Parthia

[pezhetairoi]

gang of four, eh. :) Try allying with the Seleucids against Egypt. The Egyptians are more dangerous because of their ranged units, and you would do well to use the other factions to get them out of the way. After that you can turn on the Seleucids and pin their pathetic phalangitai to the ground with arrows like butterfly samples.

[Chimp]

I finally found a way to make Parthian armies ROCK. I used to play them as Armenians, but now I realize that horse archers shouldn't be the center pieces in Parthian armies.

The problem is that unlike Armenia, you don't have a solid battleline which you can bang cataphracts against. So the only alternative seems to be to use the HAs as a means to divide the enemy up in smaller pockets, and then scoot around with cataphracts and mob them up which is all incredibly tedious, longwinded and illsuited for bridges and sieges in general.

But there's another way to use cavalry. Send in shock troops to leave the enemy ranks in disarray first, and then sponge up with cavalry. That way we avoid the problem of not having a battleline.

So use elephants - not just 1-2 units like you would with Carthage, Seleucids or Numidia, but 4-6! First unleash the elephants, either on the flanks or through the centerline if it's not a phalanx, and then swoop down with 4-8 cataphracts - or even hillmen. Tadaaa! Battle over in less than a minute, and the chance of 4-6 elephants running amok before they've breached the enemy battleline is slim to done, so it's a very solid lineup. If you prefer a more reactionary style, add 4 onagers, or 4 archers - or some combination thereof. This will also make it much easier to take cities.

As far as the cavalry component goes, I favor 1 General, 2 Camel Cataphracts, and 3-5 Cataphracts. The camels' job is to eliminate Armored Elephants and to assassinate the enemy general. I don't use more than 2 since they seem rather slow on the uptake. The cataphracts' primary function is to eliminate enemy archers immediately after the initial breakthrough so that the elephants don't freak out over arrowfire, and after that it's mob-up duty.

Here's some of my favorite army compositions so far:

The Parthinator:
4 Onagers
6 Horse Archers
4 War Elephants
6 Cataphracts

The MasterBlaster:
8 Onagers
6 War Elephants
6 Cataphracts

The Allrounder:
2 Onagers
4 Archers
4 Hillmen
4 War Elephants
6 Cataphracts

25K Online Army:
5 War Elephants
1 General
2 Camel Cataphracts
4 Cataphracts
6 Persian Cavalry
2 Beduin Archers


All have been thoroughly tested and work brilliantly against Rome, Egypt, Carthage, Britannia, Germania and Greece, on or offline, medium, hard and very hard difficulties.

[pezhetairoi]

Fascinating combinations. My favoured ones are 2 generals, 4 cataphracts, and the rest persian archers. Light, fast and nasty. Not to mention they can retreat in a hurry if need be. Elephants and eastern infantry used when facing egypt, but little else otherwise.