desert armies

[71-hour Ahmed]

When fighting in the desert regions obviously it helps not wearing tons of armour, however, this is not too easy if all your troops are upgraded, and you have been fighting in northern europe for 150 yrs and your armies all reflect this. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

So can anyone who fights there a lot in the hot areas ( I don't except as an Almohad or Egyptian, never christian till now) suggest the best sort of catholic army to fight in the hot areas?

I'm thinking invade ireland and set up an army of clansmen and Irish, plus hobilars, but what else works well in the heat? My campaign to conquer the world is needing a boost as my troops keep getting squished in a sweaty heap.


Thanks for any help.


PS: I'm (edit: "playing the" ) english but I'd be interested in ideas for all sides.

[Galestrum]

Your First move must be a strategic move - attack an important province with massive force, making the enemy withdraw from the province entirely, or into their castle. Quickly assault the castle. Then wait for the muslim counter-attack. Let them come to you and utterly destroy them in a defensive battle - tale no prisoners and inflict a mortal blow - then consolidate your position and gain weakened territories as rapidly as you can while keeping your home base in the desert secure.

Troop Mix

I like to use Hobliars and Mtd Sergeants as my cavalry elements - and any desert merc cavalry when they are available.

Archers are great - Muslim forces are not well armored, fight defensive battles, with spears protecting your archers and shock units to the rear to exploit flanks.

Make them fight you as much as you can, therefore reducing your exhaustion level.

When you break the muslim army, follow it up with light cavalry and chase them off the map, taking as many prisoners as possible - and then kill them all - no mercy. While they will likly outnumber you, a few massive defesive battles which inflict heavy deaths will be a deathblow, evening numbers and possibly causing a civil war in their faction.

When on the offense use AlanMerc cav, and turkic cavalryand hobilars.

Also, if you can, use highlanders, vikings as your shock units if you can, they are lightly armored but powerful.

[kataphraktoi]

As an Eastern Roman I cannot risk my precious soldiers in the desert so i do what my forefathers did, bribe

Well depends of you got the moolah, I don;t know if English wool will make you rich to bribe your way thru or not.

Although I have qualms about fighting in Europe it is a necessity whereas I bribe in the East, I recover the money later because the troops I bribe are in the rich rich rich provinces. You got to spend a little money to make a lot of money.

[ichi]

Ahmed:

When playing as a Christian I try to focus one province on non-armored spearmen and swordsmen, usually in Spain. Focus on developing the weapons and honor rather than armor in this province. Build the cheaper troops en masse for my desert campaigns.

In Africa and the Mid East I take lots of archers/pavs, mounted sergeants. I pick up the desert mercs like Alans, Byz Cav, Saharan, Nubians. I got hooked on cav archers in STW, so they are still my favorite. Love to watch Ghulams get frustrated while chasing Mamluks (one of my alltime favorite units)and getting peppered to death.

I also put a few heavy troops in the mix, w/ the plan to not run them around; use these to take on enemy heavy cav, hold the middle or form a strong spot to help routers regain their composure.

ichi

[Divine Wind]

Any troops wth little or no armour are my best choice to attack those desolate countries. Gallowglasses, kerns, highlanders etc. Always try and get some saharans, steppe or alans to support.

[andrewt]

Attack the desert regions with overwhelming force and force them to retreat to arid regions. Against Egyptians, make them retreat to Tripoli, Antioch or Palestine or some such place and attack from a province wherein the battlefield will be arid. Against Almohad, make them fight the largest battles on Granada and Cordoba.

If you are forced to fight in the desert, build lots of light cavalry and missile troops. Archers might actually be better than arbalesters since Muslim troops aren't armored that well. Bring in light cavalry like hobilars, jinettes and such. These guys don't get tired that easily even with full armor upgrades. Also, start withdrawing your troops as they get tired and never go that deep to their side. Always pull back to the middle and regroup.

You might actually want to reuse spearmen and feudal men-at-arms for that. Best thing is send the best troops first, withdraw them when tired then send spearmen and feudal for mop up.

[NewJeffCT]

I would recommend mounted sergeants and hobilars for cavalry, spearmen and feudal sergeants for anti-cav, and pikemen or swiss pikemen if you have switzerland. Gallowglasses, highland clansmen and vikings are good sword troops. I would make sure you have a church and reliquery to build troop morale for gallows and clansmen, though. Billmen seem to do okay for me.

I usually try to take one heavy cav and one heavy anti-cav unit, just to be sure (chiv sergeants, feudal knights), as they should be good for one charge, or one stand, before they get exhausted.

