Desert Warfare

[Kulgan]

I'v recently started to play with Byzantium and the Turks, ending up finding in the sand deserts.
How do you tell a unit will get exhausted in the desert or not?
Do you add the armour from the armory in the province or does it make the units tired much faster?

Also, what's the point about Ghulam Cavalry as the turks when you have AHC valour +1 who are better in all stats and cost less money to build, to maintain and need fewer buildings to produce?

Kulgan

[Thon]

AHC can only be built in 3 provinces, Rum, and both Armenia's. and if you have those provinces they are imo much better to build

as far as i know, adding armor from an armory will make units tire even faster in the desert. but i'm not sure at what amount of armor units begin to roast in the desert

[Demequis]

More than 5 total armor (including bonuses from your master armourer) and your units will tire much more quickly and be unable to recover.

[Aelwyn]

It depends on whether or not your unit is Lightly Armoured, Armoured, or Heavily Armoured. Also, how much they have in those categories. So yes, adding armour to units does make them tire faster. I try to take units at 3 armour or less, but never any more than 5. You can bring heavier troops you'll just have to quickly march up to the enemy and attack right away. On the other hand, if you're attacking a much more heavy army with a lightly armoured army...it would be fine to just wait them out, till they become tired and you're still fresh. It won't really work if you have a timer on your battles, but thats pretty worthless anyways.

[Ryttare]

Forget the fatigue, smack the foe before the heats gets a grip on ya.

[The_678]

In early at least, usually those armoured catholic/orthodox units are so much better anyways that the fatigue doesn't make that much of a difference. I use my Kataphractoi just fine in the desert. The trick I find is to smash thouroughly and kill their general for sure. Then sit your army right where the reinforcements come in and you should be fine.

[ichi]

Aelwyn answered most of the questions you asked quite well.

(In VI at least) The AHC is very similar to Ghulam Cav, except AHC has a higher charge (for which you pay an extra 25 florins). Both have armor of 4, so they do pretty well in the desert unless you add too much armor upgrade.

There are several ways to view unit stats (I like the Berserk Yas Unit Compare Tool) including the Viking Unit Prod file in your game directory.

The easiest way to check in a game is to hit F1 when you in a battle.

ichi