I played in the similar way as PietrolEremita and I think this is the way to go. Eliminating Sassanids early will give you a lot of cash, potentialy rich land to settle and will take out a dangerous enemy. Ere can alsou cause you problems since some of their units are armoured but upkeek of their units is really high so you won't see much of them even late in the game. Most of their units will be easy to pick off from the distance with your HA since their main fighting force is infantry.
First I sacked Sassanid cities so that I get cash. Sassanid army is a problem only when they have dreaded clibinarii's, but in thr beggining you won't find so many of them. After I got some cash from sacking, i let Sassanids take back their cities so that they wear themselves out on the rebels. After that I started sieging the cities again. I waited out the sieges, not just because steppe factions are bad at them, but there was also a chance that it would draw out some more of their fighting force in the open. I synchronized the sieges so that I could take 2-3 cities a turn after I take the first one. I took the first one and settled, and a turn after I took 3 more and killed the population to get more money. Of course, I had some mercenaries in every stack that was sieging because settling disbands the horde.
After that the sassanids were done and I thought that would allow me some breathing space to develop economy. But ERE soon attacked me. With only a few units, I had no chance to defend so I hoarded again. I decided to do with the ERE the same as I did with the sassanids. This was a lot harder since I had to fight a lot of full stacks, but it is feasible if your are patient and don't rush in to the battle. Wear them out with arrows before you attack them in melee.
I wasted city after city until I almost reached Constantinople and the I decided to turn back and take some cities around Cyprus. Again I synchronized the sieges so I ended up with several rich cities and lot of cash. ERE also lost some time in taking back their now rebel cities, which gave me time to build up my army. I defeated the remnants of the ERE army easily and I ended up with no real competition from Constantinople and Jerusalem.
Since barbarians armies are cheap to upkeep, I was able to build huge armies and still net a great amount of money each turn. Taking Cyprus really paid off, even though it was a pain in the neck to get your armies across with all the ERE navy being there.
After this I stoped playing because there was no challenge. Being able to field almost limitless armies, it was only a matter of time when I will be victorious.
So I think taking out sassanids and ere are the best solution for Sarmatians.
You take out two potentialy powerful enemies when you have advantage in numbers, get rich lands for both sacking and settling, and you also are somewhat out of the way of other hordes...
Bookmarks