[AAR] M2TW Kingdoms: The Turks 2

[Astaroth]

Author: SSJPabs

Original Thread: [Crusades AAR] The Turks 2 (Crusade AAR, No Roleplay) -- Completed

The Turks 2

In the Outremer a faction fights for destiny--and annoys the hell out of me!

The font for the opening title card is "Pseudo Saudi."



Same rules as before, but I have gone with the default of 2 years per turn. Also, thanks to a suggestion from Spurius I am instituting some ground rules as well as altering my (relatively successful) strategy from the last game.

• No reloading unless there is a crash
• No Pause Button
• No Cheats
• All captain battles Auto-Resolved
• Defending Sieges: I will wait 3 turns. If the AI does not attack I will auto resolve the siege. If the AI attacks, I will command the siege myself.

The Lands of the Seljuk Turks

• The West Star Lands
• The Central Lands
• The East

Turn 1 (1174-75)



Change in Strategy: Instead of abandoning western Anatolia, under Generals Arslan and Kavur, I will go on the attack to the west with the immediate goal of sacking and perhaps holding Nicea. Under useless General Mustafa, I will take my land forces and attack Caeserea and points farther east early on. My goal is to shorten the front with the Byzantines early and take Trebizond more quickly.



Once again I am going to Aleppo while my Assassin goes after the priests.



Finally this time I am sending Nuraddin east and north along the route that leads to Yerevan. Erkal the other General, will go west to reinforce the armies heading to Antioch. End Turn 1.

Turn 2 (1176-1177)



Some Actions Icons appear this turn. I will accept the adoptions because of the Night Fighter traits, useful if I'm outnumbered and even against the Mongols. The second mission is of some importance. I'd wanted to take this settlement anyway to guard the underbelly of Anatolia and with getting this much money from the capture, I am giving in and sending a force to capture it, putting my plans for Adana on hold.



At least until this happens. The free if expensive reinforcements mean I have a chance to continue my plan if I'm willing to allow captains to command. This is where the ground rules begin to tell and I ponder how to have those battles fought by me instead of auto-resolved.



Meanwhile in the East Nuraddin gets into an early battle. This is going to be an easy win so I'm not even going to bother with pictures. They're just rebels anyway.



They routed quickly. In case you are wondering why the captain's name is different it is because I accidentally hit the "retreat" flag in the battle window and had to hit "assault" again, making a new captain step from the ranks. That the numbers are exactly the same as above proves that I'm not lying.



As you can see that is the situation along the coasts. I am ending up giving Antioch one more free turn before I attack it. While I have some big armies around so do they and their armies are a little tougher than mine. Nothing more to do here so let's end the turn and hope they don't attack.

Turn 3 (1178-1179)


And they don't as I get to the next turn without any problems. In fact I start the attack by assassinating one of their early generals in a lucky shot. I also have another adoption on my hands. Thinking I might need generals for all those armies running around, I decide to adopt him even if he doesn't have any particularly noteworthy traits.



Traveling from East to West I've illustrated Nuraddin's approximate line of attack.



Here is my situation in the West, as you can seet he plains are laregly empty of my troops. However this does not mean I am out of action, not by a long shot. In fact this turn I strike everywhere at once.




Sieges of Adana, Aleppo, Antioch and Caeserea begin. Two are led by captains. You'll notice that the force that is attacking Aleppo is led by a captain where it used to have a general. I switched that general to the siege of Antioch because of the larger army in it. The Adana force is simply to wear down the garrison inside of it.



Here is the situation along the northern Levant coast. In the south east you can see I am bringing in another general to take command of the siege of Aleppo. That is Prince as Salih and based on the huge Antioch force there I am taking a risk.



In the farthest west, Qilich Arslan is fighting a Byzantine army only a little smaller than he is. This is my first battle with the Byzantines and marked by some interesting AI moves.



You can see the set up for yourself. Both armies are set up on either side of a huge bowl that the road goes through with rougher hills on either side of it. My opening moves rush the horse archers while my infantry and archers stay put to react to what the Byzantines do.



This is the initial setup.




The Byzantine army rushes at my right wing of horsed archers not just with their mounted soldiers but their foot as well. I can't figure out what is going on but you'll note the benefit of hindsight in that picture. Keep your eye on the hill.



It becomes clear that the Byzantine army is rushing for that little hill, it actually commands that part of the battlefield as there are no nearby hills. Once on it, they force up in the standard AI formation and await my assault. However they had not reckoned on my left wing of Horsed Archers who are now behind them and butchered them by sending arrows not only into the backs of their heads, but the long way along the ranks as they turned to climb the hill causing some 20% casualties by the time they reached it. When I see what is going on I send my foot troops along the edge of the bowl to reach the arrow-shot Byzantines.



It doesn't take long for my Turkish troops to force them off the hill, not after my General, Arlsan, destroys some of the mace infantry with charges.



The results speak for themselves.



The way to Nicea is open.

Turn 4 (1180-1181)



Let's just jump in shall we? I decided to show an example of a typical rebel battle.



Step 1, storm the gates from multiple directions are just one if you feel lucky. I always build at least 2 rams since 1.2, as the AI seems to set one ram on fire 90% of the time--and so it proves here.



As my ram busts in I push the spear militia to meet the attack of enemy missile cavalry in the narrow streets. This kind of fight is bloody for both sides becomes of the AP trait.



Reaching the square this battle is over but the last group of enemy spear militia fight very very hard and they are on a hill. It takes forever to kill them off.



With that my troops have a fortress on one of their borders to fight the Byzantines in the future.



Time to die Crusader Prince.



My troops await the call. Since these are jihad mercenaries they are rather poor soldiers. As I said in the other AAR, I am bringing a lot of knives to a gunfight. Antioch has 3 units of the dread Edessan Squires, a unit of Syrian Militia, 2 units of Sodeer Archers, 2 Hospitaller sergeants, some Frankish Axemen, and 2 Units of General's bodyguard.




My initial battle plan. Assault the city from three sides with the northern and southern armies being of equal composition and having archers while the eastern army has the javelin troops. I wonder if the AI will have the intelligence to fight well on all three sides.... and really it doesn't. It stayed in the square until my battering rams were at the gates. As a result I was able to get troops under the boiling oil pipes before they were used and that played no part in the battle. With Turkish soldiers advancing along three streets to the square it seems the AI was having some trouble dividing its attention--but so was I. All my armies performed sluggishly because I couldn't quite keep up with all three attacks at once and one or the other attack would bog down while I set up a force on the other street. Without the pause button it became rather difficult.

You may remember my discovery of shooting at the horses with a guard of spearmen to block the road. That didn't work this time, as the both Generals charged my archer forces followed by some of their troops. One to the north and one to the south while the Sergeants took on the forces my General was leading in the east--the only horses of the enemy and they sent the spears at them.

Both charges badly mauled my spear militia and one of them broke through slaughtering one of the archer units to a man (3 left routing). Combined with the horrible toll the Edessan squires were taking the battle was turning against me when I kill both Generals in the space of a minute and finished off their bodyguard. Most of the Antioch forces began to pull back to the square except for the forces battle my eastern army, they had not been led by a general.

Fortunately my 2 units of Javelin troops on the eastern assault force managed to badly damage on of the spear units sent against me and they retreat to the square. By this time most of my army is routing. The other spear unit went after the single intact force from the northern wing, a full unit of archers. There after followed a huge micro-managed battle as I would shoot a volley or two at the Hospitaller Sergeants and then retreat as they came after me. They would also pull back to the square as I retreated because I was continuing an assault with some Ghazi's and Kurdish auxiliaries as most of their troops were dead.

The archers beat down the Hospitallers to 5-7 men but I realized I was down to about 4 units of battered troops. Some Ghazis were all that was left of the southern army, the archers (now out of arrows) of the northern, and on the western side I had a unit of about 25 Kurdish axemen left with my battered General's unit.

As I tried to figure out what to do I noticed that I was at about 85% casualties and so was Antioch. They had so few troops that I charged my Ghazis into the square from the south and engaged some of their men while my general charged into the rear of those engaged troops and my Ghazi's pulled back. Then my general would pull back once the Ghazi's were clear. This was very tight as I was terrified my general would fall, if he did it was almost certain all my remaining units would rout.

Finally my general was down to about 6 men and I sent all the remaining soldiers into the square to finish off the Syrian Militia, Edessan Squires and a handful of Hospitaller Sergeants that remained. Even the archers drew their swords and charged, all or nothing.



Here is a picture of the final charge.



The last soldier of Antioch battles my archers while the Kurdish force look on.




That was absolutely the most brutal battle I've had against Antioch. I was running on rage and fumes at the end.



Picked up a holy relic. Piety? What good is piety when you have no Inquisitors?! Give me command stars or hit points!

After that fight I was nervous but I knew I had to do something to get back my stride so to speak. The Byzantines were made to order. An army had appeared to the west of Nicea during the Byzantine turn and I decided to kill it.



The cousin of that other famous Trify perhaps?



Once again the Byzantines rush for the hill. My Horsed Archers go around behind them though this Hill is higher than the one in the last fight and they are being hurt. The battle is going to be the same I think, but I am wrong. There are 4 units of spearmen or spear militia out that gunning for my general... and they get him.

Early in the fight, Qilich Arslan goes down to Byzantine Spears just as I was about to pull him away from them. I was so shocked I didn't get a screen shot before it was over. Enraged I targeted all my horsed archers at the enemy Trify but he fought hard. Meanwhile my ground troops and other archers decimated the spear militia. Also noteworthy was the behavior of the body guard after Arslan died, there were still 12 of them left and they slaughtered a LOT of Byzantines. I made sure to capture Trify after the Byzantines broke and ran.



This battle was actually better in terms of numbers than the last one, but I lost my general. I executed all the prisoners. The war in the west just got more violent--I am not showing mercy to the Byzantines again. Ever. But without my general to lead what will I do?



The answer is clearly to replace him. The captain who led the survivors to victory has earned himself a promotion (plus I can still command in battles). Still, Arslan... ancestor of one of the founders of the Seljuk Turks... the Byzantines will pay for this--but not until Antioch goes down.

Turn 5 (1182-1183)





The future queen of the realm.



Adana is now under a real siege for economic reasons. The previous turn the rebels sallied out but I didn't have the troops to beat it (plus it was a captain) so I retreated. Nothing says I have to FIGHT without a general, I just can't command them myself in battle. So I joined them up with trait-less Mustafa who came down with half the Caeserea garrison and I'm just going to wait them out--at least for now. As for Nicea, it's finally time to besiege the Byzantine Third City (Thessaloniki is #2). Of course my army is mostly horse archers so I have to starve them out. With that little reinforcement army next to me though, they might sally out next turn. Will I fight or retreat? I'm conflicted.



As I am busy gaining 5000 florins, I notice a decent sized Byzantine army above me. Uh oh, I've got no troops anywhere near it that are free. Where is the AI getting--oh that's right, they get extra money each turn. Well then, I'd better finish that siege fast.



Avenge Qilich Arslan! Go!



Auto-Resolved. Who wants to see a rebel battle anyway?



That huge stack that has been standing in my red-zone near Aleppo for two turns wanders off to the northwest instead of breaking the siege. Huh? What? Principality of Antioch, you just sentenced your faction leader to death! I don't understand what the AI is supposed to accomplish with this move. In fact, I'm open to suggestions, so feel free to think up something.



Two princes enter, one leaves.



The Turkish horde advances up the hill in the teeth of murderous arrow fire. At least, that's the caption I chose. If you look at the little clump of guys in the upper right corner they are my ladder troops. They are hard to notice so I have tried to make them stand out a bit through use of the "Pseudo Saudi" font that is my AAR's thematic motif. The ladder is the important part of the attack, the ram is a diversion.



The enemy garrison consists of a unit of the fearsome Edessan Squires, Knights of Antioch, and the Faction Leader unit. This means that once I kill all the squires, I will have total control of the walls and can rain arrows down on the horsies until they die or I run out of arrows. Killing the Edessan Squires then is a job for my finest warriors, namely the Hashashin.



After a very long time (I got up and made tea) the Hashashin triumph over the Edessan Squires and the Turkish Archers or "Archers of Turkey" as they loudly proclaim themselves to be every time I click on them, swarm up the ladders onto the walls and take it out on the heavy cavalry. I have three units of archers. The Knights trapped in the square mill about with nothing to attack and I can almost feel their frustration at being stuck to their mounts. Eventually I run out of arrows and rush them with my spear militia.



The general's body guard had some fight left in it, but at least half my casualties are due to arrows from the towers. I am continually surprised at how much those arrow towers hurt.



Ah the sweetest Action Icon. Well I gave them an extra turn this time and they still didn't do anything with it. Time to mop up their old settlements, now much reduced with the rebel bug. You'll note that army that wandered off is now just... gone. Guess we can't have rebel Dismounted Knights of Antioch.



Now this is ominous. Look at that army! Sure some of its units are wounded but I'll be going up against the Constable of Jerusalem with his double sized cavalry unit and the Marshall of the Templars with his extra tough 2 hit points. See that little army near Antioch? It's all spearmen... because you know I'll need them. I've been avoiding field battles against the Crusader States but that's over. It's time to fight. Turkish Arrows against Frankish English Knighthood! This is why we have Crusades! Ready... FIGHT!

Er.... fight next turn I mean, I'm out of movements points. To the hourglass!

Turn 6 (1184-1185)


I continue to shadow the Byzantine army in my western heartlands, but I don't have the troops to do anything when they decide to attack.



There is some action south of the mountains. Thanks to a spy in Diyabakir, I was able to rush in the gates and quickly take it, moving my forces to the weakly defended Edessa. Hopefully they can quickly reinforce my Levantine troops.


On the coast the Kingdom of Jerusalem has besieged Krak des Chevaliers but I choose to shift troops and not attack them this turn. The reasoning is that they will be weakened from taking the fortress and I can attack them. This is a huge miscalculation on my part--as you'll soon see.

Turn 7 (1186-1187)


And here's Richard! This means I need to secure my southern front fast. Philip might not be appearing thanks to my slaughter of Antioch, but Richard will and if Jerusalem is holding off Egypt he'll come after me.



In the west I am forced to pull back from Nicea. There are just too many Byzantines flowing around me. I have to raise the siege and fight them off next turn.




The Edessan assault begins. I also took Tabris but with Nuraddin it was so easy it doesn't even merit consideration. He continued north to Yerevan. It's looking like I might actually be able to threaten the city west of Yerevan with this force and some mercenaries.



...and ends in victory. At once most of my troops are sent west to reinforce the armies going up against the Kingdom of Jerusalem....



Because war begins.

Turn 8 (1188-1189)



This is a very different flavor from when I did 1 year as 1 turn. I've noticed that, the AI seems coded for the Timescale so they act more slowly when it's longer. That's generally to my advantage in terms of play style, and it makes things a little hectic when I'm doing it on the default. I feel like events are starting to escape my control.



Hey that's right, I have another siege going don't I?



Massive frontal assault.



Now this is interesting. My horse archers were at the perfect angle to shoot at these archers on the walls. They killed 75% of the unit before I ever had to engage them. I'd never managed that before so I feel like I got some use out of them.



The entire wall garrison routes at once not long after I get in the gates and is slaughtered. No more enemy missile troops!



The brave but doomed Armenians (are there any other kind in this game?) try and stop me but my spears are too much for them.



A rich trade city joining my empire together into one.



Assaulting fortresses with no artillery is an exercise in pain for me. I am not very good at it. I should have attacked while they were besieging the fortress and now I have to pay the price.



I had constructed a siege tower, 3 ladders and two rams and launched a massive frontal assault. Going from left to right we have 1 ladder (outside the shot on the left) the siege tower, a ladder to the right of the siege tower, the gatehouse and ram, then a final ladder on the other side of the gatehouse.

