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frogbeastegg
11-13-2006, 21:46
Egypt needs to be unlocked before you can play as them. To do this you can either complete a campaign (on any difficutly, long or short setting) with one of the five starting factions, or you can edit the preferences file. To do this open your Sega/M2TW folder/data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign, find the file called "descr_strat" and open it with wordpad. Now find the section which says
campaign imperial_campaign
playable
england
france
hre
spain
venice
end
unlockable
sicily
milan
scotland
byzantium
russia
moors
turks
egypt
denmark
portugal
poland
hungary
end
nonplayable
papal_states
aztecs
mongols
timurids
slave
end

Change it so it reads

campaign imperial_campaign
playable
england
france
hre
spain
venice
sicily
milan
scotland
byzantium
russia
moors
turks
egypt
denmark
portugal
poland
hungary
end
nonplayable
papal_states
aztecs
mongols
timurids
slave
end

Doug-Thompson
11-20-2006, 20:48
(Just the opening moves so far.)

Blitz northwards, along the coast. Ask your Imans for a Crusade against Jerusalem, and sack it.

This massive infusion of cash gives you an enormous head start on other factions. The prestige and piety coming from a successful Jihad doesn't hurt, either.

You can leapfrog from one province to the next: Jerusalem, Acre, Antioch and Damascus will fall in quick order. I avoid conflicts with the Turks at first. They're keeping the Byzantines busy. Also, you don't have to worry much about Egypt. The Moors are far away and probably busy with either Spain or Portugal

Eventually, you'll have a Jihad into Baghdad. After that, you can backstab the Turks effectively.

TheFluff
11-21-2006, 21:42
Well im going to pick up from where doug left off because those are the best opening moves, but i will add a few more detials and such of couse! Anyway lets get to it.


Egyptian game winning units

Egypt plays very different from any euro faction and because it gest its best units very early on but lacks heavily armored units. It plays different from the turks also however because egypt uses more of a mixed army that is usually more infantry heavy and lacks a cheap horse archer. Egypt has three core units that need to be at the heart of ever army, this is the saracen infantry your base spear unit superior to your town militia and upgrade able to wear mail, Mameluke archers that are game winners in there own right,and kurdish javelin men who are bar none the BEST defensive unit you have available to you early on.

Basically saracens should be used as your core infantry unit against any faction, but what makes them so good is that after a certain point in your game when you go on the offensive, they will be very easy to build at any large city and dont require awhile lot of teching up and there armor can be upgraded very easily. Mamelukes are your dual purpose units, what makes them special is they are available early and can dominate throughout the game because as there melee skills start to dwindle, they can phase to the archer role. The only down side is there cost, so very early dont build to many, but dont forget to include at least 2 of these units in ever big stack you have. Also they can be built from the get go, making reinforcing and recruitment very easy. Lastly, the Kurdish Javlinmen are your **BEST** friends when the mongols finally arrive. Infact there so good im going to talk about them alot more later, but for now just know they are your primary defensive unit to be used on walls, but on the field, since they have a sword and shield can be used as heavy skirmishers or even used to take on town militia or other light infantry. They can also upgrade there armor.


2nd act,the holy land. what now?

So you've taken all the holy land up to around aleppo. a few things may or may not be going on. By this point you have lead 1-2 crusades, one to bagdad and one to any city you want in the holy land, most likely Jerusalem. This is ESSENTAL simply because the experience you gain for a jihad is going to give you the edge and you need to be training 1 or two professional army's to head west and get you silver striped units to fight the mongols later.Before you head west though, tech up Jerusalem and make it a money maker but also get it to a HUGE city ASAP, you need huge walls because your going to be fighting massive crusader army's soon and eventually the big bad mongols them self. Also, tech up your three starting provinces and make them money makers via trade besides gaza, make sure gaza can recruit javelin men if you havent already. Also, head to the big province SE of gaza, take it and make it a city, same goes for the one SW of alexandria, they are your fall back areas that are relatively safe from the mongols and crusaders and can, if things get very bad, send out units to the holyland or where ever need be.


Pre Mongol invasion prep

After takeing a good 10 turns or so to mess around in the middle east or rebuild/inforce army's and buildings after takeing every possible rebel province you will meet and border the turks. you might be at war with the turks since they need money and if your not, you will be now. Luckily you can take out the turks very fast. Create one or two full stacked army's with a *train* of 5 or so units behind them to garrison captured cites and head to there capital Iceniem, but take the two . One thats done and you've beaten back any main turkish army. Also, if you havent and its in turks control, consider takeing edessa. Also beat back any crusader army's, but its ok to let them make it to there targert because you need to pratice and prefect your city defence for when the mongols come. Your ideal defence againts crusaders and later mongols i find is about 6 archers, 4-6 javelinmen, 4 saracen milita, and whats left is up to you, but i reccomend more saracens or town milita. Use the javelinmen to defend the archers on the walls...you'll get used to it and see just how fantastic these guys are.

Anyway, your main goal is to make it to constinople BEFORE the mongols come. you MUST do this or else you have a very large chance of not really winning as much trying to do the recovering game. You dont need to actually wipe out any factions, but you need to render them combat ineffective long enough to finish up your plans and such. Also rember to take rhodes and cyprus and make them into cites because you are going to loose quite a few cites in the holyland before long.



Mongol invasion

Well this is it, the moment you've been waiting for! Well...at least dreading. Around turn 70 you will get a pop up indicating that the mongols are coming, so finish up your conquests, make cease fires, open trade agreemen ts and prepare to fight a very defensive battle. They usually come around bagdad but dont always attack it. Either way, make sure bagdad, edessa, aleppo, and ALL the cites north of gaza in the holyland and east of the old turkish capital have either full or 75% full garrisons. In my game the mongols ALLWAYS went for either aleppo or antioch and wont move west or south until they sack one or both of them. In my campagin i had to fight the mongols AND ****4**** crusader army's at the same time, so take it from me, DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CARIO PORT TO BE BLOCKADED! This IS your life line. Money will be very tight because you are going to have to fight TWO mongol hordes (if you beat one, it usually retreats back to bagdad and gets more men) and you will loose a few cites because you wont have money to reinforce your defenders.

Take as many men as you can from cites not in the danger zone (alexandra, ciro, those old rebels towns you should have built up around them, etc) and have 1-2 relief army's standing by ready to enter a city that beats back a mongol army but its garrison is spent. DO NOT use your FEILD army's (they use a different composition, mostly more horse archers) because they will get annihilated. Use them to fight off crusader army's and or to conquer and sack whats left of the turks and bez's (rember i said not to finish them off, thats why :P ). This will give you the oh so needed cash injections to refill your army's. Also, no matter what, i dont care what you think, unless you are an expert, have alot of time and a fast computer, dont fight the mongols on the field. Trust me, the way to win is to break them at your walls (and pray they dont bring seige engines) and thats where your javelin men will shine, they can beat back soldiers climbing the walls AND throw things at them! Plus they are cheap to build.

Anyway, expect to beat back the first stack of invaders, but when they go back and bring another wave this is where the real trouble starts. These guys are usually better then the first wave, much more experienced, sometimes 9 stared generals leading every army. B asically you want to kill about 1-2 stacks worth of men per city they attack. At somepoint they will start to split up, this is where you have to really be decisive. Take your main army (if you have it reinforced) and attack with 2-3x as many men. Then you'll want to rest and bring up any reserves, and swap generals etc. Th e best army's to use against the mongols are ones that use a mix of cav and spears and javelins (not really archers, they are for sieges) and always focus fire on there general with your missile units. When your at this point in the game, jerusalem might be your only holy city left, and nessia on your western front could be the same case. You have to fight a battle of atrittion, but every time the mongols attack, make sure they become so weak that they loose to many men making the next series of attacks very hard. If you win a seige defence, expect to be attacked again right after, and use your lurking army's to pick off the mongol army's that were just beaten.


End notes

The hardest part of the egyptin game is to beat the mongols and crusaders. Once this is done, rebuild and *blitz* to north italy to refill your coffers. At this point the world is yours. You will have the best army's from years of almost nonstop fighting, the best tatical knowledge and jump off points from Cairo (to italy) and constinople to eastern europe. At this point you might have a hard time fighting off armored units, but rember you have cheap durable units that are low teir and can be fielded in mass. good luck!

Sharpy
12-01-2006, 17:03
Good guide :o)

One thing I feel needs a mention is the Naptha throwers. These little fellas can cause absolute havoc in the opposition and are possibly the most lethal General killers I've come across.

Another point is that in my campaign, the Mongols came in above the Caspian sea. To counter this, I've had to take the Turkish cities to the North and am currently bracing myself for the onslaught at the bridges and mountain passes below the steppes.

LestaT
12-01-2006, 19:37
In my own Egyptian campaign, currently at 1125 AD (using 2tpy) the only time Crusades was called was towards Antioch which at that time happened to be rebels.

Probably I did a bit cheating by sending about 5 imams to Rome :laugh4:

Anyway, using the 2tpy instead of the regular 2ypt when do I expect the Hordes to come ? Currently I'm having border wars with the Turks while having mostly naval engagements with the Venetians.

I conquered all of Arabia and up to Baghdad, Edessa, Antioch (the rebelled from the Polish crusaders and I took it) and Alana (?)

