For a nice change of pace: play as one of the Nomadic Tribes

[AuburnAlumni]

I tell ya I'm having a blast with these guys.

I just finished a very long DEI Rome campaign (about 450 turns). So I was looking for a completely different style of gameplay in my next campaign. I started as Scythia.

The battles are a complete 180 from my Roman campaign. I go from a heavily armored, slow moving foot solider style army to a fast moving, horse heavy, little to no armor army. It's a breath of fresh air and really opens up a whole different strategy in game for me.

With the Romans, I would simply wait for the CPU to engage hard in the center, then roll up their flanks and annihilate them. Now, I can't afford the luxury of letting my inferior foot troops go "blow for blow" with the Helenic factions such as Arch Bosphorus.

Also...having about 70% of my army as mounted bowmen/lancers has allowed me to use my speed to "divide and conquer"....trying to isolate the heavily armoured Greeks then attack like a pack of wolves when they separate from their main battle line.

Also...even after a briliant victory over Arch Bosphorus where my divide and conquer technique won me a victory...the lack of armour is causing massive casualties for me, much more so than after my Roman legions won a battle. So I'm really having to be careful about getting in too many engagments consecutively.


If you're looking for a complete change of pace, I'd highly recommend giving one of these Steppe nations a try. Pretty good time.

[Kjertesvein]

I've recently done the same thing, but instead playing as the Grandfather of the Huns... kind of.




I highly suggest people check out the Budini faction, unlocked here. I've not had this much fun with the game in a long time. You start out small on the edge of the map with only a Provincial capital to your name and two friends on your sides. What is even better is that you are the only Steppe faction in the area versus a ton of Daco-Thracian, Celtic and Germanic tribes. It's going to sting a lot to get established into a full province, but once you do establish secure borders then you are looking at a fun campaign:

1. While the only Steppe factions north of the black sea are friendly to you, you are the only horse archer faction in Europe. I hate playing against steppe factions because of their horse archers, but it's something completely different when you are the only one versus all these European infantry armies.
2. Unlike most unplayable factions, this unit roster is pretty damn good. The roster diversity is the best thing, it's kinda like playing as a hard core Ptolemaioi. Horse archer lancers or Cataphracts as General unit; Heavily armored swordsmen or Hoplite Phalanx; special Germanic units to the west; cheap falx men to the south; and best of all the upkeep for cavalry is -25% which is pretty sweet. You have all kinds of diverse AOR units at your door step.

Hover this map to see faction start positions.

Converting from a steppe faction to settle down in Europe takes a lot of resources and your province is stripped of any of that. Buckle up, because you are going to have to face your neighbor Anartes to the south west first. Your steppe friends to the south east want you to attack the Dacian faction Bastarnae with their heavy spearmen and falx units. The full province faction Lugii from Silisia in the west will send endless lightly armored germanic hordes on you at the same time. It's going to be tough.
Although the road of invading Europe is hard and rough, you also have friends like the Steppe factions Catiaroi and Saka Rauka from Ponto-Caspia (Black Sea) in the south east. The Germanic tribes like the Boii ( Hercynia ) and Gutones ( Suebia ) have little love for the Lugii factions in Silesia, and would be very please if you could slaughter a few of their meat bag armies. The coastal faction Aesti in the north will happily trade trinkets with you, but their weak nature and prosperous harbor is a sight ripe for the taking. The latter mentioned faction will have to be subdued in order to fully establish your rule on the local Germanic weaklings.
You're not only faced with friends and foes, but also no food buildings, no economy and no culture against 6 Germanic local traditions. The Provincial capital have only 1 extra building slot. You either expand on your horse or die in your chair.


