Djihad called against Constantinople - How do I survive?

[Leonidas II]

Hello guys ,

I am playing as the byzantine empire at Hard/Hard and it's the year 1175 .
After making good progress I am the richest faction and also the biggest.
I own 22 regions.
But now a Djihad was called against my Capital Constantinople.
5 full stack armies of elite units are on the way to Constantinople across asia minor.
How do I defend against them ? I have filled Constantinople with the best units I could get , but from what I have experienced so far in Stainless Steel it won't be enough to hold the city
Is there any way to survive the Djihad ?

[Navajo Joe]

Leonidas,

You could consider the following:
1. Send out assassins, to intercept inbound Jihad Generals, if you kill one or two, then their armies will disperse
2. Send out a welcome party, ambush them, may take a stack out or two
3. Recruit as many Flamethrowers as possible, position them inside the gateway, so they have direct Line of Sight, don't burn your own men.
4. Send out fleets, position of Greece & Italy, intercept the Moors and drown the suckers
5. Let them have Constantinople, the Jihad finishes, then a few turns later, take it back.

[AnthoniusII]

Damn my AAR is quite old...Only 5 jihad armies? My record is 7! Anyway...The best think you can do:
Never autoresolve battles.
Use many javelinears and archers.
Make sure that reinforcements can reach (by land or sea) to the city when they will needed most.
Prepare some armies and weaken Jihad armies far from Constantinople.
Always merge units that you can not retrain to the way that their expirience will be increased.
Have few cavalry units to asault advancing siege machines or artilery units:


That way you delay enemy advance and give your archers more time to kill more enemies.
Use javelin men closer to gates and use this pic as example.


Good luck.

[Leonidas II]

Ok , first thanks for your advice.
But it seems there are a few things wrong with my campaign:

Send out assassins, to intercept inbound Jihad Generals, if you kill one or two, then their armies will disperse

I can't recruit any assassins in my cities :O

Recruit as many Flamethrowers as possible, position them inside the gateway, so they have direct Line of Sight, don't burn your own men.

Neither I can recruit flamethrower units . Even in Constantinople not.

Let them have Constantinople, the Jihad finishes, then a few turns later, take it back.

This is a good idea , I will try this.

Prepare some armies and weaken Jihad armies far from Constantinople.

Well to late , the first army has already reached the city

[Nzg]

Don't overdo with cavalry in the city. Have a general and 2-3 stacks, mostly to chase down the enemy when they rout and to kill units using siege equipment.

When defending, try to focus on the general, if the enemy army routs but isn't destroyed and the general dies, jihad forces wont reasemble and will disperse.

Kill the prisoners(I usualy let them go or ransom, but not when beeing chased by jihad armies ).

If you have enough resources, take an army to capture enemies settlement or two. Usualy the AI's territory is emptied after launching crusade/jihad. Better to take castles than cities, so the enemy won't have a place to retrain units and chase you again.

Edit: Well, as you have wrinten meanwhile, now you can only fight on the walls and send reinforcements to attack the enemy armies(preferably a night fighter would be good).

[Commander of Faith]

Use ambush strategy it always works.When I play as a Muslim faction in Medieval II,I usually deal with the Crusaders with preparing ambush forces!Once I won a battle with ambush which if I was going to do it like normal face-to-face battle,I could probably get destroyed,and my casualties were low too!

[Sint]

Ok , first thanks for your advice.
But it seems there are a few things wrong with my campaign:



I can't recruit any assassins in my cities :O



Neither I can recruit flamethrower units . Even in Constantinople not.

You can only recruit Siphonatores after the "Fourth Lateran Council"(1216) and you need a Brothel or Inn to recruit assassins.

[Leonidas II]

Ah Ok , thanks , I didn't knew that.

So , The Djihad has ended.
After 2 Armies of the Fatimids had been besieging me , they attacked the city after a few turns.
It was a desperate , but heroic battle.
In the end I lost , but then I simply bought Constantinople back from them

But now the fatimids have become the absolute superpower and are attacking from the east and conquering my lands.
They're literally unstopable , they armies are like ants , coming from everywhere

[Nzg]

Use choke points, try to fight on bridges, maybe a suprise attack by sea on Cairo and Alexandria?

[Leonidas II]

That's a good idea . I will try this as soon as i have a big enough army .

[❋ Flavius Belisarius ❋]

Djihad on Constantinople:
1) Prevent you from being a target
Next time if you begin a new game, make an alliance with Egypt before they do an alliance with Seljukides this way, when you'll be at war with Seljukides they will keep the alliance with Byzantine rather than Turk and then won't send a Djihad on Constantinople

2) If it is too late and if you don't have enough soldiers to defend the city
Send a diplomat to give them Constantinople, the djihad is going to come to an end immediately and you can take back the city the following tour because there will be nobody to defend it. Do it as soon as you can. (I don't like this way but it's the best way in case of bankruptcy

3)If it's too late for the alliances and you want to keep the city
If you have to fight hire soldiers from Adrianople (the castle near Constantinople) and archers from Niceae and commit mercenaries, you will have enough troop to defend the city, let them besiege you and attak the City. If there is not enough soldier in the city, do not deploy them on walls and gather all your units in the center of the city

[muller227]

f you have reached the point where Adrionople is a Castle or Fortress you should be able to win the battles. The Scoutoai Spearmen rock and are fairly easy to train up. I prefer them with a sturdy group Of the Toxatoe. They are better than they first appear due to their AP secondary. Turn off Skirmish though or they just die trying to run. Use the hell out of your Scholarrii and a general or two to take up the attack early in Anatolia, do not let a Schoilarri unit fall below 55 though or it cannot be retrained. Full recruitment and retraining kicks in after the 4th Lateran, and you need a Mayor's palace for Varangians and Huscarls and the Heavy armor event. Last but by far the most important, get those Druzhi mercs and Mounted Acritae. These are battlefield Assassins against generals. Even losing a battle does not matter if you kill that damn general. At 1175 you are not quite up to full Scholae Barracks retraining but you are close. Use Shield wall if you are assualted on the walls the Sparth are deadly in it, if you have kept them retrained.

[Silver Legionary]

The previous posters mostly covered everything.
I only have so much relevant advice that hasn't been said, but here:

Keep in mind that if you aren't playing HURB(by RollingWave), and you're playing regular SS6.4,
you as the ERE have a fairly large superiority in unit quality if you can field your higher-end units(starting from around Scoutatoi units).

The Jihad can't really succeed if you're well-built enough/keep armies rotating, and if you aren't, they'll have a very tough time anyway(NEVER AUTORESOLVE, like others have said).
They can't really succeed unless your units fail you. Most of the unmodded 6.4 Muslim units are low-quality, and the ERE's lowest quality unit(Acontistae, spelling-wise I think) has javelins.
Javelins annihilate things in Medieval 2 regardless of what version or mod it is, or what unit is throwing them; they always make a huge difference.
Acontistae can bring down their general units fairly quickly, for instance.

Forcing back the Jihad all really comes down routing/killing most of their cannon fodder(40-50% at least is a a low value to aim for), and going out of your way to bring down their best units(generals, etc.) in any engagement you can, those are harder for them to replace than you think.
Again, autoresolving is tantamount to handing them victory on a plate.

[napoleonic]

fight on the settlement center, annihilate the generals quickly, watch them wavering and routing as they enter your settlement center for fun!