View Full Version : lib Almohad Urban Militia
Soapyfrog
08-30-2002, 20:26
These guys are bad asses!!
They are ridiculously good troops... After expanding my French Empire out to Austria, I turned south to assist the Spanish with the Almohad in around 1190. They were getting their asses kicked, and I was soon to find out why, as my battle hardened armies rolled into northern Spain... and had their heads handed to them!!!
It was always the Almohad Urban Militia. Frequently I would kill or capture the enemy general, only to have these awesome troops stand firm nontheless and break my formations like childs playthings.
10 years later they had finished off the Spanish and pushed into Southern France, while I desperately attempted to rebuild my shattered armies.
By good fortune I was able to win 3 successive battles and push him out of France proper, and now I am frantically teching up, trying to find a troop type who will fight these guys on even terms.
It's amazing! I am VERY hard pressed to win a battle even when I outnumber him 3 to 1 if he has some Almohad Urban Militia units. If he doesn't, it's easy, but if he does (and he usually does) it becomes a horrible meatgrinder!
Any advice on dealing with these maniacs?
lots of arrows or some high valour high quality cavalry...even still you will probably take some big losses. Try to outflank and hit them from the rear or something. But yeah, they are really good cheap units for the almohads. I feel your pain.
Yeah, they have really good stats for early period, and they tend to have high valor as well. They can tear through anything you can build one on one, even feudal foot knights, if they are equal valor the only way I've found to beat them is to;
1) Weakening them severely with archery helps, but I remember a depleting one of them down to 26 and they still slaughtered a 60 man stack of normal urban militia up hill, so this strategy should usually be coupled with the others.
2)Stick a full 100 men spearmen or feudal seargents in front of them, on hold formation and hold ground. The A.U.M. will beat these guys down but it will take a long time, giving you time to hit them from behind with a charge or even rout the rest of the army so that you can just capture the A.U.M.
I've only fought them as England, so perhaps there are other tactics. They are fucking uber but, the Almohads get passed in technology quickly.
I wonder if it is historically accurate for them to be this good?
[This message has been edited by Action (edited 08-30-2002).]
do the almohads really get passed by in tech quickly? Even if the player is using them? does it take more time for them to build structures or something?
They have a ton of early game units and fewer late game units. So they are at their strongest in the early game, as the game moves on units that were once really strong become average.
[This message has been edited by Action (edited 08-30-2002).]
Soapyfrog
08-30-2002, 21:05
Yeah, I am basically trying to tech up to better units... best I can field right now are Feudal Sergeants, Men at Arms and Royal Knights. Looking at the situation right now, I could be in a LOT of trouble if he makes a determined effort to invade (so far he has only committed MAYBE 20% of the forces he has on my border to attacking... plus some minor amphibious operations which have been VERY annoying.
Maybe I should build a few Crusades? What do you think?
I have hurt AUM badly with jinetes and crossbowmen.
------------------
COGITOERGOVINCO
Kalisari
08-30-2002, 21:31
yep Jinettes really hurt them.
Almohad Urban Militia are basically slightly stronger than feudal men-at-arms.
cavalry flank is about the only way to smash them...
Whilst playing as the Almohads I lost quite a few to French forces using Crossbows...still one the day but it was an amazing fight. I had taken Aquitaine and then the french hit me with everything but the kitchen sink. I believe it was a combined force of 4 armys hitting me...I know there were about 6 waves of men. Including crusader forces of the Knights Templar. From that fight, which I eventually won, I learned quite abit about make up of an Almohad army.
1. dont use Ghazi infantry men....they are fanatics that dont seem to know better..quite literally I concentrated on another group and went back to them and they had 1 man left....IN PURSUIT of 30 spearmen.
2. Never use Berber camels for hand to hand attacks...that hurt
3. Use lots of Almohad Urban Militia....I didnt lose a single unit and I unfortunately only had 2.
------------------
Through eternal aeons lie time will come when death may die
Karmakaze
08-31-2002, 00:18
I agree totally with Beckett there.
But, Ghazis have their uses:
-Reserve troops (since they don't rout)
-Tying up enemy units (again, since they dont rout, but boy do they die quickly)
And camels are really bad at HTH. I've had 40 unit camel riders lose 2-3 men chasing down fleeing spearmen!
Which reminds me, how close to camels have to be to spook horses? In HTH or just nearby, or just on the battlefield?
Shiro, Pape plz move this into PAF. thx
ShadesWolf
09-03-2002, 17:45
Great http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif Thanks for the info guys.....
I by mistake was using to much of the other units and leaving the militia out.
Not any more, thanks again
I still cant get over my lone Ghazi chasing down the horde of peasants and spearman...sure he was supported by Nubian Spearman(another great unit). I would say my best army for the Almohads has been 3 or so units of Gulham Bodyguards(normally a high valor prince in command of the army) 4 units of Almohad Urban Militia, 2 Berber Camels/2 Muwadin footman(sp?)(the guys with the javelins), 3 Desert Archers, 2 Saharan Cavalry,and 2 units of Nubian Spearman. For Seiges sub out the Cavalry for Mangonels or Trebuchet. Ghazi die to fast for my taste and have to be monitored VERY closely to make sure you dont loose the unit...see my above example.
------------------
Through eternal aeons lie time will come when death may die
Use Vikings, Highland Clansmen or Gallowglass to deal with AUM for cost effective solution.
The AUM are better statswise but the charge factor of HC and Gallowglass in particular will see them off.
I'm playing as Danes on expert and my armies consist of Vikings, Vikings and some more Vikings, then archers, crossbows & FeudalSergeants.
Currently kicking the Almohads clean out of Spain and Morocco, not much left of them now and havn't got to 1200 A.D. yet.
It's quite funny that I'm showing all the signs of being English having conquered Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus before I invaded any other provinces outside of Scandinavia. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
vBulletin® v3.7.1, Copyright ©2000-2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.