Parthian Empire

[Drokan]

Hello i need you help guys , i want to forge the mighty Parthian Empire but the start is realy dificult i need someone with experience to tell how to start ...
I can conquer 4 settlements from the Seleucids but i don´t have enought money to build a proper army that allows me to mantain those regions also it´s very dificult to mantain my aliance withe the seleucids because they begin to attack me and i don´t have any money to appease them

[Dolon]

don't appease them - attack them. Use HAs (Horse Archers). I takes a bit of work and time but you can defeat almost everything AS is throwing at you in the beginning with your HAs and your generals. If the army is too strong, loose all your arrows, retreat and try again next time.
Without elite units or units with big shields and good armour and a lot of archers a HA-army is very difficult to stop, especially when you are giving the commands

[Siegfriedfr]

Hello i need you help guys , i want to forge the mighty Parthian Empire but the start is realy dificult i need someone with experience to tell how to start ...
I can conquer 4 settlements from the Seleucids but i don´t have enought money to build a proper army that allows me to mantain those regions also it´s very dificult to mantain my aliance withe the seleucids because they begin to attack me and i don´t have any money to appease them

The pahlava campaign has a nice touch to it but can become very tedious because you'll be fighting hundreds of horse archers battles against AS, and you can't autoresolve anything.

As a general battle rule, shower the heavy troops with arrows from your horse archers, and charge light troop/skirmisher/missiles with your Generals. Retreat when you're out of arrows, and don't waste ANY archer in charging the enemy, its not worth it. The enemy General is your priority target if he ever separates from his army (as usual).

Don't let generals sleep in the towns, use them extensively, stack them in armies, they are an unvaluable strenght. But don 't loose them.

Focus on AS exclusively, keep baktria alive as long as possible, but don't let them expand beyond kophen.

For your first few sieges, use your spy to open the gates, and expand along the caspian sea. The enemy will usually sally out because it has an autoreseolve advantage so the spy is not mandatory. don't forget that you'll need to "follow" the fleeing enemy troop to capture the gates in that situation.

Raze (destroy all buildings) antiocheia-margiane (AS town east of your 2 cities) asap then abandon it, this way you'll cut down this threatening military center near your border and avoid being attacked by baktria from the east.

Also note that you can take all the lightly defended cities (3/4 units) with as few as 2 FM + 2 HA units, so don't worry too much about the size of your armies in the beginning (you have a stack near Asaak, use it immediately to that end).

[Drokan]

Well i was able to capture 7 settlements but my problem is that i couldn´t keep them , i need to retreat and retrain my units and the AS use that oppurtinity to capture all those 7 settlements bribing some... well that killed my moral , and i didn´t have any money ...

[Brapbrapbap]

Dismiss anything that isn't a horse archer.


Have one FM in the south city, your capital up north can have very high taxes with no garrison, they never revolt.


Make a single army with everything else that you have. If that army exceeds 12 units, dismiss most of them (just keep the most Dahae has possible).

Group all of your spies and make the Seleucid city to your right rebel.

Conquer it.

Use the same with the province up north.

After that, the Seleucids are only on your south. Use that 12 unit army to push deeper and deeper, destroying everything you can and looting where needed.

If you're lucky, you'll never actually go in debt and you'll be able to form a good kingdom. That's what i did

[athanaric]

Dismiss anything that isn't a horse archer.

If you're planning a concrete assault on a weakly garisoned city, hire one or two units of mercenary archer-spearmen for pushing the rams. They also make great garrison troops.

Have one FM in the south city, your capital up north can have very high taxes with no garrison, they never revolt.

Speaking of capitals, you should make Asaak your capital. Later, when you've taken Karmania and Persis, Hekatompylos is a good choice for a capital.

Use the same with the province up north.

If you're talking about Gava-Mazsakata - better leave it alone, it ain't worth it. It is better to leave it as a buffer against other nomad factions. Concentrate on defeating the AS instead. Same for Marakanda, although if Saka and Baktria are unable to wrench it from the AS, you might as well take it yourself.

[Siegfriedfr]

I find this campaign insanely difficult compared to all the others, specifically because the AS has an infinite amount of money due to the script, and won't give you any time to settle at all.

Altho HA are cool, you need almost a full load of arrows to take down one single unit of panda phalanx, and the AI loves sending those at you, making everything a tedium.

I'm admirative of players who managed to conquer everything up to babylon with the starting units, myself i couldnt do it.

I've edited the script that way to adapt to my level:
- reduced money assistance for seleucid and ptolemaioi from 20000 to 10000 (ptolemioi so they don't simply walk over the seleucid)
- created an anti-debt script for the player (+1500 mnai when under 500 mnai) which disappear once you own more than 6 cities (figuring that once you got the southern cities with their mines, you have an economical possibility to win)

So far it works quite fine: altho i was able to develop the mining cities (asaak, hekaton, Zadrakata, Apameia), the AS has been constantly sending armies my way, keeping me on my toes, while keeping the ptolemaioi,pontus and macedon at bay. It was only around year 255 that i was able to sack susa and ectabane, giving me much space to breath and time to conquer the eastern provinces.

[Brapbrapbap]

If you're planning a concrete assault on a weakly garisoned city, hire one or two units of mercenary archer-spearmen for pushing the rams. They also make great garrison troops.

Usually the three spies are more than capable of opening the gates, then it's just a case of showering the enemy with arrows before entering.

[athanaric]

Usually the three spies are more than capable of opening the gates, then it's just a case of showering the enemy with arrows before entering.

Yeah but you need all your HAs for taking the next city afterwards, and for mobile defense. Therefore, it's good to have a cheap and useful garrison force with a decent unit size.

[Faramir D'Andunie]

A rather obvious tip, yet one that helped me A LOT.

Make sure you don't waste arrows by having fire at will enabled. As parthia you will face a lot of phalanx based armies who have high shield value. Make sure you don't waste arrows from the front.

Other than that, don't think I have anything to say except what has been said already.

[Drokan]

thanks =) for the tips , this a hardy campaign with AS always coming with armies and utilise they hated diplomats to bribe my settlements ... poor me

[Dolon]

Think of the glory and satisfaction when you sack antioch :-)

[Drokan]

Well for now i can only imagine ... but in the moment i feeling quite angry because i can`t hold on in my settlements

[TuCoT]

Horse archers are most important thing for this faction. Us them wisely and slain as many as Seleucid.
You can defeat a large army of Seleucid with just 5-6 unit of these horse-archers.

[Drokan]

i am always starting a new campaign with Pahvalav and trying to learn from my mistakes and learn from your wisdow, this is so complicated i raid and destroy all they buildings to earn easy money

[Brapbrapbap]

You mean one of our savegames?

[Drokan]

well thought you could start all over to show me how it is done

[Chyou]

Parthia has the best armored archers and heavy cavalry, but the seleucid empire can only recruit lousy militia troops.


I felt completely disgusted after losing this. As parthia you can pretty much roll over the AS

[athanaric]

Parthia has the best armored archers and heavy cavalry, but the seleucid empire can only recruit lousy militia troops.

These units are actually pretty useful. What was the enemy composition? Five units of 9-chevron bodyguards?

[Chyou]

Something like that. A general, two units of armored noble cavalry, a unit of armored horse archers, and a handful of regular horse archers. I was playing this on ALX.exe EB1.2