The Moors

[grinningman]

*edit*

The latest version can be downloaded from https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...=156#linkid358

*end edit*

Original post:

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In a fit of enthusiam, I made reference chart for the Moor castle tech tree. Guilds (only the swordsmith's for castles) aren't included, but everything else should be there.

*snip*

For buildings that produce units, only the new units produced by a particular building are listed, but you can still produce all the previous units from that building series. For example, a citadel can produce Arab Cavalry, Desert Cavalry, Granadine Jinetes, Dismounted Arab cavalry and Granadine Lancers. If you find any mistakes, let me know.

I might not end up making a city reference chart, so I thought I'd upload this one now.
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[Carl]

Hey, loads of thanks for this. Well done .

[SCRIBE]

Are the Moors still able to deploy the Almohad Urban Militia?

[grinningman]

Yes, but they aren't the early game powerhouse unit that they were in MTW. They're built at a level 3 barracks building in cities.

[grinningman]

The latest version of these tech trees, which print out properly, look nicer and include a lot more info on all the buildings, are now here:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...=156#linkid358

I had some free time on the weekend, so I did end up making a city chart. I also corrected a couple of mistakes on the castle chart.

They are now here:

*snip*

I've removed the link to the old version of the castle tech tree. As before, guilds aren't included.

[Slaists]

All in all, Moors are an enjoyable faction to play, after playing one of the Catholic factions.

Converting all your neighbors to Islam and not worrying about those marauding Inquisitors just feels refreshing (for a heretic like me). As a bonus - the faction campaign map music felt great to me (could be, it is the same for all the Islamic factions though). By the way, I played on H/VH setting with 2 years per turn.

Strategy wise, there is no need to follow the initial advice of the internal game advisor about rushing for Valencia - a poor, undeveloped castle with strong early defenders. On top of that, it is not on your initial Jihad target list, which means that taking it would drain your economic and military resources for quite some turns with no immediate reward. Meanwhile: the Spaniards and Portuguese might attack Cordoba.

Depending on your particular map situation, You might as well, declare a Jihad on Lisbon (a great cash city with few castle units in their garrison). This is what I did after Portuguese attacked my border fort. I guess, they did not have a family member in Bilbao, since the faction was destroyed after my Jihad. From then on - it was a bit of a marathon finishing off Spaniards in the peninsula (I did take my time with it).

Note, sending a bunch of your Imams into a Spanish province will convert the province to Islam fast and will boost your Imams' peity. This helps to counter efforts of catholic priests in your own provinces: 1) their priests tend to rush back to thier home provinces to counter spread of Islam, 2) higher peity helps your imams to convert your own provinces back faster.

Another side note (and a sad one): it seems Timbuktu gets flash floods some time in mid 1100-s. This means movement impairment for any units there, including your merchants (and this effect does not seem to go away. probably, due to a bug observed in RTW too). So, my advice, turn Timbuktu into a castle (cheaper to keep and no need to have a city there since the trade income (not counting merchants) seem to be low) and make sure you take West Sahara and turn it into a merchant factory to farm resources for both provinces. Otherwise, walking merchants through the desert from your mainland provinces will be a hellish experience.

[PureFodder]

I`m on my second campaign as the Moors now on H/H after the first one ended up grinding to a deadlock and a couple of trial runs, here's my thoughts so far.

Initial Building strategy

First turn you get the option to upgrade 2 castles, I upgrade both and set the other cities to make land clearance / ports / markets / roads to up income.
I set Granada to be my ranged troop production centre once the castle is built. Toledo will make foot troops and Pamplona, mounted units.

Agents

Send your spy and Imam towards Toledo to keep track of the Spanish armies. Send your emissary asap towards France then onto the Papal states. Making peace with both these factions will pay huge dividens, my lack of attention in this area on my initial attempt resulted in having a crusade called on me and being at war with all the Catholic countries at the same time.

Initial assaults

Force 1
Take all but one unit from Marrakesh with your heir and link up with the troops just standing around the desert, buy a couple of merc units and declair a Jihad on Lisbon. This means that half your troops don't pay upkeep giving a nice cash boost early on and you can get to Lisbon asap which is important. As has been mentioned, Portugal only has 2 family members, both in Lisbon, so battering them will destroy the Portugeese and make your life alot easier, plus you'll get a load of cash.
DON'T STOP, dump one or two units to hold Lisbon then send the rest north, along with some more Mercs towards Leon.

Force 2
Take your units from Granada, send them to Cordoba and buy some more milita units there. Once your Lisbon Force is roughly 3 turns from Leon, send this force out towards Toledo so they arrive at the same time.

Every time I've started as the Moors pre and post patch, the Spanish did the same thing. They stick all their troops into two armies and march off towards El Cid and the rebel provinces there leaving their cities practically unguarded. Once they see you knocking on the walls of Toledo they turn round, but can't make it back in time to stop both provinces being taken. Bye Bye Spanish. Now Iberia is left to you and the rebels

Force 3
I guess it's up to you, you can take the forces at Algeirs down towards Timbuktu and the money pot there, but there's absolutely no chance that anyone will take it before you. I personally send that force plus a few mercs to take Tunisia before dumping them on a ship and heading to the really poorly held tiny rebel provinces in Sardinia and Corsica. Convert them both into cities to maximise income, the mines help the income too. A word of warning; Post patch, Sicilly has gone all out amphibious assault on Tunisia and Sardinia so watch out for them.