Scythia [Archive]

Lord_Winter

10-08-2004, 08:02

Just finished a short campaing with these nasty buggers...

Ally with the following immidiatly Thrace,Armenia,Parthia these hold especially important are Parthia and Thrace whom both have good positions to screw up your aspiring empire....

Then attack the Dacians which seem to base their armies on warbands and falxmen whom are easy meat for your horse archers and family members if you follow the easiy tactics I'm no going to explain. Build armies of the following princes,barabarian cav and horse archers in the beinging and relly on mercenary infantry to breach walls. Later scythian noble horse archers phase out both barbarian cav and horse archers. Also buy sarmatian cav when you can in the begining...Scythian Head Hunting Maidens and Noble Cavalry are both good thought their enormous cost in time and money as well as infrastructure rarely makes them worthwile...your foot soldiers are sub standard one an all but for the chosen archer warband use them only sparingly as siege forces...

Using the Scythians in combat are really easy but you will need to pause a lot...Advance in two lines the first consisting of 4/5 of your army in horse archers and the second including family members and close combat cavalry...then place your line two bow shot out of enemy range or so advance the first line shot a little at the enemy then retreat as they come charging long enought that they tire and take up their orignal position repeat ad infinitum and soon you will have one very tired enemy which will either retreat of the battle field or just stand around until they flee or die. If reatreating you can ride just a few steps behind them firing arrows or charge a few times with your CC cav. The one thing which screw up this tactics is cavalry and thats what you got the second line for...they should at all times be half a bowshot or so behind the first for interception action destroying all enemy cav chargin your horse archers. On Hard Battles this tactics against roman/thracian/dacian/macedonian armies got at worst a 25/1 casualty rate + around 20 friendly fire kills.

Another thing after the Dacians take out the Thracians they will anyhow backstab you...backstab first...and then advance into the greek states below however remember that the romans have near infinite resources and will if they gain a strong hold of greece be hard to dislodge even while you win every engagement (personal experince here...damn how many romans are there)

The Hun

10-08-2004, 17:17

Your tactics are sound enough and typical feigned retreat does tire enemy infantry. I have learnt not to charge routing enemy though because in RTW the horse archer will still shoot even when on alt attack which is a pain. I tend to lead infantry around the map on a merry dance and when they rout out of range, charge up close and kill with arrows. Enemy cav, which is generally stronger can be pinned by barbarian cav and reared with HA. I was allied with Thrace very early in my campaign and I was happy to see them at war with Dacia, thinking they would not want 2 fronts. How wrong I was, they attacked me the next turn. I killed all the armies they sent after me and then asked for ceasefire to which they arrogantly said maybe someday soon. Hah!! I demanded tribute which they agreed. So they were effective in plotting their own downfall

Lord_Winter

10-08-2004, 18:11

Usually I do not charge either since it is commonly more efficient to just attack once more the best battles are the ones where my second line never ever is used...however against a few enemies they are entirely necesserary...

Your game sound exactly like my game...however I have found giving monetarian gifts of around 5000-10k will ensure total loyality from once allies...

The Hun

10-09-2004, 01:15

I look forward to seeing Noble Horse Archers, I think with this unit you can forget ordinary Nobles because they are better all round. The Nobles have better defensive stats but that is negated when you can shoot enemies to bits first. I just defeated the last 'decent' army the Thracians could muster with 9 Scythian Horse Archers and 1 Sarmatian Mercenary ( worth every denarii I spent on him ) I fixed their Hoplites and Falxmen with several units and left their General to his futile pursuit of the others. When he was exhausted we closed
I don't like to use pause but I am playing with the speed and melee mods. I can understand how the vanilla game demands that you hit pause because the infantry go at some silly rates. The mods are far more realistic, they even tend to take the 'uber' out of cav charges

Lord_Winter

10-09-2004, 09:53

The Hun

10-10-2004, 13:36

Got them at last....Now the fun starts

Boulis

10-30-2004, 22:52

The Scythians were every bit as good with the bow yet they cannot shoot backwards.

Hm. I have conducted numerous tests on the battle map and I am certain that the Scythian horse archers can shoot backwards. And not just the Noble archers but even the basic type. Scythian Noble Horse Archers trounce Parthia's Persian Cavalry in one-on-one battles also.

Mr Frost

11-01-2004, 14:32

Yes the noble archers are far supperior to the normal nobles since the lateer take twice the time and more money...and money is something which you rarely have I have found...Noble Archers also have the bonus of being able to take care for themselves against all but the heaviest opposition...

However , Scythian Nobles have the advantage {so to speak} of being exactly the same as Sarmatian Mercenaries yet costing less to produce {same upkeep} and glancing at their stats in export_desc_unit.txt they seem to cost less to upgrade , though whether this is in S.P. or only Custom Battles/M.P. I don't know nor really care much ... they have the highest charge bonus in the game ! :charge:

The Hun

11-02-2004, 17:57

Scythian Noble Archers......best unit in RTW

Mr Frost

11-03-2004, 13:45

Scythian Noble Archers......best unit in RTW

Well , after Cheat Oliphants they are ~D

Cousin Zoidfarb

11-09-2004, 15:49

how do you unlock this faction? :charge:

The Hun

11-09-2004, 17:11

You can edit the units file or install a mod which allows you to play all factions. There are many mods at www.twcenter.net

Spartiate

11-09-2004, 21:33

I normally attack Thrace and take their 2 cities directly south of me while allying with Dacia,Parthia,Armenia and Macedon and getting my trade routes open.I find that Parthia will NEVER betray you as long as you keep an army on that bridge beside their northern-most province(their only land access to you in the early days).Macedon cannot be trusted and will eventually betray you but by now you should be holding the bridges leading into their lands and they are still a bit pre-occuppied with the remaining greeks and the brutii armies on the coast.I find these battles to be the defining moment of a Scythian campaign and once beaten and Greece is consolidated under your rule that you now will have no real problems for the rest of the game.

Es Arkajae

11-12-2004, 21:16

In regards to the Amazons in Hyperboria (whom I always conquer as the Scythians on basic principle, 'lamentations of the women' and all that :crowngrin: ), take a close look at their chariots ....they have no scythes.

First time I ever went up against them I didn't notice this and wishing to avoid melee combat with chariots I sent in horsearchers who in a missile duel don't tend to do very well, however upon noticing the lack of scythes I sent in my proper cavalry to mix it up they did much better, in fact they slaughtered them.

The province is only good for the gold mine and kudos value of wiping out the Amazons, but if like me the idea of leaving it alone rankles then I believe mixing it up with melee cavalry is the best way to go.

Vikings

11-13-2004, 02:46

I think the Amazons belong to Macedon Faction, becuz there a Temple (Artemis:Hunting) based on very good missile upgrade per building levels. Usually that type of God give the ladies a chance in life to survive on the barbarian lands. Amazons lives near the waters/rivers or the coasts, hardly any deep mainland, except barbarian princess like Xena. Xena was chaos type nothing compare to the Amazons.

Amazons are very rare with great hitting power of there range weapons, i gotta say it would be the best archers in the game if there was any.

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

One more thing, have anyone seen the movie called Attila? It was an interesting show, guess he was raise in Sythia or somewhere in that region. He had great marksmanship while riding a horse. Wasnt sure which faction would be The Huns. Only thing it bother me the most is he is lack of personal security, he good to fouled the assassins but one weakness was that red fur beast with peircing eyes.

Can never place someone like that, so he screwed up trying to findsome look alike like her. Having dozen wives, what more could he ask for? Too bad he had been assassinated at young age. :embarassed:

~Vikings

The Hun

11-13-2004, 11:01

Vikings

11-13-2004, 13:59

Hello Vikings

I would not base too much judgement from a film, they are consistently inaccurate, the storyline being of more importance than historical fact.
Little is known of the Huns apart from some Roman and very few Germanic sources, they entered Pannonia around 370 AD but even this date is contentious.

The Scythians were overthrown by Sarmatians who themselves fell to the Huns. The nearest we have in RTW to Huns is Scythia but maybe we will have proper Huns in RTW add on when it comes

Well inaccurate or not, movie is pretty good. Well all that actions and sieges going on, that was interesting. Didnt realise it was around 370 AD, wow that way off the scale. Romans should have advance alot and should have be well fortify as well good quality troops unless they'er having income problems.

He prob have alot of blood lines from many factions during all those years.

Anyway i havent tried the Scythians yet, hate charging my generals toward close combat, unless they are peasants and that would be no fun at all. So i hardly charged my generals into serious fights unless it needed it. Good way to lose your important generals.

So Horse Archers sound fun, but can run out of arrows then what? They'er no match in melee combat. Needed to improve my general's experience somehow without risky too much.

Question... if you capture one of Macedon's City that has Artemis Temple, can your units (Missile) be upgraded from that faction? IF so that would be nice.

-Vikings

Mr Frost

11-14-2004, 09:32

Well inaccurate or not, movie is pretty good. Well all that actions and sieges going on, that was interesting. Didnt realise it was around 370 AD, wow that way off the scale. Romans should have advance alot and should have be well fortify as well good quality troops unless they'er having income problems.

He prob have alot of blood lines from many factions during all those years.

Anyway i havent tried the Scythians yet, hate charging my generals toward close combat, unless they are peasants and that would be no fun at all. So i hardly charged my generals into serious fights unless it needed it. Good way to lose your important generals.

So Horse Archers sound fun, but can run out of arrows then what? They'er no match in melee combat. Needed to improve my general's experience somehow without risky too much.

Question... if you capture one of Macedon's City that has Artemis Temple, can your units (Missile) be upgraded from that faction? IF so that would be nice.

-Vikings

Rome had big problems with its' ecconomy by then . That's what happens when an Empire gets too big and sprawling {the game simulates this more realistically than most realise} and why , for example , England had to let go of most of its' empire last century {they simply couldn't afford to keep it , WWI and WWII just sped up the process} .
Rome would have likely collapsed under its' own weight even if the various "Barbarian" attackers had left it alone . The Eastern Roman Empire {Byzantium to us today} only survived for a good while after because they were {comparativly , they were after all only half the old Roman Empire} less sprawling and still they lost a lot of territory simply because they could never find enough quality troops to hold it all when bad times struck {which they invariably do} .

As for Temples to Artimis : anyone can use them if they capture them . Same goes for any temples .

Vikings

11-14-2004, 15:55

Ah how nice, getting spies in hot places if lucky enough to get in. Some of those Temples are great.

Well if i was playing Rome, couldnt expand too far due to distance from Capitol. So that really wasnt worth it. I rather go out IF i was at war with them then either enslave the populations or raze it.

-Vikings

Maltz

11-16-2004, 16:09

Scythia

Sycthia is a faction for the missle fans. It not only has a powerful house of horse archers, but also some decent early foot archers, plus a good all-purpose infantry, axeman.

The downside is axeman is all you have throughout the game. They can be trained in 2nd level barracks. Early on there is nowhere in Scythia to train axemen, so either we have to build one 2nd level barrack on our own, or we have to grab a city that has it. Dacia's starting capital, which is west to the Scythia's starting capital, has a 2nd level barrack. So it would be nice to grab it as soon as possible, and mass produce axemen from there for a while.

Dacian army, although very balanced and with good quality, is crap before horse archers. They are too slow. Ai likes to charge with multiple units early, so it is very important NOT to face too many charges at the same time. With speed advantage you can take out wave after waves of attack.

Thrace is also an obvious early target. Actually Scythian can grab the northern city of Thrace in turn 1 - facing almost no resistance. Nothing in that city can shoot arrows, while nothing in Scythia's army cannot shoot arrows. So you can get a 0-casaulty heroic victory rather easily.

Please note that HA runs slightly slower than Thrace's jav. cav., so when you see jav. cav. charges towards your HA, you will need some nearby support. Other than that Thrace are just shooting practice before Scythia.

Parthia is a potential headache because it is also a horse-archer-heavy clan. There is a Parthian town on the top-right corner of the map. Taking it early will prevent Parthia from harrassing your back. The army there is not weak, but AI usually splits its troops, sending out captain-lead army walking around, so it is easy to pick them up first either by force or by the starting diplomat, then siege the town. There is no trick for HA vs. HA at town center - rush into melee, and let the number speak.

I find I usually advance my army to the following steps:

(1) Field an cavalry-rich army, with little shock troop infantry (i.e. axemen), to fight field battles. Foot archers are not useful because they serve the same purpose as HA but have to be protected. March them to the target city and start to build seige equipment.

(2) Foot archers arrive right before the siege starts. Horse archers are not very accurate shooters, but foot archers are your choice from brining down all the patrolling units in the city, plus those at the town center.

Scythia is by no means weak - except for its economics. However, as long as you take out Dacia and Thrace, and extend into Macedonia, you should be able to support at least 2 directions of expansion. The Macedon capital, Athen (if already occupied and developed by Macedonian or Greeks), and Sparta are all excellent production center of troops of mass destruction - so There is a temple that gets good unit experiences - don't forget to build them there. (With the Macedon's capital you might want to build the law-order one before the ~255BC plague, because its population is too high to maintain a good order).

Once you get the 2nd level stable built, your future is as bright as Scythian orange. Get TONS of noble archers and see how many arses it can kick!

Greek's slow phalanx can be killed by HA with eyes closed. One little trouble is Macedon's cavalry are powerful, so 1 on 1 the HA will lose badly. I suppose HA are also deadly against Roman infantry. Anything that runs slower than HA is doomed.

With Scythia you could achieve victory with overwhelming odds, like 3:1 . The key is to always concentrate arrows on one point, charge and rout them, then quickly focus on the 2nd one. If the enemy rush fowards in large numbers, run to one side and again you have the local advantage.

Cousin Zoidfarb

11-18-2004, 16:16

someone please help me unlock this faction ~:confused:

frogbeastegg

11-18-2004, 16:25

I shall copy Steppe Merc's mini modding guide:

1) Find the file "descr_strat" in ...\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign.txt

2)Open it up.

3)cut the faction you want to play as from the section its under (either unlockable or nonplayable, and copy it into the playable section, that should do it.

Do that with the Scythian faction and you will be able to play them. Enjoy.

Maltz

11-19-2004, 20:31

I just finished my Scythian long campaign. This is my 2nd finished long campaign, because Scythia is such an interesting faction that I cannot stop half-way.

AI is quite incompotent to deal with mass cavalry on the field, because they are used to wide, long line formation. AI tends to asign a few units for a purpose such as "flank there", chase that", so it is easy to concentrate your charge power on one point and take out their troops one by one.

Mass cavalry is like the direct opposite experience of a (dull) phalanx wall march, and gives you a lot of flexibility and chances to smash the AI into pieces. I guarantee you can kick far bigger arses with a lot of HA with few losses. Historically, Europeans were also beaten badly by swift horse archers of Hun and later Mongolia, so it is fine to reproduce that result. ~;)

When played as Scythia (Vh/Vh) I found I never had to hesitate to face a field battle that is not my favor. 2:1 is fine, 3:1 I can win with a reasonable loss (1/2 army gone). Very exciting.

Their only weakness is city assault - you definitely want to bring at least 2 units of infantry (axeman works well) to avoid heavy losses especially at the town center.

So finally I collected 50 provinces at year 253BC. I am sure you can do it faster than me. Scythia is for the rush fans! Yeah!

HopAlongBunny

12-08-2004, 13:04

Scythia is for the rush fans! Yeah!

Another reason to rush...your buildings do not upgrade beyond a certain point. You just don't have the infrastructure to keep large cities going; better to pump the armies and push them forward.

No one mentioned a minor annoyance you will likely face. Germania seems intent on taking that far province in the North Baltic; great place to pump up the valour of HA's ~:)

tnt_73

12-10-2004, 09:10

>>So finally I collected 50 provinces at year 253BC. I am sure you can do it faster than me. Scythia is for the rush fans! Yeah!

Wow!! You're insane. I'm playing RTW atm with Scythia (~250 b.c.) and took 15 Provinces. My biggest prob is money :(. The economy is fuc.ing low. Any hints, how to make money???? (Map selling is my only income)

Ellesthyan

12-11-2004, 17:01

@tnt
Exterminating. Slaughter any city you can get your hands on if only for a turn. It's the easiest and greatest income until you can field a good army to actually take the cities.

m4rt14n

12-12-2004, 15:14

tnt_73

12-13-2004, 07:58

Can Scythia make Onagers? I've found that taking Parthia early is a good thing for u. Just rush into their northeastern territory and lay a siege. Wait it out and they'll sally out. WHen they're gone, expect no other foray from Parthia into your territory. They are simply too weak and dirt poor to attack ur northern cities.

Yes, they can build onagers. But Parthia isn't in my mind to conquer. Too long distances.

Now i'am in front of Rom. I slaughtered every city to death on the way to Rom. Its a big money boost. But i like more to build up a good economy first before laying siege on an enemy. But Scythia is for rushing only. I have to play another "economy culture" like one of the roman factions after finishing this campaign :p.

Funky Phantom

12-13-2004, 13:58

Yes, they can build onagers. But Parthia isn't in my mind to conquer. Too long distances.
The beauty of it is that you don't really have to attack any Parthian city other than the one in the top-right corner of the map. After you take that, they don't seem very inclined to take it back and they tend to head South or West towards the Seleucids or Armenians for expansion anyway.

Even if they do come after you and try and take that city back, you'll see them coming a mile away (one of the blessings of Scythia's provinces being so vast!) and should be more than ready to repel the attack by the time it arrives. :charge:

After taking out that Parthian city, I found that I could focus my attention pretty much entirely on Western expansion and wars with the Greek factions.

mystic brew

01-04-2005, 21:38

a few things i have to add in to the pile.

1. first thing i did was change my capital to Tanais... this is the most central, is the one that will most likely grow the fastest, prevents your starting cities from being too rebellious, and is least likely to be under threat anytime soon.

2. in both east and west the rivers provide natural barriers that you can exploit. a single unit of archers in a fort can certainly hold the enemy up as your cav redeploys
(this is especially applicable near campus scithii... when a thracian army can just walk in and siege straight off.)
if you so this there is no need to have a garrison in any of your cities of more than a couple of archers/axemen, and this is important since cash is hard to come by.

