Scythia

[The Hun]

Hello again.
Do not attack Parthia, they will in general ignore you and trade. If they attack they most often cannot sustain as they have other fronts to worry over and will ask for ceasefire. This is when you make money
Make counter proposal that they pay you, demand 7000 denarii and tribute of 1500 for 6 turns, they will often suggest amounts in your favour. Any amount is better than no amount yes? This is true when ever a diplomat comes calling, demand money in the usual Steppe tradition.

I leave my archer warbands as garrison and use HA as fighting force. when I can afford I will hire mercenary HA as they are good for cheap cost. Let your Warlords gain experience with killing rebel armies and when the time comes to crush Thrace their slow armies will fall fast. Thrace are same as Macedon and Greece, they are untrustworthy and will stab your back when you do not look. Because of HA armies I lay seige and wait, the enemy is forced to sally or surrender. This takes time but it does work.

Use conquered towns and cities to train better troops and spend little on your own start towns, your people are from the Steppe and endure much hardship.

When you defeat each town you slaughter all inside, this is how you make money, you do things the Steppe way.

So I recap, when ever you get chance demand money. You spend money on more HA. When you conquer you kill all.

Later you will own armies with axemen who can form infantry back up for archer warband but always think HA as main part of the army.

Taking Crimea allows good trade route. I hope this will help.

Pezhetairoi,
You must not rely on skirmish mode keep watch to your HA, even Romans will cut them down with pila because spear range is quite big in RTW so always know what they are doing.
About the 7 light lancer army, how many HA fought these. I use HA to draw out enemy cav and then gang up on them, light lancers die fast when you shoot their backs and remember HA can fight as well as shoot but 2 on 1 is the answer here, 1 attacking from rear. It is always better to kill with arrows though and a watchful eye will keep your HA out of trouble. Move them yourself, just before they skirmish so you send them to right directions and that way you keep control.
I met many huge Macedonian armies, each time they have many phalanx and roaming cav and I have my HA. I keep my HA together and wait for the cav attacks and pick them off. When they have no cav left is when my HA split up to deal with phalanx.

In my campaign I now have 47 regions and I have made camp overlooking Rome. Germanic are dead and Britons tried to attack but suffered at the hands of my faction heir. The fight for Rome is going to be very hard, the Julii have many big armies ( but I have 2 of their eagles ) and the Senate has 2 huge armies of Praetorian guards and Praetorian cav.

[Craterus]

I hear people talking about Crimea?? What is that ???

[Brutus]

I hear people talking about Crimea?? What is that ???

The Crimea is the peninsula in the Black Sea on which lies the city of Chersonesos. In-game it is called Bosphorus, probably after Regnum Bosphori. Nowadays it is part of the Ukraine.

Whahooo! Fiftieth post!

Damn I'm slow...

[pezhetairoi]

[QUOTE=The Hun]
About the 7 light lancer army, how many HA fought these. I use HA to draw out enemy cav and then gang up on them, light lancers die fast when you shoot their backs and remember HA can fight as well as shoot but 2 on 1 is the answer here, 1 attacking from rear. It is always better to kill with arrows though and a watchful eye will keep your HA out of trouble. Move them yourself, just before they skirmish so you send them to right directions and that way you keep control.
QUOTE]

I see... O_O Apparently my friend was fighting that army with just what he started with in Campus Scythii.

Gah, skirmish doesn't work, eh. Lots of pausing in the works, then. I used to hate pausing, priding myself on managing the whole battle in realtime. Oh well. guess that's got to change. Hmm. So that's why my Vicus Venedae fight didn't go so well...

Ahhh well, I happen to have been very naughty with Parthia, Campus Sakae was taken so I'm at war with them, and I'm still wondering if I should bring my Alanni army west to reinforce the Germanic front, or to go into Parthia/Armenia... Are ports at Alanni and Sakae any use?

Mmm, Franconicus, for what it counts, my opening strategy was to use my Sarmatae army (reinforced with 2 HA units) to strike west to Vicus Venedae while my Scythii army hit Getae, my Tanais army hit Chersonesos, and my Alanni army hit Sakae for the sake of territorial consolidation. Of course, I'd built peasants in every village so I could pull out every single unit I had without worrying about order. I'd planned to hit Tylis immediately after that, and Locus Gepidae (that stupid village we known as Domus Dulcis Domus, which, for god's sakes, means 'Home Sweet Home' in Latin). But of course, Tylis is not attainable since Getae is on the brink of revolt. Naturally I decided I wanted the Greek peninsula, am working towards that now, as soon as I pacify Getae and my Chersonesos army arrives at Getae to reinforce my army. A lot of movement, but only four battles so far, all of them siege/sally battles.

My building strategy was really to just pile up on as many traders and ports as I can. I'm still in the starting period of the game, but I can safely say practice ranges will come next so I can train archer warbands. Their flaming arrows are really useful when stopping enemies from leaving their gates in sally battles.

Diplomacy wise... I seem incredibly unlucky, because every time I try selling map info, not only do I get tribute demanded of me instead of an offer of money, but demanding money is hopeless. Sigh. All I've gotten is trade agreements with my neighbours, but not alliances, or tribute. Top on the list of those who've offended me is Macedon. They will die after I've used Thracde to wipe the floor with.

Oh and Franconicus, pezhetairoi = Macedonian pikeman :-D I used to be a very good Macedon player (albeit heavily reliant in mercenaries in Scythia :-D) and I'm still living in the dream of becoming a second Alex the Great, so.

Oooh. Long reply. Why do you guys get pictures of Roman generals while all I can choose is one of barbarian diplomats? Not fair! ;-P

[The Hun]

Skirmish does work but units not all go in safest direction and can get trapped with map edge and such.

