Turkey, what\'s the beef?

[Gringoleader]

Well I've played as the English a fair bit, and I've taken the Egyptians and Ruskies out for a spin, so now I'm up for having a go as Turkey. I've been put off up to now because I've only just started to find my feet in combat and from what I have seen Turkey has to fight hard from the get go.

So what can you tell me about them folks? How do they start? What special units do they operate and how good are they, what are some of the best tactics?

Help would be greatly appreciated. I have a phobia of dying on my arse within twenty years.

[This message has been edited by Gringoleader (edited 09-30-2002).]

[hrvojej]

Just a couple of quick ones......
Skirmish alot, and use their mobility. Rely on Saracens and Armenians early on, until you get Janissaries. I would take out Egypt first, as they're a big problem later on in my experience.

[moldndecay]

Pump out spearmen early and take out Egypt or depending how the fight is going north of the Black sea take on Byz and grab all Asia minor and Constantinople. If you try for Egypt, make an alliance with the Elmos and Byz. Use Rum to make Otto inf, you get a bonus there. Use Armenia to make Armenian Heavy cav. Then use another province to make Saracen Inf. Use Ghazi for your shock troops, they have a 8 charge. Tripoli, Antioch, and Egypt are major trade provinces so put good govs in them and make sure they dont have any negative V&V every year.

[Kraxis]

You can't really rely on tactics you used to fight with as the English.

Hold the line with your spears and Saracens, then pepper the enemy with your ranged units (the enemy will often try to bunch up on your men so there are often a lot of them behind their first ranks).

When you get to the Horse Archers and Turcomans use them to their full effect, they are great harassers, especially the Turcomans, they can even do some good flanking attacks (be wary about the Horse Archers though, they fight badly).

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BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.

You may not care about war, but war cares about you!

[Gringoleader]

Well I followed the advice and I gobbled up the Egyptians pretty quick. They left a network of inns among the wreckage, so I managed to hire some mercs and carried the momentum into the Almohads whereupon, after a series of battles (one of which involved me killing the Almohad king clean with a bouncy catapult ball) the game crashed.

Arse.

[Cheetah]

Listed in the TC

[Dawood]

I quickly as hell raised a army of mercs and took Constintanople from the Byzantines!
I am going to keep my relation to the Egyptian for a while, then carry out a quick surprise attack on Tripoli, Palestine and Antioch to win my Glorius Achivment points for Jihad.
Then I will try to regain my alliance with the Egyptians and venture out in Europe.

[The Green Knight]

Better to make war on the christian infidels than your islamic brothers (at least at first)

[Kraxis]

No, not really, I got stabbed in the back by the Egyptians while I was dealing with the Byzantines.

Needless to say I could not stand up to both Empires and I was chrushed after a series of truly great battles. One where I used Horse Archers and Turcomans to their fullest harassing and depleting enemy morale. They were really great battles, too bad it was not eough.

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BTW, Danish Crusades are true to history.

You may not care about war, but war cares about you!

[Orion]

Quote Originally posted by Kraxis:
No, not really, I got stabbed in the back by the Egyptians while I was dealing with the Byzantines.

....I used Horse Archers and Turcomans to their fullest harassing and depleting enemy morale...
[/QUOTE]

Woow it reminded lots of memories...hhmmmm...
Altough it is somewhat out of topics range I had to recall these memories before they are reduced to ash

My main aggression force stucked in the long thin line between Novograd's lands and eastern europe after chasing Bzy Emp. (not use spies&etc and amuse how large enemy you messed with )

Allied with Hungary & Egypt (feel secure somehow )

Egypt is just a province away from Rum (where my 3/4 of current investment and improvement is)- loose syria, loose rum, loose everything.

An increase in Egyptian army observed in Antioch & Arabia (never thought of that much crowd)

Just in case move some regiments to support garrisons in Syria, Lesser Armenia and Edessa

Two turns later 2K+ man (mostly nubian spearmens) flowed to syria defended by 800 heros and a real good general (ottoman inf, futtuwas, desert archers, some spears&urban militia with some horse archers)

Cant remember how much passed when my remaining 90+ men (general cant make it btw) withdrawed with 1500+ kills.

Thanx to my navy chain from black sea to Egypt and elites in Istanbul (constantinapole after conquered ) retaliate attacking both to egypt and syria next turn. Bloody battles one after other ....each turn on the edge of a sword...shocked by the Novograd's aggression in the middle of these..in four turns there became to be no more Egypt

Just when the time came to take care of Novograd...two crusades come one after other...one stopped in Bulgaria while the other make it to istanbul but eliminated there....

Still trying to take Nov's and dealing with crusades and hold groud although don't know how long resist

Boy I really love this game

(P.S. Early, Hard)


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So said the King
So it is written