Cities up for grabs! While stocks last!

[mir]

URGENT! Due to recent arrival of new neighbours, we have decided to give away some cities for FREE! Yes, that's right! FREE!

Two major cities up for grabs - Yerevan and Tblisi - occupied for a few decades, but nicely built up with nice gardens and pools for the kids and the dog. Walls and fields well maintained, internal heating and hot showers installed. Comes with barbecue set too!

Hahaha.

Yes, the Mongol invasion has just hit my beloved Turkish Sultanate! And since I foolishly thought they would only arrive in 1240 (and not 1210!), most of my armies are in the west fighting off the wretched Venezians and Hungarians!

Already, several armies are en route to the east with my elite assassin squads tagging along.

Question is: Is it a good idea to give away the two cities mentioned above to the Mongols to delay them? Or instead... to a rival faction?

If I give them away, will the Mongols dig in or keep moving westwards?

Any ideas anyone?

[Cheetah]

Mongols usually head straight to Antioch. So your priority should be bolstering the defence of Antioch, building ballistae/cannon towers if you have not built them already (and ofc filling up the garrison).

Most likely than not they will just ignore the above two cities. Also, giving them away to other factions is no guarantee that it will present any obstacle, as most likely that the new owner wont put in any decent garrison. So I would definitely advise to keep them and fill them up with any units you have at hand. Turks actually have quite decent city troops, so if you built up the barracks too and not just the gardens and pools , then you should be able recruit good troops like saracen militia. If the mongols attack those cities (which I doubt) then you will lose them for sure, but at least you will be able to cause some damage.

Also try to defend the river crossings that lead to Antioch, which is the easiest way to beat the mongols.

Of course, if you are short of money then you might try to sell these cities for some cash, but otherwise I would keep them.

[Czar Alexsandr]

I would keep them. In my Russian game, I gave Sarkel and Bulgar to Denmark, my allies, to try and stall the Mongol invasion. The Mongols walked right on through to Ryazan, attacked, I lost the castle and they continued there way onto Kiev. The Danish settlements were not even touched.

[Shahed]

Keep them. I'm not parting with any of my pools and gardens !

[Ramses II CP]

Plus a siege, even with a minimal garrison, is going to cost the Mongols vast casualties if you're not auto-calc'ing or handicapping yourself. Don't forget that they'll do the Horde Dance too, going back to collect their reinforcements as they straggle in over the next ten to twenty turns.

[imnothere]

ROFL. You should be a medieval real estate agent. I would be tempted to take those settlements, even with the Mongolian hordes around the corner.

throw in the free re-painting, and get the backyard blitz (makeover) by the t.v. show crew (its an Australian home renovation show), plus nice big execution squares with cages and meat hooks for displaying my prisoners, and we will have a deal! :-p

[PseRamesses]

Question is: Is it a good idea to give away the two cities mentioned above to the Mongols to delay them? Or instead... to a rival faction?

If I give them away, will the Mongols dig in or keep moving westwards?

Any ideas anyone?

Don´t give them away. If u give them to the mongols you´ll take a massive reputation hit when you take them back in the future. And if u give them to some one else you´re not guaranteed that will protect u. They might just overshoot them and go for u anyway. Let them besiege u and take casualities even if u loose a settlement or two.

[DVX BELLORVM]

Keep those cities! If you give them to the Mongols, they'll attack you anyway. You will only deprive yourself of the income those cities can provide.

Even if they take them in battle, at least you'll know that you lost them with honor

[mir]

Hmmm. Yes, it seems keeping them while barricading the doors and windows is the best option...

I will ensure that the sprinklers will be permanently on so the dreaded Mongol Insurance and Encyclopaedia salesmen (not to mention postmen too) will have to walk slowly to avoid getting wet as they approach my front door.

And just as they're almost about to knock, I will unleash "Sipahi" (which happens to be the name of my 500lb, overfed chihuahua with no sense of humour).



"Sipahi" also comes with his own suit of chainmail with studded collar accessory; and he is NOT happy his doghouse was torn down to make way for a Kebab-and-Kismet-to-go fast food outlet...

Gule-gule Mongol Hordes! Ahahahahahah! *ahem cough cough* (Look embarassed at maniacal outbreak)

Thanks for the feedback everyone. ;)

*Final Announcement of Sale*

Unfortunately, due to much protest from local authorities, the sale of the two cities of Yerevan and Tblisi has been postponed indefinitely, much to the relief of its residents. Free barbecue set or not, these brave souls have decided to weather the coming storm and meet it head-on, regardless of the consequences.

"I simply couldn't live knowing we'd given them away," said Mrs Azab, a housewife in neighbouring Mosul. "Where would I get my supply of fresh slaves?"

Another resident, Mr. One-Eyed Piotri, Harbourmaster of Port Yerevan had only one comment: "Arrrr!"

No comment was forthcoming from the Sultan's Council of Nobles.

