Bactria

[thegravytrain18]

I started a campaign as Bactria last night, and I was wondering if anyone has tips for playing this faction. I had to march an army for like 4 turns just to get to the closest Parthian city (I didn't want to immediately attack the Seleucids, although as you guys probably know attacking Parthia means you go to war with them automatically). What should I do after I have Parthia? They only have like 2 provinces. I know that if I got into Pontus my income would go up (right now I'm relying on mining), but my army would be over extended and I'd have to use mostly mercenaries. Right now my best option seems to be to take things slow and let my newly acquired Parthian cities and my treasury build, but at the same time I have to worry about the Seleucids attacking.

Does anyone else even play Bactria? Can I get some advice?

[PriestLizard]

Hi

Good to see this thread. I'm playing Bactria too, 243BC now. Its complex to talk about general strategy in RTR, so I will first explain what I did and then analyse it (from my point of view) -- then you can make up your mind about it by yourself.

First of all I tried to build up my economy and get some financial boost. I built mines, traders, roads etc. To keep life safe, I negotiated an alliance with Parthia. Only 2-3 years later, Parthia declared war with TSE and asked me to help, I denied, so the alliance was broken.

Nevertheless I focused on the eastern provinces first. I took Taxila, Purushapura and some years later Sagala. I occupied the first two and enslaved Sagala, no extermination anywhere. This caused a lot of trouble since I had to deal with riots for like 15 years untill auxilary was up.

263 BC TSE started a war with me (I was already allied again with Parthia). I had to defend against some attacks on Alexandria Herat. Many years later (still suffering from cultural problems in the eastern provinces) I started to go offensive and I took Kapisa in 247BC. Now, 243BC, I have pretty much beaten the TSEish army in the east and I think I can conquer Begrum (in the very south-east) soon. Parthia is doing a good job assisting me, as they also conquer their way down to the south. This will make a war with them inevitable...but well...thats life

Ok, thats what I did. Basically like that: conquer the eastern rebel cities first, then put attention to TSE and later Parthia.

The problems i have encountered with this agenda are the following: if you also take the eastern provinces, exterminate the citizens. The culture penalty will kill you and make it really hard to manage your kingdom.
Also I have to say that the eastern provinces are not very valuable when it comes to financial aspects. At least if you dont exterminate the population because you will be busy with making temples and auxilaries and you wont be able to develop your economy there.

My main problem is that I have basically dont have money at all, thats why I cant upkeep a strong (bactrian) army - I have to rely on mercs most of the time (indian spearmen did a great job so far though).

If I had to start all over again, I'd probably go a different way. My eastern campaign proved to be less valuable than thought so I'd try to attack Parthia asap... their cities might be easier to control and maybe they also give a higher bonus for money.

I hope you can get some valuable info from my campaign... its nice to have a thread going on about this topic I'm looking forward to read your updates.

Oh btw: I'd be interested about your familiy members, especially after you have played some years. Because my family really lacks strong men... Pytros was a good king, but all of his sons and "true-blood"-familiy members have very bad traits etc.

My best family members are the garrison commanders who married into my family (three of them are very strong).

[Brusilov]

Hi, welcome to Bactria! I played a campaign or two with RTR 6 Gold and started a couple with RTR PE.

At the start of the campaign there is a bit of a land grab to the north - you need to beat Parthia to it - the first target is Campus Massagetes. I would expect you to be at war with them before too long. Parthia appear to manage to get an army there very quickly.

The only other option as Bactria is to head East, however, I am sure that you've seen the several large stacks of Saka rebels in the area. Until you manage to destroy these you will always have a nervous look over your shoulder.

Taking on the Seleucids that early would be a mistake, maybe. At the start of the campaign they have a very big empire to maintain so you may be lucky and get away with taking a settlement or two - they will come knocking at some stage so you may as well do it on your own terms. My own house rules (don't start a war) prevent me from doing this.

The Saka rebels aren't that hard to defeat. Train javelins to take out the elephants - make sure that they don't waste the javelins on the infantry. Use archers to take them on (and there are a lot of them). You can use fire arrows against the elephants - it usually makes them run amok, just make sure this doesn't happen in your lines as it will get really messy then. Javelins will kill them.

