
Originally Posted by
konny
Absolutly. You need to think in Mediavel terms: the heavy noble cavalry rules the field and is able to crush everything that you enemies might send against you. You get some fine infantry much later in the game, like Persian Hoplites, Syrian Archers and Armenian Swordsmen; but for now you'll have to do with Caucasian levies and Skythians.
Tacticaly it means that the infantry has a mere auxiliary role. Use lots of archers to shoot down unarmoured enemies and have them protected from enemy cavalry by some cheap spearmen. Don't bother to hunt down enemy light troops (including light cavalry) with your noble horse. That's the job of your auxiliary units. And do not try to attack enemy medium or heavy infantry with your foot. They won't succeed. That's the job of the heavy cavalry.
For the early game you should draft all family members to your army. Keep them together on one wing in a deep formation (in double line). After conquering the first town, you also have Skythian horse-archers and Georgian swordsmen. Hire, for example, two units of each per army: the Georgians to protect your spearmen; the Skythians should try to get in the back of the enemy. They are able to gather much experience very fast, and with one or two silver chevrons they are absolutly lethal shooting in the back even of Seleucide elite phalanx.
The charge of the knights is always the climax and decisive moment of the battle. Wait until your archers have reduced the foe, but do not wait until the enemy got in contact with your infantry. You need to keep your heavy horsemen together to crush with one strike, what follows that you can only attack one enemy unit at a time. Judge carefully and, as soon as the unit you have attacked starts routing, pull out your horsemen and form up for the next attack. Only use light cavalry to hunt down routers.
On the raiding strategy: You can calculate to kill an average of 100 enemies per unit of horse-archers that you use in a raid (on hughe unit size), depending on the armour of the enemy. That means a troop of five units horse-archers can destroy a full stack of enemies in five raids with only a handfull of own losses.
Using raids you should never:
- autocalc
- sent FMs with because these raids are all counted as battles lost. The bodyguards are also to slow to follow the swift movements of the HAs on the field.
- attack the enemy on a spot where the HAs would afterwards retreat to a town different than that where the main army is. Otherwise you'll have to fight the next battle without them.
When defending Armenia against the Grey Death you should make all your infantry garrisons of your towns and use an all-cavalry army that rushes up and down the land to fight off enemy invasions. When this has reached the zone of operations draft foot soldiers from nearby garrisons to fill up the ranks. Sent this infantry back to their garrison towns after the battle and move on with your cavalry.
Offensive you can't do different than take infantry with you. Nevertheless you should always try to get the fighting to open field. Pitched battles in close streets is something where the Greek factions are far superior. So, when you usually would aviod siegeing a town when the enemy still has a field army in that province, it might be wise with Armenia to do exactly this: fighting the field army and the garrison on open field at a time - provided you are not terribly outnumbered doing so.
Economicaly you should focus on mines. Trade is minimal, and even lesser once at war with the Seleucids. Building basic mines in all towns should be the first major project everywhere. Later you'll have another important source of income: plunder.
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