Advice for an Almohad

[Windwood]

After achieving 100% victory as the Danes at an easy difficulty level, I thought I would try out another SP campaign. I picked the Almohads and upped the difficulty level to normal. I decided to control the taxation levels myself this go-round since it seems to provide greater options for preventing rebellions.

As the Danes I basically launched a campaign of aggressive conquest from day one and kept pushing and pushing. I didn't even develop my fleet of ships until the endgame when I needed them to start moving my troops over greater distances and I needed to get to the islands provinces.

This time, I've taken the time to improve the farmland and construct buildings more methodically, as well as construct a fleet to increase my income through trade.

I thought I was doing things alright, but now I am pinned down on the Iberian Penninsula. I took my time and took over Spain, Portugal and the other provinces around them (even elminated the Spanish altogether). Now I have my troops pinned down along my northern borders with the French, Germans and Italians all massing their troops against me. Add to them a German crusade and an Italian crusade against me, and you'll see my problem. I have enough troops massed that each time they attack they withdraw and call off the assault. Yet, if I try to attack one of them, it will leave me open to attack from one of the other factions. As the Danish I had built up enough troops to attack multiple provinces at once in order to avoid such a problem. Right now, I have enough to defend, but not enough with which to attack.

Add to this the sudden re-appearance of the Spanish who are now driving me insane on the Iberian Penninsula and the Egyptians in the east who have a Jihad against me for taking Egypt. I tried making peace with them before taking Egypt, but they ignored me. Now I face their Jihad.

My bank account is low, my troops are in need of retraining and upgrading, the troops I have (quite numerous actually) are all pinned down unable to advance, and what fleet I managed to build up has been whittled down by storms and Italians.

Any advice for a poor struggling Almohad?

[budlight]

I am also on my second campaign as the British - early - normal. My first campaign was the Egyptians - early - easy. One of the things I learned from playing the Egyptians is that the Almohads are ease to knock off. They were the first enemy I eliminated as the Egyptians.

I would think the best thing for you to do right now is try to withdraw from Egypt and get a cease fire with the Egyptians so you can concentrate on one front.

Or you could keep Egypt and withdraw to the southern two provinces of the iberian peninsula(Gibralter and the one that surrounds it - begins with a C). That way you only have to defend two provinces(Egypt and the spanish province north of Gibralter). Then hold on and wait for the Crusades to fizzle out and get a cease fire with Italy so you can get all that good trade income.

Also to avoid unecessary wars started from Naval battles. Never leave a single ship in a sea zone with other factions ships(they like to attack easy pickins). I usually like to have a single stack that at least matches the number of ships that any other faction has in a particular sea lane.

[HindSight2020]

There are two provinces in the Iberian Peninsula that have direct access to Morocco in the west. Therefore, it is important to get/keep control of Morocco, Granada, and Cordoba.

In the east, knock out Egypt as soon as possible. The province of Egypt will give you a good source of florin early. The goal is to get the Turkish provinces in eastern Asia Minor. Once they are held, upgrade them with higher levels of farming production.

North Africa has good potential for cavalry development.

If you have control of Cordoba and Granada in the west and the Turkish provinces in the east, you can begin building up for the march on Constantinople -- another florin rich province. Also, the upgrades you will steal after taking Constantinople are well worth the effort. And Constantinople constitutes a choke point which is easily defended. Cordoba becomes the choke point in the west. The other eastern choke point is Georgia which will give you access to the area dominated by Novgorod.

Begin building a navy out of the provinces around Egypt (or if you can conquer the islands in the Mediterranean, that's good too) in order to build up trade routes before the crusades start. You will need to build up a store of florin that you can use when all the Christian nations cut you off and declare you persona non grata.

It is here that you will need to make a choice. You can avoid crusades for a while by attacking into Eastern Europe. Eventually, there will be crusades headed to Egypt, Palestine, or Constantinople. Continue to upgrade tech.

Hope that gives you some ideas. That's basically the way I won with the Egyptians. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Fragony]

Quote[/b] ]I took my time and took over Spain, Portugal and the other provinces around them (even elminated the Spanish altogether).

People from Portugal don't like it when people think portugal is Spain http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Goatus Maximus]

I've played Almo a couple of times and here are my notes, starting from the beginning.

*Control your chokepoints. Almo starts out the game in perhaps the easiest position to defend, with two natural chokepoints (Cordoba and Cyrenicia). Build up your forces in these two locations, leaving all other territories minimally guarded (a peasant unit or two should suffice).

*Focus on one theater. It is suicide to attempt to attack both Spain/Aragon and Egypt at the same time. As above, present a deterrent at one chokepoint, while using your elite forces to stage an invasion at the other.

