Will I ever get any decent troops outside my homelands?

[PenguinLobster]

I'm playing as Bactria and the only faction troops I can recruit in type 2 governments are native phalanxes and those crappy spearmen despite having the right barracks and owning them for over 20 years. Is their something I need to do or should I just start building alot of roads?

[NeoSpartan]

u can get some pretty decent local troops at a high level Local MIC.... but it depends on the region. Don't expect to get elites though.

[Pharnakes]

Have a look here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=86710

[PenguinLobster]

I can understand not getting cataphracts and royal guards but marching back to bactria just to get some new medium phalanxes and hellenic spearmen is incredibly annoying. And the local troops are completely useless unless their using a bow.

[Sakkura]

You can get pheraspidai and pezhetairoi if you take Seleukeia or a few other important Diadochoi cities. And thorakitai are available in much of AS territory IIRC.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

If you want the best local troops (in regions outside your homelands), you should choose type4's or type3's. They give you the highest local MIC's. With type2 govts, you don't get really high local MIC's - you still get decent factional MIC's, but only a couple of levels usually of the local MIC's.

[Thaatu]

I can understand not getting cataphracts and royal guards but marching back to bactria just to get some new medium phalanxes and hellenic spearmen is incredibly annoying. And the local troops are completely useless unless their using a bow.

This is why an army which marched far from its home had to rely heavily on local troops and mercenaries. My advice is an army with a Baktrian core and muchos locals. Also you should bring troops from Baktra to reinforce the battered units, not order them back to Baktra to retrain. It's much easier and faster that way.

[pezhetairoi]

Exactly. For Rome i can understand marching back, but for Baktria it is a MUST that you do forward retraining. The armies cannot be taken out of the frontline for even a moment.

As to your moaning about lack of good troops, I have only two words to say to you: Shuban Fradakshana.

And pantodapoi phalangitai aren't half bad, I'll have you know. They die fast, but they are efficient and cheap.

Anyhow. The things that you will want to know when conquering: Persepolis is the first city that gives you anything more than PPh, and that's thorakitai, and only at the highest level MIC. I tried process_cq and it appears that's the only one nearby that gives you anything of that sort at all. Susa and Ekbatana and Apameia give you Hallatamti Thanvare, which is an improvement on Payahdag, in visuals at least if not performance. The key cities for you are Persepolis, Seleukeia, and Antiocheia. The rest are only good for money. Asaak, Nisa, and Kiat are a good source of Pahlava Shivatir for when you want to kill someone from a distance. Sure it takes them 6-7 turns to get to the front one you're in the Seleukid heartlands, but they are deadly in large quantities.