Moorish Strategy, halp.

**Nazgûl Killer** · February 04, 2009, 04:34 AM

All-right, I've decided to try the Moors, however, I would request you all of a strategy of how to use them, because the last time I tried playing as the Moors, Sicily invaded me and Spain nailed me, needless to say I had to flee, I fled to Italy, making a new home base there, taking the two isles, afterwards I invaded the boot itself, taking all of Sicily's land, it wasn't long until a crusade was called and everyone came to Sicily's aid, taking Naples and the other settlement from me (Forgot the name), soon afterwards, Spain came chasing after me and took the two isles, and a crusade was called on (my) Tunis, thus ending my life permanently. I need some halp, as I have no idea how to play with this faction.

**Viking Prince** · February 04, 2009, 04:49 AM

I suspect you seized Tunisia before you were strong enough to hold it. Remember the Moors are not Catholic -- the Pope is not going to restrain Sicily. The Italians are enough of a problem if you are Catholic so do not play in the backyard if you are not able to stay.

Two keys with the Moors:

1) Jihads against the Catholics. Pauses between Jihads are to consolidate and rebuild.
2) Numeric advantage in every battle or do not fight.

You have two regions to the south. You have Lisbon to take on Jihad. This gets you started and being at war with Paplona is not really a big deal with Spain in between. If the Portugese even survive the Jihad on Lisbon, of course. Either way do not bother Spain until strong enough to take Leon and Toledo with two forces. Then roll up to France. Then on to the Isles. Now you have the West edge of the map. The rest should now be easy.

The key is to not autoresolve your battles. Use Jihad to both recruit and free upkeep. Do not assault with Jihad troops, but wait out the seige. This gives you time to build up your economy.

When taking on the Spanish, Jihad the strongest settlement and beseige both. If Spain has other settlements, they are smaller and less valuable. The mop up will be easy since Spain will be bankrupt and unable to build new stacks.

Also, do not ransome or execute if you can afford it. The enemy that lives is a defeated force that still costs upkeep. Use this to your advantage.

Blockade the enemy ports of any regions that you are not beseiging -- again economic warfare to prevent new stacks from forming up.

Good luck and keep us informed.

btw -- variations of this work for me playing Scotland, England, France, Spain, Portugal -- as well as the Moors. Just use Crusades against the Moors and Jihads against the Catholics. Run the campaigns as long as feasible and bankrupt the opposition.

Also, you might try playing the short campaign first to get a better feel for the faction without investing in the long campaign only to abandon it. About 70 turns and you should know enough to write a short campaign guide. Not that I am writing one at the moment -- but a little competitive pressure can fire up the juices.

Regards,

VP

**DJ_JasonX** · February 04, 2009, 06:12 AM

i like to play the moors as high rep/turtle until you get camel gunners, then just let rip! avoid going further east than algiers in north africa. pick one of portugal or spain to play nicely with, and keep relations high with them and the pope. you can pick off a settlement (with a jihad) or two off the other when they attack you. have a single field army of desert cav & granadine jinetes.

alternative is to immediately jihad to either lisbon (for cash) or toledo (to cripple spain) as the first step in consolidating iberia, and THEN turtle to camel gunners :o)

**Last of the Mohawks** · February 04, 2009, 02:51 PM

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Originally Posted by Viking Prince

I suspect you seized Tunisia before you were strong enough to hold it. Remember the Moors are not Catholic -- the Pope is not going to restrain Sicily. The Italians are enough of a problem if you are Catholic so do not play in the backyard if you are not able to stay.

Two keys with the Moors:

1) Jihads against the Catholics. Pauses between Jihads are to consolidate and rebuild.
2) Numeric advantage in every battle or do not fight.

You have two regions to the south. You have Lisbon to take on Jihad. This gets you started and being at war with Paplona is not really a big deal with Spain in between. If the Portugese even survive the Jihad on Lisbon, of course. Either way do not bother Spain until strong enough to take Leon and Toledo with two forces. Then roll up to France. Then on to the Isles. Now you have the West edge of the map. The rest should now be easy.