I initially chose this faction because it had a decent roster. The tier 1 units of Budini are lightly armored and can deal with the invading Lugii armies 1 v 1. Your villages provide you with a surprisingly numerous amount of garrison units to help defend, but the medium and heavily armored Dacian tribes of the south will give your archery army a solid challenge. The mid game regular army of Budini, your bread and butter, consist of Heavy Hoplites, cheap horse archers and activly using your versatile and Zealot general.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Current progress a couple of turns into the game: My military service to the Boii in the war against The Lugii of Silesia has granted me plenty in trade and alliances, while the Gutones were very happy about me becoming their new coastal neighbor. As of right now I'm taking on the dangerous Daco tribes Biephi and Geate with their deadly Falx.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

H/N difficulty.

Just showing my appreciation for this mod with this AAR.

~Wille

[Augustusng]

Just a slight correction: Royal Scythia is no longer Saka Rauka in DeI 1.0. They've been renamed to Basileioi Skythai (the former Massagetae are now called Saka Rauka). Also the Budini share the same roster as Royal Scythia, which is why they have all those cool units even though they're not playable .

[RollingWave]

I find the Saka campaign to be extremely challenging, Bactria keep throwing 3-4 armies at me but I only have 2 armies to fight back luckily I secured my back side, but the high casualty my men tend to sustain in battle means I can rarely take the fight to them after a win.

[Zonac]

your saka noble horse archers have 27 weapon damage? and 35 missile damage??? lol

[Kjertesvein]

That's a picture of the young Khan Methakos. Here is a picture of him today:



I love the fact that he is a heavy shock cavalry and a horse archer in one unit. He even survived a charge from another General unit in the back, eliminating 95% of his unit. The work horse and carry of my army. He is in fact the only dedicated general I have, so I fear his death will mark the end of my campaign.

Saka Rauka Special Reforms
- Unlike other factions, Saka Rauka has special reform requirements.
- Once the faction owns the regions bordering India (Transoxiana, Baktria, Arachosia and one region in Gedrosia), the reforms will trigger.

Has anyone been able to trigger this event jet? What does it do? Just units?

~Wille

[DeVrie]

I just started a campaign with the Roxolani yesterday and I've been having a blast. A good change of pace from hoplites, pikement and other slow units. Also, I can completely disregard fleets which is a welcome relief.
I've been using the Scythian Toxotai to great effect, these guys mow down horse archers, other foot archers, light infanty. Basically anything that moves through the steppes.

I unified Scythia, secured a source of high quality Warhorses from Barktria via trade until I could build my own pens and waged a little war aganst Parthia to get some friends in the area. I have a small army in that area, so the Southern flank is quite safe. Westwards, I've been raiding my good friend the Aorsoi and gathering two full stacks to invade that whole province, which means war against Royal Scythia, the practically dead Aorsoi and Arche Bosphorus. That's where I left the campaign at. Goddamn exams XD.

[PhiX]

I've been playing Parthia and its been one of the most interesting campaigns I've played yet. I joined an ally's war against Persia to quickly grab territory, but eventually the Seleucids and the rest of their Satraps got involved and the campaign his since been a constant, perhaps slightly frustrating, grind since then. The battles are a delightful change of pace though, I've never had a campaign where the auto-resolve bar is SO wrong every time. Walled cities are the bane to my existence though. Anybody have suggestions? My current strat is to attack with a smaller 8-10 strong horse archer half-stack and hope the sally forth to meet me in the field, though occasionally they will be stubborn about it and I am at a loss since I have no particularly efficient way of taking the walls.

[DeVrie]

I've been playing Parthia and its been one of the most interesting campaigns I've played yet. I joined an ally's war against Persia to quickly grab territory, but eventually the Seleucids and the rest of their Satraps got involved and the campaign his since been a constant, perhaps slightly frustrating, grind since then. The battles are a delightful change of pace though, I've never had a campaign where the auto-resolve bar is SO wrong every time. Walled cities are the bane to my existence though. Anybody have suggestions? My current strat is to attack with a smaller 8-10 strong horse archer half-stack and hope the sally forth to meet me in the field, though occasionally they will be stubborn about it and I am at a loss since I have no particularly efficient way of taking the walls.

