Faction strengths?

**seienchin** · 12-06-2009, 12:42

Originally Posted by ARCHIPPOS

In terms of tactics nomads are light years ahead of "civilized" mellee-infantry based factions ... i mean the nomads incorporate notions of firepower, high mobility, manouveuring/fluidity in their gameplay. Also they have an ultra-heavy cavalry branch with which they can storm the weakest parts of the enemy battleline and disengage and withdraw at will (kinda like tank warfare) . With small misleadingly few numbers of troops they can annihilate entire enemey fullstacks (with minimal losses) . In my view nomad warfare is very "modern" ...

What?

You must be talking about the mongols. Yes they were very modern and killed everybody. The fact, that the nomads in the antics didnt play an too important role until the dark ages shows, that their tactics werent as superior.
I know the pahlva once were nomads and I also know that the sakken destroyed baktria, but look at the circumsances and on the development of the parthian forces.

**athanaric** · 12-06-2009, 16:40

I, too, think that's too much of a general statement. There are a lot of other facets we must look at:

- Civilized armies in history and in EB have access to Katapeltai/Scorpiones, which outrange any Nomad unit. Slingers can also be utilized to counter heavy HAs of the period.

- Hellenic and Roman soldiers are quite resilient to arrow fire, especially Hoplites, Legionaries, and the upper tiers of Pikemen. History shows us that arrows alone were not enough to defeat an army in the EB time period.

- Nomadic factions become weaker as the distance between enemy fortifications lessens, not least due to their chronical weakness in terms of siege warfare (with the partial exception of the Pahlavân, who adapted).

- Alexander the Great managed to defeat a Nomad army upon first contact.

**ARCHIPPOS** · 12-06-2009, 17:13

Athanaric all those things you mentioned are very true :)
Still there's no denying that if properly used a nomad army is a terrible irresistible force. Just look at Darius' defeat by the Scythians, the battle of Carrhae, The Mongolian expansion and so on ... strategically and tactically the nomads have the edge of higher mobility (=guerilla warfare)

**Centurio Nixalsverdrus** · 12-06-2009, 21:18

As the Greeks and Romans with their kind of warfare could have never held out in the steppe, the same goes for the Nomad way of warfare in Greece or Italy. Which is kinda logical, but you have to bear it in mind.