Parthia

[Doug-Thompson]

My god those Egyptians are annoying!!

Or, as I ususally refer to them @#$% Egyptians.

The first time I ever built elephants was when I had the @#$% Pharoh trapped. I already had more than enough troops to win, but I wanted to see him stomped by a monster, then bury him in the dung. I hired some merc elephants, too.

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The Parthians can relieve their major money crunch by sacking a major town.

Easier said than done. Parthia is not exactly known for their outstanding early-game siege. Still, I've sacked Jerusalem before and deleted lots of buildings there. The Egyptians revolted and got a full stack, but it was all gold-chevron peasants. Without any military buildings, that's all the town could make. Having 2,000+ peasants (large size) doesn't do the Egyptians much good. They cost more than 200,000 denari a turn just to maintain and die like flies to HA. I could have wiped them out, but decided against it.

Another time, I simply besieged the Jerusalem and watched it go rebel.

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The one disadvantage of pushing all the way to Antioch is, Egypt will attack Parthia and the Seleucids, too. It's nice to have somebody else to share the misery.

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Parthian life is good after the @#$% Egyptians are dead.

They are richer than the Egyptians used to be. They have HA/Persian Cav, cataphracts and elephants. What's left of the Seleucids and Pontus don't give much trouble while they are being wiped out of Asia Minor.

There are excellent mercenaries in the former Greek/Seleucid provinces of Asia Minor. These include Cretean archers, hoplites, Thracian mercs, Bastarcian (sp?) mercs -- so much for not having any good infantry. There's plenty of money to pay for them, too.

Way up north, there's a seeming endless supply of merc Sythcian HA -- as if you need more of those. In the south, there's camel cataphracts.

My Parthian campaign would be over by now if I'd just push on through Greece, but I want to practice city management, diplomacy and "covert operations" instead. I'm enjoying the longest period of peace I've ever had in R:TW. I completed the conquest of Asia Minor (except Rhodes) by bribing a Greek province there for about $35,000. This avoided war with Greece. The province revolted, and I just bribed it again for another $35,000, and still have $300,000 in the bank. I can't spend the money fast enough. Every city that can build anything is building.

Bordering factions are: Numidia, which is no threat and at war with the Romans; Greece, which doesn't have much of an army left thanks to my bribes and is at war with the Romans; and Scythia, which is a rump of what it used to be after I bribed away much of their military strength and one of their provinces, and is at war with my allies, the Dacians.

My faction leader is an Egyptian who was bribed decades ago.

[The_Emperor]

Well I pushed to Antioch because it is a well developed city, with a strong income. It was either that or move against Pontus.

At any rate I was already at war with the Selucids, but they allied with Egypt (just like they did in my previous game). it was much betetr for me to actually gain some lands and an income so i could fight a war with the Egyptians.

You can't parr them off.

[Doug-Thompson]

You can't parr them off.

That's not true, Emperor.

In my very first campaign as the Parthians (H/H) I got into a war with the Seleucids, taking two provinces from them and giving them some very costly, very early tactical defeats. Then I was attacked by Egypt and was at war with both, and they allied themselves too.

Then Egypt backstabbed the Seleucids. At first the Seleucids wouldn't accept a ceasefire. I ignored that and acted as if we were allies anyway. I fought Egyptians even when they were on Seleucid territory. I ignored Seleucid armies, which already had their hands full in fighting Egypt.

After a few years the Seleucid treasury was severely bare. They accepted an offer of a cease fire and trade agreement.

Then, when I defeated an Eqyptian army that was beseiging the Seleucid town of Damascus, my offer of an alliance was finally accepted. It lasted for many years, long enough for me to capture all Egyptian provinces in the Near East and get into Egypt proper. By that time, a Seleucid stab in the back was too late.

[The_Emperor]

Well to each his own.

For my part I plan on taking all of Egypt for myself... it is just too rich for its own good. Anyways I managed to take Alexandria, Memphis jerusalem and Sidon.

Now All Egypt has is Thebes and two other towns (Petra and the other one nearby)... They are so dead meat!!

I won a heroic victory against them with my HA's, I had around 600 men and they faced off against me with 1,500! Their cav died fast and then the Infantry just chased my guys around in a very futile effort!!

Man I love the new Horse Archer warfare!!

[Doug-Thompson]

I won a heroic victory against them with my HA's, I had around 600 men and they faced off against me with 1,500! Their cav died fast and then the Infantry just chased my guys around in a very futile effort!!

Man I love the new Horse Archer warfare!!

Now there's something we agree on totally.

[Doug-Thompson]

I normally don't like discussing "favorite" armies, but have found that I'm following a pattern with Parthian armies.

I'll start out with HA and the starting cataphracts, plus some mercenary camels and cavalry. As I add Persian Cavalry, I'll keep the HA, many of whom are veterans now.

I'll put one or two HA on each end of a long line. I'll put Persian Cavalry on the inside of those. Then I'll put the remaining HA in the middle. Those HA in the center are backed up by lines of my melee cavalry. If there's more melee cavalry to spare, I'll put some out behind the Persian cavalry.

