@cokjan
I will look into the jihad thing and consider changes. Could very well be that I overshot with the mercs availability.
I looked at the syrian auxiliaries and raised the upkeep from 100 to 130. (They were a bit cheap for the log range)
But I dont think they are that good.
long range missiles
6 ranged damage (no AP)
3 melee
4 defence (2 armor, 2 defence)
3 moral, (normal, trained)
So they are except for the long range missiles, a tiny bit better than peasant archers. And I do not want to take the "long range" from them.