Sweboz - How to deal with the Sauro threat freom the east?

[ziegenpeter]

Good day fellow EB-fans!
I recently started another Swe campaign. This time I didnt want to go all gaullish to early, so I took also Carrodunum, Gintaeras-Ostan and my Bastarni brethren.. But this time the Sauromatae are very strogn in the east and did alredy break our alliance. I could fight them of for now by hiring 5 mercenary cav (2Celts,1Germ,2HA) but I lost many troops, for now theren are no cavalry mercenaries around and I can't recruit to much cav in the west yet. Even if I could, the Bastarni are quite remote, it would be a pita to rely only on this.
Obviuously I played some swe campaigs before, but I never tried to hold the Bastarni so early on, or the sauros had other stuff to deal with (Armenias, Sakas, Getai and so on).

Regards

Der ZiegenPeter

[Grade_A_Beef]

Sounds like you'll be in massive pain for the first twenty years of your campaign. Good Luck. I've never played as Sweboz, but as Getai I tried moving into the Cremea region early on to nab Bosphorian Archers.....it cost me thousands of men and endless resources before I got the VC provinces and I literally gave up and just defended those provinces with 6 spearmen in each city after that.

[CashMunny]

In my current Sweboz campaign, I left the Getai to their own devices, and they took Bastarnolandam and Neurije, holding the Sauromatae away from me, as Seliun Gentis has Saures the defender general, so they can't invade Ginataras-Ostan from Sapmi either. It works pretty well, and Lucarottea and Eburonum are my bastions against the Getai incursions every 5-10 years or so they send 3-4 half stacks at me, and I beat them back with my Boii garrisons, rinse and repeat. Eventually, when I decide to take some provinces in the East, I'll probably have no problem from the Sauromatae, because they have lose 2 provinces to the Saka, and 2 to Hayasdan, and have been fighting the strong Getai for a century. Makedonia also keeping the Getai in check in the south, since they took all of greece and North Asia Minor, and have a 2 province Epirus (Dalminion + Epidamnos) as a protectorate against Romans.

I don't think it's good strategy to go east until you have a strong united Germania, because the Getai always have other things to worry about, (I usually see Epirus holding at least half of Getai's homelands by 200B.C., though not in this game) and the Skythians are way too annoying until you have some armored troops, and cavalry/archer support easily available, or they've been severely weakened by other factions and you can just send numberless hordes to absorb arrows. I also find that most of the time in Gaul the Arverni won't attack you until the Aedui are completely wiped out, but the Aedui pick wars with you at the same time they're fighting the Arverni, so it might be useful to keep the Arverni-Aedui civil war around as long as possible, by taking provinces from the one who is winning, and gifting them to the other faction. If they're evenly matched, back the one who is fighting in Italy, or if the Romans drove them both out of Italy, back the Arverni. And always try to keep Celts in North Italy to distract the Romani, and that way the Gauls are even more distracted by the Romans as well as a Civil war and the Lustannians, meaning you're free to develop your economy and military a little more before you have a 3-4 front war going on with Romans/Celts/Getai/Sauromatae.

As the poster below me said, NO you cannot beat the Sauromatae cavalry in the open plains, and you'll have a hard time in unwooded hills as well, though mountains and forests give you a fighting chance. Keep your infantry's fire at will on so if the horse archers get too close they get skewered by javelins, and try to trap the generals in a pocket + stick him like a pig because they just keep regenerating otherwise and Sauromatae bodyguards are almost as brutal as Saka bodyguards (some say worse).

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Stopping the Sauromatae will be difficult for the Sweboz. I would think the Sweboz would have to rely on defensive ambush tactics in the forests.

On the open steppe, I don't think the Sweboz can beat the Sauromatae - they are just too vulnerable to missiles.

[Geticus]

Sure you can beat the Sauros in the open field. Fight fire with fire.

An army with lots of chevroned Medjinikas archer spearmen, and a few elite Celtic slingers, can hold their own.

Keep Jugundiz hiding in the grass in ambush in loose formation, with javelin autofire on in case the Sauros come to close.

As long as your army has high chevrons (3-4 chevron levies with stone temple of Tyr) and your general is decent the Jugundiz will wear out and overpower anything that comes too close, including the bodyguards.

Also if they have an infantry force, let them tire out a bit in the archery exchange, then charge with some of your infantry (Jugundiz, spearmen or mercs). Sauro infantry generally are of poor quality so they are pretty easy to beat as long as you can catch them.

Regardless be sure to have an herbalist or wise woman with the general because the Sauro arrows will hit home often, especially in hard battle difficulty.

[CashMunny]

I don't know about that, I don't think a full stack of jugundiz could beat a full stack of HA spam from Sauromatae, let alone a big siege battle, or when outnumbered. Especially if you attack them early when they're still strong, you will encounter some heavy resistance, and you will have to send experienced troops from germania all the way into the steppe, a 5-6 turn endeavor one way. It's possible, but it'd be a pain in the ass and you would be better served to conquer your immediate surroundings and consolidate your forces until the Sauromatae are weakened and your other enemies subdued. I don't think going into the steppe would be a german priority, they would much rather raid the rich lands to the south and west.

[Havok.]

Good day fellow EB-fans!
I recently started another Swe campaign. This time I didnt want to go all gaullish to early, so I took also Carrodunum, Gintaeras-Ostan and my Bastarni brethren.. But this time the Sauromatae are very strogn in the east and did alredy break our alliance. I could fight them of for now by hiring 5 mercenary cav (2Celts,1Germ,2HA) but I lost many troops, for now theren are no cavalry mercenaries around and I can't recruit to much cav in the west yet. Even if I could, the Bastarni are quite remote, it would be a pita to rely only on this.
Obviuously I played some swe campaigs before, but I never tried to hold the Bastarni so early on, or the sauros had other stuff to deal with (Armenias, Sakas, Getai and so on).

Regards

Der ZiegenPeter

You cant expect to win a fight against the horse-people, its impossible.

Accept them as your rightfully rulers and your people will be spared.