The key is to not autoresolve your battles. Use Jihad to both recruit and free upkeep. Do not assault with Jihad troops, but wait out the seige. This gives you time to build up your economy.

When taking on the Spanish, Jihad the strongest settlement and beseige both. If Spain has other settlements, they are smaller and less valuable. The mop up will be easy since Spain will be bankrupt and unable to build new stacks.

Also, do not ransome or execute if you can afford it. The enemy that lives is a defeated force that still costs upkeep. Use this to your advantage.

Blockade the enemy ports of any regions that you are not beseiging -- again economic warfare to prevent new stacks from forming up.

Good luck and keep us informed.

btw -- variations of this work for me playing Scotland, England, France, Spain, Portugal -- as well as the Moors. Just use Crusades against the Moors and Jihads against the Catholics. Run the campaigns as long as feasible and bankrupt the opposition.

Also, you might try playing the short campaign first to get a better feel for the faction without investing in the long campaign only to abandon it. About 70 turns and you should know enough to write a short campaign guide. Not that I am writing one at the moment -- but a little competitive pressure can fire up the juices.

Regards,

VP

Thats how you do it, but I'd say after taking Iberia and taking Timbuktu( take it, its a ~~Gold~~ slave mine!) then take Dublin in Britain and take scots and England and then France will be cheese eating surrender monkeys thanks to a pincer, or if you cheeky take sicily and the Islands, and a 3-way scissor movement slaughters France

Laugh all the way after that

**Nazgûl Killer** · February 04, 2009, 07:14 AM

Thanks guys, once I'm done with the other two campaigns I'm doing right now (Or they get old), I'll get crackin' on the Moorish campaign, I hate the fact I need to have numerical advantage though, I'd rather be a handful of men with guns than a horde of zombies with bare hands.

**DJ_JasonX** · February 04, 2009, 07:23 AM

you don't need a numerical advantage if you rely on grenadine jinetes.

[edit]

also, send a family member down to take timbuktu and arguin (you can hire mercs when you get there) and creates merchants down there to save the walk.

**Nazgûl Killer** · February 04, 2009, 07:31 AM

Yeah, I already figured I'd have to take the cities, I just find it annoying that without toggle_fow you just can't reach them. Question: What are Grenadine Jinetes? And when do you get them?

**DJ_JasonX** · February 04, 2009, 09:56 AM

Originally Posted by Nazgul-Killer

Yeah, I already figured I'd have to take the cities, I just find it annoying that without toggle_fow you just can't reach them. Question: What are Grenadine Jinetes? And when do you get them?

you can reach them without toggle_fow - just right click on the other side of the mountains from marakesch and it'll find the pass through the mountain passes.

grenadine jinetes are like the spanish/portuguese jinetes, but a little watered down - javelin cavalry that that melee a bit. you can recruit at any city with sultan's racetrack, or fortresses, or with baron's stables. so pretty early.

once you've teched up a bit, you can get urban militia and christian guard (moor's best heavy cav) from cities too.

[edit]
one more thing - the moors' peasant crossbows are great - they are NOT the same as euro peasant crossbows

**Lysimachus** · February 04, 2009, 12:18 PM

You'll have to rely alot on Dismounted Arab Cavalry at least until you get to Urban Militia and Dismounted Christian Guard. Because of this, it gets quite boring as the Moors because you have to tech up first.

**Conquistatore** · February 04, 2009, 03:02 PM

You need to conquer Iberia and wipe out the Portugese and the Spanish early on before they have a chance to advance any further. They already begin the game with an advantage over you so taking them out early is a must. While conquering Iberia, keep a watchful eye on your Eastern lands, as you found out in your previous campaign, Sicily loves to harass you and establish a foothold in Africa, you must prevent this at all costs. Once you have secured Iberia you have the option of continuing your conquest Northward and into Western Europe. Or you can choose to invade Italy and seize the rich Italian lands and Isles. Whichever way you choose however, the Pope will be looking for an excuse to declare a crusade against you, so tread lightly and be on your guard.

