1.1 Saka Rauka Gameplay Guide: How to Get Out of Debt Fast and Other Assorted Things

https://www.europabarbarorum.com/i/f...nner_18sak.jpg

The Saka Rauka, said to be the hardest faction to ever grace this wondrous mod that is Europa Barbarorum. Many have tried this faction only to die underneath its steel boots, or rather the huge debt you'll probably suffer in the first few years or maybe even decades. I heard about its difficulties so I ventured inside this glorious faction.

From what I understand, the main difficulty many people probably face is due to their lessened ability to micromanage their horse archers. I was the same way. Many of us have grown accustomed to using infantry-based armies. After all, most of the factions in this game do use mostly infantry. Not here. Here, you must use the many advantages a cavalry-focused faction will bring you, which is speed and maneuverability (There's also fun part of seeing a kataphraktoi charge right into the back of an enemy formation, but we won't talk about that for now).

Tactics?

First of all, in order to succeed in using the Saka Rauka (or the Pahlava for that matter), you must know how to use cavalry.

I will somewhat direct you to this recent Ibrahim's guide to using cavalry, but I'll give a quick overview of what works for me.

1. Your cavalry must be formed up and just about stopped.
2. Your cavalry must be facing or somewhat facing the enemy you will be charging.
3. Your cavalry will not charge if your enemy's going to run away, e.g. skirmishers.
4. Your cavalry must not be too close to the enemy you're facing. The more tired your cavalry is, the closer you can be. Eventually, you'll see at what distances your cavalry can be before a charge works.
5. If the charge works, your cavalry will lower their lances before the hit and, if you mouse over the unit, say it's charging.
6. Let the cavalry stay there for about 5-10 seconds before moving them. Some of your cavalry may not have finished charging yet, or there might be a few enemy units that have not turned around yet. If there's space behind the enemy unit, definitely run your cavalry through, if not, hurry up and double click those horses back to whence they came.
7. Everything else is common sense. Don't ram through a front of a phalanx. Do ram units in the back. And other such things.

Now, even though the Saka Rauka is very heavy on cavalry, the core of your troops will probably be horse archers. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Parthian Shot. If you're not, here's a picture:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/Battle11.jpg

Let the infantry come to you while you run away, firing arrows at them.

Another very usual tactic would be to put one horse archer unit on either side of an enemy unit and fire away. This ensures one of your units will be shooting at the back at all times, getting rid of that shield defense bonus.

Now, this leads to my next point of interest, the Saka Bodyguards.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.../Bodyguard.jpg

These are utter monstrosities on the battlefield. Any great player of the Saka Rauka should use these men to their fullest advantage. Such beasts are even greater once you get a few chevrons of experience. Your generals generally have quite a few hitpoints so they're not in that great of a danger in close combat. Your bodyguards also regenerate, meaning you should absolutely use them in every battle. If some die, it won't matter, you can just get some more later.

If done right, a couple of your family members can do massive damage on weak armored, all-infantry enemy armies, which is generally what you will mostly experience when fighting Baktria or Arche Seleukeia. I strongly suggest you kill off the Pahlava as soon as possible. Anyways, with the correct usage, you might get something like I did here:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...1-35-15-67.jpg

This would cover what would to be the best way to use your bodyguards, the lure and destroy.

1. Kill off enemy general. The enemy general, due to the nature of the EB scripting, generally has more command stars than you, though the Saka generals usually have a couple nice traits that grant a few command stars if you're commanding armies that are heavy on cavalry. This means their morale effects are indeed gigantic. Kill them off and the rest of the army will suffer harshly.
2. If the rest of the army is mainly infantry, good. If there are cavalry left, kill them off. You'll probably only meet low-tier skirmisher horses. Your heavily armored Saka Bodyguards will absolutely obliterate them.
3. Now here comes the fun part. Run your cavalry away from the enemy. Yes, even if they get exhausted, it doesn't matter.
4. Are they exhausted yet? No? Keep running around the battlefield.
5. Exhausted? Good. Now, if there are any missile units left, you should probably try to kill them off first. They'll probably have the lowest morale of the entire army so they'll rout easily, especially with their general dead and stamina absolutely rock-bottom.
6. Here comes the absolute fun part, especially if you're going against phalangitai. Maneuver your cavalry to the infantry at the edge of their formation. Move your cavalry so that it surrounds the enemy on the three open sides. Charge with the cavalry that's facing the unit's rear. Do the same for the one at the flank right after. Charge with the remaining cavalry after the infantry changes face. This should be sufficient enough to rout most men. In fact, most of the time, the first charge will probably get them.

