The Spanish campaign(s)

**Vladimir** · 06-20-2006, 20:10

Originally Posted by Tony Furze

And a sincere thank you to you, Chez. You ve been there since I started taking MTW seriously.

I love the muslim faction armies-started with them, but knew I couldn t get to win with one of them.

I like the Turks a lot but be mindful of their staying power, they don't have any. Play them as they were historically and don't count on your line holding for very long. Shoot your enemy up with arrows and bring plenty of

.

**tigger_on_vrb** · 06-21-2006, 00:30

Yes I would go for the Turks next to enrich your MTW experience. You can learn the wonderful Turcomon horse dance...... and forward 2,3,4 and back 2,3,4 and left........

(see guides for how to use horse archers)

**Martok** · 06-21-2006, 01:04

Originally Posted by Tony Furze

Thanks, Martok. There s a lot of choice there....

Sorry; I didn't exactly narrow down the list for you, did I? My bad!

My top recommendations: Spanish (obviously!), Egyptians, English, and Byzantines--in that order. Overall, my advice is to try out the Eggies first. They have good starting lands, and have a varied and relatively well-rounded unit roster. I'd recommend the Spanish too, if you hadn't already played them. Once you're more comortable with the game and feel you have a better grip on it, I would definitely recommend the English and the Byzantines as well!

Novgorod isn t playable at early is it?

Ack, no they're not.

I have VikingHorde's XL Mod installed, so I've gotten used to the Novgorods being available in Early.

Which, by the way, I definitely recommend you check out some of the mods at some point. You certainly don't have to, but a lot of us have discovered that mods significantly enhance our playing experience. In addition to XL, BKB's SuperMod and Wes' MedMod are both highly regarded as well. (And those are just the major medieval mods; there are some nice "total conversion" mods as well, such as Hellenic Total War.)

**Sensei Warrior** · 06-21-2006, 02:52

Originally Posted by Tony Furze

I love the muslim faction armies-started with them, but knew I couldn t get to win with one of them.

All the Muslim armies are great. With a little practice you can whomp the game with any of them. My very first game I played was with the Almos on Easy in Early for Domination. I started with them because of their position on the map, and achieved a complete victory. The factions I have trouble finishing the game with is the Catholic ones.

In regards to the GA mode, my personal vote is for the Turks or the Eggies, with preference to the Turks. They have some interesting goals to help keep you on your toes. I'm playing a GA with the French and the whole Crusade to Antioch and build a Citadel by 1205 is proving very daunting, although I'm in good shape to do it. The French might be a little too daunting if your new to the game.

Good luck and keep us posted.

**Tony Furze** · 06-22-2006, 13:19

I ve chosen Turkish/Early/Normal/GA

Restarted the campaign due to economic reasons and squabbling with the Egyptians over Tripoli-one of my homelands held by them.

Finally got going by attacking the Egyptians early and taking Tripoli and Antioch-great for trade.Patched up with the Egyptians and booted the Byz. out of Lesser Armenia.

oooh I have to go-theres a French Crusade heading my way...

Thanks

**Sensei Warrior** · 06-22-2006, 15:11

Ahh the Turks, a very nice choice. With all the talk of Missile Cav I am starting to want to play another game with the Turks. Sigh, will have to wait until I'm done kicking butt with the French.

**caravel** · 06-22-2006, 16:25

The Turks are my main faction, I can take on anything as them, but fail miserably with most other factions, except maybe the Hungarians and the Byzantine. The catholic factions are not my strong point. Defeating them as a muslim faction is.

Novgorod can be easily modded as playable, without installing a mod. Should be a thread on that in the modding forum somewhere.

**Sensei Warrior** · 06-22-2006, 23:09

Originally Posted by CheziScrotus XVI

The Turks are my main faction, I can take on anything as them, but fail miserably with most other factions, except maybe the Hungarians and the Byzantine. The catholic factions are not my strong point. Defeating them as a muslim faction is.

I thought I might have been the only one. I have a serious, and I mean serious, problem waging wars with Catholic Factions. I almost never get good results when battling with them. I am almost ashamed to admit that the auto-resolve button does a better job at battles then if I commanded the attack personally.

On the other hand, I am at the very least, adept at combat with the Muslim or Orthodox factions, with my best perfomances having happened while I have been playing the Turks.