Before you get too far you need to get your economy up and running - roads and markets. At least with allies at the start of the game, Seleucids and Parthians, you have some trade that is fairly easy to come by. Send a diplomat to Armenia and Pontus to get the additional trade going. After you have the trade going money should be coming in nicely. A diplomat to Sarmatia is also worth it to get some trade going, although there is a lot of space between you and them.

As previously mentioned the Seleucids will come knocking before too long - they may well take you out if you're not ready for them. Your capital of Alexandria Herat will probably be the first target. Again, at least from the start you have some reasonably defensible walls.

If you are playing RTR PE make sure you include the add-on that removes the land blocks. This will stop you heading north and point you in the direction of the Saka rebels or the Seleucids.

Enjoy.

[thegravytrain18]

What about the rebels to the North? I suppose they'd probably present the same problems that you encountered. Really my overall goal is to get into the area on the other side of the Black Sea, where I can get good income from trade. Ultimately I want to take Byzantium, and from there I could really do whatever I want. By that time I'd be in a war with the SE, and I'd have to take care of them so maybe I wouldn't be out of the woods just yet. I won't waste my time with the eastern provinces though, thanks for the heads up lol.

And from what I can recall, so far I have good family members. Actually come to think of it I have excellent family members, by birth and by marriage. Pytros just died though, so hopefully the good genes will continue through his ancestors. The campaign is still young, like I said I only started last night.

BTW did you ever hire Sarmation Cavalry? How were they?

[thegravytrain18]

Thanks for the advice Brusilov! Right now I'm concentrating mainly on building a full stack defensive army against the SE. If I had known that attacking Parthia would make war with the SE, I would have waited. My economy definitely could have used the trade.

And the land grab you mentioned actually hasn't happened. Probably because I immediately attacked Parthia. I destroyed the bulk of their army in the first battle, so they don't really have anything to send North. Basicly, they're goners.

Should I use the port on the Caspian sea that I took from Parthia to expand towards the Back Sea or should I take a land route and take provinces from the SE on the way?

[PriestLizard]

Brusilov mentioned some good points. I am, however, playing with those land blocks to the north enabled - I wanted to play as realistic as possible and therefore expanding to the east was my initial goal.

Since you already have access to the sea, it might be a good idea to invade to the western coast and/or use a ship to go north (if you have land blocks enabled like me).

This is my first campaign with RTR, so I'm not sure if my financial problems are caused by the mod OR by my faction/provinces. Its really the biggest issue right now. I have played plenty of RTW campaigns and I've never been in such a financial trouble. I think its, at least, also related with my provinces and my choice to expand south-east first. So I guess youre already on a good way expanding to the west and to the sea.

However its bad that you are in war with TSE, they have strong armies of course and I dont know what would happen to me if my parthian allies wouldnt assist me.

I have used Sarmatian Cavalry from time to time. They are good, yes, but I personally think their upkeep coasts are too high to make them really valuable. I'm not sure though.

I'm playing right now and it just happened to be 240BC. (Updated map: Attachements).

I already have Begrum. Phraada (the TSE 'island' between Parthia and Bactria) is heavily defended by about 1000 soldiers. I wont go there too soon. My next goal is Pura (the very south rebel province), it will provide access to the sea-finally. I hope I can make it there untill my general dies (he's already 62). Once he's dead, I have no one for the offense, all other familiy members are babysitting towns.

[thegravytrain18]

Before you read, I want to expand WEST, not east...

I've been playing and I've made advances, but my treasury is at an all-time low. I made it across the caspian sea. I forget what the province is called, but I got the rebel one thats located on the coast right where the Samartian and Armenian territories meet on your latest updated map up there ^. Anyways, I had scouted it out and was slowly building Samara (think thats the name, it was the southern of the two provinces Parthia started with) up to provincial barracks (before I signed off to take a break, I had just bought them - finally). I had just completed a few biremes from Samara which I had at this time newly acquired.

A spy I had on the other coast spotted a few Seleucid armies closing in on the rebel province I wanted to take. I REALLY needed this province for my goal to expand to the west; it was the perfect launching pad to attack Armenia and Pontus while avoiding TSE (which BTW was not my enemy at this time, I was mistaken). So I hastily got together my most experienced troops from the recent Parthian campaign and sent a smallish army across to grab the rebel province before TSE, which I did with few losses (my spy opened the gate). BUT, only a few turns later TSE attacked Samara (whose garrison was week because I had sent them across the sea). So I quickly got the few units I could spare from the west side of the sea and sent them BACK towards Samara to hopefully sandwich the besieging army from behind. Before they got there though the SE army assaulted, but by luck they were beaten back.