I would expect Parthia to soon ask for ceasefire. Demand payment and tribute. I must be plain, you not always get tribute but demand all the same. When diplomats ask for trade you say for sure but first pay me

I own 50 regions now but Senate have more than I first saw, at least 4 armies over 20 unit strong all Praetorian with gold upgrade. They are unstoppable. I killed 1100 and lost the battle as they killed 1700. My arrows bounce off and my axes too. It will be very hard these last battles.

[IliaDN]

Something about siege tactics(good when playing factions with weak infantry)
In my opinion the best way to take the castle with minnimum casualities is to besiege it with an army smaller then defenders have provoking them to attack.
For example in my scythia campaign which I'm playing now I besieged Corinth with one "silver" exp general and one unexperienced while enemy (macedonians) had 3 pikemen units 1 light cav and general- so they decided they are stronger and attacked .
While pikemen went through one gate enemy's cav went through another so I dealt with them first (Tactics: when enemy charges my cav (which proveked him to do this) it reatreats while my other cav unit cahrges enemy,so the enemy looses charge bonus)The main thing was to kill enemy general to lower enemy's morale.So I've made both enemy cav units flee.
Then it was easy enough with pikeman: while one cav attracted attantion of pikemen another charged it from the back( of course it's better to use more exp cav for charging).
Finally when all (if enemy's cav returnes you can drive it routing again easily)
of enemies are routing you'll have a message which will ask if you want to continie battle or to end it.So choose to end it.VICTORY the castle is yours.
Resume: with minimal casualities you take enemy town and destroy his good Army in ONE turn.Of course later it's better to garrison town with more troops so it won't revolt.

[IliaDN]

Is there any way to avoid corruption?

[Franconicus]

Is there any way to avoid corruption?

IliaDN,

yes, kill them all. (Just kidding). I think it helps to have a familiy member there (watch their peronal abilities). Maybe it helps to have the capitol close. See http://bbb.unknownnet.com/rtw/bestcap.htm

[IliaDN]

Thanks, but this was I already known. Anyway thanks for the great link it's cool.By the way in campaign(up to 230 or so) I' ve conquered Italy except Ariminum and Segesta,Balkans,parthian's town near Alanni,Trace nearby dacians provinces(2 prov. what they had in the beginning and Vicus Venedae( I'm playing on VH/M)
Why don't you use onagers they are cool against large roman stacks.Not long ago I've finished a battle and lost 50 men while enemy lost 1277(I was fighting roman army)

[Franconicus]

Thanks for the replies. I love this forum.

Pezhetairoi, does it pay to send an army north in to the barbarian region (Vicus Venedae and DDD)? I always tried to concentrate all my troops to one decisive campain.

Based on your feedback I tried again with an improved strategy. Focus is the invasion of Thracia. This is my first target because it is dangerously close and if I have it I have good access to the sea trade and I have a base to invade Greece (=more money).

These are my initial moves:

Alanni: I send all my HA to Crimea. My chief builds two fortresses against the Parthians and then follows the HA. The foot archers go into the forts.

Tangis: They all march directly to Scythii, to reinforce the expedition forces.

Sarmantae: The two archers go to Scythii two to reinforce the garrison in the capitol and in Getae.

Scythii: I send the spy into Getae. My horse archers and my big chief march to a position southwest of it. Here they wait what happens.

Thracian moved three infantry units from Getae to Scythia. My cav attacked them and killed them without a loss. I now besieged Getae . My foot archers came too together with a new family member. I attacked the town. Infantry was easily killed. Their heir defended the centre. I fired on him from different sides but nothing happened. I placed my big chief in his rear and the other family member in front of him and attacked. I killed him but I lost my fam member and some HA and FA. I enslaved the town.

Now I the Thracian offered peace and gave me money. I accepted and was now able to produce 4 barb cav units. They really helped me much. With this army I invaded Thracia again. (Why not?) They had an army going westward to Macedonian. I killed them. Then I attacked another army south of Tylis. My new army was a combination of my Scythian and Tangisian army plus 4 barb cavs. In total 7 HA, 4 barbs and two chiefs. This is a deadly combination. The archers weaken the enemy, the barbs protect them and finish the game. Only problem is that I cannot refill the units. I am too far from home and I have no money. After killing all the field armies I besieged their capitol. It was defended by three family members and lots of infantry (javelins most) and HJ. They finally attacked me. I killed everyone and took the town. Thracia is history. I killed everyone. I refilled my army and I am looking now for Byzantium, which is rebel owned.

In the East I besieged Crimea and took it without fight. The Parthians came and besieged my fortress. They attacked it two turns later and killed the garrison (peasants). Four turns later they besieged Alanni. I had two FA and 3 peasant units here. They attacked with one peasant and 8 HA. I made a big mistake. I placed my archers at the wrong gate!! So they broke the door and could enter the town. I killed many of them but in the end I had to surrender. Now I have to build an army to cover my eastern flank.

Politics: I tried to get as much money as I could get. I allied with Macedonia, Brutii, Julii and Senate. They all have nice towns and I’d love to see them burn.

What do you think about this??

[Eddie Kite]

[QUOTE=Franconicus] My chief builds two fortresses against the Parthians and then follows the HA. The foot archers go into the forts.
QUOTE]

Why fortresses ?
Foot archers on bridge are enough, not ?

[Franconicus]

[QUOTE=Eddie Kite]

My chief builds two fortresses against the Parthians and then follows the HA. The foot archers go into the forts.
QUOTE]
Why fortresses ?
Foot archers on bridge are enough, not ?

Eddie,
took a while until I found the old post.
I do not think that one unit of foot archers could stop the enemy too long without fortifications. They cannot stand an cav attack.
I wanted to change the garrison to peasants after a while. The forts are just to gain time.