How to play effectively with Sab'yn?

[johnhughthom]

In any CA game it's pretty much impossible to use diplomacy to play other factions against each other, especially in higher difficulties. My usual Sabean strategy is to use the faction heir and the starting units to take the three towns around you, it's just about possible to do without having to recruit any other units. Then I spend a while building up an economy, mines are very important. You can usually get an alliance with the Ptolies, even get them to pay you for it, but it doesn't stop the inevitable. You do get a lot more time than in 0.8x though.
In terms of battles against the AS and Ptolemies you need to get behind their Phalanx and pelt them with everything you have, a frontal assault is suicide in my experience. Red Sea Infantry and Archer Spearmen used correctly are some of the best value units in the game in my opinion.

[PershsNhpios]

How do you go about leading the Arabs to victory sah?

May I suggest you read a book, unique in our history, entitled, "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom".
Written by a very intriguing and most respected man, Thomas Edward Lawrence.

[Skandaz.Imperator]

Gather all your troops + faction leader and heir and conquer all the nearlaying cities. After the conquest, disband the army and let the money roll in until you can build an infrastructure. Then, recruit archer-spearmen only for your armies (cheap upkeep and recruitment cost) and conquer the rest of Arabia.

Some house rules playing as Sab'yn:

* Always avoid war against the AS and Ptolies, no matter what! Sharing borders is particulary dangerous.

* If Bostra rebels to you, consider yourself burned and start recruit soldiers for a campaign to Egypt. A Sabean controlled Bostra leads to Ptolemy attacks in 9 out of 10 times!

* Be aware, due to the isolated location, that the Sabean campaign will take much longer than all others.

* Shortcuts through the desert might be disastrous for generals (exhaustion and a great deal of melancholy)

[Disciple of Tacitus]

I'm wondering if anyone has ever WON playing Sab'Yn?? I'm having a go at it now and all the above given advice is sound. I too am trying to keep some rebel provinces between myself and the "Deaths" until I have some legs underneath me. I've actually slipped the faction heir and his army over to mainland africa and am running amok in the rebel south. I will let you know what comes of that.
Keep in mind...
mines
caravans
and more mines

[Jorduan]

