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Thread: Desert Kingdoms Tactics and Strategy Discussion

  1. #1
    Welsh Dragon's Avatar Content Staff
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    Default Desert Kingdoms Tactics and Strategy Discussion

    Hi everyone,

    So with four new and diverse factions to play in the Desert Kingdoms DLC, I thought it would be fun to have somewhere to discuss and share ideas for how to play them (or against them.)

    • What strategies are you finding works (or don't,) on the Campaign Map?
    • Do you go for the chapter objectives or strike out on your own? Conquer your neighbours or set out for distant shores to rule?
    • What about battles? What tactics are your Kush, Saba, Nabatea and Masaesyli Generals using on the battlefield to defeat their enemies?
    • Have you found any interesting unit combinations or unexpected gambits which have paid off?
    • Or perhaps you're playing one of the other factions and going up against these new foes. How are you countering their units or overcoming the challenges they present?


    All welcome for some friendly chat, sharing of ideas and maybe a few war stories too!

    All the Best,

    Welsh Dragon.

  2. #2
    Welsh Dragon's Avatar Content Staff
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    Default Re: Desert Kingdoms Tactics and Strategy Discussion

    Masaesyli - A Few Random Tips.

    So I'm nearly 100 turns into my Masaesyli campaign (Hard/Hard, Vanilla unmodded.)

    Masaesyli Early Units:

    • Your early roster basically consists of Light units, with the exception of the Numidian Spearmen who are a Medium unit. This can be taken as a good indicator of the way Masaesyli play, especially in the early stages. This is an army that relies on speed, agility, and hit & run tactics, not a drawn out slugging match. You want your soldiers to be getting in, doing as much damage as possible, and getting out before you get drawn into a melee fight.


    Early Cavalry:

    • I've found their strength, especially early on, seems to lie in their skirmisher cavalry.
    • The Tier 1 "Gaetuli Horse Skirmishers" are a nice little unit, and I've found I rely heavily on them. They can be recruited from any settlement. They're relatively cheap to recruit and in upkeep costs. They're very fast (even faster when you take into account you start with a Level 1 Horse Trainer,) which makes them good for getting out of trouble or doing strafing runs. They're javelins do a decent amount of damage and have a rate of fire as fast as some slingers. And they also have a neat little trick where they have Guerrilla Deployment (Vanguard Deployment for any Warhammer players) meaning in some battles you can have them deployed off the enemies flanks before the battle has even started.
    • Desert Cavalry are also an early cavalry unit, recruitable from a Tier 1 Stables. I found them to be your typical light cavalry, good for disrupting skirmishers and chasing down routers.


    Early Infantry:

    • I'd say that infantry is secondary to cavalry in this faction, but I've also heard of some using infantry heavy tactics with some success, so bear that in mind.
    • Slave Infantry (recruitable from any settlement) are basically cheap disposable troops. They may not be up to much, but it's not going to hurt the bank if a few (hundred) of them die in a battle, so you can basically chuck them at the enemy in any situation where you just need to use something. They also make for a cheap garrison force if you need to use units to boost public order.
    • Numidian Spearmen (also recruitable from any settlement) are your main infantry early on. They're not Hoplites, but they'll hold their own for a little while, which is the main use I found for them.
    • With a Tier 1 Infantry Camp you also gain access to three more infantry units. The Tribal Slinger, Tribesmen and Numidian Javelinmen. They basically give you some cheap skirmishers which can be a useful tool in the army, but aren't a core part.


    So my early armies basically comprise of 8 units of Gaetuli Horse Skirmishers (4 on each flank,) 2 units of Desert Cavalry (for chasing skirmishers,) 6 units of Numidian Spearmen (my main fixing force,) 2 units of Slave Infantry, 3 units of skirmishers and a general on horseback.

    Basic tactic is to run the Gaetuli Horse Skirmishers down both flanks of the enemy army, hurling javelins as they go, whilst the infantry engage his and try and fix them in place. You can then bring the Gaetuli Horse Skirmishers round the back and strafe the enemy in the rear, causing a lot of damage to his engaged troops.

    It can also be a fun tactic to put the Gaetuli Horse Skirmishers into narrow column formations. When it works, this means that you can have them riding past the enemies flank's in such a way that most or all of the riders get a chance to throw their javelins on a pass, meaning you do maximum damage... when it doesn't, you basically find yourself in an unwieldy formation that can't maneuver well and can get caught out by the enemy, so be warned.

    *

    That's me done for now, but tomorrow I'll hopefully add some tips for the campaign. Hope that helps and please feel free to add more for the Masaesyli or any of the factions.