So after that event I reinforced my garrisons in Parthia and managed to get a cease fire from TSE. So right now I'm just trying to build my non-existent treasury, and my troops are spread thin. I'm managing the garrison between Alexandria Herat with the one at Samara, trying to get them both adequately reinforced. Ofcourse I can't lose Alexandria Herat, but I have the local SE armies well scouted so I can see any attack coming. And if I lose Samara, it'd be cutting the head off of my snake aimed to the west. I've decided I'm going to go on the defensive with the Seleucids, while pursuing my plans to expand west. It will be interesting to see what happens. I'm not sure how well a campaign against Armenia will do while I'm simultaneously trying to keep TSE at bay. I'll keep the updates coming.

[Brusilov]

After reading this post I started a RTR 6 Gold Bactrian campaign - I blame you guys!

I had a nice little empire going - I'd managed to to take the settlements to the North (the Parthians were very lax for once). I had built roads and money was tricking in. I built temples in order to keep the population happy so I could tax them to the max. There hadn't even been any of the large stacks of Saka rebels to deal with.

I'd sent two diplomats on an epic trail - it's possible to just make this out in the radar picture.

I had alliances with Armenia and Pontus. Then they want to war and I supported Armenia. Parthia then went to war with Seleucids and I kept on side with the Seleucids. This may have been a mistake (but my 'house rules' prevent me from starting a war).



Well, it was a big mistake. S244BC the Seleucids turn up at my capital. A diplomat had been parked there for several turns, a sure sign that something was about to happen.



One of their diplomats asked me to be their protectorate - I agreed for 10K. The very next turn the siege continued (I should have asked for more). The smallish army here was replaced by an almost full stack.

There was a second smaller army taking a wander up the road towards my other settlements. My relieving army was able to destroy that and then moved into lift the siege. A second army then turned up and I had a battle on my hands. I won, but the army I had slowly built up was in tatters (and several silver chevron horse archer units had been destroyed by the general cornering them on the map).

A few turns later and yet another full stack army turns up and besieges my capital. A renewed, smaller army was able to fight then off (they ran away) but they are still hanging around.

I am deep in debt and will continue the campaign later on.....

@Priestlizard
The best way to use images is to use a host. I use Photobucket ( www.photobucket.com ) while other people use Imageshack (www.imageshack.com ). All you need to supply is a valid email address - just don't leave any confidential or incriminating pictures there!

Copy the IMG code - it's the bottom of the three boxes under each of the following pictures;



Many forums have a space limit - you are using that up with your thumbnails. When you reach the limit you will probably have to find your posts and remove the images. Using a host is a way around that.

[thegravytrain18]

Wow dude, I guess I've been lucky with the Seleucids. They have yet to send more than a half stack against me. Last night I played for a good 4 more hours or so, and still have yet to attack Armenia. But I'm just a few turns away. Most of the time I spent was trying to somehow create some income. My treasury got down to more than negative 3000. The rebels were mostly to blame for that. They are SO annoying.

So I was basicly dead in the water. I had armies, although nothing particularly special, and they were at my three most important provinces and I couldn't risk losing them to the Seleucids. But the economy wasn't getting any better so I took a chance and took two Seleucid provinces, after I had their forces well scouted. I'm really surprised I was able to take and keep them. I can only surmise that its a result of my higher quality units. Both armies had some Agema and a unit of Kataphractoi, and they were almost completely up against mercenaries. There was one battle though that I was up against some gold and silver shields, but they had no cavalry and no mobile infantry, so they were wasted.

So I had to attack TSE after all. They were defensive attacks, and if I hadn't taken them I wouldn't be any closer to moving west. I have a small but steady income, and the provincial barracks at Saramana (I'm pretty sure thats the right name) are done so I almost have a big enough army to go into Armenia. They are, however, more powerful than I thought. I've already spotted a couple half stacks and a full stack. I'm going to really have to pull some tricks if I want to have any success, because I'll be outnumbered. But once I'm getting money from the richer provinces further west, these guys will be small potatoes. Next time I'll try to include a map photo.

[PriestLizard]

@Brusilov: Thanks for the hint, I'll register there too. I already wondered what will happen once my space limit is used.

Its interesting to see that we have three campaigns going on right now, each in a different way. I hope gravytrain you will upload a screenshot soon.

