Timurid strategy if your playing England.

**Vlad1** · 01-05-2010, 16:08

Just throwing out a strat to defeat Timurid invasion.They will approach from the east in very large numbers.I am playing England and have learned that engaging Timurid elephant cavalry in open field full frontal is pointless,their artillery obliterates all units before they even start to charge. So her's my strat:
1.On the map identify your most eastern settlement front.This may consist of 6-10 settlements.Purchase wall upgrades and cannon towers for all those settlements identified.
2.Place a full army of 14 heavy infantry ,1 trebuchet (for its cow carcass flinging ability) and 5 longbowmen.
The Timurid armies mostly assault in pairs and so normally an army at the front and back or side.
3.Place longbowmen on walls beside gate house supported by heavy infantry on the walls.Place heavy infantry on all the front walls in order to operate cannon towers.
4.Place 3 heavy infantry units on the walls facing the other attacking army.This allows the cannon towers to be operated if an attack is initiated and causes significant losses for timurid cavalry but most of the time they just hang back.
5.The army at the front gates including elephant artillery is now literally hammered by cannon tower fire and longbowmen arrows.Any attack by ladders or siege towers is easily thwarted by heavy infantry on gaurd mode positioned on the walls.The elephants eventually rout and cause havoc running about.This army is obliterated taking very few casualities at the walls.
6.The army at the rear or side has probably comprimised your walls but thats ok because its not open field.Timurid elephant artillery requires lots of space to function optimally so take them on in the streets within the settlement. Their numbers will have been reduced by previous cannon tower fire. and its difficult to loose.Timurid infantry is not great,they rout easily.If an attack is not initiated wait out for the battle timer.Do not go outside your walls,let them initiate the attack if they do not attack then wait out the battle timer the victory will still be yours.
6.Ensure a plan is in place to resupply settlements with heavy infantry units and longbowmen.

The above strat renders the elephant artillery units useless and Timurid armies are scrappy fighters (attacking routing and reattacking) and so this reduces the movement and risk to your units in open field.In this case a good defense is far better than attack.Since the timurid armies attack in pairs their armies can be reduced significantly.I have noticed after a good few victories that their numbers reduce significantly.This now allows more freedom of movement about the map and also as their attacks are thinning they're rear is left unsupported i.e very small forces are kept in the citadels behind them(send spies). This allows the citadels to be taken easily and thus reducing the Timurids aility to make war.Once the citadels are in control the citeis will fall easily enough as the Timurid attacks get thinner and thinner.Remember every settlement you take must be kitted out with wall upgrades and cannon towers.Resupply your army after every siege battle and repair your walls.

**gardibolt** · 01-06-2010, 20:07

That was basically my strategy playing as England. However, I used the trebuchets (I used 2) with the ammo set to flaming. Eventually you'd get a hit on an elephant, and that would cause a rampage and wiping out most of the infantry and possibly even another elephant or two.

**Yesugey** · 01-07-2010, 12:48

I played the game for 3 years, but i still never faced the mighty Timurids yet, because usually i took all provinces far bfore turn 160. But this time i will be patient and wait. (im in 120 now)

I am planning to face these elephants with Polish Serpentine and Grand Cannon. I dont know they will be effective or not.
Wish me luck!

**gardibolt** · 01-07-2010, 22:50

Yeah, rushing has its pluses, but you miss out on a lot of entertaining features of the game that don't show up until later (like the Tims).

**Yesugey** · 01-14-2010, 17:09

Originally Posted by gardibolt

Yeah, rushing has its pluses, but you miss out on a lot of entertaining features of the game that don't show up until later (like the Tims).

Actually i struggled alot to not to attack, but somehow they defeating so quickly, even in RetrofitMod. But even their smallest cities are becoming Large City, thats a nice plus of waiting.

Vlad1,
I am in Turn 140+, struggling with black plague. Lots of my cities has the best gunshops, so im planning to train gunpowder weapon stacks. Wait for the news.

**Vlad1** · 01-16-2010, 17:39

Yesugey,
Lots of firepower from artillery has its merits but I would suggest supporting heavy artillery with lots of infantry.Timurid elephant cavalry are lethal because their main advantage in open field is not the charge but range.They just dont obliterate they obliterate from a distance, so whatever heavy artillery you decide to use make sure these weapons have better range otherwise you will have to close the distance and will suffer heavy losses in doing so.Weapon accuracy is also a variable you have no control over and the enemy can change position easily forcing you to reissue target orders,this takes time and so does reloading.Test armies on the custom battle option in the game before deploying in the field.My attack method is not open warfare but to assess the amount of coastal timurid settlements.Use navy fleet to drop a siege force literally at the gate and lay siege immiediatly.This method ensures you do not have to move around the map and when you do arrive at their front gate you have a full army, rarely have I come across a settlement with a full army within.Taking any coastal Timurid cities will hurt them any city taken is an income you gain and they loose.I build armies behind my frontline as its safe to move them to ships.Timurid navy is plentiful but not one of their strongest assets.Any conflicts I have encountered with Timurid navy has been sucessful at least 80% of the time.In summary a good strong frontline,dissolve their military might through sucessful siege defence and attack by building armies in safety behind your frontline and delivering these armies directly to their coastal cities via navy fleet.Disolve their military strength at your frontline and attack their coastal cities when you take the city purchase wall upgrades and cannon towers they will never take it back! Resupply coastal cities via navy fleet also.Good luck!

**Vlad1** · 01-10-2010, 19:23

Interesting!Let me know how you get on.

**Nelson** · 09-25-2011, 15:32

A town with cannon towers is very hard on any attackers if you can provoke the Timurids to attack one.

The mercenary elephant units are helpful too if you can get some. Fighting fire with fire and all that.

My biggest problem with Mongols and Timurids is that with several stacks so close the battles get swamped with units and the frame rate goes to a crawl. This despite having a powerful recently built machine that plays Shogun 2 with all options maxed.

**phonicsmonkey** · 09-28-2011, 01:03

Originally Posted by Nelson

My biggest problem with Mongols and Timurids is that with several stacks so close the battles get swamped with units and the frame rate goes to a crawl. This despite having a powerful recently built machine that plays Shogun 2 with all options maxed.

I have heard it said that this is because M2TW is not able to utilize multiple processor cores. So it uses just one of your cores which is obviously much less processing power than your machine has as a whole.