Egypt

[RJV]

Hi there,

First post-patch campaign, and for the first time I'm gonna give the Egyptians a try. Have we any Egypt-meisters out there with any suggestions???

Cheers.

[Fearless]

Stock up with saracen infantry and camels

[solypsist]

Camels. And a fleet to keep crusaders from just jumping on your shores, especialy the "hot" provinces of Tripoli and Palestine.

[LordKhaine]

I'm assuming you're starting in the early period. Take on the turks first... but dont touch the byzantine right away. The Byzantine are very strong, but they always tend to weaken after a few years. Take out the turks, then build up and improve your lands waiting for the byzantine to attack someone else.

Thens the time to strike the Byzantine. If you attack too early they will likely swing all their armys against you... and early on thats a *bad* thing.

[Niccolomachiavelli]

Develope Egypt so you can get advances navy. Built a huge fleet. Simply build up enough of an army to defend your borders against the Alhomads, but I dont recommend attacking them. Destroy the Turks and move up into Russia, preferrably stopping so that you only have to protect one front in that area. Dont attack the Byzantines as they act as your buffer against the rest of the world, same goes for the Alhomads, who, hopefully, should buffer you against the Spanish. I never really used camels myself, mostly saracen, ghulam cav and a handful of ghazi inf.

[DonCoyote]

As always there are "many ways to skin a cat". Agree with above suggesting strong navy. In a pre-patch campaign i allied with turks from day one & then moved west thru N. Africa (the Almos were all in Iberia). Spain almost knocked out the almos, then i arrived & did so. I took iberia, moved into france & got bogged down. Used navy to jump across to sicily/naples. Eventually the turks had to be addressed. Leaving the turks does allow them to meet the horde http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif .

Only thing i would say about camels is that once you get to northern spain, france etc you will need proper horse cavalry.

Don Coyote

[Satyr]

You have 3 really good provinces to start, so build their economies up alot. Then start your navy. I usually leave the turks alone until they have taken care of the mongol horde, then when they are weak I kill them. By then, the Byz are much weaker from so many crusades so they are easier then too. So in the beginning, take out the almo and the spanish, this gives you some good gold mines and good iron provinces for better troops when you decide to take on europe.

[Orda Khan]

Saracens

.....Orda

[RJV]

Many thanks people. Quite fancy leaving the Turks to fight the horde. Think I'll go camels and navy and take on the Almos...

I'll let you know...

Cheers.

[Magraev]

Actually I'd attack the turks first. with Syria you have a 2-province border to the north - easy to defend. If the byzantines take out the turks you have a major power opposing you.

[Mithrandir]

Ally with Almohads & Byzs, make war upon Turks, take all their lands within 4 or 5 years, with the turks eliminated & byzantines friendly, focus on rebels up north & almohads down south, take all lands up to spain, then focus again on the northern parts, when you've got enough power, take the byzantine lands and move into europe. Keeping a small fleet can help.

[A.Saturnus]

A good trick against the Almos is this:
When they start to conquer Europe, build up a sea dominance. Later you recruit a large force and invade Cordoba. If you have Cordoba, their empire is split in two and you can take the Africa coast very easily. Cordoba is rather easy to defend cause it got hills and sometimes river.
In spain you should use cav instead of camels, I prefer mamluk archers, a quiet good light cav unit. The Almos have the problem that they don`t have heavy cav and mainly inf. So when you have Kwarazmiam, AUM shouldn`t be a problem. Use also a lot of ranged weapons against their inf. The Egyptians have many good skirmishers, that`s mamluk archer and nizari. Actually nizari kill all their inf except AUM. Your main force should be sar inf. With this combination the Almos shouldn`t be a problem, against Turks, you need more heavy cav and superior ranged, such as arbs.
In my campaign, I had to fight mainly Almos and Turks, cause they conquered the world and the Katholics hadn`t enough time to build crusades, but if the Spanish win against the Almos, everything will be different