without actually playing as the Turks, are there any tips

**bondovic** · 09-27-2009, 22:42

Chris,

Get a copy of the Gnome Editor. From there you can, very easily, change building requirements and support costs etc. It really is a game changer when you learn how to text mod yourself.

Gl!

**chris34au** · 09-28-2009, 18:36

i downloaded the gnome editor awhile back but i've never used it. can it be used to change the buldings that factions start out with? i'd love to be able to give the Teutonic Order a Citadel, instead of a castle in Livonia.

**bondovic** · 10-01-2009, 15:21

No. To change starting buildings and rosters you need to work directly in the startpos dir. But that's kinda straight forward, so shouldn't be a problem. Just scroll down in your "HIGH.txt" 'til you see "Makebuilding::" Find Livonia and replace the information. Citadel is called "Castle10". That's it.

**chris34au** · 10-02-2009, 00:05

thanks for the help. i think i'll go ahead and add some buildings for the Turks, as well. it doesn't seem like giving them extra cash is enough help. they're still getting crushed by the Byz in the last couple of campaigns that i've tried to play.

**gollum** · 10-07-2009, 22:52

Despite most people thinking otherwise, the Turks are very easy to play in early if you blitz the Egyptians while making an alliance or maintain peace with the Byzantines. There is no need to give them more troops or money.

Blitzing the Egyptians can take as little as 10 turns, and if lucky you may ransom the Khaliffa too in the process that will boost even further the finances. The main key to the blitz is the mounted missiles, horse archers and turcoman horse, that used en masse can make anything the Egyptians field easy prey.

After the Egs have been wiped out simply build up farms and the foundations for trade in Antioch, Tripoli and Egypt and proceed to make a fleet and an army to trade with the Italians and take on the Byzantines. All this might take 40 to 60 turns, after which the player may attack the Byzantines with the main aim to take over Constantinople. The Citadel there should allow for Grand Mosque and master spearmkaker which should pave the way for the Military academy to be ready by the time the Mongols show up.

Fighting the Mongols with JHI is sheer pleasure. Just let them take on the steppes while you only keep them out of Georgia/Armenia.

After the Mongol invasion ebbs, just take it to the Balkans to continue the conquest. Once Hungary and Poland and subjugated, Eastern Europe is divided in half and the player can take the steppes. After that you can open a second front in Spain through the Mahreb or move straight into Germany and the North of Italy.

If you mean seeing the AI making the Janissary units, then you should lower the build requirements. no matter how advanced,large and prosperous the Turkish AI has never produced Janissary units for me while starting in early, simply because the build requiremets are too complex for him.

Your best bet to make the Turks powerful is to make small changes to their roster to fill the notable gap/absense of widely available dedicated melee units, for example giving them a semi-decent melee unit like the Militia Seargents, might ameliorate considerably things in autocalc.

If you want to mess with initial forces, you can reduce the BIs the byzantines can field at the start of early. They are too many. Take out 2/3 of them i'd say. This should help not only the Turk Ai to have a better chance but also the Byzantine player to have a more challenging campaign.

**chris34au** · 10-08-2009, 01:20

thanks for all of the tips. i'd love to try a Turkish campaign but i'd also like to see them thrive when the A.I.'s controlling them. it seems like in most of my previous campaigns, the Byz dominate that part of the map about 80% of the time and if it's not them, it's Egypt. i've even seen Armenia thrive in that region but i've never been lucky enough to get a campaign going where the Turks were thriving and i had to worry about facing them on the battlefield.

**gollum** · 10-08-2009, 01:53

Its because of how the autoresolve system works - basically it does not take anything other than melee stats into consideration which means that missile heavy factions like the Turks "lose" their battles against other AI factions; which is why i've suggested that the militia seargents may help.