The XL Cumans

I am finishing up parts of my guide, and I will make a website on the Cumans, so as to give folks pics..:P

This is on Normal and using Xtra large (2x) units. The Cumans are stuck, between Kiev, Hungary, Poland and the Sea.

So what does a good pagan do...He conquers!!

Cuman cons:
1) bad loyalty!
2) bad $
3) needs to create happines bldgs in EVERY PROV to keep folks from revolting
4) bad strategic position without allies
5) generally poor units that cost a bunch
6) no navy

Cuman pros
1) weak neighbors
2) can usually get allies soon
3) Blitzkrieg style attacks (fast foot/cavalry mix)

The Cumans have 3 MAJOR Aspects to move

West, South, North

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1) Heading North

The Russian Steppes are poor, and make for a challenging game as money is ALWAYS and issue!!! The Cumans also have an issue with crummy generals and poor loyalty!

Step 1:

Go east and take out the Volgas!!! (make sure you also take Georgia). Try to have 1 Dhow in Black Sea to protect against "suprises"

Step 2:

Go West and go after the Lithuanians

By this time, you SHOULD HAVE the Novos, Byz, Poles, Turks & Hungarians allies or asking for marriage! I got lucky in that I also got Kiev which normally hates the cumans guts! (Make sure you have a Dhow in Black Sea) Start creating pagan sites and shamans in Crimea, and have them 'spread the word"... by keeping the empire pagan, no "religious uprisings" can occur.

You'll have the southern 'half' of the steppes basically and with allies (hopefully) with the Byz, Hungarians, Poles, you'll be in position to hit the Novos hard and fast

Step 3:

This is where you backstab the Novos and keep an eye on Kiev! Novo & Moscow will be good cash cow provs to later become core provs once the Mongols hit you!

With Novo taken, use those 'better' bldgs to hopefully create cuman warriors, as the Novos seems to really concentrate on bows & horses. Novo and Moscow will be your cash cow provs and your 'high tech' area when the Mongols hit later on.

Step 4:

Take out Livonia, Estonia, and secure your north-west border. Taking these will give you some decent provs that are already pagan, so your shamans can kep out those pesky catholics..:P Also by having these, you deal a 'strategic blow' to danish and swedish expansion efforts, which is important.

Step 5:

Take out Kiev and fortify your borders! You know you have to take out your real enemies at some point!

Step 6: Take out Scandinavia! (used as a core "Safe" region if Mongols go nuts and conquer everything in sight). Now, with Scandinavia taken, you can use Vikings and there fighting prowes to help fight back those Mongol hordes.. so this is why I take this region..:)

At this point, I am making a good amount, but I am still no Sugar Daddy like the Byz or Fatamids..:P I still run out of money often, so looking after your money is critical as you HAVE TO BE CAREFUL of what your making!

If the Fatamids are kicking Byz butt, then switch allies to the Fatamids... If the Byz are holding them off, then keep the Byz, as the Byz seem like good allies that don't seem to break em (like I do...lol):beam:

Step 6:

Mid game expansion!

Thus the Cumans have another set of 3 MAJOR ASPECTS,

West: the UK (England/Scotland/Ireland) via navy attack (France will usually join in)
South: Germany, via Danish provs (since nobody likes them anyways)
Onslaught: Build up and strike Poland/Hungary/Bohemia & Germany! (using the Byz/Fatamids as allies in the south



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2 Heading West:

In all games I generally see of the Cumans, they fight and war aginst the Poles and Hungarians! So why not do what the computer does! Remember to build town watches and crank out militia as they will be your main early fighting unit! Also remember, your strikes must come from multiple directions and be swift (think Blitzkrieg!!)

Step 1)

Waiting those few critical turns before attacking! This is a crucial step in you must wait probably 2 or 3 turns, maybe 4 before striking, as by then, the hungarians are usually at war verses SOMEBODY (The germans are good)

So go after the hungarians while they are weak...

Step 2)

take out HUngary with a big enough stack so as to leave 1/2 stack by the coast and 1/2 a stack in HUngary proper (as defence)

Step 3)

GO after Poland via that long skinny independant prov and via Hungary, so as to take out Poland in 1 swift blow! That way, Poland falls swiftly and you still have plenty of troops to occupy your gains!

Step 4)

To be continued..:P

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3) Heading South

This one strikes fear in the Byz, and using your fellow Turks as allies. The trick is to turn all of the Middle East into Cuman terriory!

Step 1)

Striking against the Byz. Speed and a few medium stacks with even 3* gens will do the trick verses your first few provs taken! Those provs will be the turkish ones, so you will turn the Black Sea into the Cumans bathtub, and also have a launching pad verses the Turks in due time!

Step 2)

Constantinople! In this one, your creating some troops and with an inn, hopefully buying some mercs to create a good stack to strike against Bulgaria and (if your lucky) towards the jewel itself!

