Faction Guide: The Seleucid Empire

After seeing some guides out there, I decided to make one of my own. I have made guides before, but this is my first one on Steam. Many people tell me that the Seleucids are the hardest faction to play in the game, simply because of their starting position, and the fact that their early units are really bad. Even experienced veterans can get stuck playing as the Seleucids. Many players can never play the Seleucids up to their full potential because they always get destroyed by the Egyptians, Pontics, Parthians, and Armenians in the first few turns. Units like the Silver Shield Pikemen, Silver Shield Legionnaires, Companion Cavalry, Cataphracts, Scythed Chariots, and War Elephants never get to be used in the campaign because players have trouble getting past the first few turns. The aim of this guide is to help the player survive the first few turns of the Seleucid Campaign, and then guide them further until they conquer 15 or 50 territories and Rome. This guide will also cover some basic gameplay mechanics, and help the reader become a better player.

Faction Overview

HISTORY:

The Seleucids were one of the Diadochi (sucessor) kingdoms. They were founded by Seleucus I Nicator (victor) after winning his long wars of succesion. The Seleucid empire was one of the last Diadochi Kingdoms to last, but eventually, they were defeated the by Parthians. The Seleucid Empire carved up the remains of Alexander the Great's empire, and stretched from Turkey to Pakistan at the height of its power.
Under Antiochus III the Great, the Seleucid empire thrived. They even harbored Hannibal Barca for a while in their court, until the Romans caught up to him. In Rome: Total War, it is 280 BC when you start the game. At this time, the Seleucid Empire was ruled by Antiochus I.

Sources: My Brain :) Note: I wrote this all on the spot, so if I have any mistakes, TELL ME!!! Thanks

STARTING LOCATION AND SITUATION:

You start off with 6 settlements: Sardis, Tarsus, Antioch, Hatra, Damascus, and Seleucia. You have the Pontics and Armenians north of you, and the Egyptians to the south. The Parthians are in the east, near Seleucia, and the Greek City-States have two settlements near Sardis. The situation looks pretty rough right now, doesn't it? You are surrounded on all sides, and two of your settlements are far from your capital. You have a spy near Seleucia, and a diplomat near Antioch.
ANTIOCH:
Antioch is your capital city, and you have Antiochus, 3 Militia Cavalry, 2 Militia Hoplites, and 1 Peltast in your city. The population is 5000, and you don't have many military buildings.
TARSUS:
Tarsus is a city guarding the mountain pass through to Antioch. The Pontics usually target Tarsus first. In Tarsus, you have 2 Peasant units and 1 Militia Hoplite. You have almost no buildings, and the population is 1200.
SARDIS:
Sardis is a city in Anatolia, and is a bit far from the rest of your settlements. It is also an important settlement to fight the Pontics and Greeks. Sooner or later, the Greeks or Pontics will attack Sardis. In Sardis, you have Alexander, 2 Militia Hoplites, and 1 Peasant Unit. The population is 1420.
HATRA:
Hatra is the city that will almost ALWAYS get besieged by the Armenians in the beginning. They will send a force of a ton of horse-archers, cataphracts, and barely any infantry. Just like Tarsus, you have 2 peasants and 1 militia hoplite in Hatra. The population is 1200.
SELEUCIA:
Seleucia will be attacked by the Parthians soon, but luckily it has a large garrison. In Seleucia, you have Aristarchus, 2 Cavalry Militia, 3 Militia Hoplites, and 1 Peltast unit. The population is 4000.
DAMASCUS:
Damascus will be constantly under attack by the Egyptians, so watch out. In Damascus, you have Demetrius, 1 Militia Hoplite, 1 Peasant unit, and 1 peltast. The population is 1500.

Okay, now you know your starting position and what to expect. You also know your current situation. Now we can go on to the beginning of the game.

The Beginning

The beginning of the Seleucid campaign is the hardest part to overcome. You have crappy units, and most of your cities have crappy garrisons. Also, you are surrounded by enemies everywhere. Sounds fun, doesn't it? ;)
Note; What happens next is kind of like a step by step guide, but its more of suggestions. You can do things differently, but some parts are important (when I tell you its important, then its recommended that you do it.)
What I always do on the first turn is raise taxes to very high in all my cities unless the public order goes below 110%. Then, I start looking at the cities. Then, I usually build a Shrine of Hephaestus in Sarids, Antioch, Seleucia, and Damascus. It upgrades all your light weapons, which makes it extremely helpful, and crucial. I then build Land Clearance in Tarsus and Hatra. Believe it or not, the farms help more with income than Markets and Sea Trade. Then I train Militia hoplites in Antioch and Damascus. After that, I select all the units in Antioch except the leader and combine them with Demetrius and 1 militia hoplite in Damascus.Now, this part is important. I move my diplomat in Antioch down to Sidon, and enter negotiations with the Egyptians. I then offer Trade Rights, Map Information, and an Alliance. They will accept 100% chance. The purpose of this is to make the Egyptians less suspicious of you. Now, I end the turn.
If you get a candidate for Adoption, you can make you own choice whether or not to accept.
On turn 2, I usually build a barracks in Seleucia and Antioch, and a road in Damascus.I build mines in Sardis. Next, I start pumping out Militia Hoplites and Peltasts in all of my cities.
Now, I do something you might not expect: I attack Egypt. ove Demetrius to Sidon, and besiege the city. The next section will be able how to fight Egypt effectively.

