Scythia strategy?

[icydawgfish]

Ok, so as far as "barbarian" states go, Scythia has peaked my interest. I'm interested in conquering the Balkans but I'm not sure how to adopt horse archer tactics to siege warfare and hilly/mountainous terrain. So does anyone have and good army compositions and strategies for dealing with the Macedonians and free Greeks to my south?

[Gwyn ap Nud]

Ok, so as far as "barbarian" states go, Scythia has peaked my interest. I'm interested in conquering the Balkans but I'm not sure how to adopt horse archer tactics to siege warfare and hilly/mountainous terrain. So does anyone have and good army compositions and strategies for dealing with the Macedonians and free Greeks to my south?

Scythia is also partly Greek in culture. They're also a culture at the end of their days. Don't be afraid to innovate. You don't HAVE to just do horse archers. The Scythians proper are going to be few in number. Roleplay wise, you can completely justify large armies of mercenaries, of Dacians and Thracians, and Greeks.

[Pe Ell]

You can check out the screens from my campaign (shameless self promotion) in the "post your empires here" thread for some ideas on army composition. I rely heavily on foot archers supported by horse archers against sarmatia and in defensive war. It works well in open terrain and does decent against infantry stacks as long as it's not raining. Forests and hills are also problematic.

Like Gwyn said, do not be afraid to add mercenaries to your armies. Scythia really lack good shock infantry, or heavy infantry at all. Their hoplites are good at holding the line as medium infantry, but aren't really what you want for breaking the enemy line. In your starting cities you can get Bastarnae and Rhomphaphoroi with mercenary compound, both excellent meleé assault troops. If you take rebel citys or Dacian territory you can get access to heavy axemen and elite falxmen, both great at chopping up phalanxes.

For army composition against greece/macedon I would advice going for some (4-6) horse archers to flank the enemy and pull their lines apart. Then lock them down with hoplites and charge in with rhompalias/axemen/falxmen when there is an open flank or weakness.

[Glenn]

My strategy for Skythia is to recruit a wall of impenetrably armoured spears, from behind which are loosed volleys of a thousand arrows, with horse archers and lancers holding the flanks securely, the whole formation marching invincibly along the Euxine coast and over the Danube, the barbarians fleeing in fright, and the force not halting until the Bosporan Hellenoi have been saved from the threat. That is my Skythian strategy.

From a Dacian perspective anyway, I'll let you know how it works out.