I like to take out Spain/Aragon first for the following reasons: multiple high florin provinces, capture of N. Spain gives you 4( ) iron producing provinces to allow for earlier weapons upgrades, and Spain can be a royal pain in the ass if they are allowed to build crusades (Knights of Santiago...ugh&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif.

I avoid taking out Egypt first because: most of the European crusades do not attempt to go through Spain (thus sparing you war/aggravation with crusading factions), the Spanish will most likely start building crusades that will go directly through lands (thus depleting your coffers or putting you at a two front war), and it is extremely difficult to finish Egypt off, as you most likely need to get up to the Antioch/Syria chokepoint (at which point your control of holy lands puts you at war with other crusading factions&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif. Bottom line: Let the Egyptians, Turkish, and Byzantines deal with the crusaders until you can focus with strength on those territories

OK, back to Spain...

If Portugal is occupied by another faction, keep a deterrant in Cordoba and Leon until Portugal revolts...once it revolts, ignore it until you have secured Navarre and Aragon, two mountain provinces that are pretty easy to defend against the French. Only when you have secured the peninsula do you turn your attention toward Egypt. You will need at least 7-8 stacks of peasants in Portugal for the first few years to deter any further rebellion.

*Build a navy. Can't stress this enough...in order to move your troops with impunity from Spain to Egypt, you must have a supply line across the north of Africa. Most other factions (except for maybe Sicily/Italy) will ignore the coast of Africa, so this should be easy to accomplish. This navy will also protect your inner provinces from attack.

Ignoring the trade benefits of the navy (which are substantial), you must control the waves in order to dictate your will on other factions quickly and ruthlessly.

*Keep the peace with other factions. Its a well-known fact that until you become one of the dominant factions of the game, most other factions will leave you alone.


After knocking out Spain, build up your coffers and technology, expand your navy, and apply the same principles to Egypt. As a general note, I like to maintain the fewest possible number of chokepoints, so I have typically expanded in spurts, targetting the following:

ALMO TARGET CHOKE POINTS (by 1200)
1) Navarre/Aragon/Cyrenicia
2) Navarre/Aragon/Syria/Antioch
3) Navarre/Aragon/Georgia/Constantinople (don't take Khazar unless you want the brunt of the Golden Horde...otherwise its a nice high florin province)

After that you should have the army and the florins to take what you what, when you want it

[ichi]

Windwood:

It is natural tendency to slowly expand, holding each province you take. I call this a 'static' strategy, but sometimes it leads to bottlenecks like the one you have described.

Goat makes some good points. Try some other things if his ideas don't work for you. First, if I could 'bleed off' some of my troops, thus lowering my expenses, while removing a similar number of the 'enemy at the gates' then I would do so. Place some of your older, more expensive (read Mercs) in a stack and attack somewhere you have a decent chance of winning, or at least killing/capturing a bunch of enemy. Increase your chances with an assassination attempt on the enemy general. Don't pay to ransom back any units you lose.

Shake up your production. If you have a province with a low acumen governor (or one with a vice that reduces income) then replace him.

Worst case, play 'dynamically'. Destroy everything in Egypt and Cyrenacia to get the florins, then let the Egyptians push you back to Tunisia (or thereabouts). When they are spread out a little (or if a province revolts behind them) try to re-take Cy and Egypt, you get pillage money for that. You can also try to build a Jihad to recapture the lost provinces.

ichi

[Windwood]

Great suggestions I actually already possess provinces as far north as Aquitaine and Toulouse, so I control the Navarre/Aragon choke point. Tonight I retook Castile back from the Spanish. Next I will retake Leon and eliminate them as a faction once again. Portugal currently belongs to the rebels (quite a few as a matter of fact. I don't have enough free forces to retake Portugal.)

The French now have a crusade coming after me (in addition to the German crusade and the Italian crusade). All three are now massing forces aong the borders with Aquitaine and Toulouse. I'm still stuck at that point and the Egyptians are still after me.

Would it be wise to push on against the Egyptians after eliminating the Spanish while not pressing any further again France, Germany and Italy? Or would it be better to try and make peace with Egypt and focus on upgrading troops, building ships and trying to get some control over the game?

[Goatus Maximus]

Aquitaine/Toulouse is an extension of the chokepoint, so that's OK, although since these are French homelands, you will most likely be at constant war with them.

Where are you at with regard to Egypt, meaning which province are you holding that they are attacking? Also, do you control the North Africa sea lanes? For the response below, I assume that you are defending Cyrenicia and have control of the sea.

A couple of suggestions...might work, might not...

