Scythia

[Craterus]

Zipoetes isn't old. He was still alive when I accidentallly overwrote my game. That was about 255bc. He was in his late 70's at that point, I think.

He was still alive when I owned Campus Sake, Campus Sarmatae, Campus Alanni, Campus Getae, Tanais, Chereseneos, Campus Scythii, Domus Dolcis Domus, Themiskyra, Vicus Gothii, Vicus Marcomanni and Vicus Vendae...

Anyway, you have Palacus and Partatua and a few adoptions come along if you conquer quickly.

[katank]

Conquering quickly is usually a recipe for many adoptions. Don't sweat it though. Always turn on manage all settlements and you don't really need many governors at all.

I will often have no FM's governing at the beginning of the game as they are more useful as generals. Governors are only useful for bringing in lots of slaves to quickly grow a town.

[crazybastard]

I now own 3/4 of russia (the 1/4 is own by those f*&^ing parthians) and the black sea and the brutii just broke the alliance and stab my back. I killed wave afte wave of romans (usually they outnumber me 3:1) and more and more just keep coming! What is wrong with them!?

[katank]

Nothing, this is what they do best. Italy is fairly rich and has decent population growth so you'll see many stacks from them yet.

Smash into Italy and sack their cities, only fighting the armies you have to will end this deluge.

[pezhetairoi]

...wow, no one's said anything on this once-hot thread in months. What is going on? I'm thinking of repeating my Scythian campaign, but this time without unlimited ammo. Woohoo. What do you do after your HA run out of ammo, anyways?

[Deus ret.]

simple: retreat and wait for another battle to empty your quivers once again. If you cannot retreat any more without being annihilated...make your demise a glorious one. You can do awesome things simply by maneuvering your cavalry, especially the excellent Scythian HAs. Good stamina, extra defense....lure and outmaneuvre the enemy and smash their backs and flanks with your heavy cav, provided you still have some left. Thanks to the stupid AI you may even win when you least expected to.... and if you lose: that's the way history goes. A decent defeat here and there contributes greatly to enjoying the game, IMHO. Don't worry, maybe come back with a better army and crush them. I never played with unlimited ammo, so I'm used to it. ~:cheers:

[pezhetairoi]

nonono, when I once tried to white-flag my principes to see what would happen, they just kept running along the map border instead of crossing it. I fear that might happen if I tried to withdraw my HA to fight another day--they'd just run along the map border until time ran out, meanwhile getting slaughtered.

[Deus ret.]

hmmm I had that problem too when attacking an enemy with two armies from different sides of the battlefield. the second one, without family member, would retreat at exactly the same spot where the general's units would. naturally and because they are so well-programmed, their path led them straight through the enemy lines, which I realised too late...instead of retreating to a safe haven, they immediately got transferred to heaven.

usually (i.e. only one army) your units retreat to where they came from. you have to memorize their starting location and safely maneuver your troops near it before ordering them to retreat.

that said, unit behaviour while retreating still is sometimes quite odd.

[pezhetairoi]

I guess with HA you can make it work easier than most other factions. It also means reinforcements are that much more difficult to withdraw for other factions. I've finally made use of the withdraw command, but only as Armenia.

[Eddie Kite]

SPQR .. I cannot remember is Latin I think but a search would find I think.



SPQR stands "Senatus Popolus Que Romanus" - Senate and People of Rome.

[Eddie Kite]

[QUOTE=Franconicus] My chief builds two fortresses against the Parthians and then follows the HA. The foot archers go into the forts.
QUOTE]

Why fortresses ?
Foot archers on bridge are enough, not ?

[Franconicus]

[QUOTE=Franconicus] My chief builds two fortresses against the Parthians and then follows the HA. The foot archers go into the forts.
QUOTE]
Why fortresses ?
Foot archers on bridge are enough, not ?
Eddie,
took a while until I found the old post.
I do not think that one unit of foot archers could stop the enemy too long without fortifications. They cannot stand an cav attack.
I wanted to change the garrison to peasants after a while. The forts are just to gain time.

[Elephant]

Hi, everyone!

I am new to this forum, but have played the game for 3 months now (although I am still a newbie because of my excessive use of the pause button. ~;) )

But I have a question: Are those Scythian Nobles really that good?

I mean, I have always hired Sarmatian Mercenaries during my Parthian campaign, but despite that impressive Charge Bonus, they still die so fast upon impact without taking much lives with them!

If people kept on saying they are so good, how the hell do you use those guys anyway? They sometimes just won't charge, and is left to fight the enemy with the measly hand-to-hand damage!

[Deus ret.]

But I have a question: Are those Scythian Nobles really that good?

I mean, I have always hired Sarmatian Mercenaries during my Parthian campaign, but despite that impressive Charge Bonus, they still die so fast upon impact without taking much lives with them!

Welcome to the guild, Elephant! ~:cheers: Just let me spread my humble opinion.

First, if you don't charge Sarmatians right at a unit's front, be sure they will take lives with them. No dishonor to my Sarmatians!! Admittedly they die quickly (also due to them being a preferred target for enemy archer fire), but they are a unit of premium shock cavalry. Usually a flank charge into a pinned average unit should be enough to rout them. If not, turn away and re-charge!

Secondly, the Nobles ARE that good: With them, you have a unit of not-too-expensive and retrainable Sarmatians (which requires just lvl 2 stables) as well as the possibility to build them in a town with a Kolaksay shrine. Adding the Armourer bonus will provide them with a nice boost: +4 each to attack and defence, including 1 armor to better withstand archer fire. They totally RULE!


If people kept on saying they are so good, how the hell do you use those guys anyway? They sometimes just won't charge, and is left to fight the enemy with the measly hand-to-hand damage!

Alas, you're right ...this is a commonly known rtw bug ... its worst effects should be offset when you switch off group commands, ordering every unit to charge (and re-charge, Sarmatians et al. are not made for a prolonged melee) separately.

[Elephant]

Alas, you're right ...this is a commonly known rtw bug ... its worst effects should be offset when you switch off group commands, ordering every unit to charge (and re-charge, Sarmatians et al. are not made for a prolonged melee) separately.

