Okay so a few years away til' the Mongols come and ravage the land!

[godofhoss]

I've always stuck with western countries because, lets face it - the Mongols! Last time I was the Turks, everything was going well until they literally ravaged my Turkish Empire, and cut through it like a scissor does paper; I instantly gave up after defeat after defeat. Now I am the Byzantines and am kicking ass, and I do realize from previous players posting the best game to beat them at is utilizing cavalry. But I am not much of a cavalry commander, only use minimal amounts of cavalry units; I more so use swordsmen/spearmen/halberdiers'; etc... Now what should I do against this oncoming horde which will soon come to stalk my lands.

[Kataphractos]

Don't face them in the field. Just wait for them to lay siege and assault, and then mass all your units at the gate and kill the Mongols that way. And if you have some stake-laying archers, drop a line of them at the gate. Stakes eat cavalry for breakfast.

And some may see this as exploiting/cheesing, but you can also send out a squadron or two of cavalry and hit their ladders and siege towers and make them get dropped. AI won't pick them up again.

[Kaiser Nonsense]

Don't face them in the field. Just wait for them to lay siege and assault, and then mass all your units at the gate and kill the Mongols that way. And if you have some stake-laying archers, drop a line of them at the gate. Stakes eat cavalry for breakfast.

And some may see this as exploiting/cheesing, but you can also send out a squadron or two of cavalry and hit their ladders and siege towers and make them get dropped. AI won't pick them up again.

Yes, stakes eat cavalry for breakfast lol, a rep for that mate, as for the thread, you are right, it's insanity face Mongols or Timurids in the field, I highly recommend hiding your arse behind a castle wall.

[eugenioso]

I've always stuck with western countries because, lets face it - the Mongols! Last time I was the Turks, everything was going well until they literally ravaged my Turkish Empire, and cut through it like a scissor does paper; I instantly gave up after defeat after defeat. Now I am the Byzantines and am kicking ass, and I do realize from previous players posting the best game to beat them at is utilizing cavalry. But I am not much of a cavalry commander, only use minimal amounts of cavalry units; I more so use swordsmen/spearmen/halberdiers'; etc... Now what should I do against this oncoming horde which will soon come to stalk my lands.

ive beaten the mongols as the turks, but its a slow grinding process. as for the byzantines, and really any other faction, the basics apply:

_force them to attack fortified cities and the like. you can grind a good 3 full hosts of mongols away by simply enduring their constant sieges.
_fight bridge/fording point battles, forcing them to chokepoints they must cross. assuming they come through Baghdad or Yerevan, there are plenty of crossings there.
_ spam archers and infantry, with a focus on spearmen. my mongol killing armies consisted of 15 ottoman infantry units and 5 or 6 dismounted sipahis for absorbing the cavalry charges. from then on, its just attritioning the mongols as much as possible. strike, kill an army and when reinforcements come just withdraw.
_constantly produce troops. constantly. never stop. only once all the mongols are dead, should you stop production (and even then watch out against second or third waves.

i think if i remember correctly there are 3 waves of 5 armies each, so even if you kill the first wave the second and third can still cause hell.

also, i dont use cavalry against the mongols, because its simply far too powerful. i have played with the russians and fought the mongols, but it was a fluke and they decided to expand south instead of onto my lands (otherwise id be dead). their cavalry is simply too powerful to fight horse to horse, not to mention the huge amounts of cavalry they have. focus on grinding them and you will be ok.

[godofhoss]

Okay I figured that much, so since I haven't dealt with these marauding figures yet. What year do they come? Its about to be a turn of the 13th century I know that for sure. And holy three waves of five armies each!? I don't know how I'm going to do that. I feel like Nazi Germany, conquering the world but I got the Americans on my western sphere and deep in the east the Russians (Mongols) are going to cave me in to Constantinople (Berlin).. excuse my war analogy. Besides my settlements are just getting into their prime, still in the process of upgrading mandatory settlement requirements for better units etc, & trade. Do I stop production and just recruit a load of armies? And how am I going to take on three full armies if I can only handle one huge army in one city?

