Tips for starting a Pahlava campaign

[anubis88]

I really need some help here guys. Pahlava is one of the few factions, with whom i haven't played any serious campaigns... the reason for this was, that i'm more at home with infantry based factions, than nomad ones, and every time i started a campaign, i lost my nerves after getting attacked by some huge stacks from AS and Baktria, where i could afford even a few horses... I want to try them now, since i got at war with them now as Pontos, and although i always loved their units, i just fell inlove with there Catas, and really want to use them as my own...


So please:
- how to start?
- when to expand?
- where to expand?
- what armies would be "historical" with pahlava?
- any other peculiarities that the nomad factions have?
- how should i try to keep my diplomatic relations?
- what are the unique features of a Pahlava campaign? (i know about the reform)

etc.etc.etc...

I know there are a lot of Pahlava fans out there, so please, help a potential fan become a real fan

[Paltmull]

Check this out :)

[Jebivjetar]

i have some tips from my outgoing campaign (which is my first successful Pahlava campaign)

- go for Baktria first, destroy them and your life will be much more easier
- when you destroy Baktria (at this point you should be in Kophen, since Baktria take that town early in the game), go for AS: leave those rebel towns in India for the future.
- when you conquer a settlement, build local occupation, pastoralism where you can and lvl1 Mic where you can train Hellenic native spearmen.
- in battles, do not rely on horse archers only, train those native spearmen too, and use them as anvil, and your horses as hammer. although Pahlava has good missile units, you will need some melee infantry as well
- primary build your economy (markets, roads etc), because you will need good economy in order to build your reforms and to train Pahlavan reformed units
- do not exterminate citizens of your newly conquered cities: do that only if public order is very low because you don't want your army to get hurt in revolts.
-if you already didn't install EB fix for general recruitment, do that in order to train mercenary generals (in cities where you install Client kingdom)
- in cities where you want to do reforms, no not build highest level Mic before you build Settled aristocracy
- Pahlavan catas are better then Noble catas (higher morale, AP maces...), and are less expensive then nobles, so train them instead of the latter

[polehammer]

Pahlava is the easiest of the nomad factions. An army of 1-2 FMs + 5-8 HAs (use the cheapest ones) can beat almost anything AS or Baktria can throw at you (including full stacks of their infantry!). Do not be afraid of battles when an infantry army outnumbers you heavily. After a couple of battles you will have silver chevroned HAs which can kill even armored units.

Do not attack Saka at the beginning. Rather go south for rich AS lands with mines, and let AS, Baktria and Saka war in the north east.

You can play with cavalry armies only, using archers only for garrison duty. You can even attack cities with pure cavalry armies - the AI will probably sally on the first turn (as they outnumber you) and you are able to conquer the city quickly and efficiently.

[alexanderthegreater]

Funnily, Pahlava is the only faction I never played a campaign with.

[Knight of Heaven]

Im doing a parthian campaing as well. i think it is necessary much work on this campaing. since i rely only on mounted units. so i never have manny garrissons, only an army of horses in some key cities to defend that area, not only a city. anyway at leats in the biginning.
If you have an army of horse archers with family menbers and you are under siege do not be afraid to sally out and destroy the enemy. it will work nice. The anoying part is the enemy is always atacking. So manny battles to do. I did go south first, im allies are the saka, and im at war with bactria and AS. I just conquer Persia from AS but i intend to destroy bactria as well.