Help with Pahlava Urgent!!!

[Wolfman]

whenever i go to play this wonderful faction i always seem to end up quiting for the following reasons. 1. when i send the three spies in their three corresponding AS settlements they never seem to be able to get them to riot and revolt to me. In fact the population order goes up from 75% to 85% or 95% which means me waiting around alot for these three settlements to revolt to me. 2. Because of me waiting around for the settlements to revolt i usually start loosing alot of money. after awhile i can't take it anymore and just quit. I really need help with this faction someone give me some tips please?:yes:
Wolfman

[Watchman]

Lay siege to them instead ? I mean, you'd be getting a war with the AS anyway if and when any of them defected to you so...

Plus it's practically impossible for a lone spy to get a settlement to revolt. You need to pile at least two in one town for the effect to not be easily covered by a tax rate shift.

[Wolfman]

So your telling me that when Public Order goes down the AI automatically adjust the tax rate?

[Watchman]

:dizzy2:
What did you expect ? It may be kinda dim, but it's not that stupid. You need to have enough spies in there that even "low" doesn't cut it anymore... and even then it often just trains or brings in more garrison to maintain order. (Having a couple of assassins sabotaging the barracks in the settlement helps forestall that though; on their free time they can also vandalise temples and such.)

[Malik of Sindh]

I usually send all three spys to Antiocheia-Margiane.It always rebels this way.A free settlement.

[kambiz]

I only use my spy to open the gate of those AS towns for me ,Not to make revolt there !

[Malik of Sindh]

I don't think you understand.Antiocheia-Margiane goes to rebels.I conquer it and use the same spies to open the gates for other settlements.I always conquer Bactria first.This gives me a way to expand and make my economy better.In my campaing I invaded the seleucids with a great army,thanks to my economy after defeating the bactrians:3x Gund-i-Nizagan 6xVarious horse archers 2x Armored horse archers 4xVarious foot archers 1x Generals bodyguard 2x Eastern axemen.Arche Seleucia simply can't stop such army,if you know how to use it right.Add a few mercs to fix the casualties and you can conquer most of the eastern Seleucid empire.

[MerlinusCDXX]

wow Malik, I started my Pahlava campaign exactly the same way. I use all HA's AHA's + 1 or 2 Noble (or Reg if I can build up enough) Catas and a FM. The "Parthian noble" HA's are actually really good "dual purpose" cav, and you can get some good "dp" use out of Dahae riders if you are careful with them. I usually bring the shite infantry and foot archers along in their own stack, though I hardly had to use them to fight because AS (since they send a stack every turn anyway) alaways relieved the sieges. I just make sure to concentrate on completely annihilating the reinforcements from the town first, and then just kill enough of the attacking army to win the battle. All my infantry and archers ended up being an "advance garrison" for newly conquered towns, saved my arse in a few surprise AS sieges, and saved me from having to slow down my main army to deal with beseiged towns.

to the OP:...don't worry about getting into a war with the AS, they are beatable. Just use 1 all HA stack with a quarter stack or so running behind the main army with all the unit types in the main represented (instant top up of casualties + cavalry help for the foot stack in case it finds trouble). the AS tend to send slow palangites at you. Phalx=arrow-bait :)

[cyberVIP]

Hit&Run tactic - the Rule for this faction.
Raiding parties (xHA+FM) on the borders + towers + good spying. Killing reinforcements, harassing incoming enemy armies (yes, we rout when no arrows but regroup and hit again). Deep raid to light garrisoning towns -> siege with couple instant payed mercs for rams (persian archer-spearman - the best) and victory is in your pocket.
hope u enjoy this :)

[socal_infidel]

I'm new to EB and just started a Pahlava campaign last night (H/M). I was expecting rough going of it, but have been surprised so far (*knock on wood*).

What I did was combine the two armies in Khwarazm and make a beeline towards Antiocheia-Margiane. But I sent all my spies there first to increase the odds of opening the gates. The advantage of this is mobility (no need for infantry to slow you down) and the ability to assault the town without any siege. My word, I almost felt bad for the Seleukid garrison. Stuck inside their own town while death rained on them from above. Then sent in the HAs to clean-up the thinned-out ranks.

This has pretty much been my strategy so far - spies first, followed by my HA army, surround the town and rain arrows down on them from all sides, then charge in and clean-up the remaning rabble. I took Asaak, Zadrakata, Apameia, and Hekatompylos this way. With ridiculously low levels of casualties. I'm talking annihilating the garrisons completely with only 2-3% casualties on my part.

