Historical Battle help... pesky parthians involved..

**Leet Eriksson** · 09-27-2004, 18:37

Ok i'm stuck at carrhae Historical Battle, problem is you think you have a load of cavalry in that mission but guess what! (SPOILERS AHEAD!) The Parthians cut them to peices in the cutscene, and i end up with my general and 1 cavalry and a load of useless first cohort legionnaires, i tried several tactics to defeat the parthians, among them are making my legionnaires form a line and get out of testudo, and another splitting my army in half with 1 cavalry each shooing the parthian horse archers, so i can do a pincer attack on the heavy cavalry, alas i failed in all of them.

Anyway to beat those pesky parthians? they are getting on my nerves now...

**Leet Eriksson** · 09-28-2004, 12:54

Eh kinda annoying, but i'm getting desperate here, i vowed i won't complete the campaign unless i kill every one of them parthians in that battle, i keep losing though... they made them like european knights... HELP!

**The_Emperor** · 09-28-2004, 13:13

Can you play either side of the battle? I'd rather be the Parthians... The Romans were Loossseerrss at Carrhae!

**Underhand** · 09-28-2004, 13:47

I have not played the game, so this is only a theoretical suggestion. It relies on the Parthians using their historical tactics of riding round and round an exposed unit, firing arrows inward. Take your one cavalry unit and ride it forward, so that it's horribly exposed. The Parthians should begin peppering it with arrows from all sides, so you set up some of your infantry in a line nearby the near side of their circle, flanks projecting forward. Any fast infantry you have should be ready on the flanks. Advance your concave line forward, and rush your fast infantry forward on the flanks, cutting into the ring of Parthians. Do this right and you should be able to form your own ring consisting of your line of infantry, your flanking fast infantry and... your cavalry unit that the parthians thought they were slaughtering! The ring will contain about half of the parthian force, and you just turn in and slaughter them. Should make your job with the rest considerably easier. It would work better with more cavalry, both in place of the flanking fast infantry I mentioned and to rush through your concave screen, but there's nothing to be done about that.

This technique hopefully maximises your advantage, ability and close-in fighting, while minimising your disadvantage, maneuverability. Hope it helps!

**Underhand** · 09-28-2004, 13:52

Just had a thought regarding what I just said. It may be better to use an infantry unit (or even two, to cover each other's rear) in place of the cavalry unit in my plan. Reasons being that cavalry appears to be at a premium for you since you have so little, and that the infantry unit(s) can go into testudo formation, maximising how long they can delay the parthians. Incidentally, that (going into testudo) is pretty much what the entire Roman force did historically, with predictable results.

**Leet Eriksson** · 09-28-2004, 14:23

Originally Posted by Underhand

Just had a thought regarding what I just said. It may be better to use an infantry unit (or even two, to cover each other's rear) in place of the cavalry unit in my plan. Reasons being that cavalry appears to be at a premium for you since you have so little, and that the infantry unit(s) can go into testudo formation, maximising how long they can delay the parthians. Incidentally, that (going into testudo) is pretty much what the entire Roman force did historically, with predictable results.

Yeah covering the rear is important in this battle, after the horse archers sluaghter your troops, they charge them in the rear while the cataphracts keep em busy in the front.

Although your strategy was helpful i still couldn't beat them

i feel like a noob