Thank you for welcoming me!

So THAT's the way you make people charge? Hmm, looks like I will need to keep that in mind next time. Hope it's not cheating for using the pause button so much. ~;)

[Craterus]

No, I use pause a lot, I don't consider it cheating. But that's 'cos I micro-manage (groups seem to mess up for me.)

[pezhetairoi]

you can't group-manoeuvre for HA factions. Liberal usage of the pause and plenty of micro-management are necessary to get just the right angles and positions. Pausing is not cheating :)

[Craterus]

I don't think I'd survive as an ancient commander, without a pause button (or Bernards watch!)

I don't do very well online and you can't pause there, without all playes consent.

[pezhetairoi]

It's much more frenetic on MP, agreed... which is why I can't survive there as a horsearcher faction.

[Elephant]

(Sorry, double post.)

[Elephant]

Today, a turn after I got my Warlord's Stables built, I finally got to try out one of those Scythian Noble Archers. And, really, I was blown away!

Compared to the basic Scythian Horse Archers and their toy-like weapons, these nobles can actually take out a reasonable amount of infantry per volley!

In fact, my 3-bronze chevron Noble Archers took on a Rebel army of 3 Thracian Mercenaries and 1 Scythian Horse Archers in a Hard battle and won! I only lost 9 guys due to being surrounded by the Thracians. The arrows from the enemy HA did not even kill one guy!

Also, I learned to love the Cantabrian Circle, due to the buggy nuisance of HA units taking forever to fire all at once (the first volley that they should fire doesn't, with only the sound and firing animation being available!). Sure, the circle tires my nobles out, but read this: somehow units seem more prone to gaining experience when they kill enemies at Tired to Exhausted status!

Maybe I am crazy, but I think it's worth it for someone to test this out for themselves.

[pezhetairoi]

you may have somnething there...

[Craterus]

I think so.
It's likely because in reality, if you are still able to kill enemies when you are fatigued you are bound to be a good warrior.

[Elephant]

I think so.
It's likely because in reality, if you are still able to kill enemies when you are fatigued you are bound to be a good warrior.

So, anyone care to test it out? But really, I still can't avoid losing some of my precious Noble Archers to those Archer Warbands even though I am in the circle... Hell, they killed 3 guys per volley! Unacceptable!

Those arrows that belong to them craven dogs are not worthy to be stuck on the rotting corpses of my Scythian noblemen! I demand an apology. ~;)

[LestaT]

I'm about to finish my Roman campaign (RTR 5.41) and planning to play Sarmation (Synthia).

I'm thinking to pull all my forces from all the settlements / city and only leave one as a base (Capitol). There's only 2 route to take , either westward or southward.

Which one is better ? I'm thinking westward because cities/towns belonging to Dacians, Thracians, the Greeks and macedonians are not that far apart then to go downward south towards armenian first.

My plan was to sell all sellable buildings first and I believe from the starting position I can get a full stack army combine and just acrros the river nearby my capitol llies the Dacian town (ally) which is ripe for plunder.

What do you guys think ?

Cheers....

[Orda Khan]

Head for Thrace, on to Macedon and then Greece. By now those silly Romans will be feeling their feet so destroy them next. I would be inclined to ignore the East

......Orda

[pezhetairoi]

That's my path, with a subsidiary attack into Germania which is also easy pickings since they're mostly phalanx units.

[Elephant]

Wow, the once popular Scythia now apporaches the bottom of the page. ~D

I have seen fit to restart my Scythia campaign, mainly because I didn't rush and allowed my neighbours to have Large Cities with stone walls, which means I made a mistake.

Anyways, it became very interesting by the time I destroyed Thrace (8-10 turns), as Dacia seemed to have become a barbarian superpower of sorts! He owns 8 provinces (thankfully none of which have ocean access), and even betrayed an alliance with me once they had the cash to build up!

I have blitzed the Pontus Capital from a Black Sea assault, and bribed Ancyra (which, in hindsight, might have been a bad investment). Combined with Nicomedia, I think I have established a good hold on Turkey.

That's it so far, but more will come, I am sure.

[pezhetairoi]

Haha, I'm back to push the one-time record-holder for post count back to the top :D

With regards to noble archers getting downed by archer fire, I've been working on a minor mod to the unit stats. This has resulted in me giving horse archers 4 HP, noble archers 5 HP, and chosen archers 5 HP, on a line with identical standard infantry of the line. They survive much better this way, and there's a lot more time to do nasty things to the footarchers' morale.

[Franconicus]

Hi Pez,

back and spamming, are you?

[pezhetairoi]

Yeap, trying my best to equal Craterus' post count :-P

[Craterus]

You're a few thousand off, but keep posting those great guides and battle reports and you'll get there in the end...

[pezhetairoi]

Heh, I'm tailing off... There won't be anymore battle reports, I think? I've been drafted into the army and will enlist for two years starting this december so my attendance on the Org will only be intermittent at best, depending on when I get weekend leave. Guides? Well, I'll wait for EB before compiling another strategy guide again :) I'm currently involving myself in making hand-drawn EB maps sprawled across 4 A4 papers, and making unit lists, preparing recruitment region maps for each unit. Anyhow, I play MM now so any strategic advice I give about RTW is only based on personal memory and experience...

[NEARHOS]

pls i need some help with unlocking the non playable factions.
i edit all of them but only macedon and pontus are playable.when i click the others in imp. campain menu, the game closes and return to the windows.
do i have to unlock only the one i want to play with each time?
please, i am dying to play scythia.

[Franconicus]

This is from Quietus guide:

Unlock All Factions – In RTW, some factions are playable, some are unlockable and some are unplayable. This is how you unlock and play all the factions (thx to littlecheese07 of TWC for this idea).