This will mark the core of your tactical success. If you're able to do this, the first few years will be a cinch.

Early Formations?

Ah, this will be an easy one. Formations are generally different from player to player. If something works, it'll probably work for me sort of deal. For a horse archer formation, this sort of thing is very easy in the beginning when you have very few men.

At the start, you'll have two armies that consists of a family member, a medium-armored horse archer, two armor-less horse archers, and a foot archer. Here's generally what I use here:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ka/Battle2.jpg

Family member at the fore, to absorb enemy missiles and charges. The 19 armor basically makes it very difficult to kill them. Loose formation
Foot archer right after. Loose formation
Medium-armored horse archer.
Then the two armor-less horse archers.

This works for me. You can certainly choose something that works for you. This definitely isn't even the best formation. I haven't had time to think some up just yet. If you get rid of that foot archer, you can just erase the foot archer part of the formation and it wouldn't make much of a difference.

This formation also works much better in the regular RomeTW.exe where enemies don't seem to target based on if the missile will kill, but rather on range. I use the RomeTW-alx.exe so this formation is sort of a necessity.

Walkthrough/AAR?

I had a fun little shindig with the Saka for about six years on VH/M. Then I decided to do this guide where I used M/M. This covers the first three turns only. I didn't plan on playing the campaign for longer than it took to get out of debt.

So I hear you're in heavy debt? 50,000 mnai and counting? The answer to this? Blitz everything. Do like the usual nomadic steppe people did in history, go in and go out in a blink of an eye. Start using horse archers only with minor cavalry on the side.

You'll have to get a ton of heroic victories to pull off what is done in this walkthrough. You'll be tactically strained by the end! Anyways, on with the show.

Definite Spoilers here from here on out, though there probably were a couple before too. Anyhoo...


Spring, 272 BCE

As is usual with every other gameplay guide around here...

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ka/Advisor.jpg

Click your starting town of Chighu

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...TownScript.jpg

or your faction symbol at the lower right

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...tionSymbol.jpg

and you'll see this guy pop up

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.../Showmehow.jpg

Click on show me how to turn on the script, allowing all the yummy reforms and 4-turns per year stuff, as well as everything else that is EB.

Now, you just started out. You're poor.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/Finance1.jpg

4,000 mnai in debt already? How am I going to get out of this? You knew what was coming. Blitz. Some factions you just need to blitz to get going. This is one of them. Do not even try to disband armies. Just not worth it.

First things first, be sure to keep all your towns at the highest tax level for now. Population growth isn't as important as money right now.

Secondly, bring your two units out of your starting town towards your other two units to the south.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...uka/Town11.jpg

Next, you'll have your faction leader to the west. Move him westward towards the town.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ka/Battle8.jpg

Now, it's time for your first battle! Move your southern army to the nearby town.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...akaBattle1.jpg

Here's where the formation comes into play. Let the enemy horse archers shoot your heavily armored family member while the rest of your troops fire away. You'll probably see most of the enemy just simply at the town square, very tightly packed, like so:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ka/Battle3.jpg

Your arrows will do quite well here. Once most of the horse archers are gone, make sure not to get into a shooting match with foot archers. They're simply too numerous for you to deal with. Now, for this and every other battle you'll have, send in your general and your medium-armored horse archer to mop up the rest of the enemy. Try to lure the enemy away from the town square a bit. Easy kills if they turn into routing status.

The battle shouldn't be too hard, though you might suffer a few casualties. You can safely occupy this town. You should make this town your capital as well, it'd make for a very good center for your next few settlements. Your original settlement has enough public order to deal with the distance to capital penalty.

