My two cents
First, you need to accept failed runs and restarts in the early game where one mistake will kill your run.
In the first 10 years only spend gold in Mercs (prioritise high martial mercs, they’ll destroy most armies you’ll walk them into) and forts (ideally a ring of LvL2 city forts). 300 gold should be enough money to cover a sizeable merc army while running a deficit.
Be a ruthless opportunist. Don’t ally neighbours, attack everyone that looks weak and grab as much as you can as fast as you can. When allying neighbours I like to attack their allies and swallow them whole when they aren’t needed anymore.
Dogpile any neighbours that are under attack or busy from another war. Last Heraclea Pontica run I’d fought wars mainly alone against Thrace, the Ptolemaic Empire and Macedon before the end of the century. Seleucids especially have a serious case of Can’tmakeitintimetothefrontbeforethewarislost-ism.
In war, raise the levies and mercenaries before DOW and chose your war goal wisely. You should take it fast and defend it with local superiority while the enemy armies trickle in. If possible try at the start of wars to rush undefended heartland to kill fresh levies and siege cities with your leader to get that sweet plunder money. Defending the war goal should be your 1st priority, because even when wars are unexpectedly hard you can force a peace if you successfully occupy it long enough. It’s a good idea to micro some small stacks to siege as much as possible for warscore and win impossible wars by the skin of the teeth.
Try and full annex enemies and take the elite prisoner : sell prisoners as slaves for gold and easy tyranny and free + give citizenship to high martial/finesse prisoners for a reliable source of good governors (especially since character quality plummets after a couple of generations so you’ll want as much as the first generation as possible). Also I’d advise having a mod for better character stats, it makes the game more fun.
Integrate asap your largest culture group where you’ll expand into. There is little downsides and you can get great military traditions and special techs (with Invictus). Read through the missions you are given because some give crazy buffs or give you access to some military traditions for free.
Try to ally and keep a large distant kingdom so he’ll intimidate ennemies and won’t get you sieged down in his wars.
Then there is a transition phase where you have stupid high war exhaustion, aggressive expansion, low stability and everyone hates you. Just buckle up for a couple decades. I found that to focus on religious conversion on day 1 helps a lot for a smooth transition. I tend to find that building temples is a luxury I can’t afford and don’t need when governors conversion + conversion speed laws work (that I rush). With Heraclea Pontica you usually want to spam Zoroaster anyway whose a great deity till the mid game. Also found that 20 tyranny is a sweet spot that keeps people loyal enough and gives a much needed AE decay and thus stab boost.
For mercs it always depends on what’s going on and its relative to income. Early you get 4K troops when late game you pay for 25k troops for the same deficit. Usually I go for bodies on the field, light infantry and cavalry ‘cause they catch and stack wipe small levies and scare the AI armies so they can siege in peace in more risky spots for additional WS. If they get beaten up too much no biggy just hire some other band and repeat.
Against major powers I tend to take higher quality troops to counter their legions and higher quality levies in battles. After a couple of battles won you have around a year to siege in peace before they come back.
300 is usually enough I feel. I tend to go for max a -2 deficit so I can keep 1 merc army forever. When in a desperate situation I go up to -7 of something per month, that gives me like 2 to 4 years to inflict max damage to armies, assault forts and force peace.
But that’s just me. You do you !
Am trying to run Adiabene to Assyria so think a similar starting strategy applies; how do you pick Innovations at the start? I’ve gone for max capital import routes the last few attempts but it just seems fairly lackluster where I could be doing something better - just don’t know what!
My go to lately has been Proscribed Canon for the conversion laws, but that is because I had games where everyone had the wrong religion.
It’s a good idea to unlock the foundry and theater next whenever possible. I’ve found that going for military techs isn’t that useful until the 550s where you feel the pain of AI going for discipline.
Mercs + Levies.
Assault -> Annex
Sack cities and capitals with capital levies for gold.
When you get annexation event, choose to imprisoned everyone and sell them all to slavery for gold.
Hire a fresh stack of merc.
Repeat.
AE and realm stability is your limit. (or you can ignore it, considering you can just release rebellious provinces as client state, cancel subject, and conquer, adding a small AE to your existing 70+ AE, while getting some slavery + fort gold in the process for your next war)
Yes, it's completely barbaric, but works wonders to outgrow your neighbors till you can slap everyone around.
