Byzantines H/H, Jihad on Constantinople

[Faravid]

Turn 30. I had recovered most of Anatolia and the Balkans, 3 full stacks attacking Turks and 1 protecting Greece, then Jihad for Constantinople. Ignoring that Cairo is controlled by crusaders the Muslim world decided to scrap this purple dude while they still can.

So, tips? Early campaign so most of my army are Contaratoi/Toxotae/other crappy units. This is not my first Byzzie campaign, but this is the first time I get Jihad on me this early. If it were any other city i could just give it away but I don't think I can afford losing Constantinople. Especially if the Jihadists Exterminate it.

It also doesn't help that I have a full Venetian ex-Crusader stack roaming my land and roflstomping my armies.

[Shaun]

Is this the early or late campaign?

[Faravid]

Early of course. That's what I said.

[spH3RiCal]

Assassins. Lots of them.

[Navajo Joe]

Ok, in my opinion you will not be able to train enough skilled assassins to do the work required, certainly try this way. I would tend to let them have the city, withdraw your forces by using your fleet to a nearby city. My reason behind this is you will not be able to hold the city, will spend lots of money and draw out the inevitable. I would suggest that you will have 5-10 Jihadi armies heading your way, just not able to hold them. Now when the Jihadi turn up they will kill the rebel Christian armyfor you, kill two birds with one stone. You could even let the rebels have the city, as soon as its conquered by whoever, attack them once the Jihadi have gone home or cleared off.

[Shaun]

Early of course. That's what I said.

Sorry, missed that part. I did initially suspect that but then when you mentioned something about large crusader stacks nearby I thought it was the late campaign and you had only just recovered Constantinople.

Ideally, you should start preparing for a Jihad against Constantinople from turn 1. So, keep your elite units in the city, as you can retrain them to full numbers even though you can't recruit new ones. Also make sure you upgrade the armour facilities so you can upgrade your Contaratoi to silver shield level. This is usually at least one level more than your enemies will have, thus giving them an extra defence point, which does help to give you the advantage. Once they get an experience point their attack goes from 1 to 2, i.e. doubles, which, when combined with having superior defence to your enemies ends up giving you are large advantage.

[ageboy20]

so i do this with any faction that can buy or recruit stake producing archers. norse, bulgarian or mortounie (spelling) but the greek archers) you put like 2 units on your city going to be attacked along with tons of other units or whatever else. make them attack you and the generals from the opposing army usually rush in first. what you do is deploy their stakes right in front of the gate house pointing out at the attackers. and the horses rush in and whole entire unites get slaughtered in seconds. Usually if a jihad or crusadeing army looses its leader in combat all is lost. its pretty easy actually. i know i didnt answer your question that much but its a great idea if you dont have the full numbers to combat in the field.

[Kataphraktos]

That's exactly how it is for me on any difficulty (including easy and medium)...I wish there was a way to disable jihads on constantinople

[Delvecchio1975]

recruit 2 slav spear mercenaries to put on the walls together with your varangians and the other elite unit you have. those 4 units will keep your walls clear. also recruit two balkan archers mercenaries (not as powerful as say bulgarian brigands, but you can retrain them in the city, which is essential during jihad) to place in between them on the walls - with fire arrows over several turns they do a lot of additional damage to early era jihad armies. Place all your contateroi in front of the gate on guard mode, but leave some space between them and the gate. To the side of them, place your siphonatores (or whatever they're called, the flame throwers) so that they can hit the enemy coming through the gates from the side. Only let them fire once the enemy is through the gate in large numbers, for maximum impact.
Your general and the two units of cataphracts you keep in reserve, either to charge if things get nasty, or to clean up the enemy when they run.

this way you can eliminate two full jihad stacks with less than 10% losses, easily. the placement of the siphonatores is essential, and you need to make sure they don't get attacked by horsemen not engaged by your contateroi. Don't place them on the walls, they won't fire down.