[Nzg]

Godofhoss - You just need practice in defending settlements If you want to know a cheat, use archers with stakes and put them in the gateway(nasty against Mongols). In field battles putting stakes can help, artilerry is quite effective. Bridge battles allways help.

[Carl Jung was right]

Ho ho ho, wait till he hears about the pile of joy called the Timurids

They're like Mongols except with multiple rocket launchers, upgraded cavalry and elephants with cannons. They will rip out your guts and feast on your sorrow as they smell your fear.

In fact OP, you made me want to drop what I was doing and go play the vanilla MTW campaign again.

[Nzg]

Ho ho ho, wait till he hears about the pile of joy called the Timurids

Oh yea Godofhoss, did you see Timurids yet?

[godofhoss]

Yes I've heard of the Timurids, but like I said I was always one of those Western countries ; away from all the hassle just letting the infidels (when I was Christian) take the bullets. ;D But then again, now that I am the Byzantines; I guess I'll have to wait and see! But thing is, the Mongols did come, but instead of invading me they went northward to Russia, so haha! But which unit in the Byzantine uses stakes? -And when do the Timurids come?

[eugenioso]

Yes I've heard of the Timurids, but like I said I was always one of those Western countries ; away from all the hassle just letting the infidels (when I was Christian) take the bullets. ;D But then again, now that I am the Byzantines; I guess I'll have to wait and see! But thing is, the Mongols did come, but instead of invading me they went northward to Russia, so haha! But which unit in the Byzantine uses stakes? -And when do the Timurids come?

you got lucky there. usually, the mongols will almost 90% of the time come to where your faction is at, rather than go north. the timurids actually do come in waves, but not in 3, they only come in 2, and they "only" have 3 armies per wave. facing them on the field is possible, but you need a well prepared army, a brave general and a lot of skill, and even then you can expect to trade armies with them.

for now, id say worry about the mongols first. if they did go north, chase after them actively. letting them settle north of your position is incredibly perilous. the armies they make will not be as strong as the original hordes, but they will supplement their numbers too much. be warned.

[godofhoss]

you got lucky there. usually, the mongols will almost 90% of the time come to where your faction is at, rather than go north. the timurids actually do come in waves, but not in 3, they only come in 2, and they "only" have 3 armies per wave. facing them on the field is possible, but you need a well prepared army, a brave general and a lot of skill, and even then you can expect to trade armies with them.

for now, id say worry about the mongols first. if they did go north, chase after them actively. letting them settle north of your position is incredibly perilous. the armies they make will not be as strong as the original hordes, but they will supplement their numbers too much. be warned.

Damn, looks like they're coming to Kiev... they didn't even start on Russia; its like they went to the Ruskies and were like nah lets go mess with the Byzies... so I recruited a crap load of men, now I'm going to spam recruit like crazy. They have literally 5 full armies and 2 small armies... all together really close. What are my options now? Cause if I let them siege one of my settlements they'll just put all their armies onto it. I might be able to hold off two maybe! But I don't know what to do... do I just make big armies and meet them on the field? This is the reason why I shouldn't have done Byzantines, even though its been fun

[Nzg]

I'm no expert with Byzies so I wont tell you which one of their units uses stakes, I think it's Trebizond Archers, but I'm not sure.

Timurids come about 100 years after Mongols if I remember correctly. Timurids are in some cases easier, and in some worse than Mongols. They come in 1 wave, but it's freakishly strong wave. Assasins are probably one of the easiest way's to erase them, but than again, where's the fun Field battles, especially using infantry are not recommended

[godofhoss]

I'm no expert with Byzies so I wont tell you which one of their units uses stakes, I think it's Trebizond Archers, but I'm not sure.

