Sauromatae tactics?

[alexCURSE]

How does one win battles with an army of pure horse archers? I don't realy understand this sort of army so can someone explain how I can win an evenly matched battle against other horse archers?

[Elminster]

My advise, from my limited experience, is to concentrate your fire, and stay in loose formation. If they charge, just pause and go back to tight, lure the charging unit out a little, then fall on it with another unit of HAs and charge the bait in as well. Devastatingly effective. Otherwise, just try and stay spread out...

[Marcus Scaurus]

Protect your infantry and cavalry with long range foot archers. If you have enough cash, employ mercs.

[Fondor_Yards]

You really shouldn't have any infantry as the Sarmatians. Other then foot archers that it. And with the Sarmatians, cash is what you don't have. This is the battle plan I normaly use when using a mostly HA army. Basicly the point is to surround them HA and foot archers on all sides, so you can shoot at the rear and right flanks of any unit. That is were your archer kills are going to be coming from if you fight heavily armoured units. And if your fighting other lightly armoured units, you'll kill them all the easier. By the time you get HA behind them, they will usualy break up their army into smaller unit that you can destory piecemeal. That's where your heavy cav comes in, use it to charge and destory lone units.
E= Enemy
A= Archers
H= Horse Archers
C= Heavy Cavalry

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

HAHAHA AAAAAAAAA HAHAHA
CCCC

HA EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HA

HAHA AAAAAAAAAAA HAHA
CCCC

HA HA
HA EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HA

HA AAAAAAAAAAAAA HA
CCCC

[Artaserse]

You really shouldn't have any infantry as the Sarmatians. Other then foot archers that it. And with the Sarmatians, cash is what you don't have. This is the battle plan I normaly use when using a mostly HA army. Basicly the point is to surround them HA and foot archers on all sides, so you can shoot at the rear and right flanks of any unit. That is were your archer kills are going to be coming from if you fight heavily armoured units. And if your fighting other lightly armoured units, you'll kill them all the easier. By the time you get HA behind them, they will usualy break up their army into smaller unit that you can destory piecemeal. That's where your heavy cav comes in, use it to charge and destory lone units.
E= Enemy
A= Archers
H= Horse Archers
C= Heavy Cavalry

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

HAHAHA AAAAAAAAA HAHAHA
CCCC

HA EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HA

HAHA AAAAAAAAAAA HAHA
CCCC

HA HA
HA EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HA

HA AAAAAAAAAAAAA HA
CCCC

i could add that when you are attacked, is better for me to put CCCC on the right flank, cause the enemy very often charge your right (weaker) side if attacks. anyway you can always move it on the left if the enemy bodyguards and cavalry seems to want to charge there. (im talking of a cavalry faction enemy bytheway).
Again I turn off skirmish mode for HA after they have finished the ammo, so you can use them as cavalry unit (the cavalry factions have good melee skilled HA)

[Elminster]

They seem a bit more manageable to me now on 0.8. I've had success, though I must say you're going to have to deal with a lot of debt early and a lot of sitting around, clicking end-turn. Here's the opening I used just now...
1)First of all, put your starting gold to use. In Yazyga and Roxsalanna, build that trade route thing. It takes eight turns, but it only costs 1,000 gold, so you may as well reap its benefits when you don't have to worry about anything else. in Uspe and Aursa, build coastal clearings, and queue up a farm in Uspe and a Mound of the Sun in Aursa. All these builds help out the economy a little, and help get some growth going, in most cases, which is a must, given how tiny they all start.
2)Now, march out all of your troops to around Yazyga, and don't march until they're all there. At this point, having one super army is preferable, because some of the surrounding areas have rebel armies that would eat smaller forces alive. You form all of your troops into one army because HAs are all about two things: numbers, and concentration. Even the most miniscule numerical advantage pas huge dividends. Concentration means one victim at a time....concentrate your fire. It also helps to have 3 or more different groups of a few units in battle, so they can fire from different angles.
3)You're going to blitz the Greek settlements to your south. I'm talking Tanais and Pantikapaion. The Koinon Hellenon won't be too happy, but I don't see them anywhere nearby, so screw 'em! Just starve out the silly Greeks, and use the above mentioned tactics, preferably with a "lure" to get their hoplites spinning like tops. Enslave or Exterminate them. may seem counter-productive, but seeing as you'll be in debt for quite some time, they'll grow quickly and you won't be able to arrest the growing unrest. I know this from experience, Pantikapaion revolted to the Koinon on me
4)Once you have conquered those, evaluate the state of your army and the surrounding settlements(you HAVE been using your spies, haven't you?). In my case, Olbia was the most enticing option, but for you, it may be Chersonesos or even Gelonus.
5)Once you're done, distribute your family members around to settlements in need of governance, and just sit out the debt. Don't disband all you troops, you may need some garrisons to keep control.
6)All this time, get trade rights from all nearby factions.
7)I'm guessing you shouldn't displace the Greeks, as their hoplites are fairly exotic and useful for sieging or even just convenient meatshields

[LegionairosMatt]

Keep all your horse archers in loose formation and make a very large loose circle around your enemies and shoot, whenever they charge one direction withdraw them but keep the rest shooting, you'll wear them out eventually then once you run out of arrows charge in and out killing a few at a time from the rear.