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Thread: Turks campaign: Cities vs Castles

  1. #1

    Default Turks campaign: Cities vs Castles

    Aafter about 5 failed campaigns with them I decided to ask myself this question. I'm curious to see what the general consensus is.

    My 5 failed campaigns involved me slowly, but safely, taking territory. Each time was me ignoring the Byzantines and focusing on the middle east. Iconium was basically under constant attack but I always managed to hold it.

    My only successful, and current, campaign had me blitzkrieging literally everything between Sarkel, Iconium, Bagdahd, Jeddah, Alexandria, and Dongola. And I'm talking sacrificing everything in between.

    Sacking every city, and almost exclusively using mercenaries via the Jihad I called on Jerusalem on turn 2, I took every damn city in the Middle East. Within 25 turns I had everything mentioned above, and watchtowers set up 100% (including Jedda and Sarkel).

    By besieging, cancelling, and re besieging Jerusalem I had about 10 generals (who lost entire armies through desertion) running around setting up watchtowers and annihilating everything minus Egypt. The second I took Jerusalem I had every Egyptian city taken by the next turn.

    Now by this point I'm broke, broken, and extremely vulnerable. Until I realized a solid combination.

    Every Turk city, with a Merchant Guild of any level, can have Saracen Militia and Siphis. Turn 68, one turn after the Mongols showed up, I'd completely destroyed the mongols first wave by Baghdad. Same thing with the second and third wave.

    I kept Mosul and Cesarea castles, which I'm not even sure was necessary. Granted I'm 30 turns away from the Timurids so we will see. Yerevan I converted to a castle. Everything else I immediately switched to a city and turtled for 40 turns. Nearly destroyed my economy keeping 3 full stacks of balanced armies snd a single full stack of Siphis for nothing but clean up.

    Post Mongol invasion I've made everything except Bran (as it was very developed), Ragusa (for my current Italian invasion), Zagreb (converted to castle for Italy invasion also), and Magdeburg (for Denmark/England invasion) into cities.

    Now I'm playing on medium/medium to be clear. Are the Turks better off as a Milan-style faction? Because between City watched and Merchant Guilds across the board I'm having a hard time justifying castle units with them.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Turks campaign: Cities vs Castles

    Your ratio should be 2 cities for 1 castle in the early game, 3 to 1 in the mid-game (around Mongols arrival) and 4+ to 1 in the late game.
    You should always have more cities, it's necessary because castles don't make enough money. Recruiting slots are large enough in Citadels so that you don't particularly need that many to get the best troops.

    You can't play like Milan focusing almost exlusively on the city because your early best troops (Sipahi line) are from castles. Even in the late game, your best horse archers are valuable and the Ottoman infantry is good. Turks also lack quality battlefield artillery, unlike most European factions.

    Also I highly suggest trying to get all the various guilds, not just the merchant one, because they give helpful bonuses, especially the theologian one.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Turks campaign: Cities vs Castles

    You are much better off expanding than you are turtling. A few mobile stacks can pay for themselves if they continue to take settlements rather than just stand around. The AI doesn't handle rapid subjugation very well on the defensive front. Your inner cities should only require a minimum garrison, as you will usually be attacked from only a few, fairly consistent directions on the outskirts. In your particular case, taking all of Anatolia rather than just keeping the half you start with will put your more developed cities away from the Byzantine front line and limit their options for counterattacking at the outlying border. On the eastern side, you may want to avoid taking the typical crusade targets outright, but be ready to react to any sudden expansion from a faction that settles there. In truth, I grab them anyway. A single castle can support several surrounding cities; you just have to work out the logistics so that it doesn't take too many turns to get your newly trained troops to where they need to be. In that overall vicinity(Anatolia/Caucasus/Arabia/Egypt), I keep only Nicaea, Adana, Mosul, Tblisi and Gaza as castles. Adana starts out small, but its location, like Gaza, is great for utilising the extra movement offered by boats.
    The doctor will siege you now.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Turks campaign: Cities vs Castles

    Well the biggest reason I didn't expand into Anatolia early was because of Venice. Smyrna would've put me in their focus.

    When I took Bulgar and Ryazan is when I pushed west and took Nicaea, Constantinople, and Smyrna. I debated on taling Thessalonica but decided to wait to avoid a Venetian conflict. I focused Greece once I had all of Russia, stopping at Riga, Helsinki, and Smolensk. Poland didn't push while I took Greece which I was very lucky about.

    I did make a Theologians Guild in Cairo and Jerusalem, as well as an Explorer's Guild in Baghdad so I wasn't going 100% on Merchant's Guilds.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Turks campaign: Cities vs Castles

    Well the biggest reason I didn't expand into Anatolia early was because of Venice. Smyrna would've put me in their focus.

    When I took Bulgar and Ryazan is when I pushed west and took Nicaea, Constantinople, and Smyrna. I debated on taling Thessalonica but decided to wait to avoid a Venetian conflict. I focused Greece once I had all of Russia, stopping at Riga, Helsinki, and Smolensk. Poland didn't push while I took Greece which I was very lucky about.

    I did make a Theologians Guild in Cairo and Jerusalem, as well as an Explorer's Guild in Baghdad so I wasn't going 100% on Merchant's Guilds.

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