I'd like to hear your guys opinion about bactrian Units. Personally I always moan about the high upkeep coasts and I often use mercenaries instead. It wasnt a problem as long as I fought the eastern rebels (who used the same kind of unit types), but since I started to engage TSE, I can really feel the difference between the high-quality units of greece and macedon on one side, and eastern low-cost mercenaries on the other.

Before I can switch my unit types though, I have to strenghten my economy first...

EDIT / UPDATE:

As you can see I lost Kapisa again. I had to keep my army in Begrum (riots), so TSE had an easy going re-conquering Kapisa. I decided to retreat from Begrum, let the rebels take it, and then come back with a stronger army and conquer the city again. I exterminated more than 10.ooo people, but at least there are no riots there anymore o.Ov
Right now there is another army (about 800 men [medium size], finally including stronger bactrian units, like Kataphraktoi and Hypaspistai) marching south coming from Alexandria Herat and I think I can regain Kapisa in the next three or four turns.

My goal is to defeat TSE in Asia while still being allied with Parthia. As far as I can make plans right now, I want the world map look like this in about ten to fifteen years:


By then I will have access to the caspian sea and I still have the Parthians as a puffer zone between me and my enemies. I will not start a war with them, thats for sure. I hope I can negotiate military access though, since I need access to water and maybe buy a merc ship or two, in order to bypass the landblock to the north (the northern gray box).

I might stop my campaign at that time since I will have established a very realistic Kingdom of Bactria. I dont know if I will be in the mood for "conquering the world" with that faction. That style of playing might be more matching with Rome or the Greeks.

Another EDIT: Do you guys realize, that Carthago always ends up with sitting quietly in northern africa while doing nothing? They dont fight the Iberians anymore and the last thing they did was finally losing sicily... oh and by the way: the greeks are not destroyed, they still have Melite, the small island below sicily. Same for Illyria, they still have Rhodes. Interesting...

[thegravytrain18]

Thats probably the main reason my treasury is always low. I really push to have the most high quality army I can to use for offense. I do use mercenaries to garrison most of provinces, except for the TSE cities I took (which were Phrada and Alexandria, BTW) and in my more important cities, like Saramana and my capitol. The reason Phrada and Alexandria (the one down south, that was originally Seleucid) have high quality garrisons is because they were the armies I used to take them, and I couldn't afford to retrain/replace them. I've just now started hiring mercenaries for Phrada... I lost Alexandria back to the Seleucids, and in the process some good units including a Kataphraktoi unit. A TSE half stack of bronze and golden shields just came out of nowhere. I've definitely learned not to trust the Seleucids in any matter, thats for sure.

But anyways as I was saying, I like to have the best I can get for armies on the move. I like to know that when I'm in the battle map I know I can trust the different units to do their job, and I know just how form them all up. Plus I don't have quite enough family members, and whatever provinces I take will have to be garrisoned with units that will last, since I won't be getting more for awhile.

I have an army right now thats sneaking up on Armenia. Its the best I have. It has I think five Agema, which will form my center, and six Pezoi - three for each side. Then I have slingers, peltastoi, and archers, and I have one full Kataphraktoi for each wing. Its really pretty interesting how I'm planning on hitting Armenia, who is completely oblivious (they've offered alliance twice). I'll post some screenshots and explain some time maybe today.

I really value the Agema. They always stand strong, and are always the unit to pit against any enemy infantry with almost guaranteed success. Pezoi are really just your average phalanx. You can expect them to bend or break with enough pressure, where as the Agema have never let me down, even after being charged by enemy Kataphractoi from the rear, they hold the line. I used to value my own Kataphractoi a little more than I do now. They are definitely present in any offensive army I use, but if they don't break an enemy unit after charging, they'll take losses pretty fast, just like other cavalry. They are without a doubt necessary to combat opposing Kataphractoi, as the general's cavalry can only hope to stand against them if they have a big numbers advantage - atleast in my experience. I haven't used any of the silver guys yet. The Agema have filled the roll of reliable infantry very well, I don't really see room for improvement. So really the units that do the work in my armies are the Agema and Kataphractoi. The upkeep is a lot, but its worth it when you're in the battle map and you're depending on those expensive units to pull through for you when the chips are down.

