Out of the Steppe, Into the Fire

**theycallmetighty** · 06-27-2007, 19:08

The Battle of the Valley of Death

Spring 271 B.C.

My army is delayed and cannot set out yet, the contingent commanded by aryandes is late and will not be arriving for several months, I hope this does not cause difficulties in the campaign. The people of Sulek must surely know I'm coming now.

Autumn 271 B.C.

I write this from the back of my horse as I look over the valley, it is filled with the bodies of my enemy. the blood has drained to the lowest part of the valley and now there are large puddles of it. When we had started out on the journey I had hoped that Oxyboakes and his army had no intention of attacking, but I was wrong.

He outnumbered me by about two hundred men but in truth I had the advantage. My army was almost exclusively horse archers while he only had two units of Saka riders the rest of his cavalry were either lancers or skirmishers armed only with javelins. He had some missile foot troops but they did not pose much threat. To take advantage of my superiority in cavalry and missiles I formed my men in a long spread out line with the foot archers in the center and the Saka cataphracts behind them.

The enemy general decided to approach in a rather clustered formation making an easy target for my horse archers.

once his army got close the enemy cavalry skirmishers broke off and attacked my left flank.

The javilineers are out ranged and begin to take casualties fast.

while my left is engaged in a missile fight, his heavily clustered center begins to fire upon my center. My foot archers volleys begin to rip into the enemy ranks and thanks to Oxboazes choice of formation, the arrows rarely miss.

At this time I order my right flank to circle around and unleash their arrows int the enemies back.

This point the enemy general realized that their was only one thing he could do.

The saka lancers charge impetuously only to be met by the unforgiving lances of my cataphracts

An enemy unit of horse archers ride out to meet the flanking movement of my right side but are quickly dispatched by the skillful archery of my men

a group of horse archers take aim at the approaching enemy riders

after only a few minutes of fighting the rebel lancers break and run, the enemy general is killed in the pursuit. I order my heavy cavalry to continue into the mass of men before them.

My heavy cavalry charge into the enemy center while there left side is barraged with arrows.

Soon the left flank, having routed the skirmishers that were sent against it, circles around in a pincer movement

First the death of their general, then being charged by the most heavily armored cavalry on the battlefield, and now being bombarded by arrows from all sides is too much for the eleutheroi army to handle and they completely lose their courage. Soon the remaining enemy unit of horse archers is forced to retreat and the engagement turns into a slaughter.

the last of the enemy warriors are shot down, only a small portion of the cavalry escape.

the valley of death

Luckily, my foot archer absorbed most of the casualties while my precious horse archers remained mostly untouched. Not only did this gain me much respect among the clan chieftains, but I still have enough men to take Sulek. I cannot write any further as we are moving out, we should be in Sulek in one week.

**theycallmetighty** · 06-27-2007, 19:18

Thank you for the advice guys, but actually I've already gone a different way, in fact its kinda the opposite of what you said

it should work out alright anyway, I have a plan :P

**Lovejoy** · 06-27-2007, 20:27

How "finished" are the saka? Is it worth playing as them or should I wait?

Anyway, great AAR! Keep it coming!

**The Errant** · 06-27-2007, 20:55

The Saka are very "finished". True to their nomadic nature their building options are "limited". However once they expand to Baktria and India they get a number of reform units.
Hellenic ones that offset their native lack of quality infantry. They are propably the hardest faction to play. So don't expect an easy campaign. Steppe economy sucks.

They will propably get some additional units in the next build, but apart from that I doubt there will be major changes. Nothing on the level of Pahlava anyway.

**theycallmetighty** · 06-27-2007, 22:12

The saka is one of my favorite factions, I would definitely recommend playing them, their economy truly does suck, but horse-archer armies if used properly can take out much bigger infantry armies.

**theycallmetighty** · 07-02-2007, 18:04

The Unnecessary Battles of Men

Sapalbizes could hear only the horses sputtering and neighing. Right now the men were silent. It was the silence men use to make peace with their god and themselves before riding into battle and perhaps death. The silence known to all battle fields throughout history. For centuries when men marched into a struggle for life and limb they said nothing and livened only to the plodding of their feet. Sapalbizes was too experienced and had been in too many battles to be thinking about dying, instead he only thought about what brought him here. What made him risk his men against a force almost three times as great as his. He thought back to his tent in the camp-city of Sulek.

"Oxyboaxes plots something my lord, everyday he goes from tent to tent talking to the chiefs of the clans, and they love him, especially after they heard of his raid on Sulek."

"Damn him, yes he brought back many heads, but what good did that do, wasn't it I who defeated the hordes of Haomavarga, was it not me who captured sulek with less than fifty casualties, wasn't it I rounded up over two thousand slaves which now tend the herds and serve the chiefs in chigu. Nobles care only for one thing, Glory."

"Indeed milord, but we must do something, or he will soon be Yabghu and you will be dead."

"We have sent most of the heard home and they will not likely return so quickly, we need to deprive him of his power, we need to take his warriors."

"Yes Yabghu, a raid, a glorious raid, outnumbered and ranged, but you will overcome this and come back with many heads."

"No Miyika, not a raid, a conquest, we will set out for Haomavarga and take the horse men, but we will leave Oxyboaxes, he has a knack for governing anyway."

And so Sapalbizes took Oxyboaxes faithful warriors and set out to punish the Haomavargans for their Treacherous attack, but now Sapalbizes did not know how glorious this would really be. He knew now that this battle was unnecessary, and many men would die in a battle so unnecessary.

The enemy outnumbers the saka greatly, the chances of victory are slim.

But this did not matter, he was here now, and so were his soon to be dead men,and so was the silence. He knew the more men thought about dying the worse, he had to break the silence. He was not much fir speeches, but he knew one thing never fails.

Sapalbizes drew his sword and let out a great war cry.

Suddenly as if they had all just awoke from sleep, his men answered his call, and from the silence, came the thunderous noise of men that were ready for a fight and so the hordes of the saka rode into battle once more.