    All the Best,

    Welsh Dragon.
    Last edited by Welsh Dragon; March 12, 2018 at 05:47 PM.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Desert Kingdoms Tactics and Strategy Discussion

    Kush - About 150 turns in, Hard/Hard, Vanilla.

    Overall impression:
    I find them to be an enjoyable faction to play as. They are somewhat lacking in calvary options, which is offset by their excellent spearman and fantastic archers. Was cruising along until I hit some of the steppe factions in the NE corner of my empire. Still pushing out, but I have lost a couple of battles to horse archer dominant armies.

    Early Game
    Their early units are CHEAP! Sure, they're slaves, and die fairly easily, but you can crank out the max armies with minimal overhead very quickly early in the game and rely on sheer numbers. The Kush starting position gives access to spices, and I after a few trade agreements the money to finance expansion was flowing. I chose to push North and take Egypt first. It doesn't take long to unlock tier 2 spearman (Nubian Spearman), who are still cheap but a big upgrade from the slaves. Tier 2 ranged units are where the Kush armies start to show their personality, with the excellent Nubian Bowman.

    Mid-Game
    Having pushed out to the African province in the west, I made peace with the Numidians and focused on Eastward expansion. At this point a typical army of mine looks like:
    2 African Elephants
    2 Armored Desert Calvary
    2 [COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Aethiopian Cavalry
    5
    [/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Kushite Archers
    5
    [/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Leopard Warriors
    2
    [/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]Shotel Warriors
    plus a couple of siege weapons.

    I find I rarely have to use swordsman with the Kush. Usually I line up the spearman with the archers behind, put the elephants and calvary on the flanks, with the general, siege equipment, and swordsman in reserve. I let the archers lay down a withering amount of fire (rapid reload is good here) to soak up that first wave. I use the calvary to interfere with the enemy calvary to protect the flanks. If the enemy infantry starts to close, I send in the elephants. They tend to disrupt the enemy lines and stall out any push. While the enemy is stalled out, the archers are just picking them apart. If any infantry get past that and start giving my spearman trouble, that is when i use the Shotel warriors.

    Against the steppe armies, I've been playing with a few different army configurations, the most successful variant was adding a couple more Armored Desert Calvary and dropping an elephant and a siege weapon.

    I've found the Kush have several excellent trade boosting buildings. The hunting lodge tree in particular is great. I've tried to build up a robust trade network, with some of the desert kingdoms, Rome, and the greek cities. Usually take slaves after winning battles, since the Kush get a general faction bonus for them and they are a big boost to the economy. Combination of cheap troops and strong trade means I haven't really had money flow issues playing as this faction. Their military buildings all provide garrisons so I've tended to build those in strategic cities and provinces, pretty straightforward. Food hasn't been an issue with Egypt and Mesopatamia in hand. Looking forward to some of the T4 level units, see if they can't help me beat down these troublesome steppe armies.
    [/COLOR]

  4. #4
    Welsh Dragon's Avatar Content Staff
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    Default Re: Desert Kingdoms Tactics and Strategy Discussion

    @darkludus

    Thanks for the Kush overview and tips. I'm definitely going to have to try that slave swarm tactic when I get around to playing them.

    Also welcome to the forums!

    All the Best,

    Welsh Dragon.

  5. #5
    RexImperator's Avatar Biarchus
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    Default Re: Desert Kingdoms Tactics and Strategy Discussion

    Have to agree about the Kush and archers.

    I was raising "The Army of the Coast" to defend against the treacherous Nabateans. All I had were 4 Kushite Archers, 2 Shotel warriors and a Cav general against a full stack of Nabateans. I was able to whittle down the Nabateans a drive off a good chunk of their army before my men (and women) were finally defeated. Once the "Army of Homeland" came up from the south it was just mopping up work for them.

  6. #6
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Desert Kingdoms Tactics and Strategy Discussion

    Good topic, I appreciate everyone's useful ideas!

    I'm at an early stage in my Kush campaign. My early goals are simple:-
    1. Go south to take Aksum, securing my southern border
    2. Make trade agreements with as many nations to my east as possible, for income and to secure my eastern flank
    3. Expand north in a war with Egypt. In the initial phase, take Diospolis (for the iron and a defensive position by the river) and Myos Hormos (for the port). Keep my two armies close to those cities, while my 'champion' agent trains one of these armies, both armies add new cheap units and one army replaces the losses it received because of a plague at Myos Hormos.