Go to your folder, RTW>world>maps>campaign>imperial_campaign>desc_str at.txt. Simply move all the factions under the “nonplayable” and "unlockable" that you want play to under “playable”. Thus, in this list, Egypt to Greek_cities are unlockable, Roman_senate to Slave are nonplayable (it is advisable from other players NOT to touch or play the “roman _senate”) and Romans_Julii to Romans_scipii are playable. After you’ve arranged the text files, do not forget to SAVE. You may now play the new factions when you load RTW.

campaign imperial_campaign
playable
romans_julii
romans_brutii
romans_scipii
end
unlockable
egypt
seleucid
carthage
parthia
gauls
germans
britons
greek_cities
end
nonplayable
romans_senate
macedon
pontus
armenia
dacia
scythia
spain
thrace
numidia
slave
end
Maybe this lines should be emailed to every new member!

Nearhos,
A warm welcome to you. Enjoy your Scythian campaign as much as I did! And keep us informed~;)

[NEARHOS]

thanks for the welcome and it is a pleasure to be a member.
The problem i have is after i did all the previous editing.
eventhough all the factions are available as litlte shields in imperial campain menu, from the previously non playable factions, only macedon and pontus are realy playable.When i click on Scythia shield, the game closes automaticaly and returns to the Windows.
Perhaps if i uninstall the game and then install again?
thank you in advance!!!

[Craterus]

That shouldn't make a difference. Have you made sure all the factions are "in line". Use the tab button to make sure they are. All faction names need to start from the same point, but they all need individual lines.

[C-F]

Lol - care to dance ???~:joker:

https://img527.imageshack.us/img527/7052/militiacavalry2io.th.jpg (https://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?image=militiacavalry2io.jpg)

Now try to fix that...~:rolleyes:

PS, RTW1.3 - only non-playable factions unlock mod

[Kickius Buttius]

Nearhos,

I have a friend reporting the same issue. He edited the text file appropriately (you can actually move every faction except slave and roman senate to playable and play them, not just the ones listed in the post above), but crashes to dektop when he selects some of them.

I would try a deinstall and then reinstall. I would also apply the 1.3 patch BEFORE editing the text file.

Make a copy of the original text file before you edit it and stick it on your desktop so that if there is a problem you can just put that copy back in and erase the changed version rather than deinstalling and reinstalling.

Be sure to cut and paste the factions when you do the editing so that you don't accidently include any extra spaces or spell something incorrectly.

Let everybody know if that doesn't work. I sort of dismissed what my friend was saying as I couldn't see how that problem would arise, but having now heard it from you as well I am curious as to what is happening.

Did you edit the file before or after patching to 1.3?

[C-F]

Nearhos,

....
Did you edit the file before or after patching to 1.3?

Neither, patched to 1.3 and then applied the 'all faction unlock mod' from over @ the modding community.
Thanks for your help, but I'm not a programmer...I'll try to build them and then see what unit comes out; I can live with a missplaced picture ...~:cheers: :bow:


~:mecry: Never mind, I thought you were talking to me :hide: ~:mecry:

[x-dANGEr]

One of the easiest campaign, playing on VH/VH.

At the start, gather an army around from your cities, mostly of HA (5 units are more than enough), advance into Thrace and slaughter them all. Assaults aren't your game, so you should starve them out, Once you're done with Thrace, move on to Byzantium. By now, you have turtled Macedonians and they 'will' declare war on you. Ready a stack near their borders, by then your armies should have 8 HA, 5 Barbarian Cav and your general. In battles, if you are sieged, just sally, deplete your ammo on them, then sally again next turn and so on. Always seperate your HA in 2 groups, 1 to the left and 1 to the right. The enemy will devide his troops too, make each group of HA hit the rear of the opposing enemy group. Be ready to flank any lured phalanx fast and easy. I had some problems in (Tanais sb?) so I revolted it then re-occupied it. Killed population, gained some money. For money problems, you should raise taxes as much as you can, and also, factions from all over the map will come to you asking for Trade rights and alliances some times. Don't give those for free, most of your moeny comes from them after all. Germania will also declare war sooner or later, you need the same army, 8 HA and some melee cav. Of course, when you get to get Medians, they are superb to kill armored cav. Try getting those archer nobles as soon as possible, and no need to worry. Spread your spies and assaisans as fast as you can, the enemy will try conquering your cities in 1 turn using spies to open the gates, and against their Phalanx/Heavy Infantry, you are doomed in an assault. So in general, 2 stacks, 1 to germania and another to macedonia. It'll be easy, your fast HA just demolish those phalanxies. If you were attacked and if the odds were too low to you, you simply fight the battle, deplete your ammo and withdraw. If you're attacked again, I think you will be able to win it due to the heavy casualties you did to the enemy army in the battle before. I acutally didn't bother building any of the cities back home, those huge provinces, I just thought they're useless, only good for taxes. I focused on my Thracian cities along with Macedonia ones. They give you some cash, or in other words a lot of cash. Once your warfare starts with Armoured Catas or heavy Roman Cav, Medians are the units to face them. With their AP, those catas and armoured cav are useless, be aware of cata camels though, their morale advantage may chan rout your cav. And don't forget, HF & GL!

[Nehesy]

The best way of making quick money when the need arises is to raid Pontus (modern Turkey) through the black sea. Have spies or diplomats close to their towns and you'll see what I mean. I was monitoring their cities and found that when they started a war with TSE they moved alot of troops south and left their northern cities like Nicomedia, Pergamum (captured from the greeks), Ancyra etc with only about 3 garrison units in each town. I quickly assembled 3 small task forces mostly of noble archers, HA and a group of axemen for the battering ram aspect, put them on a ship and sent them to northern Turkey. I kill the garrisons with no problems at all and exterminate their towns. For instance in razing Nicomedia I earned 32,000 denarii. Pergamum was about 27,000 and Ancyra something above 20,000 also.

That's almost 80,000 denarii!! Even if the big pontic armies come back and attacking my raiders and they all die I've still earned ALOT of money.

My personal experience is that pontus anyway always backstabs me by blockading my black sea ports. So it's no worries to raid them and break alliances. Ofcourse it's a + if you get an ceasefire after the raid to get the amount of trade in the black sea again that could be very positive.



In my scythian campaign I used alot of ships to assault with raiding armies.
My current situation was that I had all the steppes, including the parthian north east town. I had all dacia except the last small town in the west. I had all Thrace and Byzantium. I was moving on to fight vs brutii that kicked Alexander the Greats remaining imperium badly and used it as a buffert zone as someone earlier mentioned in the topic.

I raided Athens that belonged to brutii in the same way as I raided the pontic towns and earned above 40,000 denarii (!!!!) if im not wrong.

After that my scythian campaign ended because everytime I captured Athens the game crashed. :wall:

[Barbarossa1221]

I'm doing a campaign right now where I just squashed the last vestiges of rome on the penninsula. A combined army of axeman noble horse archers(so crunchy!) and onagers did the job very well at sacking those well walled roman cities. So i expect the only problem in conquering gaul and the rest of Europe is distance predictable problems at home and dissent within.
So I'm thinking of an all horse army for europe for the speed and hiring maybe a few mercs of infantry to take down the walls.

[macsen rufus]

For instance in razing Nicomedia I earned 32,000 denarii. Pergamum was about 27,000 and Ancyra something above 20,000 also.

I just packed my faction leader, a few nobles and the siege train of chosen archers, axes and onagers off to Turkey, all eager for those rich pickings, but I feel someone got there before me.... Nicomedia raised a piffling 74 slaves and 3 denarii loot, although it was fun watching my attack dogs chew their way through two whole units of eastern infantry, a cash cow it certainly wasn't! And after all that I couldn't even sell the territory to my allies. Oh well, on to Ancyra tonight, I guess.

[stevieg]

Dont think Scythians had anything to do with Amazons, is there any positive infos on books/records out there? If there was any, prob convert them more barbarian types compare to Xena but lost faith with the true God (Artemis).

~Vikings


In answer to that question, the story of the Scythians and the Amazons is in one of Herodotus' "Histories".

The Scythians and the Amazons fight, and then when the victorious Scythians strip the armor off the fallen Amazons as trophies, they realize they have been fighting women warriors and send their young men to breed with them.

In this story the Amazons are the barbarians and the Scythians the more civilized people.

[Franconicus]

Good information, stevieg!

And hey, welcome :2thumbsup:

[Goalie]

i havent tried a campaign with the scythians yet, but i have played with them in multiplayer. I have a really good 15k armies. I love that these barbarians have onagers. Their noble archers are very good, along with axemen and chosen archer warbands.

[Craterus]

You want to make use of the Scythians strengths: kickass horse archers.

Whenever I played as the Scythians online, I would only get 2 (max.) units of Axemen. Their horse-archers are deadly, but it requires a lot of micro-management which is exceptionally difficult online (no pause).

In the campaign, you can pull off some great cav maneuvers (often with the help of the pause button) as the Scythians.

[sacredband3]

yes, the scytians are difficult to play with, especially when you have them Bettkicker19, the horse archers are pesky and who heard of barbarians with onagers? Also axemen are no slouch when it comes to hand to hand fighting.

[Goalie]

hehe, yes barbarians with onagers do rock.

[Goalie]

hehe, yes barbarians with onagers do rock. (pun intended)

[Craterus]

Remember, you have an edit button. ~:thumb:

I'll be playing a new campaign on RTW 1.5, but who to play as? Suggestions please.

[BalkanTourist]

How about Pontus? They have an interesting position and a fantastic unit roster. Maybe you can only attack rebels and not attack until attacked b another faction.

[BalkanTourist]

How about Pontus? They have an interesting position and a fantastic unit roster. Maybe you can only attack rebels and not attack until attacked b another faction.

[Goalie]

Remember, you have an edit button. ~:thumb:

I'll be playing a new campaign on RTW 1.5, but who to play as? Suggestions please.

Not any more i dont, i got a warning, apparently suggesting to Machine gun illegal immigrans is frowned upon.

[guineawolf]

i read a post about mongolian tactic that how they taking out european army.

first,they use light horse to lure out enemy cavalry(most mobile unit first,then so on and so on),take them out,then enemy range unit,after those,they harass enemy infantry with arrows(mongolian horse archers always carry plenty arrows with them coz they are so rely on their bow),make them shake,then when enemy break and run,they chase them down with light cavalry.:yes:

[Fate]

Well i started a scythian campaign yesterday, and ti all started well, alliances with
Armenia
Parthia
Thrace

Dacia attacked thrace, and i sallied out to save my allies, truely crushed the dacians, then i moved onto take their capital in the carpathians. As i did so, campus scythii was poorly garrisoned, and Thrace, the betraying swine, attacked my settlement, ceased fire with the dacians, and, and the dacians came along for tha party aswell!!
Id taken the dacian capital, and when i had seen what they were upto, i razed it to the ground for income, and marched upon Thracia's poorly defended northern territory, with the intention of sacking that, or at least luring their army off my land, so i can out march them and take out the dacians again.
Also, i took pripet quickly (all i used for the attack was one unit of HA!) But now the germans have come from the west and besieged, i know theyve got at least one family member, which pretty much renders my HA useless, so im gonna have to see if i can get reinforcements up there soon:wall:

[paul_kiss]

I've got Rome, Egypt, and Parthia behind already. Several days ago started to play for the Scythians (http://p81.jino-net.ru/library/rtw-scy-01-en.htm). Looks nice so far, although it's too early to make any general conclusions since my troops have only fought with either rebels or the weak Thracian falxmen.

The thing that disturbs me is that the Scythians, as all barbarians, can't have onagres... Neither can they build stone walls. :( I wonder how it'll when I'm sieged in the future...

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Bloody.

The Scythians just don't have a quality infantry unit in any category. Their okay -- basic archers and axers -- but nothing exciting.

Without stone walls, its a lot of street fighting.

If you have a city or two you deem CRUCIAL to hold, try to get some rental hoplites from the Sevastopol area or northern Thrace. Nothing like spears to block a street while your axemen scream around from the other side.

[paul_kiss]

while your axemen scream aroundWell, and what effect this screaming produce? Kind of supposed to lower the enemy's morale?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Actually, that is what the warcry is supposed to do -- though I don't use it a lot myself.

