Sarmatians (BI faction)

[Sarmatian]

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...

[gardibolt]

Things took an ugly turn in my Sarmatian campaign; after sacking a bunch of the WRE, I headed for Italy proper and settled in Ravenna, Rome and Tarentum. It seemed like an opportune moment; the Vandals had attacked me so I killed their king and they had headed east, and the Huns were settling over near Byzantium. I started earning cash and getting out of debt and everything looked positive when I got the message that the Goths had horded....I don't know how many stacks---6 or 7, all headed for Ravenna. Of course, I had just disbanded all my mercs so I could get out of the hole. I couldn't get any assistance there in time, and so Ravenna was besieged (I guess I should have just abandoned it). I killed a stack or so of Goths, but they were coming from just too many directions and the city finally fell. Meanwhile, Tarentum revolted, leaving me just Rome and a handful of generals in it. I said phooey, horded myself and sacked the city to get some cash, but was disturbed to see only three half-stacks under my command. I don't know what to do but I think I'm not going to win this game.

[Ozzman1O1]

To stay away froms steppe hordes,you should become one yourself,then march into the holy lands of jerusalem,once you take salamis,you should sail to greece or italy,(greece or italy may be infested with goths and huns,and head north to dacia......

[Alerion]

Let's give this old thread something new ;)

I recently started my first campaign with the sarmatians and I must say: I really like their units...
They are the first time I play a HA-heavy army and it's fun.

As for my strategy:
I decided to take as much time as I'd get, before hordes arrived and built some extra units before hording just when the huns showed up. I moved south and crossed Dacia into ERE territory and sacked COnstantinople, the town west of it and Athens. The goths had never been horded... on the contrary, they were doing really well and held Dacid, Iazyges, Illyricum et Dalmacia and the two northermost italian provinces... the huns raided somewhere in europe before settling in campus iazyges (taking it from the Goths) the goths split and the ostrogoths held Moesia. meanwhile the vandals settled in france so there were no hordes around at this moment.

I had solidified my hold of the three provinces and built up an army as big as I could afford and attacked the goths in Illyricum et Dalmacia, since I needed that to win anyways. My plan was to build up my empire around the western, northern and eastern shore of the Black Sea to get all the victory provinces. After I kicked the Goths out of Illyricum they were so nice to accept to become my protectorate, which meant I could leave them alive, not hording them... So I first took the one WRE province I needed (Pannonia) and after that ceasefired and trade rightes with WRE again.

Now I had the goths in dacia and northern italy as my protectorate, had the ostrogoths (neutral) in moesia and the Huns in Iazyges (Allied to them). Then someone horded the franks. I don't know who but suspect the Alemannii since they hold the rebel provinces above pannonia and seem to have spread quite a bit. The Franks came right into Iazyges to siege on the huns, that was right after I laid siege on the ostrogoth town to kill them off... Well I had to decide... do I want to face the ostrogoth horde + the Hun horde that might break the alliance once they are horded or do I want to lift the siege and send my army to relieve the Huns. I decided for the latter and moved an army into the hun territory. The Franks were allied to me from sometime around the beginning but they must have smelled what I was up to and while my army was standing around, just entering hun territory for one tile or so they attacked me... Fortunately they sent one stack after the other so during this one frank turn, my army killed off three full frankish horde stacks. I'd say the franks have a rather weak horde... I didn't even lose to much... my HAs had disrupted their formations completely by the time they closed in on melee (I of course set up as far back as possible) and so most of them routed when entering melee. Over all three battles I lost about 80 melee man and not more than 10 HAs altogether.

That left them with only one stack that was currently sieging the hun town, featuring the frankish king. I sent my best assassin and got lucky... the franks were gone and I hope the huns are damn grateful now ^^

the problem is: the franks must have been allied to the goths... cause when they attacked me, the goths broke their protectorate with me... AND the lombardi have taken Dacia... so that leaves me with the following situation: I have three factions to the north, which is where I wanted to go in the first place. They all only hold 1 province there but the problem is, they all will horde when I take their towns...

I guess I have # options:

1. taking them one after the other: Hording the ostros and dealing with them... rebuild, hording the huns, dealing with them... rebuild, hording Lombardi.. dealing with them... rebuild and go on north... later on horde the roxolani and deal with them... that sounds... tiring ^^

2. crossing into Little Asia and tryiing the ERE (lets see if the sassanids have weakened them already) and then the sassanids

3. crossing into Italy, taking some chunks of the crumbling WRE, getting stronger, expanding into non-horde-territory and just sailing over the black sea in the end to take that last victory condition.


Any suggestions/other ideas?

