(Not sure if this is the right forum area for this, so apologies if it's in the wrong place)

So, I recently decided to give Europa Barbarorum a go, getting rather tired of the glorious silliness that is vanilla R:TW. And against all better logic, despite being totally new to EB, I've gone with the Pahlava.

I'm a few dozen turns in, and things are going semi-well. Blitzed AS early on and took Assak, Marakanda, Antiocheia-Margiane, Hekatompylos and Zadrakata. Managed to get a nice peace settlement with them and developed my economy. Baktria and Saka-Rauka seem friendly enough. The peace lasted until AS rolled in with a full twenty stack and re-took Hekatompylos (luckily I saw them coming and pulled the garrison out). My economy took a brief nose-dive while I lured the doom-stack into my territory and then routed it with pretty much every horseman in my empire. I have re-re-taken Hekatompylos, but my army has taken many casualties and they are far from the only two cities that can replenish them. Another doom-stack like that might end me. My priorities at the moment are establishing more recruitment areas, growing my population and taking the fight to the AS.

Some observations/questions so far:
- Should I take pastoralism in all of my homeland provinces?
- Should I take pastoralism in all Silk Road provinces? Will this increase trade?
- Where should I take pastoralism and where should I stick with nomadism?
- Is it worth keeping Baktria around? They have only two provinces, but I am still allied with both them and Saka.
- What is the best way to grow the Pahlavan economy? I say this as I am not making a lot of money, and buildings and units are a lot more expensive in EB.
- Is it worth taking territory in India?
- Phalanxes seem to be very heavily armoured and very stubborn, absorbing a lot of arrows and standing for a long time even after being charged from both sides.

Really enjoying the mod so far! Feels like what R:TW should have been.