Help with Saba

[Tartantyco]

I'm trying to play as Saba, but every game I've played, my Eastern and Western neighbors declare war within 5-10 turns and march armies that are three times bigger than what I can muster, and of far greater unit quality. Meanwhile, I suffer from unhappiness at home, and a stagnant economy due to the army upkeep. My armies just waste away, starvation sets in, and unhappiness spirals out of control. This is on Normal difficulty.

[RollingWave]

I posted in another thread, but Saba is actually relatively easy, some others are far more difficult.

Anyway. from the start.

1. remember to promote your starting general right away, keep him in city center when he doesn't have large army to level up.
2. remember to keep your spy either deployed or in an army to level up this is very important.
3. upgrade your town center
4. keep your army near the city unless your confident.
5. disband your starting camel cavalry it's fairly useless for it's cost.

When enemy comes , the key is to use spy to military sabotage, this will either keep them from reinforcing each other, or getting away.

Remember that to take the opponent city you need *2* army, not one in most cases. so if you don't have 2 army, after you win a victory, see if they're willing to pay you for peace, if they do, take it and use the money to build up a second army.

for your army early on, go with mass slinger and that better spearmen unit. all the early desert unit have low armor so slingers are devastating, throw in a couple of archer-spearmen for extra arrow efffects.

Another key is that opponent Ai in fortified mode is actually very easy to beat, since they usually just stay in the fort and let your slinger destroy them, or they sally out in an incoherent way and get destroyed.

[glyx]

I posted in another thread, but Saba is actually relatively easy, some others are far more difficult.
3. upgrade your town center
.

Is putting yourself at 0 food worth it though?

[qlum]

from my experience the enemies that will attack you will get to a point where they can be killed relatively easy, let them bring the fight to you and don't bring the fight to them that was my strategy at least. After you killed their army you can march on their city.

[Throwaways]

Turn one: Don't upgrade. Recruit all generals you can. Move starting general to southern border, recruit levy with him. Promote general ofc (goes without saying)
Turn two: Move all generals to the border. Recruit more levies
Turn three: Invade southern province. You won't reach it in this turn but move your units as far as you can.
Turn four: Siege capitol with one general, put army close to defend. Buy all mercs to prevent them from doing it.
Turn five: Win battle. You now have 2 provinces. You should be safer now.

Upgrade and prepare invasion of next neighbor. Distances are great and with your spy you can safely raid your enemies. I took the second settlement in 3-4 turns. This way you prevent the AI Fr building big armies. This works with most campaigns as an opening. Use mercs and generals to get the edge over your enemy. Good luck.

[Throwaways]

If the starting position is weak going all in and no upgrades is far better than sitting on 1 province. The AI thinks your weak and will easily attack you. And since they are not restricted by income be prepared to be on the defensive for a long while. It's far more effective to be aggressive in the start, and then macro up.

[RollingWave]

If the starting position is weak going all in and no upgrades is far better than sitting on 1 province. The AI thinks your weak and will easily attack you. And since they are not restricted by income be prepared to be on the defensive for a long while. It's far more effective to be aggressive in the start, and then macro up.

Well my problem with this is that the Arabian desert's mercenary list is pretty crap, you'd have to have a larger army than their starting army + garrison (or at least close) to win.

[Throwaways]

No you only need a few generals (saba generals OP) a few levies and all mercs (yes they are shut it since you can't recruit in their territory it's still something. Try a few rush variations, the first fight may be a bit in their favor but you can overcome that. 2 rounds of recruitment in home province and then go.

Detail: If you send your first army out immediately and use second generals to recruit more guys you can usually lure the enemy out of her settlement. Make sure he can't kill of your starting stack of 4 units but be close enough so he tries to attack you. Then you can attack him with the rest of your troops. After you kill him go for the settlement. If will have like 11 weak units.

You may need to restart 1-2 times if something goes wrong. Try it out, and report back. I can test the start and make a more detailed guide if you want.