Sword of Islam: Strategy discussion

I consider that cheating.;)

It's too bad there can't be more squatting in this mod because of capital flips. The Samanids and the earliest Indian civ might be able to do it, but it's not worth it.
I'm sure your Makurian score is way higher than my "cheating" score.
 
No you can't squat as Samanids. You can't get anywhere near another civs starting position before Marv and Samarkand flip to you - and even though one of those becomes your capital once you flip them, they also flip away to Seljuks/Khwarezm, again.

The only successful squat for me was founding a city 1NW of Diyar-e-bekr (the city does not flip away because it is still in Lesser Armenia) to keep the AkK away from Anatolia in their early game. They started in Musul instead.
 
1. Don't found Koyna at spawn. Wait till turn 3 and Ankara will flip as your capital.
2. Conquer south and west cities first. You might take 3 cities with initial force. Capture workers from Byz.
3. Don't tech at start. Small techs can be traded.
4. After you take 2-3 cities from Byz, make peace, use 10 turns to build catapult or trebuchet, then hire mercs and fight again. I was able to take one-archer guarded Constantinople with 2 hired macemen dead.
5. Gradually conquer remaining cities in Thrace and Anatolia, start teching. I researched stern rudder for Kizil Kule in Constantinople. The most important tech is Cheque System, for your UB Han which can attract Sufism.
6. 2 settlers: 1 for Konya, 1 go to 2N2W of Edessa, that will turn to a good city for both growth and production. I build one more to settle Brusa area.
7. Fight Georgia and Armenia but don't take their cities, just pillage and make peace.
8. Steal techs from Ayyubids - I had 1 great spy to steal Guilds, which is the most important mid-game tech. I also stole civil service in 1249, 1 turn before Mamluk rises and overthrow the Ayyubids. Continue spying Mamluks afterward.
9. The Mongols arrives around 1240. Make Marksmen to guard city, and if you were able to get 3 great general, settle in one city with heroic epic and build 11xp lancers.
10. After the Mongols, Seljuk should be collapsed. Start taking Levant / Iraq / Mecca if you want.
11. In 1300s you should be very solid and #1, the rest of game is just building and building.
 
On countering Mongols, I like to use the following:

Start with 2-3 suicide catapults with max collateral damage.
Use lancers or horse archers promoted against missile cavalry to kill the strongest surviving Mongols. Wounded horsemen go back into walled/castled cities fortified with marksmen.
Then take care of the rest of the Mongols with whatever troops you have left to mop up the rest. I usually get rid of outdated troops like archers, javelinmen and spearmen for that, and use them as a lure for the Mongols to get closer to my frontier cities instead of deeper into my unpillaged lands.
Try not to let the Mongols promote their troops, i.e. kill as many as possible before the next turn, even if it means losing a unit.
 
Good points. That's how I do it as well. Extensive road network is also essential to get your damaged troops back to safety. It should also be kept in mind that the Mongols autopillage some of the roads.
 
does anyone have any tips or tricks for the ghorids? I've gotten the sainthood but not without abandoning the guilds/selective breeding/finery forge line for religious techs, leaving me with substandard troops for the conquest. I got quite close last time but sindh respawned in 1380something and I was fighting the bahmanis who out-teched me in military.
 
No need to research religious techs. Religious unity already gives you the key to sainthood: the Minaret of Jam. Tech for finery forge and those awesome Mujahids.
 
What's needed is a combination of luck and perseverance. Most of the time, Ghaznavids will have conquered Bamiyan, and with luck, may also have founded a city next to the stone (which saves you from sending your spare settler there). Both will flip to you.

Only tech initially is Guilds. Finery Forge is useless. By the time you get it to build your UU, you can practically overwhelm anybody with your superior numbers. What I should have done is paper-civil service for courthouses (stability and economy).

