Yet Another Saka Rauka Thread

[Grriffon]

Hey guys. Trying my first Saka Rauka campaign. I'm on restart #4 currently, lol.

I've only had a little experience using horse archers in my other campaigns, mostly with baktria. I have never had to fight horse archers with other horse archers though, and that's where my problem lies.

I have read this guide https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=103218 but other than saying to use the General as an arrow catcher, it glosses over how to deal with other horse archers. Most of the time I am fighting them, it seems to be in wooded lands or else they are sitting on top the hill of their town square and have added distance to their arrows. they keep slaughtering my own horse archers, and my army gets massively depleted.

My question is, how do you masters of the horse archer deal with OTHER horse archers? In wooded terrain? When assaulting cities held by horse archers? on the open plain?

Thanks for any help/advice you can give.

[Dubius Cato]

Long ranged foot archers on loose. They have more bows than HAs and therefore more firepower. Protect them with FMs against charges.

[Skandinav]

Foot-archers for the added range and using the general or other heavily armored ( or inexpensive for that matter ) unit to absorb most incoming fire really is the best tactic besides charging their HA´s with your own or other light cavalry ( the enemy are probably in skirmish mode and will turn their backs on you while your units will have the charge added to their attack and are most likely to be more experienced ) closing in on them through the relative cover of woods if available while using the players advantage of being able to deploy charge-orientated cavalry effectively.
But anyway, HA´s are your worst enemy and you will take unusually many casualties until your army is more experienced and veterans from just a few battles should be able to counter and defeat most other HA´s in a missile exchange.

[mrtwisties]

I've fought a lot of steppe battles of late, and the keys to my success have been Saka Rauka generals and judicious use of terrain. In essence, you've got to think more like a rifleman than a phalangite.

At the start, picking weak foes (Chach, Alexandreia-Eschate, Marakanda, Gava-Yabgu, Gava-Alanna, Sulek, the enemy army at the north-eastern edge of Dayuan) allows you to win without taking casualties and quickly build up a core force of experienced generals. I'm talking gold chevrons by turn 5. These guys then become deadly with arrows/charges and very, very difficult to kill.

On the steppe, I've also been paying a lot more attention to terrain. Strategically, I try to engage the enemy in a location with hills and/or forests. That way I can be sure there'll be places on the battle map which will confer a significant advantage in an arrow-fire exchange. My tactics then revolve around securing and holding that location. If you're facing nothing but horse archers and riders, the battle is all yours - they'll surrender the premium terrain and die in their thousands. If the enemy has a significant contingent of heavy cavalry, you've got to be more careful about concentrating your forces so that you can break them quickly. These battles are definitely my favourite, since they turn on a knife-edge, but with the Saka Rauka generals you've definitely got the edge.

Anyway, that's how I've been fighting on the steppe. Sieges are a different matter, but there are two tricks you might not know about. First, the exploit: if you just deploy in loose formation and sit there for ten minutes, a steppe cavalry opponent will sally in a piecemeal fashion and lose half his force before he decides to sit tight in the town centre. I recommend not doing this, since it's excruciatingly dull. Second, the real tactic: slaughter any units deployed outside the steppe settlement and then deploy your units in thin, loose lines next to the fences and buildings at the outskirts. This will give them plenty of cover and put them almost on an equal footing with the exposed chumps at the centre. There are often some really good, covered, raised locations within the city, too. I use these locations until their hand-to-hand units are all reduced to 20%, and then I just charge in and take the city centre. You've not seen carnage until you've seen five gold chveron Saka Rauka generals standing at the town centre 20 metres from five horse archer units and shredding them with arrow-fire.

These are the tactics I've been using. Lately, I've been enjoying casualty ratios of at least 100:1 and I wouldn't say I'm a particularly adept player. Good luck with the steppe warfare.

[Grriffon]

Wow, so far I am REALLY enjoying this faction. It's certainly a different playstyle. I have the say though, the Saka Generals are indeed absolute terrors on the
battlefield. I just got done beating a full stack 3000-ish man army of baktria's with about 700 Saka's, and have taken Baktra. finally making a profit and i still have the far eastern town with the mines to conquer.

[Cbvani]

Just took some Saka out for a spin in a custom battle, just to see if I could kill EVERYONE.
Sadly to say, my kills only numbered in the 9000+. 40 of them got away.

[Apgad]

In relatively open ground I find that disabling skirmish mode and charging with an alt+right click works well. The enemy seems to shoot less accurately facing backwards, while your guys have extra impetous. You are also more likely to get a kill when you hit a unit from behind, which is where your arrows are going. Or at least that's how it seems.

[mrtwisties]

In relatively open ground I find that disabling skirmish mode and charging with an alt+right click works well. The enemy seems to shoot less accurately facing backwards, while your guys have extra impetous. You are also more likely to get a kill when you hit a unit from behind, which is where your arrows are going. Or at least that's how it seems.

Agree.