pahlava campaign help again?

[the persian Immortal]

I hate that I'm so popular ever city who revolts decides to join me and will automaticlly declart war between me and their previus rulers I bacame enemys with my good alies and trade partners the bactrians in that way but now the same story happened for the most annoying faction in this mod ......... yes the sakas, (BTW: is there anyways to deal with this so any rebelion dont join me)

ok so now I'm in war with those basterd nomads (pot calls kattle black but I'm sattled now so I can call them that )
no is there any good tactic or advise for how to counter the sakas with pahlava my eastern borders are weak I don't have a standing army there and the garrison are weak my standing army are too buisy kicking the greeks butt in the west so I can't use them to deal with the nomads, any advise is more then welcome .

[spartan117]

I have had similar experiences playing as the Greek City States. A province in Spain rebelled against the Lusotani peoples and another province near Hayasdan. I was immedieatly at war with both and even worse, Rome had bordered the Spanish province and soon declared war. There is only one Illyrian province between Roman lands and my Greek lands meanwhile I am at war with both the Seleucids and Ptolemies in Anatolia and the Levant. I decided to hold out against the Roman assault and wait in the walled city, and send naval forces so that from there I capture the Belearic Islands and maybe Sardinia and Corsica. Then with these I can bring reinforcements to support the Iberian settlement. This may suffice until I am ready expand into Sicily and maybe take Massila and nearby Iberian provinces. But that will not happen until I secure the Levant and the whole of Anatolia. Well enough about me.

Depending on the nature of the settlement, I am sure you can abandon your new settlement and after its capture pursue a ceasefire. Of course this is dependent on whether or not you still border the other faction. If you do still border or want to hold the territory I suggest maybe constructing better walls as the Saka possess few infantry forces capable of successfully assaulting such a settlement and their many cavalry forces simply arent sufficient enough. If the settlement is not large enough and you have few options for a viable reinforcement plan, consider abandoning it and retreating to a more defensible position(maybe destroying certain buildings) or planning a military campaign to weaken the ability of the Saka nomads to encroach on your territory. Of course, certain variables effect the course of action. Attempting to advance deeper into Central Asia can be tenuous because of the sheer distance involved between those settlements and the resulting logistical constraints including negative character_traits.

As for engaging in open field battle....well that can be costly. I normally play on vh/vh difficulty and facing the Saka in open field battles usually results in heavy causalities because of the extent of their many missile units and the threat of their heavily armored horsemen. There is no one method to defeat their armies with few losses. Last time I played a Pahlava campaign, I simply brought more forces to the battle and attempted to use certain units to draw enemy fire protecting my more valuable forces. Sometimes, I had spearmen running along with my cavalry so that I could engage with enemy cavalry forces. There are different things I have considered but much was dependent on what I forces I could gather and the composition of the Saka forces. Be wary of mercenaries....If there are available mercenaries they can be recruited my the enemy and another few horse archer units can ruin anybody's day.

Probably the best course of action is to have Antiochea-Eschate, Samarkand and Tashkent. Samarkand and Eschate are pretty good settlements and can provide reinforcements to Tashkent if it comes under attack and assaults made on Tashkent usually means that Samarkand and Eschate are given time to prosper. It would be responsible to construct watchtowers along most of your borders as there is possibility they move through the mountain passes and head toward Eschate or they bypass those settlements all together and even move on Khiva through the deserts around the Aral Sea. You need to be able to react to these movements otherwise you risk being surprised and losing a settlement.

They are likely to be a continued nuisance at best or at worst a steady flow of assaults on your province until you capture their settlements. But by then the Sarmatians may attack your steppe provinces. As I had not progressed far enough for that to happen I do not not know how it is to face a Sarmatian assault on these open plains. Just something to keep in mind. It probably is not feasible to keep strong garrisons in those provinces with the rather small population of the steppe camps and the remoteness of the region preventing adequate reinforcements from your other provinces.

[the persian Immortal]

thanks spartan now one more question which units should I use against the saka you forgot to note that, answer this part and I will rep thanks for your good respond

[Entropy Judge]

I hate that I'm so popular ever city who revolts decides to join me and will automaticlly declart war between me and their previus rulers I bacame enemys with my good alies and trade partners the bactrians in that way but now the same story happened for the most annoying faction in this mod ......... yes the sakas, (BTW: is there anyways to deal with this so any rebelion dont join me)

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=369433

From the other side, but same principle. In order to prevent rebellions from joining your faction (like Arse and Emporion rebelling to the Greeks), you'd have to mod the game files so that the city culture isn't that faction.