Egypt Question

[La Hormiga]

I am considering playing as egypt but I cannot find any online guide to them. Could somebody outline their strengths and weaknesses and whether is worth playing them? thanks.

[Grand Duke Vytautas]

Maybe this guide from totalwar.org will help you http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72062

[tommo_312]

or you could just go for it!

[P014K]

Take timbuktu your close to it and its worth a lot.

Also, defend Jerusalem.

[bars]

Use cavalry only when you can. Egypts infantry is useless unless you're in a siege.

[Oploc]

Haha, take as many rebel settlements as you can; then build a navy to destroy and invade byzantine, try not to get into war with the turks, as they can become helpfull when in a crusade.

[Primvs Sextvs Loverlord]

Spam cavalry.
Take eastern cities first.
Take Islands off the Italian coast.
Byzantine should be a pain but if you play your cards right, their cities will not be heavily defended and you can avoid their large stacks altogether.
Apart from that, it's pretty simple.

[wkndwrrr]

Strengths:

Relatively good starting position, readily available and good horse units and various mercenaries, the Holy Land is usually rich, and you have many good ports.

Weaknesses:

The Holy Lands will certainly be crusaded against multiple times, its really not worth it to make too many of your own infantry troops, as they suck up until Saracen Militia (you have to rely more on mercenaries, which is expensive), also the Moors (who you have to eliminate) are very far away and hard to kill.


In my campaign as them, I took over the Holy Land, provoked the Turks in order to take Anatolia, fought off the Byzantines and around six crusades (taking Cyprus, sacking Constantinople and engaging in a really brutal fight with the Crusading Poles around Tbilisi and Sarkel), and launched a long and bitter long distance attack over to the Moors. I actually gave up on this campaign, as, though the Moors have been driven out of Spain, and I controlled their heartland, they still had a decent military presence, and I did not have the men or resources in that area of the world to fight both them AND Sicily, who had repeatedly attacked Algiers. Plus, Timbuktu (their last city) is soooooo far away and hard to reach.

Edit: Oh, I would advise making Jerusalem your capital once you start making inroads into Anatolia.

[Khassaki]

I generally take Jerusalem and Acre, those towns to the south east and directly south of Alexandria. then expand west along the coast and invade Scicily and southern Italy, take Rome and start a stuffed pope collection. After you do that the crusades tend to be directed at everywhere but the middle east. Once you consolidate your power the Turks will usually attack, and then expand into anatolia and hit the Byzantines from two directions at once. Acre, Gaza and Palermo are my 3 castles, everything else is a city (keep Cerserea if its fully upgraded though). Best units are the mamluke archer and saracen militia, your foot archers suck majorly but are fine for defending castles, and don't under-rate the Kurd javelinmen, they can be very effective for attack and defence in seiges.

[Kiki52]

I used retromod and added in the Kingdoms units for Egypt. It makes it better somewhat, because they have Al Haqa Infantry which is somewhat decent for fighting most things except elite infantry like DFK. Now their infantry doesn't suck anymore, and sieges can go better with something that can actually fight.

For a blast, I also gave Egypt Canons of the Holy Sepulcher and Constable of Jerusalem.

[Saibot]

Yeah as for infantry I usually just count on Halberd Militia as shock troops (I know they suck) and Saracens and Tabardariyya as fighting Inf. But of course you should mainly focus on getting a powerful cavalry force. I really like Egypt, they have an awesome starting position, in my opinion at least. Once you get Jerusalem, Antioch, Adana and Acre the money really starts rolling in. I also like the fact you really have to think about your city garissons. You really need to think where to place your AP units and normal Inf. So I'd say, just give Egypt a go.