Almohads

For some reason i don't have my copy of Medieval Total War, but still have Viking Invasion, i haven't played Medieval Total War in years and it's going to stay in my brain as fuzzy memories until another copy of the game arrives, as i have ordered the game off of ebay, and i want to feel the sensations near enough to when i first played the game as an 7 or 8 year old. I found it to be amazing and unlike STW and all the newer total war games when i compare them these days, they just seem to have diluted the base formula to appeal to the masses now, and when i look at video comments on Medieval 1 vids from some of the newer fans i have a mental barf. And, as a lol factor, since i was a kid at the time i ended up buying the expansion pack first (:embarassed:) and then went and bought the original later.
Anyway, thats introductions for ya, and i was thinking about the Almohads, i think i was playing vanilla medieval as england, just sortof sitting around building stuff because i was a stupid kid and couldn't grasp the game concept very well, and i saw the Almohads steamrolling france for a few turns then seeing them fighting with the HRE, they seemed to have nearly destroyed the spanish and french in their crazed conquering spree and it surprised how fast they beat these factions, since the borders were quite constant and didn't change too much at the time, and then they appeared out of nowhere and smacked about the other countries like it was all in the decades work. I have heard of the Almohads being somewhat expansionist ingame but do they turn into super powers often?

Welcome to the Org, CenturyGamer. :medievalcheers:


As for whether or not the Almos regularly become a superpower, it depends on which version of the game you're talking about: In vanilla MTW 1.1, yes the Almohads would frequently become one of the major factions. In MTW/VI 2.01, however, they're much more passive and hardly expand at all. (Indeed, the Spanish will often wipe them out in Viking Invasion and become a superpower themselves.)

A major factor in this is that the Almohads' AI behavior was changed with the release of Viking Invasion. Whereas in vanilla MTW their behavior was set to something like "muslim_expansionist", in VI their behavior was changed to "muslim_peaceful" (or something to that effect).


A number of mods have subsequently changed the Almos' behavior yet again, usually to something like "muslim_builder" (or "muslim_defensive"? I can't remember now). This is usually the best of both worlds, as the Caliphate will at least attempt to expand to a degree, but at a much more reasonable pace.

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Originally Posted by Martok

Welcome to the Org, CenturyGamer. :medievalcheers:


As for whether or not the Almos regularly become a superpower, it depends on which version of the game you're talking about: In vanilla MTW 1.1, yes the Almohads would frequently become one of the major factions. In MTW/VI 2.01, however, they're much more passive and hardly expand at all. (Indeed, the Spanish will often wipe them out in Viking Invasion and become a superpower themselves.)

A major factor in this is that the Almohads' AI behavior was changed with the release of Viking Invasion. Whereas in vanilla MTW their behavior was set to something like "muslim_expansionist", in VI their behavior was changed to "muslim_peaceful" (or something to that effect).


A number of mods have subsequently changed the Almos' behavior yet again, usually to something like "muslim_builder" (or "muslim_defensive"? I can't remember now). This is usually the best of both worlds, as the Caliphate will at least attempt to expand to a degree, but at a much more reasonable pace.

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Thats pretty sweet.. i fancy modding the behaviour once i get the original and install the good old VI expansion pack, using a balanced thing like muslim_builder or whatever as you say. It seems rather interesting.. anyway, to go a little off-topic i finally recieved a copy of the game.. and guess what? When i tried to install it it got stuck on 20%, and always got stuck on that whenever i tried to install, i'm such an unlcuky person..:wall::furious3:

I remember my first game as Denmark. I couldn't run the battles on my computer, so I decided to turtle and build a trade empire.
So the Almohads expanded like crazy into France, and the Byzantines expanded like crazy into Germany and they ended up turning Europe into a back and forth battlezone.
It was one of the few times I've seen Burgandy emerge as a faction.

Personally, I don't remember seeing Almohads turn into a superpower, ever. Spain has done it, and I think France has done it.... Other than that I can't remember anyone, there might be, but it wasn't Almohads.

I myself on the other hand have never played Almohads... because they seemed too easy =( You just need to quickly crush Spain, and you wlill have secured a rich foothold from which conquest of the world is just a matter of time.

The Almohad were more of an issue in MTW 1.x, in VI they were toned down somewhat (as Martok posted above). It was common enough to see them in Scotland and Wales in v1.x ...

In VI it's more in the favour of the Spanish, who are also far too economically overpowered. In terms of easiness the Spanish, Almohad, Byzantine and Egyptians probably top the list.

The main issue with Iberia is the province layout and number of factions. The Aragonese should have about 2 or 3 provinces and the Portuguese should also be a faction. This would make the region more competitive instead of the usual Spanish vs Almohad duel.

The Almos can be powerful in a VI game. I once ran into them halfway through Germany in a slow Danish campaign (vanilla, hard). They had also taken most of Italy at that point and were knocking on the gates of Northumbria. Needless to say my Vikings were eager to cross... err... axes with them, I suppose.
Other than that one campaign, I'm bored to death by Spanish superiority. I like fighting the Almos much better: better generals, more interesting unit lineup. The Spanish just seem to spam Jinetes, Spearmen, and Spanish Javelineers until they own the southern half of the map.

You can mod the spanish javelins (and many others) out, or make them recruitable from a single rovince each. The AI spams them as it does with all other cheap and easily recruitable units, like peasants etc. They just really bring down the quality of the game for no good reason.