Most of the Jerusalem infantry was stationed on the walls so I sent in Hashams and Hashashin along with spearmen up the ladders and siege tower. They were spaced so they could mutually support each other once any one of them won their battle against the unit opposing them. It was fairly bloody working gaining the walls leaving most of my troops tired. I'd held spearmen in the reserve along with 3 units of Kurdish Auxiliaries.

By the time I got into the gate, the forces of Jerusalem was down to a unit of Templar Sergeants, some Squires of Tripoli and the three cavalry units. However I now had to grab my ladder and rush it against the secondary wall which they defended all over again. Along the way they sortied from the gate and butchered my archer units.




Eventually I won the wall burning through a LOT of Kurds, and pushed open the gatehouse. With no archers to minimize losses I had no choice but to charge the central square. A few Templar sergeants tried to stop me but they were brushed aside rather quickly.


While the Constable of Jerusalem had escaped the fortress before my siege (and where did he go?) there were still some Mounted Sergeants, the General's Bodygaurd and some Knights of Jerusalem to deal with. Still being surrounded they went down quickly.


A very costly battle. I am certain if I had auto-resolved it the AI would have had fewer losses. My forces are now in no shape to fight any battles for a few turns so Jerusalem has a chance to reverse their defeat.


Update: Forgot to add this one in for some reason. At the end of Turn 8 in an effort to take some pressure off me and get Egypt into the fight, I called a Jihad on Jerusalem.

Turn 9 (1190-1191)



Trouble. What a way to start a turn. Oddly the picture shows a Turkish army approaching the walls. Hmm, at least it couldn't get any worse--uh oh.



Well Philip decided he didn't want to help without Antioch and went home but Lionheart is here resulting in the rebirth of democracy in the far future.




There are actually two sieges going at the moment. Unfortunately as you saw above, only one of them is mine.



Wasting no time, I rush to Ankara's aid. As the current capital of Turkey thanks to Attaturk, and the site of Tamerlane's punching the House of Osman squarely in the face, I have reasons for wanting to keep it. Also it's mine.



Innovation Alert: I have decided to place the enemy army details in its own box so you can see just what I was up against. This army seems fairly strong with several units of archers, some spear men, and light and heavy infantry. The only thing they lack is heavy cavalry but I'm not complaining. However I can use my general to charge without too much fear of running into spearmen, a major consideration as to how I would approach the battle.



That says Byzantines by the way. The Byzantines were strung out in a long line while I was stretched across the battle field in a more traditional manner. Together we made a letter T...



...as you can see by the mini-map.





The East Romans chose to charge up the big hill on the right side of the establishing shot above. Since they advanced in a long line I was able to station my Horsed Archers on the higher ground near their path and shot them to pieces. I was surprised at this move as even the AI doesn't expose itself to missile fire that badly, at least not very often.



Because they were going up a hill under tremendous arrow fire (about 10 units of Turkomans) the army units had low cohesion. I was able to use my General to catch the straggling units and destroy them piece meal at very little loss to myself.



I finally realized why the Byzantines rushed for the hill. Not only was it the highest point on the battle field, but it was near the edge of the map so they could place their backs to the red line. Got to give the AI credit for that although getting there could have been done more efficiently. By the time they reached the hill I had killed 40% of the enemy while taking 1% casualties myself.



However I was almost out of arrows. So while I finally maneuvered my foot archers into place to fire on the enemy general, I charged with my Horsed Archers from multiple directions and the Byzantines broke apart.



Even Komanos Rogerios did not escape. In this picture it appears his horse tripped over the rock but it was really the Turkoman that is leaving the shot on the left side that stabbed him to death. You know, not to critize or anything but wouldn't Romanos Kogerios sound more "Byzantine" than Komanos Rogerios?



All the casualties were taken in the final charge of the Horsed Archers.



Finally! Time for a field battle against the Crusaders! No more annoying Horse Archer duels.



This army has got a lot of fodder troops in the Syrian militia, but the Knights of Tripoli and the Templar Sergeants are good units and I need to be careful with them. Since I only have 2 units of mounted archers I will use them against the mounted knights, shooting them in the back as they attack my front lines.



This battle was marked by bizarre AI behavior. There was a lake covering part of the battlefield and the Kingdom of Jerusalem immediately retreated to it, presumably safeguarding water in the desert. Not that pixels drink but it makes a kind of sense....




...and now it has stopped making sense. When they had gotten to one side of the lake, they devided their forced sending a unit of templar sergeants back the way they'd come only around the other side of the lake.... so they'd make a whole circle. Well needless to say I jumped on this unit by itself and found a use for the Ghazi's. With their shields and light axes they do heavy damage to spearmen. I trapped them against the lake and butchered them mercilessly.




Meanwhile I was able to rush my ground troops at the other army and catch the Knights of Tripoli on my Saracen Spearmen. I hit the fodder infantry from multiple directions and they routed, setting off a mass reaction rout as you can see here.



Even more strange, one unit of Knights of Tripoli and some archers retreated, leaving this unit of Tripolitan Squires to suffer the wrath of my general. With their defeat the battle was over.



It was a massacre.



At the end of the day, this is my attempt at the Great Seljuk Empire. I'm still just trying to survive and if I lose a battle it could cost me some territories.

The economy is still rather bleak right now, I'm getting about 4-6000 a turn but fighting the Byzantines and building up my fortresses so I can actually take them on with Sipahis and Dismounted Sipahis is sucking up almost all my cash.

Turn 10 (1192-1193)



I've been trying to figure out a way to implement the historical realities of what happened: namely a small group of Barbarossa's armies did indeed make it all the way into Jerusalem. Perhaps a huge army (10 stacks) that without attacking anyone suddenly reduced to one half stack of peasants and archers that slowly reaches Jerusalem?



Heh, I called this Jihad in turn 8 for one reason and one reason alone: to take the pressue off me in regards to Jerusalem and Egypt has finally obliged. Of course they might come after me next so I need to hurry and fight the Byzantines. Note: I forgot to put it in in the original Turn 8 post, but it is now in there.



I will of course take the guild, the Hashshashin are perfect for climbing walls, there are few troops better on ladders. Not that I will use ladders once I get my cannons and Grand Bombards up but that's not for a while even at 2 years a turn.



As Spurius noted, the Byzantines can harass me constantly now, putting the pressure on my western settlements. But I can harass them too.



While I try to reach Doryleum, I run into a Byzantine Army, one of the two that caused me to break the siege of Nicea.



I am more worried about this army because of the presence of the Byzantine Lancers and the presence of the spearmen.



Setting up on a hill as usual, I can harass the enemy troops with my mounted archers. The entire Byzantine army rushes me after only a few volleys and I have to retreat back up the hill.



It's a slow tedious process of micro-management as the Byzantines ascend the hill. However I manage to do some serious damage as they attempt a climb and then rush in the mounted archers from the sides and front. While the Purple once again flees my charge....



...another general falls. Note the clever placement of the Turkish horses.



A little costly, more than I'd like. Reaching Doryleum this turn however becomes impossible. It the Byzantine army there besieges it next turn I can do nothing except lay my own siege. Considering the extra money the AI gets, it probably considers 500 men a fair price for a town--and I can't say it's wrong.



In the west it's time to hit Yerevan. This battle was only notable in that one unit of Saracen Militia, with Nuraddin's special power, killed 4 units of enemy cavalry with scant losses. I really really like Nuraddin's attack speed power. Can you imagine what it would be like when Janissaries are the ones speeded up? I'm thinking medieval buzz-saw.



Nurradin triumphs...



....and rushes west to harass the Byzantines. It's finally time to start weakening them by taking provinces they hold.

Turn 11 (1194-1195)

No action icons this turn... hmm I expected a "settlement occupied" or perhaps a "settlement sacked" as the war between the Byzantine Empire and the Turks has gotten nasty since the death of Qilich Arslan.



Instead of taking the town, the army moved to engage me. They might have been better served joining the other army when it fought me, but they won't be around to regret it much longer.



Some good infantry in this army, a siege type army for certain.... and with some Varangian Guard! This will be the first time I face them, and me with no Janissaries.



The Byzantine Army wastes no time and advances forward. In this shot my Mounted Archers are running up a gently incline. It will eventually lead to a rather gentle hill that I made a run for and gained, thanks to my horsed archers slowing down the enemy.



Those thing lines of Turkish troops are Armenian archer mercenaries. I hired them last turn to replace my depleted Turkish archers. In this shot they have just gotten the range of the enemy ground forces. While the horsed archers pour in fire from the flanks the Armenians do so from the front. Further proving my point that Armenians are all doomed in the Crusades campaign, they are off skirmish mode so they don't run. As my General ran around to the side of the Horsed Archers the Byzantine army just kept advancing up the slope. I only had a unit of Dismouted Hashams and some Ghazis to back up the archers so they were the lynch pin of the battle.

Finally the Byzantine infantry were just too close. I was about to manually order them to fall back up the hill when they fired a final point blank volley into the Varangian Guard causing just as they were about to charge. Ten units fell in that volley and the Varangian Guard broke.




I sent in the Ghazis to hold off the Almanoi and other Byzantine Infantry while my General attacked the fleeing Varangians. The effect of seeing their premier unit flee hurt the morale of the rest of the army and soon all of them were running.



After finishing off the Varangian Guard, I turned my General's unit on the fleeing Byzantine troops.



Thank God for the Armenian archers. They seem to do just as good or better than even Ottoman Infantry and maybe even equal to Janissary Archers in battles I've had with them in the Grand Campaign and they seem to be doing well here. Nuraddin out in the east has also picked up some Armenian Archers.



After the battle I am largely left in control of the Anatolian heartland. Depending on what I can find out of where the rest of the Byzantine troops are, I may go after Nicea again. It's not in the shot but to the south near Attaleia and Iconium I am massing some forces to take the town of Alanya.



Meanwhile along the Levantine Coast, I am finally ready to besiege Balbek and make my fortress line against Jerusalem. I have a huge army for a small garrison. I hadn't intended to do that but once I realized who was commanding that fort I knew I had to take no chances and emptied Krak des Chevaliers (literally) and instructed the settlement to produce a peasant next turn as a garrison.



Oh. My. God. His unit has Three Gold Cheverons, I hope I brought enough troops.

Turn 12 (1196-1197)



Selected because of the amount of stars. In Kingdoms I find it easier to get great generals (7+ Stars) than in the Grand Campaign due to its faster pace but it's always nice to start with a bonus like this. Hopefully he can lead the conquest of some Byzantine lands or something.



About time! The Byzantine pressure is getting a little much, they seem to be focusing on building their settlements which is trouble for me. I can barely make Sipahis and only few places can make Sipahi spears or Ottoman Infantry. Hopefully Venice can take Constantinople for a turn or two. Sometimes they do.



As you can see I am almost sure to win this battle and actually have more general stars than Richard if I fight at night. It's a shame I couldn't move Nuraddin down south to have a battle of heroes but my Prince is not too bad. Note: After this turn I'll be adopting Molina's innovation of placing the army compositions under the pictures here in the cause of saving space.



As there aren't too many troops here I just make an assault on the west side of the castle with two ladders and a siege tower. The Mu... uh the guys with the sticks, are a meat shield. They are 2-handed infantry which means next to useless but they are good for soaking up some casualties. I am sending them against the Pisan and Genoease sailor unit so they should do some damage. They'll be followed up by my Ghazis.



In contrast to the rams which now seem soaked in oil, the siege towers don't burn up as much as in 1.2 so I'm more willing to use them than I used to. They are excellent for delivering heavy infantry with low casualties. I assumed the Squires of Tripoli to be the most serious opposition I face but I had forgotten about the Templar Sergeants.



While 1 unit of Ghazis and ladder troops had dealt with the Italian Sailors, the Templar Sergeants stormed in from my right flank right into my Ghazis. From my previous field battle against them, I discovered the axe-troops are very good against spear men as the spears are slow and so it proved here though I had to send in the second unit of Ghazis. After defeating these spear men only Richard himself remained and I was not going to take chances.



I really love this shot. The fire looks beautiful against the night--and in Shader 1 no less. Anyhow, I climbed my Turkish archers on the walls and fired at the handful of infantry and Richard's unit in the square, expecting an easy if long fight.



However Richard was no fool. He left the square taking cover from my arrows in the shadow of a building effectively screening him from all of them.



I was forced to send in what was left of the Ghazis into the square to start the timer and draw him back. He attacked them and I sent in my Saracen Militia to hit him while he was engaged in wiping them out.



In the end, Richard died on Turkish Spears depriving the Christians of their Hero units (accept possibly Manuel but I have not seen him yet in campaign). Richard was the last of his unit to die and won me the castle. Lesson? Keep heroes with armies, they are FAR more effective that way. I lost about 120 men, mostly Ghazis and other Jihad troops.



With mostly horse troops I besieged the empty Tripoli. In my last go-around as the Turks Tripoli became a major sticking point as Jerusalem kept reinforcing it and I hope to avoid that. I can easily reinforce it from Krak des Chevaliers and Balbek can look after itself. In the east Nuraddin is besieging Theodosiopolis which I need to take just so I can rename it. What? It's Turkish name is Erzurum? That's like wining a quarter in the lottery instead of 10 cents.



The big picture in the Levant right now. Where will that large army go? It's not the one Richard started out with, it doesn't have enough experience according to my spy.



As I approach Alanya a small force from Jerusalem disembarks so I send some troops from Adana to engage it. They are horse archers so hopefully it's a weak force. Heavy cavalry are hardest to beat with a pure horse archer army simply because my troops run out of arrows--and Sipahis run out fastest!

Turn 13-16 (1198-1205)

This is a very long update because I'll only have time for 1 more before I go on vacation for a while.

Turn 13




I can't move anymore and that giant army to the south is also worrying. Technically this occurred in Turn 12, but I count Turns by the Hourglass tag, not strictly years. Either way this is what happened next...



The assault on Doryleum is finally made. No General. No Fight. I might not even be able to win if I played it myself. Regardless I have no choice but to auto-resolve this siege.



Well at least they didn't slaughter the Muslims in the village. I have lost my first territory to the hated Byzantines. After I clean up my affairs with Jerusalem I have got to focus on them or they'll overwhelm me with their super-rich lands.



The fight for Tripoli is as one sided as that for Doryleum only in my favor. With a wooden pallisade, it shouldn't be that hard to win.



Raymond falls.



The main benefit of this siege is that it keeps me territorially neutral, that is, I have the same number of lands I did last turn. Tripoli is probably richer than Doryleum is. Still...



After capturing Tripoli I have established a good southern front. I will not attempt to take Tyre until I can make some decent artillery units in Krak Des Chevaliers and hope Egypt can help me out.



Instead, I expand to the north and east. This siege is actually part of my Grand Scheme that is currently taking place in my drive to conquer the Pontic/Kaçkar Mountains and the settlements there. This scheme is a lot of turns in the making but it should considerably improve the Turkish outlook.



You'd think this would be a battle but you'd be wrong. Instead of fighting I retreated. Look closely. Nuraddin is on the north side of the settlement. He originally besieged it from the east. In the intervening turn, I moved him to the north and started the siege over again. I don't intend to take the city with Nuraddin. But now when he retreats, he'll retreat north, towards Trebizond. This way is more mountainous than heading father west before going north. The mountains will make the Byzantine armies slower and advantage my ranged troops with hills. Plus I can hopefully lure a stack from the large city and deal with it alone--this is a strategic retreat.

It's all part of my plan.

Turn 14



Venice is coming closer. I have been assuming they are going after the Byzantines but I've read on other boards that instead they come right at the Turks if they are being controlled by the player. I really would be upset at CA if that happens, the Venetians and Mongols should be hardwired to attack Constantinople and Baghdad respectively regardless of who is the AI and who is not.



In the south I see Egypt has been stirring up some trouble for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. You can't see it right now, but Jerusalem is garrisoned by a full stack of KoJ troops. If Egypt wins both these fights the Kingdom of Jerusalem will probably surrender, that is, not be agressive.

I also take Malatya this turn but it's so overwhelming I'm not going to even bother to show it. However Prince As Salih is taking most of the forces that conquered that settlement combined with some Horse Archers and is moving northwest into the Trebizond region as per my plan.

Turn 15

This turn is also very short.



A detailed exploration of my finances. I actually am getting about 12,000 florins a turn for construction and army building, despite what this screen says. I'm still not quite sure how it works.



This is the new way I will present battle setups to save on space.



Auto-Resolved win.



This is my grand plan. The Byzantine flags are enemy armies. The ones that are stared are larger stacks and I point them out from hindsight (I am currently on Turn 20 in the actual game). Prince As Salih's forces are heading up from Malatya and will come from the west, reinforcements in the person of a half stack of Hashams, Dismounted Sipahis and Ottoman Infantry are heading up the Yerevan route to come from the East. Nuraddin is already there in the middle.

Nuraddin will kill anything on his way to Trebizond (through the stared army in the middle). Hopefully the stack around Theodosiopolis/Erzurum will follow him leaving the city in a state that can be besieged by my half stack of elite Turkish troops. As the same time the Prince will come from the east catching the city in a pincer enabling me to take the heavily fortified settlement.

Turn 16

Now things are going to pick up as my grand plan in the northeast is finalized.



I hope this is true, they better not head for the Turkish lands first. If Venice does take Costantinople even for only a few turns and I win in the east the Byzantine Empire will be on the verge of falling.

Remenber that little Jerusalem army in Anatolia? I made quick work of it work of it. Even though I released the prisoners they still all died, trapped in the mountains. I've often maneuvered enemy armies to do that, so that they will disintegrate when they lose no matter what. I hope to use it against the Byzantines in the eastern mountains.

The Byzantine Empire has instituted a massive blockade of my ports. This is probably why I was so reduced in finances as I hadn't noticed it until this turn. I don't think it has been going on long. Now I have to spend money for ships too, further stretching my resources.

As you can see here, one of the stared armies has approached Nuraddin in the Byzantine turn. Excellent I can kill it by itself. However the foot troops in the army (spears, Hasham, Kurds) are being saved for the siege of Trebizond so I need to win this battle using the mercenary troops.

I start on a small incline next to the largest hill. For once I can claim the high ground and wait for the Byzantines.

As you can see I am in an enviable position for my 5 units of archers.

The archers rain fire down along Byzantine missile cavalry who have skirted around my hill to the south and are attacking from there (see the map). As the incline is steeper along the north side of my set up, I assume most of the army will come around to the south allowing me plenty of time to fry them.

I am wrong. The heavier Byzantine ground forces charge right up the hill and attack from the north side, catching me in a pincer. I am forced to use Nuraddin's unit and my ground troops to hold them off. I am terrified Nuraddin will die by a lucky shot or stab.



However since I have so many archer units and the spearman are taking the long way around following the southern route, I can turn some of them to fire on the advancing infantry. Because of Nuraddin's incredible stats (more on that in later turns) he terrifies them and combined with charges and fire arrows, the Byzantine Infantry and 1 archer unit take heavy losses and flee.



Bereft of their ground forces, the AI send its spearmen up the southern approach covered by their own archers and some of my own troops start to catch fire.



However with the Byzantine heavy infantry forces gone, all my archers can now be trained on the spearmen. At this point I call upon Nuraddin's special ability. It works on missile troops I think, as the archers begin to fire MUCH faster. Since I have been assassinating right and left Nuraddin has a lot of skulls on him and as he approaches them they can no longer take the strain. The Byzantine spear units start to flee leaving the archers easy pray as I route the rest of the enemy army.



So far I am in good shape to continue to Trebizond.



While my grand plan in the East is succeeding so far, in Central and Western Anatolia things are not looking so good. So far the war in the west has been one improvisation after another, trying to scrape together troops and hire expensive mercenaries to hold back the purple tide. Even if I can kill some of their forces I may have to retreat to rebuild my troops and that could result in more land lost. All this means the plans to end resistance in the East must succeed or I could be pushed back into the regions around Syria, Antioch's old lands.

So far this campaign has been pretty dynamic, forcing me into huge field battles where I've had to include new tactics over the ones I usually favor as the Turks. Regardless the next few turns will determine what happens in the West--at least until Venice shows up for real.

Turn 17 (1206-1207)



The request for a campaign map is now honored. This isn't the actual map, unfortunately I'd already formated the pictures by then so I had to adjust a later map to make it fit. However it accurately shows the lands I own during Turn 17. I can say that future maps will be shown on Turn 25 and Turn 30.



One of the large Byzantine Armies has moved farther east. As you can see, there are actually two units I forgot to include for the Byzantines, it's a full 20 unit stack. In the future I will try to avoid such mistakes. Regardless this will be a tough battle with all those lancers.

This illustrates our opening moves. The Byzantine missile cavalry races for a hill leaving the rest of the army far behind. My troops are racing to the hill as well but my own missile cavalry is headed for the infantry to use a trick I learned in my Novgorod campaign against the Teutonic Knights.

As the Byzantine ground forces are slowly coming up the hill I hit the spearmen from behind with my missile cavalry, not with arrows, but a charge. This is devastating. Because they have overwhelming local superiority of numbers (only 2-3 units compared to 10 or so of theirs) the enemy infantry don't regard mounted archers as a threat so they don't turn and face them or alter their speed. This means I can hit them hard in the back with a strong charge. I have used this to win against Teutonic Order spearmen with an army made up of only a handful of Khazaks and it works here just as well.

This instantly routs some of the spear men on the Byzantine left and it leaves an opening for my heavy cavalry to smash into the Byzantine archers without fear of being stabbed by the routing spearmen. This also has the advantage of slowling down the rest of the Byzantine ground forces as they wheel around to face my missile cavalry which is now classed as a "threat." But it's already too late, my missile cavalry has fallen back to shoot at the remaining troops in the center and right.

The rest of my army has allowed the Byzantines to gain the hill. However they are on only a slightly smaller hill and in the perfect position on Byzantine right to butcher their lancers with arrows in the back as they are torn where to go, at my archers over rough terrain to their right, or the missile cavalry in front of them running their infantry ragged and then charging them from the back.

While the enemy chases my missile cavalry in an example of futility, I move in with the infantry, using my spear units to take on the enemy heavy cavalry that has survived my arrows and eventually the enemy General. He is trying to rally the horse archers and surviving foot archers but it is already too late.



It's not long before it's all over.

Turn 18 (1208-1209)



In the Grand Campaign I hardly ever got these with the Turks. Though strangely I got them in some of the Italian cities. I guess Milan and Venice had been churning out Dismounted Broken Lances. In this one the Hashams get it for me. Exciting. Dismounted Sipahis have stats of 11,17 stronger than western spearmen. Bumping that up to 12,19 for full armor and weapon upgrades means they'll be absolutely deadly. That's why there's less of them than western spear units and also why I have a large problem with the retrofit mod.



Climbing off my soapbox, you can see that I have besieged Trebizond with Nuraddin while the faction heir is dealing with a small Byzantine force. Now there is only the huge garrison in the city and the enormous stack. If that stack makes a run for Yerevan it will be interesting to see if the stack coming from that direction, an elite stack but one that has no cavalry except for the General's Unit handles it. I use Prince As Salih's army to kill the little one on the right then move to the left to smash that army, but I can't get to it until next turn or so.



Since Doryleum fell I have been slowly gathering a siege army to get it back. The smaller army is the siege army. The larger one is meant to kill off the Byzantine's own field army and open the way to recapture the town.



The Byzantines just charge right at me.

The smaller group on the top is my missile cavalry. On the large flat plain they once again repeat the hit-in-the-back tactic while my general and Mounted Hashams charge the Byzantine Infantry from the front.

I send in the Ghazis to finish them off.

Easy. After this battle my other army lays siege to Doryleum, maybe I can get it back.

While Egypt took Kerak, Jerusalem still stands and that means the Kingdom of Jerusalem will continue to be a thorn in my side. I'm not sure why they have not attacked me yet, as I have left them alone for a long time. All I can do is keeping pumping troops out of Krak Des Chevaliers while I focus on the Byzantine Empire.

I was asked to do one more update before I go, Turns 19-20 because 20 is the logical place to stop.

Turn 19 (1210-1211)

The Siege of Doryleum.



I intend to avenge my loss and then push on towards Nicea if possible.



As you can see from the MiniMap, I assulated both the south and east gates. In the east I manage to push my way in rather easily.



In the south however, the Varangian Guard rushed out the gate to kill the troops that were pushing the ram. They were understrength but this wasn't a strong unit. To prevent a rout, I rushed my general all the way from the east gate to the south and he charged into the Varangians from the side doing a pretty good job of smashing them.

Meanwhile most of the Byzantines were concentrating on the east gate. Once my general forced his way into the city I ran him around inside to do another charge on the enemy forces at the other gate.

It was all routine after that, and Doryleum was once again Turkish. I chose not to sack the city--I didn't need to with a green face and I still considered it "mine" so I just occupied it, liberating the Muslims inside of it.

(Turn 20 1212-1213)

South of Trebizond, the Prince takes on the little army to the west of him. With this much artillery things could get ugly, so I take care not to make any stupid mistakes. So much for the balance of the AI armies! Although I guess if it joins up with the huge armies near the Theodosiopolis it won't be so unbalanced.

I love making the Turks rush forward like that.

A quick and dirty melee and charge.

Some more pictures of my troops chasing down the routers to make sure no one gets away.

Not surprised. Not much of a contest.

This is a pretty one sided battle, but remember I have lots of mounted troops. If they can kill my infantry before they reach the second gate of the fortress I will be out of luck.

This castle is the same model as the one used for Cagliari and Ajjaccio in the main game. This is my favorite fortress model to assault when I have artillery. I usually blow a hole in the main wall just to the left of the shot and then i have a long straight road to the wall in the second level of fortifications. After that it's all over but the killing. Here however, I have only siege equipment. As you can see this stretch of wall has a lack of towers, perfect for minimizing my assault casualties. Since it's night I have pointed out where I will put the equipment.

Strangely, the ladder troops are unopposed. Instead the enemy has stationed the archers near the siege tower and the infantry way back near the second gate. My siege tower successfully makes it to the wall despite the flaming arrows. As I remarked before, siege towers seem to catch fire less often in Kingdoms.

While the siege tower starts to pour men onto the walls, my archers have set up nicely on the angled walls to the right of the tower. The infantry is by this time rushing forward to join in the battle on the walls and I have the Armenians target them. I don't have the guts to order them to fire into the mass of soldiers near the tower on the right side of the shot. Also you can see I have put some Dismounted Hashams up on the walls as backup to the siege tower forces.

As you can see the battle here is pretty heavy so far as the Byzantines are throwing everything to hold the wall. Most of what they have is archers but some of the 2-handed swordsmen are also inching forward. I have more Kurdish axemen than this outside the shot but they are tiring. I decided to send in the Saracen spear men.

The Armenians are deadly with those fire arrows. Those archers are worth the cost until the Janissary Archers come along with their stakes.

As the Almanoi push forward I use Nuraddin's special power and begin to shred the enemy on the wall with my spears and AP axes. Yes all those bodies are from the Light of Faith.

In addition to shooting the Byzantines in the front, the Armenians also shoot them in the back as they flee. It's the logical thing to do.

When I see a unit reform near the gate, I suddenly realize that if I send my horsemen they might be able to gain the second gate without having to use a ram or ladders. Once again the Armenians prove invaluable.

With the walls won I send the rest of my forces into the castle. But do they go through the now opened first gate? No. They clog the damn siege tower. What the hell? I fight the urge to charge Nuraddin's unit into them by reasoning that I can't recreate friendly fire no matter how much I want to. I decide my best course of action is to let them form a line since they obviously want to do that, and use the infantry I already have inside to push deeper into Trebizond.

Though my troops are fairly tired from the run, they need to rush that second gate. The Byzantine General and his remaining soldiers (mostly the Vards) have rushed the Armenian cavalry stationed at the gate to keep it Turkish. If they kill the Armenians before I get there, I'll have to assault the gate after all losing valuable time and exhausting my soldiers even more. Luckily though it tires them, they reach it in time. Only 2-3 Armenians survive however. Like I said, in Kingdoms Armenian mercenaries, despite being very high quality merc troops, are born to die.

Once inside the inner ring, I push on and while there is some bloody work in the central square the Saracen spear men rule the day. They were pretty tired by this point though, so I had to micro-manage them for signs of "breakage."

In the final push, Nuraddin himself takes the field and finishes off the Byzantines after the general has fallen.

In the end a win is a win but I did lose some people. More importantly, the only Castles the Byzantines have are now in Rhodes and Smyrna, on the other side of the map. Once I deal with that last tremendous stack and besiege the city to the southeast, I can roll west with everything I've got taking the coastal cities along the way.

Look at those stars, skulls fists and rings! Plus Light of the Faithful! I am going to be very sorry when he finally dies.

The Empire of Great Seljuk. Note the star near Nicea, that's where Venice is. I think they are coming at me.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Turn 21-24 (1214-1221)

Well I'm fully back now and time for a long update spread over several posts. When we last left the Turks, Nuraddin had finally conquered Trebizond depriving the Byzantine Empire of their most advanced troop-making center in the east. In the west, they had reconquered Doryleum from the Byzantines but faced a tough challenge in the on-coming Venetians who seem to be ignoring the East Romans.



As the turn opens I see Christian Europe turning to child labor to dislodge Egypt and my own Turks from the Holy Land. Not-with-standing that the description on the scroll is almost entirely fictional of course.

As you can see I've besieged Van and my elite army is now heading west to siege the last Byzantine city on that side of the map. However if you look way back into my illustrated image a few turns ago, you'll note I haven't yet dealt with one of the Byzantine field armies yet.

In the east near Trebizond, my faction is heir attacks the last great Byzantine field army. If I win here, Theodosiopolis will have no one to protect it except its garrison. However this army is fairly balanced with some light infantry and heavy infantry, mounted and foot archers and of course, it out numbers me. Factors in my favor are the experience of my horsed archers and the battle skills of Prince as Salih.

Fortunately I am able to start on high ground and position my archers on the military crest of the hill, with the Prince and my infantry and spear units behind them. Unlike other battles where I am the attacker, the Byzantines charge right at me, confident in their numerical superiority (200 more men).

As my horse archers race around the sides of the main Byzantine army and engage their own mounted archers, my infantry archers let loose a barage of fire that I direct mainly to the spear men, to clear the path for the Prince.

With some of the spear units badly damaged in their charge up the hill, I am able to send in the Prince's heavy cavalry to take on the Pronoai. Being Faction Heir, the prince has a greater sense of personal security translating into increased numbers of bodyguards (this is how bodyguards are determined in M2 and Kingdoms, discovered by user Tombles on the official boards).

On the flanks, my Turkomans have diminished the threat of the Byzantine mounted archers and are now able to charge into the rear of the depleted infantry lines. However the lines manage to turn in time and I do little damage with the charge.



Unfortunately the disparity in men is too great. Despite the damage done by arrows, and horsemen the Byzantines hold firm and my archers have no to choice to but to head for the hills or be slaughtered.