In this instance, I was referring to a flanking charge attack.

[paul_kiss]

I've had a lot of trouble having my axemen fighting with Greek hoplites (not heavy hoplites).

[IceWolf]

Well I'm up to about 38 territorie now in my Scyth campaign. i started out by making an alliance with the Dacians then rolling over Thrace. I then turned on Dacia. Having secured the territory of my required enemies I set my sights to the south where the money is.
I fought an extended campaign against Macedon while beating off the Germans to the west. At that point I tired of sparring with the Germans and sent a proper army to deal with them pice by piece. I conquered the Greek cities, ome of which were already Brutii, while my northern army gobbled up Germania.
Having secured my cash cow, I sent 3 tacks into the Brutii part of italy with ships while continuing to take Germany. I knocked out all the Brutii except one island then took Capua from the Scips andtook Rome with two stacks. When it wa all done I had conquered all of Italy and Germania. I am now moving west into Gaul to take the Julii holdouts. I sent a stack to Kydonia to finish off the Brutii then re-took Rhodes. I had taken Rhodes early on for the trade bonus.
I am now fighting the Brits in Gaul. AFAIK there is one Julii territory left that will soon fall. I took over the isle of Sicily from the Scips also. When I have taken Gaul and the British isles, I will have my 50 territories.

Icewolf

[IceWolf]

Now I've driven the Brits outta Europe proper. I own Greece, Italy, Germania, and Gaul. I've taken one British Isle settlement, 3 more to go. I have 47 territories plus one extended seige going on, so as soon as I can get some more boats I should be in a position to hit 50 assuming there are no more civil revolts.

IceWolf

[glyphz]

Scythia is a very interesting faction. Manual control of battles and quite a bit of micromanagement (IMO, much easier to do compared to M2TW) is the name of the game if a player wants to be very successful, especially early on.
Battles/Strategy
Poor, yet fast growing early cities, + fast dwindling treasury will require making the most of your early units. Fortunately, the Scythians are blessed w/ perhaps the best basic infantry unit, the horse archers. Skirmishing (long) cavalry as basic infantry unit?!:shocked2: ~:shock: (That's so elite :7ninja: ...Spear warband would have taken the award, if it wasn't for this anomaly). This allows the Scythians, along w/ the Parthians, to have very minimal casualties and the highest chance to win a battle/siege w/ 0 deaths. Very fun and worthwhile, indeed. :medievalcheers:
You don't get to really blitz, unless you've tried a horse archer faction. It is possible to create a full army of horse units comprised of a majority of horse archers (basic or nobles), supported by melee cav (sarmatian, arab, bedouin and even numidian mercs can do very decent jobs as well) and a general. On the campaign map they can quickly reach their destinations/objectives much faster such as holding a good defensive position or siege enemy cities earlier before reinforcements arrive. Remember low casualties unless you face (Partians, Egyptians or even Britons)

Multiple spies are useful to scout enemy positions allowing you to plan ahead. More importantly, they allow you to gain new settlements or pillage/hit-and-run cities in one turn. Garrison units for conquered cities or the need of infantry to hold siege weapons in case spies fail to open the gates can be accomplished by mercs, until peasants are created. This allows your cav army to move on w/o leaving main army units behind.
Note: never tried this I do not like to buy mercs too much. I end up having foot archers, axemen and even onagers on my armies. Foot archers (love cretan archers and onagers) have fire arrows w/c are useful in bridge battles)

Auto-resolve will lead to avoidable casualties, so manual-control is a must. Then again micromanagement is highly recommended (dont be scared to use the pause button:ahh:) , as AI skirmishing skills are not top notch, esp. facing enemy cav. Also remember to cancel order (Delete) turn off fire at will (A) for your archers when chasing routers as this will lead to head-scratching friendly fire. I tend to have more Friendly-Fire casualties compared to enemy kills ~:shock: :furious3: :wall:

[Praetor Rick]

I finally modded my game so I could play Scythians. I'm not sure why I picked them, I mean, they can't be that much different from Parthians, right? A Horse Archer is a Horse Archer is a Horse Archer.

*WRONG*! The difference is like night and day. The Scythian starting position is so much nicer - not just in its easy and quick access to some nice cities (total domination of the Black Sea trade is easily within grasp, and then on to Greece), but also surrounded by factions that know nothing of Horse Archers.

The difference between Parthia having to fight Armenia and Egypt compared to Scythia having to fight Thrace and Dacia for short campaign victory is unbelievable. Plus, and this is probably luck, I'm not seeing nearly as much rebel activity in my Scythian campaign as I did as Parthia. I have found the game literally unplayable due to rebel activity in Parthia, to the extent that I was unable to get any trade at all because all of my roads and ports were blockaded and my armies were unable to divert from rebel squashing to do anything else at all - that's not fun, it's asinine.

[Alp Arlsan]

I am very glad to hear that Rick. Yes the Scythians are extremely fun, conquer the barebacked barbarians, easy stuff, then create a strong frontier against all civilisation. Rake in the money, tier up and launch devastating raids deep into enemy territory, raze it to the ground and return to your new homeland. very fun.

[Myth]

I was bored last night. I had been traveling for 7 hours straight on a bus, readung Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" and i had felt the need for some TW, but my crappy laptop can't run Europa Barbarorum and definitely can't run MTW2. So, onward to vanilla RTW!

I could have continued with my Brutii save. I actually loaded it - hello! 7 star general, a full stack of pricipes/veites/cavalry, knocking on Macedonia's door. The most profitable greek cities were mine. Naval supperiority was mine. And i had 11,000 denarii in the treasury, even with all my cities stacked with completely full build ques. Not that there's no challange... But i was bored.

The Seleucids were also a possiblity, but those slow phalanxes and the horrible mobility in the vastly spread out empire was too time consuming for me. I felt that i just wanted to conquer, pure and simple. Unhindered by terrain, slow units, long battles where i sit and wait for the AI to impale itself on my pikes or pilli. I thought - wouldn't it be nice to emulate the Barbarian Invasion horde factions in goold old RTW? Just massess of horses and plowing trough the civilized countries?

