Which factions is best against Mongols and Timurids?

**Alexander: The hellenic empire** · 12-05-2006, 16:26

Which factions is best equipped (armywise) to face the Mongols and the Timurids?

Note: I know there are some factions (e.g. England, Portugal) who never meet the Mongols/Timurids territorially. However include these western factions since one might have conquered Greece or the Holy lands.

**Frantz** · 12-05-2006, 16:42

From my experience due to the AI bugs but maybe even later any faction that have Crossbows ( alot of ammos ) and strong cavalry with high stamina like normans ,and good inf units ( but without a strong cav they are routed easily )

so i pick Sicilians

**Vlad Tzepes** · 12-05-2006, 18:35

Any nuclear power, just NUKE them!

I went for heavy archers/crossbows armies against Mongols, in a defensive stance, and it worked - slowly, but it worked. Didn't have any battle against Timurids yet, but after reading posts here, I dread their elephants...

**TheFluff** · 12-05-2006, 19:11

I would say the turks or byzentines because they have supurior foot soliders compared to the mongols and have the same high mobility in the feild with supurior dual purpose archers that the mongols lack. The problem with both factions howerver, is the fact that they are weak by the time the mongols attack.

**Burakius** · 12-05-2006, 19:37

Turks.. without my horse archers I would be doomed. and my sipahi lancer :O .. and my dismounted sipahi pikemen do it supER!

**GiantMonkeyMan** · 12-05-2006, 19:48

historically the mamaluks of egypt held them off and forced them away from egypt and the holy land so they went north to russia (or at least i think that's a good description of what happened)... i'd say any army that can field good infantry in defending cities and good cavalry when taking to the field

**Musashi** · 12-05-2006, 20:41

I'd bet the HRE would hand them their rears after the invention of gunpowder ;)

Reiters ftw lol

**CrownOfSwords** · 12-05-2006, 20:44

My mass heavy cavalry armies of Russia obliterated them pretty easily, id supposed Milan would be the best though just mass pavise crossbow.

**Roy1991** · 12-05-2006, 20:59

Any faction with archers that can plant stakes is good against the Mongols.
Just put stakes behind the gate and/or holes in the wall, and watch the massacre as thousands of Mongolian cav impale themselves :)

**IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer** · 12-05-2006, 21:11

As someone said before, the factions with strong infantry and mounted skirmishers and lancers are the best for the Mongols. That would mean the Turks, Egyptians, Byzantines, and maybe the Russians in that order. Oddly enough, those are also the 4 factions on the front lines of the Mongol invasion. It's just a matter of how many forces you have to spare to fight them with without your front lines collapsing elsewhere.

The Turks and Egyptians also have a very unique advantage against the Mongols and Timurids that nobody else gets. When it almost comes time for the Mongols to arrive, Elephants and Elephant Artillery will be avaliable as mercenaries in the Baghdad/Yerevan region. So you can have some of their secret weapons to use against them when they arrive.

Any faction can recruit them as they are mercs, but the Turks and Egyptians start closest to that region.

**Alexander: The hellenic empire** · 12-06-2006, 20:17

I Byzantine and Turk infantry good enough? Are there archers who cannot make the wall of you know trunks.. (i dont remeber the name)

**IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer** · 12-06-2006, 20:47

The Turks get Janissary Heavy Infantry, the best melee infantry in the game. The Byzantines get decent enough infantry...Varangians should make their infantry very good, but in their current condition, they're pretyt useless.

**Varyar** · 12-06-2006, 21:10

As said, archers with stakes are a huge asset. However, there is one faction that not only manages to match the mongols, but to beat them at their own game. Namely... the Moors. Their Camel Gunner is one of the best units in the game and with just a little backup from Granadine Jinetes and/or Christian Guardsmen they can take on any mongol army in a field battle. Gotta love that "camel scare horse" feature.

**zulukiller** · 12-06-2006, 21:50

TBH I've never had a problem with the mongols there pretty bog standard in all my campaigns (I've had 3 full campaigns now as England only) and good tactics normally kicks there arses. As for the Timurid's though they've been sent straight from hell just to torment me (the dam elephants are evil and i get the crash bug with the Timurid's :-( ).

From what I've read though mounted javelin men are supposed to be the best counter to elephants or mounted archers or some kind of mounted projectile unit. This actually makes alot of sense to me you can hit and run from them constantly gradually wearing them down or sending them berserk. Now according to the actual game (help advisor) fast lightly armoured units in loose formation are supposed to be the best anti elephant unit. I find that to be false myself as elephants scare the crap out of infantry and cavalry . So in my current campaign I'm going to go for normal billmen (the lightly armoured ones) as many generals as i can get for cavalry and a crap load of arbaquests plus a couple of couldrens set to explosive rounds (i don't want to relay on mercs). I'm really hoping that will take the elephants out as the Timurid infantry is just really poor and easily dealt with.