Russia vs Mongol

Today in my game as the Russians I destroyed the Mongols the very turn they appeared. Before in my Byzantine and Turkish campaigns I dreaded get swarmed from the north by massive amounts of HA, and since this was the first time I had played as the Rus i thought my chances were slim. When the 20ish stacks appeared in Kazar, I took Jedi Prince Vladmir the seven-star awesome with a half mercenary stack of pavise arbalest, mamluk gunners, boyars and druiza (axe horses) and pegged the khan with 200 bolts and arrows. When he died and the horizon darkened with vast swarms of golden horde reinforcements, I withdrew and the Mongol Hordes were no longer a threat.

I always get my face beat if i am playing as an Islamic faction, and am surprised that the massive threat that makes the Russian campaign went down so easy. Anyone else have a similar experience?

As a matter of fact, I believe quite a few MTW players (including myself) have managed to take out the Mongols early on like you have....and often times in the same manner. As you've already discovered, killing the Kahn in that first battle in Khazar will usually do the trick. :yes:

That being said, however, I generally don't see the Golden Horde eliminated that quickly. As a rule, they wind up conquering at least part of the steppes and pushing their way into either eastern Europe and/or Anatolia. About the only times they halt their expansion early on is if I manage to stop them as either the Byzantines or Egyptians.

To be honest, in the majority of my games when I am on the "Mongol front line", I manage to kill the Khan in the first battle. Hopefully by that time I have enough cash to bribe a few stacks of the rebels, as I do like to have a few stacks of Mongols in my army afterwards :2thumbsup:

Mind you in my current BKB game, the "front-line" faction was.... the Papacy. I don't know if BKB favours this faction in any way, but it's a monster, with most of the steppe (all of it now the Horde has been wiped...), Eastern Europe, Central Europe, a lot of Anatolia, and half of Iberia. I'm more worried by that inevitable showdown than I usually am about the Horde arriving ~D

I've done it once. Most of the time I will let them have Kazar and fight them in Kiev. I like the bridge slaughter.

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Originally Posted by m52nickerson

I've done it once. Most of the time I will let them have Kazar and fight them in Kiev. I like the bridge slaughter.

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Ditto that. Much better to defend Kiev's river crossing or Georgia's mountains. :yes:

The most annoying thing is when the Khan's unit withdraws right at the start of the battle and you have to face 10 waves of troops with no chance of obtaining the big morale hit by killing him. ARRGHH!

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Originally Posted by Martok

Ditto that. Much better to defend Kiev's river crossing or Georgia's mountains. :yes:

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Indeed. I actually never fight the Mongols in Khazar or Volga Bulgaria. Fighting the Mongols on the open steppes has never seemed a good idea to me. :sweatdrop:

Attacking the GH is difficult. A defensive battle against them is easier to manage, though your offensive battles can also be staged defensively with lots of heavy spear, pike, polearm units and archers, crossbows, arbalests or longbows making up the bulk of your force. Cavalry are of limited use against the Horde's mainly cavalry based line up. I prefer lighter to medium cavalry for breaking or chasing down routers and dealing with the irritating mongol warriors.

What works well for me is a force of mostly Halberdiers, with a few PavArbs and some fast cav mixed in. Set up in a line, kill the Khan by whatever means necessary. Usually, the Mongol Heavies swarm you once they've eaten a few arbalest bolts, at which point the Halberdiers step in to simply slaughter them, and if the Khan wants to flee, your fast cav can outrun and catch him.
Once the Khan is dead, set up in a nice little forest. The Mongols may send what mounted archers and foot archers they want, their arrows won't hit much. You may lose a few, but Halberdiers and PavArbs can take that kind of missile attack for a LONG time before being whittled down, especially in a forest. The forest has the other nice side benefit that mongol cav will get slaughtered QUICKLY if they dare enter in there.
Once, I had this kind of battle vs. about 13 Mongol stacks, and only had one stack to defend with, silver-armored all. I killed the Khan, made me a little forest fortress and waited, with max acceleration on. I actually prepared dinner in the meantime, all the while waiting for the victory trumpets to sound from my speakers. Took a while, but in the end I was victorious. Didn't want to lose that battle, you see: It was my very own Russian elite troops I had there, plus a good general, and I'd have missed them sorely if I had withdrawn.