Deadlist Faction With Mounted Archers

[Prince_of_Macedon]

I've listed all 4 factions that possess mounted archers. They are:
- Parthia
- Scythia
- Armenia
- Dacia

Here's a display of unit types available for each faction:

PARTHIA


SCYTHIA


ARMENIA


DACIA


Dacia only made this list because it possesses Scythian Horse Archers. But their very presence means you can't fight Dacia like you would Germania or Gaul.

Who do you think is the deadliest of these four factions? And why?

[Cybugger]

Personally, Parthia take the cake for deadliest horse archers. Most armies i've come up against are either soley made out of HAs, or only mounted units of all types, which means that, while they whittle down your infantry, they can move their cataphracts into position, at which point you're going to loose a load of units. They can harass you like all the other HA factions, but they are imo the best at delivering the killing blow.

P.S: you could perhaps of included the Britons, for the simple fact that their Light Chariots work in exactly the same manner as HA.

[Prince_of_Macedon]

P.S: you could perhaps of included the Britons, for the simple fact that their Light Chariots work in exactly the same manner as HA.

I didn't include chariot-archers for the simple fact that they completely own regular cavalry-archers.

[zedestroyer]

Armenia, they have Cataphract Archers.
I give up the only campaign I made with Armenia because it was to easy.
Almighty Cataphract Elephants, deadly Chariots/Cahriot-Archers, powerful Cataphracts, the elite archers are easy to kill with these guys and the Phalanx units are light training for them , it was so easy that I lost interest .
And Armenia also have Legionaries and Phalanx to use in sieges and normal Cataphracts to support your Cataphract Archers. So Armenia have the best cavalry units and also good infantry, if you want to use it.

[Roshak]

Armenia Cataphracts are the best mounted archers. Expensive as hell but you pay for what you get.

[Muagan_ra]

I prefere Parthia.

Sure, Cataphract Archers are handy - but, problem is that they're a little too versatile. They can't be as mobile as Persian Cavalry (the Parthians melee-capable archer unit), since they're both slower and tire alot faster - and that counts for something, in my book. Persian Cavalry have the same offensive capabilities, and cavalry used correctly shouldn't really need massive Cataphract armour.

Parthia also has Cataphract Camels, which damage the morale of enemy horse, and Elephants - which damage the moral of everything, not to mention enemy formations, making them even more vulnerable to charges.

As for the Armenian infantry - handy, but who's going to play eastern factions for their infantry? They're a bit redundant.

[unfortunate crow]

Gotta go with Parthia. Those Persian Horse Archers are outstanding =)

I'd say Armenia for their versatility, but all the dirtbags in the neighborhood I grew up in were Armenian so I can't make myself play them.

[Subrosa Florens]

I have not played all of the factions you mentioned, but I have at least gone up against most of them, and I would say Parthia is the most dangerous. Horse Archers, camels, cataphracts, elephants, oh my!

The Cata Archers of the Armenians are brutally tough, but as Muagan_ra pointed out, they are slow and ponderous, not good traits for horse archers. You can mob them and take them down with sheer numbers, which is how I handled them playing the Greeks. IMHO troops like Persian Cavalry or Scythian Nobles are ultimately better because they are fast enough to stay away from other units and still have power in melee.

The Scythians are strong, a good all-around Horse Archer faction (I loved playing them, they are my favorite faction to play so far), but they lack the extra weight of Cata's and Elephants that Parthia has. Dacia on the other hand can only recruit horse archers, so while they have better foot than the other factions, who needs footmen when you are a Steppe Nomad? Aside from pushing the ram in a siege and serving as a garrison they typically only slow you down.

[Severous]

In campaign mode the Scythians have killed more of my troops than any other. Ive encountered Scythians more often than the others.

The Scythians force a military build up upon you. You have to have mobilie troops to beat them.

That said the battles against Perthia and Armenia, although rare, are tough. By then my mobile forces that have battled eastwards are quite experienced and do well enough.

[][Xyphos][ - Lee]

Out of the 4 my personal faviourate is probibly Armenia, they have the cata HA and i also use there legionarys

[zedestroyer]

LOL.
Cataphract Archers are slow? They don't need speed because if you catch them, they will kill you.
Scythia and Parthia are a joke against Armenia, You just need to hire some Cretan Archers, or train some of your own archers, protect them from possible charges with your spearmen and they Will not have a chance. This is the weakness of the other horse-archers, they are vulnerable against missile troops. Just deploy several units of archers and you will win.
And don´t forget that with Armenia you can get gold Armour.
I don´t like to wait several turns to take a city,so having good infantry is important to me. In Sieges Armenians are better than the other Greek factions, because their legionaries rule the Phalanx in the walls and Armenia also have Phalanx to take the streets.
So with Armnia you rule in an open battlefield and you don't need to be afraid of sieges.
Elephants? The last battle playing with Armenia was against the Seleucids, they have several units of Cataphract Elephants and they also have Cataphracts, they tried to catch me with their Cataphracts, I just charged them using my Cataphract Archers and them I tried to finished them off by charging my own cataphracts, before they could charge, the few enemy Cataphracts that survived were retreting. I just lost a few CA. The rest of my Cataphract Archers brooked the Armoured Elephants, making them run amok, one them charged their own Infantry, , very funny. The rest of the battle was phalanx killing time, very good to gain some experience. If I could easily defeat armored elephants, do you think that the Parthian War Elephants would have a chance?
Cataphract Camels? I think that they are slower than Cataphratc Archers, so they will not give you any real problem playing with Armenia.

