Nomad questions

**Cyrus** · 12-08-2008, 22:58

Ok I have one more question, is there a reason that warlord's elite herds never allow any unit recrutment? Is it they start only after you build the reformed government?

**MerlinusCDXX** · 12-09-2008, 01:39

Elite Herds is just the precursor building to Warlords Horse Herds and offers no recruitment, recruitment from the Warlord's Herds building is dependent on AOR of steppe units (and, of course, faction). I forget what units the Pahlava get out of them (some kind of noble cavalry I believe, plus regular horsearchers with pastoralism- Pahlava is the only faction that can get regular, non-noble horsearchers with pastoralism). The building line is upgradable all the way to High King's Herds, which is where Parthian Cataphracts are recruited from, I forget what the levels in between are called. When upgrading a settlement to get the reformed government, building the Settled Aristocracy upgrade disables recruitment for the herds line. Recruitment with the Reformed Government depends on regular MICs like most factions get. Those MICs are what get you the ParthoHellenikoi Thureophoroi (your first crack at decent infantry), Kardaka Arteshtar (Persian Hoplites) , and the highly feared Grivpanzers (Grivpanvar- late Cataphracts), plus you can get most of the old (pastoralism) steppe and regular Eastern units depending on AOR.

**Cyrus** · 12-09-2008, 09:43

And are the elite herds necessary for the reformed government?

**johnhughthom** · 12-09-2008, 15:29

Originally Posted by MerlinusCDXX

Elite Herds is just the precursor building to Warlords Horse Herds

So without them you can't get Warlords Horse Herds, which is a requirement for the reform.

**Cyrus** · 12-13-2008, 19:53

Ok i'm practically done with the pahlava campaign so i decided to give a go at the "dreaded" saka, and i must say it's slightly more difficult that the pahlava one, so on with the questions!!!!!!!!!! Yaaaaay

1) I took chach and led the army 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.
2) how different are thir gov.'s from the pahlava ones?
3)what is the deal with FM's they are real monsters!?!?!?!?! How can 1 unit of boodyguards slaughter 3 ha's and 1 foot archer with 20 casualties?
4)reading aar's ,general questions here and about and from personal experience i know the AI is retarded....i mean he has the brain of a banana.....why is it? is it possible to improve it by giving him simple battle schemes? how does the AI work?
I thank every one in advance for replys and the previous ones.

**Marcus Ulpius** · 12-13-2008, 20:11

I can't help you with Saka, but to your question about AI. It hardly can be called artificial "intelligence". It is very straightforward, simplistic and non-flexible. Put it in any non-standard situation and it won't have a clue, so potentially hard battle can be turned into one sided massacre.

Like lately I was able to catch KH army on march to some 3 levy units on the hill. I hit the main bulk of their marching army with line of phalanxes and AI, despite having 4 general units was slaughtered, while losing a faction leader and 2 generals. It probably couldn't win in any case, but it could be an interesting battle where I could take some losses, instead I lost 100 men and killed around 800. Of those 100 lost the most were peltastai.

From what I know battle AI is hardcoded and can't be changed, although in M2TW they say it can be modified.

**Ludens** · 12-13-2008, 21:45

The battlefield A.I. can be improved a bit by installing a formation mod. Don't expect miracles, though.

**MerlinusCDXX** · 12-13-2008, 22:12

With Saka-Rauka, you want to go for Nomadism wherever you can, except for Baktra, Taksashila, and maybe 1 or 2 more towns (Arbela, I think). You won't get any type of civilized government unless you use an allied gov't. The cities I mentioned above are where you get your Indo-Greek units, which you need the Allied state for. The reason you want Nomadism is that most of your cheaper units (line HAs, riders, and light lancers) won't be recruitable with Pastoralism. The only units that the Saka get out of Pastoral settlements are expensive Nobles, Saka Bodyguard cavalry (cataphracts), and foot archers/light spearmen. Pastoralism is good in regions where you can't go nomad and (A) have good economies and are far from the front lines when you don't want to fund another Allied King or (B) offer a good foot archer unit under pastoral settlement recruitment line that isn't available elsewhere i.e. Media and Eymais (Ekbatana and Susa) with the Persian Heavy archers from the level 2 settlement bldg.

Pahlava is played as a Nomad nation abandoning the steppes and becoming Pastoralist, and the Saka are played as a Nomad nation with no incentive to change their lifestyle, other than adding a bit of civilized innovation to their armies. The Pahlava are re-ordering their society from within, but the Saka are only reordering the upper strata of their "dependent" states' societies.

**Cyrus** · 12-14-2008, 00:22

Thank you all,that was really helpful, where might i find a history of what really happened to the saka? i searched on wiki and google but they only talked about them in eb terms.....
Plus i seem to have lost a site someone once gave me on learning how to mod, i was wondering if anyone could give me something similar, please.
If i wanted to change colors to a faction how do i do it?
If i want to change the stats of a unit how do i do it?
thx every one

**Celtic_Punk** · 12-14-2008, 15:22

alright screw this Its time for this guy to try a nomad campaign

**Cyrus** · 12-14-2008, 16:06

What!?!?!?!?!?
Are you talking about me? If so i think i made it pretty clear that i have............
Oh and would anyone mind answeing my questions? they've been up for quite some time.....

**Tristuskhan** · 12-13-2008, 21:22

Originally Posted by Cyrus

1) I took chach and led the army 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.

Toggle skirmish mod off for your HAs and rush for the top of the hill. Enemy HAs will skirmish away and leave you the hilltop. You'll first take casualtiesbut should get the upper hand quite fast. And moreover, every single man you have cost you too much in upkeep, so losses are welcome (or are they not?

)

Oh, put your HA in loose formation and use your FM as a shield (he and his bodyguard are almost arrow-proof).