Since using the 2tpy but unable to mod the build times (until the unpacker arrives obviously) most of my starting cities and Jerusalem were already tech up by now.

Well, I don't have any tactics in anyway but mostly follow the Council of Nobles instruction. If able I usually declare Jihad to take the cities which were ordered for extra income and experience.

TheFluff
12-01-2006, 23:25
Good guide :o)

One thing I feel needs a mention is the Naptha throwers. These little fellas can cause absolute havoc in the opposition and are possibly the most lethal General killers I've come across.

Another point is that in my campaign, the Mongols came in above the Caspian sea. To counter this, I've had to take the Turkish cities to the North and am currently bracing myself for the onslaught at the bridges and mountain passes below the steppes.


Glad you found it helpfujl. Indeed naptha throwers are a good unit, but i had a h ard time geting them to work and they dont seem to be to effective against the mongols because the horse archers seem to allways targert them even when fighting INSIDE a breach.

Anyway i have a few updates to the guide i want to throw out to whom ever is keeping up or intrested in this faction.


EGYPT PLAYS EXACTLY LIKE MILAN!!!!!
BUT BETTER!


It took me awhile to relize this but after doing tests with units and looking at unit prereqs i learned that Egypt plays nearly identical to Milan in the sence that your best units are ALL in the citys. Infact your Halberders that are your rank and file unit right next to your scaracens,and become buiildable with the large city milita barracks. This is actualy a huge deal beacuse Halberders are one of the TWO only heavy infantry avalible to you, and they decimate spearmen and are a somewhat ever match for fudal foot knights and are good against anything really. Think of them as a wartered down janisarry inf unit that comes earler and is cheaper.

Ok, so thats all good and what not, but what takes the cake? the fact that Mamluke archers, arab cav, your 2handed axe men (dont rember name) and battle feild assisans(req guild first) are all avalible at the city level! This is such a big deal because you can not only keep up a very competent feild army, but you dont have to upgrade castles and your econemy will be MASSIVE! Also your 2hd axe units (avalible in a huge city) with there armor upgrade, are very very very good and can beat fudual footknights and even chiv knights a good ammount of times.Being able to have a very hard hitting army early on with just citys is something even Milan cant do untill LATE game, but you can feild a mix of troops that can be tayloerd to fight either other muslems, christans or whom ever it might be, because you can have both spears, heavy infantry and cav (archer and medium) all avalible to you easily and with out many upgrades.


So the bottom line is, play these guys like Milan. Keep one or two castles near where you want to produce the "bulk" of your cavalry, but other then that stick exclusivly to citys. The weakness of the egyptans is there lack of very heavy units, but more so there lack of archer units. However, with the citys you can easly out produce and win a ecnomic battle against anyone.

Xehh
12-07-2006, 00:29
What does Egypt start with?

King Azzole
12-14-2006, 17:51
Egypt starts with 2 citys and one castle. The citys are Cairo and Alexandria, both fantastic trade citys and Gaza, a castle which you will probobly want to convert to a city after some expansion.

My tactics were a bit different. I took most of my forces into a large army at game start, then declared a Jihad on Antioch. This gave my starting army some experience, gave me a super rich town early on, and gave me a foothold near the Turks to stop any southward expansion they may try and seek.. I then swept east taking Aleppo and Edessa. If it is still not taken at this time I continue east to Baghdad. I now have the entire northern swath of land leading into the holy land area (Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus) sealed off from the turks and I can conquer the remaning citys at my leasure.

Since Egypt is so wealthy and even decent units are able to be obtained rapidly at low tier buildings, I am not scared the Turks will launch an early invasion by sealing them off. You will still have plenty of power to fend them off even without the holy land citys, and even if they do somehow manage to take all your possessions away at the turkish borders you still have Egypt proper seperated by the holy lands rebel citys for protection.

So far the Egyptians have been a blast to play, and a horde of Mamluk Archers can decimate just about anything in its path.

sapi
12-20-2006, 12:59
I've found egypt to be fairly easy, and i've managed to conquer byzantium, greece, turkey, italy and the holy lands fairly early on. The hardest part of the campaign was definitely the crusades that are inevitably called against you - i had one called against Constantinople barely 15 turns into the game :( After you've defeated all four or five armies, though, you will have blunted catholic power for years to come.

http://users.on.net/~purdsa/temp/m2s.jpg (http://users.on.net/~purdsa/temp/m2.jpg)

I imagine the real challenge will come when the mongols finally emerge - at least that'll give me some opposition.

LostWraith
12-23-2006, 17:18
Isn't Cairo's port in the Red Sea? How can it trade then with its port disconnected from the main waterways? In my games, Alexandria was always the wealthier city.

Although the majority of Egypt's units come from cities, such as Saracen militia, Halberdiers, and even Mameluke archers, the castles are still valuable considering they can produce Mamelukes, Royal Mameluks, Naffatuns, and Desert Archers. In my game, I had full Crusade stacks from HRE, France, Poland, Sicily, Spain, Venice, and Hungary while under siege from Mongol stacks. Without the Acre and Gaza forts producing heavy cavalry and elite archers, I could not have possibly survived without losing a single city.

katank
12-23-2006, 23:49
Yep, Cairo opens into the Red Sea. To get some decent trade out of it, you need to capture the little place called Jeda in Arabia and also take Dongola (city below Cairo).

Iyasu
12-24-2006, 02:57
im currently playing Egypt now, on my first turn i called for a jihad against jerusalem using the army located on gaza and hired a few mercs for added manpower. then i sent the crown prince to Dongola (sudan) with an army of saracen militias and sudanese mercs. Dongola is a merchant friendly town with its supply of slaves (2) and ivory (2)! i found ivory to be one of the expensive resource in the game like amber. i save and reload the siege of jerusalem because i want to find a unique item:laugh4: (i took signet of solomon on my game). after taking it, i continued conquering the settelements on the meditteranean coast. by turn 15, i called another jihad, this time on edessa, and took footsteps of mohammad! im in turn 30 and on a jihad against nicaea and a war against the turks. mamluk archers are the best early units in the game and also the mercs in the holy land are very good. i also hire bedouin camels when available for use against the eventually battle against the mongols!

Doug-Thompson
01-03-2007, 17:26
... Dongola is a merchant friendly town with its supply of slaves (2) and ivory (2)! i found ivory to be one of the expensive resource in the game like amber.

Dongola is a cash cow. I build a merchant very early and send him down there. Not only is ivory a precious resource, but Dongola is just far away enough to reward merchants with excellent experience. It's also very, very safe. The only practical way for competitors to get there is down the Levant coast and all the way south through Egypt. By the time that make such a walk, your merchants have very high experience and are no longer ripe takeover prospects. You're more of a threat to any new arrival.

Within the first few turns — while you're still flush with cash after your sacking blitz from Jerusalem through Acre, Antioch, Allepo, Damascus and Edessa — a couple of merchants in the ivory of Dongala are easily making 200 florins a turn. Your investment is repaid within five turns and you make nothing but pure profit from there. You can go into the slave trade there, then expand into the cotton and sugar of Alexandria and Cairo and the silks of Baghdad. Or you can take one of those very experienced merchants and go on a takeover cruise through the spices and cotton of the Antioch region or even the silks of Constantinople.


==========

I'd recommend moving your capital to Jerusalem as soon as you take it, for two reasons.

Jerusalem is largely Christian and rather rebellious.

Sometimes, you get naval units as a reward for mission success. You don't want them stuck in the Red Sea.

=========

Speaking of navies, watchtowers on coasts can cover the Eastern Mediterranean.

Two in northern Egypt plus two more in the Cyrenecian "bulge" if you take Tripoli, two on the coast between Antioch and Jerualem, one on the west end of Cyprus, one on the south coast of Asia Minor, and one more in Crete.

This will light up everything except one dark patch southwest of Cyprus -- and that's where you put your fleet. :egypt:

katank
01-03-2007, 23:09
Good tip about the fleet reward thing. Now I know why the Eggy AI ends up with several boats in the Red Sea.

I also did Jihad cheese on Jerusalem Right away. You have just enough units in Gaza to pull it off and not have it rebel. The cheap jihad mercs lets you keep up the rampage in the Holy Lands nicely.

Kraggenmor
01-12-2007, 15:44
For comparison's sake: Heres what it looks like when things go horribly, horribly wrong.

I started playing Egypt last night, Vh/Vh.

I thought I'd be clever and leave the east to their fate of endless crusades etc and instead head west across north africa.

End turn one: Oops! I forgot to move that captain unit with 2 spears and 2 archers outside the Gaza. No big deal I'll just move him next....buh? Crikey! He went rebel?!?

:oops:

Well...that will slow things down a touch.

Menawhile, I'm sending the crown prince south to Dongola, the King I send west to build watch towers along the coast as he closes on Tripoli. In the mean time, I'm building a port which will furnish the ship(s) to send the troops I'm building in Cairo, Alexandrian and Gaza which will join him.

Being as he's 60 at campaign start, I knew the Sultan wouldn't last forever. He shuffled off this mortal coil on turn six. :skull:

Hmm..."I got a bad feeling about this"

The crown prince has arrived at Dongola and laid siege. Deciding to go ahead an assault I find the balance of power is pretty close to even and so, I actually fight the battle. It's a good one! Quite challenging! Victory is at hand as the prince's forces close around the remaining nubian archers and other rag tag remainders of the defenders forces in the fort's square when...disaster!

