Questions on Sauromatae gameplay

[I of the Storm]

Well, I have never really played a nomad faction before. I now started a sauromatae campaign, 1.2, RTW.exe, m/m and played maybe 10 turns yesterday. Looks fun so far, I might stick to this for a while.

I collected my troops into one army, defeated 2 smaller rebel stacks and took Tanais. Right now, I laid siege to Olbia and hope they will sally, as currently this uber-stack that you can put together with your starting army is a real overkill firepower-wise. Envelop, create crossfire killing zone and wait for enemy to finish dying. I intend to take the Crimea then, hopefully reducing my troops which I suspect I will be needing rather sooner than later against Hayasdan, once they have taken Kolchis(?). Currently I'm already 9K in debt, but I'm not too concerned about this. I hope the three greek settlements there will get me some money.

Anyway, I need some advice by you more experienced nomad players.

1. What about governments. It seems that I can build nomadism only in a couple of steppe regions. In many other regions I cannot build nomadism. There I have to build what? Pastoralism? Client Kingdom? I'm lost here.

2. Military. The main armies will most probably be horse archers of various quality and heaviness for most of the game. But what about local troops, especially in those greek areas on the Crimea? Do I need allied kingdom or pastoralism to access these? In the RV I saw the lovely bosphoran archers. What do I need to build, and where to get them?

3. Speaking of military: Do the Sauromatae get any reforms similar to Pahlava or Saka and if so, what new kinds of military do they get?

4. General strategy: Is the above outlined strategy a feasible one for early game? Should I aim to take out some neighbours early? Blitz Getai or Hai? Is the east baltic area worth the effort at all? Mid- to longterm I'm thinking of aiming for Greece, get rich and then go Hun on everybody else.

5. Language. I can't make out what kind of language the EB team used in the unit descriptions for Sauromatae. Any scientific insight into this subject would be very appreciated. Also, on the battlemap, there seems to be a semi-completed voicemod for them?

Thank you.

[Tolg]

1. You can build nomadism in provinces with a nomadism or a mixed hidden resource, pastoralism in regions with mixed HR or without HR and Client Kingdom everywhere else. Nomadism has a weak economy, but lots of cheap HAs, pastoralism has more infantry units, less cheap HAs and a slightly better economy. CK is basically a Lvl. 4 gouverment.

2. You can't build CKs in the greek cities on the bosphorus and thus you can't recruit Bosp. Heavy Archers (not like you'd need them anyway),unless you leave the Greek lvl. 4 gov. in place. (Cheating, kind of)

3. No reforms AFAIK.

4. Do what you want. The Hai aren't really a problem, neither are the Getai.

5. No clue.

[I of the Storm]

Thank you, Tolg.

Seems like Sauromatae are hardly played around here.

I made good progress having taken Olbia, and the two Crimean cities. I now have the option to invade the Getai who border me or go west/northwest. Going through the Caucasus is not an option for me. While I prolly could take out the Hai rather easily, it would put me in contact with AS, and while I'm still confident that I could take out their still early armies as well with my HA's, it would swallow my resources, methinks.

Anyway, I'm surprised how small an army you actually need to rule the battlefield. I currently have 3 FMs plus 6 of the original 9 HAs remaining (all silver chevroned by now).

Resistance is futile.

Although it does get kinda repetitive after a while, doesn't it?

[HunGeneral]

2. Military. The main armies will most probably be horse archers of various quality and heaviness for most of the game. But what about local troops, especially in those greek areas on the Crimea? Do I need allied kingdom or pastoralism to access these? In the RV I saw the lovely bosphoran archers. What do I need to build, and where to get them?

Like said you can't get them - but neither can anyone else as long you ocupy thoose areas.

3. Speaking of military: Do the Sauromatae get any reforms similar to Pahlava or Saka and if so, what new kinds of military do they get?

No the Sauromatea don't get any reforms. One thing you should know (just in case you haven't noticed) is that the Sauos can recruit all there elite troops (nobles above all since you can't build Nomadism everywhere) all over the map in every province (the Saka can do that also, Pahlav recrutiment is more limited). So actually all you need are some allied kingdoms on the right spot for some infantry, some pastorialism in distant lands for your noble horsemen and Nomadism were you think it usefull.

4. General strategy: Is the above outlined strategy a feasible one for early game? Should I aim to take out some neighbours early? Blitz Getai or Hai? Is the east baltic area worth the effort at all? Mid- to longterm I'm thinking of aiming for Greece,

Well I don't know - haven't played them too long yet. What I would suggest you to consider: if you wan't you could roleplay a more realstic "nomad economy" by using the add_money cheat so that your treasury doesn't go into the red - loans and pays for soldiers is not realistic for Nomads.

get rich and then go Hun on everybody else.

Hmmm... I like the idea. It should work - give 'em hell

At first you can't get many troops as a nomad but you don't really need too many.

Yes it can get repeative - tahts why I have many camapigns going at the same time...

[Centrius]

All I did in my Sauromatae campaign was stuff all my generals in 1 army. (Lives on the Move trait wins.) With a few other low-quality horse-archers. After my generals got 3 golden chevrons. (Which is veeeerrry easy to get with Sauromatae General Bodyguard, they're immortal; even without chevrons.) I could take almost every fullstack town with autosolve. After that I didn't even need the low quality horse-archers anymore, since the Generals could charge even into a wall of pikes and only get 1 to 3 casualties.

Anyway, train your generals tbh. Iirc, they have 43-44 defense with 3 golden chevrons. And about 14 attack? Not much that can stop nor destroy that.

Good luck with the campaign. I enjoyed the Sauromatae a whole lot! Hope you do too! ^_^



- Cent

[I of the Storm]

Thank you all.
The Sauro FMs are tanks indeed. They remind me of the Jedi Kats of old MTW.
Well, I hope to be able to play a bit this week. Maybe I give an update...

Thanks again!

[xzGAB]

So if I am playing Sauromatea and i reach south greece i cant train local troops?

[Mediolanicus]

Yes, you can. You can even train Classical Holplites in Greece.