Seleucid Empire Details (RTW Faction)

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Some Seleucid Empire Details

History

The Seleucid Empire (312 - 63 BC) was a Hellenistic empire, i.e. a successor state of Alexander the Great's empire. The Seleucid Empire was centered in the near East and at the height of its power included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan and Pamir.

By 100 BC, the Seleucid Empire had merely only taken few territories. Despite the clear collapse of their power, and the decline of their kingdom around them, nobles continued to play kingmakers on a regular basis, with occasional intervention from Ptolemaic Egypt and other outside powers.

Strategy

The Seleucid army are much like the Macedon's. Starting off on the far east of the map, all of the Seleucid's cities are spread thin, resulting in an easily split nation. Many eastern factions (particularly the powerful Egyptians) soon become a problem for the poorly defended Seleucid Empire, who strive to crush the faction into submission. However, while Egypt may have large armies, good generals, and very good units, the other neighboring nations are poorly armed. These other nations make up for their lack of military strength with defensible starting positions which the Seleucid's lack and by trading amongst other nations; something which the Seleucid's must copy!

Later in the Game, the Hellenic nations of Thrace and the Greek Cities will be another challenge as the Seleucid Empire strives to control the western coast of Asia Minor. However, while war may be waged directly against the Greeks and Thracian's, it is possible to establish trade treaties and alliances, increasing wealth and supplying funds for the armies currently fighting in the East.

You may want to form an alliance with your neighbors immediately, causing most potential enemies to hesitate before attacking. Some of the likely foes can become an friend. Nations such as Parthia will (for the present) subdued, allowing the Seleucid Empire to concentrate on their powerful southern neighbors. The same theory applies with Pontus and the Greeks.

Its best to have in your armies a backbone of Phalanx Pikeman (better still, Silver Shields Pikes) with supporting archers, cataphracts or elephants (the more upgraded the elephant unit, the better!) and various light cavalry for running down routers and flanking the enemy. In the beginning of the game, both Militia and Greek Cavalry are extremely useful for hunting down Parthian Horse Archers, which can easily cause major causalities to your own forces. If you wish to fight on open terrain against Parthia and Armenia, recruit lots of cavalry, send them around the flanks while your Hoplites or Pikemen hold the brunt of the enemy army in place, then chase the Horse Archers to Hell.