Seljuk Experience?

[PershsNhpios]

I have begun my early Turk campaign - XL TYB 2.0, and it is now 1109AD.

I believe I will use this campaign for an AAR - I wiped out the Byzantines by 1108!
The Turcoman Horse has just become my favourite unit! I never thought I would lose interest in the Andalucian cavalry, ha ha!

From the beginning I mustered what troops I could to destroy Kilikian-Armenia, and then created armies in the uniform of;

2 Royal Ghulams
8 Turcoman Horse
3 Armenian Cavalry
3 Camels

Obviously, the Turcomen engage in a great skirmish and flank or surround the enemy at every opportunity - most valuably, they can destroy most light and medium infantry without casualties in many cases - and even heavy infantry once they are exhausted in melee.
Of course, when there are too many units of heavy swords, or Kontarioi.. Or Kataphraktoi.. then Turkish Heavy Cavalry is required.

The Armenians and Ghulams will engage and destroy exhausted, stubborn heavy infantry.

The Camels... Oh beautiful creatures! They surround and destroy even the 7 valour Kataphraktoi units - the Emperor himself!
I had a counter for every Byzantine unit in my army.

The Fatimid Arabs will be slaughtered within ten years.
Truly, they have 8000 men on my borders.. Urban Militia and Nubian spearmen to a man.
They will be sorely missed.

The Seljuks were considered a difficult faction - does the difficulty arrive later - with crusades and consequent stress on loyalty and economy in later years, when you are the sole eastern power?

Although I am worried for Byzantium reappearing if I do not take Bulgaria and Greece quickly enough, and cautious of a Serbian invasion.. Well, I see nothing to keep me from creating an early Ottoman empire..

Oh. I just remembered the Mongols.

I shall think of something when the time comes.

What are the true dangers of playing the Seljuks that I should be wary of?

I play on Hard.

[gollum]

Hi,
the difficulty is theoretical, it should have been present in vanilla - in practice the Turks rule. Just be prepared to face the Mongols and after you neutralise them, built your Janissary corps and off you go to rule the world.

You just dont get many heavily armoured and very heavily armoured units but thats never a problem for the player.

!it burnsus!

[Fagar]

I have never found the Turkish armies hard to play in any type of mod really.
They are easily one of my favourites.
They are versatile and fleet of foot and a good general can mould Turkish troops for any situation.
You are clearly able to do this easily.
The Byzantine heavy units are no match, especially in arid areas where they are exhausted easily and just become fodder to arrow fire and flanking raids by light horse.
I love when a 7 star general breaks and runs but his mailed horse is so tired and slow my desert archers run it down.

[Roark]

Yeah, Turks dominate! Easily my favourite faction. They can run rings around almost everyone. In my opinion, the only major problems they can face are armies of heavily armoured Christian elites defending on their own ground. An aggressive Mongol horde that charges in (as opposed to skirmishing) will also overrun them sometimes.

Apart from Janissaries, the Turks aren't "tough" so much as skilful and fast. Oh yeah, and almost everyone has a bow - bonus!

[Fagar]

yeah perfect faction for people such as myself that use bows stategically both in attack and defence.

Often when I am playing as another faction I lament the lack of missile types present and have to admit that at times struggle playing without them.