saba start

[mr.playa]

any advice

it seems no matter where i send my army at the first turn

or any attempt to take any of the three rebel settelments near me the next turn my money will turn into red and it will be hard to control

so whats the best start for that faction ?

[Maroslav]

advice? hire even more mercenaries before u fall into red(with sabau lack cav so hire cav) to be able capture more settlements and faster reestablish economy. almost every 1 settlement starting faction fall into red.

[Moros]

There are roaming rebels who will cause devastation on your territory best deal with them first. Use your spy well to scout them and not to get ambushed, usually I then go for Timna', disband and build economy. Your starting province is pretty wealthy and with some building, it will be easy to rebuilt your army conquer the other settlements of the area. IF you keep focussing on economy you'll quickly be able to do as you please. The only difficulty about Saba is that they don't have native cavalry and relatively light units when you face hellenistic factions or the cavalry rich nabataeans. But with some expanding you'll be able to recruit cavalry yourself and mercenaries can help with battling the heavier troops. In the future their elite unit will also give their armies more oomph, but first we still have to make that one.

[alex33]

There are roaming rebels who will cause devastation on your territory best deal with them first. Use your spy well to scout them and not to get ambushed, usually I then go for Timna', disband and build economy. Your starting province is pretty wealthy and with some building, it will be easy to rebuilt your army conquer the other settlements of the area. IF you keep focussing on economy you'll quickly be able to do as you please. The only difficulty about Saba is that they don't have native cavalry and relatively light units when you face hellenistic factions or the cavalry rich nabataeans. But with some expanding you'll be able to recruit cavalry yourself and mercenaries can help with battling the heavier troops. In the future their elite unit will also give their armies more oomph, but first we still have to make that one.

how will that elite unit look? =D

[Moros]

Elite.

[mr.playa]

lol am in turn 100

i just recruted merceneris at the first turn
took zarzar and temna by waiting out until they sally out for me

then rain hell of arrows on them

it took me 9 turns to capture them both
the red reached -12000

disbanded the army and after 5 turns i became rich lol
now i have all of arabia with axum except dedan the nabteans have it
i still need to find the guts to declare war on them
they have 9 full stacks that could easily take out egypt and syria with much ease yet they prefer doing nothing

[Maroslav]

thats not so clear they can take it vs civilised factions. auto battles are resolved on unknown basis to me and sometimes happen 1 Ptolemais stack can defeat 3 their consequently- maybe i didnt saw that since they are alias. i think hire mercs at first turn is best option for almost all factions starting with 1 settlement but in my case i didnt wait on sally out. Bcoz that u can do without mercs anyway, mercs are hired for faster and more secure conquest.

[mr.playa]

in saba case once u hire them the first time u just wait them to sally out use the arrowes to kill them and go for the seconed settelment
so u dont have to spend 10 k gold to build the army again

just take them both in one swoop and disband the stack and let the gold flow

[Maroslav]

i think its a better result having casualties in battle and than less cost in maintanance armies but quicker income from city than dropping in dept for many turns and than disband them. until you make them starving, causing there pretty nice devastation decreasing your future income for many turns while another rebel stack at your borders causing another devastation in your lands. but however 100 players 100 strategies.