RollingWave
07-30-2003, 17:27
Ok I'm kinda bored so I'll write a analysis on the Almohads (based on early). feel free to comment and correct me...
Almohads are IMHO the easiet faction to win with in Early... they have great just about everything.
Postitioning: Just great, out of your starting 6 province only 2 border other factions, you have a long coast line which can be both a blessing and a bane depend on your controlling of the sea, speaking of the sea, you control the straits of gibratal so it gives you easy access to both the northern atlantic region and the med, make it very easy for you to expand good trade rout and or cut it off for your enemy. although you are a bit far from the hottest trading provinces (Viena and constaninople etc...)you still have quiet a few tradable province close to you.
Units: You start out with one of the best early line ups in early, the almohad milita are just the best overall infantry you can get in early (considering price, reliability, general power and accessability etc...) desert archers are better than the presto archers, berbers are not that impressive but it's as close to a cav archer as you can get and they get a nice anti calvary bonus... you also have the general muslim lineup which tend to be better than the cathloics during early. even more importantly out of your 6 starting province 4 of them give you bonus for ur unist, (berbers, aum, saharan and dhows) this is a huge bonus and will be very helpful all game long. Your unit lineup become weaker later into the game but if you should be able to rely on price effciency and effective counter and a powerful economy in general to balance that.
Economy: although your starting province are generally not too rich, they give acceptable income and you only have to maintain two border not to meantion your troops are generally cheap, both the Iberian and middle east which you will ahve to expand into are rich in trade or farming or both, you have a lot of access to coasts so builing up a trade rout shouldn't be too hard.
General guide: The Iberian are generally a better idea to expand into first while making peace with the egyptian, egyptian are alot more reliable than the Spanish and the iberain are also divided and generally weak early on, while the spanish can become a serious contender if you leave it alone.
The Almohad Urban milita are very very powerful early on .. (acturally they are very good all game long... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif ) they should form the back bone of your army, both desert archers and berbers are decent range support and the saharan get the job done well enough as light cavs, note that you are probably one of the weakeast faction in terms of heavy calvary, you can genearlly only build Ghulams and Royal Ghulam body guards... although you can build Armenian too if you capture that area.. usually you wouldn't do it too fast.... the Ghulams are good early on but they are no match for the high/late heavy cavs of europe.
Expand into Spain ASAP, don't let them get a crusade against you, try not to take portugal too fast due to it's rebellious reputation, though it's a good trading port later on, once you defeat the spanish the weak aragon kingdom should be no problem and either bribe or defeat the other rebels (probably defeat is better as those province aren't build up and those generals are units you can't retrain)
Use the province with iron as you main military development and spread out development a bit... develop trade and genearlly build up, as long as you don't get hit by big crusades and don't lose control of the sea to enemies, it's quiet hard to lose by this point... slowly push into Europe, try not to get into war with more than 1-2 faction at once, maintian a large agents aresenal and use them accordingly... all the usual stuff....
one of the reason not going east first is that the Mongol hoard will eventurally seriously weaken those faction in the east, by then they become easy picking (and you don't have to deal with the mongol threat yourself http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif )
Gotta sleep now... just writing this mostly to remind myself if I ever play the almos again http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif
Almohads are IMHO the easiet faction to win with in Early... they have great just about everything.
Postitioning: Just great, out of your starting 6 province only 2 border other factions, you have a long coast line which can be both a blessing and a bane depend on your controlling of the sea, speaking of the sea, you control the straits of gibratal so it gives you easy access to both the northern atlantic region and the med, make it very easy for you to expand good trade rout and or cut it off for your enemy. although you are a bit far from the hottest trading provinces (Viena and constaninople etc...)you still have quiet a few tradable province close to you.
Units: You start out with one of the best early line ups in early, the almohad milita are just the best overall infantry you can get in early (considering price, reliability, general power and accessability etc...) desert archers are better than the presto archers, berbers are not that impressive but it's as close to a cav archer as you can get and they get a nice anti calvary bonus... you also have the general muslim lineup which tend to be better than the cathloics during early. even more importantly out of your 6 starting province 4 of them give you bonus for ur unist, (berbers, aum, saharan and dhows) this is a huge bonus and will be very helpful all game long. Your unit lineup become weaker later into the game but if you should be able to rely on price effciency and effective counter and a powerful economy in general to balance that.
Economy: although your starting province are generally not too rich, they give acceptable income and you only have to maintain two border not to meantion your troops are generally cheap, both the Iberian and middle east which you will ahve to expand into are rich in trade or farming or both, you have a lot of access to coasts so builing up a trade rout shouldn't be too hard.
General guide: The Iberian are generally a better idea to expand into first while making peace with the egyptian, egyptian are alot more reliable than the Spanish and the iberain are also divided and generally weak early on, while the spanish can become a serious contender if you leave it alone.
The Almohad Urban milita are very very powerful early on .. (acturally they are very good all game long... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif ) they should form the back bone of your army, both desert archers and berbers are decent range support and the saharan get the job done well enough as light cavs, note that you are probably one of the weakeast faction in terms of heavy calvary, you can genearlly only build Ghulams and Royal Ghulam body guards... although you can build Armenian too if you capture that area.. usually you wouldn't do it too fast.... the Ghulams are good early on but they are no match for the high/late heavy cavs of europe.
Expand into Spain ASAP, don't let them get a crusade against you, try not to take portugal too fast due to it's rebellious reputation, though it's a good trading port later on, once you defeat the spanish the weak aragon kingdom should be no problem and either bribe or defeat the other rebels (probably defeat is better as those province aren't build up and those generals are units you can't retrain)
Use the province with iron as you main military development and spread out development a bit... develop trade and genearlly build up, as long as you don't get hit by big crusades and don't lose control of the sea to enemies, it's quiet hard to lose by this point... slowly push into Europe, try not to get into war with more than 1-2 faction at once, maintian a large agents aresenal and use them accordingly... all the usual stuff....
one of the reason not going east first is that the Mongol hoard will eventurally seriously weaken those faction in the east, by then they become easy picking (and you don't have to deal with the mongol threat yourself http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif )
Gotta sleep now... just writing this mostly to remind myself if I ever play the almos again http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif