Steppe Warfare 101

[Parthicus]

Welcome to Steppe Warfare 101

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The "steppe" factions are any faction that has the ability to field a good skirmish army. Technically any faction CAN field a skirmish army, but they are not always good.

A skirmish army is constituted by their flexibility, as they combine cavalry and archer elements to make and extremly difficult force to fight with any conventional tactics. Many people call Skirmish armies "cheap" because all you have to do is set your units to skirmish and they will never be caught. This however is not true

Skirmish armies require a large amout of MicroManaging* in order to achieve victory. With archers, you must pick your targets wisely, so that you don't leave them all shooting at the same target. If you are not able to block against enemy charges with their cavalry element, you're army will be left to die in the sand. However if you are able to isolate the enemies cavalry and destroy them, you have already almost won the battle!

Steps of a "Skirmish" army battle
1. Choosing your army:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Choosing your army is the most difficult part of a Skirmish army's battle. You must decide what army to pick and then what troops to accompany it. We are going to pick Parthia, who were experts in Skirmish warfare by the time they clashed with the Romans at Carrhae in 53 BC. The Parthians combine the 2 best parts of any skirmish army in history. A heavy cavalry element for for the charge, and a swift horse archer element for the skirmish. You want to place attack upgrades in your horse archers, and defense upgrades in your cataphracts as the enemy archer's will try their hardest to land a few lucky volleys on them while you aren't paying attention. You also want to bring the maximum of 6 foot archers, and described above, 2 horse archers and 6 cataphract horses(if fighting on grassland)*, you are now at 14 units total, which leaves another 6 units. I suggest 2-4 desert infantry and 2-4 slingers(note:use 4 slingers if on Huge unit size as they are devastating in a volley on low money). Now that you have selected your army, it is time to move onto the next equally important step,

2. Formation of your Skirmish army:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You have finished picking your skirmish army and are ready to reenact Carrhae against the Roman dogs, But wait! Before you hit that "start battle" button, you must stop and place your army.
CATA ---------------------- CATA
CATA ARCHER ARCHER ARCHER CATA
CATA ARCHER ARCHER ARCHER CATA
DESERTINF1 2 3 4
SLINGERSSLINGERSSLINGERSSLINGER
HORSEARCHER HORSEARCHER
(NOTE: all units should be in loose formation, when you are ready to end the battle with your cataphracts, put them into close formation,)
This is the set-up we will be using.
As you can see, the Heavy Cavalry element is on either side of the archers, blocking against a charge and protecting the flanks. The horse archers are positioned in front to move forward once the battle has comenced. The desert infantry is in a line infront of teh archers and behind the slingers, as the slingers would harm the desert infantry if they were infront.

3. BATTLE! Knowing your opponent:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Now that the battle has begun you freeze up and forget what this guide tried so hard to pummel into your soft llittle skull. USE YOUR HORSE ARCHERS! You move your horse archers into position on the enemy's flanks, who are quickly moving forward, thinking you to be a push-over. You move your slingers and first line of cataphracts up, as well as your archer element. You are easily able to destroy the enemy's archers, but the Roman heavy infantry is still advancing. Now is the time, you move up your slingers and unleash a torrent of hell as rocks with snazzy phrases such as "I hope this goes up your ass!" fly toward them. The Roman infantry is being destroyed! Yet they still advance, so, you move your archers to either side as you retreat your slingers. Behind the roman's lines, horse archers swarm, unleashing torrents of hell into the Roman infantry's weakly protected rear, while your cataphracts scurry around, annhilating the Roman cavalry. Now the Roman's infantry is isolated and surrounded by your superior movement. You drown them in a sea of their own bodies as torrents of stones (with phrases such as "suck on that" and I hope this goes right in your va***a"*) and hails of arrows crash down upon them.
As your units run out of ammo, it becomes clear what you will have to do,

4. FINISH HIM! Ending the battle:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This is the easiest, yet most complicated step. During this phase of the battle, you will have to bear down upon your opponent in a single weakly defended spot, and hope that he cracks. As soon as you run out of ammo, you amass your cataphracts and foot units on opposite sides of the Romans, who are still cowering under their shields. You charge in your FOOT element FIRST. They crash helplessly against the Romans, who then turn their might against your foot. You then come at their unsuspecting rear with your cataphracts. They are thrown to the sides helplessly against your tanks. Romans go flying and then soon route. The day is yours! You revel in victory, and give as many rep points to the one who created this guide as possible for his wonderful work and dedication()! You politely say gg and leave the room, quickly before the torrent of "NOOB!" and "CHEATER" reach your ears.

[dude21862004]

That's why I always bring 1-3 Wardog units. Engage your archers with war dogs and move in with the infantry. Besides that if my infantry continues to chase your archers they won't be able to fire. But rather than do that I would probably engage as many of your missile units with infantry and wardogs as possible. Gather the rest of my infantry in 1 or 2 line formations depending on how many I have, and plant them with fire at will turned on. Then I would ignore your cavalry and use my own to run in and rout your archer units one after the other. Once that's done, I'll mass my cavalry and attack your leader unit and other cavalry as close to my infantry as possible. Once I have you locked with my cavalry I'll rush in and overpower you with my infantry.

Horse archers have a limited amount of ammo, so if you were the attacker in this situation I would simply wait you out. You would either have to charge my formations which would probably not go well depending on what I have left after destroying your other troops. Or you rout your horse archers/wait until time runs out and you lose anyways.

If you are the defender, then I would do my best to use whatever units I have left to trap and kill your horse archers. It's quite likely that by this time they would be very distraught and it would take very little to cause them to rout.


And, if after all of that I lost... Well, I'll just build an army using nothing but cavalry and go for round two.

[Parthicus]

That's why I always bring 1-3 Wardog units. Engage your archers with war dogs and move in with the infantry. Besides that if my infantry continues to chase your archers they won't be able to fire. But rather than do that I would probably engage as many of your missile units with infantry and wardogs as possible. Gather the rest of my infantry in 1 or 2 line formations depending on how many I have, and plant them with fire at will turned on. Then I would ignore your cavalry and use my own to run in and rout your archer units one after the other. Once that's done, I'll mass my cavalry and attack your leader unit and other cavalry as close to my infantry as possible. Once I have you locked with my cavalry I'll rush in and overpower you with my infantry.

Horse archers have a limited amount of ammo, so if you were the attacker in this situation I would simply wait you out. You would either have to charge my formations which would probably not go well depending on what I have left after destroying your other troops. Or you rout your horse archers/wait until time runs out and you lose anyways.

If you are the defender, then I would do my best to use whatever units I have left to trap and kill your horse archers. It's quite likely that by this time they would be very distraught and it would take very little to cause them to rout.


And, if after all of that I lost... Well, I'll just build an army using nothing but cavalry and go for round two.

And, if after all of that I lost... Well, I'll just build an army using nothing but cavalry and go for round two.

This is CWB, so no all cav armies

]That's why I always bring 1-3 Wardog units. Engage your archers with war dogs and move in with the infantry.

wardogs would be a waste of 3 cavalry units, and I would move my desert infantry up to engage them as they are fodder.

Besides that if my infantry continues to chase your archers they won't be able to fire.

If your infantry continued to chase my archers, they would be isolated and destroyed by my cavalry.

But rather than do that I would probably engage as many of your missile units with infantry and wardogs as possible.

I wouldn't let you engage any of my archers with wardogs or cavalry, and my slingers would wreck wardogs before they reached my line

Then I would ignore your cavalry and use my own to run in and rout your archer units one after the other. Once that's done, I'll mass my cavalry and attack your leader unit and other cavalry as close to my infantry as possible.

Now you would run into route my archers? I'm pretty sure that I would again use my desert infantry to hold your cavalry, then come at then from the rear with my cavalry,

attack your leader unit and other cavalry as close to my infantry as possible. Once I have you locked with my cavalry I'll rush in and overpower you with my infantry.

I wouldn't engage your cavalry if they were too close to your infantry

Horse archers have a limited amount of ammo, so if you were the attacker in this situation I would simply wait you out. You would either have to charge my formations which would probably not go well depending on what I have left after destroying your other troops. Or you rout your horse archers/wait until time runs out and you lose anyways.

You would wait me out? so you would wait until I had used up all my ammo on you to attack? I think then I would be the one attacking

If you are the defender, then I would do my best to use whatever units I have left to trap and kill your horse archers. It's quite likely that by this time they would be very distraught and it would take very little to cause them to rout.

