The Kwarzemian Empire

[Mahatma]

Total War is in the post to my door and I plan on playing TLR mod immediately with the Kwarzemian's. Could someone tell me which units they have available and their starting position on the map? A screen shot of the middle east would be nice, I haven't seen the new campaign map yet, even after searching for a little while on the forum.

I'm praying for Hashishin and a quick conquest of all cities along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

Where do the Mongols arrive? I had a look at wikipedia and saw an big fat Mongol arrow pass through Bagdad

[Xeno_cws]

Mongols arrival postion, as far as I know, has a bit of randomness to it but generally they land in Russias and Kwarzemians lap.

Can't tell you anything else really since I don't play in that area of the map

[Irishmafia2020]

The mongols have virtually eliminated the Kwarz empire in my game, and I turned them into a client state by giving them land in Egypt that I captured from the Syrians while on crusade. The Mongols have focused most of their energy against The K- empire, so prepare for the worst. The Abbassid Caliphate controls most of the territory along the Euphrates, and since Baghdad is their starting capital, you will have to take them out to control their territory. My suggestion for the K- empire if you play them (I have not yet tried them) is to concentrate on making the Caspian sea your own private lake, and then continue to expand into the Caucaus area until you reach the black sea. The Caucaus region is a Vacuum in this game, and whoever gets there first (Between Kiev, Rum-Turks, Abbassids, and K-Empire) Will have ample room to expand without having to go to war against organized factions. The Mongols arrive around 1220, so you should have established yourself as a major power by that time anyway. What I would do, would be to send various raiding parties throughout the Black Sea region to terrorize Eastern Europe and Byzantium. I'd try to out-mongol the Mongols, especially since the K-empire has a similiar unit list to them (lots of bowmen and steppe calvary). I do not have a screen shot, but you can always try ~ followed by toggle_fow to check out the faction's starting positions. You can also see the K-empire's Unit list (and available mercs) in the custom battle screen. I do not think that they get hashishim, but I could be wrong since I have not played with them... I hope that helps!

[Mahatma]

Thanks a bunch Irishmafia. It was the Abbassid Caliphate I wanted to be then, if it is them who control Bagdad/Basra/Nisaphur at the start of the game. I saw a map of the early game and thought it was the Kwarzemian Empire there. But if not, they must get screwed over because they are on the far east of the map right? Ouch.

Then my plan must be to start expanding into Arabia, Persia, controlling the South East area of the map. Hopefully avoid any crusaders and take it easy for the early game, killing a few rebels here and there, slowly expanding my empire.

How do I not get owned by the Mongols? Ally with Kwarzemian empire? Bribe the Mongols? Fight the Mongols?

[Irishmafia2020]

The K-empire will be to the North of the Abbassids, but you should still try to get a force up to the Caucaus region as that area is a complete vacuum for the first hundred years or so, and that means that 7 or 8 provinces simply sit as rebels in the early game. If you don't capture the Caucaus region as the Abbassids, you will eventually be hemmed in by the Fatimids (egypt), Syrians, Rum, and the K-empire. If you destroy the Syrian Caliphate (a Turkish faction) you can probably establish a pretty dominant empire that extends to the mediteranean sea from Baghdad. In my opinion, the key to defeating the Mongols is to use hit and run tactics that capture their rear cities which are undergarrissoned. Otherwise, you could ally with them. Unfortunately, given this mod's economy, you won't be able to instantly raise a major army, and even sustaining more than two full stacks can be difficult unless you are raiding and sacking for money on the side. Still, if you must fight the Mongols, use one stack to support your major garrisons under seige, and use another stack to capture their lightly defended rear cities.

[Request a new user name]

The best way to defeat the Mongols, I found was to assassinate their Generals. This deals a serious blow to their combat power.

Next when you face them in battle, keep a tight reign on your troops. The Mongols like any Nomadic Horse Archer Army got its head handed to them when they fought organized troops with a good General. The Kwarzemian Empire managed to deal serious defeats on the Mongol Horde till wily old Ghengis Khan started assassinating and bribing Kwarzem nobles. This wrecked the cohesion of the last Kwarzem Shah's Army and led to Ghengis conquering Persia.

So keep an eye on your General's loyalty and take steps to improve it.

Build up a professional full stack Army of Gold units by fighting rebels and other factions. Then use this to fight Mongol Armies whose Generals survived assassination. Be careful though, take the fight slow and grind the Mongols down by pining them with additional armies of whatever you can scrape up and then hit them with overwhelming force when they exhaust arrows.

[anaztazioch]

How i defeated mongols... I allways have like 4 assassins in capital and few arround training on rebel armies. Kill of generals, than use your fastest cavalry (I think Persian heavy cavalry is fast moving, mounted heavy archers is fast too) to attack IN MELEE mongol light cavalry (at begining of battle arrange your troops as far from enemy as possible, so he will send his horse archers far away from rest of army, and due to their speed, you will have time to kill em). I had like 4 or 5 cavalries and theyw ere enough to kill over 80% of mongol mounted archers. Retreated after that.
Secon is send Heaviest cavalry acompanied by several light cavlary and some levies. Use light cavlary to force mongol archers to skirmish run far away from rest of army (dont use this tactics if AI sends his archers to attack you, just wait till they get far from rest of army and charge them to death). Use levies to "contorl" enemy army, so your heavy cavlary will be "free" to flank main force and hit skirmished archers. This should kill like 70% of enemy archers. Retreat your heavy cavlay and other expensive troops.
Next is attack with levies, spearmans and several horse archers. Use horse archers to lure mongol light and heavy lancerrs to levies. Use levies to sorround mongols and spearmans to kill em. Up to 90% of enemy charge cavalry can get killed. Retreat.
Remember that each time you retreat AI will "release" those that you have "captured" during battle, so if you "kill" like 80% of mongol troops and etreat, even 50% of those you killed can be "resurrected".
Now its time to crush them. Form up strongest heavy cavlary and use them to quick charge enemy infantry than retreat again.
After that, enemy will be hurt so bad that finishing them of with just levies will be easy.

I was using 4-6 unit armies every aproach including general bodyguards (remember to adopt kids MAD, agree to any wedding, you will end up with 10 general bodyguard army ;p )