The Scythians raise these dangerous axemen from subject populations and their own settled kindred and find them to be especially useful for countering heavy infantry.

Hardy
Sapping Ability

Armed with a Tabar axe, the primary offensive weapon of these infantrymen, they are protected with only the crescent shaped Taka shield and light armour. While unable to hold against most steppe cavalry, they can do deadly damage to some of the more “civilized” people’s inferior cavalry. But they would not last long against those same people’s massed heavy infantry. Despite some of their shortcomings, any steppe general would think twice before fighting a long campaign without these soldiers.

Historically, despite all steppe peoples' reliance on cavalry, most of them fielded infantry of some type at one time or another. In the case of the Scythians of the Pontic steppe, axemen were either recruited from subject farming peoples or from the growing proportion of settled Scythians, often young warriors from the tribes.