How to Thrive As Parthia In Grand Campaign? Normal difficulty at most.

[No Bias FTW]

Just bought Rome 2 on sale and decided to play as Parthia. The problem, however, is that - even with a limited army that cannot protect the important cities - I would lose money and food. I'm going to re-start the campaign again, and this time I am not keen on erasing this one again.

I don't have much time for gameplay and have to autoresolve battles for the first 20 turns. I tried, based on a few recommendations, to take out Parthava immediately within turns 0-4. I then tried limiting my army size. However, enemies that cannot be bargained with would start invading my wall- less cities. I could repel them with my limited army, but then I would start going bankrupt and losing food. Auto-resolving battles became more bleak even at this early stage.

I will now try going East towards Bactria, a move that is recommended by a greater amount of people. As long as I have a full stack, I can safely auto-resolve battle for up to 20 turns, right? And I heard that I must break off alliance with Dahae since they are troublemakers. Is this move advisable?

I will manually fight battles myself later on, but only against other large empires when my empire stabilizes.

[Basil II the B.S]

Hmm when I got Rome 2, I did the same thing as you did, second campaign, Parthia. Bad idea. It's incredibly easy in expert hands (it's the one campaign I won on legendary without issues) but it's not easy if you are new to the game.

You need to learn the basics like managing food first, diplomacy and economy, Parthia, after you take Parthava, requires timing to get Aria and Sagarthia without triggering a war with Baktria, otherwise you'll lose the campaign.

In general:
Turn 1: Wait the first turn so that Parthava leaves the Seleucids, position both your initial armies at the border with them, add the spy to one of them, add 3 horse skirmisher to the smallest of the two. Look for non-aggression pacts with Arachosia. This is crucial. Baktria likes Arachosia, if you achieve this, they'll like you and then form a non-aggression pact with you. If Baktria attacks your satrapy, let the satrapy (Dahae) go.

Turn 2: Attack Parthava, take Zadrakarta, try to get a trade agreement with Media Atropatene as soon as you can. And a non-aggression pact.
Zadrakarta is good for building agricultural buildings if I remember correctly. Use the province for the cavalry units tree besides that. If you can't get a trade agreement with Aria by now, don't bother anymore. In 10 turns, you'll probably have to attack them.
Turn 3: Move both armies towards Hecatompylos, there might be a Parthava army near the border, kill it. Try to get a trade agreement with Persia, it's rare on harder difficulties early on. If you have the non-aggression pact with Arachosia, you might start looking for one with Baktria. It's crucial to obtain it early on: you will have to take Aria before them, but you also need them to not attack you.
Turn 4: Take Hecatompylos.
Turn 5-6: move then take Susia. Stabilize on food, focus the cavalry building tree for the army. Trade agreement with Sagarthia if possible.


Turns 7-12: build up your forces, ideally 2 stacks of 14 units each,position them at the borders with Aria. Get as many trade agreements and non-aggression pacts as you can, but not with Aria or Sagarthia, they are your targets.

Turns 13-25: Wars with Aria and then Sagarthia. This is actually the hardest part of the campaign, because you aren't strong nor wealthy early on. Battles can be tough because your units are crap.Try to outnumber them, make good use of the double-time stance on the campaign map for this.

Turns 25-50: Build up the infantry line in Aria, then wars with the Seleucid vassals, namely Drangiana, then Persia (which in my experience tends to expand and be rather tough too) and then finally Media. Trade with Media Atropatene, Baktria and Arachosia. By the end of this you'll stretch from Hatra to Nisa. You'll be rich, powerful and feared. Beat back the Seleucids to complete Mesopotamia, then build up. It's time to take your former allies. I suggest starting from Baktria and Arachosia, unless Media Apropatene declares war on you or they get beaten.

Turns 50 to the end: I never fight a single battle in this anymore. Not even on legendary. Keep building armies and blob into the steppes right after beating Baktria, then Westwards. Media Atropatene, Seleucids, Armenia and whoever won in the central map.

[No Bias FTW]

Awesome, thanks.