Advice with Nomad Factions

[Marcus Ulpius]

After I finish my current Roman campaign, or even in the middle of it to get some rest from heavy infantry based army, I'd like to try some cavalry based, probably nomad campaign. I decided to get a feeling of it, loaded Sauro campaign and tried for 1 turn. Honestly, I was completely lost.

There are no 4 types of government, instead I had "Migration" and "Local town occupation" or something like that. I also noticed that HA units are quite expensive and there's nothing big enough economically to support cavalry based army in steppes (or at least it looks that way for me after I got used to Mediterranean economy).

Can anyone share some experience as to how to play HA or cavalry factions, which one be the easiest to try (considering that all my previous campaigns were based around heavy infantry) and what are the equivalents of the IV types of government for the nomads. I searched the FAQ, but I didn't find it there.

[Tolg]

First of all, read the first part of the Saka walkthrough: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=103218

It's about using HA.


The governments:

1) Nomadism: Weak economy but cheap HA, no Infantry, possible nomadic and mixed regions.

2) Pastoralism: Some weak infantry and foot archers, Noble HA, better economy, possible in mixed and "normal" regions.

3) Settlements: = regional pacification, necessary to build Allied Kingdoms.

4) Allied Kingdom: = Level 4 Government, impossible in mixed/nomadic regions


Tactics:

Blitz everything. Period.


Please note that I never played Sauromatae and all I know is from my Pahlava and my Saka campaign. (Should be the same for the Sauromatae though)

[mlp071]

You can build "Allied Kingdom" which are equivalent of lvl IV goverment. However you can't build them in provinces that have Nomad or Mixed hidden resources.

Maps for those you can find here :

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=102719

As for how to play them you can check these two topics:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=103172

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=103172


Building tree's for each faction is located in EB folder, under documentation( i don't know how accurate those are ,afaik).

All 3 nomadic factions are quite distinct, so i can't say which one is hardest one.I would say sauro's a little bit easier in beggining , then other 2 but it equals up in about 10 years or so.

With Sauro's (my favorite) you have chance to turtle in beginning and build up, but you don't get any good faction infantry(not that you need any) and their top tier Cavalry units are little inferior in comparison to Saka or Pahlava( they don't get Cataphracts).

Pahlava and Saka pretty much puts you in position to fight from turn 1 and to micromanage even more then in case with Sauro's.In addition to that, they both have reforms , which in Saka case are easily achievable and in Pahlava little more complicated. Pahlava's do get some sort of discount for Cavalry units recruited in certain provinces.

Either way , no matter which one you choose, you can expect lot of against odds fights , whole new micromanagement level and even more fun :)

***EDIT: i guess Tolg beat me to it :) ****

[Yyrkoon]

Cavalry armies are tricksie like the hobbitses. Nomad Factions have hidden resources that are sort of the equivalent of "Homeland" "Subjugation" and "Alliances Available," but for nomads they either allow nomadism, pastoralism, or Allied governments. Nomadism is only available on the steppes or plains. Pastoralism is available most places (if not all) and Allied governments are only available in non-steppe areas.

Economy: It's tough to get started. You're poor. Your neighbors are poor. You don't have much of an army. Ok, so go after some rich fat city. Generally what I find works nicely with Steppe factions is to raid a good-sized city early. With Sauro I just march into the Bosphorous and start sieging. Wait for the garrison to sally and then do that voodoo that you do so well. HA armies are not for sieges. They're for open plains battles. So don't try storming a city unless it has no walls (or stockades) and you outnumber your enemies. You don't want to get drawn into melee. Just camp out and wait for them to attack you while you siege. Military tactics consist of using lots of cheap HA units and peppering the enemy with arrows from 3+ sides. Turn off fire at will and place units on three (or four) sides of the enemy army/unit and fire at its back when it tries to charge your HAs. Take out foot archers first. They focus on other units. Use your FM to charge weakened enemy units. Easy cheesy. Basically a half stack of HAs can take just about anything if you are willing to unload all your arrows, flee and come back as many times as you need to.

[Tolg]

Cavalry armies are tricksie like the hobbitses. Nomad Factions have hidden resources that are sort of the equivalent of "Homeland" "Subjugation" and "Alliances Available," but for nomads they either allow nomadism, pastoralism, or Allied governments. Nomadism is only available on the steppes or plains. Pastoralism is available most places (if not all) and Allied governments are only available in non-steppe areas.

