It's not fair!

[caralampio]

No sir, its not!

I had never really confronted the Mongols. They scare the stuff out of me. Whenever they came around, I quit the game. I rarely play Egypt, Turks or Russia because of that.

But I really like Egypt, it's a cool faction. So I chose them for my most recent game, hoping that the hordes would appear up north and would leave me alone. Tough luck, they landed right in my back yard!

I decided, well I'll give it a try. I spent all day fighting them, even got a headache. I tried to lead them away from my lands by blocking paths, it worked for a while but then the second horde appeared. When they had all nine hordes in a nice bunch, they attacked.

By then I had amassed some armies of my own. We had this gigantic battle, 7 armies (3 mine 4 theirs) which played at a snail's pace due to the congestion my PC developed from such a huge engagement. I lost but bled them and killed two generals. Over several turns I assassinated three more.

The Khan must have thought that I was a tough nut to crack, because after all this he moved into Turkey. I nibbled at his rearguard and reduced his armies even more. I even managed to box in some of his armies between 3 or 4 of mine. Delicious. Finally only the king with one army was left, my ally Turkey gave it the final blow.

Faction destroyed... Oh joy, so the Mongols can be destroyed! I feel so satisfied. It was worth the headache.

No, wait. The next turn, a new horde appears and surrounds Baghdad. IT'S NOT FAIR!!!

I thought there were only two Mongols hordes. Are the Mongols immortal? Can't they ever be beaten?

[Ride Ze Lightning]

I believe that there are 3

[caralampio]

I believe that there are 3

Oh man. That's too much for me.

[HorseArcher]

Hey, it wasn't fair either in real life:
Every year ever since we remember what happened 764 years ago.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mohi

[green tea]

You should be proud that you have beaten two thirds of them by now. And prepare for the timurids. In my russian campaign, I lost two cities to the mongols (I normally never loose cities/castles!). But the best way to defeat them is to let them siege fortified positions. And when you fight against the mongols, you will not win very often, to weaken them means winning in this case. And you should build cannon towers as soon as possible, I have never lost a city defended by cannons.

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

You can do it!

[Surgeon]

Think the Mongols are bad, just wait for the Timurids to come stomping onto the map. Oh man, some of my toughest wars were with the Timurids. I had to divert my entire war machine to quell them.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

The Mongols always come in three waves. Each wave consists of three to five stacks. Playing Egypt gives you the perfect units to beat them. Train all cavalry stacks with one third heavy cavalry and two thirds HAs. Train four of these stacks and fight them so it is two of your stacks against two Mongols (or better two against one). Your primary target are the Mongol generals. Since one third of the Mongol army is rubbish (infantry) you can win with some 30% losses. If you are prepared for them you can defeat each wave and retrain your armies for the next one. Since you know that they will arrive near Baghdad you can have your armies ready and attack as soon as they arrive. (I have played the Turks a lot of time and never have the Mongols arrived at Sarkel and ignored my empire). This way yo can defeat them one stack at a time. I did this with the Turks and it gave me four very experienced cavalry armies with whom I overran Western Europe.

[Mad Luddite]

Yeah, I usually like to get them at bridges or sieges. That or give a good commander a full heavy/light cavalry group and go around assassinating generals with it.

[Prince of Denmark]

Can the AI beat the mongols? Or do you have to deal with them yourself every time?

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Can the AI beat the mongols?

Yes. It's called the Timurids.

Although that is hardly an improvement

[Aryleia]

I wonder if somebody was able to beat the original stacks of Mongols or Timurids in land battles?

Playing as Egypt the first time I was not prepared for a nightmare like that. The Mongols conquered Antiochia and after that one city after the other which were all not garrisoned enough.

Next time I was prepared better and defeated them. One should take a defensive stance. Retreat into your towns and castles and let them attack there. Primary targets are Bagdad and Antiochia .. so you should have many units there.
Cannon towers are great. Beside that: wellarmoured spearmen. Most of them at the plaza where they cannot root.
And especially catapults. Oh, how often they saved my day with their nice fireballs from the plaza into narrow streets full with enemies!
Target the general whenever possible. After his death things will become much easier!
When you are sure that you cant defend a town ore castle - destroy all military buildings. But if you loose too many settlements it will be very hard to strike back I think. However Nikosia has a key position ...
Assassins also help but they have to be very good to kill a Mongolian general.