3. i siezed the northeast parthian city, then negotiated peace with everyone i could get at.
then i moved all of my horse archers towards the west, split into 2 armies of about 4 HA and 1 light cav (in the NE i develped head hunting maidens, and they are excellent light cav... better than barbarians by some way)
each with a general, and in a few short years of fighting the Dacians and Germanic peoples had gold chevron troops and 6*+ generals... which would come in handy when the massed forces of Parthia and Armenia came calling.

but when they did the forts at the fords meant these armies were bimbling around in a whole big area of naff all, and vulnerable to the fast, small cavalry raids... after a few turns of being smashed up like this, they saw sense, and paid through the nose for a ceasefire!

4. never leave your cavalry in towns if possible. your infantry can hold a few turns, and gold chevron cav is too valuable to lose in a siege of some pointless little germanic town...
use the starting forces carefully, and you hardly need to sell map information at all!

Keldoron

01-25-2005, 22:04

I'm about to start my first Scythian campaign (just waiting to finish brutti campaign)

I decided to do some practising on custom games with the horse archers and noble archers against various armies.

Infantry is pretty easy to take down, but i'm still having a lot of trouble against cavalry. I've read various guides saying that ya gotta take of skirmish mode when approaching the red border and manually controll em. The problem is that when i issue them to start turning a bit and run, they stop for few seconds and then get munch by cavarly and then get routed most of the time. It seems that whenever i try manually change their running direction, they stop for an instant which allows pursuing cavaly to get close enough to knock some over.

I noticed that scythia have warhounds in custom games. They kinda work nicely in messing up cavalry lol

Es Arkajae

01-26-2005, 08:22

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

Herodotus refers to a Scythian tribe the Sauromatae (sound familiar) made up of the descendents of local Scythians and Amazonian survivors of the war that destroyed their people. The Amazons overpowered the crew of one of the three ships bearing them into captivity but being no sailors the winds and tide carried them north, where they landed.

They eventually got together with a group of the local men whose people they had been raiding in the meantime and they all went north to found their own tribe. Herodotus mentions one of their customs as being that the women cannot marry until they have killed a man in battle. (sound familiar once again)~p

There is also a mention of Hyperboria, apparently the people who lived in Hyperboria worshipped Artemis and would send gifts to the Temple of Artemis at Delos (the birthplace of Artemis). Though Herodotus doesn't connect the Hyperborians with the Amazonian descended tribe he mentions.

Claudius Maniacus Sextus

02-06-2005, 00:14

finaly managed to start a sarmatian campaign.
i gave up my 2 E reg. to parthians hwo oferd me for aliance TR and map 1500den.(for 5 turns).conquerd crimea and after 4-5 turns armenia sends 3 smal army hwo DONT attack.and send emisseries to dacia and romans from hwo i get roughly 50K+ from alliance TR and map.after some econ. development thrace attacks.so i say:What the hell i dont really want N anyway,so i put all my forces on boat and send them into asia minor.so i start cap. the rebel halicarnasus,after that sardis.develop a couple of turns and then pontus attacks.i attack their less garisoned city's......first the one right next E to sardis the N one but i see the people of pontus conquer pergaum(which actually was the last city they had,made capital actualy,FULLy garrisoned with many Einf. and some CArc and Arc).so i went for their NR.1 town in pontus region.build there some chosen arc. and sarmatian noble archers for defense as their Pergamum garison sallys to liberate the cappadocian sieged settlement(i sieged it with only 4-5 HA).they manage to distroy my atacking army,soo retreat into taking the town in Gallatia but by then i prepeard an army full of chosen archers(for their few BUT deadly chariot archers) and schytian nobles archers.also had an diplomat for bribeing their BIG last army the pergamum garison hwo have comed after my cappadocian siegeing army.conquerd capadocia and after that pergamum.after that conquerd Rhodes since the greeks have only 2 prov.
this is as far as i played.also got an alliance with egypt hwo seem to NOT manage to distroy the seleucids.WOW!!!i pray from the moment i have played RTW to not be distroyed the S. but it REALLY has happend in an BAD time.
I must mention i have NEVER had less than 7k avreage in my treasurey,and won most of the battle with less than 10 losses(avrg.).Oh and remember about the landing of the armenia i gifted crimeea to them too(im such a good person ~D ).Now im thinking of invading Egypt,but that would mean to have with the now "dangerous" seleucids.or erradicate the S. but face egypts Pharaoh Bowmen.I tell you Sarmatia is for the beg. because they realy SUCK n the end.i must mention a funny moment when 1 remaining generals cav.(4star) routed my 54 HA!!!!i must tell you the morale is unballanced.in real life armys RARELY routed.well i will tell you more as i conquer.
~:cheers: ~:cheers: :charge: ~:cheers: ~:cheers:

KukriKhan

03-24-2005, 00:21

merging for thread spelling

Dutch_guy

03-26-2005, 14:52

wow Scythia is really unpopular, only 49 views ?!

well anyhow , don't bother taking the Partian settlement at teh upper right corner of the map, just make an alliance and keep a unit op peasants on the bridge bordering your settlemtn and theirs they won't attack and break the alliance if you do that.
I went after the Thracians right form the start, HA really kill those falxmen , take the Thracian city's and if your lucky you can even make them your protectorate ( I was lucky :balloon2: )
that will help your cash problem and help you build up your economy.
I then captured the rebel provinces in the north, forgetting the Amazone's for the moment, however the Germans also wanted these provinces so they seiged both of my settlemtns in the north, I beat one and the other one vanished because of teh load-game bug I suppose. I the forgot about the Germans for the moment , they forgot about attacking me and we even made a ceasfire.
try building your main troop building city's to mass produce your Scythian Noble archers, they are the elite unit, and will save your ass lot's off times.
now you have to options , or 3 it depends on how rich you are, you can try and take armenia ( I did ) which is a long walk but It's rewarding and fun.
you can try and destry the dacians ( Did that too ) that is probably the easiest so I would recommend that, and you have to destry them for your short campain ( which I was doing at teh time )
your 3rd option is to take on the macadonians, which I would only do if I was really rich ( as in able to support large and many armys ) I didn't do that, was busy in armenia and west dacia , and I decided it was to early to get in to a war with a roman faction ( Brutii ) , and the Macadonians make a great buffer zone until you are able to support various grand army's

the Scythians are hard at the start, due to the large plains they have to cross and lack of money, but they are really fun to play especially if you like a chalange ( sp ?)

Craterus

03-26-2005, 19:07

it sounds as if the scytians have pretty good units..
i've decided they are going to be my next campaign (i haven't had a successful barbarian campaign yet!) ~D

The Hun

03-26-2005, 21:18

I recommend you try SPQR Scythia campaign. In my campaign I decided to attack Germanics and was doing fine. Then my Dacian allies decide to stab my back. I extorted money from Germanics by becoming a protectorate....you need money, use wits. Dacia would be so sorry as I marched into the basin and crushed their futile attempts. All through this punishment I had to tend to Parthian treachery, Armenian arrogance. This I finally managed and went for kill in Dacia. Now Macedon chose to take advantage by seiging one of my conquests. They send huge armies......only handfuls of survivors return home. I negotiate terms....usually PAY ME and continue to take Dacian cities. Germanics attack me again, I slaughter them and demand payment. Macedon attack over and over but now my armies can smell total conquest of Dacians and kill the Dacian King in last pathetic battle, their one remaining town rebels and is crushed next turn.
I wanted to destroy Germanics but Macedon is becoming a thorn in my side. I might have to punish their treachery.
SPQR has been more fun than v1.2 was

Craterus

03-27-2005, 19:02

whats the SPQR mod do?
what does SPQR stand for? (i've always wondered that) i guess r stands for rome and the s stands for senate?

The Hun

03-27-2005, 21:36

SPQR Mod makes battle more realistic, unit speed and kill speed is slower. There are better unit skins for such as Scythian HA and many more and no silly dogs and screeching women. When I did normal campaign I met screechers every German battle now I meet Berserkers who are much tougher. I am finding this campaign much more realistic and less silly things happening.

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

Macedon are looking poor shape, they may want to beg for pity or their time will be over but again like earlier I have attacks now from another faction. The Gauls have attacked, they seem to be strong faction, I think 3rd of all. we shall see.

Craterus

03-28-2005, 12:43

Screeching women and wardogs were probably used on the rare occasion but none at all is probably better than every battle.. thanks!
where can i find this mod? :balloon2:

SPQR means The Senate and Roman people
It is beleived that the Latin is Senatus Populusque Romanorum.
But others beleive it stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus.

Boulis

03-28-2005, 14:39

wow Scythia is really unpopular, only 49 views ?!

That is some sort of forum glitch - I clearly recall Scythia having (at least) over 7000 views a couple of weeks ago. In fact, judging by the amount of replies, I would think it was one of the most popular civs to play. I have not played since before 1.2, but back in those days, Scythia was probably the easiest civ to rush with and one of the easiest to play with in general due to the sheer power of mounted missiles in R:TW. The Scythians were my first vh/vh (long) campaign and I won easily. But maybe things are different now...

Boulis

Craterus

03-28-2005, 16:45

Scythia was probably the easiest civ to rush with and one of the easiest to play with in general due to the sheer power of mounted missiles in R:TW.
That's a reason i would like to play as them. I love missile cav but it might be easy because I'm really experienced in strategies and battle methods using missile cav.

Is there a forum about the SPQR mod? I would like a bit more info.
(sorry if this is spamming..)

Aimar78

03-28-2005, 17:23

Sytchia is a fun campaign, Horse Archer battles are a very diffrent experience compared to the other factions, you can wipe out entire armies without losing a single soldier, yet the battles can last a lot longer then non Horse Archer battles. Your worst enemies are archers & cavalry.

In my campaign (VH Campaign, H battles) I was on the back foot drom the beginning I had to fight a defensive war against Thrace Dacia & Germania for around 40 years, your starting cities will make no money for you at all, you'll barely have enough to survive, to get money you need to take the southern cities belonging to thrace & macedonia, but this will put you on a collision course with the romans, as they also go for those cities.

Unfortunately I had to give up my Scythian campaign because having too many archer units in a battle made my game lag beyond playability, does this happen to anyone else?

Craterus

03-28-2005, 19:25

I know what you mean, I have many units of horse archers and can fight battles without losing any/many men at all.

katank

03-28-2005, 23:53

The best part about Scythia is HAs with muster field!!

Early access to onagers and chosen archer bands makes them better than parthia and armenia IMHO.

You need to rush Thrace ASAP. You can sack Campus Getae easily though Tylis is a harder fight. (I first killed their faction leader and most of their army in their failed sally. Then, same turn, the rebel army sallied) The second battle was especially tough as there was one unit of cav that needed to die but it was guarded by bastarnae who are amazingly fast while running.

Focus on blazing a path straight down to Sparta and turn to smash Rome. There is no point in fighting Parthia, Dacia, or the poor rebel areas. Money is key and you get it by heading down south fast.

You don't need high tech levels so feel free to exterminate for cash.

Headhunting maidens are great antiarmor cav that can maul general units and protect your HAs. Too bad they take 2 turns and can't be retrained easily at the front. I tend to move solely towards noble archers later on.

Craterus

03-29-2005, 15:14

what does IMHO stand for?

Head-hunting maidens? what are they, they sound like a cool unit? ~:confused:

Aimar78

03-30-2005, 13:40

katank

03-30-2005, 19:02

They have better stats than desert cav one on one but lose to them due to the latter's greater numbers.

Headhunting Maidens are best at dealing a nasty shcok to heavily armored units by using their armor piercing axes. They can maul a cataphract unit. While perhaps losing in the end, they can effectively take a heavy cav unit out of commission during a battle. Use them in pairs or threes and you have a very good protection force for your HAs

Craterus

03-30-2005, 19:55

IMHO = In my humble oppinion.

Head hunting maidens are female cavalry, they carry armor piercing axes.
Sytchia is propably the only faction where you can field an all female army and kick ass with it..

If you had an army of screeching women against an army of peasants, you could kick ass ~;) lol... maybe not? I think a test is needed.

I always wondered what would be a good protection for missile cav ,like horse archers..

As Egyptians, I use Desert Cav to accompany my Chariot Archers

cunobelinus

03-30-2005, 21:19

i found these boring all it is horse archers and rubbish foot soldiers i found these really boring .

cunobelinus

03-30-2005, 21:21

i find missle calvary boring
Craterus i think its more fun playing hand to hand fighting not shoting missles to destroy or rout an army

cunobelinus

03-30-2005, 21:23

Aimar78 head hunting maidens arent that great stop monaing on about them

cunobelinus

03-30-2005, 21:24

and craterus screeching woman have heavy weapons and are stronger than peasants

cunobelinus

03-30-2005, 21:26

a good protection for missle calvary is any other strong and fast cavalry

Craterus

03-30-2005, 21:26

i find missle calvary boring
Craterus i think its more fun playing hand to hand fighting not shoting missles to destroy or rout an army

It's a nice tactic and I'm sure it would beat your infantry-based army if you tried to fight my missile-cav based army. But you never know mate?

cunobelinus

03-30-2005, 21:30

i no but i just find it more exciting if u have infrantry and calvary fighting rather than just missle calvary

Craterus

03-30-2005, 21:47

i no but i just find it more exciting if u have infrantry and calvary fighting rather than just missle calvary

yea, i know what you mean..
i'm not great at commanding infantry which is why i tend to sway to the side of cavalry.. after all, i'm a great cavalry commander! i remember once, i managed to rout almost a whole Julii army using two Spanish generals.. I bet you can just imagine the battle. And I bet you can imagine my talent and skill as a cavalry commander..

I guess this is why i like to play as the Scythians (good cavalry) but I don't enjoy the playing as the Romans (no cavalry)..

cunobelinus

03-30-2005, 21:52

i am suprior infrantry commander i am a great commander all over but infrantry is my stong point i no strong points were to hit and am a great infrantry commander

Craterus

03-30-2005, 21:58

I'm sure you favour the Romans and other infantry based factions like Barbarian factions who have good heavy infantry..

I bet you hate factions like Parthia and Armenia where their best infantry troops are Eastern Infantry.

cunobelinus

03-31-2005, 09:56

Craterus

03-31-2005, 16:09

actually i like arminea but i aint a fan of parthia i like arminea because of the catphracts.i dont like teh romans that much they are there infrantry are boring i like germinia and thrace are pretty kwl.scythian nobles are amazing they are amzing and are the and the later babarian warlord.

Parthia have cataphracts too. I bet you have never even had a campaign with the Parthians, otherwise you would know about Parthian Cataphracts.

cunobelinus

03-31-2005, 21:28

i have i took loads of the world and i did well but i still didnt enjoy them

Craterus

03-31-2005, 21:33

Parthia are similar to Scythia but I think Scythia are stronger because of their superior infantry units, although Scythia dont have cataphracts.. or cataphract archers

cunobelinus

03-31-2005, 22:10

na i think sytia are alot better there noble horsemen are amzing and late genreals are 2

Craterus

03-31-2005, 22:57

I said Scythia are a stronger, please re-read my post for clarification.
I'm aware that their noble horsemen are an amazing unit.. of course they are! ~;) ~D

Franconicus

04-01-2005, 12:17

I started a Scythian campaign (h/h, large, long), this time with patch 1.2. Scythians are funny to play. In the beginning you have nothing but archers (mounted and unmounted). After playing Germania this is very strange. They remember me of red indians, comanches or so.

I attacked the town sout of my headquarter at once and managed to take the town in the second round. My archers killed more than half of the garrison before I even entered the town. I also fought a battle with one mounted bowman unit against 5 infantry units (heavy falxmen, hoplites, javelins. I run around them and killed more than the half, loosing just a few horses. :charge:

Now the bad news. I have two problems.

1. When the armies are getting bigger (5 horse archers against 8 enemy units) the battle field is just to small to avoid close contact. This is even worse when the enemy has cavalry, too. :furious3:

2. The enemy has a lot of family members with their guards. I can easily kill all their infantry but if their army has enough heavy cavs with some mounted javs the it is my turn to bleed. ~:confused:

3. In this new patch I am not able to retreat my units from the battle ground. This doesn't seem to be very realistic. Cav should be able to break off a battle whenever they like to.

Can anybody help me?
:help:

turnip

04-01-2005, 14:29

Not had any trouble in my current Scythia game (M/M).
Militia Cavalry can be a pain in the arse, since Skirmish doesn't kick in until long after Javelins are sticking from your HA's corpses. Since your units have longer range, try micro-managing your HAs to run away whenever the Militia Cav get in range. It's annoying, but often the only thing you'll have to do in a battle anyway, so I can live with it.

Family members can do a great deal of damage to your precious units, so use your speed advantage and gang up on them. It may take a little while for them to start dying, but soon enough they'll be dropping like flies.

As for not being able to retreat... not sure what's going on there.
A couple of times my HAs have run out of arrows (usually while shooting those damn Peltasts) and I've been able to withdraw them from the battle without any problems.

The Hun

04-01-2005, 15:57

Answer to HA use is to not rely on skirmish mode, always know where your units are and what they face. Cannot say enemy cav is too much threat, they will isolate themselves from their army and become easy pickings.

Franconicus

04-04-2005, 11:56

Thank you for your advices!

I tried again. It is getting better but still not good.

One problem with Scythia is that it is incredible big and it takes ages to collect your armies. So I took all my troops from my capitol (yes, I didn’t leave a single unit!). I attacked Camp Geten at once. I besieged it at the first round and took it at the second one. You call this to ‘katank’ your enemy. It worked very well. I killed 50% of the enemy before entering the city. All their infantry was crushed. Only the family member with his guard stood at the market place. I advanced my archers and fired on him. He attacked them and my chief had to support them. I killed him and took the town. However, my chief’s guard had some losses.

In parallel I sent the other troops to my southwestern frontier. One tribe was sent to Crimea which I besieged but not attacked. I Camp Allani I left peasants and one unit of archers. Later I built horse archers here to observe the Parthians. They came and they left again. I didn’t invest any money in Camp Allani or Camp Sarmat. I tried to build harbors as soon as possible at the coastal cities.

