Thanks for the replies guys.

Simon, Thanks for the desert warfare advice. I'll keep a couple Granada born AUM units behind my spear and advance them on sacaren infantry and withdraw them for fresh troops after round 1. I had problems earlier on and I found my wins improved when I pulled all my armoured units to Europe. That said, I seem to have hit a wall without any armour. Thanks.

Good advice on splitting fleets. Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

I do use every opening and weakness my enemy shows me. Some of these are obviously AI issues. So far I find the scattering of forces during a rout is one way to confound the AI, but I've only had to use that twice and I was suprised that it worked, I was origionally trying to figure out a way for my enemy to chase after Faris units to weaken stronger units and peel off units that were over running my strong point. I might have won normally if I had managed to peel off a couple AHC units. The AI also doesn't work reinfocements well. If you can kill or rout units one at a time they come back spaced out and isolated. Also, I found in one fight that my enemy assumed a strong defensive position, but I peeled them away from it one unit at a time with 3 faris units (used one at a time). If you can concetrate your forces and ambush their units this way, it's possible to destroy an enemy unit pinned by Nubian spearmen and surounded by ghazi before they send reinforcing units from the defensive position. I assume this is also an issue with the AI (the not sending reinforcements en masse part). I don't cheat or even mod unit values, but I often exploit weak AI. I hope no one is offended, but I find it part of the fun of the game ... I'm weird.

katank,

Thanks for the organ gun info. I'll buy a couple and put them in the gaps of my front line. Now after reading your description I can't wait to set these up in the desert.

Troop quality ... OK, I'll buy that for a dollar. I always garrison peasants or sometimes low star generals who picked up bad combat vices and whose units were devastated in case I lose generals I am developing or I expose another province to enemy units and need a commander for defensive units there.

Again, thanks guys. I appreciate the info.