Arche Bosphorus on Hard, is it possible?

**meerkatology** · May 30, 2014, 06:45 PM

Has anyone ever successfully played arche bosphorus on hard or vh? (without using autoresolve)

i'd really like to play them because they have alot of cool late game units, but it seems like the beginning, even with luck is simply not doable.

right away you need to fight several "steppe factions" with those insanely cheap and powerful horse archers and all the AI Does is mass them.

horse archers are op, which is fine and historically accurate. but theres only 3 things that can beat horse archers:
-more/better horse archers of your own
-massing high quality foot archers
-legionary infantry with testudo
-autoresolving with bigger armies (i consider this cheating anyway)

at start of the game, arch bosphorous have none of the above, they have crappy horse archers that are really expensive, which seems to be the only option for me, i've been able to take out saka rouka (believe me it was hard, it involved ninjaing their capital the moment they leave and then abusing the city walls to defend agaisnt their 2 stacks of HA's), but then 1-2 other steppe factions immediately go to war with me and with only 2000 base income, i simply dont have the resources to fight them, since the only way to beat them is outproducing them as all tactics are moot against horse archers even in player vs AI

if someone has done this successfully please share

**KAM 2150** · May 30, 2014, 06:55 PM

In previous versions slingers were great against horse archers, not sure how this is now since I haven't played for a while.

They could be good solution for you since they have longer range and are one of the cheapest units.

**meerkatology** · May 30, 2014, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by KAM 2150

In previous versions slingers were great against horse archers, not sure how this is now since I haven't played for a while.

They could be good solution for you since they have longer range and are one of the cheapest units.

problem with slingers they are super squishy, the horse archers that the steppe factions starts with are very beefy and will win a ranged duel.
with my inferior HA's i can at least use cantabrian circle and even the tables in a 1v1.

the steppe ppl do make some shock cavalry too, its hard to defend your immobile slingers against them

**KAM 2150** · May 30, 2014, 07:08 PM

That is why you need some spearmen to soak up arrow fire, also leaving your slingers a target for lancers is worst thing you can do

**meerkatology** · May 30, 2014, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by KAM 2150

That is why you need some spearmen to soak up arrow fire, also leaving your slingers a target for lancers is worst thing you can do

i've definitely tried to use spearmen to soak arrows, but in a full stack vs full stack. early game spearmen/slinger vs. full stack of steppe elite horse archers+a few shock cav, im fairly certain i will still lose due to their superior units period (altho i have not tried this exact composition before, even if it does win, this composition can't really take cities or beat other types of armies). those early game spearmen gets routed pretty quickly by horse archers, it doesnt take a whole lot of ammo, the only unit that can effectively soak arrows is legionary with testudo. on top of this the player just doesn't have the money to field equal numbers

**pyccos** · May 30, 2014, 07:24 PM

there is a reason why the mongol horde was so feared, the horse archers combine two of the most deadly aspects of army s of the time.

they are a pain to deal with though, try making friends on turn one. ambushes work ok hard to get though, it is a challenge to say the least.
and remember that on hard all A.I. stats get a huge boost including there accuracy so even at 1:1 ratio you will still lose the engagement.

**chinchill44** · May 30, 2014, 07:27 PM

The beginning is a pain, in my campaign I killed royal scythia on the second turn, then waited for the germans and pontus to destroy the nomadic factions.

**meerkatology** · May 30, 2014, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by chinchill44

The beginning is a pain, in my campaign I killed royal scythia on the second turn, then waited for the germans and pontus to destroy the nomadic factions.

this is with arch bosporus?

saka rouka and aoirsi are the ones that go hostile on me very quickly

diplomacy doesn't work for me, all the steppe factions around me hate my guts =\
even pontus hates me

to the other poster, im playing battles on normal.

**chinchill44** · May 30, 2014, 07:37 PM

Yeah, I hired as many mercs as possible to take out saka rouka. Then I just turtled until pontus and the suebi expanded.

**meerkatology** · May 30, 2014, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by chinchill44

Yeah, I hired as many mercs as possible to take out saka rouka. Then I just turtled until pontus and the suebi expanded.

you didn't get attacked by Aorsoi or colchis?
i did take out sakarouka but aorsoi had already taken 3 settlements then and went to war with me before i could recover

**chinchill44** · May 30, 2014, 08:38 PM

The Aorsi did attack me, but they were at war with the Roxolani and Pontus so I only had to fight them once. Here is my campaign currently. http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/...89CE050FA318D/

**Augustusng** · May 30, 2014, 10:15 PM

I played a campaign on normal as Arche Bosphorus, so maybe my experience doesn't help as much, but I captured Solokha, Saka Rauka's capital, after a couple turns of recruiting some more militia units, then I kept my armies there and in Tanais to defend against further attack from them while their armies succumbed to attrition. Luckily for me, the Aorsoi were busy fighting the Massagetae and Ardhan, and I had time to send a fleet into the Mediterranean to meet new factions and gain trade routes.

Also, remember that (unless the new patch has changed this) when you capture a "barbarian" city (like Solokha) you can recruit the basic Scythian horse archers as Arche Bosphorus, which will probably help against the steppe factions. Those basic horse archers are excellent until you can recruit the better, late game ones.

I also made a confederation with some of the Greek states, but I don't recommend doing that in the early game, as absorbing the extra armies will really hurt your income.

**Dangerman** · May 31, 2014, 07:55 AM

From what I have played with Slingers VS cavalry they seem good against them against the lightly armored/unarmored cavalry units as massed volleys take them out really, really quickly on normal.

**meerkatology** · May 31, 2014, 01:56 PM

i did it this time!

it seems like whether 3 factions go to war with you on turn 5 or no one goes to war with u on turn 50 is completely random and doesn't depend all that much on diplomacy

just took alot of save/loads until a reasonable number of people went to war with me.

this time it was pontus who just got rofl stomped by my the steppe horse archers i massed from solokha , by then i had enough econ to deal with the steppe factions