Quote Originally posted by A.Saturnus:
Actually, saracen win against f-maa. Not against c-maa, so, but they hold out a while and you can attack their flanks with cav. Don`t use Ghazi or Abyssinian, they are only usefull against lighter foes, if any.

[/QUOTE]

Hrm. I'm pretty sure sar inf handle CMAA pretty easily in a head-on fight. I remember reading about tests (and personally testing) chiv sergs vs. CMAA, and the chiv sergs crush CMAA.

Sar inf and chiv serg have identical stats, so equal valor sar inf should crush CMAA.

Of course, CMAA (supposedly) have a significant advantage in forests. And they're much better for flanking and/or being flanked. But otherwise, sar inf are far better troops.

To the OP: be careful about how you're using your sar inf. You can't simply rush 3 units of sar inf at the same enemy. Not only will they suffer from the normal 'crowding' penalties, but they'll also lose ALL formation bonuses if they don't have the space to form up into their proper ranks.

Also be very careful about how you're maneuvering them into battle. Not only can sudden turns (again) affect formation bonuses, but if you attack at a bad angle with spear troops, your men will often (rather stupidly) engage the enemy at that same angle -- meaning that half or less of your troops will actually ENGAGE the enemy, since spearmen don't 'envelop' the enemy in the same way that swordsmen do.