Saka, nigh-impossible?

[helenos aiakides]

Hi

I've played lots of campaigns, and don't think that on vh/m saka is very hard. It certainly isn't in the same league as the hai, or pontus. Have other people found this?

[Arjos]

Yup, Saka's campaign is very easy once you are done with the economy issues at the start...
Blitz the first 2-3 towns and then you can pretty much destroy any army with just 2 family members :D

Not to mention horse-archer armies are just the worst nightmare for the AI, though everything can defeat that poor AI :P

[helenos aiakides]

I reckon I find it easy because I blitz pahlava, maybe that's why?

[Arjos]

Blitzing makes any campaign easy tbh...
Knowing how limited the AI is, you should always allow it to develop (say about 40 turns, way more with Medium campaign difficulty) if you want to face a strong AI...
Unfortunately for VH that means endless stacks of mercenaries, which you can defeat, but in the long run, it becomes quite a tedious task...

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

That's why I always play M/M, that way the AI doesn't hire many mercs. I hire them instead.

Saka is more fun if you leave Pahlava and Baktria alone at the start, and just go after the Seleucids. Raid all their eastern towns, destroy all their buildings for cash, but don't bother holding onto all of them, just abandon the more rebellious ones where you can't maintain order with just a single unit of foot archers.

[Fluvius Camillus]

Blitzing makes any campaign easy tbh...
Knowing how limited the AI is, you should always allow it to develop (say about 40 turns, way more with Medium campaign difficulty) if you want to face a strong AI...
Unfortunately for VH that means endless stacks of mercenaries, which you can defeat, but in the long run, it becomes quite a tedious task...

If people still wonder why I am known for blitzing, this is my greatest fear!

~Fluvius

[helenos aiakides]

To be honest, I think the pahlava campaign could well be harder.

[vollorix]

Even if you´d have absolutly no money, but a starting army ( esp. those tanks of BG ), you could defeat any army ( except of the same compositon, at least not without heavy casualities ) the AS would throw at you. So, the difficulty must be on the campaign map, and the most important thing which lets a campaign appear difficult is the lack of money. And, very rarely ( mostly when you let the initiative to the AI ), kind of presure situation, when you really have to choose, where to fight ( multiple fronts ), because otherwise i only take battles i know i can win - would be silly to do otherwise.

I see no sense in blitzing at all, actually, but when you are in deep minus, you just have to... Of course, there is still a way to cheet your tresuary to "zero", so that you can expand slowly. Another aspect is role playing - having some house rules, or, like i mostly do, trying to adopt the moods and likings of my FM to what i do with them during a compaign.

[helenos aiakides]

That's what I've started doing, now i'm a bit more mature, I give myself house rules and don't just abuse poor battlemap AI

[SwebozGaztiz]

Well usually i don't like to blitz but there are campaigns like Hayasdan and Pontos that if u don't hit the AS fast u will be dealing with the tedious task of beating stack after stack of elite phalanxes against ur militia armies(because lets be honest thats the only armies u can afford with both). But usually i stop after i feel they won't be sending armies like crazy, I like to build up, and have a well established economy before starting to do stacks. I like to role play and have certain rules, for example never use cheats, that can help to enjoy even more this great mod! But in my opinion the biggest challenge with the nomad factions is getting ur economy going, cuz like it was mentioned u can beat stacks with a few family members and ha! Specially with the Sauromatae, those family members can sure pack a punch!:D