Build an army in Seulucia and go after their cities. Destroy them or accept to be attacked every two turns. If you haven't got the money for an extra army, you can build forts in the mountain passes above Seulucia (you will need a general for that task). This will stop the attacks until the Parthian army gets so annoyed that they will siege the forts.
Catching horse archers is possible with your cavalry at the border lines of a battle field, drive the horse archers to the border where they will panic so you can slaughter them. Another remedy is massed foot archers. You will loose a lot of archers but they will take care of the enemy horse archers.

Friesian

[This message has been edited by Friesian (edited 11-08-2005 @ 07:09 AM).]

I started semi-began a Seluecid campaign, and found it laughably easy.

You get so much money, I was able to bribe all armies the Egyptians sent at me except for one, and took Sidon without a fight and also Salamis with barely a fiaght, also Parthians are easy to bribe, and Pontus normally makes an alliance. I think the Seluecids are easy, but their infantry suck to much for my liking.

[This message has been edited by TTK_GeneralNoob (edited 11-10-2005 @ 02:01 AM).]

Right. This is what I recommend you do. It worked for me.

In Seleucia: Militia cavalry/Greek cavalry. Lots of them. Lots of infantry too. Ok. Once you have that, siege the cities. Make them come to you, surround them with your cavalry before you do anything in battle. Keep up the pressure on them.

Over the other side of Asia Minor: Take Halicarnassus. Build it up. Get ready to fight the Greeks because they may attack you. Until then, just hold your two cities there because you will need your money to fight Egypt.

At Antioch and...the other city there. Damascus too.: This is easy too. Build up to Phalanx Pikemen and Elephants (normal elephants aren't so good but they seemed to work for me). Greek cavalry is a must have too. Once you have a decent army attack, attack, attack. Keep the pressure up. Not that that will stop them sending a few dozen full stack armies at you but anyway. Don't give them a minute to think unless you have to retrain your army.

Just my thoughts. Have fun; you can end up with an annual income of about 70 000 denarii.

Indeed playing as Seleucid Greeks was fairly easy as the Hanging Gardens give you a big bonus from farm tax. So the 1st thing is to upgrade your farms in order to build a steady income.

To catch the parthian cavalry, build skythed chariots, i quite fell in love with those after the first time ihad 1 unit and took out 4 horse archers, they even take out cataphracts.

To generalnoob. He may not bribe them because he wants the enjoyment of the fight, you notice that he said he was building up his STRATEGY in custom. I too like to actually do the battles instead of bribing. It makes the game funner for me.

Ok, I just thought it might be a good suggestion as he said he was getting attacked by the Parthians and Egyptians, and thought he may need something to keep the Egyptians at bay, especially at the start when you have trouble makeing even medium sized armies that are ok.

Personally I would go 4/5 units of phalanx, than go scythed chariots, maybe 2 units, when vsing eggy or Parthian especially to get those damned horses. So that is your horse chasing problem. Maybe 2 units of elephants on each side of your infantry for your main attacking force as well. And skirmishers are a must for civs like greece who love their hoplites.

Also when you get up to it, get those great cataphracts, put them in wedge formation, charge and break that infantry formation. Get back and repeat. Seleucids IMO are much like Macedonians, Infantry are just meant to hold the line, while u go everywhere with your cavalry units. They can be pretty hard to micro, but You'll eventually get used to it.

There is however a small but significant difference in unit selection. The Seleucid Greeks dont have fast cav. units unlike Macedonian Greeks who have the Light Lancers cav. unit which is extremely usefull when facing cav. archers, such as Parthians use.

Due to their speed they can reach them and engage them in close combat, then the Companions come in and slaughter them.

Companians slaughter? wow i have never heard that. Do you have one of the patches?

Yeap 1.2 that is

Companions are much better in 1.2 and their monster charge is finally working. But they are still not as good as they should be, even with 1.3.

I too found the beginning of the Seulicid campaign to be difficult, even on medium. The Armenians and Parthians love attacking your northern territories, and Egypt is very formidable to the south. A strategy I used a couple times was engaging Parthian horse archers with foot archers while sneaking my cavalry around behind them. If I didn't tell them to attack til the last moment the horse archers never saw it coming. Another thing, there's nothing wrong with bribing. Sometimes you reach a fight you can't win, and if you've got the money you might as well flaunt it. Eliminating an entire Egyptian army w/o losing a soldier is very valuable. Fortunately, I have just over 1.5 million denari right now and am bribing Brutii's armies left and right. Makes for a good laugh.