Abbassids, great or greatest?

[Smarmy]

Abbassid, have they a great army, or the greatest army in the middle east?

In my opinion, they have the greatest. All other middle eastern factions wish they had what the Abbassid's have. Which is what every other ME faction has.
They have Janissary, Mamluk, Persian spears, and some of the best Muslim cavalry units. (Other than the Mamluk and only slightly weaker than Mongol variety.) The only thing they sadly lack however is elephants, and I'm relieved that they do.

It's kind of sad. When I look at the middle east, and try to decide what faction to play. I always want to play the Abbassids because they have everything. The Fatimid are irrelevant, their one and only 'unique' unit is the Mamluk, their other infantry and archers are trampled by their turk neighbors. The Turks, too, are made irrelevant. At least the other Turk factions anyway. The Abbassid have everything they do, and then more.

The only con to playing as the Abbassid is possibly having the 'job' of holding back the Mongols, and then Timur. The former can be dealt with if you allow Khwarezmid to expand, you've got the holy lands within sight anyway.

So, then, Great? Or Greatest? Perhaps amongst you one plays a ME faction other than the Abbassid, and groans to see how they field the same armies you do, and then more. (Moors were not mentioned as they are a lackluster mix of Catholic armor and Muslim spear/speed.)

[Irishmafia2020]

I like the turks... I didn't realize that the Abbassids had JHI... I had assumed that they were more like the Fatimids or moors... I have yet to fight the AC in my current campaign as the Rum, but I will eventually. In my last game as Venice I flattened the Abbassid armies, so I've not been that impressed with them yet. I actually wouldn't want to play with the AC because of their location, but if your a fan of the desert, so be it!

[Irishmafia2020]

Well, you sold me... I decided to start a new campaign with the Abassids and so far it is going well. The only thing I don't like about them is their starting location, so i gave away their core settlements and went to the Mediteranean where I conquered Cyprus and Antioch. Actually that migration put me a little behind the other factions, so it will make for a challenging campaign wherein I actually might need those Mamluks and Persian Spearmen....

[Smarmy]

Ha ha ha! That made me smile. That's what I always wanted to do, but never did out of fear for the power vacuum. Abbassid + Nile River starting location = happy fun time for me.

Would stop at Gaza, make that my defensive wall against the rest of the ME, mongols, etc. Expand west, especially into the Mediterranean, conquering the many islands and making myself a thorn in the holy arse of the pope.

Ohhh, I'll try that one day. I'm already too far into a campaign with the HRE to cave in to such reckless ambitions. (Need to see if that CTD pops again.)

Hee hee hee....:hmmm: