Scythia

[frogbeastegg]

This faction must be unlocked with game editing before you can play.

[Steppe Merc]

Right, the Scythians are a bit tricky, but real fun. You need to be really good with cavalry, escpecially the cav. archers. You have pretty much no infantry, except for archers and axemen. I got attacked from a bunch of sides, the Parthians, Dacians and Thracians. So you need to build up alliances, and try and keep them. Your cities aren't that rich, and really rely on trade.
Also, responding to attacks is a bit difficult since your land is so spread out. However, this is a good thing too, as you can disapear on enemy armies, espcially since your cavalry can move a lot.
You also get a bonus fighting in snow, most of your troops, and that's good since it's Russia, and it snows a whole lot. There are some rebel provinces around, and they should all be taken except for the North Russian city, where all the "Amazons" ( ) live. There nasty, there's a lot, so don't anger them until you have a big army and some down time.

[BDC]

Yes, the Amazons are nasty...

I find targetting one enemy (the blue guys directly south of you) works best, and just trading with everyone else. Don't forget watch towers on the borders!

[The Hun]

Scythian Horse Archers are great and not very expensive. With a few of these units you can destroy almost anything but I don't like Parthians Horse Archers being faster than them. The Scythians were every bit as good with the bow yet they cannot shoot backwards. I sprang an ambush on Parthian Horse Archers as I had them surrounded. My men ran around behind and chased them instead of sandwiching them. No good chasing, they just get shot so I did not like this part

[Lord_Winter]

Just finished a short campaing with these nasty buggers...

Ally with the following immidiatly Thrace,Armenia,Parthia these hold especially important are Parthia and Thrace whom both have good positions to screw up your aspiring empire....

Then attack the Dacians which seem to base their armies on warbands and falxmen whom are easy meat for your horse archers and family members if you follow the easiy tactics I'm no going to explain. Build armies of the following princes,barabarian cav and horse archers in the beinging and relly on mercenary infantry to breach walls. Later scythian noble horse archers phase out both barbarian cav and horse archers. Also buy sarmatian cav when you can in the begining...Scythian Head Hunting Maidens and Noble Cavalry are both good thought their enormous cost in time and money as well as infrastructure rarely makes them worthwile...your foot soldiers are sub standard one an all but for the chosen archer warband use them only sparingly as siege forces...

Using the Scythians in combat are really easy but you will need to pause a lot...Advance in two lines the first consisting of 4/5 of your army in horse archers and the second including family members and close combat cavalry...then place your line two bow shot out of enemy range or so advance the first line shot a little at the enemy then retreat as they come charging long enought that they tire and take up their orignal position repeat ad infinitum and soon you will have one very tired enemy which will either retreat of the battle field or just stand around until they flee or die. If reatreating you can ride just a few steps behind them firing arrows or charge a few times with your CC cav. The one thing which screw up this tactics is cavalry and thats what you got the second line for...they should at all times be half a bowshot or so behind the first for interception action destroying all enemy cav chargin your horse archers. On Hard Battles this tactics against roman/thracian/dacian/macedonian armies got at worst a 25/1 casualty rate + around 20 friendly fire kills.

Another thing after the Dacians take out the Thracians they will anyhow backstab you...backstab first...and then advance into the greek states below however remember that the romans have near infinite resources and will if they gain a strong hold of greece be hard to dislodge even while you win every engagement (personal experince here...damn how many romans are there)

[The Hun]

Your tactics are sound enough and typical feigned retreat does tire enemy infantry. I have learnt not to charge routing enemy though because in RTW the horse archer will still shoot even when on alt attack which is a pain. I tend to lead infantry around the map on a merry dance and when they rout out of range, charge up close and kill with arrows. Enemy cav, which is generally stronger can be pinned by barbarian cav and reared with HA. I was allied with Thrace very early in my campaign and I was happy to see them at war with Dacia, thinking they would not want 2 fronts. How wrong I was, they attacked me the next turn. I killed all the armies they sent after me and then asked for ceasefire to which they arrogantly said maybe someday soon. Hah!! I demanded tribute which they agreed. So they were effective in plotting their own downfall

[Lord_Winter]

Usually I do not charge either since it is commonly more efficient to just attack once more the best battles are the ones where my second line never ever is used...however against a few enemies they are entirely necesserary...

