Sassanids (BI faction)

[Garvanko]

Ahh... the Sassanid Empire.

After testing the waters with the WRE (disaster zone), the Franks (Nice units) and the Vandals (Hording away), I decided to begin a proper campaign with these Persian aristocrats. Needless you say you start off rich, and stay rich. Two or three of your frontier garrisons are on the brink of rebelling, but mainky because they are Pagan states. Demolish their shrines and build your own zoroastrian temples, and you should see public order jump almost 60%..

But that's obvious.

The Sassanids come up against the ERE, and just to make sure you attack them and not go wondering off up north, your goals for domination are to hold 20 settlements plus Constantinople, Jerusalem and Alexandria. Tough assignment, but one that can be accomplished with an initial three pronged strategic assault on Antioch (ERE's second city), Sinope, and Petra (rebel stronghold near Alexandra and Jerusalem). Attack using choke points.. Take Antioch then Jerusalem, then Philadelphia, then the city below Sinope... Then take Alexandria.

At Alexandria, the WRE, who'd just been kicked off Carthage by the Berbers, had an army waiting near Alexandria. I quickly took Alexandria, then allied with WRE. Interesting thing was, when the ERE attacked me again, by bockading my port at Antioch, the WRE remained neutral. A positive development. By now I had control of the East, and am ready to push on towards Constantinople..


The key to playing the Sassanids on the battlemap (I play on VH/M) is to master the horsemen, particlualry your Horse Archers, as most of your Cav (Clibinarii, Catapracts), as well as the unbelievably expensive mercenary units will be HA. Training Generals (Clibinarii Immortals) takes four turns. Most importantly, train lots of specialist archers.

Sassanids are fun. A good balanced intro to BI.

[PseRamesses]

Playing Sass on M/M.

The Sass are rich and have IMO one of the best line-ups BI can muster. This is my appoach:
1. Gather a 1st army around 8*Melchior from your three northern provinces and take Kotais (reb).
2. Gather a 2nd army around 2*Ardashir on the border-bridge between Assyria and Coele-Syria. WRE will attack you there and you can alomost wipe out all of their main force in one or two battles here before moving on Antioch.

1st army will move on Sinope, Caesarea, Ancyra, Ephesus and Kydonia, maybee swing back to take Salamis. 2nd army takes Antioch, Tarsus, Sidon, Jerusalem, Philadelphia and Alexandria, maybee Cyrene or Salamis. Pay no attention to Petra and Dumatha for now.
I exterminated Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria. Ensalved Caesarea, Sinope, Ephesus and Sidon thus redirecting population back to smaller settlements. A-J-A has highly developed infrastructure so here I just raised its religious buildings, for now.
Your empire is now firmly set above 20 regions with borders at Kaukasus and Libya so you can end the game by taking the last objective: Constantinople, which I did in 275 AD in my first game, or do something else. To centralize government I moved my capitol to Antioch in the same year.

When it comes to units BI lacks depth so a spear line, archers and Clibniarii will do fine. At your capitol you can later train some good swordsmen so I added them (2/army) for flanking and wall ops.
The Sass are by far the easiest faction to play and with only one enemy, WRE, it´s a walk in the park.

[TosaInu]

test

[The_Emperor]

I started off as the Sassanids as well after playing a few test runs as other factions.

The biggest problem you have as the Sassinids is always going to be religious. Nearly every town I conquered wound up as having a large percentage of the population being christian and causing unrest... Eventually I moved onto a "let god sort em out" massacre and rebuild strategy, whenever I left it too late to destroy those churches it has always cost me.

Ultimately the Sassinids are in a nice spot on the map and can expect very little trouble from anyone except the Eastern Empire. The bulk of Barbarians on the Steppes are more interested in going West than heading directly south into your lands, so you only have to worry about the direct threat posed by the Eastern Empire.

As always taking Antioch is the key, it is a rich city and well placed to cut off the eastern empire from their holdings in the south.

In my campaign I did progress too slowly with all the large garrissons to prevent religious unrest and the Eastern Empire built up some resistance around Jerusalem and Petra as well as taking that profitless settlement Dumatha in Arabia.

