This topic may be old but it's good to update. I like The Greek Cities as well as Germania,the Spartan Hoplites are one of the best units in the game and the Spearmen are the only Barbarian unit that can form a Phalanx!

How hard is it to be the Seleucids? I haven't been them yet and whenever i go to where they should be they are gone and egypt,armenia and Pontus are in their place.

Before I used any faction but after I saw the movie 300 (Sparta) I love the spartans and they are good if you have strategy.

I like briton because it has a good strategic place on the map and they are the funest barbarians and the julii because they are red =D

quote Killer71

How hard is it to be the Seleucids? I haven't been them yet and whenever i go to where they should be they are gone and egypt,armenia and Pontus are in their place.

Most of their problems are early game, although early game is when they also have a massive advantage over everyone else.
Whenever I played as them I had a few turns of peace before I was attacked by Egypt, Armenia and Pontus all at once, they were jealous of my economy because the Seleucids start with the best economy in the world, they also have the most balanced army in the world making them extremely formidible in the endgame, so it's only fair that they should be challenged from the start.

My favourite faction? I don't like the Barbarian faction's lack of trade, I don't like the Roman faction's lack of phalanxes and I do't like factions that lack heavy infantry, so Seleucid Empire massive elephants FTW

quote Killer71

How hard is it to be the Seleucids? I haven't been them yet and whenever i go to where they should be they are gone and egypt,armenia and Pontus are in their place.

The Seleucids can be a very strong faction. Good infantry (mostly spearmen but Roman style sword infantry once your cities are big enough), good cavalry (including armoured elephants and Cataphract heavy horsemen) and good missile troops (archers and onagars). They also get temples to Hephaestus which improves weapons and armour, so upgrading blacksmiths and temples to Hephaestus gives you full upgrades ("gold" level) for all weapons and armor. That's a recipie for kicking butt all over the map.

The reason why they get overrun so quickly is that there aren't many rebel settlements near them, and the surrounding factions start attacking them very early in the game while some Seleucid towns are still too small to produce reasonable units for defence. Once the smaller towns are captured it's only a matter of time before the larger ones fall due to a lack of money to develop. Egypt is the biggest threat, Armenia and Pontus are an annoyance more than anything else.

The key to Seleucids for me is to build up defences and units to protect the starting towns from the first turn and just turtle while I develop some strong invasion armies (all my starting towns get temples to Hephaestus for the extra weapon/armor upgrades). I also move groups of peasants from the larger towns to the smaller towns and disband them to make the towns grow faster. By the time the smaller towns are large enough to produce decent units on their own, some of the town defence units will be in the "silver" range of experience and form the core of my armies to pay back those invasion attempts I had to defend from.

yeah dude it's the same everytime you play the the game. the Selucieds are always overrun by Egypt and the rest of the region is soon to fall. previous posts give a very good explaination for why. Playing as them really isnt that hard though but dont rely on diplomacy as the Egyptians are very untrustworthy and the Greeks will always stab you in the back. The location isnt bad because Armenia and Parthia will never pose a great threat to you so you can focus on Egypt aswell as crushing Pontus in the early game which is a critical move. Be warned however that you should be prepared for a long and bloody war with the Roman Brutii (green) as they will inevitably conquer all of Greece and Macedonia and become a terrible rival to the west. Good luck, I'll always be here for moral support.

I am a rebel supporter. LOL Peasants unite!!! I also like the Germans,Thrace, and Briton, as well as Roman Juili. Sammnite Gladiators FTW!