Rome: Total War - Seleucid Empire's Units Described in One Sentence

[@johnfrizzell1823]

favorite faction outside the Romans, especially the campaign. they have a fun roster. the campaign is challenging to start and just about the time you get strong you usually are running into the Romans.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Agreed that the roster is rather nice :)

[@Grunfffff]

Yeah I played them most back in the day. War elephants like Cartage without no archers policy is win

[@napoleoncomplex2712]

Peasants: Good for bullying townspeople, but like most bullies run away from an actual fight. Militia hoplites: Awful unit that you will spend 90% of the campaign using for lack of anything else, and the single largest source of expletives from the Seleucid general during sieges. Levy pikemen: Just when you thought you'd escaped the militia hoplites, you discover these are their tier 2 replacements. Phalanx pikemen: Now we're talking, but you'll probably mainly use them to fight barbarians and Carthaginians. Silver shield pikemen: Feels like using a hammer to crack eggs against the inept AI. Silver shield legionaries: The reason a slow-growing Seleucid empire is one of the few factions that can cope with an out of control Rome. Overall infantry verdict: Great infantry when you can *finally* get hold of something that isn't a conscript. Greek cavalry: Absolutely amazing unit provided nothing contests it in a fair fight, and will explode into flames spontaneously if it gets into one. Militia cavalry: More trouble to micro than they're worth in a busy combat situation. General's Bodyguard: A bodyguard of actual mice might make your general feel safer, but they're still the best unit you'll have access to for a long time. Armoured General's Bodyguard: Mythical sightings of this unit tell me that it may be quite good, if it indeed exists. Companion cavalry: Reasons one through fifty-seven why you should remember to cycle charge, it's called *shock* cavalry, not 'leave my men in melee so they can die like mayflies' cavalry! Cataphracts: Feels like using a *mace* to crack eggs against the inept AI, and the second reason why a slow-growing Seleucid empire is one of the few factions that can cope with an out of control Rome. Elephants: The equivalent of a WW1 tank; devastating when used right, but they haven't quite worked the kinks out yet. War Elephants: Now we're talking panzers. Armoured Elephants: Now we're talking panzers; overly expensive, take too long to build, the enemy will outproduce you with cheaper effective stuff if you focus on them, and they have a tendency to randomly break down on the battlefield. Overall cavalry verdict: The best cavalry roster in the game hands down, you have everything you could ever dream of here... once you're out of the early game, which is a theme with the Seleucids! Skirmishers: Don't underestimate the value of forcing an enemy army off the town square or turning a tight battle in the streets of town, the militia hoplites DO actually need their help. Archers: Your bog standard archer that can force the enemy to engage, inflict a few casualties on a key unit to break it faster, whittle down light cavalry that are otherwise occupied, be part of the shock trifecta that is flanking cavalry, fire arrows, and scary infantry, and are hilarious to send into melee against peasants. Don't judge me. Onagers: They throw big, dangerous grenades across the battlefield that can vaporise half the enemy army and kill the general's bodyguard before the first man dies in melee, and still somehow aren't worth the price of admission. Overall archer verdict: Everyone needs a weak spot, and just hire or kidnap some Cretans if you need missiles that badly. Overall verdict: The factional equivalent of a big, sleepy dog that once roused will knock you to the ground and sit on you drooling.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Nice descriptions. I think I might add some of these (and from other comments) when I make similar vid from every unit in Rome :) Also, those overall verdicts are really nice.

[@napoleoncomplex2712]

@@qualityoldgames7721 Thanks! I worked hard on that post! Well, for five minutes at least.

