Mongols are frustrating

[Papay]

I play as the germans and i had managed to create i nice crusader faction at the holy lands.But at some point Mongols invade and to my surprise they evade Turks and come straight ahead to Antioch.I am forced to abandon the city because i didnt had the chance and go south.But Mongols are after me and its really IMPOSSIBLE to win.I made three huge armies of the best units i have and i sent them to face ONE mongol army.Not only they didnt win but the cowards run away.It seems that most mongols have traits that scare opponents.Whats the point of establishing a base in holy lands only to see Mongols coming and destroying everything?

[Kaiser Nonsense]

Well, simple, fight them one by one, with a great army and a chivalrous high command general. That way you can destroy each army of them, one by one, and then go retraining yours, in 30 turns or so they are utterly destroyed.

[Aeratus]

Judging by the fact that your base is Antioch, it sounds like you sent them 3 full stacks of spear militia (since the Germans don't have anything better than that in their cities). Spear militia will get utterly destroyed by Mongols, even if you had 4 stacks of them.

[Papay]

Well i had Antioch, Aleppo, Adana, Damascus and Acre.I was in war with both Turks and Egyptians.When the Mongols arrived i lost Antioch and Aleppo to the Mongols and Adana to the turks but i retreated south and captured Jerusalem.But in order not to revolt i am forced to have 20 units inside the city.My generals got killed and now i send reinforcments in the area.Still Mongols have started besieging Acre and its a matter of time before i loose that castle.I am thinking of abandoning all my provinces and conquering Egypt

[Vipman]

I just thought of something but I don't know if it actually works. Heavy infantry with heavy mail or plate might resist mongolian arrows with relative small casualties (?), then when the horse archers finish their arrows they would usually charge, against heavy infantry and spearmen they'll die easy. Problem is how many casualties they take until mongols deplete their arrows...

This for open field battle. Best way to kill mongols is in defensive sieges and at a bridge/river crossing.

There are a lot of guides on how to beat mongols... Don't know where exactly but search a bit...

[lgoodin101]

theres a battle guide for milan on how to beat the mongols in open field battles ill try to find it for you...

[Aeratus]

Here's a very fun battle against TWO stacks of Mongols.

As you can see in the screenshot below, I've repositioned my troops on a huge hill, and the opposing Mongol army (Mongol army #1) likewise repositioned on the opposite hill. When the AI is on a hill, it is very stubborn. The worst thing to do is to attack an elite army with lots of archers positioned on a hill, and backed by lots of cavalry that would crush anything you send up against them. Without a full stack of chivalric knights, attacking that hill directly would have been a bad idea.

Fortunately, the second Mongol army arrived from the left side of the image. Instead of sneaking to the top of the far hill right away, they marched though part of the canyon-like valley in the middle. As a result, my archers (the entire army basically) opened fire. When the AI is under heavy archery fire, they will always attack you, even if they must give up the high ground. So here, since Mongol army #2 was under heavy fire, Mongol army #1 abandoned its high ground and moved into the valley to attack me uphill.

I held the ground and won (results in second pic). In this battle, I had a general with 10 chivalry (max chivalry) and 9 command stars.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Salah ad Din Yusuf]

I, as egypt, hoarded well trained hashashin and spies. Their leaders fall as leaves in autumn.

[SuperAnt]

You should stay in your cities, with some spearmen behind your gates, they will have some difficulties to pass through, especially if you have boiling oil.

[Hopit]

also, bridge camp

[Akodo]

when mongols first arrive they aren't just sacking and pillaging, they are looking for a new capitol city. This is why they are drawn to places like Antioch while bypassing piddly settlements along the way.

It is a huge economy drain, but having the city entirely full of military units tends to make Mongol AI both want and not want Antioch.

I am in a similar situation now with my Germans. I have, from north to south, Antioch...a castle... Jerusalem...a castle. Each city has a full allotment of militia, 2 good cavalry, 2 dismounted knights, and I am going to fill the rest up with xbow men from the castles.

We are all familiar with the extra cheap crusade units, but there seems to be one crusade unit (dismounted knights) that appear rarely as mercs and are dirt cheap even when no crusade is going. They can really help hold the walls. March your general just outside of town every few turns and check mercs.

[poetje10]

A great tactic is to get a big army into a city with allot of spear units, let them blockade the enterances to the town square and put up catapults behind them. The Mongol units won't flee because of their great generals, but will suffer from allot of casualties.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Just wondering, has anyone tried to get a full stack of pikemen and just make a huge line that stretches across the whole field and just move forward until they are trapped into a corner of death?

[Vipman]

Normal pikemen will be slaughtered by their arrows. You'd need pikemen with plate armor to resist, and will still probably have many casualties.

A better idea would be to put them at the gates and on the roads to town square in a defensive siege. Even with basic pikemen the mongols will be the ones slaughtered then.