Bashing the Mongols

[joe4iz]

I had never tried the assassin approach and will give it try.

The way I handled the Mongols was to wait until they had established a base of operations. They always seem to wait until the capture of Antioch to actually settle down.

The AI will push his armies out of the cities to expand his empire, generally leaving his main coastal cities protected by a single general unit.

I sail a huge navy filled with seige equipment and units around the eastern half of the Mediterranean , and exterminate all of the cities. After that I sell every building I can in the settlement and give it to someone (generally an ally) or someone who is an ally of theirs.

The army then reboards the ships and does the same thing at the next seaport city. I then give that city to some other poor sucker. After a while, everyone is fighting the Mongols as the Mongols attempt to reconquer their old provinces.

By the time that your searaider stack has been decimated, Timor the Lame shows up at the Mogul's rear area.

I used the funds generated to improve my infrastructure at my home bases.

I also sent several spies, priests, and assassins along with the stack and dropped them out at the first city I took.

After that, the Moguls were really no threat, they were broke and their forces were bogged down fighting wars on every front.

In one campaign, I exterminated Antioch 6 times. It was not much more than a fishing village when I was done.

[supadodo]

Nah I prefer to use brute force when taking these suckas down. I pile lots of trebs in my castle and cities and watch as each of their brave leaders get roasted. Then my super dread sultan pops out and routs the lot. Well all this was going swell until my Sultan died. Gah, so change of plan. ASSASSIN WAR!!!
Send a few assassins to their small stronghold of Smolensk and wiped out any MAn of the Hour that spawned there. A large assault was fought there but I lost marginally . So with that bloody new Khan romping around with his yappy chihuahua of a guard dog and watchful traits, I decided time to end this. Wakaka, gunpowder discovered...go to Baghdad...ooh looky Elephants!! hmm hmm pack em all into Noah's Ark and ship em North..look for bridge, ahh theres one...sit around...lalala..finnaly battle. Battle start, elephant charge, lots of horsey boyz go down, general gets stomped. One more battle, same thing...bam faction destroyed!!. Don't let the history books fool you kids. Mongols never conquered Asia Minor, they lost because their Khan made da biggest mistake of his life!

[Orda Khan]

Where I have no doubt that spies and assassins are a part of history, I think they have become too great a part in TW. I currently see ridiculous amounts of them scurrying around the map. They are far too cheap in both cost and use and should be a minor part of the game and not as it seems, the major one

.........Orda

[Von Nanega]

Where I have no doubt that spies and assassins are a part of history, I think they have become too great a part in TW. I currently see ridiculous amounts of them scurrying around the map. They are far too cheap in both cost and use and should be a minor part of the game and not as it seems, the major one

.........Orda

Generally I agree with your enlightened posts. BUT, having fought spy and assassin wars with Milan, I think if the AI does it, it is good for gameplay. Sure I could build a fort with 10 merchants on the gold in Timbuktu, but the AI can't, so I don't. I think assassins and spies were common back then. But then, as now nobody writes a glorious history of wacking a king while he is loving his mistress. Much better copy to talk about the thunder and dust of hundreds of charging knights.

[dopp]

Where I have no doubt that spies and assassins are a part of history, I think they have become too great a part in TW. I currently see ridiculous amounts of them scurrying around the map. They are far too cheap in both cost and use and should be a minor part of the game and not as it seems, the major one

Now, it would be more even if the Mongols engaged in the espionage war as well, like they did historically. Genghis and his successors used a highly effective system of traitors and agents to pave the way for their conquests. Imagine 30+ Mongol assassins and spies appearing maybe 10 turns before the main armies show up to cause mayhem and destruction all over the place.

[Orda Khan]

Oh I agree they have a place in the game, I'd just prefer it to be a lesser one. Sometimes a look at the campaign map suggests Mediaeval Total Intrigue

.......Orda