help against Pahlava - horse-archers vs. Cataphracts?

[KuKulzA]

Firstly thanks for bothering to read this. I was playing my Sauromatae campaign and now I am at war with Pahlava, or rather betrayed by them. My military is miniscule... but the defenders aren't much smaller in size than my immediate opponents (invading armies)

example: how is one general and 2 units of Sauromatae Fat Aexsdzhytae (Sarmation Horse-Archers) supposed to beat a Pahlava general, and 2 heavily armored cavalry units (Azad Asavaran and Grivpanvar)?
besieged at Gava-Yazyga... 3 units vs. 3 units... but he's got 2 cataphracts for my 2 horse-archers...

that's just one... if I am to survive I need to fight more of these... how?

as Saka Rauka I had heavily armored generals and if i was rich enough I had saka lancers, but I have no such thing since I am Sauromatae

thinking in terms of fighting it's simple... when some throws a very big hard punch at you....

you can evade and strike back
you can parry/block and strike back
meet force with force

but I don't have the cavalry to meet force with force... my horsemen's arrows don't do crap against the armored enemies... and my guys can't stay in sustained combat...... and of course I don't have the tough spearmen to take the charge and keep fighting to wear them down and kill them...

how can I fight an enemy that I can't take down with my only advantageous weapon (arrows)?

any and all advice appreciated.... I am gonna do some custom battles to test this scenario, see what works...

[Foot]

Sally forward and exit via a gate to the sides of where the enemy are attacking from. Use your HAs to fire arrows whilst leading the enemy cav around the park. Keep your general inside the settlement. Once your arrows are finished keep sending the enemy cav on a wild goose chase until they are tired and try and break one of them off from the others. Lure him away toward the settlement and let your general exit through a gate. When you attack, your troops will be fresh whilst his will be exhausted, you will win easily. If you feel you can take another unit on without losing too many men, do the same. Once you feel you have done enough escape back to the settlement and wait till the battle is over (please say you have timed battles). You will get a draw, or perhaps even a win and either you can try again till the enemy is utterly destroyed or the enemy will flee.

Foot

[KuKulzA]

I don't have timed battles..... shame on me
Gava-Yugra has no walls... shame on me
I have come to the same conclusion as your tactic you showed above, except with my general also in the goose-chase (since its 3v3) and since he needs to use up his arrows before I can get him to charge reliably... and to occupy the third cavalry unit until they are tired and arrows used up

i can reduce the enemy to 30-40 cataphracts before I'm dead... if I'm lucky

maybe my AAR is hopeless!
HEHEHE! *sob* hahaha


BUT I did not consider the ''tiring out = easier to break'' factor... I will try it

thanks, wish me luck...

[Foot]

If you have your general in the goose-chase he will be as tired as the enemy when the melee happens and you will have lost your advantage.

You can turn timed battles on in the game menu I believe.

The process works the same without walls, you'll just have to be careful of keeping your general away from the enemy and keeping the enemy away from the town square.

Foot

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

You do have one slight advantage, though it is small. The AI doesn't know how to switch to their secondary weapons. Meaning, in an extended cavalry clash, the enemy will have a low attack rate (with their lances). So if you have swords, you have better attack in a drawn out fight. It probably isn't enough to counter their armor.

[Seyduna]

You do have one slight advantage, though it is small. The AI doesn't know how to switch to their secondary weapons. Meaning, in an extended cavalry clash, the enemy will have a low attack rate (with their lances). So if you have swords, you have better attack in a drawn out fight. It probably isn't enough to counter their armor.

As I experienced, cavalry using primary attack(lance) is more effective against enemy cavalry.

[KuKulzA]

If you have your general in the goose-chase he will be as tired as the enemy when the melee happens and you will have lost your advantage.

You can turn timed battles on in the game menu I believe.

The process works the same without walls, you'll just have to be careful of keeping your general away from the enemy and keeping the enemy away from the town square.

Foot

I will try to find where to turn battles to timed...

You do have one slight advantage, though it is small. The AI doesn't know how to switch to their secondary weapons. Meaning, in an extended cavalry clash, the enemy will have a low attack rate (with their lances). So if you have swords, you have better attack in a drawn out fight. It probably isn't enough to counter their armor.

how do I switch to secondary weapons? do I simply have them "run into" the enemy? cause that's what I've been doing for melee when I still have arrows...

[Bootsiuv]

alt-click

[The Persian Cataphract]

It's useless... All I can do is to just laugh at your pitiful misfortunes while your armies continuously get crushed by cataphracts from hell itself. Your toothpicks are needless. Surrender. Sauromatae lands shall be assimilated and be a part of the Pahlavân collective.

Resistance is futile

[russia almighty]

TPC , Cataphracts from hell are nothing compared to Kerberos .

[The Persian Cataphract]

Fool, Kerberos is fiction...

<_<

Cataphracts from hell is... Not.

>_>

[russia almighty]

Yeah ..... tell that to those ******'s outside your flat with the MG-42's .


Gothic knights from hell are ten times worse . Gunfire don't kill em . Matter of fact TPC during the Safavid(even though that ain't your expertise) era where there any catatanks left to potentially wtf pwn arquebusiers ?

[artavazd]

use saka riders they are light and have a powerful charge(not to mention they fire arrows as well.) Charge the heavy cats with 3-4 units of saka riders and that should do. (saka riders are the key when playing with this faction.)