I am really stuck here? Please can anyone help????? "Minor Spoilers"

Ok so after about 5 attempts I am so stuck on the Egypt part of NTW. I have tried everything from kill England First to storm through the Mamlukes and the outcome is always the same. not enough money to properly defend my captured towns. I have tried using Malitia as they are the cheapest to get. I realize that they are also the weakest but any other type and I am bankrupt. I seems to take averything I have just to keep my main army going leaving nothing money wise to spenfd on city defense. I generally try to keep all my building up to spec in a attempt to make money.

Cam amyone here help me out and give me some ideas of what unit types are best for city defence. Also what are some of the things you all have done on this porton of the game when you start out to get your war machine rolling I am having a hell of a time just getting a foothold in this part of the game as I seem to always be on the defence and can't really make a advance????

Please help I am outta ideas? if it helps I am on N/N

Originally Posted by Groove74

Ok so after about 5 attempts I am so stuck on the Egypt part of NTW. I have tried everything from kill England First to storm through the Mamlukes and the outcome is always the same. not enough money to properly defend my captured towns. I have tried using Malitia as they are the cheapest to get. I realize that they are also the weakest but any other type and I am bankrupt. I seems to take averything I have just to keep my main army going leaving nothing money wise to spenfd on city defense. I generally try to keep all my building up to spec in a attempt to make money.

Cam amyone here help me out and give me some ideas of what unit types are best for city defence. Also what are some of the things you all have done on this porton of the game when you start out to get your war machine rolling I am having a hell of a time just getting a foothold in this part of the game as I seem to always be on the defence and can't really make a advance????

Please help I am outta ideas? if it helps I am on N/N

Militia units are the best way to go, so you're in good shape there. How many are you dedicating to protect each city? I usually do 2-3 in each, but I also have 3 full stack armys (Nappy leading the way into the Ottoman regions, the other guy who is currently mopping up down the Nile and readying to get the Bedouins, and a third army that is in the Nile Delta just roaming around waiting for the Brits to get frisky.

Loot cities when you are feeling the pinch moneywise. Don't do it TOO often or you'll tie up all your armies in garrison duty just putting down the unhappy citizens. I looted the last 2 mameluke cities I took (Beni Suf(sp?) and Suez) and got my gold totals above 15,000.

Cool ty for the tips, When I restart again I try looting a few citys here and there. as I have descoverd all my shortfalls are Money related.

+rep to you for the tips!

Hey, just thought I'd add:
1. Take Cairo and then move east. Theres no need to get tied down below the Nile delta. However, this does mean that you will be under constant attack from the 2 Mameluke cities "below" cairo, but this means you can focus your defense on one city. I noticed that on hard/ hard I didn't need much more than 2 line units and a light cav unit to hold cairo. The reason for this is A. the Mamelukes only good troops are cavalry (buildings are your best friend) and most importantly B. one unit of cavalry can usually rout about 4-5 units of pesky little guys if your doing it right (charge withdraw charge...etc).

Now that your holding them to the south, there are really only 2 more things... 1. Keep pushing forward with napolean (use alot of cavalry against their melees, those dragoons really help) and 2. the Bedouins will occasionally want to attack you farther north, but oops, they forgot to bring infantry. Just make sure you don't get caught holding cavalry in a northern city, get your men in buildings and shoot all their camels.

PS. British presence is overrated. Just don't build ships and hold a few extra units of line in Alexandria.
PPS: Palestinian aux. become invaluable endgame when the Ottomans come down hard and fusiliers are scarce, recruit the max and keep replenishing Napoleon as you don't have the time to restock your original units.

Way cool.. good stuff there. thanks for the help, I will try this plan of attack on this time through.

+rep to you

I captured Cairo and the surrounding towns, took the British island base, took the Bedouins (sp?). I didn't have any particular strategy. I peacefully occupied all cities I took. Maybe you autoresolve too much? After it was time to move into Ottoman territory I brought 3-4 full stacks scrambled together from here and there and took Damascus. Sorry I can't offer much helpful advice, because I didn't really do anything out of the ordinary. Oh and the damn camels...form a square. I killed 5-6 camel warrior units with 2-3 line inf in square.