It would be! And so i started with the Scythians, and boy did i have fun! Of course, i hate that RTW vanilla makes the barbarian factions look like neanderthals in the late game - city after city rebelling due to lack of peace buildings and squalor. So even though i started a long campaing, I told myself i want to conquer Macedonia, Greece and the romans. Once i sacked rome, burned it down and massacred it's population, then perhaps I'd feel good enough and just leave it at that.

So, first thing's first, I looked around my starting settlements - a few measly huts and an outhouse is hardly a city. The territories are vast but poor, however they are bordering the black sea. Here is what i did:

Disbanded all the Archer Warbands but the ones that are with the faction leader (the upkeep is too high and they are not needed for anything but fighting Thrace).

On turn 1, i built roads everywhere. I set out with the faction leader and laid siege to the Thracian city south of Campus Schythi. I had placed my spy there beforehand and he had managed to open the gates, but i recruited the uinit of Thracian mercenaries the moment i laid siege to the town anyway (but not before, as they will slow down your stack and you will be unable to siege on turn 1). Next turn i killed the garrison and the Thracian faction heir with relative ease, even though Horse Archers don't shine in city battles.

I moved out my general (sititng on the bottom middle of your provinces, he has a goldsmith retinue) and grabbed some more HA's, and sent him to meet up in the newly conquered settlement with my goold ol' faction leader, who now had some pretty useful combat retinues. Meanwhile, the faction heir got some HA's and HA mercs and went North-East to take out the lonely Pontic settlement on the edge of the map - I'll be damned if i leave such a liability at my back. It took me a while to find the damn village (several turns worth of trudging trough darkness and sands).

Meanwhile, i've been growing my villages in to towns, getting ports, traders, markets and temples with +2 exp. That, combined with selling map info, trade rights and promises of attacking Thrace (which i did anyway) got me enough denarii to sustain myself. Onwards to the south and the taking of the Thracian capital (which is where my current day home town of Veliko Turnovo is at btw). The Thracian faction leader was kind enough to assault my general (who had exchanged retinues with the faction leader and was now a very good warlord) in an uphill battle. 2 units of thracian mercs and 2 archer warbands was all the non-cavalry i had. However, burning arrows + skirmish mode off on those archers make thracian jav cav in to burning piles of horse goo. Meanwhile my HA's were going back and forth, trying to take out these scary scary thracian infantrymen (forgot their name, but they wiled some nasty scythes). It was a close battle, some of my units routed but that warlord's stack i had plowed trough so many peltasts... He got several chevrons right in to the battle.

Overall, after i won the Thracian capital fell in one turn and the faction was vanquished by turn 4 or 5. Sadly i had to stop playing the game at that point, but i will keep you guys posted once i get some more free time. My next immediate targets are: getting Byzantium from the rebels to complete my dominance of the Western shores of the Black Sea (that trade agreement with Armenia really helps your economy btw, be sure to get it asap). Then plowing trough the Macedonians, although it will take numbers to deal with their good melee cavalry. The Greeks will be a piece of cake IF i can get them to come out of their cities. I do not want to be fighting hoplites among the narrow streets of Sparta. Then.. It's good night Romans! Pre-Marian legions can't use testudo, and pre-Marian archers can't decimate my HA's. Good luck to them i say.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Hehehe.....that's the kind of mentality for HA factions:laugh4: Hit 'em hard and move on.......

IMO, it's better to leave the Parthians in Campus Sakae alone unless you plan on sacking it and moving on. In fact, after several years, I leave Campus Alanni (after destroying all the buildings) and the resulting rebel stack is more than enough to keep the Parthians busy. That army, along with mercs recruited along the way head for Chersonesos, a far more valuable settlement with it's Black Sea port, and much closer to the capital, which I eventually move to Tylis. I also abandon the northern most settlement, Campus Sarmatae, for similar reasons as Alanni....too far from the capital to maintain law and order without buildings that help. It's poor in resources, anyways.

Anyways, good luck!

[Myth]

I've been wandering, is it worth it to make the temple that grants the Noblewomen? How do they rank compared to Noblemen and good old regular HAs?

[ReluctantSamurai]

Not worth the money, IMHO. The mounted light cav do have AP capabilities, IIRC, as they wield axes, but the archer unit is too small (36 on large setting) and don't offer any real advantage over the Noble Archers other than perhaps a range advantage (I certainly could be wrong on that account) as they use compound bows.

The Noble Archer is your best bet, I would say....good HA stats and can go to melee when necessary as they are more heavily armored than regular HA.

Just my 2cents........

[Myth]

I watched almost all of PrinceOfMacedon's replays in YouTube. Noblewomen for him are cheese units, because they have Armour Piercing axes. They basically trounce heavy cav like Cataphracts even though they are considered light cav. Or at least that's what he said.

[placenik]

Not worth the money, IMHO. The mounted light cav do have AP capabilities, IIRC, as they wield axes, but the archer unit is too small (36 on large setting) and don't offer any real advantage over the Noble Archers other than perhaps a range advantage (I certainly could be wrong on that account) as they use compound bows.

The Noble Archer is your best bet, I would say....good HA stats and can go to melee when necessary as they are more heavily armored than regular HA.

Just my 2cents........
Noble woman have only one advantage over Noble archers- they are lighty-light cavalery (they have same speed as regular HA). This makes them ONLY ultra-light - long-range - melee-capable horse archers in the game. Cruel handicap of only 36 units per squad, and retrain logistics, and also catch that there is no way to get hefty +2 Artemis temple bonus in Macedonia, made me not to use them. If they were 54 (on large), they would be overkill.

PS: Head Hunting Maidens are best "light" cavalry, because they have AP, but 2 turn build, no exp bonus from temples + retrainability problem can be annoying.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Noble woman have only one advantage over Noble archers- they are lighty-light cavalery (they have same speed as regular HA). This makes them ONLY ultra-light - long-range - melee-capable horse archers in the game. Cruel handicap of only 36 units per squad, and retrain logistics, and also catch that there is no way to get hefty +2 Artemis temple bonus in Macedonia, made me not to use them. If they were 54 (on large), they would be overkill.

