New campaign - Hayasdan or Getai? questons about units/gameplay

Salve!

I'm thinking about starting a new campaign with either Hayasdan or Getai since both these factions have light horse archers and i'd like to try playing with this type of armies. However i noticed that both armenia and getai have hardly any cavalry at all possible to recruit on the beginning of the game. So here's what i want to know:

1. How long will it tak me to be ready to recruit good cavalry, especially light horse archers?
2. Any hints on what course of action to take with Hayasdan without being stabbed in the back by for example Seleucids? (Getai would be quite easy, i think i would leave some troops in the north east to protect the border from the sarmatians and take the rest on an all out attack on rich clever-clever greeks)

I play only on very hard/very hard. I ask how much time would i need to get good cavalry (especially light horse archers) since i'm confident that i'll be unstoppable once i get them. Playing Pahlava or Greek/Hellenistic factions besides Baktria is out of the question (i just don't like those guys... i dunno why :beam: )

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Originally Posted by Yarema

Salve!

I'm thinking about starting a new campaign with either Hayasdan or Getai since both these factions have light horse archers and i'd like to try playing with this type of armies. However i noticed that both armenia and getai have hardly any cavalry at all possible to recruit on the beginning of the game. So here's what i want to know:

1. How long will it tak me to be ready to recruit good cavalry, especially light horse archers?
2. Any hints on what course of action to take with Hayasdan without being stabbed in the back by for example Seleucids? (Getai would be quite easy, i think i would leave some troops in the north east to protect the border from the sarmatians and take the rest on an all out attack on rich clever-clever greeks)

I play only on very hard/very hard. I ask how much time would i need to get good cavalry (especially light horse archers) since i'm confident that i'll be unstoppable once i get them. Playing Pahlava or Greek/Hellenistic factions besides Baktria is out of the question (i just don't like those guys... i dunno why :beam: )

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Won't take you long. Bout 1 or 2 upgrades to your MIC in your capital if your getai. Bit longer if ur hayasdan due to reforms i think. Im playing Getai and their cavalry is sweeet (tarabostes, ktistai) so i would recommend them. Biggest diffrence is difficulty- Getai is a pretty relaxed campaign, you can expand slowly and safely, but with hayasdan youll need to blitz. Did hayasdan on VH and conquered all of the seleucid territories but got into an infinite war with the ptollies and their endless stacks. (AI gets to much money, rly) even if I won every battle they recruited faster than i could kill. So i wouldnt recommend hayasdan on VH, getai would be nice though.

Quick tip: Try the recruitment viewer my friend.

1. As the Hai: In Mtskheta and Kotais you will be able to recruit Scythian Horse Archers at the very first level regional MIC.

2. Playing VH/VH as Hayasdan there is no way you can avoid being stabbed in the back by the AS early on. Hard Campaign is much more reasonable, but they will still come after you fairly soon, so be ready!

I'm on a Hai campaighn now and I have to admit that I like it in some way even more than the sweboz campaign. Those reforms (a: pan caucasian empire; b: persian/orontid empire) give me a real deep rpg experience.

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Originally Posted by ziegenpeter

I'm on a Hai campaighn now and I have to admit that I like it in some way even more than the sweboz campaign. Those reforms (a: pan caucasian empire; b: persian/orontid empire) give me a real deep rpg experience.

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You mean like: After having killed 5Million Soldiers of the AS, Hayasdan finally united the caucasian lands... :juggle2:

lol VH/VH hayasdan campaign? good luck with that.sauromatae from the north, arche seleukeia from all around you.

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Originally Posted by seienchin

You mean like: After having killed 5Million Soldiers of the AS, Hayasdan finally united the caucasian lands... :juggle2:

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Well at least I liberated 4,9 million caucasian people from the terrible seleukid rule!

As Getai you can get Melee HA's in your capital after an upgrade or 2, but I prefer to use the regional HA's available in Kallatis. They are cheaper than the Dacian HA's and you get your choice of Shock HA's or Melee HA's.

Either way, it won't take you long. Also, in my experience, the Sarmatians almost never attack me as Getai, even when I share a border with them at Kallatis. Only once you venture North into the Steppe do they seem to care. I've never played on VH, though.

The Getai have access to several units of HA fairly quickly. A level III MIC in your homelands will give you Komatai Hippotoxotai, while a regional level II MIC in Kallatis (allow me to confirm this in a few hours, this is going off of simply memory while at school) will give you two types of steppe horse-archers. A level V MIC in your homelands will give you Ktistai (heavily armored HA that can also act as shock cavalry).

The Getai also have some excellent medium cavalry available, Traikioi Prodromoi and Tarabostes, and two units of light skirmishing cavalry, Mezenai and Traikioi Hippeis.

I was and still am playing a H/M Hayasdan campaing and find it very enjoyable. The year is something around 200BC and I have Mesopotamia, Syria, Levant, Armenia, and upper Egypt under my control. I have to say that I didn't blitz. With my starting armies I took the two settlements east and north of the capital, disbanded unnecessary troops and started improving my economy. I got the first reforms and was able to build mines before AS attacked. Of course during that rather long period (12 years) I used an assassin to kill any AS diplomat which enters my territory. When I got attacked I used a combo of Scythian HAs (which a easily accessible), Caucasian archers, levy infantry and FMs to defend my lands. I slowly conquered Kartakhiokerta and Arbela. Then marched on to Mesopotamia and stopped after taking Babylon and Seleukia and destroying all large AS field armies in the area. I built those cities up, while defending in the East (where main attacks were coming as Pahlava and Baktria didn't do much to AS) and keeping a few HAs to scare the AS in the West (it was very busy in Asia Minor). Later I took a few settlements in the East and advanced west which brought me into confrontation with Ptolies... and you know the story.

I don't know whether it's because of Hard campaign difficulty or just because I'm lucky I didn't need to blitz. In my game AS is still strong, though I'm raiding it's eastern territories and giving some to Pahlava to make it stronger and a worthy future enemy. Asia Minor is divided between AS, Maks, KH, Pontus and Arverni and it's going to be fun to invade it in the future (I really wait to see my heavy FMs fighting Arverni galatians). All in all it is very enjoyable campaign so far.

P.S. Getai is on top of the list for my next campaign :2thumbsup:

Getai is easier slow progress at the beginning that means you have to starve AI Cities. and phalanxes are no match for your falxmen. As I like play with challenge I do not play with them it is easy to play with Getai. Hayasdan is very similiar with my current pahlava campaign . But VH/VH is suicide! especially when AS started to send you Arpyraspidoi!

but the main difference is you like infantry dominated factions Getai fits, if you like micromanaging in battles like me with cavalry dominated factions play Haysdan but if you have no patience and like direct assoults stick to Getai.

Cos, a normal battle with cavalry dominated factions takes a long time I have some battle passed 1.5 minutes. Encircle the enemy, lure them to stick them to your infantry endless charge, retreat, charge, retreat with cavalry until to rout them and you can be sure that Arpyraspidoi are not so much sympatetic. Even My catas cannot route them without losing half men and less than 3 charges.