An Apocalypse?

[HMS England]

I've recently been playing a migratory campaign as the French where I loaded up all my troops and sailed for the middle East. The first 15 turns were me just getting over there and setting up a beachhead. After that I had skirmish after skirmish with the Egyptians until I finally conquered them by turn 50. After which the Turks, Byzantines, Hungarians, Sicilians, Russians, and Venetians went out of there way to gang bang me until the Mongols came. And I must admit, I was caught off guard by them (Since I usually play as Western/Central European factions so they're "not my problem", I haven't really ever gone toe-to-toe with them...until now) so much to the point that I had to cheat a little by adding income.

All this time while this is going on, I'm having Earthquakes and Flash Floods every 10 turns or so killing 5-10 thousand people of a region, plagues in random settlements killing another 5-10 thousand people over the course of 5 turns or so, and stacks of rebels popping up in almost every region, I kid you not, every other turn after I've killed them multiple times. I've never had this happen in any campaign I've ever played before. It's like an end of the world prophecy fulfilling itself. I can see it now...

"The Floods and Earthquakes will ravage your people, the rebels will pop up and annoy you with just the sight of their presence, the plagues will infest all of your cities, the other factions will gang rape you to their delight, and the hordes from the East will stampede through your regions killing all your troops in their way with ease."

I didn't manage to get rid of the Mongols until around turn 130, and only through the luck of 20 assassins and a total of 15 stacks consisting of a range from militia, to heavy cavalry (supposedly the best of the West), pikemen, crossbowmen, mounted archers, mercenaries, etc. I litterally tried EVERYTHING and I came to the conclusion militia was completely and utterly useless, spearmen were ineffective for the most part, even in schiltrom formation, crossbowmen were too easy of targets for the lancers, pikemen did fairly well against lancers but got eaten up by archers, heavy cavalry got tore the up by everything and were only good for that initial charge, and mounted archers could only match, NOT EXCEED, but match their horse archers at best. Not to mention I can't even tell you how many times I had full, fresh units route as soon as they hit a unit because of the god awful generals with full dread scaring them to the point of a heart attack. And I needed 20 assassins because they had about a 5% chance each of killing a general (you do the math).

And the good news you might ask? The Timurids which are even HARDER are coming in 20 turns with war elephants! Oh joy.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Don't worry too much about the Timurids. For some reason, they never expand much in my games. To beat the Mongols, you should avoid open battles and focus on sieges.

[PrestigeX]

Don't worry too much about the Timurids. For some reason, they never expand much in my games. To beat the Mongols, you should avoid open battles and focus on sieges.

I agree, Timurids are fearsome - their units / roster, their armies etc... But, the critical difference between Mongols and timurids would be.

TIME... mongols show up, you have mostly low-medium quality troops and they've got elites.-- timurids arrive - you've got everything - citadels and your best soldiers, plus cannons n such.

[Timur_the_Lame]

bridge battles ftw against the mongols and timmies

[Bloodly]

That is an impressive amount of chaos you've had to deal with. Congratulations on pulling it off.

Hmm. Migration...

Sounds cool.

I think it's time for the Papal States to take a trip. God knows it's easier than dealing with the hellhole of states that is Italy. You just get so bogged down. Down there's rich anyway.

[Drachos]

For some reason, the Timurids in my campaign are expanding more than the Mongols.
When the Timurids arrive, you should have cannon towers. Deploy in the LAST ring of the citadel with a big amount of crossbowmen or strong archers (no way peasant archers) and pikes or heavy infantry in the last ring, that should hold it. When Timur the Lame attacked my citadel i did it that way and my cannon towers killed him in one shot

[HMS England]

That is an impressive amount of chaos you've had to deal with. Congratulations on pulling it off.

Hmm. Migration...

Sounds cool.

I think it's time for the Papal States to take a trip. God knows it's easier than dealing with the hellhole of states that is Italy. You just get so bogged down. Down there's rich anyway.

Thanks, it has quite spiced up my campaign from the usual. The Papal States would be a good choice due to their excellent militia, but I must warn you, "down there" is not rich at the slightest compared to Europe. My borders stretch from Alexandria to Constantinople to Trebizond and Baghdad, and I'm making about 40k total which is chump change after you add up all the devastation, wages, and army upkeep. And I have always been quite the economist as well as bureaucrat so I assure you I've done just about the best you can imagine money saving/making wise. Iraklion and Rhodes are hot spots for all the European factions for some reason. Hungary, Venice, Sicily, and the Byzantines send a full stack about every 5 turns so beware. I actually prefer it this way though because I can just hold them off on the islands instead of having them ravage my commercial centers in the holy lands.

I hope what you guys are saying is true. I'm more of the offensive player so I'm not going to cower in a citidel, I'm going to take the fight to them in any way I can. At this point I'm just hoping full stacks of Lancers, Aventurier, Pikemen, and cannons can match them.

The achievements I'm most proud about at this point are converting every region to about 80-100% Catholic, and keeping all my cities garrisoned with high level barracks and cathedrals.

[Silverheart]

Upgraded towers and a huge pile of spearmen (+ some 6 units of missile troops for extra deadliness) defending a narrow space is the best strategy against both hordes.
Also, remember that they always go for a certain settlement before they start conquering - Antioch or Kiev. Which means that if you have either of them, do not allow it to fall under any circumstances - try to weaken them with large garrisons in all the settlement they attack on the way there, and amass as many soldiers as possible at the main target.

Interesting challenge you´ve gotten yourself into, by the way - you should rejoice
My games hardly ever get that interesting unless I deliberately make some really bad choices along the way...

[Sweger]

I am currently facing the Timmies in the Mideast, They took Antioch from the Mongols after raiding Mosul (but ignored Baghdad, just like the Mongols) and now the Timurids seem not to want to expand any further until they sieged Acre, held by me however, so I am wearing them down with Ballista-towers and Almughavars. Trying to upgrade to cannon-towers, but the sieges are constantly interrupting the building of them...however, the good thing is that they come with relatively small amounts of infantry, they are pretty easily killed off on the walls, and the upgraded towers always manage to torch the rams and siege towers. They haven't encountered me with proper artillery yet though, and the artillery elephants seem to be unable to break through eny walls.