So, what is this exactly?
This is a tactical guide to playing as the Timurids in M2TW.
Buh? You can’t play as Timurids in M2TW!
Oh yes you can. Thanks to the Custom Campaign mod (see link below), you can jump right into a game where you play as the Timurids, the Mongols, the Aztecs, even the Rebels!
The mod also comes with 6 different custom maps, 5 of which are portions of the original M2TW world map, and the sixth of which is a giant ‘fantasy world’ map featuring a variety of terrain types and about 16 factions. Check it out here:
http://204.155.67.203/med2/M2TWLaunc...ual&StoryId=23
So why play as the Timurids, anyway?
Elephants with cannon on their backs. World-beating hybrid archers at Minor City level. Elephants with cannon on their backs. The best javelinmen in the game. Elephants with cannon on their backs. The most powerful cavalry in the game. Did I mention that there are elephants with cannon on their backs?
Any downsides?
Well, in the Custom Campaign mod you can’t train any religious conversion units when playing as Timurids. That’s about all. This is actually probably a good thing, as otherwise the game would be very, very easy.
So why a tactical guide?
Because I believe that the Timurids are actually one of the most flexible nations in M2TW: when facing them in a normal game it’s easy to get overwhelmed by massive stacks of horse archers and elephants, but the Timurids actually have quite a subtle line-up of units. Also, the majority of nation guides seem to focus on overarching strategy, rather than battlefield tactics, so a discussion of units is in order.
Unit Line-up
Spears
Middle-Eastern Town Militia: This is your bog-standard militia garrison unit, available at all but the smallest of settlements. Poor defence – although this can be remedied somewhat by getting armour – poor offence (5, +4 vs. cavalry), low morale, and the inability to form a Shiltrolm. It’s nothing that you haven’t seen before, as it’s pretty much the bog-standard entry-level city unit of every non-Italian faction in the game. There are also only 60 men in the unit, so it’s a last-resort garrison unit at best.
Middle-Eastern Spear Militia: Bigger brother of the town militia. More men (75 as opposed to 60), more damage against horses as it has a +8 bonus, and it can form a defensive ring. Once it’s armoured it’s capable of taking on most light and medium melee cavalry, but don’t try to take on family members unless you can flank them or it’s in VERY favourable conditions.
Dismounted Heavy Lancer: Best anti-cavalry unit in the game aside from Papal Guards or spear-carrying Knight mercs. A massive 20 damage to horses (12 + 8 bonus) plus a charge value of 4 and decent defence means that pretty much any cavalry unit that chooses to tangle with it. The downside? It’s not trainable in the Custom Campaign mod unless you capture a citadel with a very high level barracks – you can’t actually construct the building required on your own! Not a huge problem, and it actually serves to make the Timurids balanced, as they have enough of an advantage without an uber spear unit as well.
Missile Infantry, a.k.a one of the many places that the Timurids shine.
Middle Eastern Peasant Archers: Bog standard entry level archers with low offence, vulnerability to just about every other unit under the sun, pitiful range, and poor morale. I suppose you could make some if you wanted to have a defensive militia force capable of setting rams on fire, but they are relatively useless in most circumstances.
Turkish Archers: Better. 7 damage at 160 paces, and okay defence. They have armour and shields, and are therefore not complete fodder for other archers, and their melee offence/defence (6 attack, 10 defence) means that while they aren’t capable of mixing it up with heavy infantry on a regular basis, they can be used to hold a line for a few precious seconds longer, or even to block enemy spearmen while your heavy cavalry does their job of taking out the enemy’s main heavy troops. As archers they’re okay, and will do a nice amount of damage to enemy troops as they approach, but they’re hopelessly superseded by other Timurid archer units, and so won’t see much practical use unless you want to quickly raise an army with anything on hand. Turkish Archers are available from 2nd-level archery buildings at Castle level, and are the highest-level archery building-based unit available to the Timurids. In case you were wondering, it’s pretty much pointless to build archery ranges as Timurids, because of the existence of….