So next time I post there will be plenty of pictures. I'll explain and illustrate what I'm planning on doing with Armenia. I think its pretty crafty, but it depends on luck and good timing. BTW is there a way to build siege equipment before you besiege a city?

[thegravytrain18]

Ok so I finally launched a campaign against Armenia. I got together a powerful army, and started moving them west. I knew I was going to have to be very tactful, because reinforcements wouldn't be coming for awhile and whatever town I took, I would have to be able to hold. Also, it would have to be a town that would give me immediate income, so that I could get together a mercenary garrison army from Albania (my province on the west side of the Caspian sea) to reinforce it.

As I moved the army closer, I realized how hard this was going to be. The Armenians had some muscle. But their big armies started moving east towards the Seleucids. So I realized I would have to strike as such a time when their armies were away. This way, I could take a town, and have my army back outside of the gates before a countersiege. This would enable my army to fight at full force, on open ground with me in command (I always let the AI handle the sieges - I frankly just can't be arsed with it). I would be able to use my phalanx wall and my Kataphraktoi to full effect in the open. So this is what I planned on doing. Next I decided the best town to take would be a town in a valley on the coast of the Black Sea. This would give me the most trade income, and it would be most isolated from the Armenian armies returning to fight their home threat. I was resolved with the good possibility of losing the town however - initially. Once I had destroyed their armies with mine outside of the city (which I'm confident I can do) I could retake it. So this plan would work much easier wish siege equipment already made, as you can see. That way I could get the first phase of the plan done in one turn. Here's a screenshot:



My army, as you can see, is behind a mountain range. They'll attack through that narrow pass at the opportune moment, when the Armenians are away. The pass I used to get back there is where the cursor is, to the left. Also, I could use that pass to position my army defensively once the Armenians are attacking, ensuring that I won't be sandwiched by any reinforcements. I'll use the same pass to move my own reinforcing army from Albania once I have them.

I'm going to be away for the weekend, but I'll be back on Sunday to put this plan into action, and then I'll update on the outcome.

[Brusilov]

The big problem at the start of the game is trying to maintain an army while still generating income (no news there).

The campaign I started was a RTR 6 Gold campaign - I didn't play it today but I did start a RTR PE game (without the land blocks).

Anyway, the advantage of your own units compared to mercenaries is that you can re-train your own troops while the mercenaries you can only merge.

A smaller higher quality and balanced army will be able to take on an beat larger armies. Getting the experience for units make a huge difference. Take a note of the attack/defense numbers for a rookie unit and then compare them against a silver chevron, let alone gold chevron, unit (in my RTR 6 Gold campaign I have numerous three gold chevron Hetori horse - if they hit a full Principale unit from the rear they are destroyed!). That's why I was a bit upset with losing the two horse archer units with a single chevron each - the Seleucid general troops don't die fast enough against horse archers - even when they are riding away to keep of of reach.

The army I used at the start of the game did contain several mercenaries which were disbanded ASAP. I needed the income and the upkeep was killing me.

As said before the need is to get your economy going to finance the army and city build program. Sometimes, it's better to build temples than barracks to keep the settlements happy, you do need to make sure that the population increases as otherwise you won't be able to retrain your units. I guess the settlements need to specialize. At least at the start with Bactria there are several settlements very close by.

It's usually best to hold a settlement with the minimum possible (several infanty units plus three archer units - for taking out towers etc) and use a mobile defense force to remove any attackers. The problem in the campaign is when they use ladders so a larger infantry compliment is required. Just be prepared to loose a settlement and then take it back! The advantage for Bactria is that the settlements all start with stone walls so they are easier to defend from the start.

The following is my RTR PE (1.9) campaign in the summer of 266BC using the 4tpy and no landblocks;



I was able to take Campus Massagetes without any problems from the Parthians. My small army then moved back down south. No sooner than this happened then the Parthians attacked the settlement. I was able to lift the siege and am now in a war of attrition with them. The Seleucids remain their allies.

I sent a spy towards the original settlements, then I discovered that Hecatomplylos had rebelled and became a target before going for the Parthian capital. My single army has been able to destroy several Parthian ones.

I seiged Hecatompylos and while this was happening the Parthians sent an large army and attacked Sogdiana. I was able to take the settlement but was unable to move in my garrison and move the field army to lift the siege - I missed by one turn! I've managed to take my settlement back and the next target is the Parthian capital - I may try and destoy as many small field armies on the way, to gain experience and ensure that they don't have many armies in the area to interfere with the siege.