The prince buys the farm.

Oh...this is NOT good.

In north africa, the troops I built to join the now deceased sultan are at sea and, predictably, come under pirate attack. They survive and flee, thanfully running west, and I decide to risk having the ship move almost it's full range and disembark the troops at the end so thaty don't get sunk if pirates hit again.

The ship hits shore, troops disembark, I click end turn, the entire stack of troops rebels.

/sigh.....

In less than 10 turns Egypt is without a faction leader, down to the troops that start in Gaza - which at the time were heading to Jedda where, as my spy revelaed, they would be very outnumbered - and troop strength is whatever meager militia have been built in Cairo, Alexandria and Gaza.

Not an auspicious beginning to the least.

katank
01-14-2007, 22:51
Yep, it's quite funny. Lesson #1 for Egypt: don't head West. If you expand in a logical direction, you'd win the long campaign before going west to hit Tripoli. It's just not worth it.

This is why I think that Egypt has the craziest short campaign victory conditions. Kill the Moors? They are just about on the other side of the map!

AlphaDelta1
01-15-2007, 11:26
The Egyptian campaign is fairly easy whilst advancing North west through Turkey and the Balkans but once you hit North italy the going gets tough. Scicily and the Papal states will hit you from the South, the Milanese from the West, the HRE from the North and North east. It's an expensive slog of a crossroad to take and hold.

Also, due to the fact that there are no castles in Northern Italy you'll have to recruit your Mamluk horse archers from ragusa and ship them over.

If I was to play this portion of the Egyptian campaign again I would probably stop the advance around ragusa, sack Zagreb and let it rebel. Then I would land in Palermo with a decent size force of HA/Heavy cav to destroy enemy armies, and a force for wall busting and occupation.

Moving my HA/heavy cav army northward would attract trouble and any armies that stepped upto the challenge would easily be demolished.

In my campaign I've found it neccessary to watch the Russians from the North. In my campaign they have taken Tiblisi (fortress), twice, because I had left it weakly garrisoned.

Does anyone have any suggestions for citadel armies defending against mongols? Javelin men on the walls seems logical as they seem to have a high-ish melee stat and I presume they will rain down javelins on the cavalry queued up outside my gates..Which archer type is best, desert or nubian? Which spear unit is the best for anti-cav duty? Spear militia, saracen militia or dismounted arab cav?

Does Egypt get any gunpowder units at all (other than cannons)?

Cheers

KyodaiSteeleye
03-19-2007, 14:40
Well, I'm doing a short campaign, VH/VH - fancied my hand as the Saracens, resisting those frankish crusaders!

Egypt starts in an advantageous position - Cairo is already a well advanced city, meaning you have access to lots of good units early on. To the west you have hundreds of miles of desert with nothing in it - there are no threats coming from that way, but also its best not to bother looking in that direction. Instead, you have a wealth of neutral provinces to the S, E and N.

Expansion
I took Dongola and Jedda quickly, then expanded up the Palestinian coast, up to Adana and finally started moving East - got Edessa, but the Turks beat me to Mosul and Baghdad. Try to get sea-supremacy in the east Med (up to Crete).

Trade
Merchants - some good resources south near Dongola - when you have more merchants, worth also shipping them over to the gold/ivory/slaves south of Timbuktu. Lots of coastal provinces for ports - means you can get a lot of income from Trade quite quickly.

Diplomacy
The Turks haven't really been a problem in my campaign - we're at war, but they haven't tried to expand south seriously. Although I initially got trade agreements with many factions, most don't last as they are with Catholic factions who will declare war once crusades are declared against you. Byzantium will inevitably be at war with you - although because you have a buffer in the Turks, this will probably be a war of attrition at sea. Therefore, in my experience you will have few diplomatic opportunities.

Units
Arab Cavalry - decent medium cavalry. Desert Cavalry are good in terms of their stamina and nice javelins. They're not as good as your excellent Mamluk horse archers though - these guys are really good. Mamluk cavarly are decent heavier cavalry (although not up to Frankish knight standards). Royal Mamluks are proper heavy cavalry, but are very expensive.

In terms of infantry, your archers (militia/desert/nubian) are all quite standard. Spear units - Saracen Infantry are the basis of my armies - they're decent and available from Cairo early on. Nubian spears, as for nubian archers, seem to have no particular place, as they aren't as good/or are as good and are even slightly more expensive than earlier, less tech-heavy units. Later militia units are useful - Halberds are probably your best infantry unit available - they carve up spearmen especially, and aren't bad vs. cavarly. Tabardariyya look good in the stats, but in my use of them i've been dissappointed, and they suffer from the two-handed weapon bug - they are slow to do much to infantry, and they'll just stand around and get massacred by cavalry - so not really worth using. Eventually, Sudanese gunners are a very effective gun unit, although again very vulnerable to cavarly charge or missiles themselves. Naffatun (sp?) can be spectacularly good, if they can throw downhill, or if they are used in safety against already engaged units - however, they'll die very quickly if charged by cav, or if they get in the way of infantry.

Mongols
Well, its the best bit really. You have some chance, as the invasion comes in waves. In my game, after meandering around in the desert, they finally decided that they wanted Antioch. You will lose a lot of men fighting them. As in other threads, best bet is to get single stacks - if you go against two or three you will lose. Bridge battles are a good way of whittling them down - and can be won with little loss - but all depends on your infantry pocket holding - once it starts to crumble, all is lost. Field battles against single stacks are winnable, although you will probably lose most of your men. Purely cavalry armies work very well, although I also won some very hard fought battles with a traditional mix.

Altogether - fun faction. I've now beaten off the Mongols, so the next move is to actually take out my objectives of Turks and Moors. Turks should be relatively straight forward - Moors will require some fleet invasions methinks.

bbrass10
03-22-2007, 19:30
I just started playing Egypt, one of the only factions I haven't played, and I actually disagree with those people who posted that the first jihad should be launched at Jerusalem. I think it makes more sense to launch the first jihad at Antioch, because the jihad can conquer Jerusalem, Acre, and Aleppo on it's way there, one settlement right after the other, because of its enhanced movement points. It didn't lose me any units through desertion, and you're allowed to leave jihad units behind for garrison purposes (if necessary) without worrying about desertion. It helps to keep the spy ahead of the Jihad; this allowed me to take Jerusalem and Acre in the same turn. It also allowed me to beat the Turks to Adana, which was my next target after a successful jihad in Antioch.

vonsch
03-22-2007, 21:36
I'm with you, bbrass, except I bypass Jerusalem and take Antioch first. The latter is far more strategic and it ramps population and trade faster. Count the cities within two days march of both. Antioch is a much better hub. I usually take Acre on the way. The coastal cities are better than the inland ones. So I tend to sweep up Acre-Antioch then Adana if it's open, then back Aleppo, Damascus, Jerusalem. Then head out to Edessa and Baghdad if by chance Turkey hasn;t grabbed them. Dongola is worth getting, but it's a distraction that early. Jedda is another side trip, but worth little. Dongola and Jedda make Cairo a little better, but not all that much. Better to island grab.

bbrass10
03-23-2007, 05:52
But your jihad ends when you take Antioch...you can't sweep back with it. You still have the units, but not the extra movement points.

Starting from Gaza it only takes a few moves to take Jerusalem, Acre, Allepo and Antioch before the jihad is finished:

Move 1: Besiege Jerusalem with the Antioch Jihad & build rams and seige towers. Move a spy toward Acre.

Move 2: Take Jerusalem and move units from Gaza to Jerusalem to garrison. Move your spy into Acre; since he's a high-level spy and it's early in the game and Acre is just a rebel settlement without generals or spies of its own, your spy will most likely open the gates. Take Acre this same turn, garrison it (using jihad units or mercs if necessary) and move the Antioch Jihad toward Aleppo.

Move 3: Besiege Allepo with the Antioch jihad and build rams.

Move 4: Take Allepo and Besiege Antioch. Next turn you will take Antioch and the Jihad will be terminated.

You only save one or two moves by moving the jihad army straight toward Antioch, but then it takes you much longer to circle back and take the other settlements because you lose the double-rate movement points. So you'll get one or two moves worth of extra trade income but you'll be losing a lot of income from taxes (especially from overpopulated Jerusalem).

Atalus
03-24-2007, 16:24
I've Done it that way before and i can't remember why i never did it like that again but yeah it makes the most money

bbrass10
03-27-2007, 13:56
OK, I'm about 100 moves into the game as Egypt now, and the Mongols appear to be scared to death of me. For forty turns they've been sitting in the region of Jedda, and they refuse to attack. Quite honestly, I can't blame them, because I've been preparing my defense against their invasion since the first move of the game.

By the time the Mongols arrived, I had citadels at Mosul and Aleppo, with ballista towers, and all of my other territories were huge cities with ballista towers. I had Swordsmiths Guilds at both citadels and also at the cities of Gaza, Acre, and Adana, which were used to feed units to Antioch, Jerusalem, Damascus, Edessa, and Baghdad, or to upgrade melee units that were built in these cities. All of my melee troops had been provided with a weapons upgrade. Each settlement with a Swordsmiths Guild also had an armor factory (which is necessary in order to obtain the Swordsmiths Guild), so they could produce any city or citadel unit with full weapons and armor upgrades.

