The Almohads

[Vigi]

Well having finished my campaign as the Illustrious Italians http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif, I have decided now to approach the Almohads. Period will be early, either normal/hard probably. Anyone have tips for these guys? I haven't played muslim factions before so I know i'm going to be unused to their type of combat in general, so any and all tips from Almohad, or even Turkish or Egyptian experts would be welcome. Questions in particular that I have are the following:

1) How quickly should I attack the Spanish? An immediate strike, or build up a stack first and then do it?
2)Whats a good combo in armies? I like flavored armies so to speak, but I can obviously see that Almohad Urban Militia will be the core of my forces.
3)Province specilization? Obviously Granada for AUMs, but aside from that?

Thanks in advance =).

[econ21]

Have a look at the two Almohad campaigns in the PBM forum of the org, they may give you some ideas.

1) Personally, I would stack up some AUM and then attack. You don't want to wait so long that they can crusade. Bribe El Cid.

2) You are right - the AUM is the key on early. 4-5 AUM is good, even vs non-heavy cav. Maybe 2+ Nubians for specific anti-knight tasks. 3+ desert archers - rely a lot on missile fire. 2 desert cav for pursuit/archer hunting. Ghulam bodyguards will have to do as your heavy cav reserve for a while. 2+ Ghazis can be fun for fast flankers, especially if your AI opponent gets armoured. I don't rate the Muhawid spears much. Camels can be fun vs light cav. (+1 in Morrocco?).

3) It takes a long time to get faris or Ghulams, so plan for it. Desert provinces are very important for troops: they give your only early cav (+1 in Cyrenacia?); Nubians; and for the faster archers. I think Almos get arbalesters, so plan early - they take a lot of building to get for 1205. Use the iron in Spain. You get a bonus for dhows in Tripoli IIRC, otherwise go for baggalas - they will give you naval superiority on early. Spanish provinces are suprisingly good economically - lots of trade, some good ag - so you might want to let the non-iron ones be primarily economic rather than troop producing. I like every province to be able to produce useful troops in an emergency, tho - AUM, Spears or archers - this does not require too much tech.

Spread ships and alims everywhere for trade and to convert the Christians respectively. Leave the Pope alone until the end game. Kill the crusading Catholics first, then the others. Have fun

[solypsist]

Table of Contents has just about everything you'd want to know.

[Doug-Thompson]

I have to disagree on two points.

First, attack Spain immediately.

Second, don't bribe El Cid.

I drop my taxes to the floor to preserve province loyalty and move all my troops in a blitz, leaving one unit on the Egyptian border.

What's the use of leaving garrisons and having a high acumen governor and very high taxes on Cyrencia, for instance, when you can conquer Castile?

I build inns in Cordoba and Morroco and hire high-quallity armored mercs instead of bribing El Cid. The Cid costs too much money for what you get. He's a talented general, but you already have a good ruling family of generals, and mercs have better arms and armor than the Cid's units.

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You're right about the AUM. You need to back them up, though, with Desert Archers from Morroco.

Bonused dhows from Tunisia are more important than they look. They help you grab an early advantage at sea. You'll need that sea-borne mobility to move between your frontiers. You'll want to be able to move troops freely between the Spanish and Egyptian fronts.

Bonused Saharan cavlary from Cyrencia is a nice plus, but what you really want to do is grab Egypt or some other province that produces camels, or your Saharan cavalry will be hopelessly countered.

Bonused Berber camels from Morrocco are nice a little unit. Morrocco is your archer province.

[Brutal DLX]

Yes, there's probably a lot of info in the ToC, but I'll add my opinion nevertheless. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

As to what is best, depends on your playing style. If you are an agressive player, bribe El Cid and prepare for a quick strike into Leon or Castile, while trying to get an alliance with the Aragonese for the time being. Bribing Cid
is just so you get another good general and your enemy doesn't.
If you are defensive, stack a big army consisting of AUM and Militia sarges plus some desert archers/spearmen in Cordoba and then focus on quickly building gold mines and then farmland.
Generally don't construct armouries in provinces east of Morocco, because that's where you should build your desert forces in case you get into a war with the Egyptians, always be prepared to get attacked in Cyrenaica, so don't tech that province up at first.
After you have maxed your income, it is time to look for which direction to strike, either Egypt or Spain. Build armies accordingly. In desert, build lots of desert archers, spearmen and camels & sahara cavalry, also throw in some ghazis. Later you can also add Ghulam cavalry, as they will be your best cavalry.
For fighting Catholic armies, go with AUM and MS, but I would prefer Muhawid over Nubian spearmen, they are smaller in numbers, but have higher morale and together with an armoury they are a good spear unit which is also fast. Also you could add one or two Murabitin, their javelins work well against armoured opponents. Cavalry should be Faris and Ghulam Cav, until you get them take some Saharan cav (but no camels) for rear attacks, keeping those Jinetes busy and quick hit and runs.
Once you've conquered all of Spain, the campaign is basically won, but don't forget to build those metalsmiths in Northern Spain Also upgrade your missile units to use Xbows and arbalests, as mentioned before.

