My Moorish Christain Legion

[Didz]

My son was making fun of me at the weekend becuase despite playing the Moors in my current campaign my main army is composed of almost entirely christian mercenary crossbowmen and spearmen.

He claimed that there was no point me playing the Moors because my army was the same as if I was playing a christian faction. My retort was that the muslim faith at this period in history was very tolerant of other religions and allowed both christains and jews to hold military and political rank as equal citisens and so my army was merely reflecting the religious tolerance of the muslim faith.

He saw that as nothing more than a lame excuse for wanting to avoid relying on the poor quality muslim troops.

So, imagine my surprise and delight then when last night I completed a council request to blockade Toulouse and was rewarded with three units of Christain Guard cavalry.

Nice, now my Christain legion has a guard cavalry contingent.

[Magraev]

The cristian troops are excellent for the Moors.

It would be a challenge to do the opposite - defend the holy land with nothing but muslim mercs. Would be quite difficult i bet, but probably doable, especially if you have acces to the african merc pool also.

[Matty]

I agree with the son. I'm just coming to the end of a Moorish campaign and it has been great, but I still rely heaving on mounted and dismouted Christian Guard and I flight using largely Catholic tactics. I feel I've really missed an opportunity to get into flowing mounted missile tactics. They should be available as mercenaries, but not as build units.

[Agent Smith]

You see, I've used a half and half approach, and I think that would be realistic.

I'm playing as the Moors now, and I am currently fighting on two fronts: in Europe up through France and Northern Italy and in Egypt (now sieging Gaza). On the Egyptian front I have my desert troops, with my desert archers, Lamtuna (sp?) spearmen, and more desert friendly cavalry.

However, why should I use desert troops in Europe, especially the more northern portions, when I have units that don't receive penalties for fighting in the snow and in the forests like the desert troops do? So, in Europe, I find myself relying more on my Western style troops and tactics with heavy Christian infantry and cavalry, upgraded Arab cavalry, crossbowmen, etc. supported by desert troops (like Lamtuna) here and there.

That is, except for my Tuareg regiment! A full stack of Tuareg Camel Spearmen and Camel Gunners led by my Crown Prince that rides ahead of my main heavy force to clear away field stacks before the siege.

[TinCow]

Well, the Janissaries were composed of mainly Christian men and they are the backbone of the high-tech Turkish armies. So the Moors aren't the only ones who are in this situation.

[HoreTore]

Well, the Janissaries were composed of mainly Christian men and they are the backbone of the high-tech Turkish armies. So the Moors aren't the only ones who are in this situation.

No-no... Christian boys, converted to muslim men...

[FactionHeir]

I think when I used to play Moors, I hired a few mounted christians and realized how useless they were and used the dismounted version at best.
Mainly relied on Desert cav and Arab cav. Sometimes jinetes and mounted xbows.
For infantry i'd have loads of berber spears, desert archers and peasant xbows coupled with the occassional dismounted christian.

Once gunpowder dawned, I added a few camel gunners, but realized how useless they were agaisnt missile heavy opponents compared to desert cavalry.

[HoreTore]

Why, oh why, do you need merc spearmen and crossbowmen when playing the moors? For spearmen, they have Lamtuma's, who are among the best in the game, with a 9 attack and 14 defense with padded armour. For crossbowmen, they have peasant crossbows. While they sound poor, they are armed with the steel crossbow, and so has an attack of 12 and a long range. Much better than the mercs.

Of course, then you can start adding the rest of the roster. Long range archers, excellent fast cav, camels... In the late game, you get good gunners, WONDERFUL mounted ones and the christian guard...

[Moah]

I'm playing Turks, not Moors but half the janissaries are former Christian slaves and they are the bulk of my armies.

On the other hand while I have mainly abandoned my early HA armies and switched to Inf (Jan musketeers with the odd archer for stakes, 2 cannon, hashishim for punch, saracen or dis sipahi for anti-cav and qapakulu for cav. Haven't found JHi as awe inspiring as others who post here. Maybe I've been using them wrong.) my one remaining HA army is terrorising Europe.

Despite technological advances nothing beats full stack Milanese pavise crossbow/broken lance/dismounted knioght armies woth barely a general or ducal knight in there like a HA army backed by Qapakulu. Soften them up with arrows and a couple of charges against any exposed xbows, then charge from all sides. Chain routs in no time.

I love my two 3 gold chevron turkomans, even if their stats are still not as good as my sipahis (mostly silver) - It's the principle of good service.

I'm also plannning on taking this army to america against the inf aztecs.

However for Timurids and Mongols Infantry firepower was the only way to go. It helps that JM have such good melee stats when required too.

I know the armies are expensive but I've been giving each AI 200,00 every ten turns or so to try and make a fight of it.

[Moah]

As a matter of interest do HRE or anyone else get muslim mercs? I think the Sicilians might...

Certainly Frederick 11, grandson of barbarossa, used them extensively. Probably because he managed to get excommunicated 3 times and invaded by the pope!

(I love that guy. To get xcommed 3 times - but never be reconciled! That takes some doing! Went on crusade and was distrusted by muslims as he sneered at God too much. They would rather negotiate with a christian fanatic, who at least believed, than a *gasp* secularist. They felt if he didn't believe in his own god how could you trust him? The templars and hospitallers scuppered him as well...)