Fighting the Egyptians and Battle Tips

Egypt is not hard to fight at all in the early game. True, they have the Nile Spearman and archers, but they do not have many chariots. This is why we are attacking Egypt so early.
After you lay siege to Sidon, end the turn. I don't want to hold your hand through the entire game, so I will let you make your own decisons on what to build. I recommend baracks and more militia hoplites in all your cities.
If the Egyptians don't reinforce Sidon on turn 3, then take the city. If they do reinforce Sidon, then fight the battle in the open. NEVER auto-resolve against Egpyt, because the Egyptin AI has a huge edge in auto-resolved battles for some reason. The Egyptian skirmishers are nothing to worry about; just run them down with your cavalry. the Nubian spearman are better than your militia hoplites, and this is why you should hammer and anvil strike them ALWAYS. they will break once you do. To fight the Egyptian chariot generals, all you have to do is use your skirmishers and phalanx to shoot at them. In fact, I usually go for the generals first so the rest of the army will break.
For those of you who struggle with battles, I will give you some tips.

Hold spacebar to arrange your unit lines.
Click on your unit card and hold ctrl, then double click to select all the units of that unit type.
Click on all the units of the same type, and then type "g" and then "g" again for a more maneagable interface of your unit cards.
Click ctrl+a to select all your units.
Select all the units you want, and click ctrl+1 / ctrl+2 / ctrl+3 and so on to group your units together.

-Skirmishers are nice units for cannon fodder.
-Never use cantabrian circle against an enemy with no archers, it just isn't worth your time.
-Generals are way overpowered in this game, use that advantage.
-Spread your archers when fighting other archers.
-Never expect to win a phalanx fight with militia hoplites.
-Defend chokepoints in a siege, like the gate.

Anyway, back to the game. I lost 60 units attacking sidon, but only because I was writing this and attacking at once. I exterminated the population and retrained all the untis and repaired all the buildings. Next, I sent everyone in Seleucia except for 1 militia hoplite east to attack the Parthian city of Susa. As you can see, my strategy in this campaign is not wait to be attacked, but attack first. I recommend sending in your spy Philip to infiltrate Susa as well.

I ended the turn after this, and by the next turn I managed to besiege Susa (it took two turns to get there.) Back to the Egyptian front, a rebel army appeared next to my army in Sidon so I had to kill it first. Then, I attacked another Egyptian army and headed on to Jerusalem. By this point, both the Pontics and Armenians probably asked you for trade rights. Accept.

Unfortunately, this is where I have to leave you on fighting the Egyptians. You already have Sidon, and are heading towards Jerusalem. You should have been training units in Sardis, and now is the time to use them. Send all the units in Sardis except for one unit of militia hoplite and attack Ancyra to the east, or Halicarnassus to the south. Keep your pressure on the egyptians, and always keep training more militia hoplites and levies to reinforce your army. If you play carefully, you will be able to take Jerusalem soon, and move on to Alexandria. Use the bridges in the Nile to your advantage: wait for the larger Egyptian army to attack you, and then defend the bridge chokepoint. You will win several heroic victories like this.
By the beginning of 268 BC, you should have Susa and Sidon in your grasp, as well as sizable garrisons in Hatra and Tarsus (meaning around 3-4 hoplites. You shuld also attack either Halicarnasuss or Ancyra with your Sardis army.
Just remember to keep on the offensive at all times.

Fighting the Parthians

There is little to say in this section. Watch out for the Parthian cataphracts and horse archers. How do you kill horse archers? The answer is simple: with your own cavalry and ARCHERS. you absolutely NEED archers to kill Horse Archers. Also, train some mercenaries to help you. Parthia isn't a big deal in this game, even though they were the ones to historically destroy the Seleucid Empire. Once you take Susa, Parthia won't have much time to worry about you as they will be fighting the Armenians.

The horse archers will be very annoying, though, so keep an eye out for them. Also, try to bribe the cataphracts to join your army. They will be a big help.

