Tips for Sab'Yn

[Akhenaton]

Well, I've been playing as the Sab'Yn for a while now, probably gone through five years or so. I hold the cities of Carna(Heroic Victory in getting this one...), Maryab, and Tamane. I have a 1/2-stack army that I replenish often and use to beat up bandits. Anyway, if anyone has any tips on how to play as this faction, please, do share.

[Bootsiuv]

Go into africa....you can take Ubar if you want, but it isn't vital, as it's really far from your core, and relatively poor.

I would head for Axum and Meroe. Regionals from these areas are what will make up your army later on, although they were more important in .8x, as Sabyn have some decent factional units now.

Anyways, avoid war with the Diadochoi if possible. Philadelphios will crush you if you war eary.

There's also an excellent Sabyn guide provided by the Errant. Check the Game Guide Index Thread....there's a link in the first post.

Sabyn are one of my favorite factions. They're good times.

Well, hope that helps.

Bootsiuv

[Hound of Ulster]

making money is very difficult with them at first, so I would recommend not keeping standing armies for than two or three turns (unless in siege). I haven't gotten far with them though.

[Gothic]

I recommend using the starting units to take the two neighbouring cities and then disband as much as you can while still keeping public order in your cities while keeping taxes at max.

Once you can afford a couple supporting units, take your family members (leave cheap skirmishers as garrisons in your cities) and go take your fourth city slightly to the east of the three first. Then leave one skirmisher unit there and install a type 4 gov to create a general to help keep order while you bring your whole army with family members and all to the next settlement further east, halfway up towards the east coat.

Once you have these five towns, either go all the way east and take the city on the vert eastern coast of the arabian peninsula, or disband as much as you can and return your family members to your cities to govern as you start making money.

I noticed that the Sabýn family breeds like rabbits, so don't be afraid to use your family members as a kick-ass core of your army when you go into the field. At some point your economy will allow for some more expansion, and like the others, I then recommend taking the two southernmost provinces in Africa. Also, make sure you keep watchtowers or spies around your main lands, since the Ptolies sometimes come sniffing.

Advance north in Africa and eventually you will go into war with the Ptolies. When I had come this far, I felt very confident, and greatly underestimated the Egyptians. They sieged one of my African towns and killed 4 (four!) family members I had inside, even though they were feeling safe inside stone walls along with a bunch of Red Sea hoplites. The Ptollies simply have better infantry (and economy) than you do, so do be careful from here on!

On the other front, I kept advancing up the Arabian peninsula east coast and eventually took Charax (sp?) from the Sillykoids. There I was able to make some good infantry and eventually pushed on towards Persepolis and took that too!

All in all, I would be more afraid of the Ptollies than the Sillykoids. So if you have to, just fortify in Africa and expand into Persia.

Good luck!

[Renegen]

Very interesting that you took Charrax. I was happy at Gherra and stopped there even though I had a huge army. Hindsight, I don't know, because right now all of Persia is Ptolemoi! Seleukia just got killed. They hold right now about 5 weak settlements somewhere near Baktria and are getting killed on all sides. Before that happening though I traded with them on the persian Gulf.

I took Memphis and everything south of it. It was a lot of battles of attrition but I am now around #5- #6 greatest faction in the game! (Ptolemoi first). Soon I will have access to the Mediterranean and my economy should enjoy a boost. Axum btw ROCKS as a trade town. I must get 400-700 in exports or imports in 2-3 of my towns from Axum. Persepolis is also a good trade town.

My strategy was slow expansion. I had just built my first Red Sea Hoplite in around 225 BC. If you conquer Egypt, supplying your troops will be a big concern. You need a very good economy, obtained from maximum level mines in your 3 main cities. Also Axum and Meroe have amazing mines of their own, that should prop up your economy. Conquering Egypt you also need to be a sea power. Only 1 town can make ships so crank them up 1 after the other. Before ever setting foot in Egypt have 1 huge army ready and think about being able to supply a second huge army very soon.

I would recommend maybe taking on Seleukia if they are weak. In my game they just went straight down, never had a chance. Compete in the Charrax region and conquer at least up to Babylon and Seleukia then go east to compete with Baktria.
You also have to think about morale problems, Persia is very far from your initial capital.

Capital mistake(there's many actually).
Economy is very important! Can't stress it enough.
Do not take on Petra and Israel, it's both Seleukia and Ptolemoi early on and they will own you and ally together.
Supply lines are crucial as you either need to go over sea or it takes 10+ turns to go to Persia. The eastern towns in South Arabia can have large populations but it takes a while. I put them on low taxes for 50 years and now they are finally paying dividends.
the flip side is that if you fail you are fairly secure as long as your economy is fine. You are in the deep desert. Just have watch towers everywhere.

If you are cheap use mass archers. If not, find your mix. I like the Red Sea light infantry and their axes, they're descent, cheap, early units.

