A Parthian Campaign Suggestion

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi guys, I have been avidly playing a Seleucid campaign for one month now and I have enjoyed every single moment of it. Sadly, however, Parthia only posed me a problem at the start of the game by sending out two full stacks at the same time to siege my two border cities and then they, after I overpowered their stacks, unfortunately, just vanished. They have not attacked anybody for seventy turns now and they unfortunately don't appear to have trained any troops. So I must suggest that Parthia gets a little bit of a boost to help it conquer the Selucids. This could be through weakening those border provinces' happiness so that they rebel to Parthia and by giving them more trade buildings at the start enabling them to get more riches and wealth from their small part of the world. I am sorry to bother you with this irritating suggestion, but I hope that you can implement this in a future release.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

The parthians are going to undergo the biggest changes for a faction that we have left in store for EB1. It won't happen in 0.81 though. We're giving them more spies to help cause problems in Seleucid areas near their borders, but that's pretty much it (besides helping fix their capital city - though those changes might not make it in time). We will go into greater detail about this at a later time though, but doing a lot more work on their situation now and progression now might be wasted with the changes that will come about later.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

That's brilliant, just a few spies would probably give them a larger chance of their historical eastern domination and getting their great empire. Thanks for the quick reply and good luck with 0.8.1.

[kambiz]

Some notifications on "Pahlava" (Ashlanian) faction.

I supposed it's better to do not open another thread and use a current one to notify somethings on this faction :

Pahlava's faction leader title ,which is "Shahrdar" in the mod ,but it must be "Shâhanshâh" as it was historically (Mithridates I chose this title for the first time).

Pahlava's character names ,Which are the greekized version of the original iranian names.I suggest you to use true parsi names ,For example :

"Mithridates" should be changed to "Mehrdad" ,
"Phraates" -> "Farhad" ,
"Artabanus" -> "Ardavan" ,
"Achaemenes" -> "Hakhamanesh" ,
"Cyrus" -> "Kurush" and ...

also many iranian (Parthian) names have been forggoten to added. I expect you to at least add the king's names like :
"Orodes" -> "Orod" ,"Tiridates" -> "Tirdad" ,"Vardanes" -> "Vardan" ,"Vologases" -> "Belash" and ...etc.
Maybe "the Persian Cataphract" can help you better on both of them.

Thanks a lot
-Kambiz

[The Persian Cataphract]

Dear Cambyses, we have been working a lot on the Pahlavân faction, and while your suggestions are highly welcome, without giving too much information, you are a little late with this. Don't worry about the names, they should be the least of your worries as we speak

As for Shahrdâr, it is a correct designation for pettier kings. The Parthian Empire, in all effect being a confederacy governed by Seven great clans of the Dahâë (Haftzandân or the later Haft-Khandân the basis of the Sassanid system of magnates or vuzurgân). The city of Hatra had a Shahrdâr, for example. Vassal kings are also "Shahrdâr" because the norm back then for pettier kings was the measuring of how many cities were in possession, an idea consistent with Isidore's (Of Charax) "Parthian Stations" where a rudimentary division of satrapies were responsible for the local construction and maintenance of the caravanseries (Karawânsarâï). The greater King, the emperor, King of Kings, whatever you call him, had a different designation. "Arsaces" was the epithet, hereditary to the great sovereign, and to the head of the Ashkânî Royal clan. The common name for king was "sah", pronounced "shâh", but like I said, it was the common designation for king. In parthian society, a king was not merely a king. Shahrdâr is more flexible in the sense that it is used to measure power, influence and wealth, through amount of cities, satrapies and one thing that greatly influenced parthian society was the importance of what clan you originated from. Hence why we use "Shahrdâr", dearest Cambyses. We could use "Shâh", as a suffix to designate the Kûshân (Kûshânshâh, for example, king of the Kushans), Hayasdan or the Sakaë (Sakâshâh) but "Shâhanshâh" is reserved for the big chief. Very rarely, Parthia was a unified nation, and usually the King of Kings being nothing more than the puppet of the strongest clan.

[BozosLiveHere]

I thought we reserved Shâhanshâh for after the pahlava complete the Shâhanshâh event. I could probably figure out a way to switch the FL title after that happens.

[russia almighty]

You didn't hear this from me but the Parthians are going to get Cossack dragoons imported from the 19th century , complete with repeating rifles and kickass sabers .

[kambiz]

Ba Dorood (Hi) ;
@"The Persian Cataphract"
Bale fahmidam va Sepasgozaram. Amma mikhastam bedonam in emkan hast ke vaghti hameye sarzaminhaei ke az did tarikhi az anne Ashkanian bod ro dar bazi gereftim ,Pas az in onvane "Shahrdâr" be "Shâhanshâh" tagheir kone?

You need to alt-switch your weapon. After you charge with your lance, double-rightclick again, but this time do this while holding down the alt-key.

