Need help with the Turkish Sultanate campaign

[kostas84]

I am not good at managing and stuff, but heres how it goes:

The Romans start with 2 stacks, i start with 1 stack, i try to conquer some rebel settlements but im afraid of those huge armies so i retreat and be defensive and try to expand to the east with what little army i have there, but little do i know, i have too little money to recruit some decent armies out on the field to expand and defend myself.

So now im afraid of the Romans and the Armenians attacking me and losing like half my regions to them due to the lack of troops and money.

And i definetaly dont want to cheat to get victory.

Should i just sit and conquer 1-2 settlements and then build some cheap trade-income buildings, get trade agreements and then build farms?

If i do that the Romans will keep massing up stacks and will attack me soon.

I am talking about the start here, the very start.

So, what should i do?

[Mihajlo]

Tbh I didnt play with Turkish Sultanate, did with some other factions. But I would do one out of this two:
1) take one rebels settlement at the time (gather your forces in one strong stack, since I know whit what you start, you can get 2 stacks of evil units there. Rebels shouldnt be hard to defeat.) and slowly build your economy, dont recruit much units, spend coins on eco. buildings.
2) Get your best troops, get 2 spies if possible, asap, and go straight to the Constantinople-take it- sack it-Romans are probably out of the game, and your pockets will be full of Empires coins
Also at 1204 there is 4th crusade towards romans, so you might want to wait for that one too, and attack them when they are busy with venetians... Really depends what is yours style of playing...

[Mihajlo]

2) Get your best troops, get 2 spies if possible, asap, and go straight to the Constantinople

cos of that possibility, I suggested to have 2 spys so she/he can open gate and avoid unpleasant massing behind gates
But I didnt notice playing BC that there is some hard scripts out here

[Zanze]

I'm currently doing my first campaign of BC, Armenia. While everything is new from my regularly played SS(holy cow building prices?) I'm doing good in the sense I managed to take out the Turkish Sultanate and win a bunch of skirmishes with Rome. Which is why I'm posting here.

Their field armies are ridiculous and I would have LOST the campaign had it not been for a very close victory near Seleuciea.(sp?) Thanks to the nice super mountain behind my troops, and the extremely steep hill in front I managed to down a full stack. Silly HA's couldn't shoot up the hill and eventually decided to charge my army of axemen.(these guys are great...if they survive the charge at least)

Every other attempt at fighting usually revolves around me winning sieges, then getting destroyed by their HA. (Javs<bows at range)

So my 2c: play your strengths. Those HA are god annoying and almost unstoppable in the right conditions. From the faction descriptions it sounded like Rome doesn't have great archery, so make em sally. On the other hand, Armenia starts out with crap to say the least. You can eliminate them early by defeating their single field army and taking Sis. Nothing to fear from a bunch of spearmen who route at the sight of a shiny sword.

Edit: One more thing, don't always use "The best units" or else 1 crushing defeat could be your endgame. Be satisfied with light and medium troops until you get a stable economy. Hell, my army is currently a bunch of mid-level archers and 2h axemen.

[onlygokhan]

you can't do anything.. This situation is same for everone.. Developers should do something for anatolian Turk factions in BC 3.. In Bc 2 it's impossible to survive without cheat.. Although you can try my solution.. I edited campaign_script.txt (.....\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\broken_crescent\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign) and I removed Ai's extra incomes which comes with script automatically..

For do this please remove lines of these catagories;
RECRUITMENT EVENTS
RAIDER'S LOOT
AI CASH SCRIPT

[wudang_clown]

In Bc 2 it's impossible to survive without cheat..

Excuse me, but I would like to notice that it is you who can't survive playing Anatolian Seljuks without a cheat. I've played this faction few times, it is hard campaign, but to say that it's impossible is a clear generalization.

you can't do anything..

How can you claim this if Mihajlo has just presented a strategy?

[onlygokhan]

Excuse me, but I would like to notice that it is you who can't survive playing Anatolian Seljuks without a cheat. I've played this faction few times, it is hard campaign, but to say that it's impossible is a clear generalization.

You are right in some point and I had been survived and eliminated the ERA before too but it was just a chance.. You know medieval camping is a variable so this camping game, which I succeded, ERA was focused Armanian attacks (ERA and Armania were ennemy) and Georgia was seized by Great seljuks..

How can you claim this if Mihajlo has just presented a strategy?

1) After ERA and Armanian attacks building economy can be impossible and if u near abbasids and georgia (they sometimes coming near of us) do not try it
2) I wanted to use best units too but best units = expenses.. On the other hand you have a poor economy.. And don't trust best units becouse 1-2 ERA will comes with best units and after you will have to fight with battered units againts full of new and powerfull units

I can't tell everything fluently and clearly I'm sorry if I misunderstood..

[kostas84]

Ok this is my situation right now:

I conquered the rebel settlements to the north, i have a steady income of 3500 per turn.

Screenshots:






I am simply looking for peoples opinions.

Any suggestions?

[Khwarezm]

When i play the turkish sultanate, I make sure to siege settlements with a few cavalry units so the rebels will attack me at the end of each turn. I attack 2-3 settlements at a time, that make me expand ~1-2 regions every turn.
I attack:
Karaman before the armenians can conquer, Sinope, amaseia before the RE can conquer.
The cities of amorium and Dorylaeum are not necesarry to conquer. ( leave it to RE).
Your current position is quite good. You can conquer the eastern settlements with a few cavalry units (Malatya, etc).
Before you attack RE, you can try to conquer Armenia first. Their army is much weaker, are easily overcome with your powerfull infantry and cavalry units. The Armenian settlements are very rich. After you conquered those regions, are theyl providing you with 1500-2000 income every turn.
Destroying RE wouldn't be a trouble at all.
The RE will only try to attack Ankara or Konya. Having 6-8 units in they regions, will prevent any attack from RE. Your current stacks on the screenshots are more than enough.

[ezergeçer]

Ok this is my situation right now:

I conquered the rebel settlements to the north, i have a steady income of 3500 per turn.

Screenshots:






I am simply looking for peoples opinions.

Any suggestions?

[Mihajlo]

1) After ERA and Armanian attacks building economy can be impossible and if u near abbasids and georgia (they sometimes coming near of us) do not try it
2) I wanted to use best units too but best units = expenses.. On the other hand you have a poor economy.. And don't trust best units becouse 1-2 ERA will comes with best units and after you will have to fight with battered units againts full of new and powerfull units

I can't tell everything fluently and clearly I'm sorry if I misunderstood..

Seems to me that you have problem on battlefield then. I check with how many HA turks start= you should be REALLY able to literally rape rebels n romans on open field. Im not an expert for battles, but if your army ratio is 1:1 against ai, yous should be able to crush them on field. If yu have problems to win battle with less casualties then ai, well problem isnt in strategy. Still I would suggest sneaky attack on Constantinople, if you take it, you win agaisnt romans for sure...

[Neige]

I like that BC is generally harder. Vanilla Medieval 2 and actually most mods are boring and easy. BC offers at least some challenge. And I don't care that a lot of things are scripted. It is the only way, since Med2's AI sucks on its own. Simply speaking, hard = good.

[Dago Red]

You must rely on your strengths. You cannot win on the walls against superior Roman swordsmen and Pelekyphoroi, etc. but you can slaughter them in pitched battles (on open terrain without a city/castle). Khwarezm makes sense, laying seige to smaller towns with horse and forcing the enemy to sally out where you can weaken them with missiles and then ride them down.

The Turks of Rum are made to be fighting on the move, in the field, not bogged down in big urban sieges... You should leave Dorylaeum and the other well defended places alone and let the ERE bleed on them.

[Dago Red]

Doesn't the reinforcements script add troops to Constantinople?? It should.
It's stupid if the AI leaves it completely undefended. that would never have happened IRL, though attacking while a main army is not in the vicinity would still be a good idea.

[Zippy]

Horse archers and cavalry, all the way my friend. They will treat you better than you treat your mother Force enemy to sally ASAP! and dont worry whether or not you are outnumbered. Look at the types of troops you are going up against! if the enemy force consists only of infantry, then you needn't worry, use 2-4 horse archers, and whittle them down in multiple battles as they leave the safety of the settlement and try to charge you!

Also, leave on the battle timer, so that if your horse archers run out of ammo, just have them run away to a far corner of the map, and keep them running so the infantry cant catch them! then timer runs out, battle ends, and you still have them under siege! then they sally out again, and you repeat the process! MWAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!(Btw it helps if you turn the game speed to 6 times normal, so the timer runs out quicker! But DONT DO THIS when you are actually fighting, or you can end up in bad situations....)