[CirdanDharix]

Archers and other ranged troops will be very useful when you're conquering the neighbouring provinces and those in nearby East Africa, but will become almost useless when fighting against the successor armies of the AS or the Ptolemaioi, since phalanxes are virtually impervious to missiles. You don't really have any infantry that can stand up to the successor's heavies, you don't have any truly heavy cavalry, and your general is on foot. Your only chance is to continually harass them, outmanoeuvre them, and attack them from the flanks and rear. In doing this AI stupidity will help you out, of course.

[Renegen]

You've never played as Sab'yn have you? Put the archers in skirmish mode and you can separate phalanx units and shoot them in the back. There's also the fact the AI is stupid and heavy units will charge then retreat and expose themselves.

[struckat]

I have taken Meroe and Axum, built Mics both factional and regional but cannot recruit elephants or Ethiopian guards or swordsman. Have any of you found this to be the same?

[Renegen]

Yep. Check the recruitment viewer for units.
Level 3 and 4 governments need almost exclusively only regional barracks.

[CirdanDharix]

You've never played as Sab'yn have you? Put the archers in skirmish mode and you can separate phalanx units and shoot them in the back. There's also the fact the AI is stupid and heavy units will charge then retreat and expose themselves.

Any plan that relies on the enemy making a mistake is deeply flawed. That, and the fact that sometimes the AI will actually forget about marching pointlessly back and forth, and instead hold his position, in which case your archers can fire all their arrows at lowly Pantodapoi/Machimoi phanlgites without causing a single casualty.

[Watchman]

...at which occasion you put the archers/slingers/whatevah on their shielded side on hold and let the guys on the opposite side pour flying things into their butts...

That's not counting on the enemy making a mistake as such; it's counting on the enemy making a mistake it cannot avoid, for the simple reason the skirmishers and archers can run rings around the lumbering phalanxes. Once you've cleared away whatever mobile and ranged support they may have had along, the main threat is running out of ammunition before the buggers break.

[Geoffrey S]

Priority should be to take the peninsula without going to war with the Successors. Let them go to war with each other and attack their weak areas; you should be able to get behind their main lines quite handily if their fighting focuses around Syria. If they attack you, use the large distances and forts carefully to whittle down their numbers (at range, preferably), since their troops are better.

[CirdanDharix]

...at which occasion you put the archers/slingers/whatevah on their shielded side on hold and let the guys on the opposite side pour flying things into their butts...

And if they're holding atop a hill on the very edge of the map, you are to do this how? What if they have decent cavalry, which will tear most of Saba's unit roster a new arsehole? Facing a lone phalanx battalion or two is not the same as facing an entire army.

[Renegen]

Believe what you want then, this isn't an academic paper, I'm just relaying what works. Against big armies too, not just 2 phalanx stacks against 15 archers.

I'll admit I haven't faced Catafracts, but even medium cavalry is hardly a problem with the spearmen-archers.

[Kari]

I am playing Saba and I have serious problems with Bactrian Cataphracts. Do you have any tips how to kill them?

[Kromulan]

HEAT rounds from your low-velocity guns. . .
APFSDS with DU penetrators from your hi-velocity weapons. . .
Napalm or fuel-to-air bombs from your air support. . .
If you're near the coast, borrow some old US battleships and their main guns should do the trick. . .

Hmm. . .
Pin them with the cheapest spear units you have, attack from the flanks and rear with Indian Guild warriors and your FM bodyguards and just mob the buggers. If you can find some infantry with AP attacks, include them in the mob as well.

[CirdanDharix]

Indian guild warriors are AP. And they have really high lethality. They're probably the best anti-cataphract unit you'll ever get your hands on. They don't have great armour though, so expect to take losses. Once they're bogged down, you could try to to just pour flaming arrows into them, but I've never tried that. If you can exhaust them by leading them on a wild goose chase with light cavalry, then by all means do so.

Renegen: I guess it depends on army composition mainly. Against an all-phalanx stack, archers ay well work (not that I've bumped into a stack with 12 phalanxes and nothing else). When they've mixed in archers/slingers, a strong cavalry force, thureophoroi, and phalanxes, it's a different game of ball though.

[Renegen]

If the army is composite and has cavalry and skirmishers and heavy infantry then you handle those units first, they can all get killed by arrows too, usually much easier. Sometimes I run away from battle, but I frequently "peel" the foreign armies down to their phalanxes alone and then I move in. (infantry, archers, anything)

[BerkeleyBoi]

I have taken Meroe and Axum, built Mics both factional and regional but cannot recruit elephants or Ethiopian guards or swordsman. Have any of you found this to be the same?

I think it's a bug that you can't recruit Ethiopian guards or swordsmen. They're not even listed in the recruitment viewer I think.