Fortunately now the Eastern Empire is having major loyalty problems and the Eastern Rebels have taken that worthless province. I am now on good terms with the rebels with trading rights and so forth so i will leave them there while I deal with the bulk of the Empire to the south and then roll them back westwards.

[Garvanko]

Ultimately the Sassinids are in a nice spot on the map and can expect very little trouble from anyone except the Eastern Empire. The bulk of Barbarians on the Steppes are more interested in going West than heading directly south into your lands, so you only have to worry about the direct threat posed by the Eastern Empire.

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This is true. More so if you get an Alliance or trade rights with any and all of them. You could however decide to attack them and see if they retaliate. Should spice things up a bit on that front.

Are Sughadan Warriors as good as First Cohorts in RTW?

[Unregistered]

I played the Sassanids for about 20 years on hard/hard and I consider the game won. The ERE lies in shambles before me. Byzantium is under the hun. The east is mine.

I started a 2-pronged attack. I took all the troops I had from my nothern cities and the chief of the army to go for Sinope and a younger general to go for Antioch. "In war, we need to be speedy" has always been my maxim, especially with factions I don't have experience with. Building up a nice powerbase asap is important. I did not go for any rebel cities, as the real enemy is ERE, so weaken them fast.

As Sassanids hate christians, I mostly wiped them out, sometimes enslaved. This makes your life easier, as you can convert them faster.

Next target was Tarsus. Antioch and Tarsus are very near of each other and can support themselves if necessary with troops.

In the north, my offensive stalled as the ERE sent about 3 stacks, one after the other to besiege it. The sieges were quite close affairs, but fun.

Antioch/Tarsus got attacked from the South. Caesarea is a nice target, as it can support Sinope and straightens your frontline.

Then I went south, down the coast, conquering and pillaging as I went. Build ports here, and money rolls in.


I tried to be fast, and even ignored ERE stacks wandering around. I went straight to Alexandria. This is a very very large city. I enslaved them and the brought me quite some trouble, as I always skirted on the edge of rebellion. But I couldn't put that Basilica down! My young governor has some fun with christian harassing and hunting (traits).

Siege weapons are essential imo to deal with the strong defenses of these large cities. Some even have epic walls! In my experience the AI takes its time to repair damages to the walls, so its possible to break the walls/towers on one attack, and then withdraw to attack again in the next turn. I had 4 onagers in my main army. Try to destroy all towers that might be shooting at you as you march through the city to the square. It's surgical strikes!

Units-wise, I find armored horsemen to storm a city is very effective and fast. Spearmen are sufficient in large numbers. They take heavy casualties against the comita...whatever but suppored by cats they do well. And they can be retrained EVERYWHERE. Archers, as always, a must.

[cunobelinus]

IUltimately the Sassinids are in a nice spot on the map and can expect very little trouble from anyone except the Eastern Empire. The bulk of Barbarians on the Steppes are more interested in going West than heading directly south into your lands, so you only have to worry about the direct threat posed by the Eastern Empire.

not 100% true i have had problems with the huns and vandals they came my way and now i am holding them back .but the eastern roman empire do pose a threat.

[darklite]

Great money churner. I'm using diplomats to bribe any enemy armies wandering around, gaining some nice new officers. troops bribed tend to come over as peasents, which i route to villages.

My main invasion force is a stack of cavalry. Mounted archers, with light camels. Send in three spies, and attack the city. The spys are gaining exp fast, as are all the cavalry. I have a small stack of 8 spearmen which I use for garrison duty once the city is taken. Rebuild, retrain, and off to another city. The cav attack stack is good because the infantry you're given are rubbish against the better roman inf types.

Had a huge problem with religion, since i didn't convert from christianity, but in the end I let the populations build up, rebel, and the massacred. Gained 20-30k per city, and brought the populations all down to abt 10k. Perfect.

Only problem so far is with Roman Navies, but I'm building two armada's of 2nd gen ships which will go prowling. As with RTW take cyprus. Its a huge money earner.