<?xml version="1.0" ?><?encoding UTF-16?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="../xsl/unit.xsl"?><unit><full_name>eastern infantry saka spearmen</full_name><dictionary>eastern_infantry_saka_spearmen</dictionary><category>infantry</category><class>spearmen</class><voice_type>General_1</voice_type><soldier><name>eastern_infantry_kavakazasparabara_sarmatianspearmen_sakaspearmen</name><soldiers>50</soldiers><extras>0</extras><mass>1.05</mass></soldier><attributes>sea_faring, hide_forest, hardy</attributes><formation><side_spacing>1.2</side_spacing><front_spacing>1.4</front_spacing><loose_side_spacing>2.4</loose_side_spacing><loose_front_spacing>2.8</loose_front_spacing><ranks>5</ranks><formations>square</formations></formation><stat_health><hit_points>1</hit_points><animal_hit_points>1</animal_hit_points></stat_health><stat_pri><attack>14</attack><charge>4</charge><missile_type>no</missile_type><range>0</range><ammo>0</ammo><weapon_type>melee</weapon_type><tech_type>simple</tech_type><dammage_type>piercing</dammage_type><sound>spear</sound><min_delay>0</min_delay><lethality>0.13</lethality></stat_pri><stat_pri_attr>light_spear</stat_pri_attr><stat_sec><attack>0</attack><charge>0</charge><missile_type>no</missile_type><range>0</range><ammo>0</ammo><weapon_type>no</weapon_type><tech_type>no</tech_type><dammage_type>no</dammage_type><sound>none</sound><min_delay>0</min_delay><lethality>0</lethality></stat_sec><stat_sec_attr>no</stat_sec_attr><stat_pri_armour><armour>1</armour><def_skill>11</def_skill><shield>3</shield><sound>flesh</sound></stat_pri_armour><stat_sec_armour><armour>0</armour><def_skill>0</def_skill><sound>flesh</sound></stat_sec_armour><stat_heat>1</stat_heat><stat_ground><scrub>0</scrub><sand>0</sand><forest>0</forest><snow>0</snow></stat_ground><stat_mental><morale>10</morale><discipline>normal</discipline><training>untrained</training></stat_mental><stat_fire_delay>0</stat_fire_delay><stat_food>60, 300</stat_food><stat_cost><turns>1</turns><cost>1419</cost><upkeep>355</upkeep><upgrade_weapon>50</upgrade_weapon><upgrade_armour>70</upgrade_armour><custom_battle>1419</custom_battle></stat_cost><ownership>pontus</ownership><description><name>Halstehveyyau (Saka Spearmen)</name><short>The Saka Spearmen are medium infantry best employed when besieging a settlement and for supporting roles in field battles.</short><long>

These Saka spearmen wear no armour and carry a shield and spear to battle. They are medium, passable infantry and can hold their own against other medium-low quality infantry of a similar nature. However, due to their lack of armour, they are best not employed against the heavier infantry of settled peoples. As such, they should not be expected to engage the bulk of the enemy forces in battle. Probably their best asset is their ability to defend ground or support heavier troops when assaulting a settlement.

Historically, after groups of Saka Rauka left the steppes and invaded the Graeco-Baktrian kingdom and Gandhara/Kapisa and established settled Indo-Saka kingdoms in northern India, they seemed to have maintained a considerable amount of the preceding Greek and native infrastructures, possibly due to the want of stable administration of the newly established empire. It can be supposed that, while the original cavalry-oriented element of their ancestors had been maintained, the Indo-Saka also employed native and Greek troops who were mainly infantry-oriented, and thus a general increase in the amount of infantry in their armed forces. Probably many Indo-Saka, being settled down, took to infantry-oriented fighting during this time due to the general decrease in the supply of horses since they had lost control of the Central Asian steppes long ago; on a pillar relief from the palace area at Nagarjunikonda is displayed a foot guard holding a spear dressed in Indo-Saka costume and although dated to a later period, he may well be representative of those settled Indo-Saka who took to infantry-oriented fighting.
However, among other Saka groups, such as those of the Massagetai, passable and competent infantry forces seemed to have existed regardless of tribesmen taking to farming and a settled lifestyle; in Herodotos' short "inquiry" of the Massagetai, it is stated that the Massagetai relied on both cavalry and infantry to fight battles, neither methods being foreign to them, and that some tribesmen in the Massagetai were also hunter-gatherers as well as transhumant pastoralists.</long></description></unit>