Parthia Vs Baktria

[Tim✘Tim]

Anybody played both campaigns,
or just the one with tips and tricks ?

- i want to pick one of em, im leaning towards Parthia, but Baktria just seems so much better,
i could just throw myself in there and play em both and learn as i go.
But i would like to jump into either of theese campaigns better prepared than when i started my Suebi campaign :P

Any feedback is apreciated,
let me know your starting moves, how did you tackle the diplomacy traps in the east,
and which faction you Prefer for the GC

[Salty Nobody]

Parthia has better horse archers and more cost effective options for good melee cavalry. Baktria has pikes and better infantry.

Baktria has an easier start. They have several cities to work with and can easily devour their weaker eastern neighbors like Parthia while waiting to see how the Selucid satrap situation plays out.

For Baktria it is probably best to start out with peaceful relations with the Steppe Nomads while devouring the East and supplanting the Selucids.

Parthia starts with a single minor settlement and must find a way to complete their province while dealing with a hostile Baktria. However, as an eastern faction they also will draw the wrath of the Massagetae.

For Parthia it is usually better to play nice with the other eastern factions outside of Parthia itself and focus on destroying Baktria and the Nomads all the way to the Black Sea.

The Selucid wars can present a unique diplomatic opportunity for both Parthia and Baktria, as usually everyone hates the Selucids. One game I used this to forge a web of alliances that resulted in a military victory with only around 24 settlements held by my faction.

Parthia is my favorite faction in the game. The first thing I did after losing the tutorial was throw myself in legendary with them. They are also the only faction I have played two full campaigns with, the second being the aforementioned "diplomatic victory".

[Ape-tier Buffoonery]

As stated above Bactria does have an easier start. However I disagree with the opinion on not attacking steppe nomads. If you dont remove them early before they start churning out heavy horse archers they become a real pain in the backside. Doubly so because that same backside is most of your economic provinces and thus undefended. Add to that if the steppe nomads turn on you or are devoured by another steppe tribe that is hostile they can now attack northern Parthia, Aria or the province north of Bactria and itd be a waste of money to garrison all 3 minor settlements.

You can easily crush them with a relatively non-elite army early in the game as your eastern slingers and bows out number and outrange their cav units. You can get away with spearman to counter their Lancers or splurge a little on hoplites which the ai practically will never be able to kill. I would conquer the 2 region and 3 region province north west of your starting position and decide if you want to continue on or create a more standard/elite army and fight all the ex-satrapries.

Parthia wants to jump on Parthava asap once they break away and can make a defensive alliance with the other ex-satraps sometimes you get lucky and they take Persias blacksmith village so gobble that up before Persia retakes it.

If you want to go for a diplomacy game it wont be too hard to befriend most of the east except for baktria. Your steppe nomad usually brings you into wars and dies regardless so don't worry too much you'll have to pacify the steppe nomads eventually anyways. Personally I dont like getting too chummy with the ex-satrapries simply because I do want their land eventually and dont want to have terrible trustworthy. Non aggression pact if you need to maybe a trade deal but make sure to end them 10 turns before you invade. Keeping a token garrison in the minor town north of the Parthia walled city keeps that border safe from Persian attacks usually. Just don't bother to declare war.

[Tim✘Tim]

Thx guys,
im doing Parthia now, i consumed parthavia in 3-4 turns, then i took out aria, dropped dahoe as satrap, then i took sangria and all the persian lands they took before that, ive now turned against baktria whiped them out too ( pretty easy even, f me parthia is awesome )
i control the entire east now, having a NAP with the nomads above me for now but im slowly moving 3 stacks up there loaded with foot archers and a ballista in each army ( this works very superior to their horse archers )
Thx for your tips guys it really helped out with my scheeming'

[Pink Squirrel]

as baktira i go north first then i just build up my military then go fight parthia i find that to be the best strat as baktira has the second best cav in the game next to sel in my opinion also baktira makes a ton of money so u can uphold much bigger armies

[Tim✘Tim]

Originally posted by Ryan C:

as baktira i go north first then i just build up my military then go fight parthia i find that to be the best strat as baktira has the second best cav in the game next to sel in my opinion also baktira makes a ton of money so u can uphold much bigger armies

Parthias units is so cheap tho, and with the right buffs from Veteran + General traits,
they get f gruesome mid-late game !

But ofcourse, its almost always easy to counter the AI, basicly you just need to Spam archers against mis cav, or slingers.

- In my fight with baktria around turn 30, i smashed them so hard with micro management,
i just take out the general with my ballista, set the 4 mis cav on each flank and wait for them to get close while i ride around their army and lure their cav after my mis cav,
Heavy shot is amazing 6-8 foot archers with heavy shot will take out any heavy infantry when fire is focused.

Both factions ive come to love now,
Baktria for their supreme Infantry and crazy indian armored elephants,
but the missile units of parthia buffed by Veteran in army with good traits + general with traits + buff buildings in military province .. is just WTF crazy !!!
the shots pr minute alone... damn... ive completely underrestimated parthia due to the weak start.
Its easy tho to trick Baktria, you just need a NAP with that faction to the very east of the map,
and Baktria will focus the nomads, let aria attack baktria and declare on them and quickly absorb Aria ( and if timed right, the 2 settlements they will have captured from Baktria ( 1 previus Dahoe)
and your stage is set for eastern dominance.