Which is your favorite faction?

[Camcolit]

Nah. Once you get a few settlements you are at critical mass for not really being able to lose. Doing this is actually a bit easier with Saka as they have horse archers. It might seem scary to have such low income and be losing quite a lot per turn at the start of the game if you're used to playing factions which are more established at the start. You can use their raiding mechanic to offset but personally I never bothered, just grabbed a couple of settlements.

i found it quite fun as Saka if you stay nomad for a long time and go for the steppe. Just one way to play them.

[Shoebopp]

Nah. Once you get a few settlements you are at critical mass for not really being able to lose. Doing this is actually a bit easier with Saka as they have horse archers. It might seem scary to have such low income and be losing quite a lot per turn at the start of the game if you're used to playing factions which are more established at the start. You can use their raiding mechanic to offset but personally I never bothered, just grabbed a couple of settlements.

i found it quite fun as Saka if you stay nomad for a long time and go for the steppe. Just one way to play them.

Yep, it's not unusual to be over 20,000 in debt by the time you capture Baktria (the city) and finally go in the black.

Just a small warning: the Saka's Imperial government tree is not conducive to building East Colonies. You must first raise Eastern Imperial Culture through the Saka's Eastern Tribal States government, then build an Auto-Satrapy, then upgrade the east colony building to raise it further, THEN build the normal Satrapy. The third level of East Colonies can only be built from the top-tier Sakan government which is limited by the script. Not fun if you want to be able to train interesting local such as Iranian Heavy Cavalry in the Iranian Plateau

[Camcolit]

I don't find there is any need to go right for Baktria, though you of course can if you want.

[Arshak I]

Haven't played Saka in EB2 yet but have played them many times in EB1. If i were to play as Saka in EB2 i would imagine i would play the same way as i always have with them: By taking a few steppe settlements and maybe a couple of rebel settlements in the far east of the map. Then disband the army and build up the economy until i can field a few units to start raiding and pillaging civilized lands! I find this roleplay for them far more entertaining then just blitzing India/Iran.

Regarding the poll, if this were EB1 i would have voted the Pahlava as my favourite faction (Of course ) but since i dislike how they have been implemented in EB2 in most aspects, then i guess i'll be the boring casual and say Rome. *Boo*

[blackbirdgriffin]

The saka are so much fun, and they're the best horse archer nation, you're definitly weaker than the saramatians (given your start) and your neighboring rebel town are less valuable than those that the pahlava have, yet their nomad cav roster is immensly powerfull, and you can migrate where ever you want (altho your transition from steppe nomadism to eastern tribalism has to be done with settlements in your region).

They aren't hard at all IMHO, the only hard part is winning the early fights against roving full cav rebels early on, and you have loads of options to have easier start (migrate for another full stack army, rush towards Baktra to get more money, go nomad and plunder india for that sweet sweet indian treasures), the faction descritption are mostly out of date at this point (in terms of difficulty ranking) (REF: hayastan isn't a nigh-impossible faction, pontus too etc...).

And if you ever have a hard time in a battle you can always rely on your saka cataphracts to get you out of trouble).

They're great.

[Shoebopp]

I don't find there is any need to go right for Baktria, though you of course can if you want.

Unless I go for Baktria, I'll continue to spiral into deeper debt. Plus, Baktria's multiple stacks will attack the lightly defended string of settlements in the mountains should I take those first. Also, fighting the nomadic stacks to conquer those settlements will cost more casualties than fighting against Baktria's stacks. I really have no choice but to wipe out the Baktrians and take their immensely rich lands. What's your strategy for recovering from debt without having to sack Baktria? I'm genuinely curious - I might've been playing Saka wrong the entire time

[Camcolit]

I don't think there is any 'playing them wrong' for any faction really. If you enjoy your game then that's all that counts in my book (that's all I care about anyway). Don't get me wrong, going straight for Baktria and rich surrounding settlements makes perfect sense from the point of view of increasing your power as quickly as possible.

I don't have any groundbreaking strategy. You go into debt as Saka but I remember finding it didn't have to be that bad. A lot of people seem to think it is either/or re starting troops and debt with precarious factions - blitz and pile up massive debt and don't disband anything until you recover, or disband almost everything and try to turtle with your fairly pathetic starting province(s). You can do a bit of both. It's been a little while but I am pretty sure I disbanded any Saka nobles I had right away and never recruited any again. They are completely not worth the price and a liability, imho (started a thread whining about it). Disbanded junk like skirmisher cavalry.

Just go with your FMs and Saka HAs. A half to 3/4 stack of Saka FMs and HAs can accomplish a whole lot, and is cheap. A stack like that should be able to beat any early roaming AI full stack without too many casualties, particularly rebels stacks composed of their own HAs in that area of the map, because the AI uses HAs quite badly and you can chase individual units off the map when they rout without worrying about having to fight them again. So you can beat the rebel stacks and expand more westward than south, if you prefer. That's why I did last time and found it quite fun. Of course, you can also just go grab the big rich areas and become just another fat Greek merchant, but I'd just play Bactria then

I really have no choice but to wipe out the Baktrians and take their immensely rich lands.

Have you tried playing Rome? I think you have the right stuff!