Mongols too strong?

[Saibot]

I started my Egypt campaign some time ago. This is my first time playing with an eastern faction and as the catholic factions I never payed to much attention to the mongol invasion. I'm playing on hard now and the mongols have been wandering about some time. But does the army spawn ever stop? At a sudden moment there were like 7 armies wandering around Mosul and I was like "hmmm I could stop this invasion." but after that more armies spawned and they moved to Jerusalem. They are really too strong. I have a good economy and quite some territories so I should hold out for a while and I'm fortifying all my settlements. But gunpowder hasn't even been discovered yet, but the mongols use rocket launcher already (!?!). So now I hope my empire will survive this since the Timurids will also get somewhere around my territory in some turns. So all help is welcome.

Here's a pic of the situation.

***EDIT***

I am now at the point where gunpowder has been discovered.

[ReDStaR]

if you are playing the standard campaign, then the TImurids should come around turn 145

[~Beren~]

Are you willing to use cheat codes to beat these guys back?

[Saibot]

Nope, I've never used cheats and I'm not planning to use them. It just ruins the game in my opinion. If you use cheats there's no possible way of losing a campaign or having a challenging campaign, right?

[Mythre]

Well in my experience... fortify the main castles/ cities in the path of the invasion to insane amounts.... I let them break their teeth on one or two cities.... I personally never have played as Egypt have always come from western Europe or Byzantium. I do know that Egypt has not very good infantry and good cav... but Mongol cav will beat anything you have. Usually i can hold a city for 3 sieges if i have the right troops in the city. But that is usually with gunpowder or with lots of Longbows. All i can say is Hunker down and fortify all cities/ bridges in the path of the invasion... try to isolate Jerusalem and if you them face in the field... good luck however if you have a powerful economy Stalin did say "Quantity has a Quality all its own" AKA send your men into the meat grinder and wear them down....

[Saibot]

Yeah I've tried the men into the meat grinder tactic know. They now have about 5 full stacks wandering around of which 3 have been weakened by my indestructible *cough* militia force. Luckily they didn't manage to expand any further then Jerusalem even though Acre is close to being captured by them, but my royal mamluk reinforcements are on their way. Right now it seems like I'm actually standing a chance by sending large stacks of militia to weaken their armies and then finish them off with mamluks. Thanks for the help Mythre. Even though the battle isn't even close to an end.

***EDIT***

I'm only 5 turns away from the Timurid invasion. this is going to hurt.

[rainkloud]

Don't feel bad about using cheats. Historically this was how the Holy Roman Empire got rid of the mongols from eastern europe. They used a cheat code to beef up an assassin which they subsequently sent to kill Ögedei Khan. The plan worked and the mongols retreated back to mongolia to elect the next Khan. True story....

[Saibot]

Lol. That didn't help at all but it was kind of funny, + rep.

[Sher Khan]

Wear them down in Antioch (they always head there) and stock all territories from there down to Gaza with spears and halberds. In your cities, rely mostly on Halberd Militia, Tabardariyya, and Saracen Militia. Absorb the Mongol cavalry through the gates with massed Saracens while sending in the strong yet fragile Halberd Militia when the enemy is bogged down.

Find their general and kill him first - Halberds do their job well here. Tabardariyya should be held back in reserve to replace weakened holes in your defense.


You may lose the city, you may keep it. But more than likely, you'll absolutely crush the Mongol army - and maybe another at the same time if two attack in the siege. It'll be a war of attrition - remember that you can keep spamming new armies but they can't replace any of theirs.

[Saibot]

Yeah that's true. This is helpfull indeed. I just crushed their two armies at Antioch (I'm fighting a bit, then checking out the forums again to see if I can find a better way to beat them). This is a very usefull tactic, the first battle I managed to destroy their rams so the cavalry force stayed outside of my side while being ripped apart by my ballista towers. My Saracen Milita killed the infantry on my walls. But the 2nd wave was harder since they used two rams. But I just massed all my Saracens at the gate to absorb their cavalry like you said. They killed a hell lot of cavalry but were killed themselves too. Then the Tabardariyya finished off the last few horses wandering around.