I also had the Horsebreeders Guild Headquarters in Cairo, so that all of my cavalry recieved a +2 experience bonus. (In Alexandria I have the Merchants Guild Headquarters.)

Each huge city had a Sultans Racetrack and Armorer, so I could produce a massive army of +2 Mamluk Archers with armor upgrades anywhere at any time, assuming I had the money. I could also crank out Saracens and Tabardariyya with weapons and armor upgrades at a prolific rate.

Each huge city was garrisoned with six upkeep-free Saracens, which I figured would be useful against the Mongol Cavalry, and which were backed up by Tabardariyya, Desert Archers and Mamluk Archers. In some provinces they were also backed up by Afghan Javelenmen or high-ranking Sudanese Tribesmen with weapons upgrades. A few Naffatun were sprinkled around for good measure.

The two citadels were garrisoned a little differently, with Royal Mamluks, Mamluk Archers, Afghan Javelinmen, Desert Archers, Desert Cavalry, and Naffatun -- units which could easily be replenished at the citadel if they took losses. Mosul had a few Saracens as well, and was reliant on Baghdad to replenish them. Aleppo relied on Antioch to supply Saracens.

This is the position I was in when the Mongols arrived. I had to fiddle around a few times with load games and save games to make sure they arrived in the area of Baghdad, rather than somewhere up north where they would end up fighting the Turks or the Russians rather than me.

I had heard that the first wave of Mongols tends to wander around for a bit and scope out the situation, so I continued to develop my cities while they poked around. After gunpowder became available, I attracted the Alchemists Guild Headquarters in Jerusalem for a +2 experience bonus for all firearms and cannons, and replaced the Desert Archers in my huge cities with +2 Sudanese Gunners, which I figured would be more useful against the heavily armored Mongols despite the fact that their range is not quite as good, and which are much better at melee as well. I also built Alchemists Labs in Jerusalem, Damascus, Antioch, Edessa and Baghdad to give weapons upgrades to the +2 Sudanese Gunners. The Desert Archers were moved from the cities to various forts blocking choke points that had previously been occupied by archer militia. I kept the highest ranking Desert Archers at my two citadels, where they could easily be replenished if they took any losses.

I also replaced the ballista towers at all settlements with cannon towers.

It's now turn 107. I've finished developing all of the military structures and now I'm focusing on structures for more trade, growth and happiness -- so my already massive income is growing even larger. All three waves of Mongols have arrived, and for the last 40 turns the Mongols have been wandering around in Jedda -- the only territory in this part of the world that I neglected to occupy, on the grounds that I thought it was too distant from the other cities to be able to defend very easily, so I left it as a rebel city that I could take toward the end of the game to satisfy victory conditions.

The Mongols seem to have no interest in attacking me. And I'm sure not going to send an army in the field against them, because then they can start devastating my farms and roads. I've started taking over the Turkish empire, which is fairly easy, but I really wanted to fight the more challenging Mongols.

They seem to be just plain chicken. Is it possible that they have concluded that they are no match for my forces?

vonsch
03-27-2007, 20:30
I had the same experience playing the Turks. My defenses were not as good as yours sound, but comparable. The Mongols never did besiege a since city of mine. Or any city, for that matter, since all the ones in the area were mine. I took to hunting them down, which you are in a better position to do. But I didn't wait for three waves. I had the first wave mostly dead when the second arrived. And both those gone before the third did (at which point I took my 45th province before more than one battle with that third wave).

Your Mamluk Archers with their upgrades can handle a full Mongol stack, IMO. My Turkish Turcomen and Sipahi could with favorable terrain once they got some experience (heh, had them to mostly gold by the end just from fighting Mongols). Ideally make two stacks, mix in a general or two each for some timely charges. But make the rest all HA. You'll have more than they do. If the stack has foot archers, head straight at them and skirmish back. That will force them to skirmish in turn and they can't shoot. I use all loose formation and no circle. Circle is tiring, and my HA are always moving with the order to move past the enemy which makes them skirmish back and try again, thus always moving.

If you have high ground, though, try to hold it. That's an effective counter to their foot archers too. With loose formation and high ground you can concentrate fire and wipe them out fast. Face them. Don't give them the broad side of a horse to shoot at if you're standing still on a hill. Otherwise, don't stand still.

My general looks for chances to charge the foot troops, but be careful, generals draw Mongol pure cav like horses draw horseflies. You can use that sometimes. Attract the Mongol general to chase yours, then run him along in front of your horse archers. ~;) Then when he's shot to bits, turn yours and charge him. He has high enough morale that he will often fight to the quick death. At which point things get a whole lot easier.

And if you can sucker them into wooded areas on the strategic map, ambushes are simply great fun. Wooded hurts their pure cav more than your HA, but keep in mind it powers up their foot archers a little in melee comparatively. But if you're just shooting, and keep the archers skirmishing, that's moot.

I'd try for 2 or 3 stacks and have one lead/chase their bulk and another try to ambush. When you get beat up, pull out for replacements. You can keep a flow to your cities and recombine there, and send the experienced cadre back to the recruitment center for replacements. It's nice to have one center close to the area of operations. Don't need the HB HQ or SM guild for replacements to hardened cadre.

Oh, and don't underrate naffs. They need support, but they can kill more of the enemy at the gate than any other unit. They just can't hold walls as they are not bulky enough to do that without significant losses. Great at killing generals too. One hit, dead. I put one right over the gatehouse, and have a second as reserve. If I can run it to near a wall battle, I do, but that's risky as until they have a lot of experience their accuracy is a bit... not. Friendly fire losses can get high fast. Bad idea to have them throwing into a gate melee if they aren't really experienced. But they do terrific damage to troops trying to get to the gate, or ram it open. I've seen opponents have to replace the ram crew three times. They also wiped out a couple of units waiting there in line while killing off those ram crews. The invaders morale was so shot after all that that when they peeked in the gate and saw a couple units of Saracens waiting with spears braced, they just routed. These were not Mongols though... never got the Mongols to besiege.

Until the patch, at least, I think archers are better on the walls. I hear the gun bugs affect them on the walls significantly. Haven't had a chance to test myself so far though. Archer can also use fire arrows, which are important to help kill off rams and towers, and to cripple morale further. Cannon towers are great though.

Egypt is a great faction to play to get TO the Mongols though. Easy, lots of money, and good units to fight them with. And you can train on the crusades. ~;)

bbrass10
03-27-2007, 21:42
I've used Turkish musketeers on walls before, alongside Turkish Archers, and they averaged 4 to 5 times as many kills each battle than the archers, using only their ranged abilities.

Egypt only has arquebuses though, so I doubt they'll do as well as the muskets...

I only had one crusade army attack me, which was launched by Venice. Like you said, it was mostly target practice for my troops, but after killing the general an announcement told me the crusade had failed. The next crusade was launched at Toulouse. I'm still at war with Venice but they seem content to blockade my ports now and then.

It'd be kinda foolish to fight the Mongols in the field. All three waves are clumped together in a box formation, so I'd have to fight more than one stack at a time. I can probably beat them anyway, but the problem is that once I'm at war with them, they can start devastating my lands. Other than the clump of stacks in Jedda, there are two stacks in the Baghdad/Mosul area that keep threatening those cities but never attack. The just move back and forth between Mosul and Baghdad, and they inhibit movement between those two settlements somewhat but otherwise don't cause any problems.

bbrass10
03-27-2007, 21:53
Oh, I forgot to mention that I don't ever need archers to destroy rams and other siege weapons; I always sally forth from the castle so that construction, unit training, and income are unaffected by the siege. So no faction has ever had a chance to use those types of siege engines against me.

bbrass10
03-27-2007, 22:19
I wish it was possible to edit these posts. I made a mistake; I wasn't playing the Turkish when I put the musketeers on the walls, I was playing the Russians. So the walls had Cossack Musketeers and the most elite archers Russians can build. Still, the Cossack Musketeers averaged 4 to 5 times as many kills as the archers each battle. I think I was mostly fighting the Hungarians at that point.

dusmic4
03-27-2007, 22:27
Does anyone know how to get an accurate unit ID list so I can add units to my army stacks??

Plaguelion
04-26-2007, 19:20
I am at about turn 50, Vh/Vh. The only thing i can really say is that Egypt has a great position to begin. Asia minor is rich, Extremely rich. I sack every city i take, Throw the money into infrastructure and my army. Moved my capital to jerusalem for a number of reasons, 1. it is closer to the center of my Empire( which stretches up to trebizond, and to iconium), 2. it sends a clear message to everyone that i control the holy land and i wont give it up. 3. it helps keep the peace in jerusalem which has constant uprisings.

Now in the campaign i am faced with Crusaders, lots of em. and on the Ground im pretty easily out classed by western Knights, my only real strength is Mamluk HA and Naptha. I have zero allies, everyone distrust me , which i dont blame them, i lost patience with the turks around turn 25, and they were exterminated by turn 27.

So my advice.... 1. Use jihads, send out as many jihads as possible, check every turn to see if you can send one out. It is useful because of the zero army upkeep for the jihadist, and the extremely cheap mercs, and the experience gained from completing the jihad. It also makes your generals gather more characteristics and more people for retinue. 2. a high city to castle ratio. I have about a 13/3 ratio, You should have near a 4 times as many cities as castles. 3. Merchants....no explanation needed. 4. Sack every city you take, you need the money and then some more.

