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...

[The Hun]

I look forward to seeing Noble Horse Archers, I think with this unit you can forget ordinary Nobles because they are better all round. The Nobles have better defensive stats but that is negated when you can shoot enemies to bits first. I just defeated the last 'decent' army the Thracians could muster with 9 Scythian Horse Archers and 1 Sarmatian Mercenary ( worth every denarii I spent on him ) I fixed their Hoplites and Falxmen with several units and left their General to his futile pursuit of the others. When he was exhausted we closed
I don't like to use pause but I am playing with the speed and melee mods. I can understand how the vanilla game demands that you hit pause because the infantry go at some silly rates. The mods are far more realistic, they even tend to take the 'uber' out of cav charges

[Lord_Winter]

Yes the noble archers are far supperior to the normal nobles since the lateer take twice the time and more money...and money is something which you rarely have I have found...Noble Archers also have the bonus of being able to take care for themselves against all but the heaviest opposition...

[The Hun]

Got them at last....Now the fun starts

[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.

[Mr Frost]

Yes the noble archers are far supperior to the normal nobles since the lateer take twice the time and more money...and money is something which you rarely have I have found...Noble Archers also have the bonus of being able to take care for themselves against all but the heaviest opposition...

However , Scythian Nobles have the advantage {so to speak} of being exactly the same as Sarmatian Mercenaries yet costing less to produce {same upkeep} and glancing at their stats in export_desc_unit.txt they seem to cost less to upgrade , though whether this is in S.P. or only Custom Battles/M.P. I don't know nor really care much ... they have the highest charge bonus in the game !

[The Hun]

Scythian Noble Archers......best unit in RTW

[Mr Frost]

Scythian Noble Archers......best unit in RTW

Well , after Cheat Oliphants they are

[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

[Vikings]

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

Well inaccurate or not, movie is pretty good. Well all that actions and sieges going on, that was interesting. Didnt realise it was around 370 AD, wow that way off the scale. Romans should have advance alot and should have be well fortify as well good quality troops unless they'er having income problems.

He prob have alot of blood lines from many factions during all those years.

Anyway i havent tried the Scythians yet, hate charging my generals toward close combat, unless they are peasants and that would be no fun at all. So i hardly charged my generals into serious fights unless it needed it. Good way to lose your important generals.

So Horse Archers sound fun, but can run out of arrows then what? They'er no match in melee combat. Needed to improve my general's experience somehow without risky too much.

Question... if you capture one of Macedon's City that has Artemis Temple, can your units (Missile) be upgraded from that faction? IF so that would be nice.

-Vikings

[Mr Frost]

Well inaccurate or not, movie is pretty good. Well all that actions and sieges going on, that was interesting. Didnt realise it was around 370 AD, wow that way off the scale. Romans should have advance alot and should have be well fortify as well good quality troops unless they'er having income problems.

He prob have alot of blood lines from many factions during all those years.

Anyway i havent tried the Scythians yet, hate charging my generals toward close combat, unless they are peasants and that would be no fun at all. So i hardly charged my generals into serious fights unless it needed it. Good way to lose your important generals.

So Horse Archers sound fun, but can run out of arrows then what? They'er no match in melee combat. Needed to improve my general's experience somehow without risky too much.

Question... if you capture one of Macedon's City that has Artemis Temple, can your units (Missile) be upgraded from that faction? IF so that would be nice.

-Vikings

Rome had big problems with its' ecconomy by then . That's what happens when an Empire gets too big and sprawling {the game simulates this more realistically than most realise} and why , for example , England had to let go of most of its' empire last century {they simply couldn't afford to keep it , WWI and WWII just sped up the process} .
Rome would have likely collapsed under its' own weight even if the various "Barbarian" attackers had left it alone . The Eastern Roman Empire {Byzantium to us today} only survived for a good while after because they were {comparativly , they were after all only half the old Roman Empire} less sprawling and still they lost a lot of territory simply because they could never find enough quality troops to hold it all when bad times struck {which they invariably do} .


As for Temples to Artimis : anyone can use them if they capture them . Same goes for any temples .

[Vikings]

Ah how nice, getting spies in hot places if lucky enough to get in. Some of those Temples are great.

Well if i was playing Rome, couldnt expand too far due to distance from Capitol. So that really wasnt worth it. I rather go out IF i was at war with them then either enslave the populations or raze it.

-Vikings

[Maltz]

Scythia

Sycthia is a faction for the missle fans. It not only has a powerful house of horse archers, but also some decent early foot archers, plus a good all-purpose infantry, axeman.

The downside is axeman is all you have throughout the game. They can be trained in 2nd level barracks. Early on there is nowhere in Scythia to train axemen, so either we have to build one 2nd level barrack on our own, or we have to grab a city that has it. Dacia's starting capital, which is west to the Scythia's starting capital, has a 2nd level barrack. So it would be nice to grab it as soon as possible, and mass produce axemen from there for a while.

Dacian army, although very balanced and with good quality, is crap before horse archers. They are too slow. Ai likes to charge with multiple units early, so it is very important NOT to face too many charges at the same time. With speed advantage you can take out wave after waves of attack.

Thrace is also an obvious early target. Actually Scythian can grab the northern city of Thrace in turn 1 - facing almost no resistance. Nothing in that city can shoot arrows, while nothing in Scythia's army cannot shoot arrows. So you can get a 0-casaulty heroic victory rather easily.

Please note that HA runs slightly slower than Thrace's jav. cav., so when you see jav. cav. charges towards your HA, you will need some nearby support. Other than that Thrace are just shooting practice before Scythia.

Parthia is a potential headache because it is also a horse-archer-heavy clan. There is a Parthian town on the top-right corner of the map. Taking it early will prevent Parthia from harrassing your back. The army there is not weak, but AI usually splits its troops, sending out captain-lead army walking around, so it is easy to pick them up first either by force or by the starting diplomat, then siege the town. There is no trick for HA vs. HA at town center - rush into melee, and let the number speak.

I find I usually advance my army to the following steps:

(1) Field an cavalry-rich army, with little shock troop infantry (i.e. axemen), to fight field battles. Foot archers are not useful because they serve the same purpose as HA but have to be protected. March them to the target city and start to build seige equipment.

(2) Foot archers arrive right before the siege starts. Horse archers are not very accurate shooters, but foot archers are your choice from brining down all the patrolling units in the city, plus those at the town center.

Scythia is by no means weak - except for its economics. However, as long as you take out Dacia and Thrace, and extend into Macedonia, you should be able to support at least 2 directions of expansion. The Macedon capital, Athen (if already occupied and developed by Macedonian or Greeks), and Sparta are all excellent production center of troops of mass destruction - so There is a temple that gets good unit experiences - don't forget to build them there. (With the Macedon's capital you might want to build the law-order one before the ~255BC plague, because its population is too high to maintain a good order).

Once you get the 2nd level stable built, your future is as bright as Scythian orange. Get TONS of noble archers and see how many arses it can kick!

Greek's slow phalanx can be killed by HA with eyes closed. One little trouble is Macedon's cavalry are powerful, so 1 on 1 the HA will lose badly. I suppose HA are also deadly against Roman infantry. Anything that runs slower than HA is doomed.

With Scythia you could achieve victory with overwhelming odds, like 3:1 . The key is to always concentrate arrows on one point, charge and rout them, then quickly focus on the 2nd one. If the enemy rush fowards in large numbers, run to one side and again you have the local advantage.

[Cousin Zoidfarb]

someone please help me unlock this faction

[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.