[gollum]

I've recently had a very much fun campaign as the Sarmatians in which i used the iron man rule not to horde unless i am forced to by an enemy (ie unless i lose my last settlement unwillingly). The early game i was forced to plead with the Huns, that in the end, after quite some devastation and start/end sieges left me and moved towards greener pastures. After their departure, the advantage of my early money was gone, and i was forced to conquer neighbouring provinces in the steppe (like Vicus Vandali and also Vicus Roxolani when i realised that the Roxolans had a second settlement) in order to start making money. Eventually i came into conflict over the western steppe with the Lombardii, which fought me with all their might, even coming as a Horde my way after losing their settlement to the Burgundii. In a desperate siege fighting with many salies and assaults, the Lombard horde was defeated and i finally started incursion into ERoman territory in Dacia. After substantial fights, against the Roman infantry i managed (with the aid of Sassanid success against the ERE in the east) to get Dacia and Campus Lazyges, after which point i became gradually strong enough to fight a Roxolan horde to submission and take over the Balkans and eventually Constantinople.

All in all, a great campaign.

[DarkKrusty]

Well Thread is Really old, But While Waiting for Rome 2 i Decided to revisit Rome. Went on BI and Played as the Sarmatians since i never really sat down and used them,

As the Game Started i Knew for a fact i Would have to deal with roxolani, Huns, Vandel or Goth Hordes So a Tactic i Did was Mass amounts of trade agreements for 3-4 turns to stock pile cash, as well as Training a few units of Runaway slave Spearmen. I had those along with The Virgin Archers In the City waiting, i then had my faction Heir take All cav from there (herdsmen) and then Hire Merc cav. And as i Suspected, Turn 6 a Horde came, it was the Roxolani since huns hit them and headed south and everyone else ignored me. They Besieged My City with a Full stack and Had another full stack just behind (talking about 3-6k Troops in those 2 stacks) they had about 5 or so in all, I was Like Eh, If im going to Horde Lets wipe out a Civilization First. So With MY faction Heir and His Mounted Army i Hit the Besiegers. As the Battle Opened up i was running around Looking for a good place to hit failing to find it, Then the People of my city came along (AI controlled) and Provided What i wanted, They attacked and formed a Battle line Against Cav and foot troops, Which I wanted As i had a Entirely Cav army. I swept my Herdsmen Into the flanks and rear to free up my foot troops and while that was going on i sent My Faction Heir on a King Hunt, I found him and hit him right in the flank and killed him off in the charge and took his Unit with him. their 2nd army came along at this Point So i sent the Merc Horse Archers to shoot the last of their arrows at them (had the Archers helping herdsmen prior to this) Killing a Few 100 or so guys off before Running out of arrows. I then Pulled All my Cav back and let the AI send in the Exhausted Spears to Form a Smaller battle Line (since most of my AI controlled troops had died off at this point) But due to rushing across the field the Roxolani Had also been Exhausted, Which was Perfect for me, Since i had about 500 Horsemen Just waiting for the prime chance to attack, and as it came I Swept through about 1000-2000 Troops and Killed all but 3 units that had yet to Join the Melee, Which got Attention After the Main force was wiped out, This Won the Battle, Back on the Battle Map i retrained my troops in the city and got a few more units waiting for the rest of the Roxolani to attack, they clearly learnt their lesson and headed west. At this Point since i had the Steppes practically to myself i began to send Bands of about 3-5 Units of Horsemen out to take the villages that had been left as rebels. After that i just followed the Path the Huns had left, taking the Roman and Sassanid Cites that got sacked Left and recaptured by the Original owners, by the time i was finished i Owned the Entire NE and Much of the Eastern area of the map. my Faction Heir Had an Entire Army of well geared 3 stripe gold, troops. (some of which had been with him against the battle at the start of this Post), So I learnt that Sarmatians are Most Deadly when you Can Pull your Enemies into a battle line with your Cheap foot troops Allowing you to make use of the Mounted Units they have. Doing this Not even Hordes of troops can stand against you.

By the time i was Finished i had crushed the Eastern Romans, Wiped the Sassanids off the Face of existance, Killed all the Huns off while they had Still been in Horde Form. Took entire control of the North and North West (wiped out the Saxons Franks and Arthurs troops, cant remember their factions name.) The goths and vandels had been killed off at some point (maybe against each other?) But all in all, it was a good campaign, the early Management of funds and Mercs (and using cheap units as fodder) Won it for me, (a Easier idea would of just been to Horde and hit sassanids but, meh.)

So yeh Just remember Cheap Foot troops are the Best friends of Cav Factions. Now, i think its Time i Played Roma Surrectum