The Sarmatians - I'm dirt poor

[Spartan498]

I really really want to have a successful Sarmatian campaign but I'm so poor. Does anyone have any suggestions on which way I should expand or even better, some key settlements that I should take to boost my economy?

So far, I've taken a number of the rebel settlements and I'm starting to expand into Saka lands since they betrayed me. However, I can't afford much more than a couple units to join a few family members as my entire army, let alone try to upgrade my existing settlements with buildings.

using what little army I do have in the East against Saka is leaving my entire rest of my empire to the West completely open to invasion since I'm only able to afford one cheap archer unit per settlement as my garrison.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks all!

[athanaric]

Sarmatians have the worst economy of all factions. And they are the most bugged faction.

My recommendations:

1) Since you are new, don't feel bad about exploiting the power of your bodyguard riders. They're possibly the most fearsome unit in the game, and can take on well nigh anything (apart from being almost immune to arrows). Prolonged melee against certain units (Elephants or elite spearmen/axemen) should be avoided nevertheless.

2) There are some tips for gameplay around. This thread includes specific Sauromatae tips:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...or-new-players.

3) Set taxes as high as possible (without causing unrest or population drain), build healers and temples of the Sun (+law). Build mines ASAP.

[XSamatan]

Athanaric beat me :(

[Spartan498]

Cool, thank you. What exactly to the Healers do? I see those buildings that add health but short of preventing plagues, what measureable effect to they have in the game?

One other question to add on to this post......Who has more uber horse archers? Sarmatians or Saka or maybe even Pahlava (i heard something about them having the best cataphracts but not sure about HA)? My goal with playing a faction like this is to have a Mongol-esque army of unstopable horse archers sweeping down upon all unfortunate human beings that have to rely on their own two feet to fight.

[athanaric]

Athanaric beat me :(

Har har har. Another step towards world domination...

Cool, thank you. What exactly to the Healers do? I see those buildings that add health but short of preventing plagues, what measureable effect to they have in the game?

1) Prevent plagues
2) give enormous health boost (+10%)
3) cheap
-> most cost-effective building, along with paved roads. A must build.

One other question to add on to this post......Who has more uber horse archers? Sarmatians or Saka or maybe even Pahlava (i heard something about them having the best cataphracts but not sure about HA)? My goal with playing a faction like this is to have a Mongol-esque army of unstoppable horse archers sweeping down upon all unfortunate human beings that have to rely on their own two feet to fight.

Their HAs are all about equal. Saka Rauka have the highest range of all factions though. Pahlava has the best armour among the nomads. And the best economy.
The faction most like the Mongols (although they are still Iranian) are the Saka - farthest east, best bows, very versatile cavalry roster.

[Spartan498]

+10% health as in hit points for your troops? If so, that's friggin amazing and I can't believe I didn't know that before....Definitely a must build if that's the case.

[athanaric]

+10% health as in hit points for your troops? If so, that's friggin amazing and I can't believe I didn't know that before....Definitely a must build if that's the case.

Nooo, health bonus to your economy. It adds to population growth and happiness. Like the boni you get from sewers.
No building gives extra health to troops, only extra experience in some cases.

e:
on second thought, that would be hilarious. "Meet my 5 HP elite cataphracts. Just to be on the safe side, I've also added some extra stamina and defence skill to them."

[Spartan498]

Thank you. The more and more I read thru these forums, I'm liking Saka and Pahlava more for their cavalry. Probably going to do Saka since it seems they have the better HA as you mentioned above. I'll just have to conqueor other territories to make money with them...probably move south into India to do so.

Thank you again!

[Tenebrous]

For my sarmatian campiagn i went and raided selucia and babylon right off the bat. A little ahistorical, but I didnt cheat and it sure boosted my population when i exspelled them!

[athanaric]

For my sarmatian campiagn i went and raided selucia and babylon right off the bat. A little ahistorical, but I didnt cheat and it sure boosted my population when i exspelled them!

Not really ahistorical, actually. The Alans once conducted a huge raid into Persian territory, which was so bad that the ruling dynasty (can't remember if Parthians or Sassanids) asked the Romans for assistance. The Romans, meanwhile, sat by and watched gleefully...

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

With steppe factions, DON'T defend your towns with a strong garrison. Just don't do it. A few archers to keep the peace and allow normal and high tax levels are ALL you need to garrison a town.

If an enemy army comes towards your town, attack them with your cavalry-based army before they reach it. Fight the enemy on the open steppe. Do NOT fight large defensive sieges - that's for Greeks!

If you can't intercept an enemy army before they hit your town, and they take it, don't worry! It's not a problem! It's only a temporary setback. Just muster your cavalry-based army in your own time. Wait for most of the enemy army to leave the settlement, then go and kill them on the open steppe. Then, with the bulk of the enemy army destroyed, go and polish off the few remaining survivors in the town itself. Hey presto, you've got your town back.