Your game sound exactly like my game...however I have found giving monetarian gifts of around 5000-10k will ensure total loyality from once allies...

[Boulis]

The Scythians were every bit as good with the bow yet they cannot shoot backwards.

Hm. I have conducted numerous tests on the battle map and I am certain that the Scythian horse archers can shoot backwards. And not just the Noble archers but even the basic type. Scythian Noble Horse Archers trounce Parthia's Persian Cavalry in one-on-one battles also.

[Cousin Zoidfarb]

how do you unlock this faction?

[The Hun]

You can edit the units file or install a mod which allows you to play all factions. There are many mods at www.twcenter.net

[Spartiate]

I normally attack Thrace and take their 2 cities directly south of me while allying with Dacia,Parthia,Armenia and Macedon and getting my trade routes open.I find that Parthia will NEVER betray you as long as you keep an army on that bridge beside their northern-most province(their only land access to you in the early days).Macedon cannot be trusted and will eventually betray you but by now you should be holding the bridges leading into their lands and they are still a bit pre-occuppied with the remaining greeks and the brutii armies on the coast.I find these battles to be the defining moment of a Scythian campaign and once beaten and Greece is consolidated under your rule that you now will have no real problems for the rest of the game.

[Es Arkajae]

In regards to the Amazons in Hyperboria (whom I always conquer as the Scythians on basic principle, 'lamentations of the women' and all that ), take a close look at their chariots ....they have no scythes.

First time I ever went up against them I didn't notice this and wishing to avoid melee combat with chariots I sent in horsearchers who in a missile duel don't tend to do very well, however upon noticing the lack of scythes I sent in my proper cavalry to mix it up they did much better, in fact they slaughtered them.

The province is only good for the gold mine and kudos value of wiping out the Amazons, but if like me the idea of leaving it alone rankles then I believe mixing it up with melee cavalry is the best way to go.

[Vikings]

I think the Amazons belong to Macedon Faction, becuz there a Temple (Artemis:Hunting) based on very good missile upgrade per building levels. Usually that type of God give the ladies a chance in life to survive on the barbarian lands. Amazons lives near the waters/rivers or the coasts, hardly any deep mainland, except barbarian princess like Xena. Xena was chaos type nothing compare to the Amazons.

Amazons are very rare with great hitting power of there range weapons, i gotta say it would be the best archers in the game if there was any.

Dont think Scythians had anything to do with Amazons, is there any positive infos on books/records out there? If there was any, prob convert them more barbarian types compare to Xena but lost faith with the true God (Artemis).

-Vikings

One more thing, have anyone seen the movie called Attila? It was an interesting show, guess he was raise in Sythia or somewhere in that region. He had great marksmanship while riding a horse. Wasnt sure which faction would be The Huns. Only thing it bother me the most is he is lack of personal security, he good to fouled the assassins but one weakness was that red fur beast with peircing eyes.

Can never place someone like that, so he screwed up trying to findsome look alike like her. Having dozen wives, what more could he ask for? Too bad he had been assassinated at young age.

~Vikings

[The Hun]

Hello Vikings

I would not base too much judgement from a film, they are consistently inaccurate, the storyline being of more importance than historical fact.
Little is known of the Huns apart from some Roman and very few Germanic sources, they entered Pannonia around 370 AD but even this date is contentious.

The Scythians were overthrown by Sarmatians who themselves fell to the Huns. The nearest we have in RTW to Huns is Scythia but maybe we will have proper Huns in RTW add on when it comes

[Es Arkajae]

Dont think Scythians had anything to do with Amazons, is there any positive infos on books/records out there? If there was any, prob convert them more barbarian types compare to Xena but lost faith with the true God (Artemis).

