Quote Originally Posted by The Persian Cataphract
When in control of Seleucid, Bactrian, Pontic or Armenian armies, the significant lack of horse-archery...
You'll have to drop Hayasdan from that list, they get horse archers early and often. In the suggestions thread I've advocated for making the Scythian HA a little harder to get (regional MIC-2 instead of the current MIC-1). Not to mention those godlike cataphract archers in the factional roster - though I dare say the Parthians should have something at least as good if not better.

Palmtree, Hayasdan is not a suicide campaign. Just don't play on VH, but that goes for almost anyone other than AS, IMHO. If your Bactria game is on VH, that would be why AS jumped you early...