wazawak
Legionary
posted 21 October 2008 12:48 EDT (US)
I'm playing XGM as Egypt, and I have broken Seleucid power in the east. However, Parthia has risen as a great power, and it's only a matter of time before they come howling through the passes.
How can I beat a Parthian (horse archer) army? IMO horse archers are basically the gods of war- their cantabrian circle defeats the best foot archers, and their mobility and firepower defeats melee cavalry and heavy infantry. I've created forts to try to hold them at bay, but sooner or later they'll find a way around them or they'll smash through my meager defenses and all of Persia will be laid bare at their feet.
ShieldWall
Legionary
posted 21 October 2008 12:57
EDT (US)
1 / 9
Horse archers are great, but RTW has blessed us with boundaries on the battle map so they can't run away forever. You can use Pharoah's Bowmen, lots of them, to bring down the horse archers, but I'd be inclined to go with a load of heavy chariots. They're fast, have a few hit points, and if you advance a line of infantry to suck in the horse archers and fix them them in place, send the chariots wide around their flanks to attack them in the sides and the rear. Nowhere to run, and horses always come off much worse against chariots.
Also you could hire a single diplomat and bribe the horse archer armies to disappear - you have a superior economy afterall. Ignore open battle with them and instead send your armies to attack the Parthian cities. Even if there are horse archers in there, they can't run away so well in the streets, and your phalanx infantry won't have any great difficulty.
wolfthe3rd
Legionary
posted 22 October 2008 02:56
EDT (US)
4 / 9
Erzin has a good idea
but u can always just simply buy soem mercanary horse archers of your own just as a suggestion.
ShieldWall
Legionary
posted 22 October 2008 13:08
EDT (US)
6 / 9
Yeah I agree, you'll take huge losses doing that. Once you've got them up against the boundary then no problem, but it's a long way to get there on foot and anything other than heavily armoured units, like hoplites or legionaries, will get badly shot up and may even rout. Also bear in mind that even if you can get the horse archers pressed up against the boundary, chances are they will rout very quickly and will probably escape beyond the boundary before you've killed many of them. So you'll have to fight it all over again.