Sauromatea Economy

[tujo33]

I am looking for some help on the economy of the sauromateas. I am unable to build mines in Gava Saka, but I'm pretty sure the mine resource is there. Is there a reason for this? Also wondering how the add money cheat works as I want to add a small incentive for each won battle (for RPing purposes) since looting battlefields would have been a major incentive for nomadic warbands. Any advice on how to counter Parthian Cataphracts & Armored Horse Archers would great too since only the Sauromatea FM's can hold a torch to these units. Thanks.

[Arjos]

I doubt nomads can build mines...
add_money xxxxxxx is the cheat
From my Sauromatae games: FMs > the rest of the world XD
But is not so nice to have a full stack of them, as for the Parthians, maybe some Messagetae or Alani, anyway the best armoured cavalry you can afford, you might try to tire the cats out...

[Ca Putt]

pahlava simply outgun you, the only thing you can do is beeing a better general than the AI or simply outnumber them withsuperior troops and a better general :D

[tujo33]

I am slowly trying to eat up khiva and just took marakanda from them but they have a stack of 3 Noble Cata's, 2 Dahae Nobles, and 2 Armoured HA's plus some infantry, not sure how I will tackle that one, and still try to keep enough $ to garrison Marakanda. Thanks for the help.

[Arjos]

Another thing you can try is shooting all your arrows and retreat, you can recruit some units each turn to keep up with casualties, but Phalava will eventually have a depleted army...
Anyway when all goes bad just blitz for cities XD

[Thunder Mist]

pahlava simply outgun you, the only thing you can do is beeing a better general than the AI or simply outnumber them withsuperior troops and a better general :D

Eh. Personally, I wouldn't even bother trying to outfight the Pahlava. Too difficult. It'd be much more rewarding, I think, to gather your armies into a single horde and migrate your people to new and distant lands where the Pahlavan cataphracts cannot reach you.

[Ca Putt]

I was asumeing that he wanted to to beat them, offcource for Sauromatae running away is indeed an option

[tujo33]

I've been able to beat them and take Marakanda now, what I'm struggling with now is the unrest in my cities. Distance to capital is so huge that it's taking the fun away from the game since I can't govern so many cities without huge garrisons and huge costs.

[athanaric]

I doubt nomads can build mines...

All factions can build tier 1 mines. The ability to build them was added to the Nomad build tree in 1.1 or 1.2. Seemingly the team had found supporting evidence (thank God, it's already hard enough playing them).
Gava Saka doesn't have silver or gold though, which means you can't build mines there. It has only copper mines which add to trade income. The starting province of the Saka Rauka has one mining site where you can construct a mine.
Also, Sauromatae have the weakest economy in the game, and are victim to certain unwanted side effects of the recruitment system.

Regarding counter units, the locally available Dahae skirmishers are decent and fast anti-armour units. You should use them in conjunction with heavy cavalry (such as Aorsi or Roxolani Nobles) to counter enemy heavies. They're vulnerable to arrows though.
If you want to field infantry, try using the Slavic spearmen who're better than your native ones (fear effect and so on). Skythian Axemen are also useful vs armoured units. If you manage to somehow get regional barracks in Bastarnolandam or on the Crimean peninsula, you can hire pretty powerful Greek, Dacian, and Germanic infantry. However this requires a foreign, non-Nomadic government to be present in the settlement.

[Arjos]

Nice info thx :)