[@Warmaker01]

I did a Seleucid campaign on Remastered recently. The Phalanx Pikemen and later infantry are great, but they come too late, IMO. I had to win the campaign mostly with Tier 2 Levy Pikemen and other low tier units. But Levy Pikes were the backbone. Militia Hoplites did not cut it. Levy Pikes, Militia Cavalry, Peltasts were what I beat the campaign mostly with. Towards the end I got Scythed Chariots. The problem with the Seleucids and why they rely so much on low tier is that they're going to get attacked by a handful of factions quite early. Pontus, Greek Cities, Egypt, Armenia, Parthia. All at the same time. Casualties pile up and they take away from leveling up your settlement tiers as you need replacement troops. By the time I saw my first Tier 3 Phalanx Pikemen, I was already in the process of overrunning Egypt, mostly secured Asia Minor, and finally stabilized my defense against repeated Armenian and Parthian attacks. I haven't even seen my Cataphracts yet when I won. The most harrowing part early on in defending Seleucid lands was defending Hatra. Armenia was spamming invasions there and forced me to keep a steady cycle of replacement / retrained troops back and forth between Antioch, Tarsus, and Hatra. At the beginning, Hatra doesn't have the population to replace even low tier units good enough on its own. Early on Militia Hoplites weren't good enough but the Levy Pikes were nice upgrades compared to them. Large unit size, very long sarissa pikes. You can stretch the unit out pretty wide and still have a 4 rank deep formation, which is excellent in dealing with infantry attacks. It's just they have no armor. Missile attacks are brutal. Bodyguard charges will get through the pikes and inflict a lot of casualties, but other cavalry will get beaten down with a fair trade in casualties. Phalanx Pikemen are way better "standard" troops but they aren't available when the Seleucids are at their most vulnerable. The extra spicy part with the Seleucids is once you weather the initial storm of attacks, you have to get aggressive. You cannot turtle up and allow Pontus to swallow up Asia Minor. You do that and you got problems in Asia Minor. I noticed with Macedonian, Parthian, and Brutii campaigns that Pontus often takes Asia Minor eventually. Never let that happen, yet you have to be careful about your spending and casualties in Asia Minor. If you turtle up around Hatra, Tarsus, Antioch too much, you allow Egypt to swallow up many settlements south of you. Egypt is already filthy rich, but if they're allowed to secure all those regions south of you, they're going to be even more rich and have lots of settlements to train units out of. That will be a huge spam problem eventually. If you're opportunistic, you can find an opening and push south while fending off Armenia. Honestly? If you secure Jerusalem, you've basically won your Short Campaign already. You've denied Egypt crucial areas close to you to attack you with. Egypt herself is now open to immediate invasion. Settlements around Jerusalem are pretty nice, too. If you got to Jerusalem than you've been beating the hell out of Egypt's armies. Seleucia? Build up and look for opportunities to seize Parthia held Susa to the east of you. You can't let Parthia build Susa up because they're already going to spam armies from the north / northeast of you. Extra attacks from the east out of Susa will only make it more difficult. Take Susa, and you will have a solid pair of cities out east to give you money, population, and training grounds with. You deny Parthia one of their best starting cities and weaken them early on. They'll keep spamming attacks but they'll never be strong enough without Susa.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Good points. The starting position is the main difficulty with Seleucids :)

[@janehrahan5116]

Levy pikemen: 90% of the units you build in campaign.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Yea, that will be quite common unit for Seleucid campaign :) Thanks for the comment.

[@Warmaker01]

Yes. The Seleucids have much better infantry units, but those aren't the ones that are going to fight for you when the Seleucids are at their most vulnerable. When you're dealing with Pontus, Egypt, Armenia, Parthia at the same time, Levy Pikemen are the backbone of your armies. You *want* better infantry, but that needs good tier settlements which will be hard to get when you're constantly depleting population for new units and retraining. So Levy Pikes are what you essentially win the campaign with.

[@ihatesovietderp2268]

​​@@Warmaker01 nah the most is definitely still militia hoplites. I'm in a campaign in late game rn and I still use some militia hoplite leftovers for battles and they still work. Levy pikemen are just a transition to phalanx pikemen

[@danielboggan2479]

@@ihatesovietderp2268if you play on hard or very hard difficulty militia hoplites are essentially useless other than siege defense

[@ihatesovietderp2268]

@@danielboggan2479 I know but I don’t have a choice but to use them sometimes. In any case they don’t even do anything, I just send them as a main body to fix the enemy army and let the cavalry do most of the work

[@stormrunner4081]

This is the best roster in the game hands down best of the Greek factions and the best of the Eastern factions put together Just good luck getting to about 95% of it in campaign

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Well summarized :) Thanks for the comment.