Will try it.

the mod does not extend this far into the time-frame, I'm afraid

You don't want to add such a cool units just becasue "It doesn't meet the time frame" AFAIK the mod time limit is at about 30-50 AD ,right? so it's long enough ,Who would continue his game till this time or even more (Till the Ashkanian decline)? I don't understand why you are so loyal to the historical accuracy? the game is combination of fun ,balance and historical facts as well.Imo "Camel Cataphract" is well deserved addition to the Pahlava unit roster ,Don't miss it !

I'm still interested in changing Pahlava names to their current Parsi ones.Or at least add the important-Forggoten names (King of King's names) like "Orodes" ,"Artabanus" ,"Tiridates" ,"Vologases" and etc.I think this is important ,especially for EB team that is so sensitive on historical accuracy

Also is it possible to add "Iran Spahbad" as an ancillary?(If there's no problem with the time frame )

Thanks in advance
-Kambiz

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

[The Persian Cataphract]

Dorûd Ê-Jahân, Cambyses,

Bale fahmidam va Sepasgozaram. Amma mikhastam bedonam in emkan hast ke vaghti hameye sarzaminhaei ke az did tarikhi az anne Ashkanian bod ro dar bazi gereftim ,Pas az in onvane "Shahrdâr" be "Shâhanshâh" tagheir kone?

Bebakhshid vali mutvadje nashudam, shumâ digê fahmidî kê ê "Shahrdâr" ê Shâh ke ê chantâ shahr dâre?

The Shahrdâr is literally "an owner of cities" in which he governs like a king. The Shahrdâr does not own all cities.

Also, as we speak, I am planning for some new suggestions to the faction goals, so that it is more consistent with the ideals of what a Shahrdâr is (A Shâh) and what a Shâhanshâh is.

You don't want to add such a cool units just becasue "It doesn't meet the time frame" AFAIK the mod time limit is at about 30-50 AD ,right? so it's long enough ,Who would continue his game till this time or even more (Till the Ashkanian decline)? I don't understand why you are so loyal to the historical accuracy? the game is combination of fun ,balance and historical facts as well.Imo "Camel Cataphract" is well deserved addition to the Pahlava unit roster ,Don't miss it !

Again, it seems that I must clarify myself

The cataphracted camel was an invention to bring the strong, Arabian dromedary into becoming another flavour of the successful cataphract concept. The problem however is that historically, the city of Hatra was the only major herding point for breeding the dromedary, and this is an important aspect of realism, because we can't use the Bactrian camel, no matter about how much stronger and larger it is than the Arabian dromedary, because it is much slower. Another problem is that the city of Hatra proper was founded the year 70 CE, and even then it takes another century until we see the first account of the Hatrene clibanarius, let alone the concept of giving a "zen-ûstar" (Camel's armour) to a camel, which appears either in the accounts of Trajan besieging the city or the defeat of Macrinus.

Also, analyzing the structure of the Parthian military and why camels specifically used these creatures in the far rear hints at the explanation that most Parthian mounts were untrained to the presence of the camels, and therefore that sometimes the use of camels would have been ineffective. I'm not trying to make up any excuses, because I would myself like to see such a unit to be featured in the game, I'm just saying that there is reason to why the EB team has scrapped the use of camelry for now.

I'm still interested in changing Pahlava names to their current Parsi ones.Or at least add the important-Forggoten names (King of King's names) like "Orodes" ,"Artabanus" ,"Tiridates" ,"Vologases" and etc.I think this is important ,especially for EB team that is so sensitive on historical accuracy

And like I told you before, don't worry about the names

Also is it possible to add "Iran Spahbad" as an ancillary?(If there's no problem with the time frame )

Nice pun

The social structure among nobility and the council of the Dahae confederacy means that matters of defence and military becomes an issue within the clans. I would therefore say that the Parthian court would therefore rely on their nobility to provide their own marzbâns, or frontier marshals. It would not be entirely inaccurate to consider this suggestion, but it is not exactly accurate either. Let us take Rustam of Sûrên Pahlav, the victor of Carrhae, he is often designated "Êrânshahr Sepahbôd", right? The problem is that he had brought his own private army, consisting of Yuezhi and Sakae horse archers and his own household cavalry bodyguard of 1,000 men to do the fighting. This would naturally lead us to this conclusion: What was Surena minister of military over when there is no standing army? To be a minister of the military while making use of his own bandegân (Bondsmen) and his companions makes no sense, friend. The title of Êrânshahr Spâhbâd is very Sassanian, and until the marzbân reforms of Chosroës I, the seat of the military minister was decided by the magnates (Vuzurgân). Also, as an ancillary one may consider Êrânshahr Spâhbâd, but this I will need to confer with my colleagues.

[kambiz]

Thanks a milion for the fine replies "The Persian Cataphract" I wish you and EB team good luck

With my best regards (Ba behtarin dorood'ha)
-Kambiz