-Vikings

Herodotus refers to a Scythian tribe the Sauromatae (sound familiar) made up of the descendents of local Scythians and Amazonian survivors of the war that destroyed their people. The Amazons overpowered the crew of one of the three ships bearing them into captivity but being no sailors the winds and tide carried them north, where they landed.

They eventually got together with a group of the local men whose people they had been raiding in the meantime and they all went north to found their own tribe. Herodotus mentions one of their customs as being that the women cannot marry until they have killed a man in battle. (sound familiar once again)~p


There is also a mention of Hyperboria, apparently the people who lived in Hyperboria worshipped Artemis and would send gifts to the Temple of Artemis at Delos (the birthplace of Artemis). Though Herodotus doesn't connect the Hyperborians with the Amazonian descended tribe he mentions.

[stevieg]

Dont think Scythians had anything to do with Amazons, is there any positive infos on books/records out there? If there was any, prob convert them more barbarian types compare to Xena but lost faith with the true God (Artemis).

~Vikings

In answer to that question, the story of the Scythians and the Amazons is in one of Herodotus' "Histories".

The Scythians and the Amazons fight, and then when the victorious Scythians strip the armor off the fallen Amazons as trophies, they realize they have been fighting women warriors and send their young men to breed with them.

In this story the Amazons are the barbarians and the Scythians the more civilized people.

[frogbeastegg]

I shall copy Steppe Merc's mini modding guide:

1) Find the file "descr_strat" in ...\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign.txt

2)Open it up.

3)cut the faction you want to play as from the section its under (either unlockable or nonplayable, and copy it into the playable section, that should do it.

Do that with the Scythian faction and you will be able to play them. Enjoy.

[Maltz]

I just finished my Scythian long campaign. This is my 2nd finished long campaign, because Scythia is such an interesting faction that I cannot stop half-way.

AI is quite incompotent to deal with mass cavalry on the field, because they are used to wide, long line formation. AI tends to asign a few units for a purpose such as "flank there", chase that", so it is easy to concentrate your charge power on one point and take out their troops one by one.

Mass cavalry is like the direct opposite experience of a (dull) phalanx wall march, and gives you a lot of flexibility and chances to smash the AI into pieces. I guarantee you can kick far bigger arses with a lot of HA with few losses. Historically, Europeans were also beaten badly by swift horse archers of Hun and later Mongolia, so it is fine to reproduce that result.

When played as Scythia (Vh/Vh) I found I never had to hesitate to face a field battle that is not my favor. 2:1 is fine, 3:1 I can win with a reasonable loss (1/2 army gone). Very exciting.

Their only weakness is city assault - you definitely want to bring at least 2 units of infantry (axeman works well) to avoid heavy losses especially at the town center.

So finally I collected 50 provinces at year 253BC. I am sure you can do it faster than me. Scythia is for the rush fans! Yeah!

[HopAlongBunny]

Scythia is for the rush fans! Yeah!

Another reason to rush...your buildings do not upgrade beyond a certain point. You just don't have the infrastructure to keep large cities going; better to pump the armies and push them forward.

No one mentioned a minor annoyance you will likely face. Germania seems intent on taking that far province in the North Baltic; great place to pump up the valour of HA's

[tnt_73]

>>So finally I collected 50 provinces at year 253BC. I am sure you can do it faster than me. Scythia is for the rush fans! Yeah!

Wow!! You're insane. I'm playing RTW atm with Scythia (~250 b.c.) and took 15 Provinces. My biggest prob is money :(. The economy is fuc.ing low. Any hints, how to make money???? (Map selling is my only income)

[Ellesthyan]

@tnt
Exterminating. Slaughter any city you can get your hands on if only for a turn. It's the easiest and greatest income until you can field a good army to actually take the cities.