I have not seen the mongols yet but hopeful it will be fun. :egypt:

Doug-Thompson
04-27-2007, 22:59
... I actually disagree with those people who posted that the first jihad should be launched at Jerusalem. I think it makes more sense to launch the first jihad at Antioch, because the jihad can conquer Jerusalem, Acre, and Aleppo on it's way there, one settlement right after the other, because of its enhanced movement points. It didn't lose me any units through desertion, and you're allowed to leave jihad units behind for garrison purposes (if necessary) without worrying about desertion. It helps to keep the spy ahead of the Jihad; this allowed me to take Jerusalem and Acre in the same turn. It also allowed me to beat the Turks to Adana, which was my next target after a successful jihad in Antioch.

:applause:

Wish I'd thought of that.

Shahed
04-27-2007, 23:39
Point taken.

I played an Egyptian campaign yesterday and with the first Jihad I raced for Antioch, then Adana, to cut the Turks off. Otherwise they'd be in Asia Minor as well. 2nd Jihad to Baghdad taking Mosul on the way and kicking the Turks out.

I like that strategy posted by bbrass10, it's sound.

-Silent-Someguy
04-29-2007, 07:48
I didnt think you could attack the turks on a jihad.

Shahed
04-29-2007, 11:51
Hmm I don't know if you can.I think you can launch a Jihad army against any enemy. I did'nt launch against them anyway, this was turn 1, Antioch was rebel.

Slicendice
06-06-2007, 07:18
I've struggled through several campaigns to understand Egypt as a faction, military, and economy. Here's my take on Egypt:

(Before I begin I need to tell you that I've modified the game a little. Instead of the Mongols Arriving at around turn 70 or so, they arrive around turn 20 and the Timurids around 25. Also you get gunpowder around turn 4, but it's more of a help to the Mongols and Timurids than it is to me. Oh and all Mercenaries in the game appear earlier as well and a few select factions have boosted Kings Purse to make them Super Powers. (but not Egypt!)

The first turns are important to me because they set you up financially in the long run. Most notably is the production of 2 emisaries, a spy,and three merchants from Cairo and Alexandria and 2 ships built in Gaza. It will take about 4 turns to produce them and the buildings needed to make them all and get them started up towards Nicosia. The task is to split the ships up and drop the merchants off near Ragusa and drop one emissary off at Naples and then carry the second to make deals with the Moors and then around Iberia all the way to Russia.

The merchants will be in good position with the spy to make you a cash boost by acquiring enemy merchants and Iron will bring in 300 to 600 a turn. I do not make merchants to send to Dongola. Why eek out a living there when you can HUG and pillage in Northern Italy and rest on Iron paying 580 a turn? Try getting 580 a turn on Ivory in Dongola when your Capital is in Jerusalem! Plus you don't make any points towards Merchants Guild by sitting your buns on Ivory in Dongola!

The emissaries will sell deals to all of Europe. The best part is you get an early boost to Merchant Guild Explorers Guild, and Thieves Guild.

You won't need the money really though because this is what you will be doing back home. . .

On the first turn move the troops outside of Gaza into Gaza. Move the spy into Jerusalem and call a Jihad. Now move all troops out of Gaza and join the Jihad. You won't be able to move but that's OK. Hire Jihad Mercs and leave the 4 units behind with no movement points. (I should mention it's important to save the game around this point) Take your Jihad army up to Jerusalem and lay seige. If the gates are open then hire some more Jihad Mercs and take the city. Your general now has good Chivalry and Jerusalem will grow quickly. The units you left behind also have the experience bonus and should have enough movement points to get back into Gaza. You've also got a nice chunk of change for the Jihad. Oh, and you have Jerusalem! If the gates aren't open then reload!

IMPORTANT: Look at your Imam and guess what you will notice? You have another Jihad available! It's a glitch but it works in your favor.

Now move up the coast using your Jihad army (not the general. he stays in Jerusalem until it hits 24k) and maybe some Mamluk Archers (for yuks) and take Acre.


Convert Acre and Gaza into Cities. Why? Your best units will be produced in Cities and by the time you will actually need, or be able to afford castle made units you will have captured them from the Turks or someone else.

Move your Faction Leader and Prince to Dongola and take it with the peasants and the archers. Leave the Spear Militia in Cairo. No sense in paying support when you can win this with units you will have to pay for no matter what.

When you get to Dongola and take it leave one peasant there and head to the Red Sea. Build a boat in Cairo (plan ahead by building a port silly!) and pick up your Prince (king usually dead by then) and take him to Jedda. Take Jedda. (By this point, because I've created gunpowder early Elephants will be available. They aren't very important in the early game, but they are fun later. Don't waste them!


Meanwhile. . . you should have been moving up the coast to take Antioch, Adana, and Aleppo. If you are lucky you will have a new general by the time you get to Antioch so call the second Jihad there and hire more Gazis and Muttatawi'a (or whatever it's called) Bolster your forces with Spear Militia if necessary but try not to drag them along and pay support. If you are careful your Jihad Army will be in good numbers, good experience, and they will be dirt cheap compared to anything else you can recruit at this point. Their support is 70 florins a turn and they beat any troops you will encounter or can produce at this point. (infanty wise that is)

Take Edessa and the start moving towards Baghdad. (I sometimes like to skip Damascus and save it for a Jihad later. I'm running out of Rebel territory to make quick Jihads and I don't want to have to go to war with the Byzantins yet. ) You should have two new generals to take over your Jihad Army by now. The next Jihad will be available soon so it's important that you keep this in mind. I can't stand wasting a single turn because I wasn't ready with my generals or with spies or artillery. It seems every campaign I play this is when the Turks break their Alliance. It works for me though.

From here on out the game takes twists and turns so it's hard to give a blow by blow, but here are a few things to do.

Concentrate on farms first unless there is something specific you need. For instance I built a Race Track in Jerusalem right away. I used to build Mosques so I could get Theologians Guild but you will go broke trying that in the early game. Horse Breeders Guild Headquarters can be achieved here by turn 20. Plus since you've got no castle nearby you will need some Mamluks to take care of the Rebels that pop up.

After you build your first 2 farms then concentrate on trade. Bazaars, Ports, and Roads. Damascus is my exception but it doesn't have a port, which is why I chose it to produce assassins and the brothel line of buildings.

If your two emissaries are working well you should be drowning in money. After turn 5 you should be able to convert all cities to Growth Build instead of Financial and you will still be rich.

Antioch is my trade city. I concentrate on trade and building Merchants. It's closer to Turkey and Byzantium so you get a few merchants that pass by to boost stats. This is where Merchants Guild headquarters will be at around turn 30 if your first merchants clean up in Northern Italy area.

I try my best to get Hashashim Guild in Damascus. I leave a low Chivalry general there and start cranking out assassins as soon as I can. If your king is available then this is a good place for him. He will be a Dreadful sight before long. However, dont' put a high Chivalry General in Damascus while you are cranking out spies and assassins. He will loose all his Chivarly and become Dreadful. (learned that the hard way)

About turn 20 or so you should have all Rebel territories in your area and if Turkey has attacked you should charge up there and kick his ass. Caesaria and Mosul are nice Castles to have and the best part is that Turkey has already spent a fortune building them up for you.

I don't build a Thieves Guild ever. I capture them and destroy them unless it's a Master or Headquarters. Baghdad seems to always give an Explorers Guild so that's taken care of. I won't work on Theologians Guild until I take Thessalonica. It's in good position to pour Imams into SE Europe thus boosting their Piety.

Other tips: Pay attention to Jihad so that you are ready to call, join, and complete the Jihad in one turn. (keyword here is Ballista!) (ironically it takes less time to build a Bombard building than it does a Ballista building, but whatever) Anyway, leave those Jihad Generals behind in Key Cities like Antioch, Jerusalem, Edessa, Mosul, Baghdad, and Damascus. Also put 2 generals who have never been on Jihad in every Jihad. They will both get the Chivalry boost thus making two great governors out of every Jihad. If you run short on Generals then make one using a Mamluk and a Rebel army. You can kill enough Rebels with a Mamluk and get a Man of the Hour in a pinch.

By turn 20 you should have had 4 Jihads using my methods. That's a lot of great governors to boost population growth in key cities. Once you get a city up to 24k put the wall in the queu and move your general to another city. That city will probably lose population for awhile without the general but you've got the Huge Wall and that's what matters. Remember the Mongols and Timurids are coming.

Mongols and Timurids. Well this is simple really. One of the reason some people don't like Jihad/Crusade armies is you can't retrain them. I love these armies in the early game and you should too. Low maintainance cost! and they beat most ealry units. But also they make great Castle garrisons. Which would you rather have? Peasant or Gazi? Also if you consolidate the units carefully you can end up with a unit with just a couple soldiers left in it. Put these soldier in forts so you can block the passages that the Mongols and Timurids will take. Their upkeep will be miniscule and if you lose the forts who cares?

I always send a general west to Europe to purchase Free Company Longbowmen. I need the spear wall to help in City/Castle defense. One you neutralize the cavalry then the Hordes are paper tigers. Catch them at the rivers if you can get them to attack you there, but my personal favorite is in the mountains. Get them to come at you up some goat path and cut them down with your archers and Javelins. My greatest battle was 4 stacks of Timurids against 1 stack of Egyptian Saracen, Desert Archers, Javelins, and 4 Mamluks in reinforcements. Javelins give a nasty surprise against the elephants! And once they move up that choke and drop dead they block the path of next soldiers and horses thus making it an even deadlier place to be. But I digress.