I'm about ten years into the campaign so far, so we'll see where this goes, but man, so far I'm loving Horse Archers.

Cheers!

[Diamondj]

I have never had my spies successfully force an enemy city to revoltand join my side, does it work against rebel cities as well or only enemy faction cities?

[Hound of Ulster]

The best you can hope for with your spies is to make the AS settlement go rebel, which means you can stay allied with the Seluekids even when your taking over thier empire. This trick may take awhile, but it will pay off. Also, don't build large armies at first, only small raiding parties of all-cavalry. Focus on your infrastructure. With the Pahlavi, patience is a war-winning virtue.

[Wolfman]

Thank you seasoned Pahlava Generals for this excellent advice. I am actually having a pretty good campaign right now. I'm at war with both Baktria (I attacked them) and the Saka (at war from the start). Here's how i started my campaign.

1. Merged my small raiding parties into one army. Then Trained a unit of foot archers in both Khiva and Nisa.

2. Sent all three of my spies to Antiocheia-Margiane which in the next couple turns rebelled to the Eleutheroi. I then took it and left my single unit of Daha javelin calvary in the settlement until a new family member (legitimate, Married into the family, Adopted or otherwise) appeared.

3. Broke my alliance with Baktria and sent two spies to Marakanda. Then attacked, enslaved the settlement and destroyed everything in it that was greek or had something to do with alexander. The other spy i sent east towards the mountains to keep an eye out for a large baktrian army that had apparently vanished ( later found out this army merged with the Alexandreia-Eschate garrison).

4. after leaving my faction leader in Marakanda ( he wanted to settle ) I took the rest of my war party and attacked the city of Baktra. The baktrians had been building up a pretty large force to defend the settlement. I decided to beseige it and hit End Turn. on their turn Baktria attacks me. It was on of the most challenging battles i've ever had. I love Horse archers!!!!!. It ended with the Baktrian FL being slain and the city being taken over and Exterminated. I again destroyed ALL the building that had Eastern greek upon them. The populace wasn't very happy so i turned Baktra into a Client State. Things quickly calmed down from there. ( no more riots:sweatdrop: ) though to keep public order i had to leave to units of Shivatir-i Pahlavanig in the settlement.

5. Trained a unit of Shivatir-i Pahlavanig (Parthian Horse-Archers) in Nisa and a unit of Daha Uazdaettae (Dahae Noble Cavalry) in Khiva and planned on adding them to the main army to replace the two units of Shivatir-i Pahlavanig.

6. The Unexpected happened, a saka army that had been sneaking around my borders attacked Khiva. My brave garrison of foot archers where cut to pieces in mere seconds by the Saka nobles.

Thats were I stopped and Saved the game. I Can't wait to get back on and beat back Saka from my lands:charge:. This is one of if not the best campaigns i have ever played!

[Malik of Sindh]

I see that my advice worked.I forgot to mention you should make peace with the Saka in the first turns,makes your life easier.

[Hound of Ulster]

Makes sense to be allied with the Saka, as they are not only fellow Iranian-speakers but they also control most of the Silk Road when the game starts. All the Avesta :book: gotta stick together against those bloody Greeks.

[Malik of Sindh]

The Saka are quick to make an allaince with the Bactrians in all of my Pahlava games.

[Hound of Ulster]

I usually try to keep the Baktrians neutral when I begin my take-down of the Seluekids. It's all about adding revenue to your treasury.

[Atraphoenix]

blitz against AS reaaly make the aı go paralized... let the spys open the gates for you and let the arrow rain start ....

[Theodotos I]

Haven't played with the Pahlava in 1.1, but they were my longest campaign in 1.0, all the way to 14o BC. I succeeded in getting two settlements to rebel, and a third one rebelled on its own. Took out Baktria and invaded India, finally going to war with the AS in about 251 BC. Good luck!

[Atraphoenix]

Ofence is best defence for Pahlava, That was reaaly what I did.

I just blitz A.S. I took persia, mesopotamia, syria.

I gave tarsos to pontos which is my loyal ally to create a buffer zone between me and AS.

Now I have two option Egypt or baktria I did not decide yet cos I want to restore my cities anf flourish them after unceasing wars in persia , mesop. and syria. After I flourished my cities I think I can afford 2 field armies for Egypt and 2 for Baktria.

but men do not play passive it is like to use a lion against a rabbit..

A.S. is a dying prey that you can easily hunt it down.... if you do not believe me follow my AAR...