Sarmatians (RTW:BI Faction)

Sarmatians (RTW:BI Faction)
Name:	Sarmartians
From Game:	Barbarian Invasion
Religion:	Pagan
Culture:	Nomad
Playable:

The Sarmatians are one of the playable factions in the Barbarian Invasion for Rome: Total War. They are in the Nomad culture group

Game Play

You start out very beleaugered from all sides, but if you can survive for a while, you're okay. Mostly cavalry armies are your order of the day.

Starting Position

The Sarmatians have only one province at the start of the game - Vicus Sarmatae (Sarmatia). Because of their location, they are normally attacked by the Goths/Vandals/Huns/Roxolani early in the game.

Cities

Vicus Sarmatae

• Starting Buildings - High King's Hall, Meeting Hall, Warlord's Stables, Practice Range, Market, Blacksmith, Communal Farming, Roads, Sacred Grove of Kolaksay
• Governor - Boz
• Starting Recruitment - Herdsmen, Runaway Slave Spearmen, Sarmatian Virgin Foot Archers, Sarmatian Virgin Cavalry, Sarmatian Armored Archers, Warlord, Spy, Diplomat
• Population Growth - +1%
• Public Order - +120%
• Income - +41
• Population - 10798
• Population Required for next level of settlement - 12000

Win Conditions

In order to win the campaign, the player needs to own 15 provinces and they must include Pannonia (Aquincum), Ilyricum et Dalmatia (Salona), and Colchis (Kotais).

Units

Infantry Units

• Runaway Slave Spearmen
• Bosphorna Infantry
• Steppe Horde Chosen Warriors (only when in hordes)

Ranged Units

• Sarmatian Virgin Foot Archers

Cavalry Units

• Herdsmen
• Sarmatian Virgin Cavalry
• Alan Noble Cavalry
• Sarmatian Noble Cavalry
• Virgin Horse Archers
• Steppe Horde Horsemen (only when in hordes)
• Alan Horse Archers
• Sarmatian Armoured Archers
• Warlord

Strategy guides

You will start the game occupying Vicus Sarmatae, a small town on the southern plains of the steppes, and 15,000 denarii. That's nice, because you're going to need it. You will have just a few turns to remain in possession of your lands before being chased out by either the Vandals or the Huns. If you build a port and get trade agreements with the Roxolani and maybe the Goths, you might have a couple of turns to enjoy the benefits. The main asset you have is a little time to recruit some permanent units like armored horse archers, Virgin foot archers or Virgin cavalry. These cost money, but will be valuable when you lose the town and turn into horde armies. You only get 4, so the recruited forces will be important to you to gain a 5th army.

You will want to demolish any arms-making capability just before the Vandals or Huns invest your town. The main thing is to leave town before that happens so as to avoid losses through seige and assault, and to stay ahead of the Vandals if you can. If you linger, the Vandals will be between you and the western campaign route to Gothland and the cities of the eastern Empire in Romania and Illyria. This puts you in the position of having to take their leavings.

One of your victory conditions is to take and hold Aquincum, which will be impossible when the Slavs come along in a few years. You may want to wait to take Aquincum until the Slavs spend their strength somewhat. Nevertheless, you must settle down sometime and develop an economy. To hold your cities, you will need infantry, stone walls and foot archers to deal with the horse archers. If you have to accept the loss of a city or two, try to make the hordes pay dearly for their conquest, so you can come back later with more men.

This campaign will not be easy in the middle and later stages, so try to be flexible and take what the opposition will allow you to have through the first part, and raise as much money by sacking cities as you can. I recommend building a war chest of at least 100,000 denarii to help you through the rough times.

See Also

• Factions in BI

Barbarian Invasion Factions
Eastern Roman Empire | Western Roman Empire | Huns | Goths | Sarmatians | Vandals | Franks | Saxons | Alemanni | Sassanids | Celts | Burgundii | Lombardi | Roxolani | Berbers | Slavs | Romano British | Ostrogoths | Eastern Roman Rebels | Western Roman Rebels | Rebels