Perhaps no good news are if the Mongolians (ore Timurids) should spare your country and attack your neighbour. You get an even tougher challenge later when they have conquered his land and the citadels there...!

[Strom]

Egypt, benefitting from a great economy, can wear down the Mongols and beat single Mongol stacks with 'throwaway' armies of mixed archers and spearmen with a few units of cavalry.

It helps a lot if you fight on bridges, or in particularly beneficial mountains. Indeed there's at least one mountainside battle where the AI misbehaves so badly that it's pretty much an exploit fighting there. (The AI marches all the way up the side of the valley, stops just short of the top where you start, marches down to the valley floor, then back up, then back down, then time expires. Meanwhile you can run your archers down behind him and get free shots at his retreating army with the benefit of terrain twice and never even take so much as an arrow in return...)

Out on the open plain you can still win with this army, but it's not a particularly pretty win. I think that the time I played as Egypt I simply followed the Mongol horde and took the cities that they sacked and let rebel, nibbling at their heels when opportunity presented itself. Eventually, and I do mean eventually, they got to Constantinople and took it. I fought a couple of bridge battles to thin them out then retook Constantinople and won the game shortly after. They never got to spawn the second and third waves.

I blocked some of the mountain passes with single units of peasants which seemed to discourage the Mongols from pathing down south (but that might have been random luck) and I maintained some very expensive garrisons for a long time in areas near where they were hanging out.

[crazedwombat]

I wonder if somebody was able to beat the original stacks of Mongols or Timurids in land battles?

!

If you're talking about in RL, the Mamluks defeated them in a very cool battle. But mainly due to the internal strife with succession of the mongols. When the bulk of the army went back east to deal with that, they left a rear guard of about 30,000 men and they lost to a 120,000 person army. The only reason they lost though was because the Mamluk general was one of the greats in history. It played out a little something like this:

The mongols attacked the flank and were destroying them with the standard steppe cavalry tactics and put the opposing army to flight. The Mamluk general expect his army to be routed. It wasn't a feigned retreat but a full on route. Since it was planned, he waited until the mongols were sucked into it and then hit them from the flanks and from the rear with a contingent force. The mongols were still pwning them but the numbers were just too much. Every one of the mongols in that army were slain or captured forcefully.

It was called the battle of Ain Jalut. the Mamluk general was Baybars..he eventually was able to become a ruler based on the popularity of that victory. The mongol commander was Kit-Boga. All in 1260.

[clandestino]

Can the AI beat the mongols? Or do you have to deal with them yourself every time?

Nope, if you let AI deal with them you will have Mongol empire on Mid East in matter of couple of turns. I'm playing with Russia right now and yesterday Mongols arived in Sarkel region but went south immediatly. I thought that the Turks could hold them back cause they hade wast empire and big army, but maybe 10 turns after, the Mongols were holding 10 provinces and Turks were reduced on 2 regions! Guess who was their next target?

[lesterthenerd]

im playing as france in late era with stainless steel mod. are the mongols still able to kill all other ai factions in that mod?

[bjbessellieu]

I believe in you! Hold! Fight them back! Send the curds to HELL!!!

[Logik]

I Destroyed The Mongols every time i fought them. They are Overrated.All I much rather fight the timurids they give me a little more of a challenge . Even though they are a just a little better.

[Watercress]

i dont often fight the mongols as i play as england, but playing a custom battle with them... oh god i feel sorry for you guys. And if you think that is it tough, you aint seeen nothing (timurid elephants!)

[Aryleia]

Timurid Elephants can be your best ally... in fighting the Timurids.
On nice fireball from a catatpult or a bombard or cannon towers and they run amok and kill many of their own troops.
But its the same with the Timurids as with the Mongols. Defending settlements with strong garrisons should be the key to success- not land battles.