[Osram]

I like the "meatgrinder". It works really good if you have a stable ecomony.
I destroyed both mongols and timurids at the same time like this. Though I'm really lazy and mostly fight with auto-resolve...
dont mind if you loose you armies, what matters is that you kill as many mongols as possible.

[Greg89]

Hmm Mongols and Timurids werent as much a problem as Aztecs. For some reason I lost my perfect Army. I barely took their first city. Even though you are much more advanced, dealing with Earle, Jaguar and Coyote Priests is a mess. My army routed routed two times. =O not to mention I lost my good experienced Christian guard.
As for Mongols and Timurids, just make them attack you in a city and canstles and their big number wont cause u a problem when dealing with them at the gate or wall.

[Sher Khan]

Well, seeing as how we're well onto an anti-Mongol tactics discussion, I'll be moving this to the Battle Planning forum.

[Saibot]

That's my problem. It does cause me trouble once their cavalry starts rushing, it's not problem for me to deal with 1 or 2 armies but they just lay siege every turn, giving me no chance to retrain whatsoever. Then sometimes they lay siege with 3 reinforcing armies. That's when I get pwned big time.

[Mythre]

Anytime Saibot.... Timurids and Mongols.... i feel your pain.... Into the the blender men! : Don't you worry soldier.... all the red and meat looking stuff is just Beef.... NOW JUMP!"

Multiple sieges one after the other is really the only way my cities die as long as i have the right troops in there. Also if they send 4 armies right next to the city so you are facing 5 armies at once.... that hurts.

[Saibot]

Yeah exactly. It's like you can do nothing. Sometimes I get lucky and burn down their rams and just wait till the the time runs out. But once they get their cavalry + reinforcements through that gate. Ouch, it hurts.

[DorosTheConqueror]

The Mongols can be a pain if you're not prepared. Me? I usually like to stop them at the Jordan and Orontes- set up a network of forts from Antioch to Jerusalem, spam troops in anticipation of the Mongol invasion, and crush each and every stack as they try and cross the two rivers. However, if the Mongols are already there, there's not much you can do except ride the storm.

Have the Mongols catured a settlement yet? Because if you don't like them now, you might as well quit as soon as they capture Antioch. Once they've got a base of operations they start pumping troops, and take a look at their unit upkeep. Go ahead, fire up the game, mouse over a Mongol stack, and look at the unit upkeep.

0. Nothing, nada, zilch- they can pump Mongol Heavy Archers and Khan's Guard until your CPU crashes and never feel a dent in their treasury. In fact, the only units which cost them money are Militia units, but I doubt they'll crash their economy through militia spam. The Timurids are the same way, only worse because they've got better units. Think about fighting an entire faction whose armies are all on permanent Jihad (which, BTW, the Mongols and Timurids can call and join once they get established)- that's what you're up against if the Mongols find a homeland.

[Saibot]

I'm in even bigger trouble now. The Timurids just came who are luckily also fighting the mongols. The mongols are almost beaten since I weakened them a lot after I recaptured Jerusalem. But now they are sending their last stacks towards Antioch and the Timurids are also heading there + the pope just called a crusade against Antioch too and the effects of the great plague are still there. So now I've got full stack Christian armies + the Timurids and Mongols wandering through my lands. This is going to hurt once the crusade ends and the rest of the armies start strolling around my lands.

[Khassaki]

One thing to try versus mongols is put a saracen militia in shiltron outside the gate. They stop the ram from reaching the gate and get attacked by a mass of mongol calary, which being taller than the saracens, get shot to bits by their own archery.

[jsgx3]

Good stuff here, I'm playing as Turkey and have created a large empire, all the way to Italy in the west and to Cairo in the middle east. But the Mongols have soaked up my time and effort for 15 turns. I've tried to spam, tried to meet them with a mongol horde of horse archers of my own but I've lost more battles in this game than I think I've lost in the 4 other campaigns I've finished combined. Ouch. I've had to finally turtle up, they sent 4 stacks and I wore those out with the cost of all my eastern military, then 4 more showed up and I've wore them down but they are about to break onto the southern plains in the march to Antioch, and now I have a 3rd group of 4 stacks that just showed up. At least the war against Egypt is progressing and the Hungarians just got crushed and added to my empire. If I can just get Russia off my back (can't wait for a jihad!) I might stop these demons... and then I can fugure out how to stop the Timurids.