Sarbadar Militia: One of two standout backbone units of the Timurid forces. Think of them as basically being Dismounted Dvor with 2 points less attack and melee – because that’s exactly what they are. (this translates to 15 defence, 9 ranged attack at 160 paces, and 9 armour-piercing melee. The upside? They’re trainable from Minor City-level barracks, they act as free militia, and they’re VERY cheap to maintain. The fact that they can be retrained at minor city level also means that you should not shy away from sending them directly into the brunt of the battle, as any losses are easily replenished. Use them to pummel the enemy from afar, and then finish them off with a charge into melee.
Dismounted Heavy Archers: Essentially identical to Sarbadar Militia, but with lower defence (3 shield instead of 6). Utterly redundant, and you can’t train them in the Custom Campaign mod anyhow – as with the heavy spearmen, you need an archery range that is actually higher than you can construct.
Middle Eastern Hand Gunners: Bog standard early hand gunner unit, and the only gun unit the Timurids have. Causes more fear than damage, and all in all fairly useless because of their horrible firing rate. They would have a use if there was no other option, but since the Timurids have Naffatun, they’re outdated and redundant
Naffatun: You know it and love it as the uber panic-inducing unit. Naphala gets them a monstrous amount of kills, and causes all but the hardiest enemy units to rout in seconds. Put them just behind your last line of defence, and watch the casualties and routings roll in. Available at fortress level through the barracks.
Afghan Javelinmen: This unit is one of the best hybrid units in the game, and will make an effective backbone for your foot troops. At first glance, they seem to be mediocre at best: 14 defence, 10 attack with Javelins, and 13 attack in melee. However, these are the stats for the unarmoured unit. Put them in padded armour, and you’re laughing. Remember that taking a unit from armourless to Padded effectively adds 4 to their armour defence, not 1 – even though it’s incorrectly displayed in the stats as being 1. The upside to this? You have a unit that has equal defence and superior offence to urban/swordsman militia, with the added bonus of a powerful javelin attack. They’ll defeat any melee unit short of western Knights one-on-one, and are useful as missile units besides – the effect of flanking a unit with them and pouring armour-piercing javelins into their backs is devastating. Essentially, they’re the best medium melee unit in the game. Ever play Rome: Total War? Use Afghan Javelinmen as you would use roman Legionaries, and you can’t go wrong. The absolute best part? They’re available from Wooden Castle level (trainable from a barracks), and when you get the Castle-level barracks, they get trained with +1 experience. It also helps that their morale is incredibly high – they can be expected to fight to the last in most situations.
Melee Infantry
Middle Eastern Peasants: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. One defence, one offence. Use them to garrison castles just to get the number of troops up, or to man rams. There’s really no other purpose to this unit – it really is literally the worst in the game.
Middle Eastern Halberd Militia: Available from Large City-level barracks. Fairly low stats (5 defence, 7 offence, +4 vs. cavalry), and they’re two-handed units. HOWEVER, they use (as far as I can tell) the same animation as Turkish Janissary Heavy Infantry, and so they aren’t as useless as most other two-handed units. They’ll defeat almost any spear infantry unit up to Armoured Sergeants quite handily, and can actually be used quite devastatingly in flanking manoeuvrers.
Cavalry (Yeah, that’s what you’ve been waiting for)
Turkish Horse Archers: Bog-standard Horse Archer unit, 6 attack, very little defence (3!), and absolutely no defence from missiles unless you upgrade their armour. Cheap, available from castles/low-level stables, and easily spammable. Useful to add more fuel to the fire in terms of massed arrows until you can afford to field heavier horse archers. Also useful for chasing down routing enemies, but take care as if a unit they’re chasing gets their second wind they’ll be slaughtered in seconds.