Oh, and it is also very important to get some ships as soon as possible, because every now and then it occurs to either the Italians or the Sicilians to use their own ships to mount a little naval assault on North Africa.

[HopAlongBunny]

The navy is much more important than I realized.

Wiped out the Spanish and Argonese. Got a great army put together http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif French crusade on Cordoba; by-passes my defences by catching a ride on English ships. I abandon Portugal to the French but crush them the next turn. Result: 5 stacks of the re-emirgant Spanish in Portugal; about half of them are feudal knights *gulp*

[Satyr]

I try to take the Spanish out in the first 10-12 years. After that I move right up and take over all of France. Now I have some great trading provinces and great farming and mining too. Then I start concentrating on building ships and taking over the seas. If you are taking over catholic provinces the catholics will crusade those that you have newly aquired and leave your home territories alone. Between AUM, desert archers, nubian spears and desert cav I can slaughter anything thrown against me. Just don't let your cav engage anything other that archers except from behind. After a while it is easy to take out the Germans and then the Italians and the game is yours. I leave the other Muslim nations alone until they attack me or I need to expand that direction later in the game. I would rather eliminate factions that can crusade me first.

[NewJeffCT]

I'm in the midst of an Almo campaign and I was super-aggressive early and have not stopped. (I do not have VI)... but, I almost immediately attacked the Spanish and bribed El Cid. After wiping out the Spanish, I consolidated my holdings on the Iberian peninsula by taking out the rebels in Portugal and Navarre. (I had sent an alim in early to start converting them, but I still had a few rebellions...) Right after that, I invaded Aragon and wiped them out. After building up my troops for a few years, I attacked the English in Aquitine and then had to fight off French and HRE crusades and ended up taking Toulouse as well.

Then, since the Italians soon launched a Crusade at me, I took Corsica and Sardinia from them, and then snagged rebellious Sicily & Malta after the Sicilians degenerated into a minor faction in losing to the Byzantines... From there, I snagged Ireland and Scotland and have been squeezing the English from both directions – they only hold Wessex and Flanders now, while the French are only in Ile de France and the HRE is filled with rebel provinces now. I hope to march all the way across central Europe soon.

The AUMs have been killers for me. I have the one AUM bonus province (Granada?) cranking out a unit of AUM every year. I figure best to cause as much devastation as I can Early, as I will have to face chivalric knights and sergeants in the High era and my troops will lose some of their edge. Desert archers have been pretty good for me as well – especially in countering jinettes early. A few concentrated volleys at 40 jinettes from 60 desert archers whittles them down quite a bit...Saharan cavalry around the back of jinettes forcing them forward into your spears and AUM works nice, too.

[Doug-Thompson]

I prefer to go east after crushing the Spanish. Egyptians have lots of peasants and spearmen, which die miserably to AUM.

Egypt, Palestine, Tripoli and Antioch are all rich provinces that can be occupied quickly.

Besides, the English and French will always fight among themselves. Let them, and stop Egypt from building up while you leave them alone and the Turks and Byzantines fight each other.

[lancer63]

Great advise guys. Just one more thing. Flood the map with imans. specially Portugal. But every christian prov. I take must have at least 4 imans (or alims, don't remember) and every neighboring prov takes at least 2. farther away I send either from 1 to 3 to each province I can, specially those prefered by crusades like the iberian bottleneck of Navarre and aragon, Champange, Venice, etc. It makes life harder for them crusaders. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Brutal DLX]

I would rather send alims at first, as they don't raise the zeal of that province and thus could help the enemy crusades before there are 50%+ Muslims in that province.

[Doug-Thompson]

Speaking of religion, don't forget Jihads.

Jihads are very important for agressive civs like the Almohads. Your AUMs will grab territory fast, but it's hard to build up enough troops to hold that territory. Your enemies who are spending resources on their economies instead of on rapid expansion might take good territories away from you once you're overextended.

A combination of seapower, then Jihads is a very effective defense. The ships prevent landings. They can also transport multiple Jihads to any place where they are needed. Mass from multiple Jihads is very important. You don't want a Jihad to fail. That could start a civil war.

Jihads make a Islamic faction almost civil-war proof. A province is rebelling? Send in a Jihad to take it back. A large proportion of the time, the rebels will meekly surrender to the Jihad. They won't even be a fight.

Even Jihad markers in rebellious territories remain loyal to you. You can assign them to re-take another province, although a Jihad can't be assigned to re-take it's own province.

[lancer63]

Quote[/b] (Brutal DLX @ Nov. 17 2003,03:04)]I would rather send alims at first, as they don't raise the zeal of that province and thus could help the enemy crusades before there are 50%+ Muslims in that province.
Yes, yes. That's what I meant. Alims. The guys you train at the mosques. They make great spies too and are killed less often.