Parthia (RTW Faction)

Parthia (RTW Faction)
Name:	Parthia
From Game:	Rome: Total War
Culture:	Eastern
Playable:

Parthia is one of the playable factions in Rome: Total War. They can be played after successfully completing a campaign as a Roman faction or by simple modifications to the game files (more information on which can be found here).

Game Play

Parthia has nearby rebels to conquer and three immediate factions to contend with: Scythia, Armenia, and the Seleucid Empire.

Starting Position

Parthia Starting Position (Click to enlarge)

Parthia starts at the far eastern edge of the map in and around Asia Minor.

Their cities are:

• Arsakia: Parthian Capital; Region - Media

• Susa: Parthian City; Region - Elymais

• Campus Sakae: Parthian Large Town; Region - Tribus Sakae

Victory Conditions

• Long Campaign: Hold 50 provinces including Rome.
• Short Campaign: Hold 15 provinces and outlast or destroy Seleucid Empire and Armenia.

Units

Parthia General's Bodyguard.

Parthia is a completely cavalry focused faction. A Parthian field army should either be entirely cavalry or include Infantry only as bait or fodder. They have very strong horse archers, including Persian Cavalry, a long range Horse Archer that can also fight in melee. They also have the unmatched but slow Cataphract heavy cavalry as well as War Elephants and Cataphract Camels, who all have a brutal charge and should crush any opposing cavalry force. Their foot archers are average, making them often unnecessary, and their Melee infantry is terrible; the worst in Rome Total War by a long shot.

• Infantry
  • Peasants
  • Eastern Infantry
  • Hillmen
• Cavalry
  • Horse Archers
  • Persian Cavalry (U)
  • Cataphracts
  • War Elephants (U)
  • Cataphract Camels (U)
• Missile
  • Archers
  • Slingers
  • Onagers
• Naval
  • Bireme
  • Trireme
  • Quinquireme
• Bodyguard
  • Armoured Eastern General
• Mercenary
  • Arab Cavalry
  • Bedouin Warriors
  • Bedouin Archers
• Local Mercenaries
  • Eastern Mercenaries
  • Sarmatian Mercenaries
  • Scythian Mercenaries
  • Mercenary Hoplites

Unique Units

Persian Cavalry: Can be recruited from Cavalry Stables. Persian cavalry are very useful, like all horse archers they can move while shooting, making them more effective against foot archers as they take fewer hits. They will still lose against foot archers of similar quality due to larger numbers.

Persian cavalry have long range bows allowing you to whittle down most enemy foot archers without even being touched, especially when uphill too. They are far better protected than normal horse archers, have swords for melee and considerably higher morale than regular horse archers, allowing use as medium cavalry once their arrows are expended.

War Elephants: Can be recruited from Elite Cavalry Stables. These troops provide your army with shockpower. Take care to keep them away from your own and hostile javelins as well as arrows, especially fire arrows. Ironically Elefants get distressed by larger enemy numbers so keep your general or other units nearby and watch their morale. However, be also prepared to move your own units out of reach in case they run amok.

Cataphract Camels: Can be recruited from Royal Cavalry Stables. These units are simply cataphracts who have exchanged their horse mounts for camels. Camels scare horses, making them extremely effective in attacking and destroying enemy cavalry units, particularly slower heavy cavalry, as Cataphract camels still have the Armor-piercing mace attack, the alternate attack for Cataphracts. However, as camels are slower than horses and the extensive amount of armor on this unit makes it tire quite easily, most cavalry will be able to easily outmanuever this unit.

Eastern infantry:These infantry units can be recruited very early in the game and are extremely cheap, with 240 men on Huge unit size, making Eastern Infantry tolerable infantry-of-the-line units early in the game provided you have a good general to improve their poor morale. However, they are very weak when compared to other factions' early-game infantry, and so should generally be used as a cheap cannon-fodder unit and ram pushers.

Hillemn Parthias only other infantry choice; they are recruited from a Militia Barracks which requires a Large Town, making them early game troops. Compared with the Eastern Infantry they have a better attack, are fast and have good stamina, and have much better morale, however, they have less defense and only 160 men on Huge unit scale, like most Infantry. In a melee they will actually lose to Eastern Infantry, but their superior morale makes them a better choice in most circumstances. They have no chance against dedicated melee Infantry, but their speed and stamina makes them well able to reposition, much more so than most infantry.

Archers: Default archers with a decent punch; unarmoured, this unit is not the best but it is good enough as a missile unit if the enemy archers are eliminated early on in battle. Useful in city defense. For most situations horsearchers should be used instead.

Onagers:This unit counters testudo very effectivly in campaign; flaming missiles are ideal aganst packed enemy units and very useful in forcing the enemy into all out attacks or making him or her thin out his or her line. However, artillery is very expensive and almost comletely useless in multiplayer, so it is advised to not get too used to using these units.

Cataphract:Cataphracts are the decisive arm in Parthia's arsenal; it is this one unit, coupled with horsearchers that makes Parthia so deadly in multiplayer as a skirmish army. Cataphracts are the most powerful heavy cavalry units in the game. To make full use of these units, use their unique alternate attack; an armor-piercing mace attack, used by pressing and holdind down the Alt key on your keyboard and right-clicking the enemy unit that you wish to use this attack on.

Cataphracts have so much armor that a shield is not needed to ward off missiles, and since they have a charge value of 9, they should be the main attack arm of your multiplayer armies. Note that cataphracts are more mobile than camels but do not scare horses.

Strategy Guides

Parthia Strategies at The Org

Faction Details

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Parthia Details (RTW Faction)

RTW Factions
Armenia | Britannia | Carthage | Dacia | Egypt | Gaul | Germania | Greek Cities | The House of Brutii | The House of Julii | The House of Scipii | Macedon | Numidia | Parthia | Pontus | Scythia | Seleucid Empire | Senate | Spain | Thrace | Rebels