Tabardariyya

[Germanicus75]

Playing 2.1 with 1.1 game patch. 2H-bug workaround is therefore included.

Whichever Mediterranean faction I play - normally Sicily, Venice or Portugal - I run into the Egyptians and these devils at some point. Playing VH/VH I find that by mid-game, the Egyptians spam sometimes whole stacks of these bearded, axe-wielding psychos - or at least they make up a large percentage of most stacks.
In most campaigns I play Egypt ends up being a regional superpower, often expanding well into the Balkans or even into Eastern Europe.

What I'd like is some tips on dealing with these axemen. They seem to chop through everything I throw at them, including bodyguards, heavy knights, dismounted Norman knights and dismounted feudal knights. They eat them alive. They have fantastic morale and stamina and won't rout normally until 95% of the unit is dead. They hold up to heavy cav charges well. They tend to be heavily armoured and so are not much susceptible to missile fire.

Any advice? Thanks.

Cheers, G91

[Arksa]

I'm sorry...if a huge doze of heavy armored cavarly charges won't work to them there's nothing better against heavy infantry. Maybe use some long range missile troops and then charge them with heavy cavarly? Don't bother using dismounted knights...they have axes you know...axes hurt really bad.

[chewy]

Use combined arms tactics. Start off with bowmen using firearrows then peel them away to ur flanks and engage with ur hvy inf.It doesen't matter how good the axemen are, but they will never be able to finish off a plate wearing hvy inf before u get ur horsemen into position. Then just slam into thier backs and watch thier morale crumble.

Also they actually only have light mail as armor dun they? Im surprised a frontal attack with cavalry doesen't work. An armor value of 7 is pretty piss poor. Are you using ur hvy cav correctly? I just played a battle agianst them and my druzihna was able to crush them with only 10 losses me and 57 thiers.

[Germanicus75]

Thanks - knights are no good against axemen?

Problem is also: if its a whole stack of them, I don't have enough horses and knights to go round to do the job...I usually have 4-5 cav units vs. maybe 15-20 of these guys...

[chewy]

ah well then you'll have to change your stacks to suit this. I'm not sure waht knights ur using, but druzihna are kinda low in the charge category so if you have knights of 4 charge and heavily armored you can probally send them out first before your main line enganges them. Charge the flanks with 2- 3 then peel away. Then your remaining two can charge the inf that chases ur retreating cav then peel them all away to your own flanks then engage with you own inf. Run your heavy cav to the back and back charge 5 seperate untis and hope all 5 routs at once. This should basically break any armys morale. Or you can have the 5 cav go directly for the general which also helps a lot in breaking morale.

[King Xiao]

For me, this works amazingly well. What i do is buy 10 divisions of heavy cavalry and 10 of light cavalry. Line them up in a double line formation with the heavy at the front. At the start of the battle do a full scale charge on the enemy. They will be obliterated as the heavy will nail the first line, causing the army to route while your light cavalry follows through and SLAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the wretched fools.
Try it, its fun

[Queen Annes Revenge]

get a lot of archers and horse archers. pick away at their numbers then slice em up with heavy cav or infantry.

[Lusted]

Yeah all 2 handed axe/polearm units without shields are very vulnerable to cavalry charges and to missile fire.

[Germanicus75]

Thanks alot guys that's given me some useful pointers on how to deal with these dudes