[Sephiroth]

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif .....right the desert...hmmm...tricky stuff as im sure you are well aware.as previously stated muslim armies fall like flies to archer fire buti might add concentrated archer fire.you have about a 1 in 5 chance of beating an egyptian army on assault, (Almohads are crap and turks live in pretty not so hellish provinces).Attack egypt en mass, as in the province.make sure to have cut off his sea lanes, all of em, firstly.send in bout 4 bishops and a spy and your set.re-inforce like mad as you will probably get the odd jihad launched against ya.crucially next take Sinai.A crap province i know but advantages are now he is on a two province front and must leave some troops behind in case you invade via the back door.Launch crusades against antioch and tripoli and palestine.( if they are egyptian of course). and he should be screwed.rebellions and civil war will soon follow for him.]

Battle:
the following is a very formiddable anti-egyptian army.
5x Spear units
5x Archers
2x Cavalry (light/med)
2x millitia Seargants
2x chivalric MAA

re-inforcements:
2xRoyal knights
5x archers
..up to you after that

Pre-patch the egyptians usually attack en mass so form a gauntlet of archer fire if u can.use the formation buttons at the right side to switch rapidly from archer first line to spear first line.( these must be grouped on their own and in the centre of the line). these battles take ages so while your hackin and slashin shoot the crap outta a unit or two at his rear.in essence Kill kill kill...try get him to flee or die.once this is accomplished do not push him off the field.he will re-group with a rag bag army or if post patch his crapper army and hence you shoot the crap outta him some more.use your cavlry to ruch pesky units and dnt be afraid of them dying, they die for the glory of the empire.he will eventually bugger off and you should end up with around 1200 killed and about 300 prisoner.kill them too...next turn re-fit troop divisions and re-inforce with more.lauch crusades if applicable and he is dead.

[Alrowan]

well here is a basic list of tough euro troops that fare well enough in deserts...

Cav:
Alan Mercenary Cavalry
Hobilars
Steppe Cavalry
Mounted Sergeants
Polish Retainers
Tuetonic Sergeants
Horse Archers
Turcopoles
Mounted x-bow
Jinettes

Inf:
Swiss Halbreds
Gallowglass
Clansmen
xbow
Arbelaster
genoese sailors
Archers
longbows
fanatics
kearns
Militia Sergeants
urban militia
spearmen
Fuedal Sergeants
Pikemen


thats about it... try avoiding armoured troops

[NateEngle]

Personally I just take my old contemptibles along into the desert and let 'em sweat. They have drawbacks, but as long as you hold them on defense they survive it well enough. I agree with those posters who have described attacking a lightly defended province with overwhelming force, and then fighting the biggest battles as defenses where your heavies can just stand still while archers do most of the killing. Even on the attack I find I can usually bait enemys into marching against me rather than vice versa. The trick is
to make your forward light cav element look vulnerable so that they think there's an easy kill to be had, and then high tail it to behind your line of halberds and bows.

[insolent1]

Anything with 5 armour or below will function well in the desert. I always have 1 or 2 provinces with no armouries. Early royal knights, boyars & ghulam bodyguards are ok without armour upgrades.

[Sainika]

Key words (and actions) when fighting in a desert are: high-star general, quick attack, light infantry and cavalry, mercs and missiles.
In details: usually I use gallowglasses as shock troops, feudal sergeants as anti-cav and main defensive unit, arbalesters as miisile troops and mounted sergeants and hobilars as cavalry. No heavy cavalry units They are useless even in one charge attack. Swiss alebardists and pikemen and actually all heavy-coated unfantry are also useless. If you have an access to pikemen - take them as your main army - in such a case you can forget about any other infanry at all (well except missiles of course).
About mercs: I was very surprised when I saw how useless was alan mercenary cavalry in desert - they can't beat even simple enemy archers But camels and desert archers as well as ghazi inf. and muwahids - all are strongly recommended.
And I agree with Galesrtum: the defense is easier in the desert.

[insolent1]

Alam merc cav r great in the desert.

[MizuKokami]

mostly, i just try to walk slow, and try not to go uphill at steep points. i start my men in a defensive formation at the beginning of battle, just in case the enemy gets the bright idea to attack me first. if it's safe to march, and the enemy seems to be camping, i move at a slow march towards them to get into a skirmish mode. the last desert battle i had went pretty good when i did a couple of hit and runs on his line of archers, and it caused him to come and attack me with me only useing a couple units of cav to draw him out. very helpful at times to remain on the deffensive in the desert. rest often, and take lots of water. don't let your men drink tea if you are english. between the caffine, and the natural bacterias that live in tea leaves, your men lose a lot of iron and tire quicker in the desert.