Guide/Review Baktria on VH/M EB1.2

[Tech Support]

I tried Romans VH/M and after conquering Spain, Gauls, Greece, and kicking out of Carthage out of north Africa(they now reside in the desert. poor fellas) I kinda got bored with Romans since it was going to be endless war with Egyptions(I blitzed them and conquered all Nile River cities).

So, I decided to start Baktria.

Since I usually play on VH/M, I just went for it, and failed once.

I didn't even know there was a city on the southeast side of the Baktria lol

Now on the second try, things went little better.

So here we go.





Just the intro... Baktria is awesome...



Yeah. That's a city northeast to the Baktria. Spy was already there, and if you send him more to the north, you see a lot of good HA and archers. Let's just leave them be for now. And, they do become good shield for Saka for the time being ^^. Oh, by the way, send your diplomat to Saka through Pahlavan land for scouting and diplomacy.



So, on the first turn, disband a horse unit since you don't really need them. You have the best Generals' bodyguards. Just use them instead. So, leave whoever you prefer(or not prefer) in Baktria and get everyone else to the west border. Also don't forget to put the tax to the highest.
Then, you will find Pahlava declaring war on AS on the beginning of the next turn.
It would be very nice to have AS on your side, but it just doesn't work.
So... Enemy's Enemy is an Ally.



So WAR! Arche Seleukeia! Pahlavans will be a great help. And as you can see, with the army that was sent to west, attack Antiocheia-Margiane. It shouldn't be defended too well. Also, don't worry about AS cities to north. They will be busy fighting Pahlava and Saka. At least they won't move very much. Although, I cannot stress this enough, Put your spies everywhere!!! You want to know where the enemy is coming from at least a turn before. That's crucial for defending with less troops.


And here we go..


and that's only the beginning.

Don't stay in that city for long. If you enslaved the city, a general and a Persian archer can deal with it with no problem. Get the archer from Baktria(produce it and send it there at some point). Make sure you destroy all unnecessary buildings to get more mnai and I also recommend destroying granary in Baktria if you run low on mnai and absolutely need more.

Also your diplomat should be arriving at Saka, and make a deal with them.

Make a ceasefire treaty and offer trade rights and map information. In return, demand their map info and lots of mnai. I demanded 1500, and I got them no problem. (Although that will shame their helot. lol) mnai in early game is so important, rip off every nation you can think of. Even Egyptians will pay you for a ceasefire later.



So, now start making your way to Alexandira-Ariana to the South of Baktria. And put down every resistance! This time, I got lucky and while I was on my way, they decided to attack me on the bridge.


And..


Try to fight with least casualties. Do not throw archers into close combat and use archer-spearmen for support. Phalanx are the back bone of your army. Just hammer and anvil the soul out of your opponents. Or use terrain advantage to shower them with arrows and tire them before fight. But you cannot camp, though, since you'll be marching and blitzing all the time!



And, there goes down the Alexandria-Ariana. It's not that difficult to siege with tons of archer units really ^^
It becomes hard when they start to have some high walls...



Now this is the real deal. If we can take that city, then we should be much better off. It has a mine and everything else(lots of people to enslave too) So Blitz again.



Don't be afraid of outnumbering opponent. Maneuver your generals with care - phalanx and archers will hold their lines relatively well.

So let's kill off the runaway from last battle


Yeah! Prophthasia is now under control, and look at that sexy income! lol
loot from the city is big, too and destroying some buildings will help too, but I recommend only breaking the MIC for AS. You should be able to recruit Persian archers here from the beginning, so queue 2 of them and leave asap.





There will be some AS troops heading east. Finish them off.




That's it for my first post.

Baktria is a fun faction to play as, since its units will be diverse. And I really want some Kataphract action, so I will post more later with how it's going.

Thanks for reading!

[Tenebrous]

I want to thank you, I always wanted to have a game as baktria but never get very far. Previously I had always gone East. This plan worked very well, although it took 2 tries to make it work. To any others wishing to do as he did, you really do have to have blitz, if you leave you army for more than a couple turns in the first 2 settlements, you will begin to get swarmed, and be near unable to capture any more settlements as you will be on the defensive. This happened to me the first time.

As it stands I have gone all the way to Persophlis (Spelling? sorry), and pretty have the AS back on their heals.