[m4rt14n]

Can Scythia make Onagers? I've found that taking Parthia early is a good thing for u. Just rush into their northeastern territory and lay a siege. Wait it out and they'll sally out. WHen they're gone, expect no other foray from Parthia into your territory. They are simply too weak and dirt poor to attack ur northern cities.

[crazybastard]

hi
The Germans kept attacking me like crazy and I can't hold them off much longer!
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[guineawolf]

i read a post about mongolian tactic that how they taking out european army.

first,they use light horse to lure out enemy cavalry(most mobile unit first,then so on and so on),take them out,then enemy range unit,after those,they harass enemy infantry with arrows(mongolian horse archers always carry plenty arrows with them coz they are so rely on their bow),make them shake,then when enemy break and run,they chase them down with light cavalry.

[Fate]

Well i started a scythian campaign yesterday, and ti all started well, alliances with

• Armenia
  Parthia
  Thrace

Dacia attacked thrace, and i sallied out to save my allies, truely crushed the dacians, then i moved onto take their capital in the carpathians. As i did so, campus scythii was poorly garrisoned, and Thrace, the betraying swine, attacked my settlement, ceased fire with the dacians, and, and the dacians came along for tha party aswell!!
Id taken the dacian capital, and when i had seen what they were upto, i razed it to the ground for income, and marched upon Thracia's poorly defended northern territory, with the intention of sacking that, or at least luring their army off my land, so i can out march them and take out the dacians again.
Also, i took pripet quickly (all i used for the attack was one unit of HA!) But now the germans have come from the west and besieged, i know theyve got at least one family member, which pretty much renders my HA useless, so im gonna have to see if i can get reinforcements up there soon

[Vincent Butler]

As far as the Amazons go, I thought I read that they are hardcoded to win an autoresolved battle of up to 5:1 odds against them. Is that true? And as far as dogs go, I guess if you could get them behind the phalanx they would work, phalanx own dogs from the front.

[NEARHOS]

pls i need some help with unlocking the non playable factions.
i edit all of them but only macedon and pontus are playable.when i click the others in imp. campain menu, the game closes and return to the windows.
do i have to unlock only the one i want to play with each time?
please, i am dying to play scythia.

[Franconicus]

This is from Quietus guide:

Unlock All Factions – In RTW, some factions are playable, some are unlockable and some are unplayable. This is how you unlock and play all the factions (thx to littlecheese07 of TWC for this idea).

Go to your folder, RTW>world>maps>campaign>imperial_campaign>desc_str at.txt. Simply move all the factions under the “nonplayable” and "unlockable" that you want play to under “playable”. Thus, in this list, Egypt to Greek_cities are unlockable, Roman_senate to Slave are nonplayable (it is advisable from other players NOT to touch or play the “roman _senate”) and Romans_Julii to Romans_scipii are playable. After you’ve arranged the text files, do not forget to SAVE. You may now play the new factions when you load RTW.

campaign imperial_campaign
playable
romans_julii
romans_brutii
romans_scipii
end
unlockable
egypt
seleucid
carthage
parthia
gauls
germans
britons
greek_cities
end
nonplayable
romans_senate
macedon
pontus
armenia
dacia
scythia
spain
thrace
numidia
slave
end
Maybe this lines should be emailed to every new member!

Nearhos,
A warm welcome to you. Enjoy your Scythian campaign as much as I did! And keep us informed

[NEARHOS]

thanks for the welcome and it is a pleasure to be a member.
The problem i have is after i did all the previous editing.
eventhough all the factions are available as litlte shields in imperial campain menu, from the previously non playable factions, only macedon and pontus are realy playable.When i click on Scythia shield, the game closes automaticaly and returns to the Windows.
Perhaps if i uninstall the game and then install again?
thank you in advance!!!

[Craterus]

That shouldn't make a difference. Have you made sure all the factions are "in line". Use the tab button to make sure they are. All faction names need to start from the same point, but they all need individual lines.