After the success at Camp Geten I marched to the Thracian capitol. First I had to fight an army that wanted to take Geten back. They had infantry + general and I had three horse archers and chief. Ratio was 2 : 1. I attacked and so AI was very passive. (This must be a buck!!). I shot at their line, their general made a breakout, chased one of my horse units while the other ones shot at his rear. Unfortunately he caught one unit and I lost some 50 horses. He had some losses and returned to his main army. I shoot at every unit that tried to approach me and esp. at the general, when he was in reach. This was demoralizing to them and after heavy losses they started to withdraw. Now my heavy cav attacked their general and killed him. In totally they lost 500, I lost 50.

I built a fortress at the river and controlled now my new province. I moved forward to their capitol, but I had to stop besieging them two times because of big armies in my back I had to deal with first. In one of these battles I killed a third family member. Both battles were very successful. I killed 10 times as much enemies than I lost myself. I also had a small battle where I had twice as much soldiers and this was a massacre. Losses 1 : 100!

After these victories the Armenians and Germanians allied with me and the Dacians and Parthians didn’t dare to attack!!

After my army was refilled, another army arrived from Crimea. I had to wait one turn because of two Dacian armies near my capitol. They disappeared again and I attacked the capitol for the third time. I had one army in the south and one in the north each led by a 4 star chief. The gate was open and I attacked at once. I led the south army, the computer the northern one. The northern army was horse archers only. Very soon I received news from them: gate conquered, chief killed, army took flight. My army was doing better. The enemy was hiding until I entered the town. I killed many enemies with arrows. My general and one barb cav tried to secure the archers. However, my general was attacked by horse javelins and he was killed at the first shot. My general’s cav and my barb cav were caught into close combat and so I had only archers left (2 foot 4 mounted). Foot archers are very effective in killing but vulnerable. Horse archers are not very effective but can withdraw easily. At the end of the battle each side had lost some 75%. I had not been able to conquer the city (time!). Now I gather my troops in my fort wait for reinforcements and attack again. Time is running away. I now that Thracia has still a second town I have to conquer. Hope next time I can report some progress.

Franconicus

04-05-2005, 08:52

I made it, Tylis is mine. ~:)

I started to besiege the town once again. Next turn I was attacked by a Thracian army coming from outside (500men, no general, only some jav horses). The garisson (500men with two generals) didn't dare to join the attack. So my units (1 chief, 4 bowmen, 1 phalanx and 6 horse archers in total 1000men and 600 horses) had no problems. Silly Thracian attacked even though they were outnumbered. Tried to hide behind shields and armors. My arrows made them die like flies. I lost 6 men, they lost more than 400!!

Even though the Dracian send two armies (only three units each) to threaden Geten and Sctythi I now attacked Tylis. I used the phalanx as a shiel in front of my archers. 4 units of archers made uge demage in the rows of the Thracian falxmen. They even killed one general. However, the falxmen finally succeeded in killing the phalanx _ their attack was stopped by my archers. The last Thraccian general tried to defend the centre. My archers weakened him and my chief killed the running rest. Unfortunatelly, my chief died in this last attack.

I killed everone inside the town. Now I am filling my army again and will then go for Byzantium. I will also attack the Dacians. Looks like our gods send them to feed our arrows.

The Hun

04-05-2005, 17:02

Franconicus,
First congratulations for your victory but I am concerned because you make report another Warlord dies. Your Warlord gains his stars and influence and becomes 'conquering hero' and such but you must at first look after his safety. When units rout and run it is better to chase them off with HA as shot in back will kill many, also if your Warlord is too close when HA are shooting enemy they will possibly shoot him too, so beware of this. Try if possible to keep a unit by him, perhaps barbarian cav and by this you have chance to double any unit that manage to attack your Warlord. By what you describe it will not be long before Macedonian army try to steal your new land. They look tough but are little more than targets for your HA ~D

In my SPQR v1.0 campaign I now hold 38 regions and I destroyed Dacia, Macedon and Greece ( Thrace is not represented ) I am almost done crushing Germanic but Brutii made attack to my southern flank. I dealt with them severely and they lost many men and 3 regions they once held. Last night Julii have decide to confront my forward armies, thinking I am too busy with Germanic. My army of 500 were outnumbered 3-1 and they also had 293 man reinforcement and I was unable to withdraw. My army was 3 archers 2 axemen 2 barbarian cav my Warlord and the rest was HA. It was long and hard and casualties were high but I was victorious and Julii now know to fear HA

Franconicus

04-06-2005, 07:15

Thanks Hun, good advice!

I know how wealthy the family members are and I am very concerned that I lost 3 of them to conquer one town.

In the first battle I lost two four star generals. I attacked with two armies and one was controlled by the computer. This general was killed almost immidiatelly. I attacked with my second army and the General was doing nothing but secure my left flank. Some horese javelins attacked. I made them withdraw and lost only one - the general.

The last one was a rookie without experience. Due to the complete lack of any non archer unit I wanted to use him to clear the city centre as all enemies were running. I also thought this could give him some personal kills. Obviously this was a mistake.

Let the Macedonians come. With an army of four bowmen and 6 HA units I am willing to mess with any army on plain ground. And I want to raid Greece anyway. So the more I can kill before they hide in their Polis the better.

Your campaigne sounds very promising. Seems that you almost made it. Go and teach the Romans your lesson. Make Rome a meadow for your horses!!

The Hun

04-06-2005, 16:38

Hehe! Yes you go slaughter Macedonian armies. They nasty black banner is all they have and your HA will make fools of them and the phalanx, same with Greece.

I think Julii will wonder now what to do I am hoping because I want to finish Germanic for good, they have resisted too long because of others attcking me.

I must tell you untick box for AI manage of reserves, control them yourself AI will kill your Warlord everytime by charging to his death.

Franconicus

04-07-2005, 07:44

You are right! You can unlock the computer control of the reinforcements! Is this new in the patched version?

Last night I played for just half an hour. I attacked the two Dacian spearhead armies. In total I killed 350 men and lost 6 (first appearance of my axemen). However, 300 managed to escape! I couldn’t stop them with my HA. The good news is that after the 2nd battle one captain was affiliated in the family!! Now I have 5 chiefs, again. ~:grouphug:

Let’s go south!

:charge:

pezhetairoi

04-11-2005, 04:19

Heya all, i'm pretty new to these forums, but I've been playing RTW for some months now. Just into my first twenty turns of Scythia, guess I screwed up because I didn't rush. Began by spending everything on economic improvements (roads, ports, and the like) while my four armies went all over the place. Campus Getae is a nightmare, I can't leave it (despite having conquered it in turn 3) because it revolts the instant I step away from the gates. As a result my Campus Scythii army is bogged down there until I scrape together enough money to build a sacred grove of papay. Can anyone tell me if a ~2000 denarii net gain every turn is considered good for Scythia that only includes the steppe provinces?
On a side note, I find that my horse archers have a knack for charging at the enemy instead of opening fire whenever I doubleclick on them. I was fighting a sally from Campus Sakae, 3 HA, my heir, 2 archers, against 8 HA, 2 EI and 1 Peasant (god knows why) and I discovered to my horror that one of my HA had charged the enemy HA that sallied out and was slaughtered to a man. Anyone experience that before? Won it, in the end, but that HA unit was not expendable. Does it have anything to do with my setting ammunition to unlimited (yeah, well, that was a strange thing to do, but I did it anyway.) Or is it just because I'm a bad general, since I normally play with balanced but infantry-heavy armies? :-P
Oh, whoever said fighting Macedonia was easy? My Scythian friend (in the same school) got utterly trashed by a Macedonian army of 5 phalanxes and 7 light lancers (and general, too). Exhausted horse archers are troublesome to control. >.

Franconicus

04-11-2005, 07:54

Ave Pezhetairoi (what an unusual name),

good to have you here!

Operating HA in skirmish mode it happens that they are caught in close combat:

- when they retreat, thy move to the edge of the battlefield (they always do), but they do not leave; so they get trapped;

- they always concentrate on the on unit they are firing on; if another unit approches, they ignore it until they are attacked

- I had a battle were the enemy (Thracian) had one unit of mounted javs. I sent them one HA and didn't care about them any longer. I thought that the HA could easily deal with javs because of their longer range and maybe higher fire frequency. I was badly surprised when they were caught in close combat almöst immidiately and killed soon. Looks like the lavs are much faster and do not bother with throwing their javs.

Franconicus

04-11-2005, 09:52

Looks like Scythia is still very popular. To me it is still an unsolved problem. ~:confused: But several veterans are currently posting, so maybe they can help me find the “right” strategy.

I am playing on hard / hard with large units.

Here some basic questions:

- What to do with the Parthians? Ignore (then they will attack you sooner or later), attack (then your Alanni army will be sitting in the wrong corner) or block them with a fortress (then you have to invest 500 dinarii).

- Crimea: I used to attack it with my Tangisian army. Is it better to move this army east and leave Crimea to the Alanni army?

- Rebel towns: I didn’t attack them because I thought it was a waste of time. Do you have other experience?

- Campus Scythii: I always attacked Campus Getae. Thracia was my first joice because Getae is dangerously close, conquering Thracia helps to increase sea trade and it opens the way to the gold chambers of Greece. Maybe it is better to attack Tylis first? Do you have other suggestions?

- Field battles: In the beginning you have only archers (foot & horse). You do not have money to build new troops, so you have to rely on the ones you have. I had some big hits and some disasters. Enemy’s cav is always reason for trouble. Co-operation between HA and foot archers doesn’t work. How do you protect your foot archers?

- Towns: Do you attack them? What is your tactic?

- What is your building strategy?

- How do you make money?

I am looking forward to your suggestions!! ~;)

The Hun

04-11-2005, 17:02

Hello again.
Do not attack Parthia, they will in general ignore you and trade. If they attack they most often cannot sustain as they have other fronts to worry over and will ask for ceasefire. This is when you make money ~;)
Make counter proposal that they pay you, demand 7000 denarii and tribute of 1500 for 6 turns, they will often suggest amounts in your favour. Any amount is better than no amount yes? This is true when ever a diplomat comes calling, demand money in the usual Steppe tradition.

I leave my archer warbands as garrison and use HA as fighting force. when I can afford I will hire mercenary HA as they are good for cheap cost. Let your Warlords gain experience with killing rebel armies and when the time comes to crush Thrace their slow armies will fall fast. Thrace are same as Macedon and Greece, they are untrustworthy and will stab your back when you do not look. Because of HA armies I lay seige and wait, the enemy is forced to sally or surrender. This takes time but it does work.

Use conquered towns and cities to train better troops and spend little on your own start towns, your people are from the Steppe and endure much hardship.

When you defeat each town you slaughter all inside, this is how you make money, you do things the Steppe way.

So I recap, when ever you get chance demand money. You spend money on more HA. When you conquer you kill all.

Later you will own armies with axemen who can form infantry back up for archer warband but always think HA as main part of the army.

Taking Crimea allows good trade route. I hope this will help.

Pezhetairoi,
You must not rely on skirmish mode keep watch to your HA, even Romans will cut them down with pila because spear range is quite big in RTW so always know what they are doing.
About the 7 light lancer army, how many HA fought these. I use HA to draw out enemy cav and then gang up on them, light lancers die fast when you shoot their backs and remember HA can fight as well as shoot but 2 on 1 is the answer here, 1 attacking from rear. It is always better to kill with arrows though and a watchful eye will keep your HA out of trouble. Move them yourself, just before they skirmish so you send them to right directions and that way you keep control.
I met many huge Macedonian armies, each time they have many phalanx and roaming cav and I have my HA. I keep my HA together and wait for the cav attacks and pick them off. When they have no cav left is when my HA split up to deal with phalanx.

In my campaign I now have 47 regions and I have made camp overlooking Rome. Germanic are dead and Britons tried to attack but suffered at the hands of my faction heir. The fight for Rome is going to be very hard, the Julii have many big armies ( but I have 2 of their eagles ) and the Senate has 2 huge armies of Praetorian guards and Praetorian cav.

Craterus

04-11-2005, 17:47

I hear people talking about Crimea?? What is that ~:confused: ???

Brutus

04-11-2005, 19:15

I hear people talking about Crimea?? What is that ~:confused: ???
The Crimea is the peninsula in the Black Sea on which lies the city of Chersonesos. In-game it is called Bosphorus, probably after Regnum Bosphori. Nowadays it is part of the Ukraine.

Whahooo! Fiftieth post!

Damn I'm slow... ~;)

pezhetairoi

04-12-2005, 01:15

[QUOTE=The Hun]
About the 7 light lancer army, how many HA fought these. I use HA to draw out enemy cav and then gang up on them, light lancers die fast when you shoot their backs and remember HA can fight as well as shoot but 2 on 1 is the answer here, 1 attacking from rear. It is always better to kill with arrows though and a watchful eye will keep your HA out of trouble. Move them yourself, just before they skirmish so you send them to right directions and that way you keep control.
QUOTE]

I see... O_O Apparently my friend was fighting that army with just what he started with in Campus Scythii.

Gah, skirmish doesn't work, eh. Lots of pausing in the works, then. I used to hate pausing, priding myself on managing the whole battle in realtime. Oh well. guess that's got to change. Hmm. So that's why my Vicus Venedae fight didn't go so well...

Ahhh well, I happen to have been very naughty with Parthia, Campus Sakae was taken so I'm at war with them, and I'm still wondering if I should bring my Alanni army west to reinforce the Germanic front, or to go into Parthia/Armenia... Are ports at Alanni and Sakae any use?

Mmm, Franconicus, for what it counts, my opening strategy was to use my Sarmatae army (reinforced with 2 HA units) to strike west to Vicus Venedae while my Scythii army hit Getae, my Tanais army hit Chersonesos, and my Alanni army hit Sakae for the sake of territorial consolidation. Of course, I'd built peasants in every village so I could pull out every single unit I had without worrying about order. I'd planned to hit Tylis immediately after that, and Locus Gepidae (that stupid village we known as Domus Dulcis Domus, which, for god's sakes, means 'Home Sweet Home' in Latin). But of course, Tylis is not attainable since Getae is on the brink of revolt. Naturally I decided I wanted the Greek peninsula, am working towards that now, as soon as I pacify Getae and my Chersonesos army arrives at Getae to reinforce my army. A lot of movement, but only four battles so far, all of them siege/sally battles.

My building strategy was really to just pile up on as many traders and ports as I can. I'm still in the starting period of the game, but I can safely say practice ranges will come next so I can train archer warbands. Their flaming arrows are really useful when stopping enemies from leaving their gates in sally battles.

Diplomacy wise... I seem incredibly unlucky, because every time I try selling map info, not only do I get tribute demanded of me instead of an offer of money, but demanding money is hopeless. Sigh. All I've gotten is trade agreements with my neighbours, but not alliances, or tribute. Top on the list of those who've offended me is Macedon. They will die after I've used Thracde to wipe the floor with.

Oh and Franconicus, pezhetairoi = Macedonian pikeman :-D I used to be a very good Macedon player (albeit heavily reliant in mercenaries in Scythia :-D) and I'm still living in the dream of becoming a second Alex the Great, so.

Oooh. Long reply. Why do you guys get pictures of Roman generals while all I can choose is one of barbarian diplomats? Not fair! ;-P

The Hun

04-12-2005, 16:13

Skirmish does work but units not all go in safest direction and can get trapped with map edge and such.

I would expect Parthia to soon ask for ceasefire. Demand payment and tribute. I must be plain, you not always get tribute but demand all the same. When diplomats ask for trade you say for sure but first pay me ~D

I own 50 regions now but Senate have more than I first saw, at least 4 armies over 20 unit strong all Praetorian with gold upgrade. They are unstoppable. I killed 1100 and lost the battle as they killed 1700. My arrows bounce off and my axes too. It will be very hard these last battles.

IliaDN

04-13-2005, 05:38

:duel: Something about siege tactics(good when playing factions with weak infantry)
In my opinion the best way to take the castle with minnimum casualities is to besiege it with an army smaller then defenders have provoking them to attack.
For example in my scythia :charge: campaign which I'm playing now I besieged Corinth with one "silver" exp general and one unexperienced while enemy (macedonians) had 3 pikemen units 1 light cav and general- so they decided they are stronger and attacked ~D .
While pikemen went through one gate enemy's cav went through another so I dealt with them first (Tactics: when enemy charges my cav (which proveked him to do this) it reatreats while my other cav unit cahrges enemy,so the enemy looses charge bonus)The main thing was to kill enemy general to lower enemy's morale.So I've made both enemy cav units flee.
Then it was easy enough with pikeman: while one cav attracted attantion of pikemen another charged it from the back( of course it's better to use more exp cav for charging).
Finally when all (if enemy's cav returnes you can drive it routing again easily)
of enemies are routing you'll have a message which will ask if you want to continie battle or to end it.So choose to end it.VICTORY ~:cool: the castle is yours.
Resume: with minimal casualities you take enemy town and destroy his good Army in ONE turn.Of course later it's better to garrison town with more troops so it won't revolt. ~:)

IliaDN

04-13-2005, 10:14

:help: Is there any way to avoid corruption?

Franconicus

04-13-2005, 10:21

Thanks for the replies. I love this forum. ~:cheers:

Pezhetairoi, does it pay to send an army north in to the barbarian region (Vicus Venedae and DDD)? I always tried to concentrate all my troops to one decisive campain.

Based on your feedback I tried again with an improved strategy. Focus is the invasion of Thracia. This is my first target because it is dangerously close and if I have it I have good access to the sea trade and I have a base to invade Greece (=more money).

These are my initial moves:

Alanni: I send all my HA to Crimea. My chief builds two fortresses against the Parthians and then follows the HA. The foot archers go into the forts.

Tangis: They all march directly to Scythii, to reinforce the expedition forces.

Sarmantae: The two archers go to Scythii two to reinforce the garrison in the capitol and in Getae.

Scythii: I send the spy into Getae. My horse archers and my big chief march to a position southwest of it. Here they wait what happens.

Thracian moved three infantry units from Getae to Scythia. My cav attacked them and killed them without a loss. I now besieged Getae . My foot archers came too together with a new family member. I attacked the town. Infantry was easily killed. Their heir defended the centre. I fired on him from different sides but nothing happened. I placed my big chief in his rear and the other family member in front of him and attacked. I killed him but I lost my fam member and some HA and FA. I enslaved the town.