Now the battle is in full movement--there are three main lines all chasing each other: my horse archers are attacking the Byzantine rear following them up the hill, the Byzantines are chasing my archers up the the hill, and the archers are now running for their lives, leaving only 1 unit of Saracen militia (75% strength) and one unit of Dismounted Hashams to hold the hill.

I know I have to pull out all the stops here, I pull back my horses archers and aim them at the enemy general to try and kill him. Meanwhile, I start charging the Byzantine right flank with the Prince even though it's made up of spear militia. The Prince takes some losses but he manages to throw the farthest unit on that side of the line into confusion. While this allows my archers a chance to flee, Prince As Salih is quickly becoming surrounded by a second unit of spear men coming in from the left of the shot. This opens up a hole in the middle of the Byzantine line.

Through that hole, I send in all my remaining ground troops against the spear men and Byzantine Infantry units to give the archers enough time to regroup and pick more targets. However with the prince surrounded and the Hashams outnumbered the battle hands in the balance. At this point, just as the Hashams are "wavering" the enemy general is killed by my Turkomans and the Byzantine army panics as my archers finally regroup and start a hail of missile fire from the hills.

If you look at the pictures you'll note I called this battle "The Opened Way" because with the utter defeat of this Byzantine army the route is clear for the siege of Theodosiopolis... and Prince As Salih and Nuraddin can now advance west along the northern coast of Anatolia--next target for them? Sinope!



As you can see here, Prince as Salih is proving himself a worthy heir to Nurradin. In reality, he died on his 18th birthday as a "guest" of Saladin.

Turn 22 (1216-1217)

As you can see, Nuraddin has marched south from Trebizond to meet up and reshuffle forces with his son Prince as Salih.

Along the way, Salih also defeated the small Byzantine force present at the end of the last turn near him.

This turn I also assault Van. This is the first battle that I have Janissary Heavy Infantry involved in, though they will battle the Kingdom of Jerusalem in later turns.

Janissaries scythe through the rebels at the gates.

Janissaries do a final charge into the square. They are tough again, though not the super-men of LiteMod 1.2.

See the number of casualties inflicted?

1 unit of Janissary Heavy Infantry killed as many rebels as the entire rebel army killed of Turks, that includes arrows from the walls (with healing).

With Van conquered, the troops that emerged from the battle at full strength are heading north to assist in the siege of Theodosiopolis. With my faction leader and heir pushing west, the city garrison will receive no help and can now be starved out while I convert the country side into Muslims.

Remember the Byzantine blockade of Turkish ports? Well I managed to free my ports and send my ships patrolling the sea. This ship just became a hero. It sunk a Byzantine fleet that had an full stack army in its holds along with a general. A huge coup for the fledgling Turkish navy.

I also besiege Sebastea this turn to start cleaning up the rebel provinces that show up as holes on my Turn 20 map.

Turn 23 (1218-1219)




Sadly, I did not take a screen shot of the balance of power panel but you can see the armies here. Lots of varangian guard.... and I have to assault the walls or a narrow gate with light Ghazis--things tailor made for Varangian victory.



Fortunately for the Turks, there is a section of the wall that lacks many towers so I can send in the troops with minimal missile losses.



While assaulting the wall (it's actually the section farther back on the right side of the shot), I send in some troops to attack the east gate. The archers sortie out the gate and get butchered by my Ghazis. By the time they are beaten, one of the Varangian guard units rushes up to hold the gateway. Strangely, the enemy general was only a little ways away from this part of the battle but chose not to move, even after I won the gate and attacked the catapult artillery just inside the walls. He then retreated to the square.

Meanwhile the numbers of Ghazis had won the wall and were pushing the Varangians back because they are much faster than two-handed infantry. Though tired, they are expendable Jihad troops and I sent them right on into the square to finish off the enemy general and his final units.

After the death of the enemy general, my own general, Lachin Kavur, did a charge into the flank of the last of the guard, killing many and winning the battle. I sacked the city for 3000 florins... but more importantly:

Now that's a relic! Huge morale and command bonuses!

As I turn my attention to the rebel provinces I find that one isn't so rebel. I am all out of movement points here, but hopefully I can besiege it next turn.

Turn 24 (1220-1221)

In this turn I mostly concentrated on holding Nicea and moving Nuraddin and as Salih closer to the west while I continued the sieges of Sebastea and Theodosiopolis. I also besiege Qarisiya, but I'm not providing a picture of that--turn 25 will tell the tale of Qarisiya, trust me. Other than that I mostly retrained troops and concentrated on some much-needed infrastructure building....

...Oh yes, one more thing happened this turn.



Here they come.

Turn 25 (1222-1223)

No action icons this turn, and I'm glad, because last turns' announcement was enough for me.

This started a short trend on my part of just showing the army compositions. This trend does end and I got back to the way I was doing it but I'm enough ahead that I can't retake the photos. Sorry. This is the scene outside Qarisiya. On Turn 24 I besieged it, but at the end of the Turn, a huge army from Jerusalem came up to relieve them and I retreated. This turn, I attack the huge army and the garrison troops for my first huge battle against a Crusader Field Army. The town garrison is the small group of three units below the big army.



After looking at the setup, I decide that with the cavalry they've got this won't be any long range arrow duel: this will be a slugging match. So I line up my heavy cavalry and horse archers on the left wing while the rest of my army takes up a position on the rise to the right on the shot near the edge of the battlefield. As soon as the battle begins, Jerusalem rushes forward and I send my horse archers all the way to the left to intercept the garrison force from the town. If that force dies, the town will be undefended and I can walk right in. Plus I can keep them from reinforcing the main battle.



As the battle begins the knights shrug off my arrows and I forget to set them to skirmish mode. This results in my archers eating the full on charge of the Knights of Jerusalem. Not a good start.



I react fast and rush my Sipahi Spearmen into the knights who are busily finishing off the handful of archers that survived the charge. Behind them as you can see come some Squires of Tripoli to reinforce. While this is going on, my heavy cavalry is forced to tie up the rest of the mounted knights. They are being beaten into the dust but I need the time to set my spear men up right.

Things are a bit better on the Turkish right, as my general wipes out a unit of Squires of Tripoli on a charge. You can see the melee with the knights in the upper right of the shot here.



It's finally time for the Janissaries to get in on the action as they move to flank the Knights of Jerusalem and clash with the Squires of Tripoli. I actually spoke to my screen at this point, shouting "chew them up!" The Janissaries proceeded to do so, taking out unit after unit: horsemen, spears, swords it didn't matter. In the background the Knights of Jerusalem units were regrouping for one final charge at me, but I was able to get my spearmen in position and they started to rout.



Meanwhile the reinforcements from the town had arrived. They had walked stolidly toward the battle allowing my Sipahis plenty of time to annihilate the unit of heavy cavalry that they had with them. With the rest of my forces mopping up the main army of Jerusalem, I was able to turn my strongest remaining spear unit and Janissary unit against them in a devastating infantry charge.

My camels mopped up the fleeing soldiers.



Definitely some casualties here. I had very high quality troops in this army and while they handily won, there were some brutal losses ameliorated by healing of wounded after the battle.

After the fight, I walk right in and instead of killing, I just occupy the settlement--it's not Byzantine after all.

In north-central Anatolia, Nuraddin attacks a small Byzantine force as he and his son force his way west.



A headlong charge.



Nothing is going to stop me from heading west now, to reinforce the troops I am making to fight Venice.



Remember that siege of Sebastea? Well they sortied out this turn.



More troops are now freed up to head west against Venice, or at least to reinforce what I will throw against them.

A full Byzantine stack, and the Venetian invasion force. I officially declare the western situation a "Crisis."

If I were the Byzantines, I'd follow the Venetians as they cut a path through my lands, and picking up any cities they let go rebel or even just the weakly defended ones that are left as I call in all my troops to fight Venice.

To focus on the Venetians I first need to deal with the Byzantine threat. This however is what I call the "Boring Battle."

The Byzantines took up a position on the hill in a corner of the map daring me to rush them. Instead I went to their left flank where the slope was gentlest, and whittled them down with my horse archers. It was the most agonizingly slow battle I've ever had.

In the end, the Byzantines were mostly destroyed and I can now turn my attention to Venice.

A word about what I am actually going against Venice. I have three Castles in the west, Attaleia, Iconium and Caeserea. They are all making soldiers so I can intercept them in the flat plain between my original five settlements--the land should give my horsed archers an advantage, but it will also strengthen the charge of their heavy cavalry. We'll see what happens.

Turns 26 and 27 will be coming up later on tonight.

Turn 26 (1224-1225)

Having the HQ or anything is generally a good idea, plus it adds to the prestige of the city, making it a little happier. Also considering the Mongols are going to eventually conquer Alamut...

While I build troops to take on Venice, we turn our attention to my continuing efforts to tie up the loose ends of the rest of my Empire, and that involves the city of Homs with its mines and its silk.

I send in my rams and ladders in the evening sun. These peasants will look like pin cushions but the end, but that's okay--they're peasants.

By the time my Frankish Axemen climb the walls, the enemy sortie out and my Saracen spear men rush forward to take on the enemy cavalry. If I were running the battle for the other side, I'd let the Bedouin cavalry hang back and pepper me with AP javelins not get in a knot at the gate and be cut down.

After I win the gate, my army pursues the routers down the main square and the Naffatun get in on the action. I really think they need re-balancing in Kingdoms, they are no where NEAR as deadly as they used to be.

A brutal but effective conquest.

Turn 27 (1226-1227)

This turn is largely a setup for Turns 28-29, and as such I think it serves as a useful place to take a look at the Turkish Empire. Sometimes fighting all those battles can blind you to the big picture.



Hashshashin are also active in the west, they might be useful in case of a Venetian siege.

In the East the winner of the battle of Qarisiya, Orhan, is heading west to conquer Kermanshah against the right side of the map. It has some gold mines. Other than that, things are pretty quiet out there and it doesn't look like Jerusalem is doing anything. It's one of the best results of killing Antioch so early, you actually have a part of your homeland that is largely peaceful--of course the settlements are all dirt poor but hey, you can't have everything.

In the Levant, Jerusalem has a weak front against me though they have a seemingly strong force in Damascus. I have begun a blockade of their entire coastline however, to get me some extra florins and help out my ally Egypt. I hope this front stays quiet for now.

In North and Central Anatolia, I am besieging both Corum and Snope. The forces that were spared from Sebastea's conquest are the ones in the far right of the shot. If things go wrong against Venice I will form armies from these troops and try to turn the tide, but in the meantime they need to do something useful.



Finally the Ventians are moving deeper into my heartland. They haven't declared war on me yet, but it's only a matter of time now. As you can see in the picture I have already assassinated one of the Ventian Generals. The other two, the Faction Heir and the Doge, are too security conscious to be offed. That army in the south is the army I specially created to take on the Ventians. Or at least, to slow them down.

I'm out of movement points this turn, so I hit the hourglass. Normally this is where I'd stop but to build some anticipation I'll show you the message I get at the start of the next turn....

At the end of Turn 27, Venice besieges Ankara. The war is on at last!

Turn 28 (1228-1229)

First a few house keeping items:

I besieged Laodicea this turn. My spies told me most of the Byzantine forces were concentrated around Nicea which I had been stuffing full of troops. This is the army led by Barsbay who won the battle against the Byzantine army near the Venetians. He was the replacement for Qilich Arslan and he's becoming a very good general.

Another factor that encouraged me to start moving against the Byzantines was the victory here at Sinope. I just autoresolved it because of my superiority and killed the Faction Heir of the Byzantines--the city was also massacred.

As the message popped up on the screen I actually growled "I'll take you all on!" at the screen. A little embarrassing but I was getting into it about now--after all I'd finally seemed to be getting the upper hand over the Byzantines and now this? Here we go!

I didn't quite have time to finish my anti-Venice killing army, as you can see by the small group of mercenaries. Also, since these troops were all recruited from the castles, they are tough but not that tough. I'm counting on at least doing some damage to them. However, Hajjji Gezmen, who had I believe, married one of the daughters, had an invaluable trait--Night Fighter. I however didn't know it until I attacked the Venetians as they besieged Ankara at which point the little box popped up. While I might have been able to take on all three armies (doubtful) I decided on brutal effectiveness, thus the Faction Heir's army goes first as they are the ones actually conducting the siege. Why they didn't attack right away with their artillery I don't understand.

Here's the setup: The small group of green at the top are my horsed archers and light cavalry. The bigger group is my main force including my heavy cavalry. You can see by the lines that there was a hill all along the bottom of the battle zone and Venice and I had both set up on it. As the battle began, I gained the flat stretch at the summit and Venice slowly advanced along the incline.

Being on a hill however, meant their artillery would be left behind and I took advantage of it, sweeping my light cavalry and archers around their right flank and killing the artillery units with little to no resistance. After wards I continued along the long route to come up against them from the back of the slope with my arrows while leaving my light cavalry close enough to capture any routing units--making sure they don't reform is a top priority.



AI stupidity is on display here. My Turkish Archers lit their arrows and fired at the Ventians who were either on the same level as me or still lined up on the slope. They mostly stood there and let me shoot at them. It took me a while to figure it out and then I understood. The Mercenary Pavise Crossbowmen were skirmishing with my troops, but since they were all firing up hill and at an angle, the hill itself shielded most of the arrows from me so they wasted their ammo and I had an excellent shot at their troops down near the valley floor. After initially targeting the archers, I switched to targeting the spearmen--they are the most dangerous, I can charge the Dismounted Crusader Knights to death without them.



As I shot arrows into their main lines, my Horse Archers (the Sipahis) had circled around behind Councillor Boniface and were shooting him in the back. He kept trying to give chase but my troops pulled back whenever he did and he would return to the main line to keep them motivated in the face of my morale-sapping fire arrows. As it was, I slowly whittled him down.



At last the charge! Running low on arrows I sent in some ground troops to engage the Venetians on the highest part of the hill, level with me. These troops were weakened by arrows already and when the troops on the slope started to push upwards towards me (you can see the head of one in the lower right of the shot) I turned my last arrows on them, getting a very nice angle as the rest of my infantry advanced behind the vanguard of Hashams.

With the main battle beginning, the enemy general rushed back to lead it and my Sipahis hit him from behind. With only a few bodyguards left it wasn't long before this screen popped up.



With the death of their general the left wing of their army crumbling, and the center under heavy fire, the Venetian army shattered and I trapped them between my heavy cavalry and my horsed archers (now out of arrows) who ran them down. I was finally able to use the "catch phrase" I have for when I win a difficult fight in M2 and Kingdoms, nothing special I just say "Don't let any of them get away..." in a bit of an evil tone, but it's a nice was to acknowledge victory.



One third of the Venetian force has been totally destroyed and the siege of Anakara is broken. All prisoners were executed because I'm not playing around anymore. I'm starting to worry about the Mongols showing and I need to deal with the Byzantines before that happens and that means...

Venice. Must. Die.

Turn 29 (1230-1231)

Other things are still happening on the map, I've moved south against Tyre to secure a fortress line against Jerusalem.

This was the replacement for the non-faction heir/Doge, army. I have been assassinating the new guy each turn for a while now. With one army gone, there's only the Doge's army left with a general.... and that means it's time to go all out against him.

As you can see in the shot, the Doge moved south on his own into a flat plain. That screams at me to take advantage of it and I do. I decide that the one star is not worth attacking at night, I want to have the battle that decides this under the brilliant desert sun...

There is apparently something of a sandstorm as I line up my troops. The land is much like in the last battle with a long hill along one side of the battle zone, however the slope is much more gentle. I also am throwing any intricate tactics over the side, I just lined everyone up with the spearmen in a block to go after the Doge.