Our prayers go the defenders of the cities as they face the endless hordes smelling of horses and sour milk!

[WhiskeyGhost]

If they start eyeballing a town (they usually seem to camp around it with the entire hoarde for a few turns), then i give it to someone like the Papal States. With some luck, they will notice it having a small weak garrison and attack, turn it rebel, and lose some troops in the process. Another neat trick, is if you know their home objective (such as Antioch), then before they take it, gift it out to someone bordering the area (if there is anyone, such as Turks) if your not at war with them. This gives you an ally of convenience since they attack him, and give them more targets to shoot at

[Shahed]

So Mir, what's the status on those estate give aways ?
Mongol head soup being served in the gardens of Tbilisi ? or Azab head soup being served by the Mongols in Antioch ?

EDIT: Oops missed the last two posts. ROFLMFAO ! Excellent ! The chihuahua .... HAHAAHHAAHAHA !

TIP: If they assault one of your cities have 3-4 Janissary Archers (if possible), deploy them one on top of the other with a little space horizontally in between them. Deploy STAKES ! in front of the gate blocking the width of the gate.

You can imagine what will happen once they ride in (utter stupidity of course). It's a little savage, and unfaior because the AI will charge all it's cavalry through THAT gate which has stakes deployed to block it. Mind you for this strategy to succeed you must NOT target the enemy's ram. And you have to make sure you ride out and destroy any enemy artillery so they cannot breach the walls. Anyway it's worth the fun at least once !

If you really want to play the game, meet them in the open. I don't know your history (I can see you played MTW:VI so ur no newbie) if you play the game for a while, the Mongols & Timurids represent one of the very few challenges. So, to truly enjoy those challenges, and those incredibly spectacular battles with multiple stacks, you should meet them in the field. Treat it as any other war, use garrisons, and use armies to meet the enemy. It makes it more interesting.

MOUNT UP ! WE RIDE !!!

[mir]

Thanks for the advice Sinan...

Unfortunately herein lies the root of the problem. Having not expected the Mongol hordes to arrive much later, my cities have only reached the stage where they can train Janissaries, no Archers yet. Was too busy building the pools and gardens and markets and hospitals...

But I've been occupied with work etc. (which is probably an excuse not to go back to the war at hand - don't wanna see my hard work and fruits of labour go up in flames!!!).

Will sort out the hordes tonight... Update everyone tomorrow (Regional TIme: GMT + 8).

See ya. Wish me luck... Heheh.

[Shahed]

Ok mate, looking forward to your post, whenever you get time off work.

The chihuahahaha formations marche into battle ! or maybe they just sit by the pools ?

[phonicsmonkey]

hey, good luck, and if you're successful post some screenies here:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=89385

[mir]

The final clash is going to take the form of a very slow series of updates! Hahaha. Was denied my pleasure of showing the Mongols the savage power of "Sipahi" and his studded collar by the realities of life and work...

Ah well...

But before the great battles to come, let me describe the situation as it stands:

THE MONGOLS
Four and a half stacks of Mongols appeared to the far east of Yerevan. Two are especially significant as they are led by a 10-star and 8-star general respectively. These stacks have experienced troops with 3 silver chevrons.

The Mongol Khan is but a 1-star general (pathetic fool!) and leads a non-experienced army.

(BTW, this could be because I'm playing at M/M difficulty level. I expect worse at higher levels of difficulty)

THE TURKISH SULTANATE
No less than four stacks of Turkish troops are heading to the Mosul bridges. Another stack has just landed at Port Yerevan and is heading to Tblisi. These are mainly Horse Archers (the most experienced) - both Sipahi and Turcoman, Janissary Heavy Infantry, Turkish Archers, Dismounted Sipahi Lancers and Saracen Militia.

They are led by generals of varying experience but does include one with 8-stars. At best, my troops have 1 or 2 chevrons to their credit.

Supporting this army, I have three spies to provide an advance look-out and my highly experienced Corps of Assassins have also just arrived in the vicinity of Mosul. These include 4 Assassins with 9 or 10 ranks of skill. The other 6 or so have a minimum of 6 or 7 ranks.

THE PLAN

Thus far, the hordes seem to be heading AWAY from Tblisi and going southwards. If the posts above are correct, they should be heading to Antioch!

So, the plan is to destroy their leadership with my Assassins before sending in the troops. In the event they reach the Mosul area, my troops will either defend at the bridges or the hills (but not at the beaches, ).

While I expect my Assassins to reduce the Mongol leadership to the equivalent of a group of stressed-out neurotic teenage party goers at a Christmas party with a free-flow of champagne, magic mushrooms and jalapeno peppers, any advance by the remaining hordes will be met with massed ranks of archers and spears!

The army coming from Port Yerevan will shadow the hordes from the north and wipe out any remaining stragglers not destroyed by the main force.

...

This is it, my brave chihuahuas! They will look upon us and laugh! That is, until we unleash our glorious "Sipahi" and his little friends! They will turn and run (those who have not died) and we will have Mongol kebabs for dinner!