PS: Head Hunting Maidens are best "light" cavalry, because they have AP, but 2 turn build, no exp bonus from temples + retrainability problem can be annoying.

Noble Scythian Women have one other bonus. They are cheaper than Scythian Noble Horse archers. I tend to build up my settlements with the temples of Api so I can build them. (A stables building is much more expensive.) They're okay, but logistics and retraining/training is an issue. But I'll build some. :D From time to time.

For me it's easier to get the technology for the Noble Scythian women than the men too.

Other than that though, might as well just stick with the guys. The Noble Horse Archer women are a pretty good unit, but the Head Hunting Maidens should probably be more useful. The Noble Horse Archers do more damage than the Noble Scythian women. In hand to hand anyhow.

[ReluctantSamurai]

It was the unit size and replacement hassle that led me to not use them. You definitely do not want to be using the Temple of Api on full-grown Greek or Roman (or should I say ex-Greek or Roman) cities for the population/squalor headaches.

Sooooo, they had a looong way to go back to the "wild" country to get refit, and hence out of action for the time it took to transit there and back. I had to resort to carrying replacements in a fleet set off-shore to reduce turnover time, and of course that's nothing but a magnet for enemy fleets to show up for. Meanwhile, Noble Archers can be refit just about anyplace that has an advanced enough stables. That was enough to convince me they weren't worth the hassle.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

It was the unit size and replacement hassle that led me to not use them. You definitely do not want to be using the Temple of Api on full-grown Greek or Roman (or should I say ex-Greek or Roman) cities for the population/squalor headaches.

Sooooo, they had a looong way to go back to the "wild" country to get refit, and hence out of action for the time it took to transit there and back. I had to resort to carrying replacements in a fleet set off-shore to reduce turnover time, and of course that's nothing but a magnet for enemy fleets to show up for. Meanwhile, Noble Archers can be refit just about anyplace that has an advanced enough stables. That was enough to convince me they weren't worth the hassle.

Well in that case then, yeah, they're not. XD If you have the money the other troops are far better.

I haven't been playing as them long enough yet to be making a lot of my best units.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Don't get me wrong.....it was great fun creating an all-female army and turning them loose on the Greeks and Romans. And the ladies (can barbarian women be called ladies??) kicked butt and took no names........but..........the reality of the situation, after the novelty wore off, was a logistical headache. But it was cool watching Greek phalanx and Roman heavy infantry become pin cushions before being ridden down by the axe-wielding maidens:laugh4:

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Don't get me wrong.....it was great fun creating an all-female army and turning them loose on the Greeks and Romans. And the ladies (can barbarian women be called ladies??) kicked butt and took no names........but..........the reality of the situation, after the novelty wore off, was a logistical headache. But it was cool watching Greek phalanx and Roman heavy infantry become pin cushions before being ridden down by the axe-wielding maidens:laugh4:

Indeed. XD And I dunno. If they prefer to be called sir, comrade, lady, amazon or whatever.... but I do know this... you'd better find out before you address them.... cause otherwise you might end up getting disbanded from the unit.... XD

Yeah, it can be a real logistical nightmare. I'm keeping mine in the realitively smaller barbarian settlements. (I also use my navy to ship armies around anyhow.) Their bonuses are pretty nice. Damage to armour, fast moving, etc.... so they're good to have in a unit. They can be quite effective. :D But yeah, if you have the money, it's better to work with armies that are easier to retrain. And if you keep em back home well... they can always fight those random rebels that pop up lol...

[Tsar Alexsandr]

How about Pontus? They have an interesting position and a fantastic unit roster. Maybe you can only attack rebels and not attack until attacked b another faction.

Pontus is a very interesting faction. :D You get javalien armed cavalry that are very good, Pontic Cavalry and a Pontic Heavy cavalry, a great heavy cavalry unit that is very well Disiplined the Cappadocian Cavalry, and chariots. Both Chariot archers (with two archers in the Chariot!) and scythed chariots for mass destruction and carnage. XD They also have a good pike unit. So, great cavalry, and great infantry. They're a pretty good faction all around. ^_^

[IceWolf]

What does XD mean?

Thanks Icewolf

[ReluctantSamurai]

you'd better find out before you address them

Well, whatever you say, men better be contrite or they just might get their skull cracked by the head of an axe:laugh4:


And if you keep em back home well... they can always fight those random rebels that pop up

And for Scythia, this is a great way to get experienced HA's to eventually send to the front. Scythian territory has more rebels than any other outside of Germania, from what I've observed (playing with fow disabled so I can watch how the AI handles the other factions). And with such large distances to cover, it's far easier to leave the axemen and foot archers at home. It's not too difficult to get a Legendary Cavalry general from chasing down brigands in Scythian country, though I'm sure those gals would prefer another amazon as leader instead of one of those ugly red-beards:laugh4:

[Tsar Alexsandr]

What does XD mean?

Thanks Icewolf

It's an emoticon for a devious smile lol. It's pretty common on Deviant art. I tend to use it a lot. Lol.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Well, whatever you say, men better be contrite or they just might get their skull cracked by the head of an axe:laugh4:



And for Scythia, this is a great way to get experienced HA's to eventually send to the front. Scythian territory has more rebels than any other outside of Germania, from what I've observed (playing with fow disabled so I can watch how the AI handles the other factions). And with such large distances to cover, it's far easier to leave the axemen and foot archers at home. It's not too difficult to get a Legendary Cavalry general from chasing down brigands in Scythian country, though I'm sure those gals would prefer another amazon as leader instead of one of those ugly red-beards:laugh4:

Ha ha. XD Yeah. There certainly tends to be a lot of Rebels in Scythian land. Same with Parthia I hear.