The Venetian army lines up on the flat stretch out of range on the hill near the center of the battle map. As soon as the battle begins they slowly advance toward me, their artillery keeping pace with the rest of their army for once. On the wings of their forces they have stationed their Mounted Crossbows, and while I at first intend to skirmish with them I realize that my Sipahis have far better stats.

With a barrage of arrows I engage the enemy archers and they fall rather easily. After this I move the light cavalry to attack the enemy artillery and get rid of their annoying fire shots. This is very important because I am also charging my ENTIRE army down the slope right at Venice--as I said, I'm going to make this a bloodbath. I can't afford to take some hits as I close with Venice.

In the background you can see the cavalry attacking the artillery and that while the Trebuchet is dealt with, the catapult is slowly arming itself to fire. It was actually a fairly tense moment as I wondered if I could engage them in time to prevent a close range, likely very damaging shot. In the foreground this is just a straight fight--and this was happening all over the battle field. They just had spearmen so I had to be wary of just charging with the heavy cavalry and that meant the infantry had to do the work.



Eventually the press of Infantry combined with the beginnings of my Alan Light Cavalry charged them from the rear broke the main Venetian spear units and they started to run. This shattered the Venetian center cutting their army in two, with the Doge on the left wing with the mounted crossbows I'd killed, and the pavise crossbows on the right.



So what was the Doge doing? Butchering my mounted troops. He was trying to flank my infantry units all by himself and my spearmen were too far away from him even at a run. I tried to pepper him with arrows but instead he charged into mano-a-mano combat with the Sipahis, and killed all three units of them. Then he continued on his way. The whole thing took less than a minute. After the Sipahis were wiped out, I sent in my two weakened units of Hasham Heavy Cavalry against him and he killed 2/3s of them, about 20. Those you see in the picture on the left are the last of my native Turkish horsemen, about 6 total.

Only one unit of Armoured Sergeants and the Pavise Crossbows were still holding on after the Venetian center had given way on the right. On the left my low level spear men rushed the Doge who charged at the them. In the ensuing battle, he killed half of them before he fled. HALF!

"CATCH HIM!" I shouted at the screen. If the Doge escaped, the entire battle was for nothing and he'd start hiring mercenary Turkomans--causing no end of trouble! However aside from my general who could never catch him, all I had mounted was a dozen tired Alan Light Cavalry. The rest of the action had stopped, the Venetians dead or running, but I had to chase to the Dodge half way across the map.

The Alans caught him just before the red-line, saving the battle.

For outnumbering the Doge, I still took pretty hard losses. It would have been dicey if we'd been evenly matched in numbers.

That is a lot of money! Venice can almost surely pay it as they are the "richest faction" right now. What should I do?

I have my priorities of course. The Doge was drawn and quartered and this threat was over. Back to hammering the Byzantines!

Turn 30-31

Turn 30 (1232-1233)

I know I promised a map on Turn 30, but I'll show it on Turn 31.

With the fall of Venice, the Byzantine Empire's momentary reprieve is over. I hope they put it to good use because I'm coming after them. Hard.

These are the remnants of their last field army in the east. One of my generals is chasing them across Anatolia. They're not even trying to engage me on strategic ground, they're just running. In the west, the victors of the Qarisiya battle are moving on the last rebel territory there, Kermanshah.

Meanwhile in the east, I have taken Laodicea, massacring the town and heaving west to Smyrna. The army that slew Venice is heading west to reinforce Nicea. I intend to slaughter my way to the Aegean Sea.

As you can see the Byzantines are starting to pull their troops back near the Bosporus possibly to establish a defensive line around Constantinople.

The assault on Tyre looks to be a simple one.

I gain the walls....

...and my spearmen pour through the gates, like a river of steel.

The final charge against the mounted soldiers of Jerusalem.

The wall troops cost me a almost two units of Hashams with Ghazis, and the Horsemen a unit of Dismounted Sipahis, but there was no hope for the Kingdom of Jerusalem in this battle.

At the end of the turn, the garrison of Corum sorties out.

It's not much of a contest however.

Since this is already a heavily muslim area, I send the Prince with about 300 troops, to reinforce the army already heading west. As I had planned, with the conquest of the east, I can send a huge number of Turkish armies against the Byzantines along a much shorter front.

Turn 31 (1234-1235)

After getting a swordsmith's guild in Tyre, I besieged Banyas. This is a huge very elite Turkish army, as all their weapons have the attack enhancement. I am also continuing the push to Kermanshah to close up my borders. I have a good feeling about the situation....



...and here's why. Look at the way my finances spiked! I am flush with cash and I don't know what to do with it all. You can also see the map at the bottom left. A word about Theodosipolis.... after all my efforts to build a huge force to take it, when the time came they just surrendered and I was able to walk right into the city without a soldier lost!

Looks like the Turks are on the upswing--and the Byzantine Empire is on borrowed time.

Turns 32-34 (1236-1241)

Turn 32 (1236-1237)

With Venice gone, something startling happens--the Turks, and I, realize just how powerful we are.

This is very important at least to me. With a swordsmith's guild in my eastern most citadel, I can start turning out extra-deadly troops for the eventual Mongol assault on Baghdad. These will include dismounted sipahis and a few Dismounted Hashams and Naffatun. The rest will be city troops such as Janissaries and Hashshashin or artillery.

After capturing Laodicea, Lachin the Honourable takes on a Byzantine force in the newly conquered territory. Apparently they didn't get the message about the border shift. As an aside, I've been trying to figure out why Lachin is Honourable, he's sacked every city and killed every Byzantine he's ever come across. Rather random of the game to give him that.

This battle is rather routine and doesn't rate much more than a passing note. I charged the archers and Lachin's unit took out most of the Horsed Archers with small losses.

I'm much more focused on territorial gains than anything the enemy can do to me in southwest Anatolia.

After winning the battle, my troops continue westwards towards Smyrna, the last Byzantine castle on the mainland. I'm replenishing my forces with more and more mercenaries. After all that money I now have, it's fairly easy to do as long as we don't run into any elite Byzantine units like Dismounted Latinkon.

In the distant east, the last town on the southern part of the map not Turkish is reached and besieged with a strong force of archers and Janissaries.



I am heading north to Tblisi with the forces that had taken from Theodosiopolis.

Turn 33 (1238-1239)



I assault Kermanshash to give myself a western outpost against the Mongols when they show up.



These to pictures are smaller, but they get the point across, Janissary Heaving Infantry ripping through the enemy. Maybe I should have set a new ground rule and kept from using them before Osman emerged? Well hindsight is 20/20 they say.

In the end, the Dismounted Sipahis deal the final blow in the square.

And with that another settlement comes under the banner of the mighty Turkish Empire.

While these two turns have largely been routine, they are necessary in terms of consolidation. Things will be getting more exciting in future turns!

Turn 34 (1240-1241)

This is a very, very busy turn, so let's just get started.



In the west, I have been gathering a small force under one of my generals to assault the Byzantine possessions on Cyrpus and free the Turkish Cypriots from oppression. In the east, the last mountain settlement of Tbilisi (I have been spelling it wrong) is under siege. Like Yerevan it has a decent number of mines to provide me with more and more income. In order to take on the Mongols I'm going to need massive armies and that means money. Can I reach the tremendous resources I did as the Byzantines? Supporting 15 shiny full stack armies? We'll see.



A minor point of clarity. The force that was moving on Smyrna was the one that took Laodicea, the force that engaged the Byzantines in the northern part of that province is heading north to reinforce Nicea under a different general. Also, look at those stars! Barsbay--thank goodness I promoted you to General after Arslan died! Only Nuraddin and as Salih are better.



With only light troops on the walls, and due to the model of the castle, I am only in position to make a frontal assault, led by the expandable Ghazis. Success here means the only fortress the Byzantines have will be at Rhodes.



The wall assault goes as planned and my forces stream into the castle. The Armenians as usual lead the charge but miraculously I pulled them back after they had done their job, sparing most of them. Instead my Ghazis swarmed around the catapults that were being used as a roadblock and into the square. There was more than one catapult however....



Ouch. This point blank catapult shot, the only one they managed to hurl at me in time, fried almost an entire unit of Ghazis. The only reason I was able to take this shot, was because I noticed the catapults being cranked into position while the last of the archers kept me from getting to them in time. There was nothing I could do, even though I saw it coming in advance. Not everything goes my way.



Aside from the catapult shot, the fortress falls and Barsbay exterminates it (I don't need money from sacking anymore) in revenge. Leaving the Mutawwa'ti troops to garrison the place, he heads north to help Lachin in the assault on the last strongholds of the Byzantines on the mainland.



That's Barsbay south of the army doing the battle; since he'd started from Smyrna he got pretty far along.



Here's the setup for this fight. The Byzantines are hidden in the trees. As the battle begins I rush up to the high ground and wheel to face the slowly approaching enemy. I was surprised they gave me as much time to set up as they did. Also, the landscape here is beautiful.

The Byzantines reveal themselves as they march forward under the trees. One thing I sometimes do in forest battles where there are more trees is to reduce the Vegetation settings because the trees become smaller and provide less visual cover. I wonder if that counts as cheating?

The slope here was so gentle it was tailor made for cavalry charges. Why charge from the rear when you can do the same from the front?

The one unit of heavy western style cavalry they have, mercenaries, tangles with Lachin's General Unit. I kept close tabs on this fight to make sure they didn't kill my general.



After dispatching the Mercenary Frankish Knights, the Byzantine General rode into the fray. In this shot, my General's unit is actually in full charge against the Almanoi, as you can see by the guy in the air. To be honest I was wary of engaging the enemy General after already killed the Frankish Knights. Because of my ground rules I am a bit more cautious with my generals than usual. While I did engage him I also sent in the spears and focused my arrows on him, then pulled back my general's unit.



However after Lachin had pulled back, I realized the enemy General had managed to rout my spear units and was flanking the rest of my army from the right. Impressive! Since my horse archers were busy skirmishing away with their horse archers, I sent my Ghazis against the Byzantine artillery in a headlong rush and they did admirably well in completing the objective and disrupting the general's attack.

Most of the casualties were the spear unit.

With one army gone, Lachin heads north to finish off the other one in the very same turn. Except for the unit of spearmen that got annihilated in the last battle I am in good shape to take this army one.

A flat, treeless plain largely made for horses leads both armies to just rush at each other. However the archers fall prey to my speedy light cavalry.

While my infantry crushed the enemy militia, our horsed archers skirmish and fight over the vast plain. It might seem easy, but Vardariotai are tougher than Sipahis by even more in Kingdoms, and with so much movement I need to make sure I don't "forget" about a unit and let it get butchered. In the end, only one unit of Vards remains firm and I surround it.

This one went even better than the last battle I think.

After the battle, Lachin joins the ranks of my Great Generals, Barsbay (8) Nuraddin (9) and as Salih (8). I have four armies under four very good generals moving on the Byzantines now.

Finally, I turn my attention to the battle of Banyas. This is going to be a rather huge fight so I just copied the entire screen. My troops may be higher quality, but there are in a town meaning I have to assault the walls.

At the start of the battle, I sent my general unit and a unit of Hashams to intercept the reinforcements. Meanwhile, I am using my artillery to assault the wooden walls and towers. As you can see the Jerusalem forces are putting up a stiff resistance, setting fire to my ballista.

While the wall assault is going on, my General and the Hashams catch the reinforcements in a pincer outside the walls and they pay for it.

When my catapult catches fire after blasting a whole in the wall to the left of the gate (my left), I send in the siege equipment to assault the wall to the left of the whole. The progression from left to right is, ladder --- siege tower ---ladder --- hole in the wall --- gate. The wall is guarded by Sodeer Archers and Squires of Tripoli, while all my wall assault troops are Hashams.

While the wall assault is going on, I also send in ground troops through the breach, Dismounted Sipahis to engage the cavalry, Hashams against the infantry.

In a surprisingly short time, I gain the walls and the survivors retreat into the streets to assault my ground forces near the gate. This is the cue for my archers to rush up to the walls so they can fire onto the engaged troops below them and at an angle. Meanwhile I take two of the three Hasham units that were on the walls and send them into the flanks of the enemy, as a space has opened up on the left side of the enemy forces near the breach.

The ferocity of the fight is such that even some of the Hashams break and run. I've got plenty more though. In a remarkably short time the enemy falls back through the streets to an intersection halfway to the square. I'm not sure why they are doing this but I start moving my unit of Naffatun up to take advantage of it when I realize what is going on. As I think this explanation is fairly confusing I have prepared an illustration. I am a sucker for telestrators.

The black blocks are buildings, the thin black line is the town wall. A unit of Squires of Tripoli and Templar Sergeants are moving from another part of the town and through the intersection to flank my forces who are engaged and have a wide open left. I see it in time however, as I routinely zoom out to get a good view of the battle. To counter I order the last unit of Hashams that took the wall and has since been resting quietly, to get down off the wall and run down the street to flank the flankers. When the troops from KoJ hit my troops, they started "wavering." However at that moment the Naffatun opened up on them from the right flank and the Hashams catch them from behind in the narrow street. The result is they are now trapped on three sides with morale killing napalm on one.

Mass routing of units and all my forces return to pushing down the main street. The chaos spreads into the forces that were blocking my advance to the square and most of them route too. At this point I order my archers on the street to start firing into the square, giving my troops a break while they fire without resistance. The one instance of stupid AI behavior, though the AI did get most of its troops under cover of the buildings as best it could. They also seemed to route whenever they got close to me so maybe the AI had no choice but to leave them in the square.

Reduced by arrows, the last units for the Kindom of Jerusalem are a unit of Syrian militia and they are easy prey for the Hashams.

I am very proud of this battle for the tactics I used and I have to say I congratulate the AI on it's tactics. Had they used Dismounted Knights of Jerusalem it would have been a much bloodier affair but my higher quality infantry told in this battle.

With the fall of Banyas, Damascus is isolated from reinforcements and can be assaulted. However it has thick walls and I need to guard against any southern strike from the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Overall it looks like I am in an excellent position to kick Byzantines off the mainland and begin the push for the campaign goal in the west--the capture of Constantinople.

Turn 35-38 (1242-1249)

Update Summary: The Turks push the Byzantines to the brink, and continue their assault against the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Turn 35 (1242-1243)

It finally happened. Nuraddin is dead. He lasted a fairly long time for an old man I'd have to say. Historically he died in the year the game starts, so I'm thankful for this little alternate history. In reality the Turks were fragmented or ruled by Saladin and his descendants at this time.

His death also leaves the newly conquered city of Sinope rather upset about it. I guess they didn't like him dying in their council chambers. Even with taxes turned down all the way, they aren't Islamic enough to get out of the red so I frantically move imams and troops into the city as well as building more. It would a headache if it rebels.

While Sultan as Salih is not the wrecking ball his father was, he's a good general and has time to build up his power. The drop in authority is a bit disappointing though, I guess I better start assassinating and exterminating some more.

One of my first guild offers in a Byzantine possession.

The surviving Christian powers now unite against the Muslims. This should have been done 20 turns ago, and it won't be enough. I'll make sure of it.

To make sure it's not enough my forces pushing west along the coast engage one of the Byzantine field armies near the Bosporus.

As you can see, I took full advantage of their light troops and basically ran them over. In a few minutes.

I did take some losses, mostly from the horse archers who were picking more off while I dealt with the ground troops.

After the battle you can see that most of the Byzantine armies in northwestern Anatolia are scattered and small. The army that just won the battle I direct towards Heraclea.

I am pushing the Byzantines here. This picture is titled the "Crumbling West" because of my overwhelming superiority. Without a doubt I will be taking those cities next turn. Their chance to stop me was to win the field battles in the last turn but I was able to hit them separately negating their numerical advantage over Lachin.