I've used horse archers as they can be used to break up an enemy armies formation (by getting them to send units to attack them). I divide the Horse Archer units onto the flanks and send them behind the enemy lines. I started out with the Persian Sparabara's to hold the flanks of the Phalanx (or at least not leave them exposed). I've picked up the Sarmation Cavalry but have yet to use them in a battle - at present I've simply moved the Phalanx opposite the enemy army and the archers have done their work - I have yet to take on a full stack Parthian army, but I expect that to change soon.

As you can see I've sent my diplomats on a walkabout to get those trade rights!

The following radar picture shows how the world really is (I play with FOW off).




The following is the progression of a unit with experience.

The first is a rookie Hetairoi unit;



The second is a Hetairoi unit with three bronze chevrons and the highest upgrade by a foundry;



The third is a Hetairoi unit with three gold chevrons and the highest upgrade by a foundry;



The charge bonus remains at 63 but the attack and defense rating improves by 1 for every experience level.



@thegraveytrain
That army must be a huge imposition onto your economy - the Kataphraktoi must be around 1K each...

You probably only need one or two units of Agema to hold each end of the Phalanx line. Your Phalanx should be use to pin the enemy army while other forces are sent to flank them - anything from the Persian Sparabara or even better cavalry. Hitting a phalanx unit in the rear makes a real mess!

[PriestLizard]

Well the advantage of retraining my own units only comes into play when I put them back in my "original" settlements. I cant retrain my units in the eastern provinces.

I'm already 224BC now and things went quite good during the last session. I took back Kapisa and finally conquered Pura (the very south-eastern province). Basically I'm doing good in that area but the SE is still very hard to control. They keep sending army after army and the problem is: I cant be everywhere. I only have one small army on open field (about 600 men I guess), right now on the way to Phrada in order to finally kick SE out of that region...

Sadly, with my army on the way to Phrada, they started to siege Pura (they used the very southern route and I didnt see it). I hope I can hold the city. Riots in Begrum going on too. *Sigh* Being a King is not easy...

What I realized is that covering the border regions with lots of spys is very important. Thats something I didnt do so much lately and this has to be improved.

Brusilov, what I dont understand is why you can have 15.ooo denarii, a full stack army of high quality troops, 266BC, with only like 7 (?) regions? I never had the money to support such a big army...

What difficulty are you guys playing on btw? I'm playing on medium(battles) and hard(campaign). I used to play vanilla RTW on VH/VH but I dont like the rough way of increased difficulty during battles ('unrealistic' stats etc.)... and the fact that the CPU gets 10.ooo gold extra each round disturbs me a bit too. Well, as I can tell now, RTR is a good challenge, even on M/H.

[Brusilov]

Brusilov, what I dont understand is why you can have 15.ooo denarii, a full stack army of high quality troops, 266BC, with only like 7 (?) regions? I never had the money to support such a big army...

What difficulty are you guys playing on btw? I'm playing on medium(battles) and hard(campaign). I used to play vanilla RTW on VH/VH but I dont like the rough way of increased difficulty during battles ('unrealistic' stats etc.)... and the fact that the CPU gets 10.ooo gold extra each round disturbs me a bit too. Well, as I can tell now, RTR is a good challenge, even on M/H.

I think the secret is to build up the economy (paved roads and then if possible mines). I micro manage each settlement and don't automanage. The Hyapistai have only just been added. I used Persian Sarabara before then and other lower quality troops. I have also added some more units into this one army for the attack on Parthia itself. I also disband units when I am loosing money. The idea is to have the ability to improve trade etc to get the money flowing in.

I sent diplomats to get trade agreements with all the factions. Have you many trade agreements? The money doesn't come in that quickly but does build up. I also exterminated the population when I took the settlement from the rebels (mt preference is to occupy when the settlement has a similar Greek culture to myself - I would do it differently if I was a Roman).

Also, try and sell map information and alliances - this sometimes backfires but just ask for small amounts.

I am playing the 4tpy version of RTR PE 1.9.

I am being a wimp in this campaign playing on M/M, when playing a bigger faction Roman or Macedon I will play on H/H or H/VH. I find VH for battles unrealistic as mediocre units don't break until they are down to a few men.

Although spies are good I'd suggest using lookout towers - they don't die off although they do tend to attract rebels to them which makes the area go 'dark'.