If you feel strong enough to fight a two-front war, I would recommend holding France et al in check while maintaining Aquitaine/Toulouse. You should have enough provinces where you can crank out AUM and Desert Archers (or Pavise Arbalasters if you are that late in the game&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif to reinforce Aquitaine/Toulouse as needed after a crusade incursion, as well as to stock up to defeat Egypt. The mastery of the sea will allow you to move these troops immediately after they are produced.

If you don't feel like you can fight a two-front war, you might try pillaging Aquitaine/Toulouse and retreat into Navarre/Aragon...these provinces are a little easier to defend and might allow you to make peace with the Catholic factions, diverting the crusades through Eastern Europe instead.

I would not count on being able to make peace with the Egyptians, but certainly give it a try. If peace is made, continue to build up, as they can break the peace at any time (as can you once you are strong enough to defeat them )

Good luck

ps Be wary of Spanish reemergence. I would recommend placing ~300 troops in each former Spanish province, as well as 1-2 alims, if you can afford it.

[ShadesWolf]

I have played the Almo's a number of times and find them one of the easiest Factions to play as.

OK from the Start.....

Early in the game you are in an excellent position to advance the borders. You have two main front
-Iberia
- Egypt.

Make a decission early on who you want to ally with then declare war on the other. My initial thoughts, and always have been is you need to control Iberian, Egypt can wait until later.

First thing to do is take the two rebel provinces. Portugal and the one on the east coast (can think whats its called)

Send an emissary into both, make sure you get the one on the east first as its got El-Cid as the commander. Once those are secure, drop the tax to the lowest setting, to keep the people happy.

I would then start to build things to increase the peoples happyness. Castles, ports etc, Have a look in the manual it will tell you what building increase loyalty.

It is also a good idea to send an iman into these areas to convert the poplation to Islam. It makes conquest easier.

One word of warning.

CRUSADE

You need to be very careful when entering into phase two of the battle - The conquest of Aragon and Castile. Short and quick conquests are the order of the day. Fighting a long conflict against Catholic nations get the pope against you and hence Crusade.

Here away select who is first
- Castile
- Aragon.

It does not realy matter which you take out, but in my opinion Aragon is the easyiest of the two, and you can then march into Navarre and block the choke point into mainland Europe.

Again follow the same routine as before
- Invade
- Drop tax rate
- Convert population
- build happyness buildings.

Finally remove the final faction to control all of Iberia.

YOU NEED TO BE VERY CAREFUL TO AVOID REBELLION.
If you press the CTRL key (I think its that one) it shows the map in the loyaly mode, ie if all is good all your land will be Green.

THE INITIAL PHASE IS NOW COMPLETE

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It is now a good idea to build ships, trade buildings etc and take time to develop your empire before taking on the EGYPTIANS. I would leave Iberia and West Europe for now, leave a couple of large armies in the Choke poits and allow them ie the Europoeans to fight it out amongst themselves.

The key to Egypt is Egypt itself, remove that provinces and it is a matter of time. If your army size is low, then attack Egypt, destroy all buildings in it, so when you lose it the enemy cant build any units until they have rebuild everything, which takes time and money.

Just keep take one by one.

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If you cant ant more info then I can continue but I think this is a good start.

[Brutal DLX]

Rule #1: Never bite off more than you can chew. If you are warring against the Catholics, then leave the Egyptians alone.
From what you told here, it seems you will need your forces to hold back the various crusades, so try to make peace with the Egyptians, if you can't, plunder Egypt and retreat, with the money gained, try to build a new army stack and place that under the command of a good general (probably one of your heirs).
Try to hold the Egyptians in the vast deserts of Cyrenaica. Take lots of Camels, desert archers, muhawid and Ghazi. That's a cheap but effective army for desert warfare, along with a good general you have good chances of standing fast.

Then you need to resolve the situation in Southern France.
You need to make a profit, so either wait until all the crusades attack and then (hopefully) repel them, or start to go pillaging with one stack across France (Anjou, Ile de France, Flanders, Champagne..) that will get you some money.
Ultimately, you either need to make peace or break through their amassed forces with what you have. You don't have much of a choice when your bank account is low. Can't wait them out.

Good luck, anyways.

[ShadesWolf]

I was thinking about this today.....

One tactic I use when I have prob with the pope is to kill him, either by an invasion and put him in exile or if u are lucky an assassin. This should stop the Crusades.

and as for Europe itself, attack pillage and destroy each province to create a sort of dead zone.
Drop the tax rate and fill each provinve with armies then as you get attacked retreat.

Thus giving the enemy a useless province, he must garrison. This is the tactics I always use against France, no matter who I play as.

Let us know how u get on

[Popeye]

Going back to the original problem in the first post...

