Going on the offensive as Hayasdan

So I'm kinda stuck in my current Hayasdan campaign. I don't remember all the details exactly, but the year is around 240 b.c. and I've got 5 or so provinces in and around the Caucasus. My income is around 2,000 mnai a turn. For my armies I have one half stack comprised of 5 HA's and 5 FM's, and then another half stack of caucasian archers and armenian spearmen.

My problem is AS is constantly sending armies to attack my cities, sometimes more than one at a time. In a few instances the only way I've been able to survive is by using nomad tactics to whittle down armies that are too big and powerful to be able to defeat in a single battle. I'm worried that if I send any armies to attack seleucid towns, I'll be leaving my home provinces vulnerable. Due to my low income, I need all the cities I can get and losing any is a major setback. So basically I'm stuck in a defensive position and am making very slow progress in my campaign.

Does anyone have any advice or know what changes to my strategy I need to make so I can be more aggressive towards AS without leaving myself vulnerable?

In my Hayasdan Campaign I made the largest army I could with 14k mnai. It was a mix of Caucasian Spearmen, C. Archers, Armenian Spearmen, and a couple skirmisher cavalry with my FL. First thing I did was use this army to wipe out every Seleukid army nearby, which cleared the way for the army to take Phraaspha and Ekbatana. With this new income I was able to retrain a bit and get a few more units and I marched on Mesopotamia. I started with Karkathiokerta, Edessa, and Susa to encircle the middle of the Sele's empire. At that point I was making enough money that debt wasn't an issue and I could take any city whenever I wanted, which I did and now the Sele's are split in two.
Some things to remember as you go along:
Don't worry about debt. If you win enough you'll make money.
Don't worry about retraining until you absolutely have to. Just merge units and fight all battles yourself. I used basic hammer and anvil tactics against even the elite phalangites and went mano e mano with my FL against their general. In no time he was a 2 gold chevron killing machine with 10 command stars.
Once you have the money, make little relief forces to chase away the small Sele armies that besiege your cities. They usually will send 2-4 units if your city only has an fm or single garrison unit.
I hope this helps! If you need more I would be happy to oblige.

You can trick the AI a bit by luring their armies into your lands, while your towns are very lightly defended. That way the AI will send apropriate, small raiding parties/quoter stack contingents, since your homeland seems undefended. Now, all you need to kill those are 3-4 HA ( Skythians are cheap and available in Mzkheta and Kotais ) + 1 FM ( to charge weakend units and rout them ) + 1 medium cavalry ( to double the charge, deal with Seleucid FMs, since they´re armed with axes = ap weapon, and to cut down routers, since your FMs are too slow and have only "good" stamina ). You can ambush their forces, or you can wait untill they´d besiege your towns. You also can leave this small army in a town, as a garrison, while FM makes money as gouverneur, he still will be leading sallies and won´t get bored, gathering command experience etc. The sally tactic is especially effectiv with the "horse" army i describe above, for couple of reasons:
1. You can sally at least twice before the enemy would build a single siege engine: if you haven´t managed to rout the enemy in the first turn, you simply withdraw into the settlement and wait till battle time is over - it counts draw ;)
2. While you sally, the enemy mostly tries to reform at some place initially different from where they start, so you have "free shots" at their backs, especially at the slow moving phalanx units.

Heroic victories are guaranteed!

Now you are free to go pillage enemy lands, sack their cities, cut their reinforcements, ambushing them wherever you can ( just use the same army composition as described above, and don´t bother with food soldiers - you´d need them only facing really large enemy armies, and for siege purposes. 4 FM in a stack - i never do that, 2 are maximum, 3 only if i face multiple enemy FMs and got faction leader or heir, kind of Roayl Army then.

If you own Karkathioherta, the defence is pure fun - then you don´t need any HA at all, only an FM and enough archers + some spearmen to hole the line long enough ( that´s because of the terrain around the city ). And don´t forget slingers - once Seles start to send elites against you, HA are a waist of time against their armour, even silver chevroned ones, but you slingers would shredder them to pieces if they get a clean shot at their backs!

Hope, this helps.

My method is to train archers almost exclusively. Caucasian archers are absolutely ridiculous, and if you're fighting a large enemy like the Seleukids, you'll get plenty of chevrons. Usually what I do is wipe out all of the Caucasus, then park a fullstack of archers at Karkathiokerta, and watch the enemy die. Getting gold chevrons without losing a single man? Priceless.

For sieging cities, always use your archers to shoot over the walls (if they're wooden). You can easily kill 70% of the enemy army that way, without even having to get through the gate first. Also, if you don't mind messing with the diplomacy A.I., you can always ceasefire the Seleukids every turn (I guess since they have so many enemies, the diplo A.I. is desperate to have friends). You can easily do that for thirty years if you have to.

Thanks for the advice guys.

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Originally Posted by Potatomade

My method is to train archers almost exclusively. Caucasian archers are absolutely ridiculous, and if you're fighting a large enemy like the Seleukids, you'll get plenty of chevrons. Usually what I do is wipe out all of the Caucasus, then park a fullstack of archers at Karkathiokerta, and watch the enemy die. Getting gold chevrons without losing a single man? Priceless.