Turkomans: The big brother to the Turkish horse Archers, Turkomans have better melee attack (7) and better defence (8, including 3 from their Shield). Add some padded armour and they can occasionally be used to charge into the rear of already engaged units in an effort to make them rout, but don’t be too gung-ho about it. Available from Castles and Racing Tracks, and a good substitute for gradually phasing out Turkish Horse Archers as they cost around the same and have identical upkeep.
Mongol Heavy Archers: Second-best Horse Archer unit in the game, behind Dvor Cavalry. Good defence (15!), good missile offence (8) and an armour-piercing melee attack of 8 mean that while they should primarily be used as ranged cavalry, they can in a pinch be used to engage light cavalry/non-spear infantry in melee. Get them as soon as you can, as they will be your mid-late game mainstay in the horse archer department. Available from Sultan’s Racetrack and Fortress-level stables.
Mongol Heavy Lancers: VERY nice unit. Devastating charge, massive (13, Armour piercing) melee attack, and excellent morale. The only downside to this unit is that its defence is fairly low, at 14. This isn’t to say that it should be hit-and-run only, but take care when engaging spear units. Available at Citadel level from the second-highest stable.
Kahn’s Guards: Exactly the same as Mongol Heavy Lancers, only with better armour. Defence is now 17, which allows it to hang around in melee and devastate the enemy with armour piercing maces that much more successfully. The best heavy cav in the game. Available at Citadel level from the highest level stable.
Elephants: Bring the pain. High damage, causes fear, able to disrupt enemy formations, and mounted gunners besides. Early on you might just want to sit them behind your main battle line and plink away at the enemy with your gunners, as the combined morale loss from that and the morale penalty to units as they draw near should greatly aid the enemy in turning tail and running. If all enemy units are engaged with your own, however, swinging your elephants around and charging them into the enemy rear where their formations are the thickest will cause devastating casualties. A word of warning, though; Elephants are a lot more fragile in M2TW than they were in Rome, so don’t be quite so eager to engage in melee. Available at Citadel level from the second-highest stable.
Elephant Artillery: One of the best support units in the game. Stand them behind your line and allow them to shell your enemies at will. While their cannons are small, they’re deadly accurate against troops, and there are so many of them. Against a full stack, you can realistically carve away about a quarter of the enemy’s forces with only two or three Elephant Artillery, and the remainder of the enemy will be so demoralised that they’ll quickly rout. Can be used to knock down gates, allowing you to take settlements without having to lug around heavy siege units. Available at Citadel level from the highest level stable.
So what do you do with all of this firepower at your disposal? Basically there are three options available to you:
Option 1: Progressive Lines of Fire
This is where the Timurids excel, as their overall army makeup is designed to inspire fear more than anything else. At the rear of your army, have a couple of mixed units of elephant cav/arty elephants. Just in front of those, place your sarbadar militia. In front of those go a line of 3-4 naffatun, followed at last by a solid line of afghan javs.
The outcome? As the enemy draws closer, they get progressively heavier fire upon them, until they finally break and run. I’ve played battles against full stacks where only one unit of enemy troops actually engaged in hand-to-hand with my javs, because the combined elephant, arrow, naphala and jav fire routs all but the hardiest of units.
Option 2: Cav Stack
Pretty much what it says. Majority of horse archers, with a few heavy cavs to break up particularly stubborn or well-armoured units. These are great for either roaming behind enemy lines taking out wandering armies, or paired with infantry-heavy armies to soften up enemy armies and then retreat after running out of ammo.
Option 3: Hybrid
Essentially the same as option one, only with fewer infantry units and therefore a narrower frontage combined with extre horse archers that can peel around and attack enemy units from the rear. Possibly superior due to enhanced mobility and the ability to take on routing units early into the rout and to stop them from reforming, but less powerful against settlements.
Well, there you have it! I recommend doing what I did the first time I played the custom mod with Timurids; start on the normal world map, move all of your forces to America and abandon your starting cities, and take on the entire Aztec nation with a single stack of elite units. From there…. Take on the world!
