The Moors

[IvarrWolfsong]

PuerFodder,

That was ne of the clearest and most concise guides I have read here! Very nice work.

[Gingivitis]

My winning campaign also saw me mopping up Europe and leaving the rest of North Africa alone east of Tunis. For some reason I really wanted Tunis and every time I started a game Sicliy got there first, so I decided to call a Jihad there and was able assult it the the same turn Sicily landed there. I kept that army there after turning it from a castle to a town and Sicily never stepped foot there for the rest of the game. With the part of North Africa that I controlled completely peaceful I only had one battle front the whole game. Add the resource jackpot of Timbuktu and Arguin and I was basically able to expand as fast as I could build troops.

[Nepereta]

my Moor campaign so far consists of beelining for the 2 saharan territories asap. Meanwhile I have just been maintaining good diplomatic relationships with everyone I see. One diplomat is currently passing the alps having made friends with the portuguese, spainish, french, milan and english. Gonna try and make good friends with the Papists if that some how helps.

A little hint with timbuktu is get it in order (green face) prior to building merchants. Even if that means lowering taxes. I find yellow and blue face cities tend to generate negative trader traits. Each merchant is bringing in 300 or so from the get go on the gold and ivory.

Also to get your soldiers back its a good idea to use a jihad to tunis and rush your troops home using that and the roads.

The portuguese war decced me by virtue of a failed espionage attempt on there part. I used this to seize Lisbon which was undermanned and the El Cid territory ( which was upgradable to fortress straight away). Portugal are sitting in pampolona.

A good way to get heavier ( read marginally heavier than weak spears) city assault troops is to make use of the sahara ( saharan tribesmen) and also make use of jihads Using the jihad you can get Ghazhis and a peasant shock troop Muutwa'Ekekeke'Ptang! ( all these light infantry units have really low upkeep and are ultimately expendable.

Troops I use in the early game:

Saharan Tribesman ( Light infantry swordsman) good v weak spear types. You can pickup 3 or 4 of these units during the Saharan campaign.
Ghazis ( Light infantry axeman) good v weak spear types. Purchase cheap in large numbers during jihad. ( cheap upkeep)
Muutwa ( Fanatics) good flanking junk unit. ( Massive attack value). Purchase cheap in large numbers during jihad. ( cheap upkeep)

All of the above will disapear under a cav charge.

Spear Militia pretty rubbish especially if you ever played Italian at some point. Expendable meat wall.

Desert Cavalry: javalins ftw ( seriously use these to strafe command units from a couple of sides)

Desert Archers: not as good as longbows but v cheap. A number of these dudes will help a fair amount.

Arab Cav: don't think they are mailed knights they aren't. Skinny spears use these for flanks and rear attacks they run down light inf and archers handily. They also don't fare too well v jinnettes which is a little sad.

Basically compared to european games each fight has relied on hideously large stacks overwhelming heavier troops with sheer numbers. Expect to be using you generals more at the hard end to break up the harder units.

The dhows are a little weak looking. Consider getting war galleys for your navy?

Keep you main city growing as quickly as possible. Its not that far off large city == urban militia ( your godsend infantry unit). Go all out on farm upgrades and city hall upgrades.

[tequila]

Just a quick note. If you are playing on Hard or VH on the strat map, DO NOT GO EAST as the Moors --- at least before you take all of Iberia. Taking Tunis will just bog you down in a neverending war against the Italian powers --- Sicily, Venice, and Milan, who post-patch go crazy for North Africa. Even worse, after I took Tunis I foolishly launched an island invasion to Sardinia, where my armies were assaulted regularly by massive full-stack Italian armies. The Sicilians in particular were nasty --- swarms of Norman Knights, Muslim Archers, and Dismounted Norman Knights that made mincemeat of my Lamtuna and Berber spearlines (only massive doses of javcav saved me). They got so bad that I eventually conquered Palermo and Naples to destroy Sicily, which has alleviated the problem somewhat as Milanese and Venetian armies are nowhere near as challenging. This has probably been the toughest M2TW campaign I've had so far --- gotta admit it was fun as hell, though.

Also on VH, expect to see regular invasions of English and even Scots from the North into Iberia. Plan naval allocations accordingly.

[Nepereta]

thanks for the FYI tequila, this is my first new game since the patch on an earlier pre patch game that I loaded post patch playing as Venice I noted sicily island hopping. Which is a vast improvement on the usual Sicily hitting bologna in turn 30 or 40 which was pitiful imo.