In the south, I attack Nicosia. It's nothing special so I'm just showing you the result here though I didn't auto-resolve it.

Finally, in the Levant itself I am besieging Damascus to prevent any annoying attacks on my flanks as I prepare to invade the coast and crush Jerusalem between myself and Egypt.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Turn 36 (1244-1245)

Turn 36 is a short one.

This is the city of Tbilisi.... well you know, the one I spelling wrong. Just a quick and easy conquest cementing my control of the north east section of the map.



I also besiege Limassol, the castle that shares Cyprus with Nicosia. I intend to wait this one out as while I have strong ground troops I have no archers. I'll just starve them out.

This turn I also took both Paleokastron and Abdyos, exterminating both cities. After doing so I began to form one army under Lachin Kavur out of the armies that took those cities to guard against Naval invasions coming from Constantinople.



For instance, this was a routine fight against an army that tried to land at my new coast. Not a big deal on its own, but the nearest fortress is Smyrna, the Byzantines might wear Lachin down in terms of pure numbers. To help put paid to this, Barsbay is sent south to Smyrna to gather enough forces to assault both Rhodes an Irkalion, the Byzantine islands.

I also besieged Heraclea this turn but forgot to take a picture. Sorry.

Turn 37 (1246-1247)

Another embarrassing moment. I did not take a picture of the battle scene of Heraclea. Nothing. Or if I did, it was buried under so many other shots that I just missed it.


The warning of Baybars appears. It really has nothing to do with me but perhaps it will help me against Jerusalem as my strategy will eventually boil down to "throw Janissaries and arrows at them."

The Siege of Heraclea

Herclea Pontica or Karadeniz Ereğli as it is known in Turkish, was an ancient trade center named for Hercules/Heracles, from which the Ereğli part of the name comes from. that currently supplies dollars (in the forum of tourists) and coal to the surrounding regions.

As Osman Cobanoglu is leading this fight, his army is substantially the same as that which I showed in Turn 35. I assaulted this city was siege towers and ladders, two of each.

Starting off well, the Byzantines light up one of my towers as the rest of the equipment crawls forward.

Once my ladders gained the walls after an appropriate sacrifice of Ghazis, it was actually remarkably easy to force the Byzantines into the streets where my real infantry could deal out death.

The only tough unit here was the General's Unit and I saved my spearmen to take him on. Dismounted Sipahis are the strongest spear men in the campaign, and in the Grand Campaign they were also the strongest spear men available to a faction (this is not so in the Retrofit Mod, unfortunately).

It wasn't much of a battle.

The Siege of Damascus

This fight should be a bit better, but note the lack of any good ground troops. It will be bloody but doable.



For only the second time I am actually using artillery to besiege a city. However the catapults will take forever to punch through a wall, and I target the gate instead. This allows me to use my favored tactic in taking a city. Usually I assault it on the first turn, but even if I don't when I bring up the artillery even if it's a full garrison, they often retreat to the main square of the city. Then I bring my initial assault troops forward. They consist of:

• 2 units of archers
• 1 non-archer AP missile unit
• 2 AP infantry units,
• 2/2 Generic Infantry/Spearmen OR 2 Generic Infantry/Pikemen

Yes, I no longer believe pikes are broken in Kingdoms. At least not the Scottish pikemen.... but I digress.

And so it proves here. By the time the gate goes down they are all in the central square and then it becomes a footrace to regain the gates ahead of the defenders. This is a high risk high reward tactic: If they get to the gates and walls before me, my assault force is going to take a lot of casualties. Here I'm using Hashams and since these are the initial assault, Adahth spears. My two archer units an the Naffatun are also in on this. The key to winning the gates first, even against the Mongols, is to start your troops running at the gate at just the right time, right before the gate is broken as the broken gate triggers the AI to rush forward. However if you get too close, the proximity of your own forces triggers the rush meaning you might not bust down the gate in time to beat them to the walls. Timing is everything but I can usually get it right.



While I gained the gate in this battle, I didn't have QUITE enough time to set up my troops before the Constable of Jerusalem attacked my spearmen. Thus it was a confused Melee from the start, Hashams and spears mixed up.



The rest of the army surged forward behind them, but by then I was ready with Archers on either side of the wall, and Naffatun in the gatehouse, my preferred setup for the Turks in close quarters. (Well technically my preferred setup also involves Janissaries as the ground troops and Sipahis in the gate shooting arrows into the foot soldiers, but not this time.)

Trapped in the narrow streets, the place becomes a killing field of missiles. The AI is conflicted, defend the gates or save the troops. The AI occasionally retreats allowing me to set up my forces and then attacks again. Its a long process, but very intense and this tactic works best against infantry factions. Factions with high numbers of mounted missile troops, such as the Mongols really make you pay for it. Once as Spain I went through 14 units out of 17 combat units taking a Mongol city.

Returning from my tangent, I advance on the few survivors of the massacre in the street with a unit of Hashams that has been un-engaged in the fight, they're fresh, eager and deadly, but it takes them a long time to walk from my camp site outside the gates to the square.

As you can see, there is a tremendous kill ratio in my favor. Since I play on unit sizes that don't go much about 1000 men, I can take any AI controlled city one on one with this tactic.



Check out the missile troop casualties. Higher quality archers really come into their own, and since you are not facing crenelations on the wall, you can use Crossbows (as I do as Spain or Denmark) to give an AP effect. Scots Guard, and Retinue Longbowmen will routinely get 100-130 kills each using this tactic. Best of all you can fire on units coming up the street to your main forces, weakening them before you even have to engage them in melee.

I continue to be concerned about the Naffatun, the used to get upwards of 50 in each battle. Perhaps I should increase their missile attack to 27-30?





Take a look at my money situation! Just to show people how far I've come from Negative Cashflow.

Turn 38 (1248-1249)

It's been a while since I adopted someone. I actually have only about 9 generals for close on 40 regions so I need to start making more and the ones I've got need to start enjoying themselves with the wenches of the conquered lands.

Turkish Empire. There are still Byzantines on this map? Oh yeah the corner. It's remarkable how long it took me to start taking lands from them, but once I did it's like an avalanche. I swept through Anatolia in about 10 turns.

Editor's Notes
--Next update, morning of Thursday, 25 October, (US time).
--Currently playing on Turn 47.
--Currently have formatted up to Turn 40.
--Turkish forces currently building for the assault on Constantinople.
--Beginning to Title Sieges.
--Request for commentary: on the AAR but also on how far you'd like to see this campaign progress. I am thinking of stopping after achieving the campaign goals or the emergence of Osman. I enjoy updating though, and if requested would keep going--I'll keep going anyway but hadn't planned on putting up pictures past the campaign completion. Since this is not a story AAR, where I stop is entirely independent of story concerns, so if you want to see more... let me know.

Turns 39-41 (1250-1255)

Summary: The Turks push through Anatolia and lay open the way to the final battle with the Byzantine Empire while continuing to grind down the last Crusader State in the Levant.

Turn 39 (1250-1251)



After the conquest of mainland Antolia, I divided my armies there based on objectives. General Lachin was to guard against assaults coming from Europe by sea while waiting for reinforcements. General Barsbay was sent south with a few experienced troops. He picked up several more soldiers through mercenary recruitment and from the castle at Smyrna. His job was to reduce the Byzantine islands that threatened the underbelly of the Turkish lands. The first step on that mission is the reduction of Rhodes, the last Byzantine military installation on earth. (Grandiose!).

This is the situation in the Levant. This is a pretty momentous occasion as Egypt is besieging Arsuf just south of my own siege of Acre. If we both win, we'll meet over the dead body of Zealous Christendom. My siege goes first.

The Siege of Acre

The next battle in the slow push to Jerusalem. As you can see I follow the doctrine of overwhelming force. It's rare that I besiege settlements with less than a full stack. Acre was one of the last held Crusader cities in history, falling decades after Jerusalem--but not this time.

As you can see with a full stack I can plan my killing accordingly, and with the catapults I can bust down the gate and make it happen.

So far everything proceeds to plan as I gain the gate at a dead run.

The other thing I do while the battle at the gate is going on is send my mounted units around the city searching out the enemy artillery in the streets and killing them. Often I use my general's unit as a safe method of getting him easy kills and experience. Here I killed the Mangonel unit but the General's Bodyguard of the Kingdom of Jerusalem caught me among the mangonel's remains. That is very unusual to have the enemy run about like that.

However my victory in the main battle forces the General to retreat to defend the square ensuring my own general does not perish. There the Dismounted Sipahi Lancers cut him down.

Not quite a textbook win, but one that lets me continue my offensive after capturing and sacking the town.

One of the stranger relics. I had some stuff about cloning here but decided it was too blasphemous to write down.

Turn 40 (1252-1253)



Jerusalem on the offensive! To be honest I am shocked, but Banyas was relatively lightly garrisoned compared to the other towns on our border so it was the logical choice.



This seemed momentous enough to just copy and past the entire screen. The mightiest army on Earth (at that time) is heading my way. I need to secure my borders and being preparing to face the fearsome Shamanist Hulagu Khan and his Christian Lieutenant, Kitbuqa....

The Siege of Rhodes



As you can see the Rhodes battle seems rather easy, just a full of annoying Trebizond archers. It seems the AI spent all the money on raising poor armies rather than building up many of its military installations. Well I can do it once I win here.



As you can see the ladders are going up all over the front walls. My Ghazis can easily crush the Archers of Trebizond. These little guys are fairly useful in battle and I can see why the Ottomon Sultans titled themselves "Sultan of Ghazis."



While assault the walls my General rides out and slaughters the reinforcements coming from the countryside. However I couldn't seem to find the result screen for this fight though I know I took one. Annoyance.

Turn 41 (1254-1255)

With Banyas besieged I am forced to take my Acre Garrison and relieve it. The reinforcements from the town give me the edge here. After defeating this force I need to rush back to Acre to keep it safe. The stack north of the town is a Field Army I am creating to strike at any Jerusalem forces that invade, it wasn't quite ready when Banyas was besieged.

As the battle opens there is a large hill between our forces. Since I have artillery it is even more imperative that I seize the high ground.

I do not quite manage to gain the crest when the heavy cavalry of Jerusalem begin their assault on me.

As you can see here, both heavy cavalry units are busily scattering the archers and light troops of the other side, this battle will not be decided by arrows--but by the heavier infantry.

While they have a good amount of cavalry, Jerusalem has only a few infantry units and I am able to pin them and kill them with small losses. This enables me to turn my spear units loose to prey on the enemy cavalry. Because these battles are fought on Very Hard, the enemy have so much morale it makes them reckless and they try to attack my spears regardless of the consequences.

But by now my own heavy cavalry is free to attack and I use my general to pin the enemy cavalry against my spearmen who kill them easily.

When my reinforcements finally come to the battle, there job is only to catch the routers.

As always with the Crusader states, they do more damage to me with their heavier troops and cavalry than the lightly armored Byzantines. I treasure these battles, as once Jerusalem is gone I'll only have Horse Archer factions to fight.

Meanwhile a momentous battle is taking place near Nicea. Sultan as Salih is fairly good general and is taking on the last Byzantine force of any consequence on my lands.

I begin on a hill and the Byzantines advance on me with all deliberate speed, emphasis on deliberate. For once the best way to fight them is right along the road. Usually the road in battle maps goes along a crazy route that is very stamina-draining for my troops but this time it's easy.

When some of their heavy Varangian Guards act as the vanguard of the main army, they are perfectly positioned for a glorious charge by the Turkish lancers.

My Armenians also get in on the action by massacring a unit of town militia.

In the first shot, my horse archers attack the enemy artillery from behind. They have slaughtered most of the enemy mounted missile units and charge the Mangonels, completely blindsiding their crews. In the second shot, you can see the model of Sultan as Salih. Unlike the Crusaders or Byzantines, the Turkish Sultan is a unique model besides Nuraddin--and he even looks like the model he has on the campaign map! I find this pretty damn cool if I do so say so myself. I hope that we can get the faction leaders for the rest of the factions looking like this.

Once again, the Varangian Guard are the last to flee and the Sultan himself rides them down in a final charge to set the last Byzantine unit to route.

The black terror that is the Turkish Sultan makes for easy routing which makes for light losses--and light losses means I can quickly move on to my goal. I realize now that Sultan as Salih has fought his way across the world: he started in the Levant but went east to help his father capture Trebizond and Theodosiopolis, before heading all the way west to reach Constantinople. If anyone knows the Turkish lands inside and out, it's this guy and I like the fact that he is the one that is threatening the Byzantine capital.

He is now a worthy successor to Nuraddin--all that traveling has blackened his soul, and not a moment too soon. With the defeat of the last Byzantine army in Asia, there is only one target remaining for the Turks: Constantinople!

Editor's Notes

• Currently on Turn 50
• Currently formatted through Turn 42
• Switched to a new photobucket account to ensure enough room for all the pictures.
• Next update Turns 42-44
• Next update scheduled Friday 26 October, morning (US time)

Turn 42-44 (1256-1261)

Summary: The Final Battle with the hated foe.

Turn 42 (1256-1257)



Coming closer... To prepare for the Mongols I have been building up my citadel at Mosul with the highest armorer I can buy and also swordsmith's guild. Unfortunately my only other decent fortress is in Trebizond. My population grows so slowly that it takes forever to build up to citadels.



I am also sending generals east. So far they are the weaker ones meant for settlement defenses, but once I finish the Byzantines Lachin (8) Barsbay (8) and Sultan as Salih (8-10) will be sent east, hopefully in time to lead new shiny armies of Janissaries, Ottoman Infantry and even Qapukulu into the field against the Mongols.

Before I can do that however, I must finish the Byzantines. While Lachin's army comes from the land bridge, the Sultan arrives via a ship. However he is out of movement points and is stuck near the port. The Byzantines are being pushed to the brink now, and on their turn they attack me with two armies near the port. Since as Salih is a "confident attacker" he doesn't get the bonus starts to push his command rating to the top.

Fortunately I am able to attack the small army first before the larger one led by the Faction Heir enters the field. I use my heavy cavalry to ride down the foot troops, with attention to the Alamanoi. The horsed archers meanwhile do their best to kill off the enemy general.



And they do. However while the first army is destroyed, the enemy general almost wiped out my heavy cavalry. They are not going to be playing any more parts in the battle against the main army.

The Sultan of the Turks leads his army forward at a measured pace across the beach to meet the army of the Prince of Byzantium. While it didn't matter much when taking on the small army it's time to describe the lay of the map, so it's time for another illustration.



As you can see the Byzantine side of the map is dominated by a hill. The X is where the battle against the small army was fought. Next to it is a building model of a farm with a fence around it, making it inaccessible and thus a natural break. While there is a huge flat plain, my army advances on slightly higher ground on the east side of the map to the right of the farm. The Byzantines are advancing slowly down the hill and we meet near the edge of the map on fairly level ground.



The Byzantine Army surges forward shrugging off any arrows. It's going to a straight fight today. My chief concern is the Varangian Guard, they can rip a hole right through my army leading to a nasty defeat, so they are the target of the Sultan. I have an excess of spearmen, so I sent them in to clog up the enemy assault while leaving a unit in reserve to kill the general. Following behind the spearmen in the second wave were the Hashams. Behind the Byzantines my Horse Archers are attacking the enemy Trebuche. Amazingly my Alan Light cavalry chased two units of horse archers right off the red line of the map early on. A bonus for fighting near the border.