On normal difficulty, Egypt campaign is a cakewalk. I only found the problem when I had the Cairo uprising and British landing all in the same turn and my forces were elsewhere (took three cities in the previous turn). Then damn beduins were giving me grief (didn't figure to put my troops in buildings, lol ). A few tough battles but otherwise, never had money problems, took my time, didn't rush and still finished a full year ahead of the deadline. I've performed every task they gave me and those money bonuses were nice. Never looted a single city and while I had to garrison a few, it didn't take long before I could move on - usually, by the time my army is done resting up, the captured town gets used to my rule lol I think this was the problem only at the end, when I started taking over Turkish cities, mamelukes were happy to convert to my beliefs lol (or maybe I was just rushing a little bit, didn't like the sight of those full Turkish stacks, although I took out one, the rest didn't get to the frontlines in time

I think it helps to actually build up (read- priority given to economic growth, i.e. build all economic buldings first and try not to waste troops on auto-resolve) and expand rather than just try sticking to bare objectives. For example, taking out the brits was a major boon - the island brought nice dough and as a bonus, killing the brits allowed me to control the seas (although the naval transport is nerved - can't unload in port and attack in the same turn any more, and can't load troops to transport and move). In the end I eliminated English, Mameluks and controlled the seas - used those 32gun Turkish frigates against them lol (love capturing enemy ships!). All research was done (used spare gentlemen as spotters for beduins in the desert), all the buildings were maxed out (except a couple), roads fully upgraded, 4 full stacks and change, large fleet and still earning 4-5k a turn. I think I had around 20 provinces under my belt.

I'd like to add that I beat the Egyptian campaign last night, with about 7 turns to spare. Cutting it close.

The Brits landed near Alexandria (with that crazy scary Nelson led fleet) but they only landed about 3/4 of a stack, artillery infantry and cavalry. Okay. No big deal here, as I had an army just finishing being built in Alexandria. Marched them over and spanked them. When I finally got around to getting ships together to invade Cyprus, I built 2 sloops. The first I used to scout out the area and draw off Nelson's monster fleet while the second carried the troops.

Worked like a charm, my transport evaded his ships and the decoy ate a bunch of round shot and died like he was meant to.

On Cyprus the British immediately moved to attack my force near the beach-head they had established, but lo and behold: all they had were some Light Dragoons and Line Infantry to contend against my large combined arms force. Looks like they sent all their quality units to Egypt and never built any more. Long story short, I managed to inflict about 40% casualties on them and they fled to the city. That fell shortly thereafter (after a pretty long and bloody fight) and Cyprus was French.

So yeah Britain is sorta over-rated in that scenario (except for their navy!!!) by the end of it, I had pretty much the entire map under control except for the deep desert provinces and one or two Ottoman provinces.

Is the british garrison big in cyprus? Because i was planning to attack there.

Originally Posted by Grenadier guard

Is the british garrison big in cyprus? Because i was planning to attack there.

It's like 2 and a half stacks. Not to be trifled with, but if you have a strong stack to spare (give it good arty and cavalry and about 6 units of line) you can take Nicosia pretty easily.\

I lucked out because the Brits sent all their artillery and some infantry and cavalry to Egypt and I killed them there, away from the rest of their troops.

Originally Posted by Dizoakius Maximus

It's like 2 and a half stacks. Not to be trifled with, but if you have a strong stack to spare (give it good arty and cavalry and about 6 units of line) you can take Nicosia pretty easily.\

I lucked out because the Brits sent all their artillery and some infantry and cavalry to Egypt and I killed them there, away from the rest of their troops.

Will the Nelsons fleet gone after i take cyprus? And can you give any tips how to land there?

Originally Posted by Grenadier guard

Will the Nelsons fleet gone after i take cyprus? And can you give any tips how to land there?

Yep, Engish are finished as a faction when you take Cyprus - Nelson goes back home lol I build four sloops, arranged them in long arc way out of the area where Nelson and Turkish fleets operate (middle and the eastern potion of the sea, my ships were to the west) and then passed my troops from one ship to another, landing my troops on the island in one turn (maybe two due to nerfing of the naval transport - can't move after you load the troops it seems). When I arrived, English didn't have two stacks as someone said, one stack in the city and maybe 3 stray units, attacked them one by one. It is kinda stupid that they built only line inf and light cavalry, looked scary at first but my cannons tore them all to pieces.

Thanks for all the helpfull advice on this part of the game. I finally beat thish part with 6-7 turns left.

What I did is I set one army and a gen with around 600 troops to defend Alexandra. Then I built a full stack to take Ciro and the set that army to defend it. from there I took a half stack Army to go raid and plunder Citys making my way to the Key. goal citys. This helped to end my Money problems. once I had a good foothold I sent the half Stack back to Alexandra to defend it. I then took the full army there and went and Took out the Blue Bloods. from there I set of a small defence force, From there Napoleon's Army hit the final few citys and took the Win!

Love how its called "Stacks" now hehe but before my Egyptian Campaign went to cause i lost Cairo, but yea hold Cairo push ant take the required territories with Napoleon and yes do take Cyprus because i just rushed to the city with out exploring and occupied it before the other British Armies came along. It is good because you can transport men by boat without that Ho nelson being a ho

Funny, I played the Egypt campaign again on H/H, and finished at exactly same turn as my first run on N/N - turn 38 (late Dec 1799). Pretty much same strategy as I described in my post above, only I took my time to take out beduins as well this time around and still managed to finish a year early