[tequila]

No problem, I was quite surprised to see massed Italians outside my walls, especially with the quality of the Sicilian troops. Very nasty surprise when my first full-stack army (made up primarily of Berber spears, Desert Cav, and Touareg Camels) was utterly destroyed by a half-stack of Norman Knights, Muslim Archers, and Dismounted Normans. Those Dismounted Normans pack a punch, and Muslim Archers shredded my Desert Cav like paper when I trotted them out there unsupported (which made it so much sweeter when I later used Christian Guards to crush the little bastards in an avalanche of steel).

I would advise going full bore to conquer Iberia first and foremost. This will give you the safe haven and the economic foundation to do whatever else you want to do. What really killed me was having to conquer the Spanish and Portuguese (still haven't finished the latter, they are clinging to a citadel in Toulouse) at the same time fighting off British/French invasions of Iberia AND contending with the Italians. A major cost factor in trying to do that was maintaining a massively farflung empire that required massively large fleets to safely convey my troops from Iberia to North Africa/Italian islands/Sicily, never mind fighting off constant blockades of my crucial port moneymakers. Constant naval battles against all the Italians and the French in the Med was both extremely expensive and had no guarantee of success.

[Nepereta]

did you ally all the italian factions prior to all this going off? My diplomatic policies ( in every game bar the first as english which was of mixed success because I practiced a great deal of catholic killing) are based around allying everyone and let them do the aggreement breaking. It makes them appear dishonorable and hence potentially gives them more problems because the other factions should trust them less.

Until in theory all aggresor factions become inherently venal and their word isn't worth a damn and they just get caught up in an endless cycle of war with each other.

[Mother Yoda]

PuerFodder,

That was ne of the clearest and most concise guides I have read here! Very nice work.

I would have to agree with what IvarrWolfsong said. Kudos PuerFodder

Ok some quick tips...

I haven't tested it again, but this does mean that sometimes it will be possible to eliminate portugal with one battle.

Yep, it's possible to do that. I tried myself and have to say that it has worked for me using a Jihad.

[Sir Greenfear]

After buying the game and playing a few Catholic factions I decided the Pope and Inquistors were too much of a pain so I decided to give the Moors a try. Playing the Moors has been a much more enjoyable campaign. Here's the way I've played the Moors.

1st Phase: Consolidate North Africa.

I decided that before I took on Spain and Portugal in Iberia, I would conquer North Africa. My first priority was Tunisia. I gathered a small but adequate army in Algiers and crushed the rebels in Tunis. Turn Tunis into a city. Garrison with about 4 militia units. Rebuild a small army in Tunis and march on Tripoli. Turn Tripoli into a city. Garrison Tripoli with about 4 militia (Egypt nor the Monguls who conquered Egypt have never sent an army to Tripoli, the most they have done is blockade my port so don't worry about a big garrison in Tripoli). March remainder of army back to Algiers. Build up an army in Algiers and begin the long march to Timbuktu. The march is long but well worth it finacially. Take Timbuktu. Garrison appropriately. Take the city on the west African coast and Garrison appropriately. Keep a small force in either sub-saharan town to deal with pesky rebels and disband the rest of the army. Build merchants to exploit the ivory and gold mines in the sub-saharan countries. The key to the Moors is to not have too many military units because your economy is not very strong in the beginning of the game. It is a balancing act but you should get the hang of it. During the turns that you are on your African conquest the only thing you should do in Iberia is play defence and keep Cordoba and Granada in your hands. This was extremely tricky and a couple of times I almost lost Cordoba to Spain but my defenders pulled out some heroic victories and Spain was turned back at the walls.

2nd Phase: Conquer Iberia and Southern France

After conquering Africa I turned my attention to Iberia. By this time my economy was getting strong as were the military units that I could bring to bear on the enemy. Wait as long as you can and build up your economy and military potential. When you think the time is right, build an army made up of mostly militia crossbowmen and urban militia. Sprinkle in some camel spearmen, grenadine jinettes, and arab cav. Leave a strong garrison in Cordoba because once you strike out into Iberia you will be counter-attacked there. I chose to go from west to east. I conquered Lisbon first, followed by Leon, next was Toledo, then it was on to Valencia. After taking these countries you can finally relax in Cordoba. I make all castles into cities. The only two castles I have at this point is Granada and Algiers. I garrison my cities after conquering them with 4 urban milita and 2 militia crossbowmen. After Valencia I rebuild army and conquer Zaragoza and Pamplona, thus completing my Iberian conquest. After this I gave my military a rest and just concentrated on economy and military buildings. By this time I had access to all of the Moorish military units so now I was ready to cross the Pyranese into France. I built two very powerful armies consisting of 1 or 2 Generals, 8 dismounted Christian Guard, 4 mounted Christian Guard, 2 Camel Gunners, 2 Peasant Crossbow, and 2 Sudanese Gunners. All I can say is the the Christian Guard are bad asses. I highly recommend fighting with them. Anyway, I took these two armies and pushed France out of Toulouse and Bordeaux. I left my two powerful armies there to serve as gatekeepers to my Iberian Empire. Nobody has tried to take on these armies yet so I have a very quiet border in Southern France.