Now, move your army at Chach southwards again, though don't bring your foot archer with you.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ka/Battle5.jpg

Afterwards, go back into Chach.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ka/Battle4.jpg

I strongly suggest building Camp Preparations and Indigenous Settlements. Same goes for Chighu as well. You should have enough money for it. Health bonuses are my favorite bonuses. More population means more money and the public order means any potential squalor is already dealt with. Indigenous Settlements is just a 200 mnai thing that grants a very nice 5% public order, which you'll eventually need. You won't have many troops to garrison towns with my strategy. First time I played, I conquered ten regions and recruited only one unit of skirmishers.

End turn.

Congratulations! You just got attacked by a rebel stack! Probably. I met this rebel stack twice so you'll probably see it too.

This battle should be very easy. Enemy has only a captain in command. Every one of their units should easily rout. Just plant your units on a hill like so:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ka/Battle7.jpg

and start shooting. Send in your armored horse archers if necessary. Your general should devastate all the enemy units in a melee.

Summer, 272 BCE

Now, move your two two-unit stacks south of your starting settlement towards Sulek again. And move your army south of Chach towards Alexandreia-Eschate.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ka/Battl18.jpg

Should be a relatively simple battle against two units of infantry. I obtained single digit losses, mainly from their archer-spearmen targeting my no-armor horse archers. Just charge with your general as necessary. They'll regenerate later. I exterminated the population here. Got a restless sleeper trait as well as almost a thousand mnai.

Destroy the Seleukid government there.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/Battle17.jpg

Now it's time for a finances update!

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/Finance2.jpg

As you can see, the national debt has withered down to only a thousand mnai now! Our treasury is still green as well, for now anyways.

Anyways, put one of your horse archers in the town and head west towards Marakanda with the rest of the army.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/Battle12.jpg

Now, bring your attention to your faction leader once more.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ka/Battle9.jpg

Start moving towards the neighboring town and take it! Basically the same strategy as you used to take Chach. A little more difficult considering you have less men, but it should be alright. You have a brain! Brains are good! I hear they're also very fatty, but that's a story for another day.

Occupy that and start heading towards Khiva.

Move your army at the far east towards Sulek again.

End Turn

Autumn, 272 BCE

Woohoo, Autumn! The season of red leaves and the last season of regular warfare. Send faction leader southwest towards Khiva. Send armies at far east towards Sulek.

Now, for the last part of this section of the guide, send your army of men from Alexandreia-Eschate towards Marakanda. This part of the guide is actually where most games skew. In my first game, a full stack of Baktrians got to Marakanda one turn before I got there, leading to that humongous victory I earned some few pages ago. This time, the town rebelled just the turn prior. So... take the town! For fun, let's exterminate that town too! And fight a Seleukid mini-stack right after!

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/Battle13.jpg

So how about the finances now?

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/Finance3.jpg

Income in the green; treasury in the green. No debt! Expect reforms to come in thirteen turns.

Now as to what to do now... I made your eastern army move east towards Sulek because I wanted you to take it. Usual tactics. Just make your armies be in loose formation. I made your faction leader move towards Khiva because it's usually not very heavily guarded. Your army in Marakanda? Move it towards Nisa. In my first campaign, I killed off Pahlava in the winter of 271. Then I moved towards Baktria, killed them off in 268. Pahlava's army generally wanders off a little from their towns and Baktria has only one settlement now. Just either put a few spies in there or siege it with a weaker, but horse archer-heavy, army and expect them to die soon.

Tips and Other Assorted Mumbo-Jumbo

As I may or may not have said, kill off Pahlava very quickly. Their horse archers will be the only real force you have to contend with. Infantry you will just chew up like those canned baby food.

Continuously move your capital. This is very important for every faction but it's of utmost importance to the Saka whose direction of expansion is only outwards in two directions.

Set taxes on the highest you can at the beginning. You can set it lower later on. At about 266 BCE, I was building things in every province and I was still finding it hard to not have my treasury go over 50,000. I still didn't really recruit any troops then though. At that point, I set my taxes to low in those ungoverned cities then moved my capital outward again.

