sassanid help

[Angrychris]

i just got trounced by an army of peasants and 1 group of infantry mercs, i had triple there numbers with spear men, 1 cata group, few camals, and 1 group of archers. it was a real small number battle but i find that sassa has no real infantry at all. i cant afford to build the final barracks so i use alot of archers and camals. i hate how their heavy horses shoot arrows and take 2 turns to get. do i just invest in horses/horse archers? the spearmen moral/combat is killing me seeing how i always use majority infantry. i know how to play more or less so it is not happening because i just suck. any suggestions?

[Cmdr_Sdxo]

Their power is in their insanely powerful bodyguard units. Don't be afraid to use them in battle, they smash everything to bits. Put spies in the stacks accompanying them to ward off ERE assassins,though. So yes, invest in heavy cav, the sassanid infantry is awful.
Even their best melee inf, the Sughdian warriors fail really hard, so use mercenaries for your infantry needs and to counter the enemy spearmen. You're pretty screwed if you get caught in a siege battle, so try to meet your foes on open fields where those HA's and heavy cav shine. When you're sieging, let the foe sally out if possible.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Well, you shouldnt have lost this battle at all, but I would invest in a 1/4 horsearcher 1/4 spearmen, 1/2 heavy cavalry army. The Spearmen and horse archers would serve to weaken and lock enemy units in place so the heavy Cavalry shoulc be able to manuever around and either take them in the flank or prefferably in the back.

[IYI4sT3r 0f PuPp3t5]

Does anyone use elephants when they're the sassanids?

[Selifator]

No, I almost never use elephants since they take too long to train and I prefer heavy cavalry. Combination of horse archers, camels, clibis, catas, generals is best.

[clandestino]

When I'm plaing with Sasanids I use only cataptacts and persian cavalry in my elite armies. Since they have wery poor infantry you should use it only as garrison troops and for fighting rebels. You should leave few empty slots in your army to get some mercenary infantry for sieges. Elephants are interesting but I don't use them to much cause you can't retrain them in most provinces.

[Angrychris]

heavy calv made a world of difference and turned around all my battle experiences in my favor. the only problem now is keeping control of the coastal regions, seeing that when i conquer new ones, the old ones rebel and i have to back track to reconquer them. one problem solved and another occurs. i had to do this to every coastal region now.

[IYI4sT3r 0f PuPp3t5]

Exterminate the populous and after make sure to delete the Roman and make Zoroastrian Shrines

[Angrychris]

i always exterminate, once i took the coastal regions west of my capital, i had to recapture them and afterwards the eastern roman empire literally just fell apart. once i took alexandria, the regions loosened up alot due to the pyramid wonder.

[IYI4sT3r 0f PuPp3t5]

If religion is causing the problem it may take awhile to calm the populous down... I always build academies walls and shrines (sometimes it makes it worse) another thing that helps me is a gov that helps make conversion easier (plus the right amount of troops in the city) A couple of times with Antioch the whole population was christian i made an academy and then i deleted the church and made a Zoroastrian shrine.. I was kicked out and it went back into ERE control.. a couple of years later i took it back again and over half the pop was Zoroastrian

[Angrychris]

that was the case with all the regions around and including antioch. i usualy wouldnt delete any religious building until they were damaged, then i would just cash in on it and build my own. i always build up my walls and any cultural buildings. you would think the extermination choice would clean out trouble makers for atleast a few turns, but somtimes i exterminate and the town starts off red regaurdless.

[IYI4sT3r 0f PuPp3t5]

Check the settlement scroll and it will tell you why people hate Sassanids

[Prince_of_Macedon]

I'll move this to the strategical sub-forum known as Battle Planning.

[Lord Thesaurian]

2 B honest, i hate the sassanids. They were originally a powerful Parthian family who usurped the ruling house of Parthia, becoming the Sassanid Empire. It wouldnt b so bad, but Parthia's my fav faction in RTW, and the Sassanids apparently got rid of all their best units when they took over (they have no horse archers, only "Cimbriani - sp? -" who throw javelins and never run out in time to b able 2 act as heavy cav.) and their colors r disgusting. But thats just my opinion. If i were u, id invest in cav (go light on the ele's though). Their inf. sux, but, like their Parthian predecessors, their cav kicks @$$! Build up good cav armies and ull b unstoppable