For sieging cities, always use your archers to shoot over the walls (if they're wooden). You can easily kill 70% of the enemy army that way, without even having to get through the gate first. Also, if you don't mind messing with the diplomacy A.I., you can always ceasefire the Seleukids every turn (I guess since they have so many enemies, the diplo A.I. is desperate to have friends). You can easily do that for thirty years if you have to.

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Ha yea Caucasian archers are great. I think I might have Karkathiokerta already, I wonder if I should build stone walls or keep them wooden?

Stone walls definitely. This gives your archers a major advantage. The only thing is that if the Seleucids get units onto the wall, you have to let them since your infantry is no good on walls.

I also find that sacking Seleucia gives you a major financial boost, one which can finance mines which will eventually support your armies.

Definitely stone walls. Makes defending much easier, especially if you have a few units of Caucasian archers and Eastern slingers there. If you can back up the defence with a unit of cavalry to deal with the pesky siegers that may reach the walls you should be able to defend quite easily.

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Originally Posted by Brave Brave Sir Robin

Stone walls definitely. This gives your archers a major advantage. The only thing is that if the Seleucids get units onto the wall, you have to let them since your infantry is no good on walls.

I also find that sacking Seleucia gives you a major financial boost, one which can finance mines which will eventually support your armies.

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Originally Posted by d'Arthez

Definitely stone walls. Makes defending much easier, especially if you have a few units of Caucasian archers and Eastern slingers there. If you can back up the defence with a unit of cavalry to deal with the pesky siegers that may reach the walls you should be able to defend quite easily.

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Ok I will build stone walls then. Are scythian or eastern axemen any good on walls? Because I remember hearing that spear units are no good but I've been thinking that the axemen might be good since they aren't spearmen and because of the AP bonus.

The "ap" bonus is actually only usefull against armoured units. Those axemen lack armour, and that means they´d suffer against any high attack/lethality unit. But those guys got javelins, lots of them, and with a bit experience, they should hold the walls if you are not heavily outnumbered. You are playing Hay - use Georgian swordmen, i´d say - those guys are quite tough, got decent, though not superb armour, good morale and couple of javelins too to pepper the enemies before they climb the ladders. But a sally is mostly preferable compared to defending the walls, imo ( with the right unit composition, of course ).

The only advice for my Persian bretheren (Parthia,Pontos,Hayasdan) is "Offense is best defense against AS Monster."
Once I tried to develop first attack later, it cost me a King and many good commanders whose only sin was my obligation to use them intensively as I lack units.
For Hai, you have the advantage of armenian mountains where AS phalanxes are useless if you like hill fights and a good ambusher.

Yes for some reason the game decides to kill the general as soon as he makes first contact..... Even when its a unit of archers sometimes.

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Originally Posted by Lazy O

Yes for some reason the game decides to kill the general as soon as he makes first contact..... Even when its a unit of archers sometimes.

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I think like this way, game tries to balance AI kamikaze attacks made by AI generals....

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Originally Posted by Lazy O

Yes for some reason the game decides to kill the general as soon as he makes first contact..... Even when its a unit of archers sometimes.

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A general who leads a charge is a general asking to get himself killed first. Especially with wedge formation, which should only be aimed at gaps in between enemy units, not directly for enemy units.

It's easier to avoid getting the general killed if he charges into the rear of an enemy unit, rather than the front. Which means pinning the enemy with another unit first.

I dont put a general into a wedge. Its suicide. Even from the rear sometimes the game decides to smack you in the face.

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Originally Posted by Chuchip

Ok I will build stone walls then. Are scythian or eastern axemen any good on walls? Because I remember hearing that spear units are no good but I've been thinking that the axemen might be good since they aren't spearmen and because of the AP bonus.

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Depending on the layout of the city, wooden walls (used with a FM) filled with archers can delay an army like crazy. Usually a fullstack of enemies will only build four or five battering rams, and if you position your archers appropriately, you can take out all battering rams (using the FM to slow them down, especially useful to get them to drop the ram to make it easier for your archers to target) with flaming arrows. If you can retrain your archers in the city, then you can basically stall the enemy army forever. They'll also keep sending fullstacks along the same route, meaning you could stall their entire offensive.

Just "rally" before the charge - no harm will be done to your general. And don´t fight with "hypochondriac" FM´s in melee, pick young, healthy, and vigorous guys.

My most succesful game as Hayasdan i went on the offensive as soon as the war broke out. I usually use quite alot of family members in my armies dealing with the seleucids, while it might not be historically accurate, I've found it to be the only reliable way. Using a couple of spear units to hold the line, with cauc archers/slingers as to harass them, I take the family members around the flank, prefferably hunting down the enemy general in the process. Once there, i simply wait for the seles to engage my line and then make an all out cavalry charge, which will pretty much break everything but their elite units. (4-5 fam members with full bodyguards completely tear apart everything if they can charge from behind and are fresh). Then i go about raiding the seleucid cities, burning everything in the west down to the ground if i can get my hands on the cities, I'll rather rebuild than having to deal with a strong sele...