3rd Phase: Island Hop and Conquer Egypt and Middle East

This is where I'm at in the game. I am building up my newly aquired territories economically and I have started island hopping. I took Corsica and Sardina first. I probably should have taken these two islands earlier in the game because of the silver mines to be had. After taking these Islands I conquered the three island in the eastern med. Now I am ready to take on the Monguls in Egypt and the rest of the middle east. I have two more bad ass armies sailing to Egypt as I type. I'll let you know how it goes...

[rvg]

A few of my observations on the Moorish campaign...

1. At the start Lisbon seems to be the most obvious target. I usually declare Jihad on it around turn 2 and take it by turn 5.

2. it is a good idea to let the Portuguese take Zaragoza while keeping the rest of Iberia for yourself; a small Aragonese kingdom is a perfect buffer between you and the rest of Europe. Ally with them while you're at it.

3. If you take Tunis, expected it to be perpetually under siege by Sicilians, Milanese, Papacy, i.e. pretty much everyone. I've even seen the Byzantines and the HRE land assault stacks there. If you don't take Tunis, Algiers will suffer this fate instead.

4. While having excellent merchant spots, Timbuktu is a hotbed of Paganism and heresy. Oh, and bandits. They seem to love the Saharan climate.

5. Jihad!!! I find moorish economy to be sub-par early on (which is really the only time when it matters), so the liberal use of Jihads goes a long way in fixing that problem (free upkeep even for a couple of turns makes a huge difference).

6. Mercs. Iberian peninsula spawns plenty of Merc Spearmen, who happen to be better than any spear units in the moorish roster. I hire them at every opportunity at least until I have a steady flow of lamtunas at my castles.

7. Desert Cavalry is great, Arab Cavalry -- not so great. I always train the former and never the latter*. Sudanese Javelinmen are *very* good on the walls and not too bad in the field either. Desert Archers are just plain awesome.

*Results may vary.

8. Once you start getting Christian guards (of both mounted and dismounted variety) your troubles are over, and from that point Moors play like any Catholic faction, but with Camels and without the Pope's constant finger-wagging.

9. You start out alone and you will stay alone. Other than trying to force an alliance upon the Portuguese, I wouldn't worry about diplomacy too much, since there will be none: Moors imho have the ultimate Total War game.

10. After securing Spain and North Africa I tend to go after Egypt (mostly to satisfy the Jerusalem requirement for the long campaign.

11. Neither Mongols nor Timmies present any problem for the Moors, both are pretty easy to beat as long as you have enough spears and foot archers. Elephants are dogmeat for the Granadine Jinetes and Camel Gunners. Jinetes especially, shred those Phants very-very quickly.

[testhero]

AS the English I had an first crusade fail #1. So I dropped in on the Portuguese for a quick smash and run at Lisbon. Their garrison rallied forth #2. The first two Cavalry units through the gate were Family bodyguards and my 600 longbowmen harrowed them before they fataly charged the balista in my van. Placed in a ravelin formed with overlapping archers stake hedges, Defended by my Sherwood archers #3. Just before their rest of the Cavalry charged the 2 Spear militia and 2 fanatics guarding my archers in a classic pincer, both Bodyguards broke! A charge by the remaining Sherwood men Taking the king and ballista bolt to their prince's back decapitating their leadership. Once my archers had swept the battlements of their archers. The balista finished demolishing the gate #4. The fanatics took the Barbican #5. So my longbowmen could gain the walls and mop up the survivors.
Once I had decided to sack the city #6 and returned to the strategic game I was greeted with that most noble of Announcments! Faction Eliminated, Portugal.
#7

#1 The Sicilians took Jerusalim with an audacious amphibious assault.
#2 probably to stop my only ballista shooting their gate in.
#3 It was very early. They were the best Infintry I had.
#4 And Decimating Sundary other units behind it.
#5 We won't mention their casualties, simply stunning morale! despite formed units in front and the occasional missaimed 'friendly' balista bolts in the back they didn't rout.
#6 8000 all told with Loot and Building destruction
#7 As is traditional in these circumstances I gifted Lisbon to the Pope to raise favor (and avoid Excomunication) Neatly honking off the Moors and Spaniards plans into the bargin