"Yo quiero Mongo-bell!" Hahahahaha!

...

Keep an eye out for an update tomorrow, dear friends!

[Cheetah]

Shall we tell him the surprise? Or let it be a true surprise?

[Shahed]

LOL

I say let it be a surprise, unless he invites to the kebab BBQ at the pool !

[mir]

Hmmm. I suspect something extremely dodgy here...

But instead of searching the posts and spoling the fun, I'll wait it out and see what happens.

If anything else goes wrong, I'll just send in the chihuahua's again. Hehe.

BBQ available only after the invasion's done. Let's get the hordes out of the way, THEN celebrate.

[Sentinel]

An elite group of assassins is very useful for getting rid of those high dread generals. Remember if you kill off the low level Faction leader and his heir first, then the crown, and all the traits that go with it, will fall to the other generals making them even stronger.
The Computer will also try to replace the lost leaders and create\ promote new generals. These are likely to be tougher than the original faction leader.

By all means destroy their armies, but opt for release \ ransom at the end of the battle.

On my last campaign I destroyed the armies of both the leader and heir. This eventually left them with just their own bodyguard and a few other, much depleted, units. Total army size of about 50.

They lasted like this for about 40 turns, never attacking anything, never merging with other depleted stacks, never recruiting mercenaries. Just wandering around looking confused, wondering what to do with a stack of 50 men.

The only problem then was catching them, they kept running away, I had to chase them all over russia before I finally managed to finish them off.

[Shahed]

Mir, check out this movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs5aDpjq0nM

Watch out from 00:42 till 01:10. That's a good demo of how to use stakes.

[Slug For A Butt]

Cracking vid, but I.ve never had the perfect timing to use stake like that, God have I tried.

[Shahed]

You can also just park your spears/pikes in the middle of the stakes, it's easier. But you do have to make sure that the enemy cavalry charges, that is easier by going ahead of the stakes and then luring them in, as shown in the video. Anyway a lot of times the AI just rams the stakes, particularly in cities.

[mir]

Mir, check out this movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs5aDpjq0nM

Watch out from 00:42 till 01:10. That's a good demo of how to use stakes.

Hey, thanks Sinan! Unfortunately I, being poor (and lazy), hehe, have no internet connection at home. And my pc at work is blocked from accessing youtube (a case of one too many employees downloading stuff and causing massive server jams!)...

Anyway you can save the file and send to me instead? Cheers!

[ColIndyJackson]

Gents:

Good afternoon from Canada!! Very entertaining reading. Keep up the good work, Mir!!!!

Mir, I'd be VERY INTERESTED in that Assassins Guide you're planning. You're looking at somebody who has, thus far, used them for witch and heretic repellant and to bring about the demise of the odd enemy general, not to mention opposing assassins (yes, you got it--there's no honour among assassins!)

This brings me to the question: Does anyone know how to send a Faction Heir to meet his Maker? I've tried three different assassin on the same on the same Egyptian Faction Heir as the Kingdom of Jerusalem and failed all three times.

Am I losing my touch or is he too well protected?

Live long and prosper, take care and thank you kindly!!!!

Sincerely yours always,

Indy.

[mir]

Gents:

Good afternoon from Canada!! Very entertaining reading. Keep up the good work, Mir!!!!

Mir, I'd be VERY INTERESTED in that Assassins Guide you're planning. You're looking at somebody who has, thus far, used them for witch and heretic repellant and to bring about the demise of the odd enemy general, not to mention opposing assassins (yes, you got it--there's no honour among assassins!)

This brings me to the question: Does anyone know how to send a Faction Heir to meet his Maker? I've tried three different assassin on the same on the same Egyptian Faction Heir as the Kingdom of Jerusalem and failed all three times.

Am I losing my touch or is he too well protected?

Thanks CoIndyJackson!

See the continuation of this thread at Part 2: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=95542

Re Assassins, I find a group of 3-4 Assassins plus 1 Spy to scout ahead is a good team to eliminate 1 high ranking General. The Spy will also detect enemy Spies and Assassins.

The problem is that the game tends to calculate your chances randomly. So the best bet is to build up a team of REALLY good Assassins (minimum skill of 6) and send them all against 1 target. Usually one of them will succeed even though the others fail.

[Shahed]

I guess it's worth noting, that one of the easy ways to level up assasins, is to send them on demolition missions. Often these missions have a high rate of success. Take a band of assasins and run them from city to city blowing everything up.

[phonicsmonkey]

Also good is to keep a small stack of rebels around in a convenient spot for assassin training.

Rebel captains usually have really low success hurdles and if there are 240 rebel soldiers in the stack, that's 240 assassinations you can perform to level up your hit squad.

[Shahed]

Excellent.

[phonicsmonkey]

Plus your faction leader will have his dread maxed-out in no time.

Excellent for leading offensive, all-cavalry armies. Charge, rout, slay.