Questions from a new SS player - Difficulty

**XiombargDei** · April 26, 2010, 03:42 AM

Hi all, new player to SS here
I wanted to play M2TW again, but with another mod than DLV. SS was a natural choice

Confident in my capabilities i started a new campaign as Templars with SS 6.1, RR-RC & supply system, but not Byg's IV. And i got my ass handed to me by the AI. Badly. Well now i'm playing on M-M and i find this is still really hard, as Templars, fighting endless stacks of Fatimids, and later on Kwaz....

I've of course read all the strategy guides available here, and some AARs, but I'm still questionning some of you guys great successes. For example in Stainless Steel Standards Campaign Tips & Factions Guide there is a guide for Templars. Its says by turn 25 one should have antioch edessa jerusalem damascus gaza acre ...... how on hearth is that even possible ??? Between rebels ans Fatimids rushing every settlements i hardly survive. Not talking about HRE, being ganged from all sides. Or Sicily, how am i supposed to hold the Moors in Africa ? They are too damn strong at start.

So what do think i am missing here ? Should I turtle more ? Should I try Easy-Easy ? Is there some concepts I forgot ? Any clue on how to improve my enjoyement ? I'm kinda disapointed by the overall difficulty....

**Mega Tortas de Bodemloze** · April 26, 2010, 04:59 AM

Well lemmie see.....

1. I'm playing just SS6.2, no adds ons. M/M.
2. Ya need to milk the hell out of the Crusades, available on turn 3 btw...

.
3. You need to be a great field general and keep battle casualties to a bare minimum.
4. By turn 25 you can have called 2 crusades. One on turn 3, and the other on turn 15.

If your disappointed cuz it's too difficult then lower the setting, or try SS6.2 plain. But then again having played DLA you should be acclimated to the in depth role play that some of the sub-mods offer. Please remember that the player dictates alot of the action and outcomes. For example, I recommend allying with the turks cuz their gonna crash and burn so why not use them as a meat shield against Egypt & K-Shah. Having said that, piss them off and your staring down the barrel of at least 2-4 stacks headed your way out of the gate, and in the beginning the last thing you want to see is a Horsearcher....

If I recall correctly in that campaign I got to Damascus before Salahudin cuz on turn 11 he was still putzing around with Jerusalem. I had time to get my best stuff there and jacked up two of his stacks. Even if your turtling you always need to keep the pressure on.

XiombargDei ... I would love to try one of the endepth mods but I have game a-d-d. If I can stick around and build the infastructure then I want to be able to build the units cuz I hate fighting with pitchforks & soup ladels. Even with just plain SS6.2 I seem to have plenty of roleplay and micromanage the hell otta everything. Now if you want to stay with SS 6.1, RR-RC & supply system then you might want to post in the sub-mod forum to get the best advice for that particular sub-mod.

**Navajo Joe** · April 26, 2010, 05:37 AM

XiombargDei,

Some excellent advise from our learned friend Mega, I attach a thread that you should find useful, it was from when I attempted to play as the Templars and made a complete hash of it, well there is some useful advise from 'Quark'

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=181416

**Ichon** · April 26, 2010, 11:06 AM

The Fatimid armies look worse than they are. The only units that are dangerous to you in an early era campaign are their cavalry and Nubian archers in mass. If you see a Fatimid army with +4-5 Cavalry plus at least 2-3 Nubian archers that is the really the only army composition they have that can mess you up. Otherwise you should be able to wipe most of their full stack armies off the map with minimal losses. Use your generals bodyguard to draw out their light cavalry and your spearmen can then trap the LC. Their generals have quite high armor for that early so it is better to sacrifice a cheap unit to the generals charge and then use your general and maybe also mounted sergeants to charge the rear of their general's bodyguard.

If you can make it thru the first series of battles you'll notice the Fatimids armies turn into many spearmen and not much else for awhile and that is the ideal time to expand. Of course eventually they will return with many cavalry and archers again. To really get going usually you will need to get a couple decent spies and raid down into Egypt from a ship. Damietta and Alexandria are usually lightly garrisoned and capturing both and sacking + burning to the ground will cost you few casualties. If Cairo is also unguarded you might be able to run inland and do the same there. That will slow them down a huge amount plus give you some needed cash because the sheer numbers they can field otherwise start to wear you down over time with RR on. There are usually some Turkomen HA as mercenaries or some other HA mercenaries available and the Egyptian units are very vulnerable to those. Get an army with 3-4 HA and 1 generals and you can win many heroic victories against almost any Egyptian army less than a full 20 stack.

**algorath** · April 26, 2010, 11:58 AM

There´s lots of advice on how to beat the AI, just browse around a little
for example SirWalters Strategie Guide

Some advice for battles:
Germanicus' battle AI is really tough, watch out for flanking cavalry, make sure you have cav yourself to counter their charge before they smack into your infanterie line.
Kill the enemy general asap.
Protect your own general^^.
Use heavy infantry to engage his main battle line, Flank him with cav or light infantry.
Fatamids as well as turcs may have mounted archers, and lots of them, make sure you field units that can take them on (archers or trap them with light cav)
Make sure you have the hill advantage. Being outnumbered is bad enough, having your troops to attack up a hill aint good.

Good huntin

**Merry** · April 26, 2010, 01:16 PM

6.2 cranks the difficulty up a hell of a lot, if you are having to much trouble switch to 6.1

**XiombargDei** · April 27, 2010, 02:54 AM

Thanks to you guys good tips and advices I managed to survive the first 50 turns as Templars. I now proudly own Tortosa Antioch (crusade) Aleppo and Damascus. Second crusade on Jerusalemn is currently going on, but i'm waiting for european knights and pilgrims to reduce Fatimids' stacks a bit. Economy is really harsh, even with Governors and very high taxes. I even was tempted to sell Antioch after the first crusade was over to get money.
So now i have 4 cities, the Seljuks are calm for now, since i didnt take Edessa, The Kwaz are starting to rise and the Fatimids are still a real menace. Strugeling for surviving is fun, my Family members are all max stars and chivalry generals (i only release prisoners).
I'll play 50 more turns to see if i can take on the fatimids harder or not.

very fun mod

I'm on Medium/Medium... (you ppl on VH/VH are godlike...

)