Economy: It's tough to get started. You're poor. Your neighbors are poor. You don't have much of an army. Ok, so go after some rich fat city. Generally what I find works nicely with Steppe factions is to raid a good-sized city early. With Sauro I just march into the Bosphorous and start sieging. Wait for the garrison to sally and then do that voodoo that you do so well. HA armies are not for sieges. They're for open plains battles. So don't try storming a city unless it has no walls (or stockades) and you outnumber your enemies. You don't want to get drawn into melee. Just camp out and wait for them to attack you while you siege. Military tactics consist of using lots of cheap HA units and peppering the enemy with arrows from 3+ sides. Turn off fire at will and place units on three (or four) sides of the enemy army/unit and fire at its back when it tries to charge your HAs. Take out foot archers first. They focus on other units. Use your FM to charge weakened enemy units. Easy cheesy. Basically a half stack of HAs can take just about anything if you are willing to unload all your arrows, flee and come back as many times as you need to.

A few corrections/things to add:

-Pastoralism is available everywhere except in regions with the nomad hidden resource (check the maps thread, you may even want to print them out)

-(Read mlp071's (and my own) post for more details about governments)

-Have all your units in loose formations, the most heavily armoured ones at the front/where the enemy archers are most likely to attack (as you don't have a real front when you surround the enemy)

-Attack no-armour HAs first (prior to the foot archers) if your enemy has any, foot archers can just be run over if there is no infantry to protect them.

-When attacking Settlements with lots of NA HA while having a considerable number of Heavy or medium HA attack them before they attack you. This way you can fight them in melee without loosing soldiers to their arrows.

[SwebozGaztiz]

Well i have played both the saka and sauromatae and both campaigns are awesome, i will give you some advice, you know some of the things that really worked out for me, try to put pastoralism in the cities that have mines, in that way you will can generate some nice income, i know you won't get a huge variety of ha but anyways you need to have some economy as well, try to blitz your enemies believe me you don't want to have half stacks of ha from the sakas or palahvs in my current sauro campaign i took them out of the map asap, as soon as i was getting a positive income that was my main goal, also like one of the guys said try to get those greek bosphoran cities they can help you to generate a good income and well those can be your first conquests but don't expand too fast to the wast, you will start a way(one that you could easily beat) with the getai but that will mean getting closer to any hellenic faction and believe me you will get your share of phalangite battles as soon as you start dealing with the Arche Seleukeia. Another thing after taking the palhavs and sakas your next target has to be the baktrians you really dont want any enemies around really since most of your cities won't even have the most basic wooden walls, their armies will be composed mainly by pantadopoi phalangites and some local rabble, after taking those 3 guys now comes the most interesting part of the campaign, oh and before i continue im sorry if im not talking too much about the government types and that stuff, but like i said before get pastoralism on the cities that seem to be generating really good income and well since nomadism can only be built on the steppes use it at your own criteria, also remember to always upgrade your temples the fire temple is really useful since you get some trade goodies and that will raise the public order, and well also remember to destroy all the buildings that are not useful for you that is also some really easy money. Also remember to send a diplomat to the armenians early on so you can get a ceasefire and an alliance remember you don't enemies coming from every border, that worked for me since i was giving some tribute, but eventually i also wiped them out. Now back on track after increasing your eastern holdings thanks to the palhavs, sakas and baktrians, youre going to engage in a never ending war with your biggest foe, the arche seleukeia, from now on you will start to raid every AS town you can, remember you dont need full stacks you can easily take down armies with a few family members and 5 or 6 ha, those ha don't have to be you know the most expensive ones dahae riders really get the job well done or just the regular sarmatian or saka horse archers, since you will have some family members they can easily take care of almost any heavy cavalry you will find, anyways also remember that you need to avoid big armies ha armies can really take on almost every army but sometimes after you empty your quivers it will be time to retreat and try to fight another day, well i haven't finished my sauromatae campaign but right now my lands strech from scythia to the former saka capital moving on to babylon, it will be hard to keep the order on every town but remember if you have a civil revolt thats a excuse to enslave a town, by the way i like to play my campaigns m/m i think its a really good experience even though most players like vh/m but i just dont find it realist nor challenging, i hope this help you if you have anymore questions just let me know!, enjoy your campaign man!!