Horse archers - How to deal with them?

[Woreczko]

On a strategical level, don`t bother to fight HA armies in the field. Take their cities instead. For this purpose thureophoroi are your friend. Spear armed, decently armoured and cheap, they can chew through anything, nomads will throw against you in melee. Just get to the town square and wait till the timer runs out. Thureophoroi are also much more flexible than phalanxes, when you need to react quickly to a flank charge and whatnot - in my anti-nomad armies they take the role of main infantry unit along with lots of foot archers.

[Che Roriniho]

okay, thanks ahgain. now I'm having problems withthose damned selucids. I have 1 army, and that is dealing ith a rebal army that's standing over the road connecting Baktria and Prophtasia. Also having money problems.

EDIT: Bastards are ust about to take Baktra. beause I can't afford much of an army, but I have FM's pouring out of my ears (I have about 10, and only 4 provinces [soon to be 3])All I have defending it is 2 faction members. should be fun, unless I can REALLY pull something out the bag EDIT: The bag has been pulled!)

[Hax]

Actually, Indian Longbows, despite whatever their description says, only have 153 range. HA have 187 and up. Which means Ha will dominate them something fierce.

That might very well be true, I've never used them myself, just rumours I heard. The internet is a dark place...

[Che Roriniho]

Just consulted my Unitcards collection, and it's true that HA wildly outrange anything else (I would have thought Elephants would be able to outrange them, but apparantly not...) And Baktria can't recruuit Indian Longbowmen. Still, I can get Toxotoi Syranikoi, which outrange them both. The longest firing ones though, are the scythian and sarmatian foot archers, both of which have a range of 198. Don't actually know what the longest ranged non-artillery piece in the game is. The longest I could find was the Early Yuezhi Nobles, with 202.

[Fondor_Yards]

That might very well be true, I've never used them myself, just rumours I heard. The internet is a dark place...

Heh even other normal eastern archers dominate them, the lowest any other has is 165 range. However, I found if you use them as garrison troops they will destroy everything since enemy archer's can't really hit them, they get the range boost from the walls, and their AP meele means even elites have trouble with them.

And Baktria can't recruuit Indian Longbowmen.

Yes they can, their ingame name is Hindus Patiyodha, they can get them in all 3 indian provinces.

[Poulp']

like many others;
slingers.
I should add, slingers on a higher ground than the horse archers you're dealing with.

And you should remember not to play on the enemy's terms; don't fight HA on the steppes, fight them in the streets, streets of their cities. Phalanxes are sitting ducks for HA on the plains, the reverse is true; 2 or phalanxes working in concert become a deadly trap for HA.

[Irishmafia2020]

The cheap answer is Subeshi Archers (available from level one regional barracks to North of Baktra). they possess 198 range compared to 187 for HA's. You can get Subeshi archers at that Alexandria to the North of Baktra, and also to the city in the Valley north of Kophen. These archers are meant to even your odds against the HA hordes. They outrange the HAs, and you can put them directly behind a couple of phalanxes for their own protection. You can even place them behind archer-spearmen, who can handle an unarmored early HA charge. I recommend that you capture a city that produces Subeshi archers, and then match them up with three cheap native phalanx units, and throw in four Persian archer spearmen to use on the flanks. Use 4-5 family members as a cavalry element, and you have the army that you can use to capture the three cities to the north of Baktra (Marakanda, Alexandria, and that one across the river...). Then you can build up Alexandria's MIC level and they will produce good regional and factional troops that you can use to defend the north while you're real army gets busy against the AS.

To summarize - Subeshi archers are cheap and outrange HA's, Persian archer spearmen are very cheap, and they can take a charge, plus shoot back while in range. Your family members all have bad@ss bodyguard cavalry. That is your anti-HA army!

[satalexton]

don't even bother fighting them, chase them away with decent protected cavalry and go straight at their settlements.