Quote Originally Posted by gardibolt
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.