How to repel the Mongol invasion

[Askthepizzaguy]

Indeed, Mercenary Spearmen are equivalent to Armored Sergeants, so with Russia, Denmark, England, Spain, Portugal and Hungary (until I get Pavise Spears from a Fortress) I tend to hire all the Merc Spears I can, going even as far as sending a general or 2 on a tour of other factions' lands, just to hire their Merc Spears!

I haven't had much of a problem handling Mongols with Egypt and Turkey, since both can spam boatloads of Saracen Militia (Equivalent to Armoured Sergeants) from City Watches, which every Settlement tends to have by the time Mongols arrive.

I should caution some of you; they are more expensive than the regular spearmen, even the armored ones. You should go into battle with regular recruits, as they are cheaper to maintain and recruit.


Mercenaries are good meat shields, and good early heavy infantry, but unless you are off crusading somewhere, you can do better.

You could fill an entire stack with regular spearmen by the time you could locate and recruit half a stack of mercenary spearmen for a more expensive initial (and upkeep) cost.

PS- Finally installed Lands to Conquer.

[ramela]

I should caution some of you; they are more expensive than the regular spearmen, even the armored ones. You should go into battle with regular recruits, as they are cheaper to maintain and recruit.


Mercenaries are good meat shields, and good early heavy infantry, but unless you are off crusading somewhere, you can do better.

Mercenary Spears are truly expensive, but for the factions I mentioned, they are worth it. They can't do better for plain spears. In general, I mean. In terms of handling Mongols and Timurids, it is better to spam them with any spears you can mass produce yourself.

[imnothere]

hmm, this topic doesnt belongs here anymore...

because it should be in the guide forum!

this is a very well written topic, i really enjoyed it. i will try out some new tactic - since i confessed that i was too scared or too lazy(mainly) that i usually finish sacking and burning by the time mongols start sacking and burning. 1/2 the time i just got bored by my bloated empire and decided to restart.

i am going with sorched earth policy as suggested and guerilla tactic(by seizing and sacking cities). but keeping the bulk of cities away from the hordes.Let the mongols grow grills and and do polar-bear-swims, if they do i'll ram them down with ships like any civilised men. i hope that their elephants can swim well.

i just had a vision of all eastern fractions mass-migrated to the west (yalla, my sultan wants to leave!), or perhaps it was just me.

[Atreides]

hmm, this topic doesnt belongs here anymore...

because it should be in the guide forum! .

Agree. I.mo. this thread and the other threat (with the Italian tactic) should be combined and made 'sticky'.

[Eng]

Can someone say when exactly the Mongols start there invasion?

[Askthepizzaguy]

Can someone say when exactly the Mongols start there invasion?

I am fairly sure they arrive by turn 70.

[Gray Beard]

I normally play the Byzantines

I can see how it might help to be a Catholic country because you get the ability to launch a Crusade and get the various associated units but since the Byzantines ( In their opinion) maintained the true faith rather than falling prey to the Papist heresy I don't have that option so; I beat them at their own game. I use archers, lots of archers.


The object.

To keep the Mongols from being able to obtain any revenue or troop generating ability for as long as possible. I want to bankrupt them quickly so that they cannot replace their looses and so that their generals become easier to bribe. Your fighting a war of attrition. You must have the ability to replace your men faster than they can replace theirs.

First things first.
1. Above posters are correct, you cannot turtle as the Byzantine player. To beat these guys you probably need about 20 provinces (See my walk through for Byzantium to find out how to do this) because you need to have space to retreat if necessary.

2. You need to make sure that the Cities that will be the first to be attacked are always cities and that if possible cannot build any unit higher than a Archer Militia. (Third upgrade - urban militia, spear militia, archer militia) This keeps the invaders from using your captured cities to resupply and rebuild their armies.

3. You MUST have eliminated the Venetians and the Turks. There are people who will try to use the Turks as a foil to absorb the initial invasion but I've never found that to be very useful. It just means that the Mongols get possession of better quality cities to fight you with and that you have less money to fight them with. If the Venetians are still around they WILL start a war at the other end of your empire regardless of how good you're relations are with them and I swear the AI lets the Venetians cheat they will launch 4 full stacks at me and they only own Venice, Zagreb and Milan. There is no way they can pay for those armies

4. You should be willing and ready and able to to use asymmetric warfare against them. In game terms that means assassinate a general. Marry a general to a princess (making him your general), plant spies in their stack and so forth.

5. You have to use the terrain. Make them fight your battle. If you try and meet them man for man on a level grassland they will hand you your head. You've got to use bridges, mountain passes and rivers to your advantage. There are some players who seem to think that it isn't honorable or is border line cheating to use the terrain to your favor; I don't understand this but that probably why I play the Byzantines. Their low level infantry troops are so bad that you have to be sneaky

6. Realize you am going to loose a lot of men. This is OK as long as after each battle they loose more than you do especially since it is just a game.


Specific things.
1. Defend every city the Mongols siege to the last man. You want Baghdad and Yeveran and Tbilisi to have Batista towers. Each city will be filled with 10 Militia archers and 10 militia Spearmen with the maximum 2 armor upgrades. If you have a 1 or 2 star family member especially a guy who is old and going to die anyway drop him in there as well

2. You should try to have two or three roving armies. I like something like: 1 X General, 4 Vardartoi, 5 heavy Infantry, 5 Militia Spearmen & 5 Trebizond archers. (This is another reason why you need a large empire. These are expensive armies to field.) These should have the best armor and weapons you can provide but numbers are important as well.

When the Mongols besiege a city use these armies to come up and relieve the siege. Use your city like an anvil and your army like a hammer. If the Moguls attack your mobile army then sally the garrison and let your cheap spearmen stab a few guys in the back. The cheap archers can kill mountains of expensive troops if they get within range, especially if they are shooting them in the back!. Make it a point to completely wipe out a unit if possible. You want the Mongols to have to replace not rebuild units.

Even doing all this you may very well still loose the city. But, the silver lining is that you will have killed piles of the seasoned, experienced troops the Mongols start the game with and they can not replace experience.

3. Also have two or three very small mobile armies with a general and three or four Skythikons. I use these to spread the enemy out. Here is how: Move one of the stacks up next to a Mongol stack making sure you have LOTS of movement left and attack it. When you see the abysmal odds call off the attack but don't move away. Instead set a rally point in the direction that you want the Mongols to go and don't set it to far away, about 1/2 a move. During its turn the computer will attack you. Fine, if you do the auto resolve then refuse combat and retreat, but it is better to enter combat because the Moguls have just done what you want them to do. In the battle let the Mongol see you and then retreat. Try to stay just out of archery range. (Hint: If he is chasing you then you can loose a volley of arrows at him just as he comes into range and then by quickly running away the return volley fall behind you but he will be running into your arrows.) Your object isn't to win or even to inflict many casualties. It is simply to get the Mongols to chase you with one or more of their of their stacks. You want to get their armies far enough apart that they cannot help each other. This is really useful in relieving sieges and in being able to gain a significant enough advantage in sheer numbers to start defeating them.


Remember that once you start beating them they get easier to beat because their experience level falls. Then because you have greater monetary resources and a faster rate of buildup you can beat them.

3A. The small armies can also, if you are good and if you are lucky. get the Mongols to chase them a long way. I've gotten them as far as Kiev once and then I just ran away and let the Hungarians and Polish deal with them. (Yeah I know it's the cowards way out.)

[Askthepizzaguy]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I can see how it might help to be a Catholic country by since the Byzantines maintained the true faith rather than falling prey to the Papist heresy I don't have that option

While I am sure this forum is the perfect place to define which is the one true faith, I think it best to focus on anti-Mongol strategy.
(I am a member of the Jedi Order, myself. Klaatu barada nikto, live long and prosper, and may the Force be with you)

That having been said, let's not overlook the ability of the defender to destroy the infrastructure of a settlement and pocket the cash, thus denying the Mongols access to simple resupply and recruitment. I am not sure this has been mentioned yet as an effective addition to any anti-Mongol strategy, but it works.

[souryab]

I played as the Turks and repelled them in 2 moves!! surprised?? Its a bit simple and needs some luck maybe..but heres the deal..

Let them take a town...then before they take another...get it back...

a message comes "last stronghold in the west is gone for the mongols" and the rest of the forces just vanish!!

They attacked me at turn 75 at antiloch with 4 stacks and over 2500 men. I tried to fight them with about 1000 but lost badly. They then dispersed their forces too much.One went up and laid seige on the northern toen..forgot its name..

One part went south towards acre..and the remnants of my army were at damascus..

When they were gone..they had only 200+ people left to defend the city of antiloch and I set my remaining 400+ troops on them and won the battle(leave no prisoners) and took the city..immediately, the invasion as over!! maybe a flaw in the game?? :-)