**Nazgûl Killer** · February 05, 2009, 07:12 AM

Honestly, I have no problem with all of those, those are great strategies which seem to work and I'd eventually either stumble upon them accidentally, or do them with a bit of thought (At least some of them), so I have no problem with that part, the biggest part about the Moors, and the reason why I was caught so badly off-guard, is that they bored the living sh-- out of me!

**Conquistatore** · February 05, 2009, 03:28 PM

yes they can be quite boring in the early period as they have inferior tech to the catholics in Iberia and you will struggle to get a victory. But persevere! You will be able to dominate them in the later game and it will be enjoying.

**Nazgûl Killer** · February 06, 2009, 04:05 PM

My main problem with M2TW, is that I reach a phase in EVERY campaign, in which it gets boring, very boring. The only campaigns I made it through with that boredom to victory, is the HRE, Scotland, England, France, Milan, Venice and Sicily, the rest I played up 'till turn 150~ and stopped.

**Reynolds** · February 06, 2009, 04:12 PM

I have the same problem, eventually i stopped trying to cure it with mods and the like and just bought other games or met up with my mates

**Commander5xl** · February 06, 2009, 06:00 PM

I actually played a different way, Sicily never bothered me until later on, I didn't take any Mediterranean island and focused solely on Spain, but i send 1 army out to take over Timbuktu and the settlement to the Atlantic coast of them (cant remember which) Timbuktu can make you great money I found and same with the other settlement with the gold and slave trades, and I had came up taken Toledo and the castle to the east of it (forget settlement name) used them to build my armies attacked Lisbon with a Jihad and then attacked Spain's last settlement once they were gone France beat up the last of Portugal while i took those island settlements, NOW I have France and Sicily attacking me but with my African trade and my 3 castles I find that I can defend my nation, and as long as Egypt keeps fighting off the crusades and taking back settlements I haven't been crusaded upon, trick is don't invade Sicily because The Pope don't like Islam being at his back door, I just defend against them and attack France pushing farther into Europe, its getting harder but as long as my homeland is safe im good to keep fighting

**claudius2007** · February 07, 2009, 09:21 AM

The Moors are pretty fun to play as but I do know what you are talking about when you mention the Sicilians giving you trouble. Usually if you play on VH/VH Alberto (or whatever his name is) disembarks in Tunis with half a full stack in about 5 turns. If you win that battle Milan might send an army too soon after. It sucks because Tunis is far away from Spain in the early campaign and its hard to reinforce.

However, even if you lose Tunis you should blitzkrieg the Spanish and the Portuguese early on and expand south to Timbuktu. Massive amounts of gold there.

In terms of actual battle strategy the only problems you will encounter are in the mid period when the Catholics spawn dismounted knights everywhere and you barely have your dismounted christian guard. A good combination of medium cavalry and horse archers however will be able to tackle most of their heavy infantry in repeated charges. Keep plenty of spearmen and archers in your armies. In the late period you will get the Camel gunners which are going to devastate anything that moves.

**Muagan_ra** · February 07, 2009, 11:04 AM

Really it comes down to battlefield command - Muslim armies might look a bit fragile, but if you hit them hard and fast you can handle the other Iberians. The surest way to deal with the factions you know you will inevitably have to fight is to just go right for them - if you want a challenge, turtle for a bit and tech up, but you just need to take the fight to them. Conquest is the only way to both secure borders and gain the economic strength you'll need to expand towards Tunisia.

Take advantage of your mobility, and use Jinettes to run rings around them, and don't be afraid to rely on Moorish infantry. They're more durable than they look.

**Lysimachus** · February 07, 2009, 04:43 PM

You mean Urban Militia or the Moorish Swordsmen (the equivalent of Al-Haqa Infantry).?

**Nazgûl Killer** · February 11, 2009, 03:57 AM

I have no problem with battlefield command, like I said, after a while every faction gets boring... And that's the reason why I can't wait for TTA: TW.

**Owain Glyndŵr** · February 12, 2009, 09:53 AM

Make sure you have a very strong base in Africa, taking Arguin and Tibuktu. In Spain, you need to take as many rebel settlements as you can and avoid striking Spain and Portugal if they become allies. Don't strike until you have a decisive advantage.