templars faction

[ash874]

i think its almost unplayeble. not because of massive muslim armies. but because any city you conquer is completely muslim. hence you need to have an army inside the city for a long time until your priests manage to change the situation

anyone cares to elaborate on his experience playing with the templars and how he dealt with this problem? this is truly the one faction which i am unable to play with

[JorisofHolland]

Never had any trouble with the Muslims. I'm not sure if Mega has come around to this faction yet, but you should read his guide anyway:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...=329518&page=1

Anyway, playing as the Templars I always call a crusade against Antioch and move my cardinal to the area. Expansion will be a bit slow at start, though.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Thanks for the mention, JoH...

Yes, the Templars are the 1st faction I talk about in the start up guide section. the key with them is to hit the ground running and utilize crusades to full effect. If I recall correctly I recommended allying with the Turks and using the weight of the crusading stacks to break Salahudin's back. Of course with the Templars your going to face taking everything at least up to Bagdad and then deciding whether to use the Persians as a buffer against the Mongols. now if your busting it out at VH/VH your really putting a burden on yourself.

[Liandro]

I refused to ally with the Muslims around me as it made the faction too easy, actually as you capture about 8 Towns you'll find that you're pretty unassailable, but you're unable to expand easy. At least I wasn't, I did use Crusades though, but around turn 70-80+ you have your best troops (I did anyhow) and nothing, absolutely nothing the Egyptians or Turks can throw at you will slow you down. Because of all the stupid Crusades my generals had high Chivalry and because of that my castles blew up to Citadels around turn 70, Templar guard do not fear anything except maybe a cannon or stray trebuchet attack. I also did this on very hard, by turn 90-100 I was thoroughly bored, while I had only 30+ regions nowhere near the game complete standard, I felt no challenge or threat from anyone, least of all the arrow chucking Mongols who I had run-ins by turn 130, they couldn't pierce anything and they definitely couldn't charge me over. So the tense feeling of the Templars was felt only in its early stages (between turn 1 and 60). The Templars are a rush in the beginning though...

[HolyDevil]

i love the templars, but yeh, its hard at start, but if u manage to expand and resist, its going to be like any other faction the player controls... unstopable empire...

[sbroadbent]

i think its almost unplayeble. not because of massive muslim armies. but because any city you conquer is completely muslim. hence you need to have an army inside the city for a long time until your priests manage to change the situation

anyone cares to elaborate on his experience playing with the templars and how he dealt with this problem? this is truly the one faction which i am unable to play with

Read my Templar AAR: Rise of the Temple Knights for a 130 Turn "Guide".

It can be tough in the early game as you're trying to establish yourself and both the Turks and Fatimids are expanding in your direction. Then of course, the Khwarez eventually show up and then it becomes a triple threat.

Call an early crusade to Cairo. If the Fatimids lose Cairo and Aleandria early, you take a good chunk of income from them, and they can become wealthy cities for your own benefit. Grab Gaza to eliminate their best troop production castle.

If you're lucky, you can even get Antioch on the first turn if you send in your spy like I did. Although it can be a problem, religious unrest isn't much of an issue with a couple priests. The best part of it is they will gain a nice piety boost for all the conversion opportunities. It only takes a few turns to bump up catholicism to sufficient levels enough not to worry about religious unrest. Build a church and you really have nothing to worry about.

Far better is to send in an army of priests to wherever you plan to attack. If it takes you a couple turns to seize a settlement, you can probably bump up catholicism sufficient to not worry about it.

Also, take advantage of the Hospitaller Guilds whenever possible. You get guild points in the settlement when it borders a high muslim region. Compared to upgrading a castle to the level required to get your Templar Knights (mounted and infantry), these guilds give fast access to equivalent heavy cavalry/infantry. 1000 florins for a chapter house that takes no time to build. They cost just about as much and are just as good as your factions own equivalent. I think my game might've been much harder had I not gotten these guilds and the infantry and cavalry available. When I left the game last, I started to upgrade to the higher tiered Templar Knights mostly in the areas that were away from my main Hospitaller training grounds.

I really could have changed my name to be the Hospitaller Knights, because they made up the majority of my elite forces.