Steppe factions should not bother defending their towns strongly. They should just go and take them back if someone occupies them. Think like the Russians against Napoleon - they let him take Moscow, but after he'd taken it, he found out that he didn't really want it anyway...

[Grade_A_Beef]

Pahlava has the most heavily armored units of the steppe factions, as well as the best economy (incredibly slow to set up though, due to reformed government requirements.)

Saka Rauka has the best range as well as good late game infantry (for steppe factions)...they actually have factional infantry elites.

I'm not sure about the Sauromatae, but I've been told that they have the cheapest horse archers of the three. You'll need it to deal with the big advantages the other two steppe factions have over you. They also have good stamina cataphract bodyguards....a big plus.

[Spartan498]

When you say that the Saka have the best range, does that mean a large range of units to recruit or range as in being able to shoot far?

[Drunk Clown]

When you say that the Saka have the best range, does that mean a large range of units to recruit or range as in being able to shoot far?

The latter.

[Grade_A_Beef]

On a side note the Sauros can recruit their factional horse archers anywhere on the map, which can be either useless (in the forests of Germany) or awesome (everywhere else.)

[Fluvius Camillus]

One thing I know about horse archers from my Seleucid campaign:

Dahae Noble Cavalry is absolutely the most annoying sort of horse archers I ever encountered!

~Fluvius

[Spartan498]

Are the Dahae Noble Cavalry also recruitable by Sauro? I've seen them recruitable via the barracks for a Saka campaign that I tried.

[Duguntz]

well, i think so, but I'm not 100% sure

[athanaric]

Are the Dahae Noble Cavalry also recruitable by Sauro? I've seen them recruitable via the barracks for a Saka campaign that I tried.

Everybody can recruit them.

[vartan]

Dahae Noble Cavalry is absolutely the most annoying sort of horse archers I ever encountered!

I wish it didn't cost over 3k to get 'em though!

[moonburn]

the sarmatians got the cheapest horse archers and they can be recruited directly from the mercenary pools (a big plus when you must muster a quick army)

that means that if you blitzkrieg you can hack and slash and keep going only making 1 or 2 quick stops at the steeps to collect a few more units before restarting the hack and slash of greeks and other weak people

they are also blessed with the best fm bodyguards of all until the appearence of the katraphact bodyguards, as for the dahe confederation i always assumed they where the same as the parnii (aka as parthians) the big diference is that the phalavians decided to setle after conquering parthia but before the conquest of parthia the dahe confederacy includes the parnii

[Dram]

On a side note the Sauros can recruit their factional horse archers anywhere on the map, which can be either useless (in the forests of Germany) or awesome (everywhere else.)

The sauros still need a nomad hidden resource so they can implement nomadism though right? They have awesome HA's. The Aorsi riders are probably the best value HA's - 290 upkeep, some armour/shield and have a spear with 27 charge.

I chose Saka over Sauromatae in my latest campaign because I noticed that when I clicked on enemy ports it didnt say anything. When playing as any other faction it says something about increased trade routes. I assumed that Sauromatae cannot build ports or recieve income from ones that they capture... does anyone know if thats right?

Edit: Just tested it myself. They can use pre-existing ports. However they cannot build more anything more than 'coastal clearing' in a nomad or pastorialism province. I just did this in Cheronesos, but if they captured a city where they can install a client ruler government they might be able to build a basic port.

[athanaric]

The Aorsi riders are probably the best value HA's - 290 upkeep, some armour/shield and have a spear with 27 charge.

Their range and morale is less than that of their Skythian and Dahae counterpart, though.

I chose Saka over Sauromatae in my latest campaign because I noticed that when I clicked on enemy ports it didnt say anything. When playing as any other faction it says something about increased trade routes. I assumed that Sauromatae cannot build ports or recieve income from ones that they capture... does anyone know if thats right?

The Sauromatae AI can build trade ports, the player can't. It's plain silly but I guess it's just some sort of mistake in the game.

[Madoushi]

Spread west for Tarais and the place northwest of it, due west from your starting locations, Gerogis or whatever it's called; or north for Gava-Yugra and the cities around it. Try and leave some buffer space between yourself and the Sakas and Pahlava. Once you conquer two or three cities, your economy should be in the black, and your debt should be slowly disappearing. Once you have positive revenues, that's a good time to build up your roads and economic buildings.

By this point, you should be able to gobble up most of the Eleutheroi around you, and can focus on the Saka, as they're the most likely to eventually attack your your territory. Remember if any army looks scary to you, whittle it down through skirmishing. Shoot all your arrows, retreat, rinse, repeat.
It's particularily useful when you're deep in debt and can't reinforce your non-FM HAs.