I have seen a few people struggling with Parthia, saying it's too difficult, I can't win. Horse archers are useless.

Fact is, it's arguably the most powerful military faction in the game, but the most difficult to master.

This is not a Parthia campaign guide, this is how to win battles.

Note: This guide is specifically for DEI Parthia and was created using DEI Brutal Battles mod for maximum death (Yay!)

Before you can fight you need units. One army takes advantage of Parthia's key unit type, horse archers. However, Horse archers and walls don't really go together. Hence the second army.

Your first army will be made up of horse archers. Don't complain, trust me. Get the best you can afford (my favourite's are the "Daha Uazdaettae" aka heavy missile cavalry). BUT, DON'T BUILD A FULL STACK. This will be explained later.

Note: when selecting your horse archers, check the range and the armour, melee attack and defense skills. This is for versitility, don't worry too much about ammo, this improves with traditions and generals. At the beginning you will struggle to find a balanced horse archer, in this case it can be useful to combine them with three or four light cavalry for in and out charges.

Your second army is tailored to City sieges, if it has walls, this is the army you will you to capture it. You will need the following unit types:
- General, preferably heavy cavalry
- Heavy Melee Infantry (8)
- Heavy Spear Infantry (4)
- Archers (7)

I will not be going over siege tactics in detail, it goes without saying that you rain arrows down upon your enemy (so you need long range archers, note; Parthian archers have the highest damage of any archers in the game).
Use your Melee Infantry to take the walls, use your Spears when/if you take the gate. Why? Because enemy cavalry cant climb walls! So you need your spears on the ground to deal with them.
If you are up against an annoying army of pikemen, first, see if you cant persuade them to sally out against your first army, failing that you have archers. Use them. Will save you a ton of men. Same applies for Romans, tho those shields are very very annoying.

Note: near the beginning of the game you won't be able to support two armies, so you may find it helpful to throw in some low level infantry. When in sieges use the infantry to destroy or capture the gate, which will let your horse archers in. It's not ideal but it works.

So why the half stack (about 12 units besides the general) army?

Well, you do not need a full stack army as Parthia.
Numbers won't help you as you WILL NOT USE AUTO-BATTLE as you will just lose
More units will actually hinder you as they will get in the way and/or confuse you.

This is not Rome, or Sparta or any army that you have fought with before. Take everything you think you know and ignore it all, that you can apply in sieges, but on the field, with these guys, forget it.

Some of you may be wondering why I'm telling you what to do. First, you struggle with Parthia and I have conquered the world with them. Second, the battles, I have time and again lead my 660 odd troops against two full stack armies, and won. Not just won, I lost 19 people, they had a total of 40 remaining.

Now that that is out of the way you can finally learn to win.
This is the battle theory.

There are two main ways to plan out a battle with your horse archers.
The first is for a battle against a enemy for that is mostly made up of other horse archers.
The second is for the conventional armies (infantry, archers, a smattering of cavalry)

FIRST PLAN

Take your army and divide it up into control groups of two units each. You should have 7 groups (1 group for the general by himself). Then spread it out across the deployment area. From one end to the other in their standard formation in groups of two. Put your general behind them in the center.



Once the battle begins, advance. No need to hurry. Advance in the same spread out formation as before. When you encounter the enemy, you use your center groups to attack the center.

Use your outer groups to flank and hem in the enemy, essentially, surround him. It is ideal to get two flanking units at the back of their formation to focus down the general. "Cut off the head and the snake will wither". Before it withers though, it needs encouragement. so, hammer away, try to focus on the cavalry archers first, ignore the everything that is not a horse (unless they have siege which is annoying you but typically they don't.



SECOND PLAN

Group your army the same as before, do not move them out of the initial line formation (except the general, put him at the back), then, advance.



The enemy may get excited at this point and rush forward to meet you seemingly head on charge with his pikes. Pity him.

Break formation and send the two flank groups (4 units per side) on either side to the flank of the enemy. By now you should be close enough to begin firing.

Always maintain a larger frontal force, to keep the enemy trying to catch your general in vain (keep running away). Let your flanking units do most of the damage, staring with the enemy cavalry, then pikes, then archers, then its just cleanup. Again try to kill their general as early as possible.



NO ARROWS

Oh the horror! I have no arrows left! I'm going to die because of these useless horse archers!

No. If you have horse archers that are decent in a melee then charge (this is why we kill pikes before we run out of arrows). Problem solved. (hence why we chece the melee abilities of our horse archers and don't go for those squishy guys who you poke and they die.)

Oh no! The enemy had too many pikemen! Or my cavalry archers are useless in a melee!

