European army into the mideast

[Jagger]

I have a Fr campaign in the 1300's and am about to drive deep into north africa and the middle east. Previously, my european armies have really had a tough time in the desert with exhaustion due to the heat. I am thinking of sending a low tech/low armor force instead of my standard army.

I was thinking of lots of light cavalry, archers, militia sergeants, urban militia and some spearman. I don't think any of these units are heavily armored and thus should hold up well to the heat. However, I don't know if they can beat arab armies.

Good idea or bad idea? Or should I just send in my standard top of the line heavy cav/chivalric MAA/halberdiers/arbalests of the 1300's?

[Swoosh So]

I find if your fighing around 1000 peeps its ok to send your regular army, the problems arise when they start churning out reinforcements , I try to ?seduce? them into attacking me and using my arbs and light cav, While if things get bad i still have the heavy troops to deal with it.

SwooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosH!

[Swoosh So]

My ideal army in sp is 4 arbs 4 holding units 3 light cav 3 hvy cav and 2 shock melee. This army has never had probs in the arab provinces unless heavily outnumbered, I sometimes "sneak attack" lighly guarded provinces by sea, Next turn they will attack but your army doesent have to move around as much defending (remember that 5 man depleted cav archer/crossbow can chase down 500 routing peeps. I tend to use 1 cav unit to chase 1 set of troops off the map, Then let it rest while another chases the next set well in battles of over 3000!

Swoooooooooosh

[hrvojej]

Remember that the fatigue is proportionate to armour, and that the heavy armour units are not going to recover their fatigue, and will lose it even when standing, and that the tired missle troops fire less arrows/bolts per volley when tired. You can use the regular troop types, but, for example, try using those that do not have the armour upgrades. I find that units with armour less than 5 are doing quite well in the desert. I think that the threshold of not recovering fatigue is somewhere around 5 as well. Feudal sgts with the first armour upgrade work well in the desert, as do the missiles with no armour upgrades. Genoese sailors are really cool for that if you have them.

[Jagger]

I think I am going to experiment a little. Perhaps a few heavy's for defense but the majority low armor units.

Armor less than 5...Ok that will be my limit for the light troops.

[Muneyoshi]

It really SUCKS attacking a mideast province as a european nation. Especially if your army is primarily horses like mine

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[hrvojej]

Eh, methinks Mideast itself is a piece of cake. Something that I really dread is fighting in the sandy deserts, North Africa in particular. Everything is flat, sandstorms all the time, and usually a couple thousands of Egyptians or Almos next door....... Shudder......

[MonkeyMan]

I found highland clansmen work great in the desert.

[pdoan8]

These units fight well for me in the campagin against the Almohad and the Egyptian:

Gallowglass, Kerns, Highland Clanmen, Viking, Swiss Pikeman (not armour), Spearmen,Feudal Sergeant, Jinettes, Horse Archer, Mounted Crossbow, Mounted Sergeant, Alan Merc, Steppe Cav, Hobilars, Feudal Knight, Archers, Crossbow, Longbow, Genoese Sailor and cannons.

A very well balance force including shock/melee, spear/pike, light/heavy cav, skirmishers/missiles and arty.

[Sir Cedric]

Well i found this the hard way during my first battle in the desert where i was bringing heavily armored knight and chivalric arms men.... They were exhausted before reaching the ennemy.

Finally i am bringing mainly vikings (i am the Danes), Highland clansmen, spanish janitter (yes i am controlling the Iberian provinces), some spearmen and archers. I found the spanish janiters to be better than the mounted sergent (faster, and get exhausted less).

Anyway i really hate fighting in the desert. And when you see how poor these countries are (tradeable resources and income, but Marocco is quite nice), the only reasons i would be fighting there, is if i want to get rid of the almo, or reach by land the egyptians.

In the middle east, it is much better, since you don't get all these sand dunes.