The missile cavalry are spread out as far as possible, put in squares with space between them. If I can give the missile cavalry a height advantage by using a shorter line, I will, but that sort of thing is a matter of judgement.

Deployment's over and the battle starts: The HA on the ends race to get past and behind the enemy. The rest of the front line engages with missiles while the melee cav hangs close, but behind the fighting.

If the enemy charges the middle, they are surrounded by missile cav and facing my best melee cav. If he charges the Persian cavalry, he risks getting flank-charged by the melee cav in the middle. If he attacks the very ends, he can't catch the HA and risks getting flank-charged by the Persian cavalry and any extra melee cav.

The goal is to put the enemy in a "bag" of missile cavalry, all of whom are firing. This is possible even when the Parthians are heavily outnumbered because the HA don't have to maintain a continuous line. In fact, a continuous line is just about the worst thing the Parthians can do. Instead, they have some squares that are as far apart as they can be while still supporting their neighbors, shooting all the time.

The biggest danger has already been described on other threads: The AI sends a melee unit after each of your units. These charges happen a lot more on the harder tactical difficulty levels, when the AI thinks it's Conan.

The best answer to that is to micro the HA that are most threatened, although the details of that are still new. Somebody needs to break free, get in the middle, and start shooting some enemy unit in the back. Once one part of the enemy's "circle" is broken, the whole formation will begin to collapse.

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On campaign on the strategic map, I like to go ahead and besiege a heavily defended town with an all-cavalry army and start building sapping points (assuming that a spy hasn't opened the gates and that those open gates don't have boiling oil.)

If I can hire mercenary infantry the next turn that can sap, I'll do that. If not, I'll march up some infantry. Slingers, by the way, are somewhat faster than other infantry, and they can sap.

All that's needed from there is one sap that is somewhere near a decent, wide street leading to the central plaza.

[R'as al Ghul]

I had to give up my first Parthian campaign. It just wasn't possible to defend Hatra and Kotais every year. Palmyra was Egyptian, Damaskus and Antioch were Seleucid and they kept attacking me in Hatra. Pontus, supported by the Seleucids, attacked Kotais frequently. I just didn't make eneough money at a certain point and my diplomats had either died or were bribed. No way of trading maps, retraining armies. You only can win so much battles when outnumbered, without retraining.
Inspired by Maltz' stories, I started over again.
I'll spare you the long story and just give you two tips.
I figured that to conquer quickly I needed more units than I had at Susa and Artaxarta (your capitol). I moved my general and the HA out of Campus Sakae and built a diplomat there. After two turns this diplomat met the Skythians and sold Campus Sakae to them. By this time my campus sakae army was already onboard the single ship you start with and on it's way to the capitol. It's important that Campus Sakae is empty when you want to sell it. Try to get a multi-round tribute from them. Next turn Campus Sakae revolted with 5 units East-Inf and 12 units of gold chevron peasants. I didn't expect this but was happy to have a little inf. garrison. The EastInf was shipped, the peasants disbanded because their upkeep is too expensive, Campus Sakae was sold again. To make it short, it happened two more times. After this northern army from Campus Sakae joined the middle army of Artaxarta, which had in the meantime taken the rebel town to the west, they moved against the Armenians.
I remember that Campus Sakae was particulary troublesome during my other campaign, as it is so far from anything, doesn't make enough money etc. I guess it was a good idea to get rid off it at the beginning but you may consider to do it only once to increase your forces by a loyalist rebellion.

My second tip considers the south. It's very easy and a good idea to take Seleucia in the second turn. But after that, try to take Palmyra as fast as possible before anyone else can. This has the effect that 1. Seleucia won't be attacked and 2. Palmyra is quite a comfortable base for a Cav-army. You can reach Damaskus and the bridge to Hatra in one turn. Antiochia, Hatra, Sidon and Jerusalem need only two turns. Reinforcements from Seleucia take three turns to reach Palmyra. And, it's a good territory to hire Bedouin Warriors.
From this base I try to conquer the 5 surrounding cities. So far I took Damaskus and destroyed almost all military opposition. Jerusalem has 2 units, Sidon 2, Antiochia has 4 and 6 in a fort while a full stack of Hoplites roams around Hatra. It helps to have at least 2 spies around Palmyra.
I think that once I've take Jerusalem and Antiochia, there won't be much left of the opposition.

R'as

[Caius]

how to play as Parthia?

I started to play, but I dont have a remote idea to do

[Stuperman]

LOTSA horse archers, and think cheap, only peasents for garisons, takes Pharaaspa ASAP, wait till the Seleucids are at war with the eggies, armanians and pontus (or at least till they have a few enemies) before going after Seleucia. Watch for opportunities to attack when there are few armies present on your front. When you have to fight the eggies, pray, and hope you can afford some cataphracts (sp).

note: I have only ever played them once, VH/H, kinda quit after fighting Egypt for 50 years with NO advancement by either side.