Egypt

[Insertion]

Anyone have any strategies for the Egyptian campaign? What about tactics with their units? One of the few factions I haven't really played yet.

[Smackus Tardius]

I played them for a short time before their large starting pop made the squalor levels unbearable. I mostly only used Mamluk Archers and the melee counterpart. I managed to utterly destroy Polish and Hungarian crusading armies with this. Mamluk's seem to be a pretty good horse archer, plus they wield maces for armor cracking.

[King_Azzole]

I am currently in the middle of a very successful Egyptian campaign. The first turns I built the mandatory roads/religious/land clearance buildings. I amassed almost all my units into one army, not raising anymore to keep the money flow for buildings. I then turned this army into a Jihad army for Antioch and set out. After capturing Antioch I allied with the Turks. I swept my army east into Aleppo then Edessa. I paused only briefly and swept into Baghdad with a small army of Mamluk Archers I created from Gaza.

About this time the Turks backstabbed me, I am guessing because I "ate" up all the frontier provinces that were open to them in my direction. WIth the massive influx of cash I was recieving now it was really no problem to beat them back, and take Mosul in the process. I then slowly took over the Holy Land cities (Acre, Damascus and Jerusalem). I also sent out an expedition to Tripoli (the Cyrenacian castle) fairly early so I could get it before the Moors did. So currently my Egyptian empire streches from central Africa to Anatolia. I have at LEAST 4-5 full stacks of Mamluk Archer/Cavalry and 50,000 florins in the bank. I am ready for any crusade that heads my way. I will be more than ready to absorb the Mongols as well.

I would highly suggest the "leapfrog" strategy I just layed out. Grab the rebel border citys before Turkey does or you might have to face a much mightier Turkish army than you would otherwise. It may weaken them against the Byzantines but then again you will have to kick the Byzantines arses as well eventually. Good luck and have fun!

[Darkiemond]

I am playing Egiptians right now too.

I allied with turks by giving them gifts and i keep the relations perfect, i am at war with Bizantines and Moors. Northwise I went up to Antioch, Aleppo and Bagdad. There is only one Byzantine city bordering me - north of Antioch (forgot the name) and that city soon is gonna be mine. And I am not planning to advance anymore north right now because i don't wanna start war with turks.

Turks are very important for Egiptians, I think. First of all they are muslims too, so you don't have to spend too much time assassinating those annoying priests. Second: Turks serve as a buffer between me and Byzantines and even more importantly they will give me time to prepare when mongols come. By the way Turks never backstabbed me, even though all there are no more rebell provinces left between us. They are busy fighting byzantenes and I noticed they have expanded north up to Moscow.

Until, Mongols come, i am going to concentrate on the west side. I already captured Marakesh and on my way to get Timbutku. Then I am going to expand north into Spanish penisuela, until Mongols come.

So my strategy in a nutshell: Capture as many rebel and byzantine towns as i can in north, while keeping allied to turks and keeping them at war with byzantines. Then expand west and take over Moors. (don't start a war with Moors until you are ready to send at least on full stack though)

Also, one advice for Egiptians no matter what your overall strategy is: Make sure to capture 3 rebel islands, and hopefully one byzantine. Islands are great money makers. I have never seen Al attack from the ship so you don't need much army

[Pandora]

I am also playing as the Egyptians (My favourite faction by the way) and i have done extremely well, i have so far captured the holy land driven off two crusades against antioch and aleppo, and i am currently fighting a defensive campaign against the mongols.
The turks are my allies together with the moors and together we present a unified fron towards Europe.

As for tactics i would really like to encourage you to make use of the Mamluk Horse archers and the dismounted arab cavalry combined with Nubian archers. I use this combination every time i construct a new army and so far i have not lost a single battle.

[Sher Khan]

If you want to avoid the first crusade the pope launches against you...

As Egypt, I took the Holy Land all the way north to Antioch and Edessa early on. At the same time, I had a diplomat worm his way from Turkey to Italy getting alliances and trade rights wherever possible. I even allied myself to the Papal states. However, a crusade was still called...

Thinking quickly, I pulled my forces from Antioch (the target of the crusade) and gave it away as a gift to the Pope. This, of course, cancelled the crusade immiediately. At the same time, I could now besiege the settlement and take back Antioch from the Pope (ruining my alliance of course) without the worry of a crusading army on the march. In fact, it may take several turns for another crusade to be launched.


As for fighting as the Egyptians... Remember: unlike the Turks or Moors, you have little to no reliable foot soldiers (only a handful like Tabardariyya). Therefore, you should rely heavily on Mamluk cavalry. Get some practice with horse archer combat. Also invest in Mamluk lancer cavalry for the final charge after you weaken the enemy with arrows.

[Pushty Awol]

I dont like egyptyians, as well as all muslim nations.

When playing for the kingdom of Sicily, i've crushed down Egypt at 1167.
Their most weakness, i think, is a misusing of calvary. Mamelukes were slained down by my spearmen. Their generals are not loyal, 2. One sieged my castle of Jerusalem, and on next turn he betrays his master.