The problem is that you lack a navy. A navy would give you not only trade income (which you are sorely missing right now) but would allow you to move an army into a coastal province behind their lines, drawing off some of the pressure on your front.

There is no quick fix. You have to think long term.

Change your recruiting to go for maximum defense. Carefully inspect your available generals for Vice and Virtue, because I've learned that an army led by a 6 star Coward will lose to anything half their size or larger. Never ransom back prisoners you take, as you'll just have to fight them again very soon.

To move ahead, you must build ships. You need mobility, and the Trade income won't be unwelcome.

When you can reach the enemy rear, raid less protected coastal provinces, using mercenaries. Loot a province, and disband them, unless the chances for a revolt are very low. The idea is loot for you and weaken his economy and production, not to give him 2,000 free troops or open up a second front for yourself.

It is NEVER too early to be thinking about building your navy. The mobility (and income) it affords means options. In my current campaign, (Turk/Early/Expert, current 1170) I border with the Almohad, Poles, Hungarians, and Novgorod. Novgorod has a single province in the north and can't feed their troops, the Byzantines are in a similar situation on Crete with no navy.

Germany having the most armies wouldn't be a problem (since we don't share a border,) except that they just announced a Crusade against me. I don't know where they plan to go yet. If not for the fact that I am 2 years from having ships in every zone, my only choice would be to wait till the Crusade reached my border, in about three years if not more.

Thanks to my navy, I have the option of attacking the Chapter House from the sea, or trying to remove the Pope. I may or may not be able to do either, but they are possibilities I would not have now, had I not started building ships early on (and now have 3 provinces building them.)

Never let the enemy choose the site of battle.

[TheRookiee]

This is what I do in the event of a standoff like you mentioned where you have to leave your province open to attack, but you are sure you can take the opposing province.

First off, I make sure I have my best generals in the two provinces, so I won't lose many troops in the battle. Then I attack one of the other armies but leave one wimpy unit behind in the keep. I win the battle with huge losses on the enemy side. They invade my old province since it is weak. I retreat to the castle. Then next turn I retake my province, and since I have my best general with my army I can still win even if I'm outnumbered. This way, I kill off so many enemy troops with meager losses to my own army that I am then able to actually push through into the enemy territory after the couple battles.

Furthermore, since you mentioned your troops were outdated and your coffers were straining, the loss of your own troops will mean less upkeep. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[GreasePaintMonkeyBrains]

yah kill off outdated troops they are just
a drain http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

[Gregoshi]

Welcome to the Org GreasePaint.

Another option to your suggestion is to disband the outdated units. There are advantages to kill'em off as well as disband.

[ShadesWolf]

This is something I do quite a lot, to see how long it takes to totally remove them http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[DDogwood]

Don't underestimate the usefulness of a series of chevauchees, either... this is where you send a powerful army into enemy territory, not to conquer the provinces, but to loot and pillage. When I am at loggerheads with a number of opponents, I use this as a kind of economic warfare - by sweeping a powerful force through a few enemy territories, I can make thousands of florins and seriously weaken his medium-term fighting abilities.

Tips to remember:
- it is better to use this tactic on provinces with fortifications - that way the enemy forces will usually retreat to the castle and automatically retake the province when you leave. This is important because it makes loyalist uprisings less likely, and increases the chances that your enemy will encounter a peasant uprising or a civil war.
- use a large, mobile army with a good general. If the enemy engages you, fight for maximum enemy casualties with minimum loss, rather than fighting to win the territory (i.e. have lots of light cavalry ready to pursue fleeing troops, distract powerful units with horse archers so you can overwhelm weaker ones). You can get good money from ransoms.
- Resist the temptation to keep a particularly juicy province - you are trying to weaken your opponent so you can crush him with a far superior army several years down the road.

Another strategy that works well independently or in conjunction with the above is to build loads of spies and/or religious agents, and flood the enemy territories with them. Focus on his best regions, and ones that rebel all the time (the Baltic states, Portugal, etc.). There is very little that is more satisfying to me than when there is an uprising of Islamic bandits in Ile de France http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
(I have been playing a Byzantine campaign where I've managed to get Rome and the Papal States to 70% Orthodox... no uprising YET, but here's hoping...) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

[Popeye]

Heh. I tried doing a looting raid against France. It sorta didn't work out like I planned.

Turks/Expert/Early (Current year: 1171)

I attacked the entire French coast from Aquitane to Flanders, figuring I would lose some, but enough would succeed to be worthwhile. They retreated to the castles in all provinces, so I just decided to stay, and even push inland.

What was supposed to be a one year looting run against my second most powerful enemy has basically destroyed them in two. End of next year, all French troops outside of Wessex will be under siege.