Timurids come about 100 years after Mongols if I remember correctly. Timurids are in some cases easier, and in some worse than Mongols. They come in 1 wave, but it's freakishly strong wave. Assasins are probably one of the easiest way's to erase them, but than again, where's the fun Field battles, especially using infantry are not recommended

Okay so they've stopped with Russia for some strange reason and left the castle (it besieges the name I forgot) and its currently ran with rebels... the only thing that's stopping them is a Polish city... which I haven't authoritiazed the change of turn; now what do I do?

[Maklodes]

I'm no expert with Byzies so I wont tell you which one of their units uses stakes, I think it's Trebizond Archers, but I'm not sure.

The answer is that in vanilla none of the Byzantine units lay stakes. (Yes, there are mercenaries who can lay stakes, but not until about 40 turns after the Mongol invasion.) Trebizond archers are wonderful, but they don't have stakes.

Unfortunately, Byzantines don't have any other really strong anti-cavalry units either. They have no pikes or halberds, and their spearmen are all at a sort of non-Italian militia-ish level. You could hire mercenary spearmen, or just use your mediocre Byzantine spearmen/spear militia who should do okay against Mongol cav on city streets, or use units which aren't specialized against cavalry but which are better overall, like Byzantine infantry.

[Nzg]

If the Mongols appear near Russia they are wondering till they reach Kiev, there they settle. All settlements in the way get sieged and massacred, than go rebel. Sometimes it take's 10 turns, sometime 50 If you want them to settle faster you can give them maps, but you can become their target faster

If they appear in Baghdad or Yerevan they strive for Antioch if you're interested

[Nzg]

If you're not comfortable fighting huge field battles I wouldn't reccomend it Mongol cavalry and archers are really powerful, they outnumber you with both quality and quantity.

I'd really recomend you getting them in bridge battles and defending in sieges.

Remember that they wont necessery come after you. If they settled in Kiev they could easily go for Poland Russia or Hungary first. At the time they meet you, they can be bled out If you have some settlements near it could be a good idea to sell it to one of the factions I mentioned before, you could also try selling it to the pope and see what happenes

[godofhoss]

If you're not comfortable fighting huge field battles I wouldn't reccomend it Mongol cavalry and archers are really powerful, they outnumber you with both quality and quantity.

I'd really recomend you getting them in bridge battles and defending in sieges.

Remember that they wont necessery come after you. If they settled in Kiev they could easily go for Poland Russia or Hungary first. At the time they meet you, they can be bled out If you have some settlements near it could be a good idea to sell it to one of the factions I mentioned before, you could also try selling it to the pope and see what happenes

Well the most unlikely thing has happened.. I made about six massive armies; to meet them head on, primarily vanguard units with spearmen & archers for support & they're running away! Lmao! I've never seen this...

[AntonisTheGreek]

I noticed something weird with the Mongols in my Moors campaign.Turkey was expanded to Ryazan and Bulgar.The Mongols attacked them,they lost these regions,but instead of being captured by the Mongols,the regions turned iinto rebel regions!I do not understand how this happened.In my previous campaigns,they settled normally there.

[AntonisTheGreek]

I noticed something weird with the Mongols in my Moors campaign.Turkey was expanded to Ryazan and Bulgar.The Mongols attacked them,they lost these regions,but instead of being captured by the Mongols,the regions turned iinto rebel regions!I do not understand how this happened.In my previous campaigns,they settled normally there.

Same goes for Kingdoms.In Crusades campaign they do exactly what they do in M2TW original game

[AntonisTheGreek]

I noticed something weird with the Mongols in my Moors campaign.Turkey was expanded to Ryazan and Bulgar.The Mongols attacked them,they lost these regions,but instead of being captured by the Mongols,the regions turned iinto rebel regions!I do not understand how this happened.In my previous campaigns,they settled normally there.

Same goes for Kingdoms.In Crusades campaign they do exactly what they do in M2TW original game when dealing with settlements