Abbasid Knots

[byzantineklibanophori]

Here;s my current Abbasid campaign:

1) Corruption is high
2) Treasury is in the red
3) Armies are exhausted in war of attrition
4) Mongols are pressing relentlessly to the East
5) Huge Byzantine armies in the West
6) At war with Ghazni, Ghorids, Kypchaks with no chance of a military response

Great!

Who wants a try? If so, I'll add a save file later to this post.

I can't quite fight the Mongols in a war of attrition, my straitened finances have seen to that.

I can't keep fighting Byzantines stacks forever, I can't win at this rate.

My only chance, sneak armies by ship behind their rear, sack their cities and raise new armies and mercenaries with this money and keep fighting, fighting and fighting!!

Congrats to BC crew for interesting outcomes. My accountant is kicking my butt telling me to cut down my military expenditures and to reconcile my bank accounts.........pffffffffffffffft. Obviously he's never been to the frontlines, perhaps he'd like to meet the Mongols.

[Chief Astook]

that is...very bleak haha. My Ghorid Sultan would throw the accountant off the Mountain That Sucks.

[Otsman]

what! the abbasids were EASY (H/H)
1) Corruption can be kept down as long as you keep your bad family members locked away in a fort
2) Just take all of the Seljuk turks cities and the rbel ones to the west and your set financially
3) spend your early money developing all of your forts so you CAN keep a war going for a while
4) Mongols can be taken care of with PROPER preparation
5) Huge Byzantine armies in the West (yeah, just don't ally with the turks and you'll be fine)
6) Plan your alliances carefully, and never be afraid to change sides (but that usually costs a pretty penny)

oh, and the best strategy is to expand and take as many cities as possible in the beginning, particulary good pickings are the seljuks, oman and the turks, take all of their land in 25-30 years and your good, but only fight one at a time. (blizkrieg)

[Darvist]

Ya the Abbasids are prity easy in comparison to say Shindi which i also played to the end. (long victory) Irritating however is once your in a bad spot IE at war with 2 powerful factions others have little issue going to war with ya as well since they don't think you pose a big threat. Best bet is to ally with one of the major powers early on like ERE as opposed to fighting them.

[byzantineklibanophori]

In the early years, I flew off to a blinder thinkiing "gee, 1.05 is a piece of cake". I destroyed the Seljuks very early in the game and had already built up a large empire. The problem was purely financial, no matter how many governors I've put in, corruption remains endemic!

In my situation, its not like I could build stacks and stacks of armies just to face the Mongols. And the added fact that the Byzantines were sooner or later going to fight with me as they were expanding like mad and had crushed the Armenians and Turks into annihilation.

Basically, I'm caught in a war between the three largest armies in the campaign. The Ghorids, Mongols and Byzantines. Nice to see some people had it easy. In my case, its just a case of tough love.

[MyNameIsGreat]

Don't defend Baghdad, Allah will protect it against the Mongols. It worked in real life for the caliph... didn't it?

[Darvist]

Just so you know the Mongols can't recruit anything better that Teir 1 stuff since they don't have a Area Of Recruitment. They will eventually run out of powerful units as long as there killed. Once that happens there easy pickings with crappy army's.

[Caspand]

Question about mongols.

Do they continue to get 2 full stacks after they settled, or do they only get 2 free stacks if they raze the settlement to the ground and move on ?

In my games, they normaly settle in the first city they take, Samandre ( spelling?)

[Sinan]

...... .. . . . .

Hey, I'd love to see the savegame so post up !

[byzantineklibanophori]

Things have changed a bit to my current Abbasid campaign.

a) Treasury is on the verge of going into the black
b) Roman armies have been a bit shaken up due to losses against my desperate armies!
c) Ghazni has declared war

My armies are still stretched quite thin against a lot of frontiers.
Its exciting! Do or die! Life and death! Once the money starts rolling in, I'll build ships and gamble on a rear attack of the Byzantines. But I have to sneak past their huge naval forces first...