    Like darkludus, I'm amazed by how cheap the basic slave infantry and slave slinger units are. After I took Aksum, Egypt declared war. Even with very cheap units, affording armies which can beat Egypt is a challenge. Egypt is assembling several armies in Memphis, if they attack now (especially after the plague caused many casualties in the army led by my Queen) I might not be able to hold them back - this is a challenging and enjoyable moment in my campaign!

    Experienced players will, I'm sure, already have anticipated my suggestions and may well have better ones. In case any new players want ideas on developing the economy of Kush in the early game, this is what works for me: (i) My two armies rely mainly on cheap units (slave infantry and slave slingers), with about two each of cavalry (to defeat enemy skirmishers), spearmen (to defeat enemy cavalry) and swordsmen (to defeat enemy melee infantry), (ii) Trade agreements with factions east of Kush and capturing slaves after battles (as darkludus said, above); getting three trade agreements fulfilled a quest objective, providing a small but useful cash bonus, (iii) Capture Myos Hormos and build a harbour, (iv) Upgrade the gold mine in Aksum (v) Research Logistics and Signalling in the military tech tree (both technologies reduce unit upkeep).

    If people have more ideas for Kush - or for any Desert Kingdoms faction - I will read them with interest.
    Last edited by Alwyn; March 21, 2018 at 12:58 PM.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Desert Kingdoms Tactics and Strategy Discussion

    Not sure if this counts as necroposting, but I figured that I'd share some observations from playing as Saba, as no one seems to have mentioned them yet. I'm experimenting with a modified version of the old Zulu "buffalo horns" formation that seems to be yielding promising results. Basically, I have a core of infantry (mostly swordsmen) advance slowly toward the enemy center, while javelinmen go ahead of them to try to disrupt the enemy lines. I usually put spearmen on the flanks to block enemy cavalry, and sometimes leave a small force of reserves (such as Marib Guards) in the rear in case of emergencies. Meanwhile, I send my cavalry out to edges of the battlefield, and have them charge into the enemy flanks after my infantry core has engaged. On the defensive, I usually go for a single, solid line of spearmen with a line of archers behind and some swordsmen and light cavalry on the flanks. At sea, I try to avoid ramming or boarding unless the odds are massively in my favor, as the Saba have few melee naval units. Instead, I prefer to swarm the enemy fleet with light support ships and either kill their crews or set their ships on fire. In my current campaign I've secured all of Arabia after an early war against the Seleucids, and I'm now trying to cut Parthia down to size by exploiting their weak infantry to win siege battles. Overall, I'd say that Saba's main strengths are their access to cheap, high-quality mercenaries, a wide variety of cavalry, and solid (if not fantastic) infantry. Their greatest weaknesses would probably be a support-focused navy, and an economy that is heavily dependent on trade, at least in the early game.
    Last edited by LordLurch; May 25, 2018 at 08:05 PM. Reason: Typo

  8. #8
    RollingWave's Avatar Praepositus
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    Default Re: Desert Kingdoms Tactics and Strategy Discussion

    It's been a while but I have played quite a few Saba campaign before. General thoughts are

    For Saba its really the starting part that's more difficult, once you consolidate the first 1 or 2 province it's not hard at all because you are attacking from a relatively secure position.

    Their units are interesting, none of them are super good per say but they have two of the more flexible type of units in the game, a legion like swords unit and a pretty solid medium horse archer. These are the primary units you'll need and the rest are mostly support units.

    The camel units are largely useless except early game IMHO, once you get horse archers they're basically useless. They have a chariot unit which is fun to play around with but isn't really neccesary (it's hard to use well but could potentially score huge kill numbers, but really isn't the unit you'd like to have in a tough fight.)

    From their starting point you have the main settlement in your province but both other settlements are hostile, though a trick is that both have a long way to walk to, especially Muscat. So focus on taking the closer on to your west first.

    Your starting units would mostly be relying on range units and that one big spear unit with javelin, the trick is to have the other side come at you , if you throw your javelin first basically you win in most fights. forcing them to fight when they're fortified usually good as well (AI is terrible at leveraging the fort properly. fortified AI is super easy to beat.)

    Once you secure the Arabian peninsula you can either go after Egypt / or Selcucids or sail over to take the Indian faction / Bactria / Parthian region, any one of them is defensible depending on the situation. I'd generally think going toward Parthia is actually the best because the horse resource is far harder to get than the other stuff and your late armies usually involve quite a few cavalry.
    1180, an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity in East Asia, it's technology and wealth is the envy of the world. But soon conflict will engulf the entire region with great consequences and lasting effects for centuries to come, not just for this region, but the entire known world, when one man, one people, unites.....

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