[Finn]

Glad to see I'm not the only one playing as Bactria.

Its my first campaign as this faction, and so far its loads of fun and quite challenging especially as far as money is concerned.

I'm using Platinum 1.9 and settings are on H/H.

I basically moved north and conquered a couple of rebel settlements while at the same time I continued to build up my economy. Then Parthia moved in and attacked the settlements I had just captured, I eventually destroyed Parthia and then found myself in a war against Seleucid's which is ongoing ATM.

At present I'm aligned with Armenia which hopefully will last so I can deal with the Seleucid's.

[thegravytrain18]

@thegraveytrain
That army must be a huge imposition onto your economy - the Kataphraktoi must be around 1K each...

You probably only need one or two units of Agema to hold each end of the Phalanx line. Your Phalanx should be use to pin the enemy army while other forces are sent to flank them - anything from the Persian Sparabara or even better cavalry. Hitting a phalanx unit in the rear makes a real mess!

Yeah, it keeps my economy very low. But ultimately its an investment, because in the end its going to get me more settlements than a mediocre army would. Its going to be able to operate alone (which is what its going to have to do for a bit against Armenia) much longer than a lower quality army, because battles will be over quick, before I have a chance to lose men. Just hold their line in place with my phalanx units, and get them from behind like you said.

I also micromanage my settlements. And when I have money, I buy something to help the economy first, and once thats all done I use whats left over to add to my forces. It creates a bit of a cycle. For a few turns I'll have a good 3,000 denari coming in. Then I'll spend it and I get poor, sometimes into the negatives, but then the investments I bought 4 or 5 turns ago start bringing it back up and I'll have more money than before. And then it repeats. But when I conquer the lands to the west like I want to, it should stabilize. I just think ahead and use my armies in a way that they will sustain the least casualties possible.

Oh and I play M/M. I don't like the advantages that the computer gets. If they had smarter AI the harder the settings were, that would be good. But all they get is more money and more attack points and stuff like that and I think thats kinda lame.

[thegravytrain18]

Update:

About two turns after I positioned my army north of Armenia to surprise them (see screen shot in earlier post) one of their armies ran into me coming up that same pass on the way to Sarmatia. So they knew I was there, and I was going to have to attack the town I had my sights on, Kotais, with a full garrison. My army took it rather easily, losing under half of its men. After I took it the Armenians requested a ceasefire, which I accepted temporarily. I needed to get more muscle into Kotais so I could move onto the next city. So since that happened I've been battling on in Armenia, slowly but surely achieving my goals. When I took their capitol, Armavir (which was a risk - I risked both towns by choosing to keep on the offensive instead of defending Kotais with my army), I got almost 17,000 denari (I enslaved the populace). So the risk paid off, since thats 8 or 9 times the amount of income I can expect to average for as many turns. I spent almost all of it on farming, mining, and trade construction, as well as some palaces I needed to buy for expanding towns. I bought two Pezoi at Saramana to send west, and some mercenaries.

So at the time of my last turn, I had gained Kotais and Armavir (was the Armenian capitol), as well as retaking the SE Alexandria (south of Saramana) as well as another of their provinces (that one city they have thats close to Alexandria Herat). So the Seleucids really aren't a problem anymore after my gains in the south as well as the Armenians taking some of their provinces. They're allied now, though. Right before I got off, I had won a heroic battle commanding an army of fresh Bactrian units (Pezoi, Agema, and another Kataphraktoi) against an intercepting Armenian army of almost twice the size (I should mention however that they were Cyrtan mercenaries, mainly). Then they attacked me after that defeat again, but as I entered the battle screen I CTD'ed . But I saved after I had gained the heroic victory, so nothing was really lost (this all happened during the Armenian's turn).

[thegravytrain18]

I'm having some real civil unrest issues right now in Armenia. I'm pretty sure a Pontic agent is causing it. All three towns have almost full armies in them of Bactrian units, but I just can't get the public order up. I have spies and assassins in the cities, to, hoping that they'll find a Pontic agent and kill him (I found one a bit earlier causing unrest in Armavir, but both my assassins were unable to kill him and he got away). I would have already been attacking Pontus with full armies by now, but I've been trying to get yellow faces atleast in these cities for close to ten years.

BTW I enslaved two of them when I captured them, and I exterminated the capitol, which is having the most problems.

[JP Vieira]

Very useful...thanks for posting