One other word of advice, the AS WILL attack from the North, happened to me a couple times, never more than 5 or 6 units, but a pain in the bum if you have only FMs garrisoning Baktra.

[athanaric]

Interesting. Actually, my tactics are quite the opposite, but then I am loth to confront the Nomads (or any other faction) before they attack me, so I go for Kophen and Taksashila instead.

[Claudius]

Interesting. Actually, my tactics are quite the opposite, but then I am loth to confront the Nomads (or any other faction) before they attack me, so I go for Kophen and Taksashila instead.

Only problem with this is AS will backstab you. I tried that and a AS stack marched on Bak while I was on my way to Tak.

Had much more success going for Propthasia as soon as possible. For one it keeps your alliance with Parthia intact, AS weak early and Propthasia has more income initially than Kophen.

[Unintended BM]

Keeping your alliance with Parthia doesn't really matter. As soon as AS stops bothering them, Parthia's going to get you next, no question about it. In my Baktria games, I always go for Kophen, then build up for a decade or so and wait for the AS to attack. If they don't, then I go south and take those towns from them. Once you build up all your second level mines, you'll be extremely rich, and it'll be easy to take care of the horse archers, at least easier than it was.

[kidpacific]

Execellent AAR. Nice microcontrol. Better to show some pics in battle.
I use the same strategy in my VH/VH bactria campaign.

[Claudius]

Keeping your alliance with Parthia doesn't really matter. As soon as AS stops bothering them, Parthia's going to get you next, no question about it.

Sure it matters. Fighting Parthia with AS on my immediate flank isn't a prospect I want down the line. AS is a paper tiger and I"m jealous of their land. Honoring my Parthian alliance makes sense.

In my Baktria games, I always go for Kophen, then build up for a decade or so and wait for the AS to attack. If they don't, then I go south and take those towns from them. Once you build up all your second level mines, you'll be extremely rich, and it'll be easy to take care of the horse archers, at least easier than it was.

That's basically the same thing I did only I went for Propthasia first. Which allowed me to get mines and paved roads up in Kophen/Baktra while building up a secondary defense force more efficiently due to the early coin flowing in. 266 and I'm pulling 1300 income from Propthasia at very high tax rate with mines already underway in Kophen + Alexandropolis pacified.

The most recent game where I blitzed Kophen immediately AS backstabbed and went for Baktra from Alexandre-Ariana and I had to raise expensive mercs in order to defend my capital.

[panten]

Great guide. That's what I did in my Baktria game too - blitzing to the south, leaving everybody else alone. To prevent AS from overrunning me while my economy was still recovering I put some small garrisons of two phalanx units plus one archer on the river crossings south of Antiocheia-Margiane (never got attacked there in my campaign so far, but it feels safer and is a backup for a potential Pahlavan betrayal) and inbetween Alexandreia-Ariana and Prophthasia. That will keep the AS out, although it can get tough when they send some elite phalangites. I never got attacked from the north probably because Pahlava conquered Marakanda, but the AS keeps a fullstack around in Alexandria-Eschate that prevents both the Saka and Pahlava to finish them off in that region and probably helped me to keep up the peace with them for the last decades.

After securing my Western border I went for Kophen and built up mines in all the other towns until cashflow allowed me to conquer the remaining AS holdings to the south. After doing that, I went straight for India. I wanted to push AS further west after the succesful conquest at that point in the game but got attacked by the Saba who - of course - were crushed. With the help of the almighty toogle_fow I saw that the situation for AS had worsened and that next to an insanely active and succesful Carthage (they captured Rome and drove the Romans out of Italy and are now reconquering Spain after being completely wiped out there) the Ptolies were on the verge to become a large threat so I sent a expeditionary force to the Arabian peninsula to eliminate that and "aid" AS in keeping the Ptolies at bay. So far there have been some interesting battles including several naval invasions to capture and recapture Salamis and heavy skirmishes that ultimately led to the AS losing Antiocheia which is why I think they need help - I don't want to siege a Ptolie-Persepolis. Unfortunately I can't establish any client kingdoms (atleast with no recruitable governors) on my way to Egypt so that it probably will take a while - hopefully the AS will still be in the game by then.

[DeutschKirby]

Thanks for the guide! This was useful, as in a recently made H/H Baktria game of mine, I tried to take the city southeast of my capital. Long story short, it didn't work that well. You probably know what you're doing, so I'll try this. :P