Help with Hayasdan

I've played most of the factions through at least the starting era with a difficulty setting of hard and a battle difficulty of very hard without much trouble. When I try the Hai its a different story.

With my starting forces i take the settlements to the close west and NE...get type 1 in Armavir and go into build/bank mode...right when i get myself into a good position to start expanding again AS pours over my southern borders ignoring all diplomacy. The horsemen start coming over my northern borders. Using bridges and forts for defendable chokepoints im manage to hold my ground, but no more than that.

I'm not sure if i need to change my starting strat...maybe go more for the early sack n pillage of AS land for $$...or just stick it out n hope there is a break in the constant AS assaults(along with the less regular nomadic raids)...I could just turn down the difficulty levels but thats my last option. Any suggestions?

you don't need to abandon any units at the start, just try to conquer Mtskheta and Kotais with what you have at the beginning. You will go into minus with you cash, but thats ok for the beginning.

Very important: You can beat many small (4-5 units) armies with just 1 or 2 FM allone (and even greater ones)
even if they have heavy intfantery.

Just attack and withdraw. This fact will help you keep save most of your territory against most small AS attacking armies (at the beginning they don't send big armies up there) with just 4 or 5 of your Family members. Keep some light units in your towns, 1-2 units should do, and send the rest to sack cities of your enemies.

You can keep Trapezous and Ani Kamah, when you conquer them, but if you go into Seleukid territory, just sack their cities and move on. Kill all population, unlimber all their buildings, send them back to stone age. Oh, and raise the taxes, hehe.

First you go down this route:

- Karkathiokera
- Edessa
- Antiocheia
- if you want Damaskos or Tarsos

Most cities are not heavily protected. Of course you will lose them again, because you do not leave units to protect them. The most important thing is to move quickly! Don't lay siege longer than necessary on cities. Avoid great armies. You will gain a great amount of money! With that you build Mines and Markets where you can. Then retreat your army back home, dont fight great battles if you can avoid.

Now recruit new units and complete your invasion army. Now you go the other way down and sack cities.

- Phraaspa
- Ekbatana
- Susa
- Seleukeia
- Babylon


Now you've made it. These cities will give you enough money to build up a strong economy and a strong army with wich you can conquer parts of pontos. Conquer Asia Minor and then go back and conquer the Seleukid cities you've sacked before. This time you can keep them.

And watch out for Kabalaka, the Seleukids may conquer the city and send small armies from time to time from up there. I don't know if you get into trouble with the Sauromatae when you conquer this city, but anyway... if they get on your nerves there, do it.


PS: This is for VH/H (campaign) / M (battle) difficulty. If you play on battle - very hard i have no idea how to manage this unrealistic situation.

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Originally Posted by Asmodius

I've played most of the factions through at least the starting era with a difficulty setting of hard and a battle difficulty of very hard without much trouble. When I try the Hai its a different story.

With my starting forces i take the settlements to the close west and NE...get type 1 in Armavir and go into build/bank mode...right when i get myself into a good position to start expanding again AS pours over my southern borders ignoring all diplomacy. The horsemen start coming over my northern borders. Using bridges and forts for defendable chokepoints im manage to hold my ground, but no more than that.

I'm not sure if i need to change my starting strat...maybe go more for the early sack n pillage of AS land for $$...or just stick it out n hope there is a break in the constant AS assaults(along with the less regular nomadic raids)...I could just turn down the difficulty levels but thats my last option. Any suggestions?

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The biggest issue is you playing on very hard battle difficulty. EB is designed to be played with medium battle difficulty. All of the unit stats are based on medium battle difficulty. This has been mentioned several times on this forum.

I've only just started reading the forumns, so thanks for the tips on battle difficulty. I had no idea it worked in that way, but ive had np till now using those setting like I said on many campaigns. I guess this is one I cant.....and thanks for the strat. I'm going to just start over with reasonable settings n try some of your ideas.

I've recently started my first Hayasdan campaign, and its the most thrilling EB experience since my first KH campaign back in 0.72!
I am playing on Hard/Hard difficulty, it is 223 BC now, and i am at peace (!) with AS and at war with the very strong Egyptians. They attacked me three years ago with a strong force, lead by their faction leader (about three fullstacks of very experienced, mostly infantry, units). My own king rode out to counter their invasion, and in the most epic battle i ever had, my king killed their king, only to die a minute after that to a flaming arrow. I eventually suffered a close defeat, but their remaining forces were now leaderless and suffered too heavy losses to maintain their momentum, so they withdrew and we agreed on a ceasefire.

I chose a different approach, i conquered the caucasian cities and saved money to build mines there, thus being able to finance a larger force to repel the AS forces and take some of their cities. I am doing slow expansive moves, enjoying it very much.

I'm actually playing another Hayasdan campaign now.

I suggest that right at the start, you send your diplomat north and secure peace with the Sauromate. They should agree, and I have never had them actually break alliance with me. Even when I took Kabalaka.

The key to staying alive lies in Scythian Horse Archers. They are dirt cheap to buy and maintain, and can defeat mostly anything the AS sends at you.

I also used terrain and rebel forces to my advantage.

Right off the bat, I conquered Kotais and Mshkenta. I purposefully left Ani-Kamah independent to serve as a buffer state. One of the first things I did aside from building roads is, building local baracks in Kotais and Mshkenta. With level 1, you can recruit the Scythian Horsearchers.

I then went up and captured Kabalaka.

I had a relieve force of 4 Horse Archers, patroling my borders. With a network of spies, 4 units of Horse Archers is more than enough to defend any city you currently have.

My main force consists of 1FM and 8 units of Scythian Horse Archers. With this stack, I went hunting for AS stacks near my border. No matter what size ithe enemy was, I would engage it, micromanage all my HA, and once I ran out of ammo, I would simply retreat.

I would capture cities like Ekbatana, pillage them, destroy every building (Besides special buildings and Temples of Gods that Hayasdan worships too, for Role Play reasons), and then abandon the city and move on to the next.

This way, you will have a good amount of cash to spend on building mines at home. Constantly raiding and sacking AS cities and armies ensures that they are not able to send anything north at you, since you are constantly killing the forces before they even arive.

You are able to build up your mines, and baracks, and start pumping out real infantry. Once your economy is up and running, and you can afford a nice standing army. Then capture cities and hold on to them.

Right now in my campaign, its 259bc. I have Trapezous, Kotais, Mshkenta, Kabalaka, Armavir, and Sophene.

Since I have secured Sophene, I am sending a force to capture Ani-Kamah.

AS has had every single stack they sent, destroyed completely, and several of their cities sacked. My main raiding force right now are 8 units of 1-3 silver chevron Scythian Horse Archers and a 3 Silver Chev FM.

Ptolemies are allied to AS and have declared war on me, sending a full stack of levies.

I have mines built in every city I own that has the option of building one, and have more than enough money to raise a professional army and transition from nomadic warfare to infantry based.

Hope this helps.