[guyyug]

Well it was between Parthia and Armenia for me and I went with Parthia becasue in my book Perisain cavalry are fast and do some good damage. The cataphracts and the camal ones make excellent hammers, the camels easily tie up other cav whilst your horsemen break through enemy lines. their infantry are for support and useing to hold up and distract other units, they arn't there as a fighting force.

Armenia though they have their cata archers, they can't rely on speed and can even be chased down by other heavy cavalry if they are not fresh or winded and as they arnt as well armoured as their mellee counterparts they will get killed by them. The armeniaians do have good infantry with their legionarries and spearmen but neither are ass effective as their western counterparts.

[zedestroyer]

Armenia though they have their cata archers, they can't rely on speed and can even be chased down by other heavy cavalry if they are not fresh or winded and as they arnt as well armoured as their mellee counterparts they will get killed by them. The armeniaians do have good infantry with their legionarries and spearmen but neither are ass effective as their western counterparts.

They are as good armored as normal Cataphracts, they just have different attacks, don't forget that Armenia also have normal Cataphracts to protect their CA. Persian cavalry are a joke, try a custom battle between them and you will see who wins.
The only problem would be the best heavy cavalry units, but those aren't used in dangerous numbers for CA. If the AI try to attack your CA with elite cavalry, just make a massive counterattack, the enemy cavalry will be outnumbered and will rout quickly or be totally crushed.
With 4-5 Cataphract Archers, without upgrades or experience, I killed a full stack of veteran (silver and gold chevrons) Scythian Horse Archers + 2 Generals.
Armenia and Seleucid Empire have the best infantry mix of the game, good phalanx + deadly legionaries.
Armenian is the armored faction, the kingdom of steel, they are full of armored units, so any missile faction like Scythia or Parthia would not have a chance against them.

And the best thing with Armenia is that you don't need to be afraid of your opponent or run way because you don't have more arrows. Armenia is a solid and adaptable faction, I can use only infantry, only cavalry or a mixture of both, in all cases I will have a very good army, capable of facing any other faction.

[Paul d]

LOL.
. If I could easily defeat armored elephants, do you think that the Parthian War Elephants would have a chance?
.

i have killed cataphract elephants with bullwarriors. very funny to watch.


parthia, because they have cataphract camelry, which are handy to rout enemy cavalry, and they have the EXACT SAME stats as horse catas.

[Kratos]

I think Armenia and Parthia are just good. Armenia has cataphract archers and a couple of other great units (including infantry), but Parthia has war elephants and persian cavalry.

[bomberboy]

Parthia because they have those camel archers and catapract camel archers plus the persian cavalry those units could easily destroy a large force.

[_TubbZ_]

Proble m with Cataphract archers are that they have long range, low ammo and fire quite fast. Before you know it you have no arrows left and not shot at what you wanted to shoot at. Also Parthia has cata camels and cata's which are really good at breaking infantry and cavalry, PLus the elephants and two good units of Fast HA.

Tho Armenia is strong with infantry and such in a mp or limited money situation them cata archers are costly (like 1100 ) which limits their spammablity compared to Persian cavalry or Noble archers.

@ ZeDestroyer: take a couple cretans and they still won't hit my HA that easily cus Canta circle is the most impossible thing to hit with normal archers...

@ bomberboy: they (parthia) doesn't get cata camel archers (nor do any faction in the game )

As an all round faction Armenia is stronger 1 on 1 but as a skirmish faction on open plains you just can't beat the Partians

[zedestroyer]

Proble m with Cataphract archers are that they have long range, low ammo and fire quite fast. Before you know it you have no arrows left and not shot at what you wanted to shoot at. Also Parthia has cata camels and cata's which are really good at breaking infantry and cavalry, PLus the elephants and two good units of Fast HA.

And? You kill you enemies faster and when you run out of ammo, just charge them and your enemy would be crushed like a bug.
Armenia also have normal Cataphracts and normal horse archers
If you say that Cataphract Archers are slow , what about the Cataphract Camels? They are even slower than CA, thy can be taken out by CA, if you have spare arrows or they can be destroyed by a massive cavalry attack and with few losses.

Tho Armenia is strong with infantry and such in a mp or limited money situation them cata archers are costly (like 1100 ) which limits their spammablity compared to Persian cavalry or Noble archers.

You pay for what you get, I even think that CA should be more expensive, they are the best unit in the game.

@ ZeDestroyer: take a couple cretans and they still won't hit my HA that easily cus Canta circle is the most impossible thing to hit with normal archers...

Cretan archers would hit your horse archers miles away from HA missile range, use Cant Circle and you wold get them tired and an easy target for other heavier cavalry units.

As an all round faction Armenia is stronger 1 on 1 but as a skirmish faction on open plains you just can't beat the Partians

A few Cataphract Archers would kill all you petty horse archers if you use them, they would shoot down your elite archers if you use them, they would make you elephants run amok if you use them, they would kill you phalanx if you use them, they would run over your sword infantry if you use them. The only danger is the presence of elite cavalry units, but for that Armenia have normal Catapracts and normal horse archers.

[Prince_of_Macedon]

Just curious - some of you said Armenia has elephants. Is that only for Campaign? Because for Multiplayer, Armenia doesn't have elephants.

[zedestroyer]

Just curious - some of you said Armenia has elephants. Is that only for Campaign? Because for Multiplayer, Armenia doesn't have elephants.

Armenia don't have elephants, but you don't need them, you have all kinds of armored units and the elephants are dangerous, if they start running amok, they can destroy your own army.
Cataphract Archers are very effective against elephants.