Today I returned to my Broken Crescent after a long time away. Well I loved it! Today I am playing as the Khwarezmian empire. I had never really played them before.
I got excited to play this faction after reading a book about Iran. I now realise the Khwarezmians are Persian faction, so they are ideal. I decided that I would make Iran the seat of a mighty empire!
Turn one: the Khwarezmians start with just two cities, Gurganj (modern Urgench) and Shiveh in the far north of the map, above Iran. I like to be historical, so I decided to re-create their real historical empire in the game. So (with the below map as my guide) I started out by capturing Merv to the south, using a heavy assault of catapults to smash the doors and then a cavalry charge through the streets.
Once this was done, I turned north-east to take Bukhara, Balkh and Samarkand. I wanted to secure this area, which lies to the west of the Afghan mountains, before any other faction could get there, so that I could have a secure homeland from which to launch my campaign to "liberate" Iran. I turned south again, and was hoping to take Herat in Afghanistan which was part of the empire. But I found the Ghorids had got there first! I decided to avoid war with them for now and headed south west, to begin the conquest of Iran to the south of Merv. But when the Ghorids laid siege and captured the rebel city of Tus, I realised that I had no choice but to go to war with them (because I cannot allow them to take a city on my path, it's totally unacceptable). So I laid siege and destroyed them. I have now taken Tus, the city just to the west of it (I forgot the name) and also Nishapur, which I managed to take but which still has a large and powerful rebel army outside the walls.
I am now being attacked by the Ghorids near Balkh, but I have just inflicted a crushing defeat on them near Tus. I am thinking my next move will be to march my army west to deal with the large rebel stack outside Nishapur, before turning east again and advancing on Herat. I have a separate army forming in Balkh; while for now they are quite small, they do have some elite heavy cavalry and infantry. If I can grow this force a bit more, I could think about an attack on the Ghorid citadel at Firuzkuh. If I could take it, that would be a severe blow against the enemy. The only downside is that it's slightly annoying that I have to face the Ghorids, because I will miss out on the opportunity to take more lands in Iran. But much of the good land there has already been occupied by the Seljuks, so they will have to be crushed later.
By the way, I have discovered a really interesting new way to play the game - I read about the history of each city online while the turns are loading. I ended up learning things about Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which is where the Khwarezmian starting cities of Gorganj and Shiveh are located, and I learned that these areas were historically Iranian but gradually shifted to a Turkic culture during the middle ages. I also learned that the Khwarezmians appear to have been basically Persian, but founded by a Turkish ghulam soldier who became a governor, presumably with a mixed Persian and Turkic population. I never knew that! Thank you Broken Crescent.
I am enjoying this campaign enormously! By the way, anyone have any tips on taking rival faction cities? I notice there is a huge garrison script if you lay siege for one turn. This means either you need a huge army at all times, or you need to have siege equipment, which slows the army down. Is there any way round this?
Thanks!