Actually, this is somewhat simplistic, albeit helpful from a strategical point of view. I personally found it much more effective to divide the Pahlavân armies using detachments as generals would have done in real life. Let me illustrate the essentials of this strategem.

Rear-guard
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Main army
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Foraging party
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Scouting party


Legend: The distance between each contingent could theoretically be measured in "parasang"/schoenus or "throw of a stone", which measures between 3.25 or 3.5 miles. This is of course not possible in RTW terms due to the mechanics of reinforcements, so we have to measure it into tiles.

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The rear-guard, foraging party and the scouting party don't need to consist of high-end troops or be particularly numerous. My minimum requirement is two units per contingent. They are just the shell covering the nucleus, the main-army. They are there to weaken and harass the enemy, luring them off, hit-and-run, inflict damage and retreat, rinse and repeat.

The scouting party should strictly be a few horse-archers and only horse-archers; you need the maximum available mobility. The foraging party is slightly more elaborate as I like to make it slightly larger than the scouting party and to include a unit of medium cavalry or two. Casualties are usually minimal because the intention is to inflict as much damage as possible and usually retreat once ammunition has depleted. It is important for all these contingents to consist purely of cavalry and to be of some distance from the main army in order to have a strategical advantage. This is the key in being able to defeat almost any army.

It is however absolutely rubbish against other nomadic factions; they will lead to losses of entire units. In cases of waging war against nomads, the bigger and badder the host with bows and arrows the better. Dominance of armour is another decisive factor. So thus I have two very different paradigms of warfare whenever playing as the Pahlavân.

Personally, I always go for Bactria first; traditional rushing mentality, but it is always more convenient and prudent in gameplay terms to eliminate the threat when it's still in its cradle. For role-playing purposes however, Bactria is indeed a potential bulwark against pesky Sakae, however due to how the diplomacy works, you can never trust another faction, making the role-playing a bit of an awkward matter.