Why am I getting roflstomped as Egypt?

[Extreme Unction]

I start a new game as Egypt. Egypt starts off at war with the Seleucids.

After some maneuvering, I park 30k troops in Damascus. The Seleucids send 24k troops in response. 24k enemy troops vs. my 30k defending troops. My troops have a Martial 7 leader, with +10 discipline from omen, +10 Heavy Infantry discipline from a National Idea, and +50% defensive for all units from another National Idea. And as soon as battle is engaged, I start losing men by the thousands and my morale drops like a rock, compared to him losing men by the hundreds and morale not changing much at all. Their general has a slight 0.5 advantage in martial skill, but even when the rolls are heavily in my favor, I still don't do much damage to him. Every battle has been a huge loss for me, losing 50% of my troops. It's maddening.

Anybody know what's up?

 

[loki100]

remember that the unit mix has a rock-paper-scissors element to it (so some unit types are very good against some others and very poor against different ones). It may be that the Seleucids have an army that gets bonuses against you.

look at the detailed battle screen and check out if they have troop types that you can't easily handle.

 

[Wave]

Egypt has a lot of heavy infantry but Seleucid armies are combos of all types so their archers and horse archers destroy your units easily. Also 30 + 24 units in one province is probably 50 units more than the province can supply so you are taking attrition as well while the Seleucids are in their own territory.

If you want to meatgrind the enemies I'd suggest leaving a huge stack of units in Alexandria where the defender has a river bonus and then luring the enemies attack you in there. Then start guerilla warfare and rush to Seleucid eastern border with a couple of units (preferably cavalry which moves fast so you can evade other armies if needed) to start sieges while your big armies keep the Seleucid doomstacks busy.

Also one important thing to remember is that winning the war isn't about how losing or winning a couple of provinces or about how fast you can get your armies to the enemy sand, it's about who can be the last one to get to the enemy sand (= if the enemy has no troops or manpower they can't resist the attack). Don't take unnecessary attrition casualties, be prepared to fight for the next century because the AI Seleucid armies never end (even if their manpower is really low compared to yours) and when they show sign of getting tired it's your turn to attack.

 

[vitek69]

That's kinda funny, in my current game as Macedonia I'm allied to the Seleucids and they're getting roflstomped (brilliant word ) by Egypt every time until I help them