On Hayasdan and Chariots

[Haze88]

Getting away from infantry based factions I wanted to roll with an enemy I know well in the Hayasdan. However in the custom battle their roster is pretty barren. Do they rely a lot on regionals to fill roles on the battlefield or is it just their custom battle roster not completed? As far as chariots I looked on wikipedia (sin I know) an it said Tigranes had a contingent of war chariots in his arsenal. Do the Hai get them and how are they effectively utilized? I only ever see the AI kamikaze them into my pikemen :/

[athanaric]

Haven't played them in custom battles, but in campaign, they have a pretty large roster. Mostly regionals though. I don't think they get chariots, but they have their own cataphract unit, which also frighten infantry and are more reliable.
By the way, their spearmen roster is pretty weak early on, unless you hire Greek mercs. Cappadocian Spearmen are really bad (and before anyone gets the wrong idea - I play on M/M, so no artificially increased difficulty); Hai Spearmen are decent but don't have javelins. With the Thureophoroi reforms, you slightly better units. Royal Guards (archer-spearmen) only come with the late stages of the Hai reforms though.
Bottom line, make liberal use Greek and Iranian troops. You can get the former via a Philhellenic Satrapy, for example in Edessa.

[Sarkiss]

Getting away from infantry based factions I wanted to roll with an enemy I know well in the Hayasdan. However in the custom battle their roster is pretty barren. Do they rely a lot on regionals to fill roles on the battlefield or is it just their custom battle roster not completed? As far as chariots I looked on wikipedia (sin I know) an it said Tigranes had a contingent of war chariots in his arsenal. Do the Hai get them and how are they effectively utilized? I only ever see the AI kamikaze them into my pikemen :/

their factional roster is pretty poor, 3-4 Hai units iirc.
on chariots, not sure what you mean. neighboring Seleukids and Pontus employed them during the era, not the Armenians.

[QuintusSertorius]

their factional roster is pretty poor, 3-4 Hai units iirc.

With the sole exception of the Roman's Marian roster, no faction in the game has more than one or two exclusive units that no one else can recruit.

[Haze88]

their factional roster is pretty poor, 3-4 Hai units iirc.
on chariots, not sure what you mean. neighboring Seleukids and Pontus employed them during the era, not the Armenians.

According to the author of Judith, his army included chariots and 12,000 cavalrymen, probably indicating heavy cavalry or cataphracts, commonly used by Seleucids and Parthians. He also had 120,000 infantrymen and 12,000 mounted archers, which were also an important feature of the Parthian army. Like the Seleucids, the bulk of Tigranes' army were the foot soldiers.

Like I said it was in Wiki so ymmv

[Sarkiss]

the two extant accounts that mention Tigran's army in some detail are Plutarch and Appian (there are snippets in Cassius Dio...). the figures they provide are highly inflated but there is no mentioning of chariots im afraid. nor are there any archeological finds that would firmly point to it (there are some from Urartian period and Bronze Age and a mentioning of a chariot of Artashes I iirc). about the book of Judith from the source you linked: "The book contains numerous historical anachronisms, which is why many scholars now accept it as non-historical; it has been considered a parable or perhaps the first historical novel.[2]" would be great to have more info but unfortunately we lack evidence and the sources that survived have no particular interest in Armenians and cite them in passing.

[Jurand of Cracow]

the two extant accounts that mention Tigran's army in some detail are Plutarch and Appian (there are snippets in Cassius Dio...). the figures they provide are highly inflated ... about the book of Judith from the source you linked: "The book contains numerous historical anachronisms, which is why many scholars now accept it as non-historical; it has been considered a parable or perhaps the first historical novel.[2]"

Indeed, I always wonder why some seasoned wargame players believe in the fantasy numbers of combatants in the ancient armies provided by the original, but unverified sources. I've got handy an article about the Medieval times from the Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare, 2010 (by John France). Even if the Ancient armies were more numerous, they couldn't be much. Enjoy the reading and (perhaps) deflate your expectations.

[QuintusSertorius]

Armies in antiquity were bigger than those in the early medieval era. 20,000-25,000 was a routine size for a Roman army or indeed a Hellenistic power. 5,000-10,000 was a notably large army in the early medieval period.

[Haze88]

Well shucks. But I still wonder how to use chariots. They seem super brittle in the hands of the AI

[Sarkiss]

Well shucks. But I still wonder how to use chariots. They seem super brittle in the hands of the AI

in the hands of the AI pretty much anythings brittle. when using them yourself try to avoid pikes and elephants and not chase after skirmishing light horse, the rest should be fair game. best to unleash them upon already engaged, crowded enemy formations:

Thereupon a severe and bloody struggle ensued. Nicomedes prevailed and put the Mithridateans to flight until Archelaus, advancing from the right flank, fell upon the pursuers, who were compelled to turn their attention to him. He yielded little by little in order that the forces of Neoptolemus might have a chance to rally. When he judged that they had done so sufficiently, he advanced again. At the same time the scythe-bearing chariots made a charge on the Bithynians, cutting some of them in two, and tearing others to pieces.
The army of Nicomedes was terrified at seeing men cut in halves and still breathing, or mangled in fragments and their parts hanging on the scythes. Overcome rather by the hideousness of the spectacle than by loss of the fight, fear took possession of their ranks.