I have almost finished playing as Sab'yn
I played it for a couple of months - i really did spend so much bloody time doing it. Over christmas it did get very repetative tho.
All that remains for me to capture are the provinces of Sattagydia, Arachosia, Gedrosia and Rhodes.
I'm particularly proud of the fact that I destroyed the Ptolemaic dynasty.
My strategy involved seiging each city within arabia, waiting for thier numbers to dwindle and then crushing them when they sallied forth. Of course my funds would go down ridiculousy. I would then disband my armies and then wait for as many turns as it took to then buy a new army. This was very time consuming and obviously progress was painfully slow.
One thing which really pissed me off was the movement restrictions on my generals. This was absolutely killer. Using Ships to move your armies was the best way.
After obtaining all the Arabian cities, I turned my attentions to Axum and Meroe, but this was a problem because my allies the Ptolemies were trying to take them. I waited with my armies nearby to see what would happen.. and then one of my spies noticed a ptolemaic army starting the long trek down from bostra to invade my cities. So i attacked the weakened Ptolemaics near Axum and then took the city for myself. While their force of a few units of galatians and Phalanxes made its way through the desert, I prepared for their arrival by building mainly archer-spearman, and some cavalry, and then i kicked their asses when they arrived. I noticed another individual stating their tactics of 'skimming off' the enemy armies untill they are left with only phalanxes, which could then be surrounded and decimated with mass archer tactics. I must admit that I utiliesed a flaw in the game to achieve my huge empire - by sallying forth when my cities were seiged - then saving the game and loading it up to attack again in the same turn. However, I feel that this isnt outright 'cheating' as such, as I dont feel that the limitations to attacking once every turn is applicable to real life. Some may disagree with me, but I do feel that unless this tactic is used then winning with Seba is impossible.
I sent a fleet up the red sea and captured Thebes, but there was no way that i could maintain the city, even with a full army. So, I abandoned it and captured the cities further to the south. The war with the Ptolemies was so painstakingly long, and you have to advance 1 city at a time, making sure that you can send forth your defending armies from it without it revolting before doing so.
I can remember thinking to myself one evening when i was playing that I should stop being so cautious with my approach, so I mustered an army from the north of Arabia and invaded Charax, which was held by the Ptolemies. I was now fighting on 2 fronts, but this was not so bad as the Ptolemies were fighting on all of the fronts of their empire; against me in Babylonia and In Egpyt/ southern Levant, against the Seluecids in Persia, against K.H in Asia minor and against the Hayasdan. However, each other faction fighting against the Ptolemies were fighting losing battles before i turned the tide - particularly the seleucids, who were considerably weakened.
By this point - I knew I had to change my capital city to accomidate for my new territories. I changed my capital to Thebes, which helped considerably and improved my economy greatly. This did stir up shit in Arabia, but this was sorted easily by lowering taxes and buidling units for garrisoning there. Also, most of my family memebers were 'festering' in Arabia, and I had not used them in my conquests due to the annoying movement limts. I then changed this policy - and sent forth loads of family members up to the levant and Egypt, and I sent the individuals with the best characteristics and personalities to the frontlines, who have developed from zero star generals to high quality generals and administrators. I have saved my money for buidling primarily economic and civic structures, rather than military buildings, except for the capital city, which allows me to build my best units. I was shocked when I saw how many mercenaries were available in Egypt - I couldn't resist buying cretan archers, galatian wild men and thessilian heavy cavalry, the latter 2 being great additions to my armies.
When fighting battles in the field, I made sure my armies had archers, a couple of skirmishers - red sea infantry and hoplites - and cavalry was of great importance. The Ptolemaics (and later the Seluecids and K.H) fielded mainly phalanx units - so I used this to my advantage with my more mobile units - and sought to isolate units from the main line by constantly 'probing' their flanks with my cavalry - which could then be decimated if attacked from all sides at once by a similtaneous cavalry charge. Also - any opportunity to shoot their units in the back with my archers was taken.
Great care was taken when taking enemy cities - only assaulting when I had sufficient infantry to do so.
After spreading up through syria/palestine and taking the whole of babylonia i was attacked by long time allies the seleucids and K.H - the bastards - I mainly maintained the Seluecid front by filling cities such as Ektabana with mainly archers. K.H was more of a threat so I focussed my armies there - and using my Egpyt defeating troops I managed to push back K.H all the way to byzantium. I mustered a 'fresh' army from arabia - and sent it to the southern indian city, which interesting was held by Parthia. I did the same with Persia... in which my increased economy allowed the construction of new armies to send forth and invade their lands rather than just sitting back, letting them attack and constantly beating them off. However - this was still getting really repetative - pretty much every turn I had to kill of an enemy seige on at least 1 of my cities. With my laptop not the greatest platform for running the game the loading times involved were getting ridiculous so eventually I phased out playing it. Im now seeking to start a new game because I feel that I have pretty much completed the Seba game, as although I have not taken all the victory condition cities - I have taken many more cities than was this dictated.
The economy was always balanced on a knife edge - I'm not sure if its any easier with other factions because I havnt tried them out yet. Navies were minimal - which was problematic when i had fought the Greeks back to their own lands. At some points the only way to build new structures within cities which I had been long established, was to capture an enemy huge city - exterminate the population, and then destroy all the buidlings which offered nothing to me - including wonders which had no real value but offered hard cash for plundering it. Also - certain cities require full armies to maintain their loyalty - particulary when spreading into persia. I changed my capital to Jerusalem as this was the best location. luckily one of the last of the 2 ptolemaic cities - one in Armenia - revolted towards Hayasdan - so they were left only with the town which is south of Cyrene, which was only gaurded by freed slaves after it revolted from me.
I would like to post an image of my empire but I am unaware of how to do this. Can somebody please tell me how and then I will post it up Images of various stages of my empire.
Cheers.

[johnhughthom]

A bit late now Jorduan, but I always find it's better with Saba in the early game to attack cities with a smaller force than the defenders have and hope they sally forth next turn, if they don't take one unit out next turn. I would find Saba's economy very difficult to maintain seiging cities for the full length at the start of the game, you must have a lot of patience to constantly rebuild your forces.

[Chaotix]

I'm not exactly sure myself how to post images, but I know you have to upload them to imageshack or another site in order to do it. Then there's an image button in the post menu, you can probably use that to put them in. I would really like to see this empire...