[@Indolthir]

0:50 Equivalent of Caius Marius but for Seleucids being like: "We need to reform our army. Hear me out, guys! Like, why don't we take all the units we have, like our cavalry, except we put them on foot, with much longer lances, with shield and in phalanx formation!?"

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Indeed :) Thanks for the comment.

[@TheMercian13]

Best faction outside of the Romans.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Agreed regarding the roster. The starting position may cause some problems :) Thanks for the comment.

[@TheMercian13]

@@qualityoldgames7721 the starting position and end game roster is what makes them the most rewarding faction in my eyes for a long campaign. My most recent campaign (on mobile) I completed full campaign by 238BC with them, now I’m just enjoying a war with the Scipii (confined to North Africa) and Britons. Lots of fun.

[@antiepix9555]

1:36 You mean to say, “You should feed them properly, so they grow armor and a bow!”

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Indeed :D Thanks for the comment.

[@onlyws6810]

I love these videos!! Do one of the barbarians next 😂

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Germania was the previous one but let's see if I will make one from Gaul :)

[@camulodunon]

IMO the strongest roster in the game, at least for multiplayer lol. Elite pike phalanxes, huge cavalry roster including cataphracts and javelin cav, elephants, and their very own legionaries that are just as good as roman legionaries and slightly cheaper.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Yea, seems rather versatile :)

[@Eintracht-uy3cz]

The best thing about the Seleucids is their shiny silver colour and Corinthian helmet inspired faction symbol. I don't get it. The Seleucids are *the* allrounders when it comes to their army roster, solid no matter what. Still, when I think about Greek allrounders, I think about Macedon. Pontus is usually much more interesting to me even though they are basically "Seleucids without x and y" - Parthia as well who have nothing but Cataphracts, horse archers, archers on foot and pyjama men who push your battering rams. In a way, it feels like the Seleucids lack a clear identity outside their campaign.

[@qualityoldgames7721]

Thanks for the comment. Interesting thoughts and good points :)

[@Warmaker01]

The Seleucids differ a lot from the Macedonian roster despite both armies featuring Pike formations. The strength of both rosters outside their pikes are in their cavalry. But here's the catch. The Macedonian cavalry are better early on, even in Tier 1. Macedonian Light Lancers are godawful in defense. You don't dare keep them in melee. But they have 9 charge. You know who else has 9 charge? Cataphracts. Light Lancers are cheap, too. So a Macedonian player on campaign can have cheap Levy Pikemen and have a handful of Tier 1 Light Lancers cycle charging targets at the same time and breaking them. The Macedonians can effectively do this real early on in their campaign, even against the Romans. Princepes melt when 3 Light Lancers charge them at the same time. Meanwhile the Seleucids get Militia Cavalry and Greek Cavalry for Tier 1-2, which is IMO, a lot less impressive. But the Seleucids shine in late, well developed games. Their cavalry roster is very powerful with all sorts of toys to play with. Elephants, Chariots, even freaking Cataphracts. I'm not sure which faction has the best, most effective, most varied endgame roster. The Romans or Seleucids? Either way, once having well developed settlements, the Seleucids have answers for most everything. The only thing on paper that would be annoying to deal with on campaign would be Horse Archer spam, but the Campaign AI doesn't know how to play the Horse Archer factions well. The AI instead likes to spam Eastern Infantry, the worst part of the Parthian and Armenian army rosters.

[@Eintracht-uy3cz]

Great comment. Still, I should have stressed that I usually lean towards the Multiplayer side and if you compare their rosters for MP: - Light Lancers are amazing for MP as well, especially low money, but Comp Cav is all you need, really - Chariots are the big thing for the Seleucids and, yes, Cataphracts. Those are undeniably good - Royal Pikemen have big shields and this makes all the difference. Silver Shields are vulnerable to missiles, but... - both factions have cheap archers. Only Macedon (and the Greek Cities) have Cretan Archers as well and those are monsters