sicilians w/ muslim units?

[octavian]

alright, over the past few days i've been trying out the medmod factions, so today as i'm playing, i see that the sicilians can get mamluk horse archers, nubian spearmen, and the like, its not that i mind, but could anyone inform me as to why this is, perhaps wes?

[Norseman]

Historically, the Sicilian-Normans were very good at raising whatever troops available for their armies, even of another culture or religion. Most notably, the large muslim population of Sicily served as archers and light cavalry in return for religious tolerance. The Sicilian-Normans also conquered Tunisia and held on to it from 1148 to 1159, apparantly hireing soldiers here as well.

From a gameplay point of view, I think it makes the Sicilians more fun to play. They have a hard time expanding North past the Pope and into Central Europe, and must therefor rely on coastal expansion and raids around the Mediterranean Sea, where many regions are muslim.

[octavian]

makes sense, thanks for informing me further

[katank]

I was also very surprised at this the first time I saw it but they do get the awesome muslim troops including futuwwas which Wes did tone down a bit.

The Tunisia Homelands is very interesting and I've been inspired to mod my game to give sicilians desert troops in malta as well as "barbary coast pirates" for them and the almos in algeria and tunisia with modified futuwwa stats and build reqs.

This makes the Sicilians even more interesting as a faction.

In medmod they are good too due to access to the sicilian knights and some of the militia units that the italains get. This makes them a bit OP IMHO.

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

Quote[/b] (katank @ Mar. 20 2004,15:58)]I was also very surprised at this the first time I saw it but they do get the awesome muslim troops including futuwwas which Wes did tone down a bit.

The Tunisia Homelands is very interesting and I've been inspired to mod my game to give sicilians desert troops in malta as well as "barbary coast pirates" for them and the almos in algeria and tunisia with modified futuwwa stats and build reqs.

This makes the Sicilians even more interesting as a faction.

In medmod they are good too due to access to the sicilian knights and some of the militia units that the italains get. This makes them a bit OP IMHO.
I'm inclined to agree with you. In MedMOD, Sicilian Knights (both of them) are very powerfull. The hability to train Mamluk, as well as the powerfull Italian faction's infantry, makes them really OP, IMHO.

[katank]

on the infantry part: technically, you aren't supposed to use pavisiers as wes' readme stated but frequently the tempation is too great http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

I really love the fact that you can dismount sicilian knights in open battle also.

really cool unit roster overall.

[son of spam]

hehe they are not OP when they get excommed and swamped with tons of trash woodsmen... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-yes.gif. I'd like to see one of those scilian feudal knigits fight it out when outnumbered 10 to 1 by crazy axe weilding peasents.

[katank]

just because you play another faction and decided to destroy this one doesn't mean that it isn't OP.

imagine 10 sicilian feudals to 1 crazy axe wielding peasent though. what peasant? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

[son of spam]

hehe not my 19 valor one...wait... what do you mean he chopped off his own head with an axe

[Daevyll]

They might be a bit overpowered on the units side, but the Sicilians' strategic position is bad enough to compensate for it.

With only a few homelands, the Pope who always seems to attack you nomatter what you do, and a non-stop naval war to support as well, yuo really need all the help you can get ;)

It is one of my favourite (medmod) factions, for the simple reason that it is one of the hardest to play.

[katank]

the strategic position is not that bad.

I was shocked though to find that the pope once bribed a spearmen of mine in Naples http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

he was promptly slaughtered but it was just plain funny

[Satyr]

Yeah, but then the Pope excommed you, which is all he was after anyway. Now he and all his buddies can attack you freely. Nice man that pope. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-dizzy2.gif

[katank]

well, I usually reduce him to a drafty castle in papal states with a few illiterate militia for company eating gruel to repay the favor http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[son of spam]

I usually reduce him to a headless corpse on the battlefield with a few more headless militia seargents to keep him company. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ChaosShade]

I usually kill him....every year http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif


hehe actually...I discovered if you keep the loyalty of the papal states and rome at 200% the pope will not re-emerge http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

ps. I think that the sicilean strategic position is very strong, you can generate a lot of wealth easily through trade and can easily dominate the mediteranian with a strong navy. I often have a -very- high troop density in my provinces making them near impossible to invade...not that getting through the blockades is easy - you have to go through italy and that is very narrow.

in short: control the sea and you are near impossible to conquer there just arn't the overland routes available. Taking out the pope isn't that hard either.

[katank]

I like headless corpse too but I don't like him to pop up with bigger armies each time.

what a drain on resources

does keeping 200% loyalty actually work?

gonna try that now.

dunno about that tho. I still wanna crusade.