Here's a semi-cheap way of doing it:

The AI, when cornered in a walled settlement will usually have a hefty stack inside the city, along with the considerable garrison. If you give them a turn or so, spend it raiding for example, they'll usually recruit another general, who of course has to be placed outside the city. Grab your stack and target this general, and face him, possible his army, the garrison, and the stack in the city. With some battle smarts and clever choice of army composition you should be able to wipe them out with a stack. When you win, some will make it back to the city. But it'll be like 4 badly damaged units. Then just auto-resolve and the city is yours.

Here's a slightly better but mroe time consuming option, deopends on your geopolitical situation and the time and income available. Grab a single stack and raid stance the outskirts of the city. At first the AI will just cower behind the walls, but eventually it'll feel confident enough after recruiting units to come out and engage you in open battle. Possibly assited by garrison. Exterminate them and the city is yours. Just don't storm into the province with 4 stacks or the AI will probably stay in there until you all die of old age. Also, if the stack in the city isn't full and they come at you fast, expect mercs, so depending on the area you might have to face some tough units.

Other option is to take nearby unwalled towns and then leave them undefended (sack, loot, leave). The AI will probably move to recapture, dividing themselves and becoming easy pickings.

Finally, the tried and true long term siege. With a twist: like you yourself mention, autoresolve is heavily slanted towards AI, so if they are under siege they'll often feel confident, if not the very same turn, maybe the next, to attempt to break the siege. Then it's open battle and game over for AI. If they don't do this for some reason, you can always carry out the duration of the siege, but I actually don't like this option very much, it forces you to maintain an expensive army, suffering attrition and exposed to whatever the game might throw at you: declarations of war, betrayals etc.

That's my advice for light horse/skirmish armies. Good luck.

PS: Come to think of it, you can also use mercs for the initial ladder assault, but they might break before doing damage and end up being a waste of time and money.

[AuburnAlumni]

So a little update....

I'm about 150 turns in on a Saka Rauka Campaign (restarted after getting beat early with Scythia by neighboring Nomadic tribes).

After an incredibly tough early portion of the campaign, my saving grace was that Parthia went to war with Persia and the other Eastern neighbors of mine. After allying myself with Parthia in the early game, I was able to defeat Bactria and establish a foothold on my entire province. I improved relations with the Aorsi and Scythia and started to conquer the Persians and their allies.

I will say my biggest takeaway after playing long term with the Nomadic cultures is this...once you can survive the early portion...and once you unlock some of your higher end troops (Scythian Nobles w Armour, Bow, Lance)...you can become an absolute juggernaut.

Being as I designed my armies in similar style to a Mongol army....all Cavalry with the majority being bowman, supported by 3-6 stack portion of Heavy Lancers....I am annihilating just about every army sent my way. In fact....I'm able to easily defeat 2-3 infantry heavy enemy stacks with my horse army. The enemy simply can't get close enough to my troops to do any damage and their inferior numbers of cavalry supported are easily annihilated early in each battle.

I've now swept across all of the Far East and I'm beginning my invasion of the Greek states now. I betrayed Parthia (as they would eventually betray me...they always do) and destroyed them so my Empire is solid from within and my borders are with the Egyptians, Athens, and Sparta now. The Egyptians are offering me alliances, etc because they don't want to face me on the battlefield.

On a side note..there is nothing cooler than seeing a massive horde of mounted warriors...20 stacks full....thundering across the field at lightning speed.

I really feel like Atilla or Genghis Khan as any army...or armies..sent against my horde is destroyed with ease by my mounted bowmen/lancers.


Very very cool experience...especially after playing a more "traditional" style of military force such as Rome/Greeks.

[kiraga84]

Agree with Op. Nomads definitely present a different feel to the heavy infantry European armies. I Started 3 different nomadic campaigns after a series of rage inducing defeats of learning their play style.

In my 3 campaigns I've had huge difficulties fighting Armenia and late Baktria. Playing Nomads has definitely improved my skill of using ranged units.

Sadly I got bored with playing nomads and started a Pontus campaign, so much fun.