Once you get to Europe and start facing heavy infantry you are going to have to upgrade out of Gazis. They will still be useful in large numbers, but Mamluk Archers will win the day in field battles.

My current campaign it's turn 27. I've taken all of western Turkey as well as Corinth, Rhodes, Nicosia, and Constantinople. I also hold Edessa, Mosul, and Baghdad and all of Egypt. I have Master Thieves Guild (captured in Constantinople), Horse Breeders Headquarters, Master Hashashim Guild, Master Explorers Guild, (from driving my dhow all the way to Russia! Ha thank goddess for passive rebel fleets!), Master Merchants Guild and several Merchants Guilds (one of the few Guilds I reproduce). The Turks still hold north east Turkey but they are stuck up there with the Timurids and the Mongols! haha. I hold the river crossing with Mamluks, Gazis, Desert Archers and Free Company Longbowmen! (That spear wall is worth every penny!) And other crossings or passes are blocked by a couple Gazis or Mutas in forts.

I have yet to build a single barracks in a city because I've been using Jihad Armies and I have better than 25,000 florins laying around in cash for the last 10 turns.

MarNasr
08-22-2007, 22:44
That's a very strange strategy, but very interesting as well...
I think I'm gonna try it on my next Egypt game :)

caralampio
08-29-2007, 14:42
I just finished a long Russian campaign. The Mongols and Timurids appeared near Baghdad and never bothered me.

Now I'm playing as Egypt and I thought: OK now there's no way out of it I'll face the hordes :sweatdrop:

They appeared on Sarkel, moved north, wandered around a lot and now have finally decided to attack Russia's Ryazan. I have conquered Turkey and Byzantium and am planning my move into Europe. I just hope the Timurids don't show up down south!

Henry707
10-24-2007, 12:34
Afternoon All,

With my current Egypt game on VH & LTC mod, I have tried to establish myself in Egypt & the Holyland but then turtle a bit. I don't really want to knock out other powers so early, hopefully to make it a more challenging game in the long-term. So, the Turks are pretty much left alone & same with the Byzantines but I have one beady eye on Cyprus which has wonderful all-year round beaches! (I also thought nice to have an island to run to if needed!)

In terms of Mongol prep, I think it is a bit strange to be preparing from the off for the Mongol invasion - I know there was some warning but I don't want to structure my whole game around it. However, in Egypt, it is always in the back of your mind.

Crusades are beginning to arrive but I will make human kebabs out them hopefully.

With Egypt, my approach has been to expand into the available rebel provinces, then develop & build. I wanted to get the amazing afghan javelin men who deserve all the credit heaped upon them. It goes without saying as Egypt you need to build up your cash reserve - gives you a bit of flexibility.

I also agree with someones tip on moving your capital into a more central location for your empire - Antioch seems like a good choice.

Anyway, that's may pyramid's worth of info.

Henri

TheLastPrivate
10-24-2007, 14:06
4 jihads in 20 turns??
I thought the Jihad "cooldown" was 10 turns...

Renco
03-14-2008, 13:51
Is it just me or does anyone else use completly archer armies?
I first stumbled upon this with the Moors and their awesome camel gunners. No joke, 4-5 camel gunners came out of conflicts with English armies of a general and 5-6 D chiv knights. Then I played RTW for a while and on Hard I used Stacks of Persian Cavalry and they always beat the best post marius armies Rome pumped out. Just surround them and watch the glorious slaughter as all the legions exp is wasted by arrows to the face. Although I haven't tried this in MTW2 yet, experience leads me to believe that if HA could beat the best of Rome, then better HA in MTW2 could beat the best of the world.

Relating to the Mongols. If you meet them in a field battle, they would have some infatry. So they would have less firepower. If you run a Gureilla(sp) war, then you could, IMHO, bring down the mongols at their own game. Clever maneveuring could prevent you from attacking more than one at a time if you have multiple stacks.

Any thoughts?

Paradox
04-23-2008, 04:19
I just started playing as Egypt, but in a different way. I've began colonizing islands such as Cyprus, Rhodes, and Iraklion and used them as power bases. I never bothered conquering the whole Arabian penninsula, just Jerusalem, Acre, Damascus, Aleppo, and Antioch. I've waged war with the Byzantines along with the Turks and have a pretty good advantage against them seeing how close I am, thanks to the islands.
Oh, and Mamluks are the best! I've conquered Sicily with these guys, and they're one of the best units I've seen so far. After I conquered Sicily, relations with the Papal States were "very poor", but when I blockaded Rome, they sent a diplomat to negotiate a peace and trade agreement.
It's a fun campaign, but does anyone know which factions are recommended when it comes to firearms? I've never reached the point that I was able to recruit firearms and never got to see the Timurids and the New World.

Doug-Thompson
05-21-2008, 22:25
Turks are an excellent firearms faction.

KingKnudthebloodthirsty
12-21-2008, 20:01
I am playing egypt m/m and i had no crusades called at first. after two reloads, it finally called a crusade but then, nobody joined. Do i serioously need to play on vhvh to make the ai come. and how do they come? through asiaminor like during the first crusade in 1099(in actual history) or by sea? oh and i am playing 1.0.:feedback: Thanks!

Arcturus Mengsk
12-31-2008, 11:52
I had experienced to this time (turn 60) in my egypt game on E/E ! one crusade on antioch leaded by Venice,HRE,Poland and Danes. All of them was wiped out by my mamluks archers. While HRE,Poland and Danes take it through Constantinopole, Venice surprisly take it from tripoli to my core regions of Cairo and Alexandria

Agent Miles
04-20-2009, 18:14
This is my campaign so far on VH/VH, huge units, no mods, but patched up to the Kingdoms pack.

I chose not to blitz more than one target with the first, or any other, jihad army, because the high chivalry of the Holy Warriors you get as a result is very useful. Each jihad had a different leader. If you plan the jihads well, then every ten turns or so you can expand just as well as if you gobbled up everything all at once. I did send a second jihad army to take Dongola when the main jihad went to Acre, and I did this again with Jeddah when the main jihad went to Damascus. This allows the second army to get to these distant targets at “jihad speed” and I had no desertion.

I also occupy each conquest rather than sack, as this yields one more point of chivalry and you don’t really need the loot. Then build a mosque and you get another point of chivalry for your Holy Warrior/Governor. Low taxes will quickly get you another. This allows me to create high chivalry governors that get small settlements to boom in population, as each point of chivalry adds a half of a percentage point to population growth. I convert all castles to cities and rapidly grow them up to minor cities too.

Cairo was my arsenal. I built both racetracks, got the Horsebreeder’s Guild, teched up the blacksmiths (to heavy armor improvement) and upgraded the town watch so that I was quickly able to produce Saracens, halberdiers and Mamluk archers. My typical field army is eight Saracens, two flanker halberdiers, three archer militia, six Mamluk archers and a general, although the jihad armies are just lots of Ghazis, Arab cavalry and whatever else is available.

In Jerusalem I built a Jama and got a Master Theologian’s Guild. Since the periodic ability to call a jihad is central to my strategy, I kept the starting imam in a city and brought him out only to call a jihad. If he is left wandering around he may become a heretic. It takes four points of piety to be able to call a jihad. Jerusalem was producing imams with two points and a short trip to Cyprus quickly boosts them up to four. I soon had five high piety imams.

The Byzantines continually land near Alexandria and every now and then lay siege. I leave the diplomat next to Alexandria because the Byz will immediately agree to a cease fire and then trade rights. This way, I am not entangled in a war with the Byz, who are free to fight the Turks, and each new trade rights agreement gets all of my settlements +10 points towards acquiring a Merchant’s Guild.

After forty turns, I have nine settlements, 80k florins more than I can spend and my faction is number one in each category.

valiandw
05-06-2010, 06:39
Well first post and on an old thread. After learning the game on english short campaign I thought I'd give Egypt a whirl. Note this is on M/M, so not too challenging. It's been interesting. After looking through peoples advice here's what I've done.

opening 10 turns: Jihad to Antioch via jerusalem and acre. Sacking those cities gave me a big cash injection to get started. I learned my first lesson there. Jihad mercenaries are cheap, plentiful and get the job done for seiges but they dive in droves. Also moved south to take Dongola but considering i didnt know where it was it took a few turns longer than it should have. City wise I'm building up economically and with high chivalry from the jihads cities grow smoothly. Guild-wise my goals were Cairo for theologans, Alexandria for merchants, gaza for builders and jerusalem for horsebreeders. Antioch became thives guild, I'm saving damscus later for alchemist and aleppi will be hashashims guild.

6~20 turns: Started fighting the Turks. They took aleppi about the time I finished my jihad to antioch and didnt have much left after the seige so i swooped in. My HA got lucky and ran into a big stack of Turkish infantry to shoot to bits. Using my economic advantage I was able to take cesaria. Turks paid Trezbond for a ceasefire! After that it was consoldate, build up and finall go on 2nd Jihad to Baghdad.

20~35 cleaned up turks and remaining rebels. Iconium went down first after a field battle outside I was able to lure most of their defenders out. The Baghdad Jihad then set sites on Eastern Turkish territories quickly taking mosul before the slow mountain slog north. Around this time I also put together ships to land and take nicolessia from byzantium.