No problem. Retreat. If you retreat you should lose a few men, but it's better that then lose your whole army in a desperate charge.

Note: You will have more arrows once your generals traits and army traditions come into play. I never have to worry about arrows now. So be patient.

If you need convincing about the effectiveness of arrows, please refer to this in-game quote;
"AHHHHHH! That's my eye gone!"

The best plan only lasts until the first arrow is loosed. If you have no strategy but know this you can still win easily.

The easiest way to remember this is a set of rules.

1) PAY ATTENTION
It seems obvious, but there is no attack move or point, click and sit back and relax with this. If you do that you will lose. badly.

2) MICRO
Micromanagement, the dreaded word of the business world is your new best friend. Know what every unit is doing and why. Know their unit count, their energy levels. Give orders per unit, not as a whole group. Your control groups are for easy mass movement and camera control. Not for when you are in the thick of an engagement. If you struggle with this, and you will at first, remember, you have a pause button. Use it.

3) AGGRESSION
Armies like Rome, Sparta and Macedon are passive, and slowly advance in perfect formation to meet their enemy. If you do this, you will lose. Be aggressive. They are cavalry archers, they can move fast, so don't hang back like normal archers. If there is a gap, take advantage. Be as aggressive as you possibly can be. Attack attack attack.Never sit passively anywhere.

4) MOVE
Do not hold still, if you do, you lose. Your cavalry can dodge arrows, run away from pathetically slow heavy infantry and run rings (literally) around pikemen. So move, you will live longer.

5) SPLIT
Don't think, oh my units will be safer together, wrong. They wont be. Spread out, split up your groups, surround them, make them run in every direction. Do not stand together or run together. This isn't a heavy cavalry charge.

6) CIRCLES
Most cavalry archers have an ability that lets them run in a circle and shoot at the same time, this is very handy for avoiding arrows. So use it. Just remember to run away because they won't, even in skirmish mode, whilst using this ability. If you don't have this ability, running up and down their lines, slowly walking then running away works almost as well, just watch out for arrows.

Side note on that, don't complain about them not running away. It works to your advantage. Just use micro and make sure you know they won't be crushed by that slow moving squad of pikes.

7) CLOSE
How close do you dare? So you have your cavalry archers, running in a circle like a dog chasing his tail and some infantry charge towards you. Don't run when they are a hundred meters away. Don't run when they are fifty meters away. Run when they are 5 meters away. Why?
Cuz its fun.
Cuz its effective.
Cuz you get to watch their tiny pixel faces as their hopes and dreams are crushed.

8) SHIELDS
Yeah, you know, those annoying things? The ones that stop your deathly arrows? Remember, you can only point a shield in one direction. So flank them. Shoot them from behind. This is not about honour, this is war. Killing and winning in the most brutally efficient way possible.



9) CHAOS
Oh no! They are everywhere! They are running at me and stuff!
Don't fret, this is good. Your forces thrive on chaos, the more the merrier. Create chaos, don't avoid it. The more chaos, the faster the enemy lose.

10) CONFUSION
So the enemy is chasing your one cavalry archer unit, which just so happens to have run out of arrows. What do you do? Easy. Confuse them. Mix your unit(s) up and run in different directions. The enemy will pick one and follow them. The closer that unit, the more likely they will be to chase it. So run a fully stocked unit behind your running one and the enemy may just decide that one looks just as weak and feeble as the other one.

Note:
11) POOR ARMY
Remember that beginning comp for an army I mentioned at the beginning? With some cavalry archers and some weak infantry? So how do you use them? Simple really, put the infantry faaaaaar away in a defensive formation, preferably on a hill, but not in a corner. Then follow the above battle plans for your cavalry archers, the enemy will get to your infantry eventually, then, if the enemy infantry is down to a few men, charge, if they have some badass heavies, then run. Use the infantry only to mop up (or trap the enemy general if he is cavalry and your infantry can take him.

Thanks for reading, I will add/improve this as I go as I am always learning. If you have anything to add or correct me on please do comment so I can ignore you later. I mean, respond later.

If you have any guide requests please also post them in the comments, remember to rate.

This Parthia cavalry archer army is my favourite for its unorthodox style of warfare. The same style that brought the Romans to their knees (the Huns), and that later brought Europe to it's knees (the mongols). This force can beat any other force in the game with its mobility and unorthodox tactics.

Disclaimer: I cannot be held responsible for any injuries incurred whilst reading and/or implementing this guide. All rights reserved.


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Hey guys,

I just updated some of the spelling and stuff. This guide could be improved a lot. As it is, I don't have a lot of time to do this but I hope my small improvements help.