Scythian Strategies

[brandbll]

So lately i've been attempting to start a faction as the Scythians. I just finished two GCS campaigns and in the old RTW i had already completed campaigns as teh Parthinians and Selucids. I thought that it would be fun to try out the Scythians for a campaign because i liked how they had little to no infantry(which was the style of the Mongolians who i've done a lot of research on). I figured it would present quite the challenge, especially due to the lack of infantry which meant i'd be outnumbered in most of my battles.

Well on the battlefield i had been doing fine. I already had taken down a large Armenian army that had me outnumbered more than 3:1. My main problem has been the campaign. I've already had to restart multiple times because i just can't fund all the fronts that i'm getting attacked on. In the beginning i try to hunker down and make relations with Parthia, Armenia, and Pontius. I then take over that little peninsula and kick the Greek rebels out thinking i'll eliminate one extra threat.

Everything usually goes fine for the first 10 turns. Then the Armenians will attack me from the South. Which is fine, because i can handle them. However, then i'll get attacked by the Parthinians. This is pushing things, but i should be able to fight them off. The problem comes in then that i get attacked by either Pontius or the Germanic people.

I can't fund three different fronts with only the small cities i have in my possession. I figured that i need to go north sooner and take the small northern rebel cities and that should help some. But still, i've started over 3 times now and each time it seems like i'm going no where in a hurry. So i'm wondering if anyone has some suggestions as to how i could have a more successful Scythian campaign. Any and all help is appreciated.

[Kara Kolyo]

I've started couple of times but never completed scythian campaign, but if the things go really bad you can abandon all of your cities - let them rebel and when you have only one town just turn to horde and head for greener pastures. maybe going to the far eastern corner of the map will help with having less oponents. They say that India is good in this time of the year too, plus you can get low level infantry and cheap but effective archers.

[brandbll]

Thanks for the advice. There are a couple of problems however. First, i don't think i have BI installed and i have no idea where the disk is, so i think the whole horde idea is out of the question. Second, Scythian horse archers are already cheap and reliable archers. I have no infantry(for the most part), so i need archers who can attack without the need for infantry protection, which Scythian horse archers are perfect for.

[Bootsiuv]

If I'm not mistaken, your lands are rather sparsely populated, thus, you're proabably broke. I would suggest blitzing in one direction, probably south through Armenia, then go for Asia Minor before the factions there can solidify their hold on their lands, especially the Seleucids western holdings.

[Vae victis]

*bump*

Has anyone else played a Sycthian Campaign in a while? I've tried a few campaigns recently and I found that if your not going to horde, you need to take out the bosporun indie greeks asap to get decent auxillary infantry. The games that I played I always expanded into rebel regions towards Germania, but my income remained about the same because my garrison costs are too high. This left me with too much to defend with too little. Maybe there are some wealthier regions that I could take?

I am going to play this campaign again with a differant strategy, (maybe turtle) but I could use some advice on what to do.

Also, what difficulty would you recommend doing the provincial campaigns on? Thanks

[Sextus Molestus]

I've never played a Scythia campaign, but I would say if it's multiple fronts that is killing you, head east, blitz Parthia, don't be afraid to lose your home cities so long as you replace them with Parthian ones, and when you reach the top left corner of the map, expand back out south and west, in a two-front war rather than three front.

[Vae victis]

Thanks, thats a good strategy. It will relieve the pressure that I am having on 3 fronts. Are any auxillary infantry recruitable in these regions. The one infantry that the scythians get has terrible stats and morale. I cant find a use for it in battle other than pushing seige equipment.

The other problem I was having was with income. I doubled my empire, by going west, but after garrisoning all of the new cities, my income is about the same as it was at the start, plus I have more fronts to defend. What are some wealthier regions that I can take?

I wanted to expand into the bosporus in my next campaign so that I can recruit auxillary hoplites. I will need these to fight in tough seige battles, and against the stacks of more civilized nations. Scythias victory conditions require that it takes out Armenia, Thrace, Pontus, and Rome. It will be tough to take out Rome without Hoarding. I will post back here with my progress and see if I can beat this campaign!!!

[Sextus Molestus]

If you're expanding west, going south into Greek lands will yield rich cities like Athens, Corinth, Pella, and Sparta, but it will be tough going trying to fight all of their phalangites and thorakitai. But this may open up a front with the expansionist Romans, and even the people of Asia Minor, if you have landbridges on.

[DimeBagHo]

You should definitely try to take the Bosporus regions early (if only because sea trade is always worth more than land trade). The three regions south of the Caucasus Mountains (Colchis, Iberia, and Albania) are good value for trade. You also get Georgian Swordsmen in Colchis and Iberia.

[Scutarii]

You should look up Dictatorfish's old Scythian AAR. Its on an earlier version, but his strategy was to to blitz Greece early. After that, its easy.

[Vae victis]

Thanks for the tips. I did read dictatorfishes aar, he got pretty far in it. He was using a previous version of XGM where his horse archers still had 70 men and the Scythians had an axeman infantry unit. I still might follow his route of conquest and see if I can do as well.

In my last campaign as Scythia on h/h, the Armenians were beseging me with 3/4 stacks every turn. I had about 8 horse archers defending both border cities. I took the indie greek settlements in the crimea, and then turned my attention east towards parthia. The eastern cities of parthia were poor and I spent more on upkeep then I was making. I might go west next game like dictatorfish. This provincal campaign is going to play out more like a world conquest game with all the victory conditions I need to meet. Parthia is going to be a pain in the butt to take out because they can horde, and then travel towards enemy lands.

One thing I could use help on is which temple to build in my cities. If I build the farming temple my population skyrockets, but so does my squalor. I need large garrisons in my cities to combat squalor, but I am wondering if it will payoff in the end if I leave the city revolt, and then exterminate its large population. If I build a differant temple, I dont have to worry about squalor, but I wont have as much income from taxes and farming.

This game I might expand as usual and then go towards Armenia, or Thrace and then Greece. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Scutarii]

If you end up having to exterminate, its not worth it. Build the happiness temples if you have PO problems, military ones if you don't.

[Sextus Molestus]

I agree with Scutarii - you'll be in trouble if you have to dedicate armies to exterminating populations. It may be beneficial to build population growth temples off the bat to help settlements grow, and then when the settlement has reached say, minor or large city, destroy said temple and replace it with a happiness or military one. It'll take a little more time and money, but less money than Einsatzgruppen-army-upkeep would, I suppose.

[CaesarVincens]

No matter the faction, law temples are the first temple you should consider. If the region has iron however, it is also good to go with a forge temple. Other than that it's just a matter of preference.

[Sextus Molestus]

Why the forge temple? Understandably this allows for gold weapon and armor upgrades when combined with a foundry, but are there any other reasons, like financial, hidden away in those mysterious files?

[CaesarVincens]

Nope, gold weapons and armor are reason enough.

[Sextus Molestus]

Nope, gold weapons and armor are reason enough.

Certainly, though I've yet to achieve them yet in XGM. I always seem to get bored with my campaigns right around the time that iron-possessing city grows to the huge level.

[Zarax]

My general criteria:

- capital: weapon/experience temple
- surrounding regions: trade temple
- everywhere else: law/happiness temple