The Turks

[Louis VI the Fat]

Turks are great.

Aye.

't Is true that in the beginning your Turks are dirt poor.
However, a smart Sultan has ways and means of overcoming penury.

1. Ransom
   Your starting army is more than adequate to beat the Byzantines, who are rich and who will come more or less straight at you. The Emperor's first attack will be with a spear army. Use you mobile missile troops to wear them down, let your Family Members cut them to pieces, then let the horse archers wrap up those pieces. Collect a handsome ransom and then some (yes, I'm a poet). Rinse and repeat until you have taken Nicaea.
2. Trade
   Your starting merchants have decent finance traits. Send them to Antoich and Aleppo to sample the wares. Together they will rake in 250-500 florins in a good year, as well as build up better traits over time. This is important. Merchants should operate in droves, like a 'trade army', with a mercantile genius in the middle and preferably with an assassin around, in order to protect the weaker merchants. By turn 70 they will be making 2000 a year as well as denying income to other factions, which is equally important.
3. Obedience
   Carry out the Council's assignments; this will bring in 500-2000 florins.

As for the steppe peoples, they can be beaten in two ways.

1. In the open field
   Always pick the high ground for a fight, always use spears, poles, and halberds, backed up by tons of arrows and some heavy cavalry.
   
2. Let them lay siege, then counterattack
   I have developed a tactic for 'city warfare' which I may explain in detail at some later stage. The point being that you draw the Mongols to your walls or onto the spears inside your walls, and then slaughter them with arrows and siege artillery. In this way their unique mobility counts for nothing, whereas your cheap and easily replaced spears are employed to maximum effect.

But then I love sieges.

In my French campaign (Hard mode) I took a Mongol stronghold of 800 with an army of 600, and I lost only 45 men. Those culverins are a thing of beauty.. *


İyi Şanslar!

* If you give them time, that is. The trick is to set no limit on battle time. Make sure you have culverins (or other siege guns) ready as reinforcements by the time your first batch is out of ammo. Look for the right spots and angles when you place your guns within walls, either your own or those of the enemy. Some castles (like Acre, where said siege 'miracle' took place) have huge open spaces within the outer ring from which to fire at enemy cannon towers, gates and the like.

Hello and welcome to the boards!

I must say, what a great post! Well written, thoughtful, witty.

Say, you ought to consider posting in the Backroom. We have a lot of interesting debates going on all the time, and they could benefit greatly from your input. Going out on a limb here, but you strike me as the kind of person who would love the odd political debate. Give it a try sometime!

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Turks are great.

Hello and welcome to the boards!

I must say, what a great post! Well written, thoughtful, witty.

Say, you ought to consider posting in the Backroom. We have a lot of interesting debates going on all the time, and they could benefit greatly from your input. Going out on a limb here, but you strike me as the kind of person who would love the odd political debate. Give it a try sometime!

I'm just going to love waiting Adrian to drop the other shoe on you Louis-louis!

[Iavorios]

Playing with Turks is no brainer, even on VH/VH. Jihad for Jerusalem and to Constantinople. Then kill and pilage whatever you want. Basicly, the AI is so stupid that he can't stop army of saracen infantry and sipahis. In fakt the AI cant ston any horse archers army. And if you put in some janisarys, well the poor guy has no chace. I really didn't need the heavy cav, or the exelent janisary archers, musketmen and so on. But i do use sametimes otoman infantri and dismounted sipahi lansers.
Only the mongols are a bit of a chalenge. There is to way to play the turks - jihad blitz or slower version of the same with no jihads. Ny way once you kill of Bizantium and Egypt it is over.

[Adrian II]

Turks are teH bomB!

I am glad you agree.

Teheh, the best way to make money for Turks is by betting on the camel races in Mosul. Camel races are kewl!

Dear Louis,

a Turkish gentleman of the period wouldn't be found dead near Mosul's camel track. For him the place to be seen and heard (and of course talked about) would be the horse races in Antioch.

But it is nice to see a new member who is so enthusiastic about the game. How old are you?

[Louis VI the Fat]

The beauty of Total War is that it so surprisingly well corresponds with real history. The Turks simply beg for magnificent players, who can play a game of simultaneous expansionist war combined with tremendous economic and religious sophistication.

But it is nice to see a new member who is so enthusiastic about the game. How old are you?

Dude, I'am alreAdy fiftEen!!


We need you in the Backroom Adrian! Some pompous Frenchman is posting the most outrageous nonsense about Great Britain and we need you to put him firmly in his place!