Will Mongols attack AI opponents?

[Multiplicity]

I think the Timurids have the same entry points as the Mongols do. I have seen them fight each other before when the Mongols totally obliterated Egypt and the Timurids had their eyes on the Mongolion controlled Antioch.

[Husar]

Well, in my current campaign as the Turks the Mongols appeared in Russia and defeated Russia, now they started attacking me and the Hungarians also keep attacking me despite having a huge border with the mongols. Poland, also somewhat threatened by the Mongols, tries to get a ceasefire with me but wants me to pay a lot for it. Now I am the strongest faction despite the Mongols and Timurids(who appeared in their back and are at war with the Mongols) and never attacked Hungary except to lift sieges. That really makes me wonder how the AI sees it fit to attack me rather than prepare for the Mongols?
Now the answer should be obvious since all factions which share a border with the player will attack the player sooner or later.
Alliances are pretty useless since your only reliable allies are on the other side of the worldmap, far away from you so that you can't expect much help from them anyway. I think this is a bit sad and renders diplomacy pretty much useless, but it's called TotalWar after all(in this case I wonder why they even bothered putting diplomacy into the game).

[nheero143]

Alliances are pretty useless since your only reliable allies are on the other side of the worldmap, far away from you so that you can't expect much help from them anyway. I think this is a bit sad and renders diplomacy pretty much useless, but it's called TotalWar after all(in this case I wonder why they even bothered putting diplomacy into the game).

It is aptly called Total War.

I suppose there are ways to keep your alliances in good shape, tribute or other gifts. Making alliances with strong factions is usually a good idea even if they are far away, on the other side of your enemy, who is usually adjacent to you. Also, what seems far away may not be so far away once your empire approaches 45 territories.

I have had a few battles where my ally has shown up to join in. That is so cool, but it doesn't happen very often.

In the present game as Turks, I notice the Mongols at war with Russia, but have not taken any territories yet. I'm at 70% of their strength. I have 40 turns until the Timurids show up, so my strength will have to make a serious improvement by then. But my sights are now on Egypt. Sacking all of those cities will fuel my military development, hopefully to allow me to hold off the Timurids, and/or the Mongols if they move South from Russia.

In the last game as Scotland, the Timurids wiped out the Mongols. I suppose it depends which part of the map they spawn from. On the same path would likely to lead to the Mongol's elimination.

[Ars Moriendi]

I find it hard to believe there is no bias against the human player.

Short H/H campaign, me as byzantines. I attack the turks, get to Aleppo quite fast when the Mongols pop up near Baghdad. I decide to halt my advance (regroup, retrain, convert, repair etc.) as I was streched too thin already. I take the bridge east of Aleppo, and send spies east to witness the horde fragging the turks. They don't, instead they just walk around their cities and carefully avoid the 5-6 stacks the green ones have in the region.
"Okay, then, let's give them some incentive." I say and send my diplomat in. After offering 5-6 gifts of 500 per turn, in 2-3 turns we're allied and with "Perfect" relations. The diplomacy screen also says the mongols are at war with the turks. I was expecting some serious horde-vs-turks action. Instead, they dissapoint me again when, after 5-6 turns of wandering aimlessly in the region, the mongols feel that the fat cities or the mediocre turk armies aren't worth their effort - they attack ME, their "perfect" ally, on the bridge to Aleppo. Two stacks perish.
The next turn I send my diplomat to make peace - they happily accept it, and I also get a full refund on the initial bribe. Our relations still "perfect". Another turn passes, and they attack me again !
I took an oath - never to attempt the alliance part of diplomacy in M2TW again - it's about as useful as a raincoat in Sahara.

[Magraev]

There are ways to mod the diplomacy to make it more reliable. I saw a thread about it on this forum a few days ago.

[nheero143]

I took an oath - never to attempt the alliance part of diplomacy in M2TW again - it's about as useful as a raincoat in Sahara.

Maybe the Turks had a better offer? You were outbid.

In my replay (from turn 50) as the Turks, the Mongols have entered from the North and have finally established a homeland in Kiev. What a relief! Now I have about 20+ turns remaining before the Timurids arrive, so I'm building my armies up, while I finish conquering Egypt. I'm at about 80% of Mongol strength right now, but leading handily in the other categories, except for cash, which the Mongols have quite a lot of. In the game before I reloaded, I was hopelessly overrun by the Mongols at Antioch. This time it will be much different. Maybe the Timurids will have that honor.

[Lord Fluffy]

I think there is somewhat of a bias. In a previous game as England, the Mongols and the Timurid were fighting each other over Antioch. I snuck in and took the settlement to the west of Antioch, which was rebel at the time. By the next turn the Mongols sent an army to siege me. Of course that left Antioch wide open for the Timurid which were all too eager to take it away from the Mongols.

[Kraggenmor]

An update to my previous experience:

After my previous Egyptian Vh/Vh campaign was crushed under the heel of the Mongol hordes I re-started. Pretty much the usual stuff up to the Mogol horde so I'll skip to that.

The Horde entered at the appointed time, in the Russian province of Bulgar.

As I was busily shifting troops and equipment north to re-inforce the region against their inevitable onslaught, they promptly laid seige to the settlement of Bulgar and took it.

They lingered there for a turn or so and then, unbelievably, moved their entire force south to Turkish held Sarkel. By 'entire' I mean 'entire'! No garrison in Bulgar.

Predictably, Bulgar rebelled before they even reached Sarkel. Once they did reach their target they again seiged and captured it. This time though, they lingered for a few turns and lightly Garrisoned the place before heading back to Bulgar.


Meanwhile, following some good advice found elsewhere here, I have set up forts in choke points leading to Tblisi and Yerevan, both have which have had troops crammed into the to the point that the walls actually bulge outwards. More troops are moving north to act as field support and siege interdiction forces.

The Mongols return to Bulgar and......

do nothing?

Thats right. Nothing. They stand around it, completely encircling it, and do nothing.

Eventually, Sarkel rebels throwing off the shackles of Mongol opression which elicits and immediate response from the horde troops currently languishing in Bulgar. The entire quantity of troops musters up and marches forthwith back to Sarkel where they.....

do nothing.



Yep, they park around Sarkel and don't even try to retake it.

What follows still utterly baffles me. From initially entering and taking Bulgar and then Sarkel, they spend the remaining time marching back and forth between the two, now rebel, settlements. They actually wore a rut into my monitor where they kept marching back and forth!

EVERY wave of the Mongol horde has entered the map, and has spent it's time marching back and forth from Bulgar to Sarkel.

When I saved and quit for the night it was the year 1300, and the Horde seems to have finally taken an interest in doing something else as they are ALL heading toward Kiev. The lead unit is less than a day's march from Kiev so , later tonight I hope to see what - if anything- they do.