Favorite Muslim faction.

[Concrete]

The holy lands are highly desired, and in every campagin; Asian and African factions leave an imprint on the world. - Most of the relevant factions are Muslim. Renowned for their infighting, yet occasionally banding together to Jihad. (Constantinople.)
There are four main Muslim factions.
The Moors.
The Egyptians.
The Turks.
And the Khwarezmian Empire.
(I personally play RR/RC, but I'll include The Mongols for completeness' sake.)
Which is your favorite, and what are the reasons for this?

(You may have gathered, that I like to poll people. I'm thinking of more to come, unless anyone has any complaints?)

- SupremeTL

[gluteus maximus aurelius]

Mine is Kwarezmia simply because they have a good roster throughout the game, whereas the others have to wait until the Late Period to get any half decent units, that is unless you enjoy spamming HA or Desert cavalry (which I personally don't). They get better spearmen and very good heavy cavalry while also keeping the horsearcher tradition alive. They have better inf on balance than the Moors and Fatimids and only the JHI is likely to beat them in a fight. The only downside is that you have to deal with those darn Mongols, which is incredibly annoying in the early campaign, where I have to hinder my western expansion in order to build my armies for the arrival of the Mongols

[JorisofHolland]

The Turks have the best late game roster. The Janissaries (if I spell it right) are excellent soldiers. The Monster Bombard can bring down castle walls in seconds. Your horse archers give you an advantage over Western armies, like all Muslim factions. But, unlike the other Muslim factions your heavy infantry is excellent, your late roster is actually your strongest point. Unlike the Fatimids, who start becoming obselate over time, the Moors who lack armour, the Kwarezmians who lack crossbows and hand-held guns.

[ginger_hammer]

Turks for me due to troop diversity (although their starting troops are really bad!)

[meese]

Bad if you don't like horse archers, good if you do.

[Henry707]

Khwarezmian Empire for me. Not the best in terms of units but I have just had some fantastic games with them, struggling to build up, being hit by the Mongols, slowly fighting back. Becoming a major power in the end.

All round - most challenging faction & so the most fun for me.

Henri

[StyggeKrumpen]

Ever since i started playing med2 i have loved the turks. Their amazing late rooster is just awesome. The only eastern faction that can stand up to western armies laate game.

[Concrete]

^
All hail the Turkish rooster!

[JorisofHolland]

[Caesar Clivus]

The Turks for me (I dont include the Mongols). I love their units (especially late game) but I also love their history.

[DeMolay]

The Ottoman Turks (late period ) are probably the best Muslim faction in term of unit strength IMHO , very likely .


Personally , for me it is the Moors for a few reasons (i play SS with RR/RC) :

- My favourite period is early and high period

- I love heavy cavalry ( Christian guard cavalry with charge=12 , Granadine Lancers with charge=12 ) , Fatimids have decent cavalry , but their "charge" is poor usually charge =8 max

- The cost of upkeep of Moorish units is very competitive , thus you can afford to raise more armies (personally i prefer to have 360 urban militia swordsmen with all upgrades than 120 feudal knights for instance , especially since historically Moorish warfare was around cavalry and archers , so your infantry and spears are "expandable" (except the Christian guards infantry and hashishims that are quite precious ) , whereas with Catholic faction , i try to preserve my infantry a lot more )

- Their spearmen are good and cheap , they do their job of holding the lines well , their navy is very strong and like all Muslim factions , their archers are very good (heavy archers )

- You can become filthy rich quite quickly if you develop trade early (not to mention that like playing with the Danes or Norway , few factions except Sicily will try to mount a serious invasion on your heart lands (here , north africa ) , you don't get Mongol invasion for instance) , and Moors can contemplate invading Rome and slaying the Pope (which is fun )


Fatimids have more variety in everything though (they have more infantry , better heavy infantry IMHO , more cavalry , especially medium cavalry , they have access to much better mercenary units , they make use of different units skilled horse archers , whereas Moors used more what is common in Iberia and Numidia since Antiquity , javelin thrower light cavalry like what they call Desert Cavalry or Jinettes in the game , personally i find these units extremely useful in battles , especially against armoured slow moving infantry or general bodyguards )

[Ichon]

Turks have the most interesting position in the game and is one of the few factions can convince me to play past 50 turns since they have to fight off Mongols usually and can go restore Caliphate by erasing the Fatamids and Christians kingdoms plus invade Europe... only faction I've played past 150 turns with just to get to most kingdoms having gunpowder units and some interesting naval battles(well as interesting as it can get anyway).

I usually prefer the smallest starting factions, Genoa, Portugal, Lithuania, Norway, etc but Turks actually fun even starting larger.

[byron1st]

My best is Turks, but now I am playing the Fatimid Caliphate (SS RR/RC). I want MAMLUKS!!

[WastedTrojan]

Turks for sure, awesome late game roster and early game their horse archers can stand up to anything nearby. Have to put the Moors at a close second because of the Camel Gunners.

I can't really say that Mongols should be in this poll. They were not an overwhelming majority Islam, but a mix of Tengriism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Atheism

[Ichon]

Turks for sure, awesome late game roster and early game their horse archers can stand up to anything nearby. Have to put the Moors at a close second because of the Camel Gunners.

I can't really say that Mongols should be in this poll. They were not an overwhelming majority Islam, but a mix of Tengriism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Atheism

Mongols weren't Muslin at all actually... the first Khans made use of many Turkomen as well as any other nomads they could recruit or lure with loot and many of those were Muslim but the Mongols made some pretty famous examples of terrorizing Muslim peoples who refused to submit to a non-Muslim.

Eventually many of the khanates adapted local customs and where there were mostly Muslims they became also although those kingdoms were fairly short lived compared to the khanates which kept closer to original Mongol traditions.

[Tyrenia]

My preference is for the Khwarezmian Empire for several reasons:

They have a VERY strong Heavy Infantry and Heavy Cavalry roster, which are far and above my favourite unit types (along with Horse Archers of course!)
Their starting position ensures they can expand rapidly with impunity, and become rich quite early in the game
The Mongols are a fun challenge to fend off (they are one of the few factions that are actually hard to beat with the Khwarezem)
I couldn't care less for gunpowder units (except cannons)
Elephant Mercs!!!!!

Need I say more?

[Night]

The Khwarezmian Empire!
They have the most exciting position and get to fight the mongols and truly change history ..or not! Like the last barrier which stand before the mongols come to europe and decide the worlds fate! They are also the ones who actually fought with Genghis Khan himself in the wars! Other then the historic strenght and might it feels to play with them it is that they have a allround mix of strong units kind of like HRE but in the east.
My favorite used to be the turks but they have such bad unit icons, textures etc it feels bad playing with them.. tbh all the eastern factions have bad graphics and textures and icons and all though, the only real weakness of the mod so far.. meh
But yeah Khwrezmia is my favorite anyway

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Wow....the op asks a hard Question. In my heart I gotta say the Moors.

Having said that, K-Shah's rooster is the bomb. The poor Turks are either beyond sucking {units availible} or kill you lickittty quick {late game rooster}. The eyptians....quality but caught between ten stacks of crusaders, K-Sha, and the Byzzies...

[cedric37]

I voted for the Kwarezmian Empire, not the best roster (Turks have the best IMO), but i love the units and i like the challenge

[JorisofHolland]

The Golden Horde is actually Pagan in RR/RC (as they should be) so I don't see why they should be in this poll. They are powerfull mainly due to their high skilled (and dreaded) generals and experienced units. And their numbers, of course.