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Thread: Almohads

  1. #61

    Default Re: Almohads

    Currently trying an Almo game since the Danes conquered the world.

    Seems pretty easy so far, the Spanish reemerged in Leon (I let it go rebel after I killed the Spanish king there), I just make AUM and then let them chew on things. I have Cyrenacia reqqed for Saharans, Granada prepping for V1 AUM, and a trade fleet building in Cordoba, Castile, Algeria, and Cyrenacia.

    I bribed Cid in the 1110's to get a general who wasn't an heir to take the Cordoba star. I have two 7 star heirs though so I need to grab Ireland once I have a fleet to spec out whichever one doesn't ascend. The Spanish went over without much of a fight; AUM with desert archers makes extremely quick work of cavalry.

  2. #62

    Default Re: Almohads

    The Almos have some good units, albeit few unqiue ones. The berber camels are a half decent stand in for HA's, AUM need no description and the Saharan Cavalry available in the region are good for chasing down routers. The desrt archers are also a bonus as they're better and faster moving than vanilla archers.

  3. #63

    Default Re: Almohads

    One thing not mentioned here is the diplomatic game for the Almohads. The list of powers that are important to them early is Sicily, Italy, and Egypt...and they are all usually included on the Byzantine enemies list fairly early on. So my cardinal rule is NEVER ally with the Byzantines, or anyone who has allied with the Byzantines, even though they can be counted on to show up and offer an alliance fairly early on.

    In fact my second rule is: attack the Byzantines ASAP. Since Tunis builds better boats set out on turn one to get them going. Fort/keep/port/shipwright takes twenty years, which is long enough to get things settled in Iberia, then nine years to build three boats. In year thirty if the Byzantines are still in Naples you should be too. If someone already kicked them out look to Crete or Greece. Greece is nice but can be tough to hold. Naples is more of a pain than it's worth generally because a significant garrison aggravates the Pope and the Sicilians, but a weak garrison begs an invasion. I like grabbing the islands because the Byzantines are way to busy to do anything about it and no one else seems to care other than being glad you're in the anti-Byz mode. Whether you keep your gains from the attack or not isn't really important, either way you forge a unified Islamic front that can really go to work on the Christians.

    When you attack the Byzantines it is almost a dead certainty that within five years you will get an alliance offer from the Turks, followed promptly by Egypt, and it's an alliance they will likely keep for the long haul if you've done right by them. Doing right by the Egyptians means NEVER posting an army on their border. Keep a strong deterrent force in Tunisia, and train them by quelling rebellions in the desert, but always withdraw immediately. If you don't build anything there the Egyptians feel little inclination to invade it. Since the Egyptians don't feel compelled to post the bulk of their army in Egypt and glare at the border they don't get cornered, because they beat the stuffing out of the Byzantines and will usually reach the Balkans, putting the bulk of their troops far away from you.

    On a good day the attack on the Byzantines will also get you in the good graces of Italy and/or Sicily, but they may have some bad memories relating to former allies in Aragon or Spain. Even if they forgive that the Pope will probably be nagging them so they aren't very reliable in the long term, but they need you a lot more than you need them. Establish the Egyptian ports in the Eastern Med as your trade outlet, while the Italians and Sicilians need your ports or to get through Gibralter, both of which shut down on them if they attack you.

    Eventually that unified Islamic front gets hit in their not quite unified Islamic rear by the Mongols. Being the loyal ally, when the horde rushes the rest of the faithful just continue mopping up Europe and let the Egyptians and Turks pull back to deal with it. Generally makes for a good 'division of the spoils'...good for you anyway.

  4. #64

    Default Re: Almohads

    I'm fighting a strange early-hard GA campaign with the Almohads at the moment.

    I quickly and steadily conquered the Iberian Penninsula, got some alliances and prepared my attack on Egypt.

    On my Northern Border, the English kept their peace against everyone while the French started a quite succesfull war against my ally the HRE. Best not to interfere for the moment. I started building a big trade based around Cordoba, Tunisia and Tripoli.

    I quickly overran Egypt in little over 8 turns, and just when I exterminated the Egyptian dynasty, the Turks attacked me in Palestine. With their little conquest of the Holy land, they held but 2 provinces (Syria and Palestine, the rest was byzantine). I first seized Syriah to cut their escape and then slaughtered them in Palestine with 2 field-armies I'd innitially sent as reinforcements.

    After ascertaining that the Byzantines would keep their peace I moved my roving eye back to Europe.