Now I the Thracian offered peace and gave me money. I accepted and was now able to produce 4 barb cav units. They really helped me much. With this army I invaded Thracia again. (Why not?) They had an army going westward to Macedonian. I killed them. Then I attacked another army south of Tylis. My new army was a combination of my Scythian and Tangisian army plus 4 barb cavs. In total 7 HA, 4 barbs and two chiefs. This is a deadly combination. The archers weaken the enemy, the barbs protect them and finish the game. Only problem is that I cannot refill the units. I am too far from home and I have no money. After killing all the field armies I besieged their capitol. It was defended by three family members and lots of infantry (javelins most) and HJ. They finally attacked me. I killed everyone and took the town. ~:cool: Thracia is history. I killed everyone. I refilled my army and I am looking now for Byzantium, which is rebel owned.

In the East I besieged Crimea and took it without fight. The Parthians came and besieged my fortress. They attacked it two turns later and killed the garrison (peasants). Four turns later they besieged Alanni. I had two FA and 3 peasant units here. They attacked with one peasant and 8 HA. I made a big mistake. I placed my archers at the wrong gate!! So they broke the door and could enter the town. I killed many of them but in the end I had to surrender. Now I have to build an army to cover my eastern flank.

Politics: I tried to get as much money as I could get. I allied with Macedonia, Brutii, Julii and Senate. They all have nice towns and I’d love to see them burn.

What do you think about this??

Franconicus

04-13-2005, 10:24

:help: Is there any way to avoid corruption?
IliaDN,

yes, kill them all. (Just kidding). I think it helps to have a familiy member there (watch their peronal abilities). Maybe it helps to have the capitol close. See http://bbb.unknownnet.com/rtw/bestcap.htm

IliaDN

04-13-2005, 10:48

Thanks, but this was I already known. :bow: Anyway thanks for the great link it's cool.By the way in campaign(up to 230 or so) I' ve conquered Italy except Ariminum and Segesta,Balkans,parthian's town near Alanni,Trace nearby dacians provinces(2 prov. what they had in the beginning and Vicus Venedae( I'm playing on VH/M)
~:confused: Why don't you use onagers they are cool against large roman stacks.Not long ago I've finished a battle and lost 50 men while enemy lost 1277(I was fighting roman army) ~D

Franconicus

04-13-2005, 14:55

~:confused: Why don't you use onagers they are cool against large roman stacks.Not long ago I've finished a battle and lost 50 men while enemy lost 1277(I was fighting roman army) ~D
I know they are cool. Right now I do not have access to onagers - and I do not have infantry to protect them.

IliaDN

04-13-2005, 15:19

I know they are cool. Right now I do not have access to onagers - and I do not have infantry to protect them.
Then go and F##k macedonians it's easy enough with your HA :charge:
And then make the same with greeks and exterminite :furious3: population in towns you capture
And make onagers in well-developed greek cities.
And after it is done f##k those too proud romans, do not delay with or they will grow too powerful even in my 230 they have early cohorts esp Julii.
So use your cav and smash' em all.
:charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge:

pezhetairoi

04-14-2005, 01:07

Hahaa IliaDN, your f##king is sure to produce lots of illegitimate family members xP

Franconicus, it does not pay to invade VV and DDD, the only value of that is so Germania doesn't get to it first. Firstly, they are both villages (as I discovered to my great chagrin when I arrived) and they don't even have a warrior's hold there. The only value the rebel steppes have are strategic in nature--it's a perfect springboard for the invasion of Germania. But no, not worth a concentrated strike. I took both with just a new family member, 2 half-strength units of archers and 2 half-strength HA. Why halfstrength? Because I screwed up my VV assault thanks to skirmish mode.

I would recommend you devote everything to thrace and greece. Even my alanni army is now moving to Scythii to play around with Greece while I build up VV and DDD in preparation for Germania. Chersonesos is quite useful too (high population, so ports can be built pretty early, even if it is out of the way in terms of strategic direction) so I recommend you get that over and done with. Thrace never had a chance to counterinvade my territory, they had to pour all they had (which wasn't much) into trying to relieve Getae, with disastrous results for them. My Tanais army is just 2 tiles away from Getae now, so the next turn, both armies will merge and make for Tylis and Byzantium to finish off those good-for-nothings. My diplomacy, I gladly admit, is crap. I haven't had Thrace begging for ceasefire, neither have I had any chances to demand money because no one ever approaches me. I'm like the guy who's always ignored in class :-(

IliaDN

04-14-2005, 05:36

Don't see any use of ceasefire with Thrace.In my opinion the best tactics is blitzckrieg (hope spelling is right).All this ceasefires are not worth troubling with!I think that in Skythia campaign money are essential so you need a quick (not prolonged with some kind of ceasefire) assult on Balkans, some kind of Crusade for MONEY.And then quckly in first 10 - 20 turns attack and conquer Rome.
ALSO instead of sending troops to conquer northern rebel provinces better to send some more armies to reinforce your Balkan-invaiding army or capture Dacia(their provinces are closer to cap than rebel one's and more profitable). And of course you'll need one army in alanni and one in crimea!

Franconicus

04-14-2005, 07:54

Don't see any use of ceasefire with Thrace.In my opinion the best tactics is blitzkrieg (hope spelling is right).All this ceasefires are not worth troubling with!I think that in Skythia campaign money are essential so you need a quick (not prolonged with some kind of ceasefire) assult on Balkans, some kind of Crusade for MONEY.And then quckly in first 10 - 20 turns attack and conquer Rome.

I made ceasefire with Thracia after I had taken Getaen. They paid a lot of money for that. I used it to refill my HA and to build barbarian cav. So I had a unstopable army 4 turns later and started to raid Thracia again. I also built first harbors with that money. Money is an issue. Also the absence of anything else but archers.

In the meantime Thracia is history and Byzantium is mine. I have 6 harbors and enough money to build a second army for the invasion of Greece.

I wonder whom I should attack first - Macedonia or Dacia? I have an alliance with Macedonia and all Italian factions. Maybe I kill Dacia first and attack the Macedonia from several directions.

What do you think?

I will start this raid as soon as I have two cav armies and one small infantry division (maybe some foot archers axemen and peasants for besieging).

Franconicus

04-14-2005, 13:40

I have noticed two amazing things with the Parthians.

1. When they besieged Campus Alanni they called on me to become protectorate. That never happened to me before. I refused. Would would happened if I had accepted?

2. Finally they took Alanni (my own fault!). Then my eastern frontier was quiet. Nevertheless I was waiting for another bad news from them. How was I surprised when I received the news that Parthia and Scythia made ceasefire! I thought I should have known before ~:confused:

Do you have any explanation for that?

The Hun

04-14-2005, 15:56

Agree to be protectorate but with a counter claim of payment. You are effectively their ally and have given free passage, use the money to make a new army then drive them out.

I had once this ceasefire message

Franconicus

04-14-2005, 16:31

Good news - bad news!
My Massimo Leader received a new attidute - bulletproof!
Two turns later he died in bed. That is not the way a Scythian noble man should die.

IliaDN

04-14-2005, 20:08

[QUOTE=Franconicus]I
I wonder whom I should attack first - Macedonia or Dacia? I have an alliance with Macedonia and all Italian factions. Maybe I kill Dacia first and attack the Macedonia from several directions.
QUOTE]
I think it is better to attack macedonians first, because thier lands are richer.
:charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge:

Boulis

04-14-2005, 21:21

Some nice posts lately!

But honestly guys, Scythia is probably the easiest faction to play...I finished a long (50 provinces) vh/vh campaign with them in record time and I don't recall being actually threatened with total defeat even once. You guys want an ulcer you should try Spain, Dacia, or Numidia on vh/vh.

The reason why Scythia is so easy is simple: they are probably the best overall Horse Archer faction in the game (Parthia and/or Armenia a close second) and Horse Archers are simply overpowered, unstoppable, and, more importantly, idiot-proof (I am a horrible general) in RTW. I can't understand how people who do well with infantry cannot succeed with Scythia. I never used infantry and I hardly even used my Chosen Archers (unless I was fighting off a seige). Essentially, all my armies in the field were 90% HA and about 10% melee cav (either Sarmatian cav or, better yet, Head Hunting maidens or both) - I know these one-dimensional armies are cheesy but they are literally unbeatable. Allow me to explain:

1) Scythia's enemies are all infantry-heavy and infantry (no matter how good) is simply a joke to HA's. Once you take that eastern Parthian province (forget the name) - and I highly recommend you do so because you will never have to worry about your eastern front again - and make peace with Parthia (if you take the province and do nothing else the Parthians will request a ceasefire because they essentially lack a common overland border with you and for the AI that essentially means peace), you will never really have to fight a cavalry-heavy faction again, unless you seek to.

2) Skirmish works effectively except, as some have pointed out, near the map edge. Even keeping that in mind, it ALWAYS works against infantry, map-edge or no. The only time it fails is against cavalry and unfortunately that is a problem because sometimes even if your HA's are technically faster than what is chasing them, slower cav can catch up to them at the edge because they often mill about confused for a few seconds...so...all this means is you have to micromanage a bit - watch the opposing cavalry like a hawk and then, when you see them start to charge and your unit start its retreat, order one, two or three of your nearby HA or melee cav to attack his attacking cav in the flank or rear and then wheel around your retreating unit to sandwich him in between - remember to use the ALT button to attack his cav with this maneuver if you are attacking with HA's. Timing has to be great because even Scythian Noble Archers will lose to heavy cav one-on-one. The good news is that the above is the ONLY micromanagement you will ever do - much better than trying to get an intact phalanx across the map trust me.

Important Note: Scythian Noble Women are excellent skirmishers and usually never get caught even on the map edge - they might get outshot by heavier mounted bowmen (ie Persian Cav or Armenian Cat Archers) however. Furthermore, they take two turns to make and cannot fight melee at all in the unlikely event they do get caught. Scythian Noble Archers are good melee fighters and the best HA's in terms of firepower after the Armenian Cat Archers. They can beat any light cav in melee so don't run away from Roman Equites or Barbarian Cav - just heavy cav. If you are therefore fighting Armenia (you really don't have to but in case you do), just use your Head Hunters - they crush even the heaviest HA's and are extremely FAST.

3) Archers would normally be a problem because they have better range than HA's and can use fire to demoralize but they actually are not that much of a problem because Cantambrian Circle actually works to keep your HA's protected from enemy missile fire. But let's say you don't want to risk it because the Circle is clumsy and your guys risk getting caught by his cavalry as a result (I hardly ever used CC with Scythia). Now you could just charge and trample his archers but I am assuming they are protected by a spearwall or something. Well then just exchange fire with them. Normally, in such a standing slugfest HA's would lose but don't forget you have more archers than he does. Why? Because 90% of your army is HA's and even an archer-heavy faction will not field such a high percentage of archers so you will have more firepower...even if the AI does field that many archers, well, that obviously means they are not protected by other troops and you can charge and trample them in any case. If he is using onagers remember: they are stationary. Simply use a couple melee units to flank past his troops and destroy them. That is why I never use them when I have an HA faction and that is why I even avoid using axemen or even chosen archers...all of them are simply targets for opposing infantry and your HA's can't protect them and skirmish at the same time.

So...basically...

Nothing in this game can beat horse archers. Scythia is the best HA faction in the game. Scythia is, therefore, ridiculously easy to play - even on vh/vh.

Boulis

pezhetairoi

04-15-2005, 00:58

Boulis has a point. But I like to ground my centre with expendable archers both for support and for demoralisation effect so I can anchor my line for manoeuvre. Guess I can't fully leave off infantry tactics. HA cannot be beaten in a straight on fight. It takes manoeuvre to beat them (see my post in some other thread, about general tactics).

Franconicus

04-15-2005, 12:09

Ave Boulis, I pay tribute to you;

I played the Julii, Carthage, Germania and Egypt before and I found each of them easier. Julii are simple without a doubt, Carthago can invade Italy almost immidiately, Germania has this incredible spearbands and good cavs and can easiliy conquer Gaul. Egypt is so rich that you canafford to loose troops and replace them.

Maybe I passed the innitial hurdles now and can follow your example.

By the way, I think that the posts about Scythia are very substantial. Thank to everyone!

The Hun

04-16-2005, 21:37

With 55 regions and Rome surrounded I expect my enemies to rally and put up a fight, instead they make no attempt and deny my Leader his glory on the field.
What to do now? I recommend this SPQR as a better alternative but not sure if it is now available or patched. I read that v3.0 will be ready soon but is MP balanced. The v1.0 is difficult because of shield bonus all together a very interesting enjoyable campaign. I chose to first invade the Balkan region and then to enter Germanic area. I set up my capitol in Pannonia and then moved on Rome.
Maybe I wait now for Europa Barbarorum mod, it sounds wonderful.
Good luck my Scythian friends, Rome can rest until the expansion brings maybe the Huns.

Franconicus

04-18-2005, 08:51

Looks like I am that last fighting the Scythian war. So farewell, comrades!

While I was wondering whom to attack my Macedonian allies attacked me. Their surprise attack blew a half full army of HA only. I gathered the rests and send them to Campus Scythis for reinforcements. While they were still on the way two Dacian armies besieged C. Scythiisand Camp Gethae. I attacked both. One withdraw one was defeede. I followed their main army, erased them completly and killed three family members. Then I headed south for the Macedonians. In the meanwhile they besieged Tylis. Suddenly they offered protectorate. I accepted for a lot of money. I built some harbores and troops and sent my army back north to Dacia. The very next round the Macedonian broke their word and attacked a single unit of barb. cav with a 2400 men army. (I fear the Greek even when they send gifts!)
So back south again. I now had a full cav only army. (2 generals, one Sarmatian lancers, 3 barb cav, rest HA). I attacked the Mac army in the woods. They managed to withdraw and left 400 men on the battle ground. Next round I stroke them again. This time I managed to encircle them and slaughtered them. They lost 2.000, I lost just a douzend.

Then I attacked Thessalonica. I also sent an infantry based army (4 archers, 1 phalanx, 1 peasants, 1 general, 1 barb cav, 0.5 Samr. cav). In total I had 3,000 men and about 2,000 horses. The enemy had 2,400 men in garrison and 1,000 outside. They attacked immidiately. My HA slaughtered the sallying phalanxes. Their cav catched my flank. I had 2 HA one General and one barb cav to cover this wing. However, the Macedonian had some 700 riders. They broke my line and killed my general, but their king died first. My HA killed their cav. but I lost about 50% of my army due to close combat and fire from the walls. Their phanalxes died in the arrow rain.

When i had almost finished their second army came. Only cav. Most of my HA had no arrows left. Their was a short but heavy fight. I killed their leader but then my line broke and I had to withdraw. Some units flew because they were just exhausted. Just then my second army arrived. My archers stopped the enemy and my cav. blew them away. Now Thessalonica is mine.
I killed everybody. I refill my army and then will conquer the rest. After this battle my Roman allies declared war on Macs. (I do not trust Romans either).

pezhetairoi

04-19-2005, 01:10

Ah, I just had a running race with the Thracian Grand Army. 20 units of falxmen, generals' cavalry and militia cavalry were up in Bylazora evidently trying to antagonise Macedonia when my diplomat found them, at the same time my Army of Thrace (10 units, all HA) was marching for Byzantium. Whew, I beat them to Byzantium and quickly assaulted with a unit of Thracian mercs. They turned white with only 3 tiles between them and Byzantium. So near, yet so far. I've annihilated Thrace (they're just doormats, everyone walks over them) and now it's time for a two prong offensive with my Army of Getae and Army of Thrace, the former moving Bylazora-Porrolissum, and the latter Thessalonica-Larissa. Meanwhile, up north, the Army of the Steppes will strike north and west, DDD-Gothi. I'm building up my cities in the far east so I can earn more, then build an army to head south into Parthia. 'Twill be most heartening to see them fall to my arrows. I mean, hell, when I had 3 and they had 8 HA, I still managed to trash them at Sakae, for all their vaunted Parthian shots (overstated). How much more dangerous can they be now?

IliaDN

04-19-2005, 05:22

I grew rather tired with parthians - they didn't accept my offer of ceasefire (inthe beginning they attacked me, so I conquered their town near Campus Alanni) even after about 20-25 years past since we are at war, even when I offered money!
So I sent an army in Asia and took one more of their town offered them it for ceasefire but they didn't accept it (so I gave that town tomy armenian allies, as a gift because it was ni use for me)
Then I took their capital(gave it Armenia too)
Now they have only one town left (nearby is selucid's province with hanging gardens)and my is besieging it :duel:
I don;t think there is any use of ceasefire now!

Franconicus

04-19-2005, 06:45

IliaDN

04-19-2005, 15:21

IliaDN,

your a noble man, strict to your enemies and generous to your friends ~;)

I have a complete different approach. I let Parthia conquer Campus Alannii. Since then my eastern frontier is quiet. My troops are all fighting Thracia Dacia and Macedonia. I think you can win more in the south than you loose in the east.
1:bow: Thanks for such judgement.
2 As for parthians I sent only one army to deal with and it was not much a trouble :charge:
3 As for western front (now it is about 220) I don't have much trouble there because SPQR and Brutii are totaly crushed Julii have only several provinces,
Scipii own Sicily and some african provinces,but they are too far to bother me(also I am not their only enemy)!So in the west I also fight with Dacians( they have only one province (but not one they began with) and Germans they have not bad number of troops, but usually I bribe them ~D

Dutch_guy

04-19-2005, 18:33

you could also just keep a unit of HA on the bridge near you're most eastern city, keep the unit on the bridge, make peace with parthia and they won't be tempted to attakc you're lone unit on the bridge .
That's my experiance anyway.
And they will accept peace and an alliance , just offer it to them immediatley.

katank

04-19-2005, 21:56

A simple fort guarding a bridge or mountain pass is sufficient to deter attacks. Preferably, you do this on their side so when they declare war, their territory gets the devastation damage and you have time to build another fort on the other side of the bridge or pass to slow them further. A halfdead peasant is sufficient to garrison the fort for minimal cost.