I would have my horse archers near my main force. When they run out of ammo, they are light cav

As far as I can see, your arguement is invalid.

[Parthicus]

Welcome to Steppe Warfare 101

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The "steppe" factions are any faction that has the ability to field a good skirmish army. Technically any faction CAN field a skirmish army, but they are not always good.

A skirmish army is constituted by their flexibility, as they combine cavalry and archer elements to make and extremely difficult force to fight with any conventional tactics. Many people call Skirmish armies "cheap" because all you have to do is set your units to skirmish and they will never be caught. This however is not true

Skirmish armies require a large amount of Micro Managing* in order to achieve victory. With archers, you must pick your targets wisely, so that you don't leave them all shooting at the same target. If you are not able to block against enemy charges with their cavalry element, you're army will be left to die in the sand. However if you are able to isolate the enemies cavalry and destroy them, you have already almost won the battle!

So, You Started A Campaign...
Playing the campaign of any faction has it's ups and downs, and the campaign of a Steppe faction is no different. Every Steppe army has a very weak starting position. The people's classified as "steppe" factions are: Parthia, Scythia, Numidia, (may add more).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Your starting position, however, is actually very beneficial. "How" you may ask me "is being outside every trade route and on the fringes of civilization beneficial?" That is actually your advantage! Being on the "fringes of civilization" allows you to develop without much outside interaction! You can develop your economy, send out diplomats, and generally prepare the way for your armies which are soon to come.

Parthia is my favorite faction, so I will use it to demonstrate what I mean. The Parthians sit on the borders of many great eastern factions such as Armenia, Pontus, TSE, and the Ptolemaics. If you play your cards right, all these lands can be yours quite easily. The Parthians combine the Heavy, hard-hitting Cataphract with the swift, stinging horse archer. This is a perfect combination, for you will be facing the Seleucid early on, whose armies comprise of lighter cavalry and the slow moving phalanxes. Then you are pitted against the Armenians and Kingdom of Pontus in the north, and the Ptolemaic Empire in the south. If you are too succeed you need good roads, to transport the heavy cavalry element of your armies from Parthia Proper to the reaches of your empire where the main battles of your empire are taking place.

The Seleucid Empire MUST be invaded by the 20th turn at least, or else you will have lost your chance at staking a claim in the power vacuum created by their downfall. I suggest, you build up to markets, then build roads before beginning the construction of your military. Sadly, for your first few cities that you will take, the heavy cavalry element will be sorely missed. You will not have enough time to train the Cataphracts to man your armies, so you will have to stick with the Cataphracts you start with.

In late-game Parthian armies, I suggest you use a larger amount of horse archers, particularly Persian Horse archers. If you are coming into contact with enemy troops largely in the desert, this is where the Camel Cataphracts come in handy. Camel Cataphracts are extremly useful for use in desert environments. They receive attack bonuses, and do not tire as easily. They are also extremely effective against horses, who are scared by the scent of the camels. The downside of Camel Cataphracts is that they are rather slow, and so vulnerable to enemy missile units.

All-in-all Parthia is a very...interesting faction to play as. All steppe factions are interesting to play with, as you discover new strategies both on the campaign map and on the battle map. I wish you the best of luck in all your endeavors on the campaign and battle map, both online and off.

~``Nero Germanicus``~

[TheFoolOnTheHill]

Nice guide +rep

[Genius of the Restoration]

Skirmish armies require a large amout of MicroManaging* in order to achieve victory. With archers, you must pick your targets wisely, so that you don't leave them all shooting at the same target.

I'd say this is often a good thing . A good guide though

[Parthicus]

I'd say this is often a good thing . A good guide though

lol, thanks for the input, I will put a note there lol

[Gazz]

Good guide, I love Parthia and those catas.

+rep

[Parthicus]

Seeing as I have already done a campaign and battle guide for Parthia, I may as well do one for Scythia

Welcome to Steppe Warfare 101

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The "steppe" factions are any faction that has the ability to field a good skirmish army. Technically any faction CAN field a skirmish army, but they are not always good.

