Timurids

[pansoiatr]

When do the timurids emerge and where pls?
The mongols have just attacked me and i wonder if i have to wait for another threat from the east( i am playing as the byzantines)

[dismal]

Around 1370 or 1380. Don't know the exact date. You'll get a warning a few turns before.

In my game they came in around Baghdad.

[Bongaroo]

I can't remember exactly as I am playing France and still haven't finished my campaign (i'm a slow player) but I have about 40 turns left and am currently under the 5th siege of Jerusalem. I took it from the Mongels who creamed the Egyptians. I'd say the Timurids showed up between 10 and 20 turns ago. I guess you might be able to figure when from that. Anyone know the exact number of turns?

[eddiethebastard]

Late 14th century, I've played two games - one in which they dived into the mid east and set about the Mongols, in the other my England controls the region with a very strong military presence and they seem content to sit in the middle of the desert without disrupting trade or starting a fight with me. I was going to try to wipe them out this weekend - longbows vs elephants should be interesting.

[sapi]

The answer should be in the faq

[zulukiller]

I was going to try to wipe them out this weekend - longbows vs elephants should be interesting.

I'd make a seperate save if i were you trust me once those boys start to fight you will wish you would of left them alone.

P.S. Make sure you have a very high chivalrouse generale on your side or assinate the Timurid general because the moral impact of elephants plus the 10 dread general equals instant routing. Also incase you didnt know stake walls get trammpled by elephants so dont rely on them either.

[nheero143]

In my present game as Turks, the message said that they came in near Yerevan, but it was Baghdad where I first noticed them (turn 145). I've lost both cities and yet to really put up a fight, but am scaling up. The Rebels are my best friend, distracting them while I get my forces maximized outside of Antioch. The Timurids would be easy by themselves, but I'm at war with the Mongols, Poles, Danes, Venetians, Papal States, and a few others. Eight including the Rebels. It is Total War though. That darn (failed) 30 year Crusade against Constantinople, that's when my relatively peaceful builder game errupted into nonstop TW. I suppose with enough cash I could buy some peace, but maybe showing up on their doorsteps with my armies will be convincing enough.

[rosscoliosis]

Oh Lordy, in what world are the Timurids easy to wipe out? I've had full-stack armies full of cavalry, spearmen, archers, and bombards; reinforced with another full-stack of about the same complement that still get MASSACRED by a couple reinforced Timurid armies altogether comprising about 1/3 of my total army, all because they had a couple units of elephants/elephant artillery and some heavy horse archers. Longbowmen don't seem to do ANYTHING to elephants, and none of my spearmen last more than a couple seconds against them.
I have... resorted to "auto_win defender" more than a couple times vs them. (Kinda broke down and started using that more after initially using it to counter the elephant CTD bug, and siege lag bug...)
That and extensive assassin use are the only thing keeping them under control right now, haha.

[joe4iz]

They either appear north or south of the Caspian Sea. In the four games I have played , 3 times they show up at Baghad, only once at Burgers?. The once they went north, they wiped out all of Russia and were threatening Europe when the game ended.

[gardibolt]

Good god, I'm getting massacred by the Mongols, and the Timurids are even worse?

[TevashSzat]

mongols aren't that tough if your army is cavalry dominant. What you have to do is quickly, charge all of your cavalry at the horse archers who will be seperated from the main battle group alowing you to wipe them off without enemy infantry getting into the mix. Their melee cavalry will probably try to intercept you, but if you have enough cavalry, you can plow through their cavalry easily since they will be seperated. Once the cavalry is gone, the mongols are a piece of cake, just engage them in the front with your infantry and then charge in their backs with cavalry.

If you don't have cavalry dominant armies, then just sit in your castles and hope you don't have to sally once the mongols besigege you

[supadodo]

Haha the best way to combat elephants is to get your own bunch. Just send a general to baghdad and hire elephants every 20 turns or so. Useless however if you're playing 2 turn time scale but excellent with 0.5. Btw I wonder why you call them panzerphants. You make them sound like they are a HRE unit.

German Stormtruppen: Haha, ve arr going to unleash ourve new veapon!! against ze enemies of ze Reich!!!
Ze Panzerphantkampwagen and ze Panzerbombaphantkampwagen!!!

[Tiberius maximus]

they came in around baghdad (spelling ) and i countered two stacks with heavy cavalry, french lancers and gendarms with some templars as first wave fodder

[nheero143]

Good god, I'm getting massacred by the Mongols, and the Timurids are even worse?