However, this is unnecessary as I find the Parthians at the beginning of the game on even VH quite amenable to an alliance. Furthermore, even if you stab, it is not going to be a terrible blow and you can gain bigger prizes by focusing entirely south.

pezhetairoi

04-20-2005, 01:00

Me, I just can't hold with losing any territory that I have not already made out beforehand to be dispensable. Ergo, Campus Alanni must stay--that huge expanse of orange on the map is therapeutic. Besides, for strategic reasons, Sakae has to go. I don't want to have a huge army sitting on my doorstep, even if it doesn't plan to attack. It might, one day. I just makes terrible military sense to leave a fortified location in your rear and waste upkeep to maintain a supervisory force or even spend on a fort when it isn't needed if you just take over the place.

katank

04-20-2005, 01:38

The fort is quite unnecessary and only for the paranoid. Besides, you shell out 500 denarii which isn't bad and upkeep on a smashed up peasant unit is often less than 50d. So insignificant.

However, to send a full army after Sakae would mean a severe loss of tempo for a significant portion of your forces. These forces in a multipronged strike south through Thrace into Greece and Asia Mino is far more profitable.

Psychological factors aside, little reason for going after Sakae anything before turn 20 or so. Besides, the Parthians are more than happy to leave you alone.

Even if you lose Alanni, it's no big tragedy and can be thought of as a gambit. Wouldn't you rather have Athens, Corinth, and Sparta than Campus Alanni?

Sakae is also a piss poor place that is in the middle of nowhere. Strategic would imply opportunities because of it. The corner position means only isolation and high penalty for distance from capital (you are going to move your capital south, aren't you?). You already have access to the Caspian in Alanni and the Parthians can be a decent trading partner.

IliaDN

04-20-2005, 05:05

1.I am about to wipe those parthians out of the map(and also have strong ally on the east),actually in didn;t cost me too much - one initial army + some mercs and some cheap units hired later helped me to deal parthians near campus alanni and capture campus sakae, :charge: then I sent 2 h/h maidens and 3 h/a maidens and one general (near and in parthian lands I also hired some mercs) to capture other parthians(by that time it was about 220 and already conquered Balkans, Italy, some dacian and rebel provinces,so I had enough money and troops to deal with those nasty parthians ~D
2.I just don't understand the purpose of surrendering any initial skythii provinces to enemies - I am playing VH/M campaign and didn't have much trouble with money or troops(my tactics is blitzcrieg to richest of nearby conquest this gives enough money to afford enough troops for fighting several opponents)
Of course steppe provinces are not as profitable as greek ones, but surrendering motherlands is naot cool in my opinion.
3. ~:confused: One question but what year do you usually end RTW campaigns?( :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: - just to draw your attention to my question)

Franconicus

04-20-2005, 07:04

Ave IliaDN,

Of course steppe provinces are not as profitable as greek ones, but surrendering motherlands is naot cool in my opinion.

Sorry, but this time you talk like a peasant, not like a Scythian noble man. Home is were my horses graze. Not some dirty camp in the middle of nowhere. Historically, the Scythians were highly mobile; some of them left 'home' to raid Egypt :charge: . I am a fan of katank's blitz strategy. This means focus on main targets.

~:confused: One question but what year do you usually end RTW campaigns?( :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: - just to draw your attention to my question

I do not care. Although I try to katank the enemy, there is no need to hurry. The world is yours anyway. My main target is to wipe out all civilisations. (If I fail, my descendants will be as decadent as the Romans are today. Someday they might simulate war on computers :furious3: )

I wonder if I go to Egyt when Greece is done and leave the Romans alone. This would be more historically and I can fight the Romans after Marian. ~:handball:

Franconicus

04-20-2005, 10:00

Beware of Macedonian light lancers. They are fast like hell and allways appear in big number. If you can seperate one of them and encircle with three to five horse archers you can kill them rapidly. Just be careful when they flee, they will run through your lines and you will get friendly fire. When they attack in closed formation 5, 6, 7 or more units they are really dangerous, even to general units. They attack from several sides and can delet heavy cav in minutes.

Best tactics against them is to protect your HA with lots of barb cav. Foot archers are very effective ti fight them, too, but you have to protect them very good. This is a high mobile battle so always be allert.

Their hoplite units are no problem. They are so slow that you can kill them without losses. They look like hedgehogs with arrows in their backs! ~D

Your only in trouble if you run out of arrows.

IliaDN

04-20-2005, 10:02

I wonder if I go to Egyt when Greece is done and leave the Romans alone. This would be more historically and I can fight the Romans after Marian. ~:handball:
This could be interesting, but in my opinion you will face lot's of revolts there, and are you sure you'll be able to handle some estern factions and four roman at the same time?
P.S These were not peasant words they were patriotic,or my I just greedy abit, or may be it is a pleasure to see such a big ORANGE province (campus alanni) on a map.
~:cheers:

Franconicus

04-20-2005, 10:10

IliaDN,

I do not expact riots there, because I do not want to conquer those towns. I want to burn them. Maybe I sell them later to another barbarian faction. My mission given by our Scythian Gods is not to built an empire but to destroy all civilised ones!

P.S. Who cares about maps? Decadent stuff!

katank

04-20-2005, 23:02

The idea is not to sacrifice your homeland. You can think of it as a gambit like chess. Perhaps sacrifice a piece to gain position and maintain tempo.

The fact that you are talking about 220 alreayd invalidates what I said. I meant ignoring Sakae for the first 20 turns or so as there are bigger fish to fry. I usually finish in 240 by the latest when going for 50 provinces without paticularlly rushing.

I've captured the entire world in 248 with the Greeks.

pezhetairoi

04-21-2005, 02:14

I'm a cautious player, and I prefer creating a nice rounded-out base before attacking. Despite being a fan of Napoleon, I don't hold with his Grande Armee strategy where one army concentrates on one objective while ignoring all others. I have at least two-three theatres of war going on at any one time, with multiple armies. The Sakae campaign is only one of them, and in my game I attacked it not a moment too soon. They already had 12 units of troops, 8 of which were horsearchers, clearly intended for Alanni and so on, while I had nothing that could have countered them in the near future, considering all my HA added together would have been -just- enough to equal them. Alright, so I won the sally battle despite having only 6 units against 12, but that was because I tore them apart the instant they appeared at the gate. On the field that army would have been unstoppable because the bulk of my armies were concentrating on Greece, waaaaaaaay too far away.

My point? Sakae has to go, because the danger is too great otherwise. Admittedly taking Sakae makes Partatua's army lose tempo in that he's out of sync with the rest, but as I said, I cannot hold with the idea of losing any of my starter lands, even if they don't earn much money. And besides, the Sakae army can just spend a few turns marching across the Scythian lands removing rebels on route west. There are benefits that brings to trade.

To add, like IliaDN, I don't only work on money considerations, I also look at how big an area of the map is coloured my faction's colour, silly as it seems. But I guess I can afford it, seeing as I've only lost two battles in close defeats in six factions' worth of playing. Anyway, Sakae isn't causing much distance from capital problems since it's still pretty happy with only a one-peasant garrison and a capital at Tanais. So why not? Since every settlement you take brings you a little more income, why not take it since it's the closest settlement to Alanni when game starts, it gives you the strategic upper hand in the east, and it will almost never be attacked again so one can just leave off all military buuldings and turn it into a cash cow?

Of course, Greece is still better, but Partatua ain't gonna see the walls of Thessalonica anytime soon, so you might as well use him for -something-. After all, seeing as he's stationed at Alanni, he's going to take six-seven turns to move west/south -anyway-.

Ziaelas

04-22-2005, 16:40

I think it is a good idea, which also solves your economy problems, to move south and attack Thrace,whilst Partatua attacks Sakae, then move on to the Greek Cities, and Macedon. After this, dedicate most of your troops to the Romans, then finally, move on to taking the Dacians and the Germans with some troops, and Pontus with some others (being careful not to over-extend into Egyptian territory).

Craterus

04-22-2005, 17:55

Welcome to the org Zielas.. ~:wave: :balloon: :balloon2: :balloon3:

Craterus

04-23-2005, 18:15

Ok, so I've finally started my campaign with these guys... I played 2 hrs or so last night and 3 hrs this afternoon and all I can say is Damn those Germans!

Everytime I try to advance further into their territory, they siege the one I just took. They come out of nowhere and bypass my line of sight and I have to go back to fend them off..

I have an army killing the Parthians and I would consider pulling them back to reinforce my Germanic onslaught but it will take 10 years to march throught the vast Scythian provinces..

I have Thrace and Dacia's support against these Germans but I'm also struggling with funds, but I this is a fun campaign nonetheless.

Had a bit of trouble with those Amazons though, a stack of chariots amushed me and they had some more stashed in the town. Is it me or is that province buggy? A grey "cloud" kept covering the whole screen, a unit of H-H-M (Head Hunting Maidens) were surrounded by chariots and I couldn't do anything.. Brave, warrior women vs. Brave, warrior women (Amazons) lol.

Ziaelas

04-23-2005, 20:19

Thank you very much for your hospitality Craterus. How do I get the avatars of the eastern generals by the way. Also, don't bother moving those armies from Parthia, by the time they get to Germania, you will either have won or lost the war, and the Parthians will smash your settlements, and you'll be crushed in a deadly pincer of death! As for solving money problems, it may have been better to ignore the Germans (poor economy in their settlements), and move south, defeating Thrace and Macedon, then returning to defeat the Germans with a stronger army.

Craterus

04-23-2005, 20:31

Germania and Parthia are allies and are trying to pincer me already, like France and Russia did to Germany pre-WW2 (Mutual Assistance Pact). I am allies with Thrace and Macedon have already gone. Germania and Parthia are those that are constantly niggling for me to kill them. My plan at the start was to team up with Thrace on Dacia. But when the Parthians and Germanics came along I settled for an alliance with Dacia to slow their oncoming and to hopefully receive some assistance when attacking the Germanic hordes.

pezhetairoi

04-25-2005, 04:00

My game was to attack Parthia and Thrace at once, now Parthia is quiescent in the east so I'm not bothering them either though we're still at war. Thrace was destroyed by Zipoetes, and he proceeded on to destroy Macedon with the help of a new army raised under a bribed rebel general. In the north, Partatua and quite a few of my family members are already knocking at the gates of Damme (the two German Vicuses having been taken), and they haven't had a chance to do anything against me. My game seems to be very alliance-scarce. Anyway, the Germans haven't been proving much fight so far (that might have to do with the fact that I bribed a 14-unit army away, I don't know :-P). I now have two large armies at war with the Brutii and Julii in southern Greece and the Adriatic coast, and am raising two more to pincer Pontus from Byzantium and Armenia (that would entail destroying Armenia first, yes) in order to gain control of the entire Black Sea. I'll leave the Seleucids in between me and Egypt so they can rip each other to shreds before I pick up the pieces.

Poor you, Craterus... are you managing? :-P By right the Germans don't have very rich territory, how in the world did they manage to offer you any resistance O_o

Franconicus

04-25-2005, 12:20

Just a short status after the weekend:

My Macedonian campaign is finally running good. I besiege Larissa. This is just a honey pot for the Macs. They attack me whenever they can even with small armies and I slaughter them all; My army has 60% HA and rest are malee cav. Works pretty good. In open field you can kill everything. Phalanxes are no prob. You do not have any losses. Just shoot them. Macs and Greek cav are not that easy.

After clearing the area I send a smaller army to Athens. I have my first artillery there and try to attack. Does not work. I have only enough ammo to break one hole. When I try to enter the fire from the walls is so heavy that I loss 1 phalanx and half barb cav. and HA. So I interrupt this attack. Before that I manage to kill a Gerneral’s guard that followed my HA.

My allies the Brutii come and attack Thessalonica. They offer me to become protectorate and give me 2000di and annual payment of 500. Then Larissa capitulates without a fight. I erase population. The Dacians beg for peace and pay for it. Germania offers an alliance. Now I besiege simultaneously Korinth and Athens. I am not strong enough to storm the walls.

I move my capital to Thessalonica. Now I have riots in the eastern part. I going to through them down. These towns are too big anyway!!

Craterus: Greetings from the sunny south ~:cool:
If you cannot stand the cold winter in Germania you may want to jump to Greece, too. Fine weather, one wonder, and friendly people everywhere. At least the few that survived my triumph. ~;)

See you there!

Craterus

04-25-2005, 20:57

Poor you, Craterus... are you managing? :-P By right the Germans don't have very rich territory, how in the world did they manage to offer you any resistance O_o

They sneak round with small annoying armies and I'm in debt at the moment so I can't build huge garrisons and my citie are defended wioth peasants so I can't advance far enouggh into their territory to make an impact.. I'm going to wait for their economy to fail.. and hope ine shoots up for the final push to send the Germans back to Berlin..

oops, i mean Damme.. that final push reminds me of another war.. ~:cool:

pezhetairoi

04-26-2005, 01:23

Ahhh I see. Well well. I finally got a taste of what you meant by small little armies last night, but guess what, thanks to you warning I had one of my almighty bribers lying in wait at Marcomannii. :-) I took Thrace and Greece first, so cash flow is definitely the least of my worries. And to ease my bloodlust, guess what? The Brutii have kindly sent a full stack from Apollonia to *ahem* relieve me of the burden of Thermon. I will inform them that I do not need their help :-)

I'm kinda stand-alone in terms of diplomacy now, no allies except Greece, whose alliance with me will soon be broken. Diplomats are amazing...you can almost hold an entire segment of frontier with just them alone.

I changed my plan--the eastern army will no longer attack Armenia, but instead it will take out Parthia. Also, the Pontus army will do it alone, and instead of gangbanging Pontus like I planned, I'll just bribe my way through and gangbang Seleucids instead--they're doing pretty well in my game, pushing Egypt back.

I can't believe the Romans are willing to pay 2000 to buy my map information every single turn. XD XD XD

I'm beginning to regret exterminating all my Greek cities, now that I'm raising a new army in there I'm starting to wonder if that was a good idea since I'm starting to run out of new recruits. >.< Dacia is currently a big neutral bulge in my empire which I shall turn orange once I'm done with Greece. It doesn't make any strategic sense otherwise. Very soon, Dacia will feel like Czechoslovakia after Anschluss.

pezhetairoi

04-26-2005, 01:23

oh, WOOHOO! I'm a member ;-) *celebrations, confetti, the whole works*

Franconicus

04-26-2005, 07:02

Ave brothers in arms, ~:cheers:

Ave Craterus,
some comments directly from Germania:

They sneak round with small annoying armies and I'm in debt at the moment so I can't build huge garrisons and my citie are defended wioth peasants so I can't advance far enouggh into their territory to make an impact..:
That's the Mao Tst-Tung strategy (see quote below). It can be very nasty. Tried it against the Brutii. The best way is to ignore the small armies and go straight for their capitol . Usually they will follow and attack you! Then you can kill one after the other easily. If not, then they will get some dirty barracks and you get their palasts ~:)

I'm going to wait for their economy to fail.. and hope ine shoots up for the final push to send the Germans back to Berlin..

oops, i mean Damme.. that final push reminds me of another war.. ~:cool:

Germania has no economy. So you may wait forever ~D
And be careful, many foreign armies got lost in the forrest of Germania.

Ave Member Pezhetairoi,

congratulation :balloon2:

I am still attacking Corinth and Athens. It will take another 5 and 7 turns. The Brutii attack my capitol. I cannot send my army to chase them. I need the money from the Mac cities and the wonder of Corinth desperatly because I am broke. Looks like the fight of Thessalonica is goinig to be a Alamo kind thing. Anyway. Since they besiege me I received two new family members there. You know, a friend in need ~:cheers:

pezhetairoi

04-26-2005, 07:45

Ave Franconicus, it's a pity you're broke, otherwise you could scrape together some infantry mercs or a peasant unit from someplace and break down the gates. Germania's tactics are strange, I'll say, but they make sense--hit where the enemy is not. (sounds like something out of Sun Zi's Art of War)

Ah, I'm a bad member who got a thread closed in the colosseum due to improper content. Oh well. Lesson number one learnt.

Hmm, Craterus, what year are you at? I thought you should have enough money from Macedon to at least to support four 10-unit armies... how come you're broke? Didn't build enough economic infrastructure? I discovered that rushing in the beginning and slaughtering everyone right at the start would get you money, but it only lasted that short a while, and after that income would be really low because of the low pop...

My strategy was to go slow in Thrace, occupying the cities (and slowing down my army advance a LOT) but building lots of happiness buildings so that when I left I had pretty decent Turn-10 cities with several thousand population churning out money which I then spent completely on ports, traders and the sort. In fact, as I consult my records, no new units were commissioned until Turn 17, only some retraining. Macedon I exterminated, but that was after I had a strong base in Thrace.

As a result, for a slow advance right at the start I had a very strong economic base from which I could go on the usual stuff like building noble archers, etc...

Never once came near going broke except right at the start when I ran down my treasury just building roads and ports. Any thoughts on my economic strategy? I mean, Scythia was made for a rush campaign, but it does seem some caution in the beginning does produce some decent results in the long run.

Franconicus

04-26-2005, 11:27

pezhetairoi
your right! I tried not to make to much buildings, cause this is a very barbarian nomadian faction. Nevertheless I built as many harbors as possible. Maybe erasing all the Thracian and Macedonian population is not sustainable. Maybe I let the Athenian live :furious3:

P.S.: Like your new face ~:)

Craterus

04-26-2005, 16:04

Year - 257 bc, I'm not far in and I'm playing how I usually would, but I lack the experience with barbarian factions and the rushing tactic, I'll see how it goes, more on this as it progresses.

tibilicus

04-26-2005, 19:03

Craterus

04-26-2005, 19:06

Sure, there's a few people here who have already completed their Scythian campaigns, read further up the guide, there is some very good information and tips further up this page and the previous pages..

pezhetairoi

04-27-2005, 01:26

Well, Tibilicus, one thing you should have done right at the start of the campaign was to strike Thrace first, before they hit you. But since you didn't, well... that's the result. When I hit thrace early in the game the sum of their armies and garrisons would have just made one full stack, which Zipoetes and his 3 HA 2 Archer army would have easily beaten. But as it is, they were highly separated, so all I had to deal with was scattered 3-4-unit armies. Thrace in my game was destroyed by turn 10 or so, and that was only because I was delayed due to the low public order in Campus Getae.