Instead of warring against your former masters, make peace ASAP. Send most troops to capture Lahore which becomes your Heroic Epic city.
Minaret of Jam can be built either in Bamiyan (if >size 4) or Peshawar. I preferred to build troops in Peshawar instead. Hook up the stone and Bamiyan can build it in about 20 turns.
Then it's a matter of how much power Ajmer, Malwi, Gujarat and Sindh have. Most of the time Sindh can be left till the very last. Delhi must be captured ASAP to build the palace there, so if it means war against Ajmer or Malwi, so be it. Just be sure to keep the Indian civs unstable, so that you can continuously war against at least one of them. In my game, Ajmer was initially a vassal of Malwi, then broke free, so I made peace with the latter and conquered all of Ajmer. Then I took care of Malwi. Gujarat had long collapsed and was divided between Ghaznavids, Khwarezmids and Malwi.
Mongols will appear around Peshewar and your old capital from time to time. Keep some horse archers (promoted against missile cavalry) handy.

Ghaznavids should be befriended, but if they capture some Sindh cities, strike by surprise and capture those cities. Defend with forest-promoted troops just north of Ghazni (nothing can get past some doubly promoted spearmen, marksmen and axemen fortified there)--you don't want to expand into foreign core territory anyway if you don't have to.

The most important thing is to KEEP STABILITY UP. I had a respawn of Malwi and it took me a while to recapture it. Empire is a useful civic. If stability really becomes a problem due to expansion, you can give some cities to the Bahmanis (who'll accept anything) and wait 10 turns, then recapture them (I gave them Manbai and Herat after I razed their capital).
 
That's a good guide. And as AP noticed going for Civil Service pays off more than researching the path to Finery Forge forever. Actually I always go for CS at first with the larger civs. If the Ghaznavids give you too much trouble, take their capital, which will make them collapse and give you silver and gold.
 
Luck of the draw is important. If the Abbasids have razed Tyre or if they control Damascus, best thing is to reload, because Damascus has to be captured (both for its military importance with iron and the incense.) A developed Levant (i.e. rebel cities that have withstood invasions and have multiple improvements) is also important. If you see city sizes <=2, reload--there simply isn't enough time for 10+ turns to grow from size 1 to 2.

OB with all Christian civs.
DON'T capture Jerusalem, instead, on 3rd turn, let Acre be the capital (KoA). All initial troops go towards Damascus, which builds barracks and gets the first Christian missionary (to expand borders), then builds troops/Heroic Epic/monument, which should be more than enough to capture the incense.

Free settler ("pilgrims") should be sent to work without ever visiting Jerusalem. If there's no city on Cyprus, build a city there (Acre builds galley first no matter what, or you can hire a mercenary one). If there's already a rebel city there, it should be captured next, and settler goes to Aqaba, which builds work boats, galley (to transport future settler to Kekora, where there's a spice).

Set research to Asymmetric Warfare (it's more than possible to get the free spy, and I stole paper from the Fatimids). Research really doesn't matter for this civ (you'll never need foot knights--yet another civ where the UU is well, useless.)
Make peace with Fatimids after killing some troops, and make peace with all other Sunni civs by paying a little rent. Don't venture into Egypt to prevent Ayyubids from spawning, and keep stability high.

All troops go to Medinah, Mecca, with workers building roads behind. Medinah and Mecca build catapults while home cities build cavalry (Templar Knights are awesome).
Strike at Yemen, capture Sana'a, make peace, and when troops are healed, capture another city and they'll collapse, then mop up the rest.

Nobody will ever trade you silk (because of the wonder associated with it). So it has to be incense and spices:
Incense: N of Damascus, NE of Aqaba, 4 in Yemen. There's also 1 south of Kekora, but it's not worth it to build another settler once Yemen is captured).
Spices: E of Tyre, Kekora (African city can be founded right on top of the spice, but I had time and actually built it 1N)
Use the culture slider to envelop the incense in Yemen (especially Mukallah which has 2 spices just outside its initial 3x3).

Use a great person to switch civics in a GA. Empire will save a lot of money. DON'T switch to Theocracy (because you need the OR for buildings and missionaries).

