Romans vs Parthians battle strategies

[twgamer20197]

In either vanilla or DEI:
How would you fight an open field battle as the Romans against a Parthian army ( against the AI) specially if it brings many horse archers plus an important amount of melee cavalry units? Would you adopt a defensive tactic depending on what type of units you have? I know by experience that many times it is not a good idea to start chasing the parthian cavalry archers/skirmishers with your melee cavalry units specially if they're not fully upgraded yet ( so that they run faster ). If they run slower than the parthian cavalry archers you'd be sending them to suicide.

And the other way round as well:
How would you fight a battle as the Parthians against a Roman army ( against the AI as well ) in open field battle? Does your tactic depend on what type of units the Roman army has? What would you do once all your cavalry archers/skirmishers run out of ammunition and there are still Roman melee infantry units alive? Specially strong roman units such as principes, triarii, veteran legionaries, praetorians, etc

[Alwyn]

As Rome, my first idea is to bring plenty of auxiliary hoplites (to shield against charges) and a lot of auxiliary archers. There may be better options - maybe artillery, since you'd have longer range?

As the Parthians, I'd want to fire into the flanks and rear of the enemy as much as possible, use heavy shot against well-protected targets and run them down with cavalry when I run out of ammunition.

[LuckyPistol]

As Romans, do what they historically do best: bring specialized auxiliaries (shields, archers, cavalry) and dig in for a fight. If this is a campaign, get yourself in a fortified stance and bait the Parthians to come after you. You'll have some minor defense against the archery, but most importantly the mobility and versatility of the cavalry is lessened. Your infantry will tear theirs apart, so focus your micromanaging how the units you selected to combat their horse archers and cavalry (send some top tier archers of your own with cavalry or spear escorts).

Parthians against Romans: focus fire, focus fire, focus fire. Select a target and dedicate a few units to decimate it from a distance (try to destroy their ranged units first so you can keep the advantage). Do your best to keep their infantry disorganized; break up their line with a boar's head so flanking is easier. Keep your horse archers on the move: this requires some serious micromanaging, but once you master it you'll find it to be a nigh-unbeatable tactic. It's the reason I don't really play the Nomad factions in Rome 2, becomes pretty boring and siege battles are tedious.

[Alwyn]

Using the fortified stance sounds like a great idea. How would you bait the Parthians to come after you - would you have a smaller army raiding behind the one in fortified stance, or is there a better way?

[LuckyPistol]

Against the AI, you just need to try and gauge/predict things to be weighted in the AI's favor. Rome II AI is smart enough to actually try and bait the player with an army in forced march that's JUST outside your movement range; it's not going to just attack an enemy arming that is fortifying in their territory. Scout out ahead and see if you can offer a tempting target to a nearby stack or stacks, but make sure you're not leaving a settlement vulnerable because the AI will avoid your field army and head straight to the nearest undefended settlement.

[twgamer20197]

If I'm the Romans:
I'd try to advance with my legionaries ( or hastatis or princeps ) in testudo mode while providing them with covering fire with my slingers or archers that are also advancing behind them.

If I'm the Parthians:
Depends on the Roman army's composition. If it has more melee infantry units than cavalry and archers/slingers/javelin men, I'd avoid engaging my melee infantry units and melee cavalry units in melee combat until I use up all the ammo my cavalry archers have ( many times applying the hit-and-run tactic. I'd try to shoot each roman melee infantry unit from different directions at the same time. And sometimes I'd try to charge with my melee cavalry units ( if they are medium or heavy cavalry ) to each roman melee unit ( In case I manage to isolate each roman melee infantry units one by one ) from different directions at the same time. As you people should know, charging at an enemy melee infantry unit from the front is not a good idea even with several cavalry units at the same time unless it is a low-quality infantry melee unit.