35~45 building up infrastructure. Unfortunately the Turks had moved to Sarkel so it took a while to find and finish them off. Also sent a small detachment to take Jedda for completeness.

~51 4th Jihad swept Byzantines out of Turkey. Varotai are tough to fight, but at least I didnt run into Vargarian guard. Constantanople fell on turn 51 and I'm trying to decide what to do next. My next long term goal is to prepare for Mongols but I dont want to kill my economy with upkeep. Byzantines still have their Greek territories and Hungry is right next door in Sofia, but I'm more worried about the mongols....

Crusades havent been much of an issue, besides 1 venetian stack that I fought on the field with my cav I havent seen any others. I also just bought a papal alliance so I dont have to worry about crusaders when the mongols come. The mongols really scary me any ideas?

dzidek
05-13-2010, 12:20
The problem with Egypt is that you have Turkey near you and they are a far more fun faction to play. You can quickly conquer each other lands, you are both Hordes target, but Turkey has far more excellent units. In some way Turkey is superior to Egypt in every way, better infantry, archers, cavalry. Plus you train your best units only in cities as for Egypt you have to mix it a bit.

I think Egypt is one of the factions that i could agree that the faction description in game is correct. It's all about Mameluks, the rest is just not important to you. If you dont like playing cavalry heavy factions then Egypt is not for you. Infantry is only for garrison and horde defense system. Desert lands favour fast mobile armies.

Well one thing good about Egypt is money. You will never run short.

sharpshooter
10-29-2011, 06:55
I've just come back to M2TW after a long break, so decided to play Egypt, as I hadn't done them. (I love the Turks - fantastic units, fantastic fun). Kingdoms Gold Vanilla vh/vh, long campaign. Turns edited to 1 per year.

The salient facts about Egypt are:
- It has easy expansion north into rebel areas
- It gets very rich very quickly if the Levant is taken (Antioch and Jerusalem)
- Most of the best units are trainable in cities, so you can convert lots of castles to cities (Adana, Nicosia, Trebizond are particularly recommended.)
- It is well protected by distance with only a few rivals north of it
- Jihads allow quick expansion and can ramp up the experience of all units
- Getting the Assassin's Guild allows the training of Hashashim, an uber strong heavy infantry unit from early in the game
- The Horsebreeder's Guild gives experience bonuses to all cavalry: getting the HQ is fairly easy
- Crusades against it are easily managed by blocking, assassinating crusade leaders, and, if you don't mind the relations drops, by fighting them

The easiest and recommended way to expand is north in the Levant. Go quickly to beat the Turks, and get Antioch, Adana, and Edessa (big garrison) before them. Use jihads for this - you get Ghazis, a cheap, plentiful, and capable medium infantry who unfortunately aren't retrainable. Later they are the cheapest garrison for your castles.

Use jihads as often as possible, and make sure all your troops join for the experience bonus. The turn before you take the target city put all your troops in a stack under a general, and join the jihad. This saves a lot of money, too.

Transfer the artefacts you get from successful jihads to your faction heir so you can keep track of them and don't lose them.

My Egyptian armies were missile and cavalry heavy.

As said, I hadn't played for a long time, and hadn't played Egypt before. Consequently I missed a couple of tricks which I didn't correct till later e.g. forgot about the Horsebreeder's Guild, and didn't go for it till around turn 70. I now have the HQ in Durazzo.

Egypt gets so rich so quickly, especially if you run a lean army. My strategy was to expand by purchase. I present my strategy as mainly AAR type, because this is what the above posts are.

The Tabardariyya and Halberdiers suffer from the 2 handed bug. This prevents them from being as effective as they should be. The Hashashim are far and away the best heavy infantry Egypt gets.

Obviously there's many ways of doing any faction.

I'm roleplaying the Egyptians as the peaceable Fatimids they supposedly were. Diplomacy is the challenge now. I aim to get a Very Trustworthy reputation, good relations with all, and long term reliable allies. Generally, this means only attack when attacked, occupy cities, pay for good relations with other factions, purchase ceasefires etc. This means a slower expansion, which is fine by me.

I find it odd that so many automatically assume it's best to sack cities. It's a beginner's strategy, and ok when you are learning. But, materially it breaks down the infrastructure, dropping building levels, lowers the population, and generally retards development. It ends up costing more in rebuilding and tax losses than you gain. Diplomatically, it hurts reputation, damages diplomacy, appalls the Pope and catholics if christians the target, appalls Islam if muslims are the target, etc. This is even if rebel cities are sacked. As a practice it has so many negatives. Even if you need the money with poor factions Egypt gets so rich they don't need to do it.

Strategy - Early Game
The strategy was to occupy the Levant, going north. This meant cutting off the Turks, and getting all the rebel territories available. Antioch was the first target.

So, I took Antioch on jihad turn 2 or so. Grabbed Adana, (later converted it to a city). Backfilled Aleppo and Acre. Took Jerusalem with a jihad around turn 12. Everyone joins the jihad, so some 30 units get experience. Excellent artefact - the sword of Mohammed +2 command. Then took Dongola with spear militia, converting it to a city. Then Damascus with a jihad on Turn 22. Again, all generals and units join. Holy Warriors abound. Got to Edessa before the Turks. Next was Jedda. Kept the castles of Aleppo, Acre and Gaza as castles, as I'm still a bit uncertain of the demand crusades will make on Egypt's forces.

Allied with Russia, the Moors and the Pope.

No one seemed to mind. Ran a lean army, so stacks of cash. All that money - I bought most places following.

I bought Smyrna from the Byz (3000 Gp). The Venetians blockaded my ports, so I took first Rhodes (and later Iraklion). Then I bought peace with them (10,000 Gp).

I carelessly allied to the Byz. The Hungarians had taken Thessalonika and were sieging Constantinople. The Turks had Trebizond and were sieging Nicaea at the time, so the Byz looked like they would be at the mercy of the Venetians in Durazzo and Corinth.

Of course, as soon as I allied with the Byz the Hungarians lost interest in Constantinople, and started attacking me in Smyrna, crossing 2 Byz territories to do so. Smart. They don't want a ceasefire for 10,000 Gp and I don't want to pay more. The Byz resurged against the Turks, and were shortly sieging Iconium. I tried to time an attack on the Turks to prevent the Byz from taking it, but was too late. Seemed I might have to cancel the alliance with them, and suffer the embarrassment (and reputation loss).

Egypt takes Baghdad with a jihad. Everyone joins.

One place Egypt is not peacenik is assassins. These come out of Adana, and sharpen their knives on any rebel captains foolish enough to stand about. The assassins points rise, and the Assassins Guild comes to Adana around turn 60.

Hashashim, an expensive and super strong heavy infantry unit appear. (Ok, I didn't use these before since they are a fantasy unit, but what the hell).

So, next I bought Trebizond from the Turks (5000 Gp), later converting it to a city. They were pathetically grateful. Encouraged, I then bought Mosul from them (also 5000 Gp). Turkey is down to 3 territories - Caesarea, Yerevan, and Tbilisi. They'll have to go.

Also bought Tripoli from the Venetians (3000 Gp) and Tunis from the Sicilians (7000 Gp) to pass the time. Hope the alliance with the Moors will stand up.

(The alliances with the Moors and with Russia last the whole campaign, despite mutual borders. The advantage of being Trustworthy, not taking places they want, paying them tribute, and not putting ships in their waters).

A crusade was called around Turn 50, but only 2 armies (the Spanish and the Poles) showed up. I let them come to Jerusalem, where they were easily destroyed, despite hiring loads of Crusader Knights there. The Egyptian armies are good (more on that and their units later). I regretted the loss of relations with the catholic factions, and resolved to be more subtle in future.

At the time I had wanted to try out the Egyptian units against the catholics, and they did the business. Saracen militia stops the cavalry, Halberdiers beat the sword militia and spears. Not so good when charged by heavy cavalry. The Desert Cavalry thin out the Crusader Knights effectively, and are fast enough to stay out of trouble with them. The Desert Archers get very high kill rates. The Mameluk Archers do loads of damage and chop up the flanks in melee.

All in all the crusade armies seemed easy to beat.

So, turn 60 or so, and time abandon the peacenik attitude. The Turks were down to 3 territories - Caesarea, Tbilisi and Yerevan, with tiny armies. I trained an army in Trebizond, then attacked and took Ceasarea while the army from Trebizond ran around and sieged Tbilisi. This fell the following turn. There was a bit of a scrap at Yerevan, but the Turks had nothing left, and a couple of turns later that was also Egyptian.

I'm still pondering how to get to Constantinople without losing reputation (i.e. attacking ally the Byz), so I buy

Egypt, with a small army and blossoming ports in Nicosia, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria is swimming in money. Income is around 25,000 profit each turn. The money is stacking up. I've maxxed the free units (Saracen Militia and Halberdiers) which make up most of the army, and store them in cities to minimize costs. Everyone is idling.

I buy Iconium from the Byz for 50,000 Gp. They didn't want to sell, but couldn't resist the price. The next turn they attack the little garrison of spear militia the AI gave me, and then they exterminate the population when they take it back. *sigh* I hate all the damage, and this is going to put the place back for decades.

On the other hand - yippee! The Byz broke the treaty, are viewed as despicable, and Egypt is still the righteous reliable faction (*cough* don't mention the Turks) it should be.