PM me ur email and I'll send you a .sav file.

[Vagabond]

Look like some nice challenge .Would you post your last savegame, i'd love to give a try

[byzantineklibanophori]

where can I upload files to?

[byzantineklibanophori]

anyone recommend a place to upload files?

My campaign so far is interesting.

1( I've ceded Mashad and Yazd to the Ghaznavids to shorten my boundaries against the Ghorids to manageable levels.

2) Mongols have broken through and captured Gorgan

3) Romans still have endless soldiers! I've managed to sack a few cities through some amphibious raids and a daring strike into the heart of Anatolia

4) I've just started a war with the Ayyubids, I need the money badly so I have to take advantage of their poorly guarded northern borders

5) A huge Ghorid army is in the heart of my empire, the Jihad finished so they were not needed for the Jihad. My luck, they had to be near Baghdad!

6) I've managed to establish Georgia into a decent kingdom after recapturing Tbilisi and Telavi from the Byzantines and handing it over to the Georgians. Now I'm not alone in the Caucasus!

7) I'm still stuck fighting the 3 largest armies in this campaign.

I suppose all I can do is contain the damage to my north-eastern borders. I don't have the resources for a huge campaign. I'm resigned to losing Nishapur. But I'll be making a desperate stand around the Rayy region near my military centres. At least that will give me manageable borders instead of thinned out far reaching borders!!!

As for the Byzantines, I'm one decisive victory away from claiming all of Cilicia and turning it into my new heavily fortified borderland. After ravaging the hell out of Cyprus, I'll claim it as a money maker and a naval base for amphibious raids. I have a fleet in the Black Sea, all prepped for more amphibious raids in the northern Black Sea cities.

I can't do much about the Ghorids but keep fighting them and pin my borders down at Firuzabad. I think I'll apply the same tactics and launch an ambitious amphibious campaign deep inside Ghorids lines.

All in all, an enjoyable campaign.

I've never lost so many family members.

Some of you guys may be having an easier time. But is it as interesting? Is it challenging if you're having served on a gold platter?

[Arjun]

Endless money forms the sinews of war.

~Cicero

^^ that is my strategy in any Medeival total war1/2 RTW game i play. Invest Very early in markets/roads/ports and upgrade them to the highest level possible for ur city-level.

also invest in farming; because...i believe population grows kinda slowly in BC vis-a-vis MTW2


another thing that helps is that in the first 5-10 turns of the campain try to take as MAny rebel/surrounding cities/forts as possible cos it would increase ur income dramatically and give a huge bonus...


in fact ive taken cities/forts against really bad odds....like...4 of my units against 6 or even 8 of theirs.....yes i could have gathered a huge army but what i usually do at the start is that i send armies of 4-5 units each and besiege forts/towns held by rebels. sometimes they make life easier for me and attack me when im besieging them(cos the AI thinks that it can beat me cos it has probably 2 times the number of my units)

at any given time in the first 10-15 turns i have about 3 or 4 town/cities besiged...so by the end of 10 turns its not impossible to have at least 2 times the cities/towns u started out with! sometimes even 3!!

i think this strategy helps cos early units(both ours and the enemies) are not that strong...so better generalship on our part gives huge dividents; even if outnumbered 3 to 1.


and yes; its a high risk strategy but it worked every time for me. that coupled with a emphasis on financial-buildings ensure that about 50 turns into the game i have about 30 000 or more in my coffers and increasing(even that after im building in every town/fort and recruiting units every turn)

try this strategy, its bound to work.



PS: once when campaigning as the french in MTW2 i had the HRE,Byzantium,THE MONGOLS, the TIMURIDS, the POLISH, the RUSSIANS,THE SPANISH, the PORTUGESE, and almost half the islamic factions in war with me!!

i kid u not!....it was odd though...cos my standing with the pope was great..and i attacking islamic factions...why did almost all other european powers gang up on me? i donno why....probably cos i had about 40 regions under my command

but i beat em back though. hehehe cos i had so much money!

