Crusades Campaign: Antioch

[Boyar Son]

bump

also, because i need to vent

HOW THE HECK DOES PHILLIP DIE WHEN FIGHTING A FRIGGIN' MANGONEL CREW? it wasn't even like he got cooked, either: his unit was flanking the actual crew, and he somehow died on impact. i swear the ai cheats sometimes.

is anyone else finding mangonels useless as nipples on a breastplate? they seem strangely effective for the ai...

lol

MTW2- flaming missles miss all the time right?

Kingdoms- Flaming mangonels missle hits my general dead on, only HIM!!

Ya the AI is jerk :P

[Ignoramus]

Newton's Third Law of Gravity: What gets hit hits back.

[G^2]

I found playing as Antioch rather easy on M/M. The alliance with KoJ will last throughout the game, so there is one secure border to your south. Also, your income is great. Antioch's economy is easy to get up and running.

First Moves:
Take as many rebel provinces in the area as you can. I combined all my troops into about three stacks and started producing more; one for the north west (Antioch), one for the South (created from Arce), and one for the East (Edessa). I focused on the rebel near KoJ first then took the city next to Antioch. After a turn or two a jehad will be called and 1 and 1/2 stacks of Turks will appear around Alleppo and Antioch. Once all rebels are eaten up and the treat from the Jehad repelled, its time to go on the offensive against the Turks.

Mid-Game
I focused on the Eastern Turks first because the cities were richer and this secured a second border which allowed me to focus on a single front in Anatolia. When fighting the Turks I used all calvary armies to counter their HA. The Turks infantry are weak so your Heavy Calvary should be able to take them out. Even spearmen if you hit them with two units of elite knights. Use light calvary (mounted sergeants) for the HA and flanking. When you take out the Eastern Turks start preparing for the Mongols. Byzantium should have approached you for an alliance which you should except. Between the two of you it should be easy to sandwich the western Turks, who are suffering from a poor economy.

End Game
The tricky part is holding Constatinople for 10 turns. Once the Turks are eliminated the Mongols should be arriving (I lucked out and won as the first Mongol stacks entered the map around Bagdad). You don't want to fight a two front war against Byzantium so, wait for Venice to gain control of the City first. I sailed two stacks, some priests, and a good chivalry general to Constatniople and then waited until Venice took the city, promptly sieged and EXTERMINATED the city. I tried sacking the city my first try and quickly lost it to rebellion. By exterminating the city it easily stayed green for the remaining ten turns, by replacing all those Orthodox with Catholics (no offense).

Mic.
-Regent Ronald would always rebel on me (two games) within one or two turns outside a castle. Couldn't figure out how to keep the man happy.
-Philip is excellent as a general, perhaps the most powerful Hero in the campaign. Use him as much as possible.
-If your looking for a challenge, try quickly conquering the Eastern Turks and then waiting until the Mongols arrive to finish the game.
-Spam priests and assassins. Use the priests to convert your next target and the assassins to take out any non-catholic holy man.
-Don't worry about your reputation, KoJ won't betray you and the others don't matter.
-There are great merchant resources in Egypt, by the end of the game I was getting around 300 florins on one resource with mid-level merchants, beware Egyptian merchants thought. Also, even thought your relationship is bad with Egypt and your ally is at war with them, you can still get trade rights.
-All calvary stacks are your friend, easily re-trained and can ground any Turkish or rebel field army into the ground. Use all infantry stacks behind the Cav. to take cities and castles.

[leonardo]

HI
I had a problem with the large mass of missile cav. and artillary
i mean the heavy cav and armored nights cant keep up so i just wait for their heavy inf. butby then half my men are gone (sometimes my general gets hit) and my crossbowmen reload to slow for my standards so can anyone give me advice on battle schemes.

[G^2]

Hey Leonardo,

I personally found that all calvary armies worked very well against the Turks in the field. To prevent missile casualties you have to quickly get into melee with the enemy. Your knights (Hosplitars and Knights of Edassa) can easily smash Turkish lines with ease, even their spearmen in a frontal charge. Take three or four unites of mounted sergeants to take down their horse archers and have the rest of the stack consist of heavy knights. You could even use some of those mounted sergeants for flanking to cause the Turkish line to route. You will still take some loses from arrow fire, but they will be lessend because of the speed of your calvary. This worked very well for me in my campaign, although my mounted sergeants need to be retrain after almost every battle.

[leonardo]

Hi G^2 thanks for the advice, so you dont use infantry at all or just if you are or being sieged?

the cavalry idea makes a lot of sense a against a mainly lightly armored army

[G^2]

Yeah, for field battles the extra movement and speed of all cav. stacks seemed to make more sense. I would then have a all infantry stack that would take out the cities while my Cav. stacks fought off reinforcements. This is expecially practical when you reach the far easter end of the map, around Bagdad, because the territories are spread out more.

p.s.
I don't know how well all cav. stacks would work against the mongols, which have better armor and moral than the Turks. From what I've read here on the Org. the best way to take out the Mongols is defending bridges and cities/castles at choke points. In general, an army crossbow (ap ability) and spears (anti cav.) would work well. Search the Org. for the Mongol Killers Tread also one in the Medieval 2 Fact and Strategy tips by econ21.
G^2