Seleucid open field strategy vs Parthians

[pau]

Here's a strategy that worked 100% of the time for me when I fought those annoying Parthians in the open field (no elevation). Their armies are mostly based on cataphract archers, heavy persian noble cavalry, Dahae horse archers... For me, that meant that I had to counter them with some heavy cavalry units as well as some high quality long range foot archers.

This was my starting formation:

K K K K

CA A A A A A A A CA CA


E C LC G C C

K - Katoikoi phalangites (not yet forming a phalanx)
CA - Cavalry archers (loose formation)
A - Foot archers (loose formation)
E - Elephants
C - Cataphract cavalry
G - General
LC - Fast moving medium cavalry

I used Syrian archers, because they are superior to anything you can get in the east. Also, I used Babylonian horse archers, or Kushan cataphract (you can recruit them in the neighbouring parthian city in the east, although they can not fire on the run) as CA.
The idea was to counter their CA with my longer range foot archers. On the other hand, if their cataphracts started to charge, I had my Katoikoi in the front, ready to run and form a phalanx in front of them as soon as I needed them to. The cataphract charge would occur sooner or later, and then I would throw in my Elephants and my own cataphracts, and use my fast moving cavalry and general to deal with their archers. Soon, the battle would be over with something like 10-15% casualties of my own, as opossed to anihilated enemy troops (I played it on M/M).

I'm pretty sure this would never work in real life, mainly because of how my Katoikoi are stretched all over the frontline (there is a huge gap between those units), but it works really well in RSII 2.6.

[Nerfect]

Thank you bro

can i use some slingers? is it effective?

[Alavaria]

I've used pikemen; just march towards them in formation and stop when they begin to shoot. Make sure your pikemen are in phalanx. Use the simple Levy Pikemen, they will do.

Station thureophoroi/hoplites near the flanks, you'll have to keep them back a bit so they don't get shot. When the AI runs out of arrows, move forward carefully. The AI doesn't like sending horse to fight spearmen or pikemen. Keep your slingers behind the pike line and shoot over their heads.