The Moor's are actually a really good faction. They're really quite powerful if you're good with them. And very enjoyable if you ask me to. The Morrish campaign I played really made me think. I had to use a lot more strategy than I did with other factions. But I've come to believe that regardless of the time period the Moor's are extremely good.

In the Early periods you can train Desert Cavalry, Arab Cavalry, Desert archers, Sudanese Javelienmen, and Berber Spearmen. In other words.. a Jinette that could never possibly ever get tired.., a decent cavalry unit, an archer that can run around all day and has long range, spearmen that aren't likely to get tired, and ap piercing troops. The terrian of Spain has a lot of mountains and hills and passes and used correctly the land you fight on can give the Moorish faction a advantage over their Catholic neighbours. Spain and Portugal can't field long range archers so your men will do excellent work before the meelle begins. Your Jinettes, Desert Cavalry, can run faster than most cavalry and can run longer than Spain and Portugals. Your Javeliens though inferior could also be of use. Mostly I've just been talking about the initial skirmishing. This is very important for the Moors. You Archers, Jinettes, and Javeliens should always open the battle I believe. It'll take care of the tough units eg. Mailed Knights, Jinettes, and Almugavars. Once thesse soldiers are defeated.. the Moors will have the advantage on the battle field due to the rabble that makes up the rest of Spanish and Portugese early armies. Your Arab cavalry are nearly as good as Mailed Knights and if you skirmish before battles anyways your 40 Arab Cav men can easily take 20 Mailed knights that have been assualted by what should be the deadly Moorish missle troops attacks.

That said, Moorish armies often do have a hard time with the Spanish and Portugese. The computer once rated the odds I was in a battle in as 1 to 2. Favoring Portugal when I had 1000 men in my army. But like I said advantage of terrign and effective skirmishing will win you battles as the Moors. I like to think of Morrish strategy as a delicate art. The whole battle will depend on the grace and effectiveness of each initial move of the battle and will either end in disaster or a great triumph, skillfully executed and glorious to behold. On a final note, the key to understanding the Moors is to understand the early troops and tactics cause as time goes on the same tactics work with better troops and the only defference becomes the fact that not only are the tactics better, a lot of the troops are to. The Moors become easier as time goes by but really the key to playing them I belive lies in the early tactics. Skirmish, flank, charge, chasse down the routers.

Of course, this is just what I think.