Parthia: A helping hand

[clench]

Hey guys, I did quite a bit of playing in a Parthian campaign lately.. my campaign is now somewhere around 200BC and I've taken out Seleukia and Armenia completely. I have all the land from the starting provinces to Jerusalem, Bostra, and Tarsus being the further reaches. While I do agree with the majory, always build advanced settlement and reformed pastorlism, a nomad settlement or two can really help save time with retraining. I find that a smaller, more well rounded cavalry force performs better than a larger single unit type (standard ha spam). Im allied with Baktria and at war with Ptolomai and Pontos. Sarmatian and Saka are fighting over the Steppes with Baktria and Pontos has Anatolia locked down. Rome has some of the worst expansion I've ever seen, barely making their way out of Italy into Illyria and Carthage is dominating Iberia and North Africa + islands.

The starting force you get is basically what I used the entire game, their experience and well being key to the early game. Also, send all of your spies to the same city at the same city and try to get some of the Seleukid cities near you to rebel so you can take them without breaking the alliance. My army generally consisted of 3-4 family members, the early generals are supremely flexible and the late generals are probably they strongest heavy cav in the game, about 4 light ha and 4 medium ha (Dahae or Medium Parth Nobles), and 2 cataphract archers. With this force and the proper tactics you can make waste to Seleukid stacks and with the right mix of spys and a combo of nomad and advanced settlements you can do it non-stop to retrain before battles.

In battle, you want to run your generals around the enemy to grab their attention and pelt them non stop in the flanks till your archers run out of arrows. Usually at this point I'd retreat my light archers, unless I really needed the extra punch, and start charging the flanks with your medium, heavy, and general cavalry. After taking all the arrows, the units tend to rout quickly, especially if you end up isolating and killing their general first. Use your general cavalry to take the brunt of any charges as they retrain automatically and charge your more expensive calavry only at the best possible time and try not engage in melee for long. A massed charged from multiple sides will send even the Seleukid silver shields running. Before long Seleukid stacks will become more of a chore than a challenge, especially when your main force has silver and gold experience levels. The key to defeating the Seleukids is to blitz them when you declare war on them and try to take as many cities without pissing them off through rebellions. Never stop attacking and use your pure cavalry army's mobility to your advantage. Don't be afraid to retreat from battle to save your cavalry, somtimes unloading your arrows then retreating is the best tactics for dealing with large, phalanx heavy stacks. Hope this helps.

[pezhetairoi]

It certainly feels strange to me to be building pastoralism all over the place as a nomadic faction. I rely on retraining depots, so why are people advocating pastoralism? Wouldn't that dry up your supply of HA? I've never really played a nomadic faction for more than 10 turns (the revulsion at having to switch from my usual balanced-army tactics was a little too much to bear, though it's up from 3 turns' tolerance in the past) so I don't really get the practical reasons why. Can someone help?

[burn_again]

I rely on retraining depots, so why are people advocating pastoralism? Wouldn't that dry up your supply of HA?

Well, as Pahlava you'll get most of your HA troops also with pastoralism plus you can later upgrade your settlements in seleucid territory, so pastoralism makes much more sense in all provinces that can be upgraded.

[struckat]

Yes you can still train the horses in most with pastoralism. There is a certain point where you can build a factional MIC. I have been looking forward to Persian Hoplites and Babylonian spears. So far no MICs have shown up, does anyone know what you need to buildto get them?