The Egyptian army goes to Iconium. Iconium falls. Egypt is still batting away the little Hungarian armies that monotonously get slaughtered at Smyrna. The Hashashim are better than any infantry the Hungarians have - their DFK's. The Desert Archers shoot down the Hungarian Nobles. I take them off skirmish, so they don't retreat when the Nobles run up to them.

With the money from the Iconium purchase the Byz pour out Byzantine Infantry from Constantinople. A series of enjoyable battles follows as the Egyptians work their way down to Nicaea. It's not a tough contest. Desert Cavalry, Desert Archers and Mameluk Archers do lots of damage to the Byz Infantry before they reach the Egyptian line. There the Halberdiers and Hashashim are superior, and the Byz Infantry rout quickly.

Guilds
The guilds are very important to Egypt. The Assassin's Guild gives Hashashim, and the Horsebreeder's Guild gives +2 experience to cavalry when you get the HQ. I'm assuming people know how to get whatever guild they want in whatever place.

Egyptian assassins did their work every turn possible, mainly on rebel captains. The guild came to Adana.

The Hashashim are an uber heavy infantry unit with better stats than DFK's, albeit there are only 45 of them. They can also hide in the open, and have 2 hit points. I took to making a line of them, with archers in front. As the Byz Infantry came in reach the archers retreated, and the Hashashim charged the Byz line, appearing from nowhere. Already damaged by Mameluk HA, Desert and Nubian archers, the Byz generally routed at this point.

I did forget about the Horsebreeders Guild *blush* so was late to get it. When I suddenly realized I went for all the guild points by building racecourses everywhere. Then I staged races and trained cavalry. The guild came soon to Durazzo, followed shortly by a Master HB, and not so long after by the HQ.

I made all my imams in Edessa, getting the Theologians Guild there, and later the HQ

My merchants came from Antioch, which got the Merchant's guild, and later the HQ. This guild isn't so important to Egypt, apart from the bonuses to merchants. Cavalry are trainable in cities with racecourses, and the Arab cavalry you get are same as that out of castles.

Jerusalem accepted the HQ of the Explorer's Guild.

Later in the campaign Egypt got the Swordsmith's HQ from the Hungarians in Bran. To my knowledge, the Swordsmiths isn't available to Egypt normally, as they don't produce swordsmen from castles. Building the Armour Factory (as suggested in an earlier post) might possibly do it, but I can't see how that was built in time, and it's pointless, as no Egyptian units benefit from it. (Only the Italians and Spanish do, I think - and then only a few units like Broken Lances and Ducalia Famiglia do).

However, since towns have a "memory" of the units produced there Egypt may get offered the Swordsmiths Guild after capturing a castle (as happened with Sicily). Always worth building an armourer when you take a castle.

The big bonus was getting the Swordsmiths at Constantinople. It had a Master Thieves Guild, which I destroyed. Then I was offered the Swordsmiths Guild there, and a couple of turns later the Master Swordsmiths. This was a benefit of all the sword using Byzantine Infantry that the Byz produced. I'd got the Swordsmiths here with the Turks in similar fashion, so I knew it was on the cards.

Units
Saracen Militia - great unit. Standard spear, but cheaper, and free upkeep in cities.

Halberd Militia - good unit. Beat arrow damaged DFK's and spears. Long lasting but slow damage in melee. Suffer from the 2 handed bug, so don't perform as well as they should. Slightly slower moving. Ok against cavalry. Did most of the heavy lifting at the end of the early stage. Also cheap, with free upkeep in cities.

Kurdish Javelinmen - ? I'll try these again in light of the comments others made above in earlier posts. They didn't work for me. Rarely did they produce more than 4 or 5 kills from throwing javelins. I did use them for melee at the start, and they are ok against spear militia, but wilt against anything stronger.

The AI likes to charge them with heavy cavalry - useful for tying up their general's unit for a while, as they seem to have a quicker move than other infantry, and run a long way away before being cornered.

Obviously they will be useful against Timurid elephants, though the Merc Afghan Javelinmen look much better. The game will be won by then, so it's a matter of purposefully waiting for the Timurids to show up.

Hashashim - fantastic unit. Fantastic in all senses. Hide in the open. Half size of standard unit. 2 hit points. Very good stamina means they effectively don't tire. Expensive to buy, expensive upkeep. Use sparingly - you don't need many. On the other hand, with Egypt you can afford a lot of them. Used for the first time by me because they were fantasy and that put me off them when playing the Turks.

They are only available when Egypt gets an Assassin's Guild. A Master's gives +1 experience, and the HQ +2 experience. This guild is a must. They transform Egyptian infantry from defensive to fully offensive capable against Catholic armies in the early and middle game.

Superb stats. 2 hit points - yes, on top of the best sword stats in the game they have 2 hit points ... and very good stamina (did I say that?). Beat any infantry in front of them. DFK are easy, and Byz Infantry are simply mincemeat.

Overpowered? Who am I to say?

Tabardariyya - good unit, but suffer from the 2 handed bug, so don't do as well as expected. Hashashim do better.

Desert Archers - very good unit

Nubian Archers - very good unit. Almost identical to the Desert Archers in stats. Not quite sure what the point of adding them is.

Desert Cavalry - very good unit. Fast. Cheap. Good for chasing routers once their javelins are thrown. And, with those javelins they look ideal for taking out Timurid elephants.

Mameluk Archers - fantastic unit. One of the best in the game. Battle winners all through the early to middle game. Only the Byz Vardariotai and the Russian Dvor are better in the HA area, and the Mameluks are better armoured than the Vardariotai.

Arab Cavalry - good unit. Standard medium cavalry. Useful early in the campaign, and much cheaper than the Mameluks.

Mameluks - great unit. Heavy cavalry, better than Feudal Knights.

Royal Mameluks - fantastic unit. Very heavy cavalry. Very expensive, though upkeep is standard for heavy cavalry. The match of anything on the battlefield, better than most things from catholic factions (haven't checked the stats, but on the battlefield they've carried all for me).

Oh snip - look at the time. I'll have to come back to this.

Screenshots
1. Turn 20 - 9 territories: Alexandria, Cairo, Dongola, Gaza, Jerusalem, Acre, Antioch, Aleppo and Adana. Shows the main Egyptian army preparing to jihad against Damascus. Much cavalry.

(Oops - need 3rd party hosting for images. grrr. No neat thumbnails, and images in a row)
https://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7731/egyptt20mainarmy.jpg

Screenshot 2
Turn 58 - 19 territories:
From T20 - Alexandria, Cairo, Dongola, Gaza, Jerusalem, Acre, Antioch, Aleppo and Adana (now a city).
Newly acquired: Damascus (jihad), Edessa, Smyrna (purchased from Byz), Rhodes (taken from Venetians), Baghdad (jihad), Trebizond (purchased from Turks, later converted to city), Jedda, Mosul (purchased from Turks), Tripoli (purchased from Venetians), and Tunis (purchased from Sicilians).

Egypt's treasury is around 25,000 per turn, with most places are building.

Shows the main Egyptian army preparing to attack the Polish crusade army outside Jerusalem. Cavalry heavy army. No Hashashim yet.

https://img41.imageshack.us/img41/8264/egyptt58mainarmy.jpg

Seabourch
01-30-2018, 18:02
Honestly, Egypt's best strength will be its starting position. You are in the least hostile region on the map. Ironic, given the Middle East today but you start in a position where major factions won't be harrassing you for a while. There are few factions with this luxury. The Russians and Danes are fortunate enough to start largely isolated. Sicily can avoid an early war if they cosy up to the Pope but they won't be untouched for long.

Even the Danes will have to fight the Germans or Poles at some point, Russia will need to fight Poland too.

You on the other hand, the closest faction would be the Byzantines in Cyprus followed by the Turks in Mosul. They won't bother you much once they're at each other's throats. Venice and maybe Hungary will try their luck with the Byzantines so they'll be very busy, leaving the Turks as your only real adversary.

You also have the richest cities in the game at your doorstep, all rebel held territory. The other rich cities are held by major faction. Milan, Venice, Constantinople , they're held by major factions. It'll be a slog getting there, occupying the city and then holding it. You also get Alexandria and Cairo, two money makers right off the bat.

You just need to invest in them and money won't be an issue.

So your initial strategy should be to turn Egypt into an economic powerhouse. You need to build up Cairo and Alexandria while taking the Holy Land. Go for Dongola, it's at the edge of the map and no one will take it from you unless you let them. Call a jihad and take Jerusalem. It'll put a target on your back but the city is a cash cow. Then go for Acre, it's easy to reach from there. It's not even heavily defended, just go for it.

From there, you ought to take Jedda and Antioch. Antioch will be dangerous because the Turks will be lurking around there so keep it well defended as a deterrence. Develop Acre well and you'll be able to hold it from whoever is coming your way.

Jedda is for Alexandria and Dongola, since Cairo's port opens into the Red Sea, which means you'll need to set up a trading network all by yourself. Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria will develop if you can get trading rights with any faction. Go for Aleppo, then Damascus. One great tip for your empire, which can encompass a lot of empty space is to build watchtowers. It's only 200 gold, and you'll have merchants who can easily make that amount in a turn so don't hesitate to drop money on it. It'll help you spot bandits and enemy armies.