As for sainthood, just spread Catholicism around and massacre all non-Catholic populations, build churches and monasteries, and 1 Cathedral in Acre will be enough.
 
Very much depends on the local situation initially. If all around you are indy cities and Georgia/Abbasids/Ayyubids are dead but the Beylik of Karaman (i.e. you don't have a border with the Ottomans) is alive, you're in luck--this will usually mean the without active warring, you have the first 2 criteria done, since rebel or barb cities don't count towards your "control" of the regions. Iraq is usually filled with easy targets and Baghdad will be your main troop producer from the east.\

If Ayyubids, Abbasids and Georgia are alive and strong, it might be better to reload--Abbasids especially are tough to knock down.

Switch to Sunni and befriend neighbors.

Capture and raze everything in future Safavid land. Too bad some of your cities in the east will flip to them. Befriend Timur who will be your gadfly against the Safavids (bribe him to make war against the latter). When you've taken care of the Safavids, induce Timur to declare war on Delhi Sultanate/Mughals (or vice versa) and capture Western Khorasan.

Mamluks will most likely declare war, so defend your borders with them closely.
 
The hard (and genius) part about Sindh is not the UHV criteria--they are all very, VERY easy. The combination of this civ's unfortunate location and religion is more than enough to convince oneself that HINDUISM is the way to go, at least until 1330. Instead of having the whole of India against you, now you have 3 good trading partners. Ghaznavids will eventually declare war, so what better thing to do than to convince the most powerful Indian civ (in my case it was Ajmer, who vassalized Gujarat after a war) to declare war on the Ghaznavids, and thus save you from early disruption of building your civ?

The way to do this is: don't convert capital to Shia, and Hinduism will most likely spread to your capital. Switch religions ASAP (apparently I didn't lose any units!), and Thatta, being on the coast, will get Hinduism soon. Save your Shia missionaries (because you'll need them to build the buildings that Sufis like), although Sunni, if spread to you, is much better (for better relationship with the big monster Delhi Sultanate who declared war on me and I destroyed all their stacks).

I find the best locations for the cities is Mansura 1NW, Thatta east of the river (still captures the iron and marble), and Alor (just east of the river, which means that Ghaznavids have to cross the river to attack, and it still captures the horse as well as the hemp). Best use of all resources and floodplains is achieved this way.

Gujarat eventually collapsed and I captured all their cities, except for their former capital, which was being contested by Malwi and Ajmer. As soon as Malwi captures it, I DOW on Malwi and the land UHV criteria is done.

The production part doesn't really need any gimmicks, just go for guilds and build those blacksmiths and Craftsmen's quarters and together with Sindh and Gujarat, your production should be about 150-160, more than enough to be number 1. I never once used the UP of this civ. :lol:

The final part is to build Sufi Shrines. As soon as GA hits in 1300, convert to either Sunni or Shia (I chose the former even though only 1 city has it). Build lots of madrasahs and you should already have pre-built some Shia ones, as well as libraries and universities (Education is pretty important). There's an incense near Kolhalpur which should be captured as soon as the Bahmani's flip it (I also got Manbai and their useless capital, before I made peace). If the Yemeni are still alive, they will probably trade incense to you by now (they collapsed and then respawned, and they were more than willing to trade incense to me). It's just a matter of time before you build those shrines. (The Yemeni respawn is actually a godsend, because I was just about ready to go conquer me some of their former cities, and I had a fleet of baghlahs and troops loaded). Malwi will probably declare war, but you can now involve the Delhi Sultanate in your fight.
 
You know you can complete this without having to convert. In fact AnotherPacifist, when in a lot of your guides, you say you should convert to another religion, I personally see it as taking the easy way out. In fact I'm pretty sure Edead made the UHV's so you wouldn't NEED to convert ahistorically.

But anyway thats my two cents, and I would encourage you to try to complete a UHV without converting :)
 
Why antagonize the whole world when a cop-out will do? It's only religion. :D
 
Why antagonize the whole world when a cop-out will do? It's only religion. :D

LOL! I'm just saying that you take the cheap ticket out, when you convert religions. Part of the challenge for the PoA or the Sindh is being a minority religion surrounded by hostiles. :lol:
 
Nice balance of varied goals--culture, military expansion (quick but not too quick), and science/wonder-mongering.

