2 questions: Early game K-shah and favorite late era european faction

[cormag778]

Hey all, so two radically different questions, figured i'd condense it into 1 forum though

1) I've never given the K-shah an early game run, any tips/tricks to be ready for the mongols? Any good strategies with them? I confess to knowing nearly nothing about them (the further east the map goes, the less i tend to be interested)

2) What's your favorite late era Eastern European faction? I'm thinking the poland-russian-hungary area of the map. I'm just a little burnt out on my usual playthroughs and want to mix it up a bit.

[sixwings]

Hey all, so two radically different questions, figured i'd condense it into 1 forum though

1) I've never given the K-shah an early game run, any tips/tricks to be ready for the mongols? Any good strategies with them? I confess to knowing nearly nothing about them (the further east the map goes, the less i tend to be interested)

2) What's your favorite late era Eastern European faction? I'm thinking the poland-russian-hungary area of the map. I'm just a little burnt out on my usual playthroughs and want to mix it up a bit.

I had a fun k-shah game a while ago. I avoided the mongols in the field, i struggled with them in the field, but fared better killing them under the walls. I let urgench and the first few cities fall without a lot of fighting. The first fortress gave it for a while, but most of my defense was in the passes in the mountains, i can't remember what areas they are, but i had a series of forts and stacks of troops through the mountain passes there. It also prevented multiple mongol stacks from sieging a single city or castle. I got a bunch of merc archers that could lay stakes at the entrance, that really reduced their cavalry advantage. I even sent a general up to england for longbow mercs before the mongols arrived. I might have been able to hold, but the seljuks declared war on me and started to lay waste to my western provinces. I had an alliance with them Eventually the sheer numbers of the horde destroyed my forts and moved through the mountain passes, my armies were destroyed, and what was left was a lot of militia. It was probably one of the top 5 campaigns i've ever had though. Never had so many battles.

[flyingcat]

1) No idea about early K-shah. I love using late K-shah to defeat the Mongols.

2) Lithuania Late.Having a different religion,a good mix of troops and weak at first. Interesting&challenging.

[LuckyPistol]

1) Early K-shah is nice and relaxing in the beginning while you take over rebel settlements, but by turn 40 you should start preparing for the Mongols. Before then it plays like an eastern HRE surrounded by rebels. There's tons of threads on how to deal with the Horde though

2) My favorites are Teutonics (do I need to explain? ), Hungary (looove the unit designs) and Kiev, who I think has a more engaging position than Novgorod.

[Competizione]

1) Early K-Shah is fun, my only problem is the family tree dying out. Not sure if bugs or not. Best strategy is ally with byzies and take out the Seljuks so you can share a border with them. Trade with the Byzies can be a real lifesaver to your economy if you're going to deal with the Mongols.

2) I mainly play Early but I usually just turtle until high/late middle ages before I actually start wars of my own instead of defend. So if we're talking about the most fun I have with high/late units, HRE hands down. Their shock troops are such fun to play with. I'd say Teutonic as close second, Order Spearmen can really butcher any cavalry the AI throws at you.