Don't be scared of cities being captured. You can recapture it later. Just need to have a little flexibility.

Seluk has mines. Nisa has mines. Enough said.

Build an allied government in Baktra and start enslaving towns to funnel population there. Recruit skirmishers from there and make a little mini-stack. Later, move it behind your horse archer stacks to garrison newly conquered settlements. Replace your horse archer garrisoned towns with those guys as well.

Use your family members to fight. They'll dominate. Most of your family members will have the "Lives on the Move" trait anyhow, making them not very good for governing.

Use a lot of spies. Don't bother putting infantry in your horse archer stacks. You'll just move slower. Instead, use spies to open city gates and besiege from there.

Never be afraid of withdrawing. You can spend your arrows on a siege, for example, then run away and come back the next turn. Your arrows will be replenished, their numbers will not. In fact, many of the battles in the walkthrough portion you could get much less casualties just withdrawing, but this would also mean your debt will just grow due to more upkeep and less time having that town.

I don't like to destroy buildings, but you certainly can! Get out of debt fast with the bulldozer! Destroy the enemy buildings right after you conquer them. Sack them! Enslave them! Exterminate them! You'll just feel the repercussions later. If you do what I did, you don't need to do this sort of thing.

For army compositions for later, I suggest about 1/4 to 1/3 heavily armored horse archers and the rest lightly armored. Of course, always keep the heavily armored ones as the vanguard.

Afterword

I have nothing to say. Hope you had fun reading this guide, this very, very long guide.

Any criticisms and additions are welcome.

If anybody's too lazy to play through the first turns... that's right, I'm talking about YOU, here's a save for right at the end of the walkthrough. Difficulty's M/M. Though, you can only use it if you're using the RomeTW-alx.exe. Don't bother if you're not. You'll just be brought back to the main screen from what I hear.

Well done sir

Excellent guide, well done! :2thumbsup:

Oddly enough I started a saka campaign about an hour ago and this seriously helped me.

Thanks a lot...:2thumbsup: :2thumbsup: :2thumbsup:

I think this deserves do be stickied?! :2thumbsup:

Seconded! I once tried the Saka and lost very early in the game. Maybe other made the same bitter expierience as me. This probably will encorage many players to try it again with that faction.

Remember my guide, shown in my "Of Mail and Men" AAR: Baks for Breakfast, Pahlava for Lunch, World for Dinner.

footarchers: carry rams
HAs: butterflies
enobles: bees
catas: sledgehammers

Very nice, it is good to see that Saka can be debt free in under 1 year, so in some senses their difficulty is overrated for an experienced player. I may never play Saka as a Campaign, but my most memorable game as Baktria was defined by my 20 year struggle to pacify them, and their strengths were exactly mobility, speed, and ruthlessness. Just try chasing HA's around with phalanxes! I dare You! Oh well, good guide, definately worthy of being Stickied...

Very good guide. I just recently started a Saka campaign on 1.1 and I followed a fairly similar strategy to the one that you used. It is now in the mid 260s and I've got a steady economy and the Pahvlava are on their last breath.

I think that the Saka are much easier in 1.1 than in 1.0 because now you can take 5 settlements in the first year. (Sulek, Gava-Saka, Alexanria-eschate, Chalk, and Mazaka).

One thing I think you forgot to mention is to use foot archers against enemy horse archers.

This needs to be stickified. :yes:

An excellent guide, inspired me to start a Saka campaign. :charge:

A lot of good tips. I think maybe it would be better to make one thread called "Gameplay Guides" and let it just be one post and close it and sticky it. Then in that post link to all these gameplay guides, *then* unsticky all the other old ones. It would remove some of those old ones and keep new ones made by fans updated in it too. Will be later today before I can make it though.

This is exactly what I asked for on the main forum!

People who have experience in a faction to give detailed reports in a factual, gameplay manner - a guide!

I hope this is stickied, and also left open for other Saka players to give further advice.

