Playing as the Turks

[TanOrpheus]

Has anyone had a successful Turkish campaign yet ? I'm finding the start very difficult since on turn 2 you get 2 full stack armies spawned which deck your economy into the -,000's and you are at war with both the Byz and Antioch from the beginning. Any advice for me ?!

[Shadowcry]

yeah i would suggest taking your good generals out such as nurad din as with most of the garrison of Mosul i think and head for Antioch. When Nur ad Din's Jihad armies spawn you will have to place generals on them. It does not matter if you have to shift them from your Anatolian holdings but you have to put generals on them.

In my new campaign which worked pretty well thanks to Antioch's premature destruction I learned a couple things for playing Turks.

In battle try to play defensively- Straight forward marching to and Attacking Antioch for example is a sure way to lose men or even have your army rout completely. Try to hold the line counter their charges with your cavalry, even HAs can distract some impetuous knights.

Use Nur ad Din- Try to make the most out of this General. Hes old already in his Forties but can still help you severely weaken Antioch at this time. Use his special ability when your soldiers are charging or are in a stalemate in battle and its almost a given that they will rout.

You should take siege Aleppo with your armies before it turns into a castle since then Antioch will be able to overpower you, while if you want jihading Antioch with Nur ad Din making them lose (and you gain ) a major source of income.

Things that usually happen-

Byzantine owns your Anatolian settlements- They are small, hard to Defend and keep getting besieged. You should try and fight off each of the Byzantine armies that come after you there personally but dont get discouraged if they are lost they are easy to regain once you annihilate Antioch.

Take Adana Try to use one of you Anatolian Generals and his garrison to take Adana. It gives you a huge income (3000 without stone walls) and is relatively defensible provided you took over Antioch.

Kingdom of Jerusaleum- try not to fight them until after Anitoch has been severly weakened otherwise it will prove too much for you even with Egypts help.

Try to attack the Byzantines after the crusade event- you should still have some half stack or full stack armies by the time the $th crusade comes. Use them to throw out the Byzantines stacks in your lands while slowly taking castles like Smyrna and Ceasarea.

[klisk]

Turks is a powerful faction but try to not build a now units in the first 3 or 5 turns only if you had to, at the beginnig of the 2nd turn the nur-aldin Jihad will be called for Jerusalem, quikly use your Imam to call the jihad, and at least 2 or 3 full armies with 3 Generals included nur-aldin, and as Journeyman said you will find 2 armies near Antioch join them, and head over 2 jerusalem, you will find a strong Kingdom of jerusalem army front of you, don't warry, Salahuddin will join the jihad and works on making them weak, sack jerusalem you will got much mony from it,and from the jihad also an expereince for your troops, hold in jerusalem, and try to weaking the kingdom of jerusalem, by destroying these Faction and taking the cities and castels around jerusalem you will be able to coninue this campagin.