Khwarezmians are Unstoppable!

**MagicCuboid** · February 01, 2012, 11:46 PM

In the earliest period, anyway. All I had to do was build a mine in Urgench and the rest was history for any debt I might imagine. It gave me a ridiculous amount of gold per turn that early on. I made use of jihads and mercenaries to conquer the rest of Persia. After taking Baghdad and using my chivalrous generals to grow the cities in Persia (new capital at Ray) , it's almost unfair how much I'm pulling in per turn. I almost can't train soldiers fast enough to keep up with the growth.

As a result, I've gotten to have the most fun time with military strategy this time around. The Seljuks were destroyed by turn 60 (thanks to some cooperation with my friends the Fatimids and Cumans), then I made the Crusader States my vassals so as not to upset the pope too much by destroying them, and the crown jewel of it all: I planned an invasion of Roman Anatolia that went off without a hitch. I surprised them with no less than six sieges on turn 70, five of which were on fortresses, and I took all of them the very next turn. I've never conquered a country all at once like that, it felt very "official"!

Now that Rome's military production has been neutered, I'm looking forward to the Mongol invasion. With only my converted Khiva as a fortress in the East, I'm trying to orchestrate a mass migration of force from my newly acquired fortresses in Anatolia toward Khwarezm. Granted I'm only playing on Hard, but give the Khwarezmians a try. I always overlooked them, but they manage a great balance of western-style cavalry and eastern-style archers/light cavalry. But who knows? Maybe I'll be crying once the Mongols start chomping cities!

**MagicCuboid** · February 01, 2012, 11:49 PM

Sorry, I don't have an edit button yet. I forgot to mention, I'm using Serbian Hussar's slow map progression mod. That's why there are so many settlements in Anatolia - he really beefed up the Balkans, too, and France. I think he did remove a couple from Persia, which might explain why my expansion was so rapid.

**Ferdiad** · February 02, 2012, 07:14 AM

Well you shouldnt have much problem with the Mongols if you have most of the Middle East, just make sure you have 15+ stacks in east Persia.

**Henry X** · February 02, 2012, 05:54 PM

I am eagerly awaiting the necessary Mongol update.

**MagicCuboid** · February 02, 2012, 07:09 PM

Thanks for the estimate Ferdiad! It's only turn 75 but I also only have 1.5 stacks in Khwarezm so I better get moving. I'm mostly nervous because of those dreaded generals.

I'm prepared to give up Urgench and Khiva but god help those Mongols if they try to cross the bridge into Persia. should definitely be interesting though! Truth is I've never had to deal with them much so I'm excited to give it my best shot.

**The Useless Member** · February 02, 2012, 07:18 PM

The Khwarezmians have the 2nd best calvary in the world. In my experience, they're the most peaceful faction in the game.

**MagicCuboid** · February 03, 2012, 04:18 AM

Update: It's turn 80 and I've taken the rest of Anatolia and Iraklion, then signed a peace treaty with the Romans. It was easy to convince them what with a giant allied Cuman army marching on Constantinople from the north and Venetians/Hungarians squabbling over their western frontier. Byzantines are pretty *%$@ed this game, if I have to place bets.

Anyway, with all my western flanks pretty well covered by diplomacy, I'm going to leave a couple stacks behind and start the long march east. I counted up my total non-militia army right now and it's only at about half the strength I'd like, so I've got about 20 turns left to recruit like mad from all those newly captured fortresses and then it'll take another 10-15 to march em east after that. I could be cutting it a little close, but I'm making sure to pump mangonels, archers and noblemen straight for that bridge ASAP so I can have a bit of peace of mind. I'll post again when the mongols actually show.

**jedimasterchief** · February 03, 2012, 01:48 PM

Yea they are pretty badass once developed. Royal gaurd infantry is the best heavy infantry in the game, armored horse archers, royal gaurd cavalry and armored spearman.

**Ferdiad** · February 03, 2012, 05:57 PM

JHI are probaly the best HI in the game actually, They can beat the Royal Guard Units most of the time.

**Aeratus** · February 03, 2012, 09:29 PM

Khwarezmians have some ridiculously powerful cavalry in the first 100 turns of the early campaign.

However, I don't like their later game roster because they have nothing that can be trained from cities, and their late cavalry is outclasses by that of the Turks and Egypt. Still, I think the Royal Guard infantry is the best. I'm not sure if they beat JHIs, but they are certainly the best in terms of style.

**GiddeeUpp** · February 04, 2012, 09:30 AM

JHI have AP i believe, they beat pretty much any other infantry if you check them in custom battle, they beat dismounted gothic knights are close fights with tabaridiyaa

**jedimasterchief** · February 04, 2012, 10:58 AM

Royal gaurd infantry beats JHI unless its a long fight, because JHI has better stamina. In a fair fight 1v1 royal gaurd wins every time.

**Shadow888** · February 04, 2012, 04:09 PM

in my campaign they have half the world, and im desperately trying to help HRE stop them in the middle east and the Poles stop them in russia....

Ive lost god knows how many vikings to their nothing but Generals bodyguard, ghulams and Khwarezm nobles armies. (btw is the AI affected by unit build times or can they just churn out units at will??)

Turns out norway is severely ill prepared to face down heavy cavalry....
But as ppl have said, stakes help A LOT, i use 4 norse archers to lay down stakes, the when the battle starts move 4 units of Crossbowmen behind the stakes and teh norse archrs behind the Xbowmen.

I cover the flanks with shciltron'ed urban militas (who take horrendous casualties ...) and when one of their pazer tanks, erm i mean, heavy cavalry units is severely weakened, i charge em with Huscarl cavalry.
Im slowwwwly bleeding the buggers.... i dont know if can keep it up though, as it seems im running out of unit pools to recruit from.

**MagicCuboid** · February 07, 2012, 05:50 PM

A lot of people place a self imposed ban on stakes since they're so helpful, but Norway definitely has trouble when facing lots of cavalry.

I brought over some mourtatoi to help prepare against the Mongols myself. They're almost arrived (I got the warning message a few turns ago) and my treasury's gone down by over 200,000 florins over the last thirty turns or so getting ready. While I wait my eyes have turned west for entertainment.

A lot of funny things have happened. Typical that England destroyed Scotland recently. Less typical that the Papal States hulked out and made Genoa their vassal! The HRE was Genoa's vassal before that, and they didn't survive the regime change. Seems like the Pope wants Italy all for himself as he wars against Sicily.

**Logios** · February 09, 2012, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by MagicCuboid

A lot of people place a self imposed ban on stakes since they're so helpful, but Norway definitely has trouble when facing lots of cavalry.

I brought over some mourtatoi to help prepare against the Mongols myself. They're almost arrived (I got the warning message a few turns ago) and my treasury's gone down by over 200,000 florins over the last thirty turns or so getting ready. While I wait my eyes have turned west for entertainment.

A lot of funny things have happened. Typical that England destroyed Scotland recently. Less typical that the Papal States hulked out and made Genoa their vassal! The HRE was Genoa's vassal before that, and they didn't survive the regime change. Seems like the Pope wants Italy all for himself as he wars against Sicily.

AFAIK this self imposed stake ban is only relevant for siege defence, not open battles.
I have read your posts with pleasure and you do great descriptions. Could you make some screenshots (particularily when the Mongols arrive) to illustrate them?
I have never myself played Khwarezmians, but it is one of the few factions where I have seen the AI receive victory conditions.
Oh, and @Shadow888: Where in the world are those battles between Norwegians and Persians taking place?