Edit:

Grand idea, Teleklos!

Wish I had this before I started mine

Of course in VH battles AI archers of any kind will shoot appart your units no matter how well armored they are and whether they are in loose formation or not.

Very well done!:2thumbsup: But I would also like to read a guide on the Saka after the indo-saka reforms.:rtwyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Olaf The Great

Oddly enough I started a saka campaign about an hour ago and this seriously helped me.

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Glad to hear it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gamegeek2

Remember my guide, shown in my "Of Mail and Men" AAR: Baks for Breakfast, Pahlava for Lunch, World for Dinner.

footarchers: carry rams
HAs: butterflies
enobles: bees
catas: sledgehammers

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Those early nobles certainly do sting... I like to keep all cavalry/horse archer armies though, so I don't have rams. Foot archers slow down my movement. The eastern cities are very weakly garrisoned so they're very prone to rebellion if you stick a few spies in there. If they don't rebel, the gates are opened anyhow so you might as well just take it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Irishmafia2020

Just try chasing HA's around with phalanxes! I dare You! Oh well, good guide, definately worthy of being Stickied...

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That would certainly be a thing I would not like to experience more than once! Generally, if I somehow had all-infantry armies, I'd just make the enemy horse archers expand all their ammo. The AI hardly ever make too many of those cataphract horse archers so I win anyhow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by woad&fangs

One thing I think you forgot to mention is to use foot archers against enemy horse archers.

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Ah yes, right. I did forget. Though, if you follow my guide, you won't ever have a chance to fight much against horse archers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Parallel Pain

Wish I had this before I started mine

Of course in VH battles AI archers of any kind will shoot appart your units no matter how well armored they are and whether they are in loose formation or not.

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Indeed. VH battle difficulty is just simply a pain. One of the reasons why I would never do such a thing. It's masochism!

lol i played the saka rauka to great effect and got many indo greek units but also my favorite was the body guard i conquered almost all regions east of babylon very fun

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Korlon

Indeed. VH battle difficulty is just simply a pain. One of the reasons why I would never do such a thing. It's masochism!

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Heh, yes I've already been called a masochist at least once for doing both Saka Rauka and Saba in VH/VH.:laugh4: :yes: :smash: :laugh4:

I haven't been ableto get this together, but I really want to see a battle between a mighty, balanced, veteran seleukid army and the same for the Saka, both led by 10-star leaders. I'd probavly take the seleukids, but it would difintly be hard-fought!

The side controled by the AI looses.

Though if human control the seleucids it take a bit long to catch all the HA.

Very nice guide there. Very helpful.:yes:

Quite nice; a very good show of how to play the Saka early on. My AAR shows a more aggressive approach early on, taking more settlements but requiring a couple years of treasury rebuilding. This is a fine approach as well.

Excellent guide...it helped me a lot in my own Saka campaign. I took all those rebel/seleukid towns, then marched my armies so that I could take both Parhavian towns in the same turn. Neither Nise or the other city had a garrison, so....that was it for Parhavia. Then, I took Baktra and found out two things.

1. The Baktrians took a city in the far east.

2. There is a full stack marching towards me.

Hope I can handle it...

Two questions:

How do the reforms work? I got them, but none of my units changed...all my settlements are recruiting the same thing. And all the "reform building" does is give me a history of the Real life Saka. Any advice?


How do I get cataphracts? Which building do I need?

Existing units don't change. Just build new barracks in former Greek/Indian towns and you will get the reformed units.

Excellent guide! You should do one for Hayasdan.

Brilliant guide - works like a charm!

I'm having a real problem in my new saka campaign. I took chach and led my armie led by the FL towards the settlement to the west but when the rebels attack me i'm not on the hill, i'm on th base of it and my ha's get slaughtered by the ai's. i'd appreciate some help.

nice guide - I'd like to experience some HA-hours :juggle2:

Great guide mate , thank you very much .

If only the game didn't CTD after major battles , but then , every battle fought as the Saka is a major one , however after having the - financial - ability to retrain , things are going rather smoothly , the battles have become less stressfull , and I just wait the Baktrians to declare war on me ( they actually accepted a peace offer and have kept it for over 6 turns - WOW ) .