Remember to hit hit small stacks with BIG stacks, as the Byz generals are like 6* and 7* golden boys!, you need MASSIVE #s to hit the Byz hard at this time! $ is going to take and ugly turn at this point!

Step 3) to be continued...:P

the cumans have no navy?

anyone care to tell em how to add in galeys dromons and that line of boats for them?

:inquisitive: I have built navies as the Cumans in previous versions. They had the Islamic boat system. Do they not have them in V 3.0? If not, here's how you can enable them. First, you need gnome editor. Pretty sure it can be downloaded somewhere around here...

Anyways, after that, its relatively simple. You need to go to "my downloads", select gnome crusade unit editor, two times. You'll want two editors up at once so you can better make sure you're making the same changes to both time periods for the Cumans(they aren't in late period, as they met an unfortunate demise at the hands of the Mongols:beam: ) When you've got two editors up, you'll want to go into the "total war file" under program files. Then, select "MTW XL unitprod early" and "MTW XL unitprod high" respectively. Scroll down until you get to the ship entries. They'll all be grouped together. Figure out what boats you want to give them. Then scroll all the way right until you get to about column 56, which is cultures. Add in PAGAN to the boats you wish to make available to them. Make sure to put a " " around the two/three cultures if it didn't already have them, as they will be needed for multiple cultures. Then scroll back left to column 50, which should read "faction asssociation", and enter FN_CUMANS in alongside the other factions for the boat of your choice. Save. And voila! Your Cumans can now produce ships!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hope those instructions weren't too archaic.

This is just a short guide to the Cumans in high. Despite the same starting line up of units certain things make Cuman strategy in this era majorly different from early. First, while the Cuman unit lineup is unchanged other factions have acquired heavier cavalry and halberdiers that can slow up Cuman expansion. Second and more importantly, after 25 years the Golden Horde show up on your eastern border with anything from 10-30,000 warriors. It is this fact that means you have to expand and expand quickly to gain cash and military infrastructure.

The next problem is who to choose to attack. The average AI Cuman campaign sees them expand in every direction, and ending up at war with 5 or more factions and collapsing like a house of cards when the Horde attack. A little bit of common sense is needed. You start bordering 5 factions (Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria). The number one rule in expansion is fight short wars that can be finished quickly and avoid getting into long drawn out wars. This counts out the first three factions. The best first move is to attack Bulgaria across the sea and take it. This opens up the possibility of capturing Constantinople, which should be taken. This expansion will bring you into contact with the Byzantines and the Serbs and probably the Venetians or the Sicilians, who will have taken Greece before you can get there. War with the Byzantines should be avoided if possible since a) they are tough with silver armour b) they have lots of ships which can be used to obstruct control of the Black Sea. Lose control of that and life will get very tough for the Cumans, believe me. Once Constantinople is secure take Greece, even if it means getting into a war with Italy or Sicily. The main threat from either is naval, since their land forces are not too hot.

Once Bulgaria, Constantinople and Greece are secure, hopefully somewhere between 1220 and 1225, your feeble starting income of less than 2000 will be over 5000. This is probably a good time for some consolidation. Make an alliance with the Russians if you haven’t already, make sure all you provinces are building useful stuff. Levidia and Lesser Khazar I build Master Horse Breeders, Crimea Steppe Cavalry then ships, Moldavia, spearmen, Wallachia the Wallachian Mercenary horsemen. Bulgaria has a good military infrastructure, including usually a Master Bowmaker, which should be used to pump out Cuman Warriors. Both Constantinople and Greece are quite low tech, the first can be used to build boats and the second build a Horse Farmer. Of course it is perfectly possible to continue expanding, but income then starts to rise faster than troops can be built to defend newly acquired lands. Places to avoid invading are Volynia, which is a can or worms, and Georgia, which is poor with no infrastructure.

If all has gone smoothly when the horde invade you will be at war with no one which leaves you free to grind them down in a war of attrition. I found 18 units in an army works quite well ( 4 CHC, 4 Steppe Heavies, 4 Steppe Cavalry, a couple of bashkorts, 4 Cuman Warriors). It is usually possible to beat off Horde armies 2 or 3 times your own size. Be careful not to run out of heavy cavalry, then the task is much harder. It can get a bit tedious fighting the same battle again and again, but when it’s done the world is your oyster.

I have been away from XL for a long time, but one of my favorite factions is the Cumans. What, if any, differences are there for the Cumans between XL 2.1 and XL 3.0?

None as far as i can tell.. However, if you try the Tiberius mod there are already quite big changes. New troop types (Cuman Horse Archers, steppe warriors and a few others) troop types restricted to certain areas (Steppe cavalry and Steppe Heavy Cav only in Levidia and Lesser Khazar of their starting provinces. There are also more changes on the way i think. Give it a try and see what you think.