    Then my neighbour the French Kingdom errupted into civil war and I took Toulouse and Burgundy from the rebels in a frenzy of opportunism.
    Burgundy revolted in the name of France, and I decided to fight them for the Territory and finally got an alliance with the English.
    The war in Burgundy swept back and forth for several years, but thanks to my naval policy (from the North Sea to the Black Sea, there's Almohad trade fleets) I could sent in masses of reinforcements and soon overwhelmed the French in all of their remaining original provinces and Swabia... I think the Kingdom of France has now been reduced to Saxony, which is shielded from me by the HRE and rebel Friesland.

    The Almohads now control all of Africa, the Levant and Middle-East (except for modern-day Turkey), Iberia and also Toulouse, Burgundy, Ile-de-France, Champagne, Lorraine, Swabia and Flanders. My treasury is stable between 10- and 20k and I'm surrounded by allies, but that time may end soon... however, I'm not in a hurry to conquer and I think I'll be content for a while with getting the Al-Andalus and Alhambra GA's, Inch'allah. If someone attacks me, I got 4 Jihads and numerous full-stacks ready to destroy them, inch'allah.

    no one seems to listen to the pope, he called crusade on me 5 times but I've yet to see one come my way... There haven't been crusades at all and the 12th century is about half way. my dynasty is stable too and most messages of People's support, tech advancement, income and armed might are greatly in my favour.

    as troops AUM's are my main arm, though Nubian spears have proved usefull too. I mainly use desert archers and AUM, saharan cavalry for the chase or archer-heavy armies (like the French). Don't use a lot of murabitin, 2 units per army at most.

    oh, and do Vices like Blackmailer and Greed reduce income to your faction? Them corrupt kafirs keeping things instead of forwarding it to the rightfull owner which would be ME (or YOU)?
    Last edited by Master Young Phoenix; 04-22-2008 at 16:52.

  5. #65
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    Default Re: Almohads

    Sounds like you've got a nice campaign going there, MYP.


    Quote Originally Posted by Master Young Phoenix
    oh, and do Vices like Blackmailer and Greed reduce income to your faction? Them corrupt kafirs keeping things instead of forwarding it to the rightfull owner which would be ME (or YOU)?
    Correct. Your governors are more likely to get these vices when your empire has grown large.
    "MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone

  6. #66

    Default Re: Almohads

    I thought so and acted on it (disband/murder) for a while. Sadly, the blackmailers and greedy b-tards are often my princes and top-generals...

    My campaign is going okay. The English king died without heir (and just before I could marry his last princess) so the Angevin empire fractured into smalle factions, I began absorbing those rebel provinces as I was finishing of the last remnants of France.

    as soon as the King of France bit the Dust, Byzantium invaded Antioch. I quickly counter-attacked with jihad's and a few armies from coastal provinces. I occupied Constantinople, only to find 3 full stacks in Bulgaria on the border... That's where I am now, I pile in extra stacks on my own and fought the battle like 3 times, but each time the battle is finished, the game crashes and so glorious victories are lost :(

  7. #67

    Default Re: Almohads

    That was a nice campaign route, usually i leave the Egyptians be and concentrate my efforts in the western Med. I pester the Catholics taking off Malta, Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia from whoever has them while aiming for Provence and toulouse and genova as well. Also provocatively punish the Pope in his home ground that makes any strong and pious ruler send a few crusades in the Iberian pen, that make for fun fights. Eventually the Egypts betray me and start a usually brief sand war. Sinai is a good border unless one wants to get all the way to Constantinople in which there's little scope before the Mongol Invasion settles to a new balance of power in the east.

    Ah, yes and the best part, blitzing the Spanish and Aragonese out of existence at the start.
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  8. #68

    Default Re: Almohads

    As I usually play the Byzantines I also like Berber Camels,as target practice for my archers. Nothing trains them up better than having a large target that it's impossible to miss. Nubian Spears are the second-best target in the absence of any camels.

  9. #69

    Default Re: Almohads

    Probably one of the easiest (after you solve the Spanish); AUM spam is almost as good as viking spam, Ghazi give a good anti armor unit.
    The only "waste" unit is Ghulam cav; no real point to having them or producing them, but they seem to "star" in your jihad's so have a way to repair them.
    Great early spam units, and jihad's! It really does not get much sweeter than this
    Ja-mata TosaInu

  10. #70

    Default Re: Almohads

    I really enjoyed reading this comment Cheetah, you made me laugh several times. :)

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