My generals are indeed monstrosities , but I already knew that , having played as the Sauromatae .

By the way , is it me or is Saka cavalry a bit slow ? I haven't played the Sauromatae under 1.2 , not even 1.1 , but I was under the impression that they moved faster , if this is right I will have some trouble against them . Anybody who knows please share some info on the matter .

Anyway , off to my empire building .

Satyros

great tactics you've suggested, they really work - i would rarely be so willing to use my generals for doing the frontline work. having done it your way i don't see how else it would work for the Saka's army (at least at the start)

I know I am necroing but this is stickied.
I went to attack the settlement with the family leader as you said, and the stack with saka nobles in it that is Eleutheroi attacked me. My family leader got decimated in a matter of seconds and the rest of my arms was pulverised. It was on flat ground, and M/M. They really arn't that good as you said... and when besieging that first settlement, I lost 100 horse-archers. I never played with horse-archers before, people say they are good but they are a bit crap to me.

Thanks, great guide by the way, I am going to start a Saka campaign, would you mind doing a guide for the Sweboz or Hayasadan?:2thumbsup:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...quot&p=2455137

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...ayasdan-Advice

If you look further you'll find more advice threads about the two factions, they might be pretty old, though.

It is great to be playing again, despite limited time in returing to college. The discovery of setting my processor to one core for RTW.exe means that in 2012 I was able to complete a campaign for the first time, making this mod far more enjoyable.

I started a Saka campaign this month, and had to restart three times due to difficulties fighting Baktria in Marakanda/ Eschate. Now in deciding to eliminate Baktria by taking Baktra and Kophen, I have caught the attention of AS. So far it's a lot of fun, giving me fond memories of playing as Scythia in vanilla RTW.

My question has to do with setting up governments and getting the troop selection I want. In all the other factions I've played as, I destroy the government buildings of the previous owner and establish my own. For example, as Carthage I would tend to build Gov 3s until I started getting into Germany or AS territory and Gov 4s became necessary.

With the Saka it is not so clear what I am supposed to do to get the soldiers I want. (Note that I have the Reforms)

My understanding so far has been that after I destroy the gov building, I then "migrate" instead of the usual 1-turn military occupation "building" I am used to. Then I can choose Nomadism for easier cavalry recruitment, or pastoralism for foot archers and markets.

1) I have seen it hinted that there are ways of establishing an allied government but am not sure exactly how that is done. So far in experimenting, all I have discovered is that if do not demo the previous government buildings, I then have an option of building a barracks. That for me now means recruting persian archers usually, and that is fine for establishing a garrsion and allowing my armies to move on. It's not very good for order though, early on, with the culture penalty. I am wondering if leaving the previous gov buildings alone like I found out here is the "allied government" and if all that means is getting the local conscription barracks.

2) Now that I am fully at war with the AS, I am greatly concerned about obtaining my Indo-Iranian reform units. I assume I will be able to recruit the spearmen almost everywhere. The only help I found in the game as far as how to recruit spearmen is by making the "small nomadic settlement" and then the "large nomadic settlement" and I see in the north that is letting me build Saka light spearmen. I assume in the Indian territories I will be able to produce the Indo-Hellenic spearmen, skirmishers, and elephants, but am not sure if that is by building a pastoral gov't, then the small and large nomadic settlements, or if by leaving the gov't alone and then building the native barracks. I normally prefer to experiment, but these buildings take many seasons to build, and the AS are starting to bring stacks of kleurouchoi and argyraspides at me, and I would like some spearmen to help pin them and take city walls now and then. And also sometimes what the buildings and the recruitment viewer say you will be able to do isn't necessarily so, therefore I am trying to plan smart and ask people who have played Saka before. Thak you for your time.

Edit: I loaded up the game today and remembered something else I was missing: Saka Hellenic Hoplites. The recruit viewer shows them in Baktra and Taksashila as far as places that are near me, but they aren't recruitable. Hrmmmm.