Parthia

[Dead Knight of the Living]

Pretty good advice pezhetairoi. I'll try sending some HA's into Egypt when I play next. right now I've conquered about a quarter of Asia Minor. The Pontics sieged the city I just took. I'll easily annhilate them. The Egptians just lost another army at the bridge south of Seleukia. The Seleucids and I are at peace. They just keep marching troops into my border and back out again. I don't even get the option to ask them for an alliance when I send my diplomat to them. After like 10 campaigns I still haven't figured out why I cannot ask certain nations to ally with me.

But Seleukia in the south is at the mercy of the Eggies. I've been defending the Seleucids more than my own land. They are fighting the Sarmatians (Scythians) in the north. I don't know why they took that route. But I have a spare army of 6 HA's. I'm just going to march them around Egypt and keep adding units to them as available. We'll see what that does for me.

[Deus ret.]

I don't even get the option to ask them for an alliance when I send my diplomat to them. After like 10 campaigns I still haven't figured out why I cannot ask certain nations to ally with me.

In my experience, that's due to this nation being already allied with someone you're at war with. When two of your allies battle, you also have to decide for one. Thus, they are possibly allied with Pontus.
Apart from that, good luck while smashing the Egyptians. Wait any longer and they'll smash you.

[pezhetairoi]

Oh, Dead Knight, did I mention you should recruit as many mercenary hoplites as you can and fight bridge battles wherever possible with your hoplites surrounding the ford/bridge's other end? Guaranteed enemy annihilation especially with coupled with HA support. Those are the only places where you should fight concentrated. Otherwise you should just march divided ;-)

[Dead Knight of the Living]

Oh, Dead Knight, did I mention you should recruit as many mercenary hoplites as you can and fight bridge battles wherever possible with your hoplites surrounding the ford/bridge's other end? Guaranteed enemy annihilation especially with coupled with HA support. Those are the only places where you should fight concentrated. Otherwise you should just march divided ;-)

I've been fighting a lot of bridge battles. The AI is so stupid for attacking me there. I always stay close to bridges. If not, I engage with HA's until the arrows run out. When the battle is over I move to the nearest bridge and the enemy always attacks me there on their next turn.

[Eaglefirst]

Parthia is in my opinion the faction that has the most fun considiring your opposistion. I have played 4 Parthia campaigns on VH/M and all have been exciting and (somewhat) challenging. First if you want to play as Parthia or as any of the horse-archer heavy armies it's imperative to have Player 1's bug fixer patch since it fixes Horse Archers so they can fire while they move.

Military: Horse Archers, Horse Archers and more Horse Archers should be the composition of your early armies. Until you can get Persian Cavalry you should hire the Bedoin/Arab Cavalry Units to use for the rare occasion your Horse Archers don't pull through. Focus on enemy cavalry/chariots first then focus on archers/skirmishers then finally you can massacre the infantry. I don't use the circle formation thing much since it tires your horses out very fast. Keep Horse archers in Skirmish mode and disable fire at will unless they are chased. If your horse archers are chased enable fire at will since it seems to make them fire more volleys at the chasing unit. Beware if you leave fire at will on it may take many orders to get them to fire on a unit that you choose since they have a habit of shooting at what they want to.. Once an enemy unit is listed as Shaken (Highlight enemy unit if it is close to see its status) rush from behind with another horse archer unit to rout and massacre the unit. Persian Cavalry do what HA's do except better treat them the same with the option of flanking and routing units that aren't shaken more often and they have better arrow capability. The last important part of your army is the cataphracts. Cataphracts have the capability of taking out almost any unit 1 on 1 although they rarely need it since a single flank can rout most units. Save the Cataphracts to guard your HA's from other cavalry and to flank and destroy enemy's units that are resistant to arrow fire such as urban cohorts, armored hoplites, other cataphracts, etc. After a Cataphract charge don't forget to alt-click with them to make them use their even more deadly weapon their Mace. The cataphracts mace bypasses armor and allows the cataphracts to destroy heavily armored enemies that rely on armor. Infantry should not be used in the open field except for emergencies. Use Eastern Infantry as garrisons and Archers as garrisons. Try building two units of EI to every 1 unit of archers. They are used for siege defense only and the occasional rebel killing. You can get elephants later or you can hire elephants, use them for busting down wooden walls and as mobile archer towers. They are also excellent at dealing with melee chariots. Up north you can hire Sarmation Cavalry and Scythian HA’s. Most of my campaigns that deal with fighting with Scythia I start with a large army of HA’s and as they lose troop numbers I merge and hire all the Mercenary HA’s to recuperate from the losses. Try to avoid fighting the Scythians in snow since they’re units get bonuses in snow. When fighting any army that has more than two foot or horse archer units remember to place your horse archers in loose formation to minimize losses.

Sieges: This is your weak point but with some planning you can use your put your mobile HA’s to use. First it is important to build the best walls possible in your cities. Until your cities have stone walls they are vulnerable. When defending Place all your Eastern Infantry on the walls where you think they will attack. The next part is the most important use your archers to prevent the ram from opening the gate. Use fire Arrows to burn the ram to pieces. If you can prevent the ram from breaking the gate you’re in good shape. Then as your EI hold the enemy infantry at the walls you can use your horse archers to pick apart enemy infantry as they sit and fight the EI and get shot to pieces. If they break the gate use your heaviest unit to hold the enemy at the gate if you have no units retreat and place all your units in the town square and hope for the best. Besieging wooden walled towns is generally easy. Place all HA’s into loose formation and sit near the gates and pound the enemy with arrows once you have weekend them considerably pour your horse archers through and swarm enemies. You will take losses but you can retrain the units at the town.

[Eaglefirst]

Expansion: When you begin you start there are 2 Rebel Towns to be captured. One is just west of your capital you should take that one easily the next is going to be your major battle ground with Egypt it is southwest of Susa. Both are lightly defended and easy to conquer. Keep an eye on Seleucia usually the AI takes it garrison out for a walk so you can capture that town and its wonder. Next decide what to do with Armenia. Armenia is generally very trustworthy to alliances and is a buffer from Pontus. You can either crush them or Ally with them but if you ally with them you must pursue expansion north into Scythia and West into the Seleucid Empire. Scythia also is generally trust worthy but I always take the town south west of your northern town. It has mines and it can trade on that sea. The town can be defended easily on both of the river passes with forts. Build HA’s in Susa/Seleucia and send them to Dumantha to meet your soon to be favorite enemy, Egypt. Egypt will send stack after stack after stack after stack at Dumantha. Your HA’s should deal with Egypt. Diplomats should secure trade rights and trade Map info for Map Info (I don’t sell map info since the money you get for it makes the game to easy). Beware the Seleucids and Egypt do not honor Ceasefires/Alliances. If Egypt asks you to become they’re protectorate do so. It seems being a protectorate makes Egypt a true ally. Later you can break the alliance when you feel ready. When dealing with late game Pontus beware of scythed chariots. I retreat all my generals from the battle map if they have more than 2 scythed chariots since the like to chase and kill your generals. Focus all fire on those chariots with your HA’s once the chariots are gone they’re army consists of EI and Hillman which are asking for arrows from your HA. I also prefer expanding and destroying the Scythians since it destroys a military that can match yours if left alone. Aslo it gives you some much needed ports into the black sea. Ally with whoever is west of you after your northern expansion so you can pursue expansion through the Seleucids/ Egypt.

Economy: Secure Trade rights with anyone you’re not at war with. All your provinces except the few Northern ones should have Very High Tax Rates. Check with the VH tax rates what the population growth is, If the growth is under 1.5% build a farm upgrade. If the growth is over 1.5% do not build farm upgrades. Be sure to build roads first thing since your empire is huge in terms of size. Build ports for your cities that border the Caspian Sea for troop/family member transport and trade. Focus on Trade for all your cities. The only early military buildings you should have are stables and barracks. Never upgrade your barracks since it provides no benefits besides hillmen which are useless in single player. Stables should be built in all cities. Try to build an Archery Range in a few cities for archers but you do not need archery ranges in all cities. Stone Walls are important to all your cities if they are on the front. If you exterminate a just conquered city put the money looted into trade buildings/caravans.

Diplomacy: You have 5 Nations you could call neighbors, Egypt, The Seleucid Empire, Armenia, Pontus and Scythia. Egypt is the most powerful and you can either join them and pick off the remains of the Seleucids but then later you will face the Egyptians alone which is a long and costly proposition unless you become they’re protectorate or ally with the Seleucids. The Seleucids are #2 in power behind Egypt and they are also not to be trusted. You can Ally with them early and destroy Egypt if you want or fight against them like I stated earlier. Beware if you do not take part in the war one side may become to powerful and cause you a MAJOR headache later. Armenia is your western neighbor. Armenia is generally very trustworthy. You can ally with them early if you want to focus on Egypt/ Seleucids and they provide a buffer from Pontus or you can destroy them to gain Kotais which has a port to the black sea and a mine making it a fairly decent money maker. Pontus is just west of Armenia and are #3 in terms of power in the East ahead of you and Armenian at the beginning of the game. Pontus can sometimes be trustworthy and other times not so keep an eye out for them. They also have the ability to decide the fate of the Seleucids. If Pontus allies with the Seleucids Armenia will fall and you should steal the provinces before Pontus does and you should ally with Egypt and pick apart the Seleucid Empire. If Pontus allies with Armenia the Seleucids will crumble fighting a two front war and Armenia will generally try to fight the Seleucids also. Scythia is your northern neighbor and I have yet to been backstabbed by them. They have never attacked my northern province. Scythia is fairly weak and it takes them eons to move forces for counterattacks so they are easy pickings to attack. Early I always to they’re western most town and wait for they’re single counterattack which is again generally weak then I build a fort and some watchtowers at the 2 River crossings. The Scythians will generally honor Alliances/Ceasefires. One last note before you attack an allied faction use a diplomat to break the alliance first since it seems back stabbing makes diplomacy difficult.

[Deus ret.]

Good posts, eaglefirst. I've enjoyed reading them. At least there are some people who do not surrender to the chariots without at least some half-decent infantry, as I did when I was Parthia....if those darn hells-on-wheels were not there, playing HA factions would be too easy anyway.

[Dead Knight of the Living]

In my experience, that's due to this nation being already allied with someone you're at war with. When two of your allies battle, you also have to decide for one. Thus, they are possibly allied with Pontus.
Apart from that, good luck while smashing the Egyptians. Wait any longer and they'll smash you.

See, I thought the same thing. But they are allied to nowone. They haven't been allied to anybody since the start of the game. Maybe it is because I took one of their cities in the beginning though.