The really large province, Tribus Alani, Campus Alani, I recently had a very bizarre issue.... XD I can't build watchtowers anywhere in the province! It's very bizarre. Am I really supposed to make some guy patrol that region every couple of turns? XD

Apparently the Greek writers said that a lot of the men in the North, (around Scythia) had orange-red-reddish hair. In the same description it mentions Amazon like warriors and such.... To be honest I've been surprised I've had so many orange haired Scythinans. XD It's fitting though.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Am I really supposed to make some guy patrol that region every couple of turns?

In my experience....yes. You'll eventually notice rebels pop up in just about the same places, so it's pretty easy to anticipate. The one place its' tricky to get at them is when they appear on the other side of the Volga in Maeotis province. I understand that the Volga is pretty wide when it gets close to the Black Sea, but there should've been a bridge much closer than having to go all the way up into Sarmatae. Once I build a port in Tanais, I just keep a single ship there and armies can board and then disembark without even having to move the fleet. Unfortunately for design purposes, the AI can't figure this out when it controls Scythia and wastes a lot of time sending a stack all the way up and around to get at a rebel stack.

I never worry about Tribus Alanni as I abandon it early on. Campus Alanni is too far from all the action and will eventually get to be a loyalty headache. I leave it to the Parthians to try and wrest it from the rebels. I do the same for Tribus Sarmatae. I use the troops from both of those provinces and take Chersonesos. Opens up the Black Sea trade routes and provides more income than both of the other provinces combined.

Had a very funny thing happen once, when I abandoned Campus Alanni. I never build a single thing there, not even roads. When the population reaches 2k (which happens pretty quickly), I disband the foot units, taking only the family member and the HA's, burn the place to the ground, and head for Chersonesos. One time, I must have really pissed somebody off as the resulting rebel stack followed me all the way to Tanais where I had to sally my army there and combine with those from Campus Alanni to defeat it. Only happened that one time so maybe they got their version of General Maximus......:laugh4:

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Ah, alright. All sound advice. :D

Btw. I was thinking, for Scythia. Dogs might make an excellent counter to phalanx. Phalanx and spears, more so phalanx, is the bane of cavalry. But if the pikes are distracted with infantry.... and rabid hounds, then you could easily defeat the pikemen. Better opening a chance to out flank your opponent. Even possibly hitting them in the rear.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Dogs??? You'll have all the great Mongol warriors-yet-to-be cursing your very name:furious3:

:laugh4: Just kidding, of course. Dogs can be a pain in the a$$ to fight, so I suppose they can be useful. I never use them, personally. I prefer to make pin cushions of phalanx first before I run them over from the flanks and rear.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Dogs??? You'll have all the great Mongol warriors-yet-to-be cursing your very name:furious3:

:laugh4: Just kidding, of course. Dogs can be a pain in the a$$ to fight, so I suppose they can be useful. I never use them, personally. I prefer to make pin cushions of phalanx first before I run them over from the flanks and rear.

You have a valid point, but I ran into a battle where I had to make it come to blows. Lol. It was difficult to outflanck them with the tiny army I had. I did win though, and only lost 2 guys..... XD But the running and flanking issues were driving me nuts lol.

The dog's don't seem particuallrly factual to me. But they are available. And as a barbarian well.... might as well right? XD

[ReluctantSamurai]

but I ran into a battle where I had to make it come to blows.

That's where the Scythian Nobles earn their keep. While you certainly don't want to be charging them into fresh formations, they have good enough A/D values to go over to melee after you've whittled your opponent down.


But the running and flanking issues were driving me nuts

Get used to that, my friend.....that's what playing HA factions is all about:laugh4:

And IIRC, wardogs for any of the factions are fantasy units.....

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Well you have a point. I've experienced more adjustments being needed in RTW than in MTW 2.

I know dogs are a fantasy unit lol. At least on any large scale.

[Vincent Butler]

As far as the Amazons go, I thought I read that they are hardcoded to win an autoresolved battle of up to 5:1 odds against them. Is that true? And as far as dogs go, I guess if you could get them behind the phalanx they would work, phalanx own dogs from the front.

[weejonnie]

Well: They are chariots with 14 melee/ ranged attack - so I suspect it is merely a function of the algorithm used (big, strong + chariot) rather than a specific hard-code. (I remember being flabbergasted when I first autoresolved a fight against chariots. Even in a city attack/ defence when if you fight it out in the streets you stop chariots dead (literally), you suffer huge casualties on autoresolve - I think I lost 300 men once in assaulting a Egyptian town that only had a single family member. - it might be in the last 10 years of my Gaulish campaign so if I spot it I'll write it in.)

[Vincent Butler]

Even in a city attack/ defence when if you fight it out in the streets you stop chariots dead (literally), you suffer huge casualties on autoresolve - I think I lost 300 men once in assaulting a Egyptian town that only had a single family member. - it might be in the last 10 years of my Gaulish campaign so if I spot it I'll write it in.)

As Gaul, it is probably a good idea to try to engage Egypt in towns. You can stop their chariots using Warband, and can ambush their phalanx units using your Swordsmen. The AI is horrible in their use of phalanx. Engaging on stone walls if possible is even better.

The problem out in the field with barbarians is your units don't have the armour to withstand the scads of Pharaoh's Bowmen and other missile units, unless you use lots of Chosen Swordsmen. I have never had a Gallic campaign where I had the luxury to field large numbers of them. The Warband (and Forester Warband) are probably your best defense against chariots, with the large units of Warband and the range/attack of the Foresters. And your cav can't deal with the archers because their chariots will then wipe out your cav. I guess I would use my Foresters to deal with their archers and rely on my Warband in Guard mode to deal with their chariots. The problem is the low morale of the Warband.

Not that a barbarian campaign of mine has ever made it that far, I usually never even get all of Italy before I have to abandon the campaign due to finances, except for one British campaign where I had half the map and the Scipii had the other half (yes, they wiped out Egypt).

With Scythia, lots of missile troops to whittle down their chariots and archers. Maybe hire some Eastern Mercs to replace the Warband in my strategy, as your archers are good enough to deal with their archers, and can even do a lot of the hand-to-hand fighting.