Try to establish as much trade as you can for a steady income (this applies to all playable factions). Do not rely on initial egyptian infantry, you will lose all your battles with it, I suggest slingers instead. If no one else has declared war on you, expand south, then east.

Egypt's roster is varied and balanced. Conquer the province where jerusalem is at and make it your military powerhouse. Make barracks and skirmisher camps. All your units will come from here. You cant go wrong with most unit combos because most of their units are decent, but of course specialize your armies, dont just throw random units. Tech unitil you can get royal peltasts with citizen cavalry. Royal peltasts outclass even late tier infantry. By turn 100 I was rolling on 15k/ turn with 6 full armies on the field. Good luck.

[MACIORELLA]

I have also steamrolled whole Africa and got bored, basically I start modded campaign and then steam roll, get bored, delete saves, wait for patches / mod updates and again. Done it twice already and I think I will wait for more patches or mod updates (radious).

[quandarian]

If you find it all too easy then rather than avoiding war with the grey blob, make sure that conflict with the Seleucids happens but try to only fight it defensively around Jerusalem and on the high seas. If you rush that victoy your campaign will indeed be missing its essential ingredient. This will also make your expansion otherwise more challenging and strategic in nature (e.g. through Arab lands or via the Indian Ocean into Mesopotamia before you take on the Seleucid Syrian heartlands).

Conversely, if you are finding it hard, finish your first war quickly and then develop for a while. Wait till you have dignitaries for cultural conversion and decent medium tier troops and then launch hard, ruthless strikes against the desert nations. They all get a substantial money buff (at least for now) which makes them a right pain if they stab you in the back first.

Whatever you do, scout and trade, you are the only faction that can trade on two ocans from the start. Also, consider building libraries. You are the brainy faction, and not building the Great Library of Alexandria sooner or later is simply a sin against history.

Also, tech up a bit, your Egyptian infantry will do for a couple of very early unit spam victories, but will rout at the mere sight of a hostile Nubian or Hellene.

Oh, and don't march into the Arabian desert with phalanx armies, you will have your own Carrhae. Bring slingers, many slingers, cavalry, and Galatians for swift sword work.

P.S. The advice above about using Nabatea to build units is sound. As for anvies, build a military wharf in ALexandria and a shipwright somewhere on the Red Sea. There is only one port in the Indian Ocean that can even theretically build a military wharf (Hormuz) so fire pot dieres will be perfectly adequate for any naval challenges you face.

[MACIORELLA]

You can do everything to make it harder, play only with 1 army etc, but whats the point, it should be challenging playing it normally, I did not pay for a game to work around challenges to make the game more interesting. It is very good idea , but shows desperation in players....

[quandarian]

Well, yes. But also, as Egypt at the beginning of the game you represent one of the two greatest powers on the map, and the most powerful playable one, unless you immediately rush into over-extending yourself. You have advanced sucessor armies, elephants, and a starting area with great economic development potential. If you do not clash with the Seleucids, everything else obviously becomes relatively easy.

Edit: Imagine the 18th century if the UK and France had been allies...

[Rabidnid]

With mine I build a holpite and skirmisher barracks having reseached what is needed for both, then go to economic research for a while. Keep one stack in Petra just in case and create two full stacks in Egypt, one in mephis and the other in alexandira

Stacks are archers 7, karian axemen 4 and pikes 7 (not egyptian pike, the real ones). Archers slaughter slingers and pikes slaughter everythign else, the axemen are basically just to cover againt stuff that escapes the pikes. I usually have a couple camel archers around for scouting out the map as you can leave them alone for two minutes without them getting run down by spears since they skirmish. They can also run down slingers.

With the two stacks go straight west and steam roll cyrenica. The 4th city is a separate faction and usually pretty tough, so hit them with both stacks to get it over with early. Consolidate for a bit and then start east to take the whole of Natabea. You are then ready for the rest of your campaign in any direction.

[jondarling17]

I know this thread is pretty old but I am currently playing through as Egypt and thoroughly enjoying it. It has proved to be quite the challenge. My opening strategy was to perform a holding action against the African desert nomadic factions to my west that you start the game at war with (eventually hoping to sue for peace) so that I could send the bulk of my forces to take the province that contains Jerusalem.

I was successful at holding the nomads at bay and initially managed to capture Petra and Jerusalem but I was unable to hold them for long. I quickly became engaged in war with Seleucid who controlled the surrounding territory. I lost Petra to rebels (which was then quickly captured by Seleucid) and a large Seleucid army took Jerusalem. I had two armies at this time and the largest of the two (so the bulk of my military force) was in Petra. Luckily I realized that my position was precarious at best if Seleucid marched on me so I had pulled this force back before Petra and Jerusalem fell.

I marched my main force back to Alexandria and stationed my secondary army in Memphis and started building up the two armies in preparation for a Seleucid invasion. The invasion never came, however, because shortly after taking Petra and Jerusalem Seleucid was attacked from the north by Pergamon (who at this point controlled most of the territories around Asia and Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey) and was forced to turn around. This stroke of luck saved me from what I was sure was certain defeat because I was still being attacked from the west and an invasion from the east would have overwhelmed me.

Finally after throwing back several nomad armies they agreed to peace and with Seleucid distracted I was finally able to focus on economic development for a few turns and build up two large armies and a third smaller defensive force. During this whole period I had managed to forge and alliance with one of the factions in the province to the south of Egypt and it had managed to defeat its neighbors and secure the entire province. So under cover of our alliance I marched two armies and a small fleet into their territory and simultaneously captured two of its settlements and destroyed one of its two large armies. Then it was a simple matter to surround and destroy its remaining force and take it's final province.

When playing as Egypt I definitely recommend taking this area first because it creates a nice secure power base to expand from. And expand I did right into Lybia and Africa. Not without contest, however, and the fighting in Lybia was especially thick. This was one of the parts of this campaign that I have enjoyed the most. I was able to quickly rush in and take all three out lying settlements in Lybia but my progress was ground to a halt shortly after before I could capture the provincial capitol. Two African factions and Syracuse sent wave after wave of men at me. The Hellenic forces of Syracuse were of similar caliber to my own men but weren't as numerous as my own so they mainly played a defensive role allowing the significantly inferior quality but highly superior numbers of the African forces to began to wear me down.

At one point it looked like I might loose the territory I had worked so hard to take but the Lusitani (who quickly conquered all of Spain and parts of Gaul) started to invade North Africa from the opposite side as me. So with the Lusitani putting pressure on them from the west one by one my nomadic opponents began to sue for peace. This allowed me to consolidate my forces and build up economically for a bit before sweeping in to take over what territory hadn't already fallen to the Lusitani. This left me with a brief period of peace before the Lusitani decided they weren't content to control half of North Africa and decided they wanted my half. They're declaration of war was a little premature, however, and they lacked any real military capacity in the area to stop my rapid advance through the rest of the African settlements. And that brings me up to my current point in this campaign.

I know this ran really long but I hope you guys found it helpful and enjoyable to read.