A quick word on Sassanid soldiers. I was expecting their Levy Infantry to be, in a word, pathetic. However, they have a couple of intense bonus'.

1. (On large settings) 120 soldiers. Count them, one hundred and twenty. How does this help? It means they take longer to rout, usually outnumber opponents and can generally fight longer

2. They have better stats then I expected. As an opening infantry unit in an army tipped towards cavalry war, I was expecting them to be less then mediocre. But they quite surprised me by being acceptable.

3. Even better, when you get higher level barracks (either through building them yourself (which I recommend if you've got nothing else to spend your vast wealth on) or finding them in other cities you've taken) they're trained with an experience bonus. That, coupled with foundries (which are simple enough for the Rich Sassanid's to get their hands on) means you can get Levy Spearmen with three experience and silver weaponry/armour (effectively +5 to defense and attack) simply enough.

4. They can be retrained anywhere. Let me repeat that, ANYWHERE. The enemy city could have anything between the level 1 barracks, and the top-of-the-line-with-go-faster-stripes barracks, and you can retrain your Levy Spearmen. What does that mean? Throw the footsloggers into the grinder! Lose half of your 1,200 men, it doesn't matter, you can retrain them all in less then a turn anyway.

Right, moving on. The Sassanid general is, for lack of a better word, brilliant. He's far tougher then any other general unit (high defense and two hitpoints do wonder for a soldier) and he has the added bonus of being a horse-archer. Tough, strong and capable of ranged combat.

The Clibinarii are VERY effective, being able to hit home with a powerful charge. As well as having an almost obscene defense and the ability to fire arrows, they're effective warriors in any situation. However, they require a mid-range stable to retrain, which isn't always handy, and it takes a whole year to get a single unit of them ready.

Then, the archers. They take longer to get then other archers (The romans get a basic archer unit at the first Practise range), but they're worth the weight. Very effective, and when stuck behind a screen of Levy Spearmen with Clibinarii on their flanks (also firing their bows) invincible death dealing machines.

Finally, the Sassanid elite infantry, (which I unfortunately cannot spell). They are effective, that can't be doubted. Toe to toe I saw them take on two Plumbitarii units and emerge victorious with only half casualties. Unfortunately, they're too hard to come by to really risk. They take two turns to recruit, and at least double that time to march into the trouble areas to reinforce the units you already have. They're best in situations where you need a hard punch to deal with tough units (such as attacking a wall), but unfortunately those very situations are the ones they suffer too many casualities to be useful in your next fight. A pity, since I would use them all the time, otherwise.