On the Turkish left wing, near where the hill slopes down to meet the farm (you can see a building on the left of the shot) the Byzantine Faction Heir encounters my spearmen and begins to massacre them. The battle is changing from two straight lines into a diagonal / shape, where my forces are being pushed back where the enemy general is. This is my plan. When I saw how they were composed, I put my spearmen on the left and made it the weakside so it would fall back. When my line shifts enough to the left, the enemy Pronoia and Varangians will flank my Hashams on the right side that have strayed to far from the red line... and that's when I will send in the Sultan with his cavalry charge against the engaged units. Since as Salih has a body guard of 31 (!) on small unit size, it's got massive charge potential.

The plan works, and the Sultan rides down the Varangian Guard and other heavy infantry, throwing the Byzantine flanking movement into chaos. In fact, as Salih rides right through them to the Byzantine rear. By this time my horse archers are free to also hit the enemy from behind and they join the sultan in doing so. The Byzantine line collapses like a house of cards.



The Byzantine Faction Heir flees south out of the map, and I can't catch him before he escapes.



The route wasn't total, almost 200 of the enemy escaped, but over 700 were killed and I won a heroic victory. The next turn will be decisive as the enemy retreat to Constantinople.

Besides this battle I also sent Barsbay on a ship to Irkalion and he besieged it this turn.

Turn 43 (1258-1259)


Remember that siege of Limassol? Well at the end of the last turn they finally sortied out and I took the castle.

In the south, Jerusalem has been cut in half by Egypt and Turkey. They have a lot of forces though, and a large army is trying to take back Arsuf from Egypt. The large Turkish stack was my field army sent to guard the border--however I am exchanging the mounted troops for infantry--while their armies are distracted I'm going to sneak south and attack Jerusalem itself. Luckily for me, the Egpytians have done the work of converting the populace.

On Irkalion, Barsbay attacks the city.

A massacre really. Of course I did the same to the town. Now the Byzantines only have Constantinople. I've heard they get extra money to make a last stand when down to one province, but this is the first time I'll see it in action.

The Battle of Constantinople

I moved the Sultan to besieged the city from the west (he didn't quite make it) while Lachin came from the east over the Bosporus. On the Byzantine turn while my siege engines were still building, the Byzantines attacked. Out of nowhere there was an army on the north side. I assume these are the reinforcements that appear to help out when a faction is near defeat. I thought that only happened when the capital was taken. Regardless, since it's the relief force that does the initial attacking, they only attack the Turkish forces led by the Sultan, avoiding the other army. Clever. Risky too.

I am on a slope that is very gentle in the middle of the map, but more extreme near the red line. Shockingly, the larger Constantinople army is right behind me and I'm surrounded. The small triangles near the middle of the map are my horse archer forces, I need them to slow down the smaller army.

Unwilling to lose my high ground by attacking the smaller force, I count on time and distance to protect me and turn my forces to meet the army from Constantinople. The full royalty of the enemy are on display here as you can see. The full Byzantine line is intimidating, especially as I know that the other force is approaching me from behind and that if they catch me before I've fully dealt with this army, they'll be on the hill and I'll be trapped against the edge of the map sandwiched between two armies.

As a tribute to their ferocity, the Varangian Guard leads the enemy charge, and I meet them with my own Sultan's charge to inaugurate the final battle.

Terrified of being trapped, I swarm as many units as soon as they come off the red line as I can. But in the center, the Emperor and his Heir drive through my own troops. I can't afford to spare any reserves for the other army, not if I want to win today. I throw everything against the generals.



Seeing the spearmen in trouble (they are "wavering") the Sultan rushes to the center of the battle to try to hold the line. On the left side of the shot, are some Varangian Guard who are slowly fighting their way into a flanking position. The small unit of Armenian Cavalry is going to try and stop them but they don't manage a charge in time and while they stop the flanking movement, they are trapped in a bloody melee they will lose against the Varangian Guard, more colloquially known as "the Emperor's Wine-Bags" for their excessive drinking.



With the arrival of Sultan as Salih and his full dread at the main battle, the soldiers of Byzantium begin to flee. In the route, the Faction Heir is killed but the emperor escapes. The Varangian Guard in the upper left of the shot do not flee. They fight to the last man. Brave--for all the good it does them. A brave enemy is one that needs to be killed quickly.



With the first army broken, my forces charge up the slope to try to reach it before the second Byzantine army. During the battle so far, the Horse archers have killed most of the enemy horse archers and have begun to pepper the enemy in the back with arrows. They are presently engaged in melee with the Trebizond archers while the spearmen and Pronoia advance up the hill. At this point I don't care what happens to my army, Lachin will continue the siege even if lose, but I need to kill as many Byzantines as possible so any reinforcement army that shows up next turn will have a hard time of it.

We gain the hill just in time, and the Sultan charges head long into the Pronoia infantry at a dead run. With more than half their units engaged and the Sultan with full dread ready to charge again, the Byzantine army breaks and flees when they see the Hashams reach the hill and start running at the spearmen. This must be what a Mongol General feels like.



This was an exciting battle to fight. The idea of the other force that would appear on the hill at the wrong time behind me lent a sense of frantic urgency to this battle. As you can see, I actually lost about 265 men, but thanks to the physician, I got a lot of healing done. Had the Emperor not fled, the Byzantines would have caused me a lot of damage.

Turn 44 (1260-1261)

Expecting a final siege, instead I find this. Of course. Since they sortied out from the city, if they lost they died automatically. The Emperor should have fought to the last, it would have hurt me more. But it's done. It's done at last:

THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE IS DEAD!



Almost 40,000 people will be killed.



HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!



This brings me down off my power trip in a tearing hurry. I finished the Byzantines not a moment too soon.



Hopefully the defenses in the east can hold in time for my western generals to get across the other side of the map. Both Mosul and Baghdad are very highly built up so they should be able to hold out, but the other towns have not grown much and are still mostly wooden walls as I raised the taxes to extreme levels to finance my wars in the west. With the end of the Byzantines, I now have lots of money and these levels get lowered both as a celebration of victory and an incentive to growth.

This is my secret to defeating the Mongols. The Army Barracks in Baghdad produces the stake-bearing Janissary Archers. This has been my goal since early in the game to build up to this in time. I invite them to charge right at me now. Walls of pointing death indeed.



In the south, you can see that Egypt is laying siege to Jerusalem and have apparently broken the siege of Arsuf. Damn. I need that city for my campaign goals. Hopefully that huge army near Jerusalem will break the siege next turn. In the right of the shot you can see my own army sneaking south. It's far enough away to be of minimal threat to the AI, but close enough to reach Jerusalem in one turn. My hope is that Egypt will lose but the city will be so weakened I can attack it myself.

Turn 45 (1262-1263)

Because this turn is short I decided to include it.



With the Mongols coming, Sultan as Salih races back west. Look at that sweet little tower of stars next to him.... he's a match for the Mongol Generals in Dread and Command. There's a reason only he went east though.

I am slowly building up in the Levant so I can send armies heading west. However I am currently focused on building armor factories for my spearmen. Fully armed and amored Dismounted Sipahi Lancers have stats of 12,19 (!) so they are worth waiting for.

My plan has worked! Egypt was beaten outside the walls of the city and I strike at Jerusalem with a full stack. To ensure that I get 1 turn to build siege equipment, I also empty Acre of half its garrison and send it down to Arsuf to bolster the Egyptians. You can't actually see them because they are being blocked by the Jerusalem forces but they are there keeping Jerusalem busy.

Finally, to dance a bit more on the Byzantine grave, I rename the city to Istanbul. Lachin the Honorable is the general in the city, for some reason despite the oceans of blood that the Turks waded through to reach this point, he has high chivalry (6) and extreme piety and loyalty. So he goes in there to make an Islamic population boom in the city.

I have to step back here and admire how well the campaign is set up. I've been expanding as fast as I can and pushing very hard against the Byzantines and Jerusalem. If I hadn't been doing that, and if I hadn't killed Antioch early, I'd really be in a vice with the Venetians and the Byzantines in the west, and Antioch and the Mongols in the east. As it is, I finish off one threat just in time to face another.

Turn 46-48 (1264-1269)

Summary: The Turks enter the most difficult phase, waiting, but a new challenge emerges to threaten their hegemony.

Turn 46 (1264-1265)

I've sent some spies east to keep an eye on the Mongolian hordes once I've found them. Amusingly, the turn after their appearance, the smaller of the two initial scouting forces has gone rebel leaving the faction leader and single large stack of units as the only Mongol threat. If I had any kind of skirmish force in the area, I might be able to wipe them out. Nothing can reach them in time though, at least, nothing mounted.

The Siege of Jerusalem

This doesn't look to be too hard, kind of pity, I'd hoped for a huge battle when taking Jerusalem.

Not having any equipment, I've got to do this the old-fashioned way, and that means siege towers.

While the idle units in my army are busy taunting, the Kingdom of Jerusalem shoves it back in their face by demolishing one of my rams with the missiles from wall.

Even one of the siege towers goes in flames. However I am saved from a humiliating loss as the Janissary Heavy Infantry make it up onto the walls.

There after they proceed to battle the spear men, who happen to have silver chevrons indicating a tough experienced unit. I am also forced to send Hashams up the ladder to finish them off.

As the enemy forces on the walls of Jerusalem go down, my reserve unit of Janissaries slowly approaches the gate. I always try to keep a few units in reserve for the final battle in the square to prevent any mass routes. A fresh unit really makes a difference in a battle sometimes--although this really isn't one of those times due to the lopsided numbers.

King Baldwin waits quietly in the square for his death. I understand that I have overwhelming force out there, but maybe he should have gone to the walls to encourage the spearmen.

Along with the Janissaries, the Sipahis march forward in a bright river of a steel. These are upgraded, but only with the first armor upgrade and are at 12,18. I know you're sick of hearing about how awesome they are, but the only thing they lack is the schiltrom formation.

The Janissaries are only insurance if something goes wrong. Killing the King of Jerusalem will be accomplished by the spearmen.



Despite doing nothing in the battle, this unit of Janissaries decided to party when it was over. Kind of arrogant of them I think but hey, first standing army in 1,000 years and all that.



Yawn.



60,000. Ye Gods! I don't care how pious/rebellious I or the city are, I cannot turn down those levels of money.



I called this one back in Turn 8 or so. Oops. If you look back to the turn previous you can see the little boat with the Jihad logo on its mast. Egypt had retreated to the sea of Galilee and just kind of floated there for the past 40 turns or so. So as a result I accomplished the conquest of, well most of the map, without resorting to Jihads.



Celebrations erupt across the Muslim world. Seriously, I have one of those little "triumph" fists in my public order in most of my cities. Also that army looks a little Egyptian.... but I'm not complaining I got a video.



Whoa look at those bonuses! You know, I think I'll be keeping the Templar HQ around for a while. I'd make it a museum or something maybe. I don't think the knights' bonus works for me, but I'll have to wait until I make Qapukulu to be sure.



The only thing left for the Turks now, is waiting. In ten turns I'll have officially won this campaign. But, if I lose either Constantinople Istanbul or Jersualem, the waiting period starts again. Can Jerusalem pull it together? Will Egypt betray? Will the Mongols race for Jerusalem?

To prevent at least one of those things I am making my most powerful and advanced army to date in the north near Krak Des Chevaliers so I can destroy the Kingdom of Jerusalem once and for all, at their fortress of Ascalon.... you're going to want to be around for that, believe me.

Turn 47 (1266-1267)

This turn I notice I am running low on generals. I'll need some to fight the Mongols instead of auto-resolving the battles and this high loyalty candidate fits my bill of particulars--my style of fighting the Mongols is so methodical it doesn't need a good general.

In the west, you can see that I've designated one of my generals to head east setting up watch towers along the way. I'm tired of all the shadows.

The Mongols killed my spy when I sent him to look in on the Khan. Haha! (Nervous laughter.) I was lucky that my spy didn't trigger a war between the two of us. Also I've never seen the Middle-Eastern spy video, is it specific to Kingdoms or a re-use from the original campaign?

Turn 48 (1268-1269)



Another turn, another adoption.



Whoa! Maybe my spy didn't mean to start a war, but one started anyway. Kermanshah is one of my least defended towns and without a general too boot, so next turn they can definitely take it.



Because you see, these are the reinforcements. The full Mongol invasion has shown up, as the bulk of the Il-khanate forces have arrived in the middle east.

"Kitbuqa, who had been left by Hulagu in Syria and Palestine with 10,000 Tartars, held the Land in peace and in state of rest. And he greatly loved and honoured the Christians (...) Kitbuqa worked at recovering the Holy Land"

—Monk Hayton, "Flor des Estoires de l'Orient", circa 1300.

Recover the Holy Land?

Not. Going. To. Happen.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Turns 49-53 (1270-1279)

Summary: The wars in the Middle-East begin to calm but the Turks prepare for the final battles to secure their dominance.

Turn 49 (1270-1271)

With the fall of their capital, Jerusalem can no longer produce it's standard infantry, however they are getting reinforcement stacks to retake their capital. I have a full stack in it but eventually they'll have overwhelming force built up and they can take it back. Thus I've begun making an army of my own to sail south and attack their last fortress, Ascalon.

Turn 50 (1272-1273)

I am also trying to build up an anti-Mongol force. With Baghdad fully stocked with defenders, it's turning out assassins every turn to send against the Mongols. Though it was only a five percent chance, I actually killed Hulagu this way. Oops.

Turn 51 (1274-1275)

As you can see here, the Mongols chose to cluster around each other instead of actually taking my city. I'm not sure what they are supposed to be doing except some hoarding about. I thought they were going to strike at Baghdad.

Turn 52 (1276-1277)



Where are you going Mongols? Now they seem more interested in heading south to the few rebel regions on the map.

Turn 53 (1278-1279)

And now, some have reached Baghdad. Hopefully they will assault it but we'll have to see. This is what really annoys me about the Mongols... they are totally unpredictable and avoid siege battles with me like the plague.

In the west I've just been doing construction and retraining and refining my armies. Save in the Levant, accept that the army being constructed in Krak Des Chevaliers is now on its way south. I have to apologize for this update being so lackluster. So here's a preview of the next update...

Turn 54 (1280-1281) Preview

The Siege of Ascalon



It's a little bit Epic.

Turn 54 (1280-1281)

Summary: The largest battle of the Turkish Campaign.



At the opening of Turn 54, I get a message that inspired me to go on. It seems somewhere in my vast empire, Sultan as Salih is going to get some help. Not that he needs it, but what can you do about destiny?



Meanwhile the Mongols are still wandering around near Baghdad.
The Siege of Ascalon




So I fought this battle for a few reasons, primarily there were and more stacks accumulating around Ascalon. All of the remaining forces of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were grouped around this one province. They'd eventually attack me so I decided to attack them first before they got even more reinforcements. Secondly I wanted to finish the last of the Christian powers on the map so I wouldn't have to worry about priests or tough infantry anymore. When it comes to infantry, of the Muslim powers the Turks have the edge with their Janissaries. Finally, while I'd had some major fights against the Byzantines I wanted a good old fashioned hand to hand siege, no storm of arrows.

I also wanted one hell of a fight.

As you can see by this picture and the army composition shots, this was an elite force. Everyone had weapon upgrades, many had armor upgrades and I had 4 units of Janissaries. In hindsight I should have replaced one of the Naffatun units, but still. I had 13 hand-to-hand combat units and 7-missile/artillery units (2 Ottoman Infantry, 2 Naffatun, 3 Trebuchets).

I positioned my army as close to the walls as possible. The goal was for the Trebuchets to knock down the wall and me to storm the first defensive line. Then I would split my forces, detaching some to penetrate to the square while the rest held the first line of walls against the advancing Christians. The X marks the target where I would shoot at the wall.



This is going to be challenging. As the battle opens I am clearly surrounded. The most dangerous armies are clearly Balian's Army which is in the fortress, and Prince Christopher's cavalry heavy troops. On the mini-map Christopher is in the lower left corner, Captain Leonard is right behind me and Captain Jeffery is on the right.