**Deus ret.** · 06-23-2006, 00:51

Turks and Eggies are indeed great when you play every battle yourself. Their superior mobility and firepower ensure a minimal casualty victory - along with some micromanagement. I also got the impression that generals level up somewhat more quickly than Catholic ones because many Muslim troops are assessed as inferior by the game (see below), meaning that the achievement is greater when winning with them. This leads to the next point....
Due tho this, in autocombat their troops are crap IMHO whereas it works quite good for Catholics.* I suspect that missile capability isn't counted in AI combat balancing / autoresolve (at least that's the case in RTW), so their numerous missile and hybrid troops suffer. Since I've come to enjoy autoresolve more than once in a while, embarking on a campaign as Turks or Eggies no longer is a realistic option for me, notwithstanding the fun of playing them.

*edit: partly for the Byz as well, often purely horse-archer armies were easily defeated by byz inf in autoresolve whereas they would have been shot to pieces had I commanded the battle myself.

**Martok** · 06-23-2006, 01:24

I myself prefer the Eggies over the Turks. Part of that is because I start in possession of the Holy Land, but another big part is that Egyptian armies are (at least in my opinion) a little more balanced that the Turks'. Eggies get a nice mix of most unit types: infantry, missles, light & medium cavarly, etc. The Turks, on the other hand, seem to be composed of mostly mounted missile units early on, and then switch to all-Janissary armies in the mid-to-late game. I know that's oversimplifying things somewhat, but I've never quite been able to rid myself of the image of Turks attacking me with hordes of horse archers.

**caravel** · 06-26-2006, 09:30

Well the Turks start off so close to the holy land that it's no problem to just rush it and wipe out the Egyptians in the first 20 - 30 years. I'm not sure about the Egyptians armies being better balanced. The Egyptians have only Nubian Spearmen, Nizari and Saharan cavalry on the Turks who have many types of hybrids, early access to AHC, Turcoman Horse as well as the usual Ghazis, Ghulams, Saracens,Camels etc. I don't rate the Egyptians Mamluk cavalry or horse archers too highly either. To be honest the only unique thing I like about the Egyptians is Faris.

Good points about the autocalc as well. It is definitely a good idea not to autocalc when playing as the Turks or any Muslim faction for that matter.

**Deus ret.** · 06-26-2006, 19:57

Yeah, it's insane. Of course it's still possible to win battles by autocalcing, it's just a sheer waste of men (except if you take Saracens, they seem to work quite well). Since I enjoy the strategic aspect of the game very much, there is more than one battle once in a while that I just don't want to fight.
Basically it's a shame. When I played the Super Mod and soon had conquered Constantinople with the Hospitallers in Late, the Turks relentlessly attacked with armies that were quite respectable in terms of size as well as quality - I'd have had a hell of a time defeating them all but despite clear numerical superiority they just couldn't get past those order spears and knights in autocalc

I admit that it's not the most chivalrous way to survive a campaign; then again, compared to RTW autocalc is actually good for something at least.

....but this is drifting too far off-topic. For my part I wouldn't recommend Muslim factions to beginners for the above reason and because of the necessary micromanagement in battle which can become quite tedious as armies grow. Their strategic position isn't too enviable, either (except for the Eggies since the Almos rarely attack; Turks face a difficult fight against both Eggies and Byz (and the horde) and Almos tend to get sandwiched between Spainards and Eggies, with the occasional amphibious assault resp. sea blockade by Italians or similar), they being the prime targets for crusades even less.
Overall, I go along with Martok's recommendations; each of these is a fun and not-too-hard faction to play with.

**Tony Furze** · 06-27-2006, 06:07

Well it s certainly a colourful campaign playing as the Turks-never a dull moment.

I find Lesser Armenia one of the worst terrains to fight in- a combination of hills large squares of land edged by trees and bushes. Very confusing to get the tactics right.

However while I dreaded the battle against the Byz there (the GA made Lesser Armenia one of the goals) I brought along some mercs:Rus spearmen, Druzhina cav and Druzhina foot.

The incredible happened-the Byz inf squared up tp the Druz cav, took one look, turned went back to the main army, told them and the whole lot disappeared without further battle.

What is it about the Dhruz????

Im not too hap with the Turcoman horse, maybe you ll help me here Chez, they seem to waste their time running around usually in the opposite direction to the enemy. Not handling them too well, I suspect. The Armenian Heavies are fantastic.

**caravel** · 06-30-2006, 09:08

Originally Posted by Tony Furze

Im not too hap with the Turcoman horse, maybe you ll help me here Chez, they seem to waste their time running around usually in the opposite direction to the enemy. Not handling them too well, I suspect. The Armenian Heavies are fantastic.

The usual story with HA's when you're not used to them. You will have to micromanage them yourself. Don't rely on the skirmish at all. It is best to pull them away, preferably to high ground, and shoot volleys at the enemy as they approach then pull back again. The skirmish facility I only find useful for foot archers.