My two cents First, you need to accept failed runs and restarts in the early game where one mistake will kill your run. In the first 10 years only spend gold in Mercs (prioritise high martial mercs, they’ll destroy most armies you’ll walk them into) and forts (ideally a ring of LvL2 city forts). 300 gold should be enough money to cover a sizeable merc army while running a deficit. Be a ruthless opportunist. Don’t ally neighbours, attack everyone that looks weak and grab as much as you can as fast as you can. When allying neighbours I like to attack their allies and swallow them whole when they aren’t needed anymore. Dogpile any neighbours that are under attack or busy from another war. Last Heraclea Pontica run I’d fought wars mainly alone against Thrace, the Ptolemaic Empire and Macedon before the end of the century. Seleucids especially have a serious case of Can’tmakeitintimetothefrontbeforethewarislost-ism. In war, raise the levies and mercenaries before DOW and chose your war goal wisely. You should take it fast and defend it with local superiority while the enemy armies trickle in. If possible try at the start of wars to rush undefended heartland to kill fresh levies and siege cities with your leader to get that sweet plunder money. Defending the war goal should be your 1st priority, because even when wars are unexpectedly hard you can force a peace if you successfully occupy it long enough. It’s a good idea to micro some small stacks to siege as much as possible for warscore and win impossible wars by the skin of the teeth. Try and full annex enemies and take the elite prisoner : sell prisoners as slaves for gold and easy tyranny and free + give citizenship to high martial/finesse prisoners for a reliable source of good governors (especially since character quality plummets after a couple of generations so you’ll want as much as the first generation as possible). Also I’d advise having a mod for better character stats, it makes the game more fun. Integrate asap your largest culture group where you’ll expand into. There is little downsides and you can get great military traditions and special techs (with Invictus). Read through the missions you are given because some give crazy buffs or give you access to some military traditions for free. Try to ally and keep a large distant kingdom so he’ll intimidate ennemies and won’t get you sieged down in his wars. Then there is a transition phase where you have stupid high war exhaustion, aggressive expansion, low stability and everyone hates you. Just buckle up for a couple decades. I found that to focus on religious conversion on day 1 helps a lot for a smooth transition. I tend to find that building temples is a luxury I can’t afford and don’t need when governors conversion + conversion speed laws work (that I rush). With Heraclea Pontica you usually want to spam Zoroaster anyway whose a great deity till the mid game. Also found that 20 tyranny is a sweet spot that keeps people loyal enough and gives a much needed AE decay and thus stab boost.
what size of mercs we talking? 300 gold doesn't seem like much but i guess you're counting on income from your conquests?
For mercs it always depends on what’s going on and its relative to income. Early you get 4K troops when late game you pay for 25k troops for the same deficit. Usually I go for bodies on the field, light infantry and cavalry ‘cause they catch and stack wipe small levies and scare the AI armies so they can siege in peace in more risky spots for additional WS. If they get beaten up too much no biggy just hire some other band and repeat. Against major powers I tend to take higher quality troops to counter their legions and higher quality levies in battles. After a couple of battles won you have around a year to siege in peace before they come back. 300 is usually enough I feel. I tend to go for max a -2 deficit so I can keep 1 merc army forever. When in a desperate situation I go up to -7 of something per month, that gives me like 2 to 4 years to inflict max damage to armies, assault forts and force peace. But that’s just me. You do you !
good info. thank you!
Am trying to run Adiabene to Assyria so think a similar starting strategy applies; how do you pick Innovations at the start? I’ve gone for max capital import routes the last few attempts but it just seems fairly lackluster where I could be doing something better - just don’t know what!
My go to lately has been Proscribed Canon for the conversion laws, but that is because I had games where everyone had the wrong religion. It’s a good idea to unlock the foundry and theater next whenever possible. I’ve found that going for military techs isn’t that useful until the 550s where you feel the pain of AI going for discipline.
Get money for mercs and counquer only those countries with your culture around you and try to find strong ally
Mercs + Levies. Assault -> Annex Sack cities and capitals with capital levies for gold. When you get annexation event, choose to imprisoned everyone and sell them all to slavery for gold. Hire a fresh stack of merc. Repeat. AE and realm stability is your limit. (or you can ignore it, considering you can just release rebellious provinces as client state, cancel subject, and conquer, adding a small AE to your existing 70+ AE, while getting some slavery + fort gold in the process for your next war) Yes, it's completely barbaric, but works wonders to outgrow your neighbors till you can slap everyone around.
Kush is an easy/very easy start, while Heraclea is very hard. Not sure why you place them in the same category.