Fighting the Armenians

The Armenians are very much like the Parthians. They have mainly cavalry centric armies, and their infantry suck. They rely on their horse archers to win the battle. To defeat their horse archers, use your own cavalry (preferably generals) and archers or skirmishers. The Armenians will be a much bigger threat than the Parthians, so watch out for them. They also have cataphracts, which you can bribe. The two starting settlements that are in Armenia grow terribly slow, so you don't have to worry about late game Armenian units. Besides, you will have killed them right after you kill the Egyptians, so it won't matter much.

Fighting the Pontics

By the time the Pontics attack you, you will probably have some better units. The Pontics have proved by far to be the most annoying faction the Seleucids will face. They have a very diverse roster, including heavy cavalry, chariots, phalanxes, and archers. However, their core armies are made up of crappy Eastern Spearmen. They usually havea LOT of them by the time they attack you. Most of their cities aren't devloped, so they will only have 2 major unit producing cities. Their heavy cav are a pain, though, and their generals can throw javalins. To fight the eastern infantry, use phalanxes and then hammer and anvil strikes. The Eastern infantry have really crappy morale, so don't be too worried about them. Use your cavalry to counter their heavy cav, and since the AI isn't too bright, just lure them and make them crash into your phalanxes. The generals will be hard to kill, but you can do it with you skirmishers and your own cav and general.

The Middle and End Game

By the time you kill the Egyptians, you will be going on to the Middle Game. You will be able to train very strong units, like the Silver Shield Legionnaries and maybe even the Cataphracts. You should have control over all of the Middle East, Egypt, all of Armenia's former land, and all of Anatolia.
Your next target should be obvious: Greece and Rome. Send your stacks (full armies) into Greece by boat, and destroy the Brutii with your new armies. Also garrison your northern Armenian cities, because the Scythians might attack you.Taking Rome should be no problem at all. The trick is to send an army at the bridge near Rome on the Tiber. With your phalanxes, the SPQR will really be screwed. Once, I tried a Migration Campaign with the Seleucids and only with the starting units I managed to conquer all of Italy, and score a Heroic Victory against the SPQR. This concludes my guide on the Seleucids. I spent around 4 hours on this guide, playing a campaign while I wrote it. I hope you guys will like my guide, and remember, FEEDBACK please. Thanks, and enjoy the game!

[DairyFarts]

Lol I abandon everything and take Salamis, once there its a slow build of the city and then a trickle into the Middle east.

[Robbi_1908]

The seleucids is probably the hardest campaign together with numidia, u are pretty much surrounded by enemies from turn 1, but the bets part is u get rewarded with probably the most varied roster in the game

[Rollo Tomasi]

Train lots of light cavalry in Antioch, elsewhere train hoplites and skirmishers. Take @ 3 turns to build up forces, move 4 troops of horse to Hatra.
Then build horse barracks everywhere.
YES attack Egypt, this cripples the Egyptian war machine and and increases your wealth.
Take the 2 rebel settlements by Sardis (keep hiring mercenary archers and hoplites) & Susa
But mainly consolidate cities.

[Rollo Tomasi]

In Sardis hire all mercenaries that can quickly take settlements and becomes more powerful than Antioch.
Make all cities very high tax, build roads, farms, trading and shrines to Hephaestus (if possible blacksmiths - they give chariots) oh and sell all your peasants.
Funds soon become very easy

[Rollo Tomasi]

What a load of hog wash - To me Seleucids are the 2nd easiest after Carthage.
How to win easy: train lots of light cavalry they are the main deterrent in the early period and cheap, they increase in strength very quickly till in mass (4 units) they can easily beat up enemy cavalry. (from behind they cause havoc).

[flagrant_vagrant]

I just be Agresev on Egypt Hold off everyone (but Egypt ) So you can pick them off one by one

[Guthix]

chariots forced moved through enemy units and done

[Northstar1989]

Please break up the first two sections with line-breaks. Walls of text are annoying, difficult to read, and show poor skill in writing.

Same goes for you, Hellfire. Use better punctuation and line-breaks.

[Moonman]

Playing as the Selucids is quite easy. Your militia hoplites are dangerous if you can use them properly. Just spam them out and build economics buildings whenever you can, but every city should be able to build militia hoplites. I always immediately attack Susa and Sidon. I give up Hatra willingly, and put 3-4 militia hoplites on the bridge. The Pontics are super easy as well, just their heavy cav is annoying. If you play your cards right, you can fight a 4 front war (three without the Parthians, and the Armenians are just stationing guys on a bridge) and still have good bits of money. By 260 BC, you should have control over most, if not all of the armenians, parthians (not their stupid top province in Russia), pontics, egyptians, and Pergamum. I reccomend hitting the Greeks first, and make sure you take a bunch of armies at the same time. Knock out Athens and Sparta, close in on Corinth, and just conquer away.

[MysticWarlord11]

I find the Seleucid Campaign really easy