Thrace can't keep up this pace of full-stack invasion for long, take the fight to their territory and attack their cities. They will be forced to come back to aid it, leaving your territory alone. The thing is, you have to destroy them now, and you must do it fast to stop them from raising any more full-stacks. So, besiege Getae (or go deeper in to Tylis if you so wish), raise a mercenary unit to man the ram and take one city. Exterminate and advance immediately to the next and the next. Thrace should be only to get control of 3 cities in the first 20 turns (is that the period you're in?) so once you get those their full-stacks become mere rebel armies you can deal with another day. If they miraculously manage to get Porrolissum (as they did my Macedonian campaign), well, leave them there. The Dacians'll deal with them, and besides, cut off from the sea in a low-population large town they can't do much against you.

In short: Take the fight to them, and ignore their full-stacks on your territory. How many have they got, anyway?

Alternatively, do the Scythian horsearcher thing. Melt away into the steppes with your army, surrendering your city, but amassing a greater force of horse archers. Then, return and grab it back from them. Since Thrace can't have many cities, it stands to reason that those full stacks you see represent their maximum effort (remember the AI believes in rushing everything at the beginning, and if you can break them then they're yours for the taking) and once you buy time, increase your armies and defeat them, that's it. Thrace is yours, and you can storm across the Dniepr river and take Getae, Tylis and Byzantium in quick succession.

This strategy is more risky in that you surrender Scythii, your capital (it shouldn't still be, it should be Tanais by now), but it's only temporary. The thing is to buy some time.

katank

04-27-2005, 02:53

You meant Scythian HA, right? crank those babies out and learn to micro them well.

Drawing them into field battles is easy as the AI only cares about relative combat strength which is melee. Their phalanxes and bastarnae are essentially nothing. The beauty of HA warfare is that once you neutralize their cav, the battle is essentially won.

Since they have bastarnae, I'm presuming that it's pretty late in the game. This means that you get scythian nobles which long with your general are great for tearing up their militia cav. If earlier, use headhunting maidens who can maul their general through armor piercing attack.

Have fun and happy hunting. Used well, HA armies should yield better than 10:1 kill ratios including friendly fire casualties and the fact that you have to deal with AI cav.

Franconicus

04-27-2005, 06:59

HELP !!!!!!!!! i have started on h/h see how i would go and boy its imposible. The battles arnt hard to fight or anything its just that Thracia always go to war with me and bring in huges stack armys with batserne and phalnxe troops. All i can offer as defence is 4 sythian archeres. Any one know how to actually complete this campaign?

katank and pezhetairoi are right!
Attack! Never hide your HA in the towns! Try to beat the enemy on open ground. First clear the field, then go for the cities! If you meet a field army, always strike first! AI then is defensive, that means they hang around and watch their commrades fall under your arrow rain. Try to get some barb cav or Gaurd to keep the Thracian cav busy. Evevn though they do not have many they can be a problem for your HA.

Finally:

Love your HAs. If you treat them right, they will pull you out your troubles!

Craterus

04-27-2005, 16:14

Franconicus

04-27-2005, 16:24

Thracians have betrayed me and have a ful stack headed for Tanais/Cheresoneos..
These two don't have big garrisons and I probably can't catch them now, shall I attack Getae, or send an army to stop them?

Try to bring the war on their teritory. How strong are their garrisons? Do they have any field armies in their homeland? ~:confused:

Where is your army? In Scythii? If possible lay besiege to Getae, go to Thylis and erase any army you meet on the way. Attack their capitol and take it. This will hurt them! ~D

If their army returns you can attack them whenever you want to. If they attack Tanais/Cheresoneos take Byzantium. Then you control their complete homeland. Then you have lots of income, good production lines and a guarded back. Then turn east. By the way, it would be helpful to have an alliance with the Macs, then. ~:cheers:

Craterus

04-27-2005, 17:28

Unfortunately, Macedon has cancelled their alliance with me so I sense an attack coming on. Thracian towns are poorly garrisoned so I guess I'll knock out their towns quickly and then that army will turn rebel, right? But my nearest, decnet army is fending off German attacks in the north, I'll bring them back and let Thrace have Chereseneos or Tanais.. I don't think the Germans will be around for a while now anyway. I could try to bring my army back from Parthia but it will take a long time. But I've crippled Parthia and they won't be coming up again for a while..

katank

04-27-2005, 19:24

That's why all of you should not head for Parthia or Germania early on. Kepp your eye on the ball and sack Thrace and Macedon in quick succession.

If they don't have strong field armies, then siege their cities with only 3-4 Scythian HAs.

They will sally, thinking they can beat you but get destroyed in the field.

Note that their units when routed will go through the gates. Have your Scythian HAs follow closely and you can get into the city. Then smash the enemy and the city is yours without ever having to build siege weapons or assault.

Ziaelas

04-27-2005, 19:34

katank, I require your assistance. Do you know how to activate battle editor on patch v1.2? the readme wasn't much help. Also, this campaign was easy! I finished it in under 50 years (new record for me)

pezhetairoi

04-28-2005, 01:06

Ziaelas: There's a thread in the colosseum about the battle editor that will answer all your questions about enabling it. What's the battle editor, anyhow?

And of course Scythia is easy! ^_^ Dacia is already surrounded on 3 sides, Damme has just become capable of building diplomats so no more worries about Germanic guerrillas, and Mogontiacum will fall in the next two turns. Apollonia will also fall in the next 2 turns, and Athens in the next 3. I expect Phraaspa in the bag as well.

Craterus: In this case I recommend you march into Thrace, storm their gates, and dash their inhabitants' brains on the battlements. That's...just a variation of Franconicus' more tame suggestion. If you do it fast enough you can annihilate Thrace before they even get either of your black sea cities.

Don't surrender Germania, I don't think the situation's that bad yet (Unless you're short of money, upon which the situation would be VERY bad.)

Is Campus Scythii still available for you, or is it light blue already? Assuming they've just passed Scythii (or left it) it will take them 5 turns by barbarian roads to arrive at Chersonesos, and 6-7 to arrive at Tanais. THey will then siege (and I do not expect the AI to storm you) so if you've upgraded your walls you can buy another 3-4 turns' time at least, if not more. Upgrade your walls, build a horse-archer or two in both Chersonesos and Tanais. They're in mutual-supporting range so as soon as you can discern which settlement they're angling for send the other city's HA to reinforce and do a two-side-attack sally battle. That'd be the strategy I'd use.

Besides, your garrison doesn't have to be very big. HA can beat almost anything, remember, as long as they aren't caught in melee. So... why not try and duke it out with what you've got? As long as they are delayed at the walls of one of your settlementsyou can take them out. Easily, too. Just be careful not to overlap units and get friendly fired when fighting your battles, and you will win a heroic victory.

But that's only a sideshow. If you can crush Thrace's homeland before they get new provinces in the good ol' Pontus Euxinus then all that won't be necessary and you can just use your new-built HA to get a man-of-the-hour announcement in trashing the latest rebel army north of Chersonesos.

Germania... Aaaah, Germania. Yes, pull back that army and head south through Dacia (it's the fastest way, and I always did my factioner transfers through brownland) to Bylazora and take it. Since Mace has already cancelled alliance with you anyway I expect you might as well hit first, and besides, those settlements are more worth the lives of your men. After Byl, Thessalonica. Then you can move on to Byzantium, or Larissa, whichever tickles your fancy. Bingo, you're back in the black if you aren't already. Let the Germans have their measly Vicuses back. They don't do much anyway. It's an alternative to Thrace, and you can create a new invasion avenue. It will take about 3-4 turns without roads through Dacia, obviously faster if the Dacians have managed to develop.

Franconicus

04-28-2005, 06:51

Franconicus

04-28-2005, 06:57

In this case I recommend you march into Thrace, storm their gates, and dash their inhabitants' brains on the battlements. That's...just a variation of Franconicus' more tame suggestion.
pezhetairoi,

I have to admit that you articulate much better than I do. :bow:

Franconicus

04-28-2005, 08:24

My campaign against Mac is doing fine. I besieged Corinth and Athens. Brutii besieged me at Thessalonica even though I am their protectorate. Strange behaviour. I could not afford to call my armies from Corinth or Athens. So I attacked them with what I had. There defeated them in two battles. They had almost 2,000 in each, but no members of the family and only some equites. Killing the Romans is easy. The members of my Royal family (I had three in these battles) along with barb cav killed their equites, flanked them, killed the dogs, attacked from the rear. Their Hesatii and Principii stood in the arrow rain until they were hit by my cav. Once they had even Gladiators. They were running to my HA thinking that they are the best special unit in the world. ~:) My archers sent their greetings and they run away just like cowards. I could eliminate both armies completely. The losses were 1 : 6 and 1 : 10.

Then Corinth and Athens capitulated. As they did not fight I was generous. I only enslaved them. ~;)

The Greeks attacked Corinth the very next turn with 2 armies (1,600 each). Corinth has good walls, but Scythians are not used to hide from an enemy. So I attacked the Greek army that had the besieging equipment. They had just phalanxes (and one skirmish). Even though I had only 1,200 men and about 800 horses I could easily kill them (only 65 could escape). ~:cool:

Now cash is flowing. I control most of Greece. The Macs have left the mainland. I laid siege on Spartha. Brutii are besieging me at Thessa again. This time they have lots of cav and dogs. They also block the harbour of Athens. A pirate fleet blocks Thylis. :furious3: My fleet is on the way.

The Hun

04-28-2005, 15:34

Brutii besieged me at Thessalonica even though I am their protectorate. Strange behaviour.

Strange is not, is Roman behaviour. They cannot be trusted same as Macedon

As for Battle Editor, it is way to making maps and Historical Battles. You must add (space)-enable_editor to target address. Right click on short cut drop down select properties, target address is highlighted

Craterus

04-28-2005, 15:49

They walked straight past Campus Scythii.. I'll do them a trade then, Cheresenos for all their Thracian Land.. I can't fight on three fronts for much longer, with only two decent armies and very poor roads, this is quite difficult.

pezhetairoi

04-29-2005, 01:04

Aww...don't you have HA units at Tanais? Chersonesos? Don't give it up without a fight, make them pay dearly for it... after all, it's a minor expenditure. If the HA lose, you don't have to worry about upkeep anymore. And if the HA win, well, you'll have Thrace anyway to upkeep them, don't you? Get those Black Sea garrisons moving! :-P They need to stretch their legs.

Walked past Campus Scythii, eh... very strange. O_o Crappy strategists they breed in Thrace.

Craterus, where is your -other- legion?

katank

04-29-2005, 03:46

Well, keep them penned up whereever they are. Use 1 unit peasant armies to lock up theirs on the strategic map by establishing zone of control in lines.

When attacked, retreat. The AI appears to rarely attack twice with the same army in 1 turn. This allows you to slow their progress to a crawl.

Snipe away weak stacks with HA attacks. Pure cav armies can also outrun theirs both on the tactical map and the strategic map. Maneuver on both levels is optimal to apply the greatest force to their weakest spot etc.

Do you have noble archers yet? Those boys can stand melee pretty well too. You may consider losse formation with them if in a missile duel. Their armor makes up for lower concentration of fire and gives less losses in duels.

Craterus

04-29-2005, 16:17

Right, well I think I'm going to bring the Parthia army back, I think they are halfway there anyway. If they go for Tanais, I will reach Tanais before the siege is over. If they go for Cheresenos (sp?) I will probably not get there in time but I will be able to take it back. I will leave my faction leader's army up in Germania to hold them off, take their towns to leave me able to storm down into the Italian peninsular. Whilst surrounding Dacia and the other army annihalates the Thracians.

Do you think this will work?

katank

04-29-2005, 16:45

Probably. Why did you get into a scrape with Germania in the first place?

Consider just slashing and burning through Germania and head for Italy. Germania wouldn't be in much shape to pursue an offensive into your territory.

Dacia you can kill if you like to secure Thrace more but Italy and Greece should be taken ASAP to give you some cash and tech level.

Craterus

04-29-2005, 17:48

Germania cancelled the alliance and attacked the next turn. Hey, at least they didn't betray me, show more manners than the Parthian and Thracian ******** !!! :furious: :furious2: :furious3:

katank

04-29-2005, 20:52

How far into the game did the Parthians attack? I played my Scythian campaign for 10 years, having taken Rome and the Parthians never attacked.

Thracians should be killed ASAP for annoying qualities such as having a mighty Thracian fleet spamming the Black Sea and the med, up nex tto ROme even! This is only if you let them.

I tend to let the rebels province between me and Germania serve as a nice buffer zone.

Craterus

04-29-2005, 20:54

Parthia attacked not far into the game, I left Alanni looking poorly defended and they couldn't resist.

I got into war with Thraqce because their navy blockaded my port and then their army came marching through my land.

I took those rebel "buffer zones", I couldn't resist the easy land. :oops:

Craterus

04-30-2005, 00:54

Right, here's the deal after a few turns with the Scythians:

I convinced Thrace to a ceasefire and they left my land allowing me to bring back my eastern army. I now meet them at the bridge on the border between Scythia and Maeotis. They're back and they kiled some rebels for me.

Germans came back! Slaughtered them using some fabtacular cavalry commanding. I routed 8 spear warbands and 2 screeching women units using one unit of Head Hunting Maidens and a warlord. They were under fire from HA's at the time too. But a heroic victory nonetheless and I now have some 2 gold chevron HHM (Head-Hunting-Maidens) I don't think the Germans will return for a while, after a victory like that I annihalted one of thier best armies, their others are dealing with Briton nd Gaul. They have a few crapy armies waiting around which I'll take soon enough long with their porrly defended towns.

Parthia, Armenia and Germania have signed alliances and I feel they are planning to sandwich me, I'm lacking allies, I only have Pontus, Julii, Brutii and Egypt left. More as it comes in...

More on that story later...

katank

04-30-2005, 02:39

2 gold chevron HHMs? how many battles did it take you to build that up?

Armenia you don't have to worry about. Parthian neither though a bit more.

Armenia has to travel through the mountains of Caucasus to reach you and it takes a looooong time.

Did ya take Campus Getae yet? Bash those Thracians into oblivion and then the Macs.

Germania should be crippled like you said. Either kill them off completely or smash and run to mobilize your awesome force elsewhere such as Italy.

Craterus

04-30-2005, 12:32

Macedon are out, I have to smash Thrace, then Dacia and then I'll have access to the Greeks. I don't have Getae. I'll fight and kill the Thracian army that's in my land and their other two full stacks are in their land fighting the Greeks. Then I'll take Getae after beating their army.

tibilicus

04-30-2005, 17:51

I tried to smash Thrace before i gave up. its going to be hard so all i can say is good look. Once there Capitals gon (cant remeber what it is but it suplys good trade ) There out of it. Then you will eventually meet the Romans.......................

Craterus

04-30-2005, 18:35

I won't meet Romans yet. This game is my most interesting to date. I've toggled fog of war and here are my findings. 239 bc

Germania - Own a lot of Europe, A LOT!! Eastern France, Sweden and all of their original land.
Dacia - Their orignal provinces but they owned Bylazora at one point, quite uneventful.
Macedon - DESTROYED
Julii - North Italian Peninsular (the usual) struggling with Patavium (Gaul are hanging on to it).
Brutii - Salona and Appolonia (not much improvement)
Scipii - Caralis, Sicily, Thapsus.
S.P.Q.R - Wandering around outside Rome (don't think they've seen any action yet) probably naval battles though.
Gaul - About to go out. Hanging onto their Spanish province and Patavium.
Britannia - Own all of Britannia and Western France. Never bothered to get Tara though.
Spain - Lost Carthago Nova to Carthage. Still have Asturica, Osca and Scallabis.
Numidia - Nothing. Still have all original provinces, made a few rushes into Carthaginian land to no success (crushing defeats).
Carthage - Held Scipii off for some time now restricted to Lepcis Magna (under siege by scipii), Corduba (sieged by Spain), Palma and Carthago Nova.
Egypt - Knocked out S.E. , Up to Antioch, don't own Seleucia that is Parthian. 2 WONDERS - Lighthouse at Alexandria and Pyramids at Giza.
Parthia - Own Seleucia, lost Sakae to me (Scythia). WONDER - Hanging Garden of Babylon.
Seleucid Empire - DESTROYED
Armenia - No improvement on original provinces.
Pontus - Secured Asia Minor and Tarsus, fending off Egypt. 2 WONDERS - Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.
Greek Cities - They've secured the Aegean Lands and fought off Brutii, coming to their aid ASAP, to keep Brutii away but they won't accept alliance and if they even think about attacking me, I will destroy them. 2 WONDERS - Zeus at Olympia and Colossus of Rhodes.
Thrace - Tylis and Byzantium. Lost Getae to me (Scythia).
Scythia - Own all of the north. Control the Black Sea. No ships are getting through there.

I own Campus Getae, Campus Alanni, Campus Sakae, Campus Scythii, Campus Sarmatae, Vicus Venedae, Themiskyra, Tanais, Chereseneos and Domus Dulcis Domus.
Check your maps, it's a pretty big empire by land but not many provinces.

katank

04-30-2005, 22:17

Who owns Carthage?

Macedon being destroyed seems weird that early on. How much are you making per turn? Your lands are vast but not very rich.

Craterus

04-30-2005, 22:27

2 out of Alexander's 4 descendants have been wiped out.
Scipii own Carthage but there's a large Carthiginian army who want it back.

Ziaelas

05-01-2005, 17:41

Just finished my Seleucid campaign, learning the true value of the Ludus Magna ~D

Franconicus

05-02-2005, 08:53

Over the weekend I almost finished my Greek camapign. Sparta will surrender after 4 turns. I took the first Brutii town (Thermon) and erased a big Brutiia army near Thessa. They have changed their strategy. This army had only 50% infantry (no velatii) and the rest cav and dog. I decreased the number of HA and add more nonragne cav. Craterus, you would have liked this battle!

While the Brutii besiege Thermon my main army is going to Appolonia. They will meet another full Brutii army there. This one has 50% mercs. Looks like they are running out of men ~D . After this I guess Greek is secured and I can look for another target.

I have two full armies in Greek. I could go to Italy or concentrate on the eastern Med. Asia minor, Phoenicia, Egypt? Anyway, I guess I start with Rhodos and Crete. That should give enough money for another army.