[byzantineklibanophori]

The time for fast expansion is over already, the time when I had a boatload of money is over too. I'm in the mid-life crisis phase

Early in my campaign I expanded like crazy. At the moment, I'm stretched so badly military wise, I can't invest in the economy or else risk a major defeat. I'm barely holding the frontiers as it is! Lol.

I've just sacked Damascus for quick cash, and intend to sack more Ayyubid cities in rapid succession for more cash. Funny thing is, my armies are not overwhelmingly huge. They're usually one stacks who have to replenish themselves through mercenaries or wait for reinforcements occasionally.

I've waited so long for "life and death" campaigns, this is it!

[mastaace]

anyone recommend a place to upload files?

try www.zshare.net

[AvdW]

Sounds like a fun situation, enemies on all sides, fighting for your life...

I usually play it 'safe', something like this (with campaign 'hard', battles 'hard' or 'very hard':
In the case of a powerhouse faction like the Abbasids or Romans:
-I take some risk in the beginning by scraping together every unit in the first few turns and attacking a well defended place that's worth it's money like Mosul or Edessa in the Abbasids case, Famagusta, Ani or Antioch if I'm feeling lucky in the ERE's case.
-I stay friends with everyone as long as I can. In the case of ally vs. ally I pick my friends wisely later on in the game.
-I build up balanced armies, then select my target(s) of conquest wisely (profitable cities or nicely build up fortresses)
-When I strike, I strike hard. Attack the enemies' big stacks first, then go for the major economic centers or strategically located fortresses. After such a blow, an average faction is severly crippled (powerhouse factions have more reserves)
-In the ERE's case, I always wait a little longer before taking Homs for example. The AI builds up forts much faster than you or me.
-I make sure to have some crappy provinces conquered(for example Aqaba or Calula and that little island nearby) for negotiating purposes. The AI values settlements in negotiations really highly, even the crappy ones.
This way I can get a profitable ceasefire and my trade rights back at a fair price. War really hurts the provinces that border your enemies economically.
-Conquer, then consolidate. Rinse and repeat.

In no way do you need an edge over the AI but I enjoy the game more this way, by approaching it in a well thought out manner.

How's the campaign on 'very hard' by the way? Is there a big difference with 'hard'?

[Yoda Twin]

Sounds like a grinding fun game.

[byzantineklibanophori]

Thanks Maastace! Helps a lot!

I actually maintained a storng alliance with the ERE for a very long time. I decided to attack them because of the fact that their armies were getting larger and larger, if I did not attack them now, they would steamroll my economically defunct empire!

However, things are on the up for. I've managed to get the Kypchaks to fight the Romans. I've also managed to gain an upper-hand on the Romans. Previously, they had only one direction to worry about: Me! Now they have to fight in the east and in the west. My armies have grinded them down gradually.

I've just captured Malatya and its now my anchor on the western frontier. Hola!

In the east, Im slowly losing my north-eastern provinces to the Mongols. I'm not cut up about it though. Its delayed the Mongols for a good 30yrs while I fought a tough attritional war against the Romans. Lol, in a few years, I would have lost all of my north-eastern provinces. To date, I've lost Merv, Tus, Mashad, Gorgan and Yazd. Its' a hell of a lot of territory. But worth it in light of my small military.

My economy is actually generating a profit now! Its a miracle!

http://www.zshare.net/download/9558852e951450/

Heres my campaign sav file.

Enjoy!

[gaius valerius]

It is the Mongol invasion and my Abbasid empire is the undisputed hegemon in Mesopotamia. I'm allied with all my neighbours and at war with only the Ayyubids. I'm stuck in my lands and military campaigns to Egypt have all failed. I'm bored and I'm not liking it anymore . I think I'll need to betray some allies but I always hate to do so. Plus the Mongol invasion is ravaging my Khwarzem allies and I have no defensible northeastern border.