The Mongols!

[Ronojoy1917]

How do you deal with them? I'm playing as the Byzantines and can't seem to find a way of defeating the hordes that doesn't come with an exorbitant price in blood. The best way I think is allowing them to break themselves on strong walls and robust garrisons, but then what happens when they don't want to siege you? How to beat them in the field? My current strategy works, technically. A bunch of mounted archers, Skythions, Byzantine Cavalry, and Vardaratoi, basically using their own weapon against them. While this does win, it almost decimates completely my own force. What I generally do is attack with missile first and then after weakening the enemy some, charging. Is there any other way? Can they be stopped?

[Alfred K]

What I did with Russians was withdraw to my castles and just let them come. it's kinda fun to see how they charge all their cavalry in broken gate and get slaughtered by a bunch of spearmen. When I feel especially mean, I use their own siege equipment (siege towers, ladders) to bring down a bunch of troops and trap them in the gateway. Fighting them in the field is very hard. It's OK if you get a bridge battle and slaughter them with spearmen while they try to get across.

[Gazz]

And stakes are very helpful, though you don't have them. They helped me alot in my English campaign.

It's funny to watch hordes of Mongol rush through gate and get impaled in stakes.

[Alfred K]

And stakes are very helpful, though you don't have them. They helped me alot in my English campaign.

It's funny to watch hordes of Mongol rush through gate and get impaled in stakes.

Stakes? You mean sharpened wooden poles? Never heard of that feature before

[benitezking]

Stakes are a special ability I think only English long bowmen have which allows them to place stakes in front of them during the deployment stage. Any calvary that charges through them practically die, any that do pass have almost no effect.

[Alfred K]

Stakes are a special ability I think only English long bowmen have which allows them to place stakes in front of them during the deployment stage. Any calvary that charges through them practically die, any that do pass have almost no effect.

Thanks!

[Horse Archer Fan]

The Mongols have been roaming Iraq for 40+ turns in my campaign. Although I think me having full garrisons at Yerevan, Mosul, Baghdad, and Edessa might have something to do with it...

[=Bright=]

Stakes? You mean sharpened wooden poles? Never heard of that feature before

Probably because only England (Longbows), Poland (Lithuanian Archers) and the Turks (Janissary Archers) can use them. Unrealistic tbh.

Beating the mongols in open field.... hard task. The best way to beat them is indeed shooting them with loads of archers and artillery from a higher position.

[tudor93]

don't use HA ... I don't use them, I don't like them and I suck at micromanaging them
bring lots of foot archers ! byzantine guard archers (or something like that, haven't player M2TW for a while) and protect them with byzantine spearmen/swordsmen, take 2-3 light cavalry (or HA if you really like them) to chase down routers; I suppose you were controling the whole Turkey by the time they arrived and they attacked you there in the mountains, the terrain is perfect for your infrantry and their HA suck here
good luck

[=Bright=]

Perfect time to assassinate thier leaders.

[GNU07]

Well the Byzantines have a hard time dealing with Mongols. Your best bet are Vardariots with armor upgrade if possible, if you take them out in the open. Better to fight them up in the mountains where you'll get the height advantage. You can also upgrade your cities with ballista towers and stuff them with full stacks of byzantine spearmen. Don't waste money and slots on archers, you'll need every single spear available cause the Byzantines have the worst spearmen in the game, something i suppose you already know.

[Aeratus]

On the open field, a full stack of heavy cavalry, like Latinikon and Kataphractoi work best against Mongols. The Mongols have absolutely no way to counter heavy cavalry, except with their own heavy cavalry. However, they only have 4 units of heavy cavalry in their stack, which are easily overwelmed by a larger force of heavy cavalry.

A stack with lots of archers on a hill also work very well, if you can't afford to field a full stack of heavy cavalry.

[Silverheart]

Defending on bridges (don´t forget artillery) works good for halting their onslaught in the field, and full armies of Heavy Cavalry works best for attacking and breaking them - however, both strategies automatically comes with heavy casualties, so you best make sure to fight the Mongols somewhere realtively near a settlement which can retrain them.

I prefer to just set up huge garrisons in settlements and take them on beneath the walls.
If you are lucky enough to have a Fortress or Citadel become the target for their Swarm tactic, you can actually annihilate the entire mass of their Horde armies simply by knowing when to retreat to the next level - that way, you keep your casualties at a minimum, and greatly increases your chances to win since the Mongols have to fight through the defences of every single layer, only to then be forced to fight against the last stand of your army.
It works great, and since Mongol casualties go through the roof, they never break your forces in the last stand - if they even make it that far, that is...

[Christonikos]

Forts also do a good job. One gate to defend.

[ilmrik]

Forts also do a good job. One gate to defend.

if you mean the field work type fortress generals can build, that only works in versions where it has been modded, the vanilla one just traps your army in a deathtrap wooden enclosure that the HA just fire into. you often lose major parts of your army before you can even adapt to a decent fighting formation. very frustrating really!

[Christonikos]

if you mean the field work type fortress generals can build, that only works in versions where it has been modded, the vanilla one just traps your army in a deathtrap wooden enclosure that the HA just fire into. you often lose major parts of your army before you can even adapt to a decent fighting formation. very frustrating really!

Well, I disagree. I won my best fight against mongols in a fort. If you have heavy infantry the arrows can't do much. I sent my spearmen and infantry at tha gate and slaughtered all their horses.

[TheFoolOnTheHill]

jannasary archers make a square then put on the stakes and they will die

[tudor93]

jannasary archers make a square then put on the stakes and they will die

I know you have some problems (I saw the other of your posts) but shall we read the topic before replying ? thank you

[Magmaniac]

Archers, mangonels, and bridge battles.

[TheFoolOnTheHill]

Stakes in a square work against cav