I am solving my problem with my far eat counties. Tangis rioted and I attacked it. Erasing the population gave me lots of denarii (10,000) and a peaceful welldeveloped town. I am going to do the same with Sarmatae. Makes money and trains your army. ~:handball:

Franconicus

05-02-2005, 08:56

Craterus,

try to get Corinth as soon as possible. The wonder will help you make the people happy!

Do not ally with Greek. They cannot support you and they are not dangerous - but rich. If you know what I mean ~;)

Craterus

05-02-2005, 16:24

I know exactly what you mean. The Aegean lands are very rich.

pezhetairoi

05-03-2005, 01:30

...doesn't seem very rich to me. Or maybe that's because I have to support 6-and-a-half field armies with those settlements.

Ah, just back from a holiday and there's a whole page more of posts. I love this forum, man.

First, to Craterus... That strategy seems workable. Leave Parthia to its devices, after you relieve Tanais/Chersonesos just charge for Thrace and don't stop until you get to Sparta. And... you are aware you don't have to worry about Sweden, right? Just take Denmark and you control Sweden.

Since Craterus has provided us with his situation, I shall do the same...

In my game...

Thrace: Annihilated.
Macedon: Annihilated.
Germania: Annihilated.
Parthia: Lost Sakae, Phraaspa and Arsakia, still has Susa, Palmyra and Dumatha. Are hellbent on recapturing Arsakia, and it's doubtful whether my two units of HA can take on their 4 HA and general and win.
Armenia: Lost Artaxarta, now owning Kotais and Sinope, but not for long. :-)
Greece: Had Sparta, Pergamum and Rhodes one turn ago. Now, has Rhodes.
Dacia: Was slowly being surrounded until they got nervous, upon which they attacked my Thracian holdings only to be bribed away and have two of their towns besieged. Now only have Campus Iazyges still unbesieged/unconquered.
Seleucids: Stuck in their old lands, but have lost Antioch to unrest. Can't hold on much longer, so I shall soon dive in for the kill.
Pontus: Left with Nicomedia and Mazaka. I just surrounded their 20-unit army with my Asia Minor army, so they know what's coming to them. Nicomedia won't survive the next 2 turns. Mazaka will be allowed to remain Pontic a little longer.
Brutia: Controlled their usual provinces until a combined 2-army offensive snatched it from them. They put up a gallant fight, though. Currently has one ill-fated attempt to launch an amphibious landing on Athens with 6 units. Is being trapped with no hope of retreat by the faction heir and will die this turn as soon as I can find 15 minutes of spare time to play out the battle. They now only have their two starter provinces.
Julia: Mediolanum, Patavium, Segesta, Caralia, Arretium, Ariminum. Nice cosy empire, but not for long. Once my Dacian army takes Iuvavum, it's their turn. They lost Corinth to me, too, en route to Sparta.
Scipia: I didn't toggle fog of war, but as I guess they have the usual provinces: Sicily, Africa. I currently have a diplomat at Cyrene en route to see if they have Leptis Magna as well. They will, I foretell, last the longest of the Roman factions. I don't plan to hunt them down.
The Senate: Ah, who'm I kidding. Apart from a 20-stack army and a 20-stack fleet they're not much threat. Well, their fleet is, I'll admit. But it's entirely in the wrong place of the world to stop me crossing to Italia (Between Rhodes and Haliucarnassus, gods know why).
Gaul: They seem to be doing well enough, able to muster 10 units in Alesia and a full-stack down south trying to reconquer Mediolanum. They're next after I take Samarobriva.
Britannia: Unexpanded. Partially because they keep sending big armies without family members or faction heirs that keep getting bribed away by my plenipotentiary ambassador to Britannia stationed at Samarobriva. They also have an annoying habit of stopping just outside the city. They just broke their alliance with Gaul and besieged Alesia for all of one turn before my ambassador to Gaul, stationed at Alesia, bribed them away.
Egypt: Competing with me every turn for 'most advanced faction' status. They hold their usual provinces, and are apparently developing instead of expanding. Only distance and the lack of a navy is stopping me from removing them from advanced-faction competition.
Numidia: Miraculously, still holding on to Siwwa.
Carthage: No idea. Haven't caught sight of them yet.
Spain: No idea either. I have no diplomats stationed there.

Used to make a tidy profit selling map information to all the different factions using my dedicated ambassadors, but no longer: they first started agreeing to giving smaller and smaller amounts for my maps, then they stopped altogether and said they would attack. I just refused downright: Let them attack if they want to. Sigh... my income now is pretty low despite having the Aegean. Only a few thousand denarii a turn. whyyyyyy.....

Oh, good job guys, Scythia has become the longest thread in the RTW Guides forum :-) Keep posting, happy horse-archering!

IliaDN

05-03-2005, 05:32

Just finished my Skythia campaign.
First I've conqured Balkans, then Italy and then I began to unite all barb. factions(also I've conqured Kydonia and Corsica.)under orange flag.
Now I will try either Numidians on VH/VH or Greek cities on VH/M or VH/VH.
Good luck all of you! ~;)
P.S.1.Ave Franconicus what is about exterminations all civ-s.(as you have planned before)?
2. Agreed with Pezhetairoi it is cool to see that this thread became the longest in RTW guides! :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge:
3.Cool to see that some more people have started Skythia campaign since my last post. ~:cool:
4.And GOOD luck for you again! ~;)

Franconicus

05-03-2005, 09:01

Ave IliaDN,

congratulation to your victory. ~:cool:
And thank you for reminding me of my duty. I exterminated Tylis, Byzantium, Thessalonica, Bylazora and Larissa. However I only enslaved Athens and Corinth. I needed them to get money and new troops. You get weak in these southern countries. But I exterminated Thermon as well as Tangis and Campus Sarmatae. Those towns were just too big. I also produced peasants in the east and made them move to my new towns to make them more Scythian.

Right now I wonder were to turn. Brutii really bore me. There are many battles and they are all the same. I have a centre of some archers and axemen or phalanx, I have two or three HA on each side as well as 2-3 close combat cav (CCC). In my centre I also have one cav and one HA.

Battle is always the same. My CCC turn around the enemies flanks and whipe out their cav. In the meanwhile my archers erode their infantry. Then my CCC attack from the rear. That's it.

Maybe I go to Phoenicia and Egypt to have some change!

Good luck for your new campaign. Please start with the Numidians. I'd like to join your Greek camapign but I am still busy here. ~:confused:

IliaDN

05-03-2005, 18:11

Craterus

05-03-2005, 18:26

Thanks, I hadn't really thought about that tactic. Especially not so much art. Thanks.

pezhetairoi

05-04-2005, 01:15

Still struggling through my campaign with only 2 hours or less per day to play it. Resistance is solidifying in the factions I'm beating up, so things are about to get hot :-) Last turn I attacked and defeated 2 full-stacks, one Pontic and one Armenian, but was unable to do more than score an incomplete victory (i.e. they still had a quarter or more left). I only used onagers in field battles one, in the battle with the Greek grand army, but it didn't look very impressive to me despite fielding two units and concentrating them on one hoplite unit. Maybe it was armoured hoplites.

Now I have a strategic dilemma--should I strike Samarobriva or Alesia? I currently only have one army on the western front and it will be at least another 6-7 turns before I get a second army there, so which should I hit? If it helps, Samarobriva hasn't yet gotten a port.

I'm on the brink of counterattacking Parthia (and this time I'll finish the job) while at the same time pincering the Seleucids from both east and west. It's really quite gratifying to destroy hordes of EI, but I've learnt one thing: They can do -some- damage.

Anyone have this problem when you set five units of shock cavalry to charge a unit, and only two arrive, while the other three spin off on tangents to pursue other targets? Is that just the impetuous/undisciplined/untrained thing?

Everyone! Play Spain next so I have people to talk to on the Spain thread when I get there! ^_^ But only after I try Egypt. :-)

Craterus, how's your campaign going? Pontus is as good as gone, Armenia still has one full-stack left but it's trapped in Sinope, either Britannia/Gaul is going to be attacked, and Dacia is annihilated. The Julii have been so weakened that probably their total armies added together will just equal one full stack.

Franconicus, end it! Just hunt down the Romans and exterminate them so you don't ever have to fight another of those monotonous battles! I know what you mean, I'm getting sick of fighting Romans, except in sieges. They seem marginally more entertaining there.

pezhetairoi

05-04-2005, 07:01

Check out the Mead Hall! My epic has begun! My thread is 'Driven by Vengeance: A Scythian Campaign Epic'

Franconicus

05-04-2005, 08:08

Ave Franconicus I've started Numidian campaign on VH/VH just because it seemed more difficult to me(I read your post later you and I think that I'll play Greek Cities after having some fun with Numidian campaign)
As for your complain about battles I can recommend you to use some onagers(about 5 units) axemen and chosen archers some heavy non-missile cav and dogs.This will change tactics a lot! For example it is cool to watch your onagers shooting at enemy's army with flaming ammunition( when you have lot's of onagers) enemy will take serious casualities.And when enemy come closer archers begin shooting too(first with normal and then with flaming ammunition)then your enemy runs and chase them with axeman,cav and dogs(if they approuch too close they would be "shaken" already and can be easily driven away by axeman or even archers some cav and dogs will be good too).
So anyway I recommend you to try this tactics.
Ave IliaDN,

thanks for your advice. I tried with one onager and three bowmen. Yes, it looks great and it may look even better if you have more onagers. But still it is the same strategy: soften the enemy with arrows and balls and catch him with your CCC from behind.
What I want now is some real fight, where you see the white in the eye of theenemy and penetrate steel in his flesh. :duel: That is why I am going to play Greek cities next. I suppose they do not have much cav and I will have to find s.th. else. So see you in Greece ~:cool:

Franconicus

05-04-2005, 08:16

Now I have a strategic dilemma--should I strike Samarobriva or Alesia? I currently only have one army on the western front and it will be at least another 6-7 turns before I get a second army there, so which should I hit? If it helps, Samarobriva hasn't yet gotten a port.

I'm on the brink of counterattacking Parthia (and this time I'll finish the job) while at the same time pincering the Seleucids from both east and west. It's really quite gratifying to destroy hordes of EI, but I've learnt one thing: They can do -some- damage.

Franconicus, end it! Just hunt down the Romans and exterminate them so you don't ever have to fight another of those monotonous battles! I know what you mean, I'm getting sick of fighting Romans, except in sieges. They seem marginally more entertaining there.
Ave pezhetairoi,
take Alesia! From my Germanian campaign I know that this is the key to Gaul.
You seem to fight a multi front war. Is this good?

Thanks for the advice. But I just cannot wait to attack Egypt! This is more historically for Scythia.

IliaDN

05-04-2005, 13:28

Ave, Franconicus how long it will take you to clear the map of remaining scum and to build your barb. empire?
I have abondon numidians and started spanish campaign - they are cool! :balloon2: But I want to play for greeks anyway!

Franconicus

05-04-2005, 13:39

Well, IliaDN,
that is a very good question. Here is the plan:
1. I have to wait two turns until I get Sparta. Then Í have another full army released. Meanwhile I attack Appolonia. I have to erase three Brutii armies there. I also have to watch the Parthians, they have a full army hanging round my Eastern frontier.
2. I take Rhodos and Crete :duel:
3. I invade Egypt and Phoenicia. :charge:
4. I attack Italy. My plan is to do some landings from the sea. Like vikings, land, burn, disappear. I do not want to build a barb emp, I just want to destroy! ~:cool:
5. Finally I take Carthage and maybe Asia Minor. Then all traces of civilisations should be wiped out. ~D

Franconicus

05-04-2005, 13:40

P.S.: I have one hour per day. So, it will take a while ~:confused:

IliaDN

05-04-2005, 15:32

Guess I will have time to finish my spanish campaign.

Ziaelas

05-04-2005, 15:35

I revived this thread when I joined. When I posted my status, everyone started ~D

Franconicus

05-04-2005, 15:48

I revived this thread when I joined. When I posted my status, everyone started ~D
Welldone, Ziaelas! ~;)
What is your story and your status now?

IliaDN

05-04-2005, 17:22

Just wondered what faction Pezhetaroi wanted to play after Skythia?
Just because I wanted more people posted in Greek Cities topic(when time comes). ~D

Craterus

05-04-2005, 17:55

Everyone! Play Spain next so I have people to talk to on the Spain thread when I get there! ^_^ But only after I try Egypt. :-)

I can talk with you on Spain thread, littlegannon and I have a Spain campaign going, but I don't think we will ever get around to visit, I rarely see him anymore.

I don't play RTW much per day, more just 8 hours on Saturday and a few on Sunday, I hope to play tonight but I don't think the computer is free.

pezhetairoi

05-05-2005, 01:09

Hey Ilia... I don't mind scrapping plans for Spain to join you for Greece first :-) But like Franc, I don't get much time to work on RTW, so you take your time and finish Spain first while I finish Scythia. I have three armies making their slow way south by three different routes to take down Egypt. :-P

Franc, let's play Greece after this! ^_^ Then we can join IliaDN. Interesting name, too...

Craterus, sad to hear your Spain campaign's stalled... I guess you'll be moving on to some other solo cavalry campaign soon?

IliaDN

05-05-2005, 05:06

So I guess there will be a pleasnt company waiting me in greece! ~;)

pezhetairoi

05-05-2005, 05:11

you bet! :)

Viking

05-05-2005, 13:38

No!!

Why does everebody leave this thread when I haven`t even started my scythian campaign yet?

I think I`ll start it today, looking forward to the nobles, and the barbarian onagers! ~D

I have modded the game a bit, in an attempt to make TSE a superpower that can challenge me once I`ve finished Armenia and Parthia.

IliaDN

05-05-2005, 15:36

Don't worry thre are lot's of people having this campaign now.

Craterus

05-05-2005, 18:35

I'll join you guys in Greece. When I finish Scythia, if you don't mind waiting for me. I'll try and play some tonight, I'll play loads tomorrow night and hopefully all Saturday and Sunday.

pezhetairoi

05-06-2005, 01:16

pezhetairoi

05-06-2005, 05:30

Boo, those of you waiting for the second instalment of my epic, it's out :-) Includes my conceptualisation of my Scythian starter units. Hope the description does them justice.

Franconicus

05-06-2005, 08:42

Ave brothers in arms,

looks like we will have lots of fun in Greek ~:cool:

Finally Sparta gave up. The Greece send an army with two units to help them and the two famaly members without any troops to reconquer. The famaily members did not like each others so they fought and dies alone.

I still struggle with these Brutii bastards. Round Appolonia they gathered 8 armies (small and big ones) and had at least 4 family members. I sent my 1. army coming from Thessa. This was lead by a minor FM. It had a lot of infantry (4 archers, one axe and 1.5 phalanx, 1 onager) and only 4 HA. Rest was CCC (close combat cav.) My 2. army came from Thermon and was only half full.
First round:
1. Army: They pushed through and besieged Appolonia. Appolonia is held by a full army with lots of mercs. The Brutii forces are devided now.
2. Army: Meets one full and two half full Brutii armies. Go into defensive position y building a fortress.

Second round:
1. Army: Is attacked by a small (2 units) army in the rear. Appolonia garrison does not attack. Enemy is erased without losses.
2. Army: Besieged; waiting for reenforcements
3. Army: Holds Sparta now and gets filled again.

Third round:
1. Army: Another attack, this time 1,800 Brutii led by their king. They have much more cav than I have. I have my inf. on a hill and my cav on both flanks. Cav fights on both sides. On the left flank the Brutti beat my barb cav. On the right I kill one equite unit. The other one breaks through and chases my HA. I have to follow and loose 0.5 HA and time. My right wing cav attacks their back and kills another equites and the gernreal but then it is wiped out. Meanswhile the hasatii and principes and glatiators reaches my infantry. I have heavy losses. My archers have to fight these damned dogs. Constant fire of Cretian archers. Situation is very critical. My general himself saves the day. He attacks from the right side and rides right through the whole front line. Enemy routes. I won but I have only 500 men left.
Right after that the garrison sallies. Due to the bad condition of my army I withdraw. However - in the wrong direction, south. I find myself attacked by three Brutii armies and this time they come simulataneously. Lots of cav. Three family members. I fight hard and kill 800 including theit heir and another FM. But my army is killed amlost completely. My FM escapes but all men of his guad die.
2. Get reenforcements and march north.
3. Army: Still gets filled and fights some Greek suicide attacks.

After the desaster of my 1. army I form a new one under the command of my leader. I attack again from both sides and my 3. army comes too. This is not the blitz kind of war I planned; this is more a Verdun kind ~:eek:

In the meantime I killed the pop in Chersanesos and sent my heir with a small army to conquer Rhodos. So do not hurry, friends, it will take a will for me to end civilisation.

I have three armies making their slow way south by three different routes to take down Egypt.
pezhetairoi,
which ways do they go. Is this a naval operation? What is your experience with Egyptian troops?

Viking

05-06-2005, 12:03

Haha, Craterus, take your time, I've only yet conquered half the world (so no worries Viking, there'll be people to keep you company! ^_^), Ilia is in the middle of his Spanish campaign, and Franc is also somewhere still in the Scythian campaign... don't play too fast, else you'll beat us all there and be very very alone for weeks on end :-)

That`s good to hear!

My scythian campaign started out as a nightmare: the 3. turn a big rebel army pop-ups from nowhere and occupies Campus Sarmatae.
I have conquered Chersonesos, but yet I have more than enough with defending my cities from parthians, armenians, dacians and thracians.

My next move is to retake Campus Sarmatae! :charge:

Franconicus

05-06-2005, 12:46

That`s good to hear!

My scythian campaign started out as a nightmare: the 3. turn a big rebel army pop-ups from nowhere and occupies Campus Sarmatae.
I have conquered Chersonesos, but yet I have more than enough with defending my cities from parthians, armenians, dacians and thracians.

My next move is to retake Campus Sarmatae! :charge:

Do not do it! Pack your things and go South! ~;)

Ziaelas

05-06-2005, 15:49

Ave, Franconicus. I completed this campaign a while ago, thankfully Ara The Mighty, my faction leader and 10 star commander survived to see his dream fulfilled, before dying at age 64. ¬¬ All of Europe is mine, all that is left to fall is Africa, and parts of Asia.

Craterus

05-06-2005, 17:37

Viking

05-06-2005, 20:03

Do not do it! Pack your things and go South! ~;)

I`ll not take Sarmatae yet.