As the trebuchets begin their bombardment I receive a shock: the Constable of Jerusalem sorties out the gate and makes a bee line for more artillery crews. Balian is trying to kill of my artillery by sacrificing his best unit. This makes sense as if I lose the crews I automatically lose the battle.



I rush a unit of Dismounted Sipahis to defend the trebuchets but it's too late. The Constable of Jerusalem annihilates the crew on the trebuchet closes to the gate and actually manages to largely surrounded and kill the spear unit, I'm down to just 2 of them now and have lots of horses to kill including Balian. This is not starting well.

Behind the Constable of Jerusalem, emboldened by reinforcements the rest of Balian's army thunders out the gate to engage me in battle. Uh oh.



When I realize the ENTIRE garrison is attacking I send in the ground troops to protect the other trebuchets who are still pounding at the walls. But I'm starting to get nervous, the other armies are approaching, the fastest is Captain Leonard who is directly behind my army.



But I don't have much time to worry as fighting erupts all along the trebuchet line as my forces struggle to save the artillery crews and I throw in the Janissaries to put out the fire with their bodies. To the right of the shot you can see some more troops circling around to hit the leftmost crew. They are also backed up with some Knights of Edessa who thankfully decide to pursue and slaughter my Ottoman Infantry instead of the trebuchet crew.

From the other side, you can see the fighting is heaviest on the right and in the center of the artillery. Most of Balian's other Heavy Cavalry have joined in the assault on the right, and one of the Janissary units there did take a charge in the back. However I sent in the second unit of spearmen and they largely tore up the garrison cavalry.

In desperation to break the stalemate around the artillery I try to charge one of the enemy flanks with my general. However the Templar Sergeants are aware of me and I have to abort the charge.



And then we are out of time as the army behind us is now close enough for long range missiles to hit me in the back. Identifying the Dismounted Knights of Jerusalem as the principle threat I charge them with my general even as Captain Leonard's cavalry wraps around me and rushes to join the fight at the trebuchets.



Then a breakthrough! As the last of my trebuchets finally breaks through the walls Captain Leonard is killed by my spearmen. It's been a brutal battle so far but with the loss of their general the troops of his army break and flee into the fortress, allowing me to station troops in their path and massacre them. Balian however, has pulled back in good order though his remaining units consist primarily of Sodeer Archers.

Sadly, this battle was so graphic intense and so massive that my computer, while able to handle it, gave me an annoying error, when I take screen shots the walls disappear. They are there during the battle though. The X is the breach, the Jerusalem flag in the middle is what's left of Balian and Leonard's armies streaming in through the gate. You can also spot the tremendous pile of bodies around the right trebuchet. Of concern is that captain Geoffrey's army is now approaching my right flank.

The only survivors from Leonard's army are a pair of Templar Crossbowmen who are calmly shooting me in the back. I don't have time to send my general in after them because he is occupied with a far more important task.



In response to the arrows my troops pour into the first circle ahead of the advancing Captain Geoffrey and Prince Christopher. I have managed to keep most of the Hashams a unit of Sipahis and two Janissary units relatively fresh and full strength. Meanwhile, my general is catching the catapult troops and killing them. Nothing causes my troops damage like a catapult in the square. I've nearly lost battles because of some well placed shots.



The armies outside the castle are slowly marching toward me. If I were in command I probably would have run but I can understand the decision. Especially since my troops were heavily engaged already, facing fresh units would hurt more than troops tired from running across the map. Plus I still can't get into the square yet...

That finally changes here. I had two trebuchet crews survive, the leftmost with 11, and the center trebuchet with 5. So Technically it's three trebuchets. Balian almost pulled it off--I lost 32 out of 48 artillerymen, almost enough to keep me from breaking into the square.

Fresh spearmen, under-strength Janissary units and Hashams charge in to fight Balian while the fresh Janissaries and the troops that have already fought man the gate against the approaching armies. I hope that the fresh Janissaries will stiffen the exhausted other troops into fighting. My general is positions midway between the square and the gate ready to rush in to wherever it looks like my men are wavering. I am not quite sure how I'll fight the street battle yet, will I defend the gate and the breach in the wall? Or wait until they clog the streets of the fortress?



My troops rush into the square lead by some Janissaries (they are at about 50-60% strength). The battle begins anew as the Sodeer Archers try to hold off my heavier infantry and save their leader, Balian.

Balian himself charges in...

...and is slain! The Dismounted Sipahis have come through!

Balian's leaderless forces have a single heavy unit left, a unit of Dismounted Knights of Jerusalem (in the right of the shot).

With the death of the last horse unit in the garrison, I send the spearmen and surviving Janissaries back to reinforce the outer wall leaving teh Hashams to seize the square. I've decided I will try to defend the breach while leaving a unit or two in the square to keep the timer going.



However, I am doomed to disappointment. The enemy armies are just... standing there. They are all lined up in vertical north to south line from th gate. You can see the gate and my Naffatuners floating in midair because of the vanishing walls in the shot.... I am annoyed. Why are they just standing there?



Apparently this is why. With Janissaries at the gate it's controlled by my troops and won't open. But there is a huge breach they could rush in through! Why aren't they moving?! I want an epic battle! Still I'm not going to abandon my defensive position to go attack them outside the gate. I'd just get run over with cavalry. Lame. Damn AI.



The timer runs out and I win, but I'm still disappointed. Let's examine the results though. Could I have won if all the forces had attacked me? Maybe. If I'd managed to gain the walls I might have been able to hold off the other two armies. After all I'd killed almost 1100 men so far, and while I was down to about 60% strength, there were only 750 men to go. But my troops were tired and I was running low on spearmen, but I had the walls.... it would have been interesting to see either way.



In the stats of the battle you can see that two Janissaries units were mostly un-engaged and could have done some heavy fighting. You should also note that the Janissaries that WERE beaten up dealt out some tremendous damage despite being surrounded at the trebuchets. My General also gave a good account of himself but my other units were badly beaten up and my Ottoman Infantry were largely annihilated without firing a shot.



Regardless, the final Christian faction is dead.



I decided to sortie out and kill the last rebel remnants of Jerusalem.



It's over quickly.

In the aftermath I purchase Arsuf to link Jerusalem and Ascalon with the rest of my Levantine Provinces. I am not sure why it says 53 turns when I am on turn 54, I assume it's because it doesn't count the turn I'm on yet.

Turn 55-56 (1282-1285)

Summary: Victory at last, and the Birth of an Empire.

Turn 55 (1282-1283)

I decided since I am staggeringly wealthy to just start buying stuff from Egypt. This is probably the last province I buy from them, as if I hem them in they are more likely to betray me as my reputation is still in the gutter from the war against the Byzantines. I have discovered that if you have a Very Reliable or Trustworthy reputation in the Hard Grand Campaign shockingly, you can play a diplomatic game that is coherent. Even as the Byzantines. Anyhow, now have the majority of the Holy Land.

The Mongols continue to wander around bizarrely.



In fact, it's so strange I charted their path so far. The star is the temporary siege of Kermanshah. As you can see it follows no coherent path. I think my full stacks in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk are confusing them. C'mon CA, couldn't you do better than this? Hardcode them to actually attack something!

Turn 56 (1282-1283)

Three things happen on this turn. The most important?



I'VE DONE IT! I've beaten the Long Campaign as the Turks, conquering the power centers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, and the Byzantine Empire while holding my own. It was quite a struggle at first, and a few bad battles could have turned the tide but through luck and I hope a little skill the Turks prevailed. I'm excited to give the Turks new roster a shot in the Retrofit Add-on.

Osman has appeared. Had I been in trouble he would have been helpful, but at least he comes with a good army. Allow me to recommend the book "Osman's Dream" about the Ottoman Empire. Quite interesting.

He's got some definite good traits and is 100% loyal. In other words, he's a good candidate to train up and set against the Mongols with Sultan as Salih.

Here he is on the family tree, far right.

Looking around for something for him to do I spot some rebels--and so I give you what I call the Osman Special. Basically a battle with all my graphic settings turn up to max. I also re-enacted the battle in the Custom Battle to get a few more shots, which is why a few of them have the Byzantine flags as these are Byzantine rebels.

The Osman Special

Osman comes with a lot of Ottoman Infantry from his homeland.

He also comes with Janissary Archers and Heavy Infantry (fully posable!).

In one of my favorite shots, as the archers line up, the Janissary Heavy Infantry charge forward.

Meanwhile, a tremendous flurry of arrows comes from my archers. 480 arrows in a volley (10x48).

The enemy horse archers don't survive that very well.

Osman goes into action over on the right flank.

Meanwhile the Janissaries make contact with the town militia (a re-enactment shot!).

Osman smashes into another group on his right. As you can see, he looks like a standard Turkish General. I wish he had a special model but the Turks already get FOUR General models (Nuraddin, the Sultan, Turkish General, Turkish Captain) so I guess five would be a bit much.

The Janissaries have put to flight the last of rebels on the left and center (another re-enactment shot!)

And finish off the enemy General.

This battle was too easy for Osman, but I wanted at least one fight with him at the end. I was also fairly gratified to find when I re-enacted the battle, it proceeded almost exactly as the one in the campaign had. After the battle I begin to shift him east to reinforce him with spearmen to meet the Mongolian threat and I can finally rename my lands from Great Seljuk to...

....the Ottoman Empire!

Turn 58 (1286-1289)

Summary: With Empire comes responsibility, as the Turks begin a new phase of their civilization another rises to challenge them--and they must respond. Consider this as a kind of... epilogue.

Turn 57 (1286-1287)

This is knew. Completely new for Kingdoms. When I saw this I was surprised and definitely pleased, it seems fair to give the Muslims a video when their own top religious building is build. Amusingly the picture I took is the only one in the video showing Christians. Whoops. The rest of the video is unique or shows scenes from the "Nur-ad-Din's Jihad" video. Still I thought it was important to show.

Heh, it appears I have killed both historical super captains. My assassins have done well but I doubt I'll be able to kill any of the others.

Turns 58 (1288-1289)

I am also capturing the last rebel town on the map.

This one I'm a little proud of. I would not have gotten to it in time before the Egyptian army. By the time I'd reached it, I would have had to help them with the siege. However, I sent out a single unit of Sipahis only 8 men strong to besiege the town. With such a weak attacking force the enemy will sortie out at the end of the turn--but the Egyptian force will be close enough to back me up. Since it's not a general I must auto resolve it, and in the end the army the Egyptians sent to take the town will instead help my paltry force take it. That Egyptian general is Baybars himself by the way.

In the Levant the build up continues. The hardest part is waiting for armor and population upgrades for places not named Krak des Chevaliers and Antioch. They should be reading in time for....

The arrival of Osman. He's the one in the center with the large stack and I'm moving him south. The plan is for him and Sultan as Salih to march out and attack the Mongolians, while reinforcements come in from the west and the north (out of the mountains). The reinforcements from the north will also for the first time, have fully armed and armored Qapukulu. In the original grand campaign I was producing them at 19/21 by the end though with the altered stats that's impossible now.



At long last it's time. The Destined Ottoman Empire against the All-Conquering Mongol Empire. I want to show you one of the battles and I finally was able to catch one of their stacks out alone. My own forces are super elite as even the Hashams finally have armor (12,18) and I use the full spear upgrade to bring my Dismounted Sipahis to 12,19. The Turks aren't fighting to survive anymore, they're fighting to conquer.

Here's the opening set up. The largest hill on the map is the ones the Mongolians and their rockets have taken. If I charge right at them I'll be decimated and my troops will route from the fear. Instead I do what I usually do against the Mongols, extremely time-consuming separation tactics. This is harder as a European faction but it also works. The main army will follow the left army, and a small force will go right. I outnumber them so I can do this, but even if we were evenly matched I'd try it.

Here is the main army will following the left arrow in the original picture. Once they reach it, they will slowly turn right and advance towards the Mongols on the hill. The slope of the hill is the most gentle in that direction and the crest is actually wide enough that the two armies can meet on flat ground once I reach it.

To the right the Ottoman Infantry backed up by Sipahi horse arches begin their march to the small hill behind the Mongols. The Sipahis are largely there for protection and as a covering force. Plus once in position they will be behind the Mongols to catch any routers. I don't intend to let many of them escape the Ottoman army.

Here we have the Ottoman Infantry I detached ready to shoot as the Mongol horse archers. Since there are so few of them, the AI believes its okay to send its unit away from the main body.

However my Siaphis race after them and we get into a duel, helped along by the stronger arrows of the Ottoman Infantry.

However the rest of the army is still getting into position. This is an agonizingly slow process, even at 6x speed. I need to keep my troops fresh as the super-Mongol Generals will have a far easier time overwhelming them with fear if they are tired. They also need to stay in formation in case of a Mongol charge. It's not as bad with the Turks because they also have horsed archers but with the Crusader factions you need to keep your army in a hedgehog as you inch across the map or you get butchered.

As the battle goes on, the AI sends the horse archers after me in 1s and 2s so I am able to take them on. When they are down to only a few troops left, I send in the Sipahis to finish them with their swords. I chased this unit right off the map.

However the Mongols finally got wise to what I was doing and started to rush more troops at my horsemen who were now nearly out of arrows and exhausted (Sipahis have almost no stamina in Kingdoms) and they start to route. Luckily by this time the main army is slowly advancing up the slope.

Crap. They started to turn their arrows at my Ottoman Infantry as I shot at them. The Ottoman infantry having marched and fought all across the map as we took out the Horse Archer units is also getting tired and running low on arrows. The rocket barrage makes them route but they pull themselves together one they are out of range and I march them back. However the rest of the Mongol army is stirring though I have taken out 4 of their 5 mounted archer units. At least they aren't turning the rockets on the main force. If I don't want my exhausted flanking force crushed there's only one thing for it.

CHARGE!!!

The Spearmen lead the way followed up by the up-armored Hashams, while I hold the Janissaries in reserve. Here you can see the Mongolian Faction Heir trying to turn the tide.

And here's the battle on the minimap, as you can see I have them surrounded but my left flank is really weak and most of the units there are already fleeing.



To strengthen the flank I send my general around to attack the Mongolians from that side and he crushed a unit of heavy archers.



To my shock the Mongolians flee. Even the general flees. They retreat in good order, not routing and since most of my cavalry is dead (dammit) the rocket artillery and a few other units escape. I like to focus my attention on enemy artillery but this time they got away from me as the rest of the battle was going pretty hot. Silver chevroned Mongolian troops are just as tough in Kingdoms.



In their new role as defenders of civilization against the vast hordes of the trackless east (c'mon tell me the Turks wouldn't like that characterization?) the first battle under the banner of the Ottoman Empire results in a victory. There were many Mongols who escaped and it was more causalities for less result than the Turks are used to. The war against the Mongols will be a new kind of war--but with Osman and as Salih leading them, the Ottoman Turks will win it, they just won't be chronicled here.



The final map. I've blocked off Egypt as you can see. I do intend to continue the campaign when I can though it's mostly just chasing the Mongols and infrastructure. If the Timurids invade in 100 years or something I'll probably add a little edit but otherwise you can rest easy knowing that the Ottoman Empire is going on to face new challenges, think of it as the Turks riding into the sunset all ready for battle.

My signature is the end point for this campaign. If you look, you'll see that the Turks are in a fight against the Kingdom of Jerusalem. They've been fighting for oh.... weeks and weeks now. How did that fight turn out?



Was there ever any doubt?

Thanks for reading--to be honest, playing for an AAR gives the campaign new life and makes it more fun. If you are interested in any future AARs from me, I'm doing a more traditional one for the contest.