A skirmish army is constituted by their flexibility, as they combine cavalry and archer elements to make and extremely difficult force to fight with any conventional tactics. Many people call Skirmish armies "cheap" because all you have to do is set your units to skirmish and they will never be caught. This however is not true

Skirmish armies require a large amount of MicroManaging* in order to achieve victory. With archers, you must pick your targets wisely, so that you don't leave them all shooting at the same target. If you are not able to block against enemy charges with their cavalry element, you're army will be left to die in the sand. However if you are able to isolate the enemies cavalry and destroy them, you have already almost won the battle!

So, You started a Campaign(Pt. 2)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So, you start a campaign of the Scythians, as you have never played them before. Scythia starts off on the fringes of civilization. The Scythinans historically ddin't exist at this time period, instead they were callled the Sarmatians, however I will call them the Scythians throughout this guide to avoid confusion.

The Scythians start with a small handful of cities that are rather scattered and far away from each other. For the first part of this campaign, it would be wise to focus your efforts on expanding South-East toward the rich Black Sea kingdoms of Pontus and Armenia.

To begin your campaign, build up roads first, then up to markets so you will have a strong enough economy to support a half stack of horse archers. This will be enough to crush the early Armenian forces, for if you allow them to develop, their Cataphract horse archers will tear through your lightly armour horsemen. Be sure to send your diplomat through the Balkans, as there are 4 factions they can gain trade rights from there.

The Scythian campaign armies are mostly horse archers with foot archer support. However, If you can get the Scythian noble horse archers and their elite lancer cavalry, you will be set for most of your conquests in Asia. However, they are expensive units to upkeep and require a strong economy and the appropriate military buildings.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Armenians are a good choice to invade, unlike the Barbarians, because of two reasons:
1) The Terrain
The terrain of the area just south of the Caucasus is rather mountainous, but does not have the deep forests of the barbarian areas of Eastern Europe.
2) The Units
The Armenians can only train weak desert infantry in early campaign. Light infantry is like a horseman's wet dream. They have low defense, attack, and are sliced and diced by a horse archer's arrows.

Every faction in the middle east have units such as the desert infantry, and militia hoplites to start, both of which are easily eaten up my horse archers.

I hope you find my guide helpful, and give me some rep ;D

[ahowl11]

Hey, Nero Caesar Germanicus
Would you like to help in a mod? I tried to message you but your page doesnt provide the option

[Parthicus]

I have messaging disabled on my account. I have absolutely no modding experience, So I do not know why you would want me on a mod team, except as a Beta tester

[ahowl11]

you should enable it.. that way its easier to communicate.. also you seem to know your history (we are lacking there) and yes exactly!! a tester before we release!!

[Parthicus]

would anyone be interested if I write another guide?

[TheFoolOnTheHill]

If you want to do it

[nhinhonhinho]

A good threat mate . I'm gonna trying this style of battle. I'm sick to get crush by ERE nor Samartian playing as Ssassanid in multiplayer. They just mass charge in my flank and rout the entire army

Btw which is a better choice between Clibinarii (who carrying both bow and mace) and the combination of Cataphract + HA in multi . I'm often playing with 10k or 15k denarii

Btw will this style of fighting effect in Rome vanilla when you're facing the army of elite phalanx like Sacred Band, Silver shield, Royal Pikeman... (again in multiplayer. In single player i can defeat them)

[Genius of the Restoration]

I'm interested. In my experience, the people who read guides and learn the most from them are those who aren't registered on the forum or don't post here much, so don't let a slow response stop you!

[Parthicus]

Alright, thanks for the feedback. I think I will post a guide later about Heavy Infantry flanking tactics.

[nhinhonhinho]

Cheer bro! Your guide succeeded ! Just tried a custom again AI, Skirmish army vs Elite phalanx army .Phalanx proved very vulnerable.

I forgot to save the replay tho. Will try again

[caesar_37th]

Hate to break it to you but 6 archers 4 slingers and 2 ha breaks cwb. Also, in cwb Rome or any other faction will likely bring 6-8 archers plus light cav to deal with your ha. In campaign one HA stack will take over the world.

[Parthicus]

Hate to break it to you but 6 archers 4 slingers and 2 ha breaks cwb. Also, in cwb Rome or any other faction will likely bring 6-8 archers plus light cav to deal with your ha. In campaign one HA stack will take over the world.

I saved myself by saying 2-4 slingers , and yea, light cav is a weakness, but they are light enough that I can take them out with my eastern infantry if I retreat my ha