But, you gotta be smart! Sometimes you gotta focus on a specific target! Here is how i rank the strengths of the different troop types with color coding to help recognize the threat level:
Heavy/melee cavalry-These guys will make mincemeat of your horse archers, and if you dont have a solid melee cavalry to counter them with, they WILL RUN YOU DOWN! Run n' gun, but if it looks like your arrows wont penetrate, then move the unit they are chasing far away, and have the rest of your guys concentrate on other targets. It helps to have a horse archer with that rides the fast pony, you can tell if it says fast moving in the unit description
Horse archers-What better way to counter horse archers, than with your own? Gauge the strength of the unit, if you have the advantage of numbers, swamp em in melee, and destroy them quickly! but watch your back, your stationary troops fighting in melee might get attacked by the rest of the enemy army. If it looks that way, disengage and regroup further away
JavCav-These guys can be more dangerous than the horse archers, but keep your distance, and their javelins wont catch you. Keep in mind, some you will DEFINITELY not want to engage in melee, such as Armenian Aspets, due to their armor and fighting skill, whilst some, like Roman Trapezitae, will melt quickly in hand to hand.
Foot archers-These guys can be a real pain to deal with, especially since they often have a much longer shooting range than your horse archers. Decoy the rest of the enemy army, and try to surround and engage them in melee. If they are too stong a unit to fight(georgian monaspas, latin crossbowmen, etc.) disengage. It really helps to have a lancer cavalry in your own forces just for engaging the enemy foot archers. But, as with all infantry, they are much slower than cavalry, so use this to your advantage!
Infantry and Artillery-I lump all other footsoldiers into this category, including spearmen, swordsmen, axemen, javelin skirmishers, and any other troop who fights hand to hand. They are not much of a threat to fast moving horse archers, or any cavalry in general, due to their slow speed. Lancers and horse archers alike will have a field day mowing them down, just watch out for spearmen! If it looks like they are bracing for your charge, disengage before it hits, and have them chase after you, then turn around and charge them again! No bracing bonus for you! Horse archers and javcav can use their usual run and gun tactics, but the infantry are so slow that you can literally have your horse archers walk away from them, all the while shooting, and when you hear them charging, hit the run button for a brief time before resuming a slow walk, and you should have put enough distance between your guys and the enemy's to nullify their charge Artillery cant sally, they cant even get out of the gates! Sadly this can be a bad thing, as your own guys generally cant engage them either, thus you will be forced to siege for the entire duration that a settlement can survive, and this wastes time. Switch out your cavalry for infantry, build some ladders really quickly, and take the center of the town if the only enemy left are artillery.

Color guide-Red high to very high threat, Orange medium to high threat, green low to very low threat

Use this guide as a tactical reference, and I GUARANTEE YOU WILL WIN EVERY BATTLE! Be brave, but more importantly be patient!, and remember that numbers do not matter, especially in a cavalry vs. infantry battle!

[atalay1988]

The best thing to do when you play with the Turkish sultanate is attack roman empire like crazy, because if u dont then they will do attack you like crazy when i tried to play with turkish sultanate first time i tried playing defensive but i lost all of my regions. the second time i play when the game started i directly attacked eastern roman with my wholee army, and i finished romans in a few turns. the key is to attack them non stop, make them shock! and dont even try to face roman infantries with very light armoured turkish infantries, only use horse archers. roman infantries are moving so slow u can hunt them like ducks with your horse archers. After u finish eastern romans, finishing Armenia will be just a battle practice for you before you face stronger enemies..

[ezergeçer]

The best thing to do when you play with the Turkish sultanate is attack roman empire like crazy, because if u dont then they will do attack you like crazy when i tried to play with turkish sultanate first time i tried playing defensive but i lost all of my regions. the second time i play when the game started i directly attacked eastern roman with my wholee army, and i finished romans in a few turns. the key is to attack them non stop, make them shock! and dont even try to face roman infantries with very light armoured turkish infantries, only use horse archers. roman infantries are moving so slow u can hunt them like ducks with your horse archers. After u finish eastern romans, finishing Armenia will be just a battle practice for you before you face stronger enemies..

[Zippy]

Yeah dont let the romans recover their lost territory, or you will be doomed. As I said earlier, horse archers and cavalry all the way. For that is how the Turks fight!

[kostas84]

Thanks for the replies guys, especially Zippy.



Lets hope that i win.

[kostas84]

Go check out my AAR.