Something good to know about the mongols, is that they have 3 starting positions where they can show up, and depending on which one they appear they have one specific city focus. If start around Bhagdad, their focus will be Jerusalem, if they start is around Tiblisi, their focus will be Antioch, and if they start around Bolgar, their focus will be Kiev. I believe it works the same with the Timurids, but it is a nice thing to have in mind if you want to be prepared for them, tho it gets you a bit out of the inmertion the game gives you.
Same with Nubian Archers, as they have maces. If I'm not mistaken, maces are AP weapons in TWM2. That single fact changes the value of that unit to one of the most powerful archers in the game.
I'm playing an Egypt VH/VH campaign right now and basically every faction on the map declared war on me, except the Moors. The Sicilians have Tripoli but stopped attacking after the crusade on Cairo failed. After 140 turns I've destroyed the Turks, Byzantines, and Mongols. I learned that you can block and confuse the AI by placing roads along roads and chokepoints. The AI often doesn't attack the forts or they will abandon the fort after taking it; then you can just sneak a unit in and restart the process. I found the best strategy to be focusing on using missile units to deal most of my damage and using infantry as defenders for the missile units. This works well against both horse archer factions and heavy infantry factions. My territory basically looks like some version of the Ottoman Empire. I decided to do as much as I could with low-tech units but now that the Timurids are here I really need armies fully composed of high-tier units to stand up to the second horde. Beating the Mongols was definitely a challenge but once I blocked their path with forts I was able to wear them down with expendable and replaceable units, again focusing on using foot archers to soak up enemy arrows and deal damage. Generally foot archers beat horse archers on a florin-to-florin basis (it's a cost-effective trade). When the plague happened I decided to just attack as much as possible so that my troops would die in battle instead of from disease.
Thank god they got rid of them chariot generals. Watching your Egypt campaign, trying to control them frustrates me beyond belief. Happy Halloween. Great video!
DatLzrd 27 Yeah I agree the chariot generals were horrible, glad you're watching my Egypt campaign I'm really proud of that one. Thanks for the support and happy Halloween to you as well!
I ingnored the Fatimids/Ayuubids for a long time, but their heavy cavalry is deadly even in the late game. Naffatuns, javelinmen and Hashashims make them one of the strongest siege factions to defend or attack also
From my experience, if you not war with Byzantine early and not get declare Crusade too soon, you have a chance to build navy and block the crossing path at Constantinople. It will cause them weather stuck there or going long road a Russian steeps. Unlike other Europe faction, i always found out Sicilly and maybe some AI faction naval aggresive will try naval invade at Alexandria. So spare huge navy and watch tower at that place.
Like this video series. While I haven't played an Egypt campaign, I have played a Turks Campaign, and I would like to add some feedback: Don't forget that Islamic Factions can call a Jihad with an Imam (ie: Islam Priest) that has 4 level piety. And they start of with an Imam with 4 Piety, so you can declare a Jihad-preferably at Jerusalem-on the first turn, besiege Jerusalem with the free upkeep soldiers, and once Jerusalem is conquered, move on to the rest of the settlements. Since most of the settlements in the Middle East are predominantly Islam, keeping public order is much easier and the settlements can grow faster as I don't need to sack them to maintain the public order. For other settlements, I would also recommend capturing Dongola, upgrading it to a Castle, then converting it into a Large Town. That way, I can build a Grain Exchange/Market and hire merchants from there to get some extra money out of the 4 trade resources. Another thing to watch out for is Crusades. Most of the time, Jerusalem will be the first Crusade target declared, so if you are not careful, you may end up in war with the rest of the known world.
So I can call Jihads just because and use it to beef my generals and army easily? I'm playing a short campaign and didn't see the utility of Jihads if your mission is to destroy the only other muslim nations in the world 🙄 but I guess next time I play I will get my best Imam and use it for my advantage
Nice Video! Egypt is a really good faction in my opinion. Who needs good infantry if you have such amazing cavalry? I need infantry only to hold the line, while my archers and cavalry do the job, and that's what this faction is good at. And these mamluks have all armour piercing maces as well, even the mamluk archers, which is really good... gotta love those mamluks. You didn't sound that ill I think, hope you get better soon. Happy Halloween!
Arazeth yeah that's true, the cavalry can really make the difference even if the infantry is not that great. Thanks for the support. I may not have sounded ill but I had to edit out a lot of coughing haha. Happy Halloween to you as well!
I use Saracen militia as my mainline infantry, turkoman merc for missiles, and Mamluk archers for missile too. Everything else can be minimal/mercs. Ordinary infantry and infantry archers are poor
Maybe you could go through all the characters a faction has in the beginning? I think it would make these even more in-depth. Nevertheless, good stuff!
Here’s my question: How in the world is this faction supposed to stop the Mongols? I’m playing as them right now and my troops practically melt when fighting Mongols. I’m taking, at best, two to one losses in every battle.
Hi Jeff. Listen well, most of the way to fight the mongols are siege battles because they have to fight in the street and abuse the AI dumb way of charge most to the center of the city. In case of Egypt you have 2 options. 1. Send trained Assassins to kill the first two mongols generals and destroy the faction impeding to appear in the map. (NOTE: This not work with the Timurids) 2. Try sieges or bridge battles and focus in their generals, if they die will be most easy. Never fight them if they are in the High Ground or in a plane map when they still have the advantage. Use the pincer attack or hammer and anvil. I am not a fan of siege weapons in Total War games, but here are very useful. To avoid the fight against 3 or 4 armies in one battle, use a general with night attacker option to fight one by time. With Egypt you have to rush to mamluks armies(both ranged and melee) and fight against them in bottleneck battles (rivers of Antioch are a very good option and the mongols must of the time want that city). He will be hard but not impossible.
Maybe you shouldn't capture Jerusalem and Antioch early on to avoid crusades. Just capture everything around them, and when you get the Mamluks and fortresses take them on.
@@LiveLaughLunch On delayingCrusades; I just stopped a campaign where I was about 60 turns in and never had one called against me. I did exactly that with the Papal State and then bilked the surrounding factions for money and alliances.
I've always been disappointed by the fact that the Eastern factions don't have a fleshed out roster compared to European factions. Also, this game is much better in historical accuracy than RTW but I wish they could've differentiated the different sects of Islam in the game, just like the Christian factions. The Egyptians (really should be called the Fatimid Caliphate at the start of the campaign) were Shia compared to the Moors and Turks who were Sunni. Could've added another dimension to the game.
Supreme Archer yeah I agree that a lot more effort was put into the European factions. I'm not an expert on the history side of things, but it would have been really cool if they had differentiated the religions more
for future videos you should stop apologizing so often for your inability to pronounce foreign words correctly. it breaks up the pace of the video and on top of that, nobody actually cares. just go with whatever feels right, it's fine. it's not like we click on total war videos to find out the correct pronunciation of 'arquebusier' or whatever.