What faction are you playing? Also, there's a big difference between fighting one stack at a time or four at once. In my first game, I was overrun by the Mongols at Antioch. So I reloaded at turn 50 and have been playing that game well. In the reloaded game, the Mongols went to the North to Russia (Kiev), so by the time they made it into my empire, they were weakened, usually one good stack, one and a half at most. Now, they are mostly half stacks or less.

The Timurids are something else. They've come for me with 10 stacks. So I had to give up Baghdad and Mosul to them and their 8.5 stacks proceed to Jerusalem region after letting the Rebels have those two cities. So in my first battle with them, I was able to attack a rear army lagging behind the main horde with two of my armies (~1.5 stacks). Luckily, there were no elephants in that army, so I've had enough experience fighting the Mongols that I won this one handily. Autoresolve seems useless against the Timurids, so I think there will be many interactive battles to be fought before I can defeat them. Needless to say, I have 3-4 cannons in each of 10 armies, while the Timurids are down to 7.5 armies, but very highly ranked dread lords.

Luckily, after my first victory, they turned away from Acre, heading towards that bridge at Jerusalem, which I am heavily guarding. This is my best chance I think. If they go to Damasus, it'll be much harder. I hope they take the bridge.

If it is true that javelins are effective against elephants, I will be building them in numbers in Caesara, but it may not be in time. Hopefully my artillery will be effective enough. I only have 5 cities to go for victory, but it can be stolen easily by the Timurids. Besides, I don't want just to win 45 territories, I want to win big!

[JCoyote]

If javelins work on elephants, the Spanish Jinetes might just be their achilles heel. Need to try that...

[dismal]

If javelins work on elephants, the Spanish Jinetes might just be their achilles heel. Need to try that...

My only time fighting them was a Spanish campaign I played past victory to see the new world. The Jinettes worked great. I put a stack of Jinettes, pavisse crossbows and a few mounted knights on the mountain side near Jerusalem and destroyed stack after stack of Timurids. I probably used some Amulghvars and DFKs in there if they were around as well.

But the real keys are to have some javelins for the ellies when they get close, and to have enough missiles flying to keep the horse archers from chewing you up. Pavisse on a steep hill are great against horse archers.

I made the Timurids my vassal, which was quite satisfying.

[gardibolt]

What faction are you playing? Also, there's a big difference between fighting one stack at a time or four at once.

Playing the English on M/M. I have a set of Gaza, Alexandria and Cairo in the Middle East, and the Mongols just keep beating on Gaza, stack after stack. I think I will lose Gaza soon thanks to mishandling a sally against the Mongols (I didn't realize I still had reinforcements off the map, and so I lost the battle when I ended the sally!), and being reduced down to a couple hundred troops. I'm trying to get a relief army over to Gaza but I think I may end up being a turn too late....so slow moving through the sands!

[nheero143]

Playing the English on M/M. I have a set of Gaza, Alexandria and Cairo in the Middle East, and the Mongols just keep beating on Gaza, stack after stack. I think I will lose Gaza soon thanks to mishandling a sally against the Mongols (I didn't realize I still had reinforcements off the map, and so I lost the battle when I ended the sally!), and being reduced down to a couple hundred troops. I'm trying to get a relief army over to Gaza but I think I may end up being a turn too late....so slow moving through the sands!

I think the English may find it harder against the Mongol horse archers, than say the Turks, who I'm playing now, since they have such a fine horse archer themselves (Sepahis). Perhaps use your longbows against them and protect them from cavalry rushes with your good pikemen. The Turks also have this Ottoman Infantry, which combines archer and infantry capabilities, making them a bit more resistant to cavalry or infantry attacks in the field.

I've been making headway against the Timurids. They're down to 4.5 stacks now and haven't gone after Jerusalem, Damascus or Gaza yet (lucky me). They threaten to, then back off, apparently being distracted by my rear attacks. Meanwhile, my first big wave of Javelins are coming in from Caesara to help out with the elephant problem. I've been fighting them in the desert. Seeing that it's almost impossible to get a one on one battle in the open field, I try to get several armies to join the battles. Sometimes that helps, but sometimes they don't arrive in time or in one case were stymied by an impassible mountain. But win or lose, each battle wears them down. Just don't use autoresolve. It appears to be useless against Timurids, even when the odds are in favor of you. Not sure what it is, but the high ranking dread generals and elephant fear must have a lot to do with it.

The Timurids/Mongols really are the most fun and challenging aspect of the game, but I won't rest until the Timurids have been eliminated. The Mongols have been stretched thin and are not really a problem anymore. But they were for the Russians.