My game has gone like this (it's about 245 BC):
1 - I started off expanding westward from Arkadia to Phraasa which was a cakewalk cuz the Rebels there are weak and the settlement didn't even have walls (although the Rebels apparently got ticked at this as they later actually got together an army big enough to lay siege to Phraaspa several turns afterwards).
2 - I took a small army westwards from Susa and decided to try my hand at being the Constant Gardener, sacking Seleucia and capturing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. For some reason, this really ticked off the Seleucids who have come at me for 20 years now with wave after wave of 10-20 units armies which I've until now at least been able to fend off.
3 - I spread farther westwards getting treaties with Scythia, Armenia and Egypt and then took Hatra. Talk about annoyed ... the Seleucids went completed wonky at this and directed just about all their forces to attacking me.
So now, the Egyptians and Scythians have turned on me and the Seleucids actually have an alliance with Pontus and Egypt. The past 10-15 years of game time has seen the Seleucids and Egyptians alternating attacks on Seleucia so that my force there could no longer support the army in Hatra.
Hatra wallowed as I could not advance them to a level where I could even retrain any of my better units so they eventually got crushed by the Seleucids.
Scythia came in took Campus Sakae killing a coupls of drunkard generals in the process ... no loss unless you were a wine merchant in which case you lost your best customers.
So now I have 4 cities/towns left ... Arkadia, Susa, Phraaspa and Seleucia. Seleucia is currently under siege by Egypt with the Seleucids waiting just behind them and Phraaspa is under siege by Scythia.
Two problems with this (other than the obvious) ...
(1)at Seleucia, the Egyptians and Seleucids both have access to onagers ... which may as well be B52 bombers to my army since I've had to use most $$$ supporting an army to hold the city rather than build it up and advance.
(2) at Phraaspa, the Scythians basically have the same composition of units as I do ... lots of horse archers and missile cavalry ... but they have lots more of them.
I'm wondering rather than annoying the Seleucids early in the game whether I would have been better off trekking across the steppes and trying to destroy Armenia and Scythia instead???
any suggestions would be most appreciated.