But I want revenge!!!! :charge:

Also I`m afraid that Germania takes Sarmatae first.

@Craterus, you`ll better try to exploit the dumbness of the AI, or just take back the settlement later.(sorry, no good advice! :embarassed: )

Franconicus

05-07-2005, 12:32

Ok, help!! :help:

I have a full German stack on my doorstep at Vicus Venedae, my small army up there is completely outnumbered, I tried taking them on while I still could but I had no chance and withdrew from the battle. What shall I do, I can't send up reinforcements because I'm busy finishing Thrace off. I can try and ambush them, which is what I'm trying to do but I just don't have the man-power to take them on. :help:

Craterus,

if you have more combat cav and some HA you can fight them anyway. As a cav commander I guess you know what to do!
if not, make trade this town for an alliance. It is not worth to find for it!

PS: Almost 200 posts now for Scythia. I think in whole history they were never more known that now! ~:cheers:

katank

05-07-2005, 17:01

Beat em if you can. Otherwise, retreat. It's not worth fighting over.

Did you say you had a unit of 2 gold chevron HHM? That could destroy all the enemy cav. Then your HAs can play havoc with their infantry.

Craterus

05-07-2005, 23:14

Tigranes

05-07-2005, 23:52

The gold-chevron HHM's have only 19 in the unit.

I have 2 horse-archers unit, 1 axemen unit, 2 generals units and the tiny HHM unit.

They have axemen, screeching women, warband, and a faction heir.

It will need some great commanding to beat them. If I try to beat them, and lose, then the Germans will keep on coming. If I retreat, what do I do?

I've never encountered screeching women (I use RTR, and always have),so I can't give advice there.

I'm on my first campaign, I'm using Sarmathia, which is Scythia in vanilla. I've found that versus infantry, I can only lose if I run out of arrows. If you can rout a bunch of those axemen (they should drop like flies with your HAs) you might be able to rout the entire army, earning a major victory. If you feel unable to do this, retreat, definately. Come back with a crap load of reinforcements, and destroy them. If you can, try to gain some profit for the region by using a diplomat to sell it to another nation.

During the battle, try to get HAs behind the warbands. Distract them with one HA in the front, and get another behind. It's hard to kill warbands with arrows from the front, and wasteful of arrows.

The hardest problem you can face is if the Germanics use cavalry for Generals. Do they? (Haven't fought them yet).

In my VH-VH campaign, I've taken all of Greece. Greek Cities are destroyed, Macedon is destroyed, Thrace is destroyed, Dacia is almost gone (two regions left), I've got a huge army in the east, destroying the rebels. I have 54 provinces. Parthia is almost gone, with three regions left (Seleucids destroyed them). The Seleucid Empire, who I have allied with, are reaming the Ptolemaic Empire, though I helped by taking the island regions that the Ptolemaics owned. I'm currently attacking Parthia, Pontus, Dacia and Brittania (I sent a diplomat all the way through the seas, and past Iberia to get there, just for fun. It's surprisingly hard, though I've bribed two family members. Most Brittanic armies are unwilling to accept money).

I stopped attacking the Ptolemaics, the Seleucids are doing fine, and I'm concentrating on the east, above the Seleucids. I'm guarding against the Romans, who are trying to exapnd into my territory, but aren't openly hostile yet. An Armenian diplomat is up in Brittania, trying to take the one colony I hold (tentatively) there, for some reason.

The Hun

05-08-2005, 00:23

In my VH-VH campaign, I've taken all of Greece. Greek Cities are destroyed, Macedon is destroyed, Thrace is destroyed, Dacia is almost gone (two regions left), I've got a huge army in the east, destroying the rebels. I have 54 provinces. Parthia is almost gone, with three regions left (Seleucids destroyed them). The Seleucid Empire, who I have allied with, are reaming the Ptolemaic Empire, though I helped by taking the island regions that the Ptolemaics owned. I'm currently attacking Parthia, Pontus, Dacia and Brittania (I sent a diplomat all the way through the seas, and past Iberia to get there, just for fun. It's surprisingly hard, though I've bribed two family members. Most Brittanic armies are unwilling to accept money).

I stopped attacking the Ptolemaics, the Seleucids are doing fine, and I'm concentrating on the east, above the Seleucids. I'm guarding against the Romans, who are trying to exapnd into my territory, but aren't openly hostile yet. An Armenian diplomat is up in Brittania, trying to take the one colony I hold (tentatively) there, for some reason.

Is very strange. You take Greek and Macedon yet Roman do not attack. I have completed many times Scythian campaign and Romans can not resist attack once you take Greek lands. They will come.

Tigranes

05-08-2005, 00:40

They're on the way. But I'm not worried. I bribed the first two armies they sent (full stacks), because I had no armies in that area. I've relocated some NHAs to the region, and thus, I am protected. Not sure though, I've never faced the Romans yet.

I've got plenty of money. I get some 15000-20000 denarii every turn, now that I took Greece. I'm very happy, after the original horribly crap economy.

I think I've reached the turning point. The struggle is basically over, and it's all downhill for the other nations now. Meh. I think I'll play the Britons next, or the Macedonians.

katank

05-08-2005, 03:03

I reach that point fairly quickly in all my games.

As for Craterus, you don't have to attack them. Just put the army in their path. They would attack it.

You can kill the faction heir with what you have.

The rest is all infantry. Run the HAs around till they run out of arrows. Then just run out the time with your cav dancing around their infantry.

You don't have to kill em all in 1 battle.

Even if you lose, it's no big deal. The towns in that direction are useless. If the Germans really want it, let em have it. I'd actually like to preserve that unit of HHMs more. Retraining it will be nice.

Craterus

05-08-2005, 11:35

I need to attack them, put them on the defensive, if they come at me, there's nothing I can do. I just hope the ambush works...

pezhetairoi

05-09-2005, 01:04

Okay, lots of replies, far too many to quote... firstly, Egypt. I haven't had any experiences with the Egyptian troops yet, I am not touching them until I mop up Seleucids and Asia Minor. I have three armies. One is at Halicarnassus, bound for Rhodes and Kydonia. After which it will cross the Med and strike Alexandria. Meanwhile the second army will take Hatra and move south past Antioch (which has 20 units in it as garrison) and hit Damascus instead, and I hope I can draw out part of Antioch's garrison where I can destroy it. A third army is currently in deep Parthia, but once it takes Seleucia I shall send it across the desert to take Palmyra and then Bostra. They will be struck north, south and middle, so they will be unable to respond very well. In the event the Damascus prong is delayed the Alexandria army will land in Numidian territory and wait. There will be a first wave of two prongs, then a third coming out of the deep desert.

And now... yesterday was grand battle day... I fought five full stacks in three hours of playing. Julii, Scipii, Gaulish, Greek, Brutii, Armenian, Pontic... you name it, I fought it. Quite a stressful day yesterday was.

Craterus: you must be playing on vh for strategic... how the #*^!#$& did the Germanians send a full stack at you so fast? Let them take Venedae. Get a diplomat nearby... I notice barbarian armies have a nasty habit of taking settlements, then leaving their factioner in the city while they send out another force under a captain upon which you can bribe them. Meanwhile, head west and take their ancestral lands. Venedae is wOrthless anyhow.

Screeching Women? they are pathetic. Just delete them. Their morale bonus doesn't help much if you aren't going to hang around and let them take effect. Just take the back door and strike them, and they scatter. Instantly.

Franconicus

05-09-2005, 08:57

My Greek campaign is done. I attacked the Brutii with three armies. One army came from Thermon and marched all the way to Salona.. It attacked three Brutii armies on the way. The other two cleared the area from remaining Romans and attacked Appolonia. I took both towns and killed some Brutii FMs. Of course I killed everyone I met inside.

Brutii still control the sea between Italy and Dalmatia. From time to time they land small troops. They disappear as soon as I attack.

In the meanwhile I landed on Rhodos. I was attacked by a Greece FM with some hoplites. I had three onagers and 3 archers and a slaughtered them before they could reach my line. Then I attacked the town and took it. Greece cities are now gone! I also landed near Kydonia and took it. They had some nice units, but are so incredible underdeveloped that they did not have a single building. So I spared them.

Having these two islands and the wonder of Rhodos really boost my cash flow. In fact I have more money I need right now. I will need the money when I attack Egypt.

Meanwhile I landed an army in Italy. I attacked and took Croton. Killed the first Triatrii unit here. (Onagers do damage to them!) I erased population and received 12,000 D for that. Unfortunately I have to wait for my fleet to withdraw again. In the meantime I laid siege on Tarentum. A Scipii army is coming but I do not really want to fight them now. My next target would be Messana or Syracuse.

I was taken by surprise by the Julii. They bribed Campus Sarmatae. No idea what they want there. A spy is on his way.

A fleet started to Egypt. It has 2 FM, 4 onagers as well as some other troops and a diplomat and a spy. My plan is to land near Alexandria, buy so many mercs that I have two armies, block the bridges over the Nile and attack Memphis. Make it my base camp, make a trip to Graceland, take Alexandria, destroy Thebes and march to Jerusalem. Then Egypt should be broken.

Thracia is dead, Greek Cities are dead, Macedonia has only Segestica left (that is right where I want them to be); Brutii have only Tarentum. The Gauls are gone too.

Germania is a very reliable friend of mine. Dacia does not dare to do anything against me because they fear Germania. Furthermore Germania is at war with the Romans and keep them busy at their northern frontier.

pezhetairoi

05-09-2005, 10:47

...Greek campaign? I thought we were going to play it together with Craterus and IliaDN... >.

Franconicus

05-09-2005, 11:58

Do not worry. I mean my campaign against Greek. This one is finished, now. So you can call me Greecicus, I guess. ~:)

Viking

05-09-2005, 15:14

Wow, Franconicus, your campaign game is completely different from mine! :dizzy2:

I`ve finished of Dacia and Thrace and got Armenia as my protectorate.
Parthia is somehow paralysed, they don`t attack me anymore.

Germania is my worst enemy, and the greek cities are about to crush Macedon, posing me a real challenge in not too long.

But then you`re a little longer out in your campaign than me.. ~;)

Franconicus

05-09-2005, 15:28

Ave Viking,

that is why RTW is so great, you can try so many different strategies.

I always try to go south to the Mediteranian. Otherwise I am broke all the time. And I like it hot ~:cool:

My opinion is that fighting Dacia, Germania and Parthia does not pay. They are as poor as you are.

Ziaelas

05-09-2005, 16:24

Well, I suppose I've lingered on this thread too long. You obviously don't need my advice...... *Runs off sobbing*

Tigranes

05-09-2005, 18:08

Ave Viking,

that is why RTW is so great, you can try so many different strategies.

I always try to go south to the Mediteranian. Otherwise I am broke all the time. And I like it hot

My opinion is that fighting Dacia, Germania and Parthia does not pay. They are as poor as you are.

I agree with the Mediteranian bit, but I like to roleplay my games, it can give me more fun. I get a faction leader, examine the traits, and decide what he might do. It's pretty fun, at times, especially since the odds of winning are higher if you don't have the perfect plan, and only do what the leader "wants" to do.

In my current campaign, Dacia has one region left, which will fall within three turns. After that, the army, lead by Madyes the Conquerer (I pulled him out of some town in the east. A rebel town, I conquered, and trained some peasants. Captain Madyes was ejected from the town, along with two other peasant armies. They went back at the town, three peasants against five, and surprisingly, they won. I adopted Madyes then, and sent him west, to assist against the Macedonians. He's been with me through my campaign against the Macedonians, The Greeks, and the Dacians. Next, the Romans. :bow: ), will pull south and defend against the two stack of Romans on the way already (diplomat saw them). I'm out of money for bribing, the Carthaginians have blocked all my ports, and I have no ships. Egypt is still being swallowed by the S.E. In Pontus' territory, I wage a continual, slow war against Pontus, with but a half-stack. Pontus keeps putlling scythed and missile chariots out of his ass, and HAs aren't good against chariots. We've taken two of Pontus' cities, but the situation is grim for them, as all of my possible reinforcements are in the half-stack, and they are besieged. Hope lies on the horizen, however. I have trained six cataphracts, and six NHAs in the north, and they are on their way, by boat (the large sea in the middle of Eurasia, that is not connected to the ocean) to Armenia, my allies, where they will collect mercenaries along the way to smash Pontus from the behind.

In the far east, Partatua, the King, wages a war against the remaining rebels, and their elephants. Three rebel strongholds remain.

In Britain, I have captured three cities, and two remain in British control. Hibernia is mine.

Themiskyra is mine, after a relatively easy battle (they weren't scythed chariots).

Germania collects on the border, and I worry. My nation may have stretched too far, too fast, as I lack the resources or manpower to defend all sides. S.E. has cancelled their alliance, and may soon attack. Parthia continually attacks one city and then retreats. Parthia will be gone soon, surrounded by Armenia and the S.E.

pezhetairoi

05-10-2005, 01:10

My game is going way slower, it seems. Well I don't have as much time to play as you people, sigh... In my game I'm clear all the way into Gaul, where Alesia and Lugdunum make a huge bulge, in France, and Samarobriva and Massilia are about to fall. The British have been badly weakened after I bribed so many of their armies away from them, while I have in Massilia trapped their largest army, which I will kill if they sally. The next turn will be quite a cool one, because I will break the Julii's, Brutii's, Greeks', Seleucids', Gauls' and Pontus' final great armies at one blow. In that same blow, too, Segesta, Tarentum, Massilia, Samarobriva, Ancyra, Mazaka, Seleucia and Rhodes will fall to me. I don't believe I've had such a busy turn before. Egypt... I'm thinking of modding the Tuthmosis troops to lower their armour. Especially the desert axemen and the chariots :-P I have no mood to go against people with iron skin. If they meant for them to have lots of armour, they should have given them armour.

Franconicus

05-10-2005, 08:57

Just a remark:

I have a constant stream of peasants from my Scythian homeland to my new Greek production facilities. This reduces the problems of unhappiness in the east and makes my new towns more Scythian. It gives me the options to produce more troops in the south.

I promise the peasants that they get the change to be trained as noble archers or lancers and they are happy with that. I do not tell them that they are the replacement for the desastreous losses I had in former battles.

Until now about 2,000 peasants were relocated and trained. :duel:

One question: ~:confused:
I hear everybody telling that he bribed armies. :furious3:
I never do it. In the beginning I do not have enough money, in the midgame I do not need it.
From a ethnic point of view: Is it right for a Scythian noble man to give the enemies gold when he can get the same with giving them steel?

Craterus

05-10-2005, 19:21

Especially the desert axemen and the chariots :-P I have no mood to go against people with iron skin. If they meant for them to have lots of armour, they should have given them armour.

The whole iron skin thing - British/Gallic Swordsmen (NOT Chosen Swordsmen) have an armour bonus and they wear no armour. It's really annoying about how everyone moans about Desert Axemen.

pezhetairoi

05-11-2005, 00:55

right, the swordsmen are going down too. XD

pezhetairoi

05-11-2005, 01:31

IliaDN

05-11-2005, 05:29

Just write when you rea ready!
P.S. Francononicus, for me the main point in bribing is that I really don't have enough patience to kill all those rebels or just normal enemy armies by myself(in auto-combat I take too many casualities on VH/VH).

Viking

05-11-2005, 16:53

I've finally lost patience. I don't have the time to conquer the world with Scythia, I'llk just get my 50 provinces, Rome, and run off to Greece. At the rate I'm going I don't know how long it's going to take me to destroy the rest of them factions. Franconicus, IliaDN, ready for Greece yet?

~:eek: Wow! You really had a plan about conquering all the world with Scythia?!!
Man, your morale is soo much better than mine! :dizzy2:
Have to admit that I only have completed one campaign... :bow:

Anyway, perhaps Scythia will be my second?
I`m doing some quick progress and hope to invade Italy via Venetia; allready have Pannonia. :charge:

IliaDN

05-11-2005, 16:57

One thing about conquring oicumena - examine Armenia thread.

pezhetairoi

05-12-2005, 00:50

~:eek: Wow! You really had a plan about conquering all the world with Scythia?!!
Man, your morale is soo much better than mine! :dizzy2:
Have to admit that I only have completed one campaign... :bow:

Anyway, perhaps Scythia will be my second?
I`m doing some quick progress and hope to invade Italy via Venetia; allready have Pannonia. :charge:

I had a grand plan to conquer Egypt with 3 armies attacking from 3 different directions, it's a grand plan, but it would have required at least another 10 turns. Oh well. Scrap Egypt. Believe it or not Egypt is the only faction I have not yet faced in open battle.

Franconicus, IliaDN, Craterus! Go play Greeks! I've just started Turn 1. Switching to the Greek thread from now on. This is Pezhetairoi, signing out from Scythia.

Craterus

05-12-2005, 17:27

Damn it! I might just quit my Scythian campaign, I've lost interest. Although cav is my expertise (sp??), I just came out of an Egyptian campaign where I always used chariot archers, for every battle. 2 straight campaigns of mounted missiles, how boring. I'm going to go start Parthia. JOKE!

To Greece!!!! I'm a crap phalanx commander, but I'll have to learn at some point.

Viking

05-12-2005, 17:36

Craterus

05-12-2005, 17:46

It'll take me a while to tune out of HA mode. It'll take time to learn hoplite mode and even longer to tune in to it.

pezhetairoi

05-13-2005, 01:24

Hm.
pezhetairoi is gone, Craterus is gone and IliaDN is gone at any moment.

I guess I have to look for new recruits to this thread ~:handball:

But hey, those HAs are handy! It will take a time before I can unlearn my scythian tactics and standards.

It's quite a jarring difference, I'm learning now. From an all-cavalry army to an army where I only have ONE cavalry unit, oh maaaan I'm starting to miss Scythia already XD But nope, my passion always lay in compact ranks of men marching forward with long pointy sticks.

I'm still here, in case anyone needs strategies ;-) But now Ilia, Franc and Craterus are going to help me make the Greek thread a thread to rival this one in length! ^_^ Craterus, good luck learning hoplite tactics! And, well, the only thing I think you should know is that when fighting with your starter armies, form them deep. There's the risk of being outflanked, but given the AI's general stupidity it's the only way your Militia hoplites are going to be able to counter the enemy general's frontal charges.