Lydia (ROP Faction)
the Lydian faction in rise of persia is the first time the faction has had a 3d representation of it made in any game.
they begin with the controal of the more central part of Asia Minor, surrounded by rebels and all sides but the direct west of their capital, Sfard, where the Ionian cities have 2 settlements on asia minor itself, and a third on the isle of lesbos. this gives them the oppertunities for growth in all directions and the potentail to have a very effective economy.
The Lydian army is diverse and versitile, but is lacking in more elite units, this is due to them being able to recruit local troops in any provance they conquer. Only Lydian archers and chariots can be trained anywhere (that is highly developed), chariots lack the toughness and range of other factions chariots, being armed with javlins instead of bows and only having a low defense rating and 2 hitpoints. Lydian archers on the other hand, can be brutally effective owing to their long range, which is a rare thing in archers in this mod, and high missile attack value, lack other archers however, they are fairly week in melee combat (though, not compaired to greek, barbarian or iranian archers). Its worthy also to mention the city of Hekerala, to the west of Sinope in the north of asia minor, here, barbarian troops used by the Illryans and Bessoi can be trained, including mezzoi cavalry, which are far more effective in melee than most cavalry (owing to a much higher defense stat), and inter-bus, slingers which have a long range.
A good stratergy when playing as Lydia is to quickly marshall and army and take the Ionian cities on asia minor (consider taking the isle of lesbo's, unfortunitally pirate are very common in this mod so its not always do-able.) then to turn your attention easterly. As with all foe's, the right balance of troops will produce the best results, against any greek cities, its advisable to use more archers, hybred spearmen and cavalry (especally lydian archers, phyrigian infantry or ring-bus and mezzoi) whilst against eastern enemies, armies with more hoplites will acheive better results (they compair very well to Madan Sparabara and Babylonian Nas Turki, and can even hold their own against elites) However, you must always bear in mind that troops will need to be brought home to be retrained, so heavy losses far away from their homelands are unsustainable.
Aditionally, Lydia can only use the Beirme, meaning, their navy's useless in small numbers.
All in all, they are an effective faction unfortunitally its almost gaurantied that they'll be at war with either Mada, Babylon or the Ionian cities at any point in time, if they face more than one then they are at serious risk of becomming overstretched.
