Scythia

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!! ~;)

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.

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

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Originally Posted by Craterus

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

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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... ~;)

[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

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.

: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. ~:)

:help: Is there any way to avoid corruption?

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??

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Originally Posted by IliaDN

:help: Is there any way to avoid corruption?

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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

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

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Originally Posted by IliaDN

~: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

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I know they are cool. Right now I do not have access to onagers - and I do not have infantry to protect them.

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Originally Posted by Franconicus

I know they are cool. Right now I do not have access to onagers - and I do not have infantry to protect them.

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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:

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 :-(

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!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IliaDN

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.

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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).

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?

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

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.

[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:

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

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).

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!

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.

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).

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?

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!

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Franconicus

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.

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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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

Ave IliaDN,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IliaDN

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

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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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IliaDN

~: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

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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:

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Franconicus

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:

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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:

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!

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.

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-.

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).

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pezhetairoi

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

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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:

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.

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

Ave brothers in arms, ~:cheers:

Ave Craterus,
some comments directly from Germania:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Craterus

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..:

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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 ~:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Craterus

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:

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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:

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.

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 ~:)

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.

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?

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..

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.

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tibilicus

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?

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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!

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?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Craterus

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?

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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:

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..

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.

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)

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Craterus

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..

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Craterus,

don't worry about Mac. If you win a decisve battle against Thracia they will be on your side again. But never trust them!

I fear the Greeks even if they bring gifts. (Roman saying)

Good luck ~:cheers:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pezhetairoi

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.

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pezhetairoi,

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

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.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Franconicus

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

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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

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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:

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.

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:

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...

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.

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.