Tackling a Giant - Vs Turkey - Late campaign

[Kulgan]

Only recently I started with the late campaigns and found there is one major challenge : take on Turkey!

I figured Hungary would be fitting, seeing as they did so historically and they're closest by and all.
So off I went, VH/VH, attacked Turkey after a few turns. Boy was I shocked, wave after wave of Janissary heavy/Fari Cavalry/other mean things!

Hungary's troops are moderate to weak compared to these bad boys!
- Magyar cavalry which is the main weapon in early/middle campaigns is worthless.
- Hungarian nobles : fair enough but badly outnumberd by Fari Cavalry + expensive for a weak economy
- Light men at arms/Pavise spearmen : seriously powned by Janissaries
- Bosnian Axemen/Archers/Militia : if the second tier troops are powned the first tier are ehhhh
- Knights : yes they can do something but too few and too expensive
- Men At arms : decent, affordable but you have what, one men at arms for each stack of Janissary?
- they really don't have a big roster....

So I was bent on loosing fairly quick after my attack. Heh I actually liked this, really loosing!!!

Now how to actually make a stand against the vile Turkeys?

Advantages :
- Several Bridges to defend; south of your starting lands; between belgrade and sophia.
In bridge battles even Janissaries get butchered by pavise spearmen. + Crossbows/Hungarian Nobles are good for tons of kills. Also good thing here is you'll be winning ' glorious' battles giving your generals traits quickly. And finally Landsknecht Pikemen are priceless in bridge battles!

- An Assasins guild. Assasins can play a vital role in turning the tide.
Taking out key enemy figures as usual, or sabotaging every building in their castles, depriving them of building more elite units + draining their money : this is huge!!

- Crusades! Calling a crusade is still easy, get all of western europe to crusade against say Anakara, their stacks will die against the Janissary hordes but they will reduce their numbers eventually.

- Allies : everyone wants to ally with you, so giving your ally a freshly conquered turkey region will mostlikeley get them involded in the war.


All round strategy :

Turtle for a while. Because money is short and you only have 2-3 cities meaning only 2-3 merchants, spies, assasins, you need to get more towns. But where to get them?

- Poland is excluded, you'll get suck into the whole northern region and the goal was to kill turkeys.
- Cumans to the east are too poorly and divide your attention as well.
- The leftover of the roman empire provide 3 towns at best, but they actually do a fine job killing turkeys themselves so I'd say let them do this for the time being.
- Venice is the only plausible target IMO. They are closeby so you can rush their cities quickly, and have rich towns. You'll probably end up taking all of Italy but the Italian armies are not great in the late period. Mostly still pavise militias and crossbows.

Again the need for towns is high, so taking more towns is a must before you go to war against the Giant Turkey.




Combat against turkish armies :

Is very painful! As mentionned before brigde battles are still good, as well as defending siege but that's nothing to be amazed by.

In field battles two things work against the turkey hordes:
- Massed Knights/Hungrian Nobles = obvious cavalry ownage
- Crossbow militia = not so obvious. The thing is you can usually take out their cavalry with yours. But Cavalry is a one shot weapon and will not have the strength to take on those Janissary heavies.
Several crossbow militias scattered across the field firing at the rears or flanks of enemy infantry work great. First reduce their numbers by bolt fire, then charge with the remaining small cavalry from multiple sides, shift bolt fire to the next unit.




This way I'm planning on taking on the turkey once and for all! Any constructive criticism is welcome!


Kulgan

P.S I know I often said ' turkey ' where it should be Turkish or something else. Turkey later!

[Rolling Thunder]

My best advice is to hire crossbowmen. Most Turkish units are fairly vulnerable to missile fire - Janissaries and Siphai cavalry at least.

[AClockworkOrange]

I play as Hungary sometimes. I can tell you what's worked for me and what I usually do, maybe that'll help. I've heard PB is adding in units from the Magyar mod, so this will be great because it'll add more units to Hungary. My general strategy is to ally with Poland; they're my buffer from northern attacks. HRE will usually try to attack. This gives me an excuse to take Vienna, sometimes Prague. If Poland does well, this will help those cities a lot. If Kievan Rus attacks, I try my best to take Kiev. I then dive into Greece to take Thessalonica and Athens. Then comes the big push into Constantinople and modern-day Turkey. By the time I push into Greece and modern-day Turkey, my economy is usually pretty good, even without any merchants. If Kievan Rus, HRE, or the Roman Empire want a truce, I say no until I get the cities I want.

Turkey can be a formidable opponent no matter who I play, that is if they make it. Turkey is usually wiped out in my campaigns. I don't know what year you're in, but eventually Hungary gets Dismounted Banderium Knights, which will help out. Plus, they get Halberd Men at Arms. I really like Halberd units, even if they're militia; they're good vs cavalry and keep infantry at a distance while my missile troops peg them in the side. (Now that I think about it, I probably over-estimate halberd units...oh well...) I'm better at defending, so I usually try to put my armies in positions in which I defend. My biggest mistakes when I first played as Hungary was that I used to send my missile cavalry out *way* too soon if the enemy had good missile units. If the enemy has good missile units, I keep them closer to my infantry and use them to harass their infantry while they're trying to fight.

I think I'm just rambling now...