If the Delhi Sultanate has a lot of marksmen in your territory or if the land is underdeveloped (i.e. vassal of somebody like Timur, ironically), best to restart.

After founding Agra, shop around for techs--apparently having only 1 city means that the AI will view that your cost of research is much lower, and will trade you techs. Most importantly, get Economics from somebody--then switch to market economy and religious law for a quick great engineer in 10-15 moves. (Don't go for the great artist to try to bulb civic architecture, since it'll like to bulb military drill instead).

Research is civic architecture, astronomy (can be usually traded for), compass, navigation, imperialism.

Peshawar builds Shalimar Gardens in 15 moves or so.

Lahore should be really well developed (it had the Soltaniyeh, as well as a pre-built Heroic Epic), and should be your troop city. The culture city has to be Multan (it's the only other big city with rivers and can accommodate a lot of artists)--I built the Royal Mausoleum/National Epic as well as 2 cathedrals here, plus several saved great engineers to build the Taj Mahal, Bridge of 33 Arches and a whole bunch of culture buildings. The culture goal was done first (you only need 25000 culture, not 50000).

First order of business is to clean off the Delhi Sultanate mess--build lots of trebuchets and later bombards to knock those walls down.

After that, do not expand further until you have civic architecture--don't want to lose the Taj Mahal and its free great engineer. If Bamiyan flips to you, disband it--it's not worth it. (I took it and it dragged my research down a lot, even though eventually it gave me the stone which you need for paved roads.)

By now you should have built a lot of troops and take down Ajmer/Mewar, Gujarat, Malwa, Bahmani and/or Sindh. In my game, the latter collapsed (so I left those rebels cities last), Gujarat was a vassal of Bahmani. Malwa was a vassal of Bukhara who DOW'd on me, so I killed Malwa first. Mewar cities have collapsed so I got them next (Jaipur has to be razed--useless city). Then I DOW'd on Gujarat, got them to collapse and captured some Bahmani cities. Made peace, and when I had navigation, captured the rest of Bahmani and Sindh cities.

True to life, the Portuguese are your friends. Trade with them liberally (be sure not to give away navigation though).

Bukhara will most likely declare war once or twice, just fortify some troops on the forested hill 3 north of Kabul and build a fort there, and defend the western entry with another stack.

Keep stability up with spreading Sunni and building courthouses/mosques.

Who the heck is Levon the Magnificent? He sounds like a good leader from the wiki--why is he so low on the totem pole?
 
OK, while I finish my Ottoman game with the most recent version (i.e. the one that doesn't give a free tech with Al-Jazari), ponder upon this:
The fate of the Ottoman UHV depends on the outcome between 2 heavy horse archers and a heavy lancer vs. 1 Italian crossbowman or marksman in Constantinople. (A lucky spawn is of course needed with the Mongols having lots of razing done).

 

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Thanks for all the guides :goodjob:

About Ottomans... that's also a cheap shot. You really don't have to capture Constantinople on 1st turn, and UHVs are doable with capturing Constantinople as late as in 1450, and with no free tech. Surely you can restart until you can capture Constantinople on turn 1 (I did the same in vanilla RFC with Ottomans...) but why would the UHV "depend" on it?
 
About Mughals:

-I always hire as much mercs during the first ten turns as possible, so that you don't have to build many trebutchets. Also sometimes Delhi can give you trouble, on other times can just plunge them straight into Ajmer's cities.

-Also as Mughals I always make Lahore the culture and wonder city. I has so great production that you can build all the wonders there without wasting your GPs to them. You have enough production orientated cities, like Anhilwara, Peshavar, Kabul, Staneshavar, Delhi, etc. to build your troops in them. Multan is my science center with full grown cottages all around.

-The tech trading is initially cheaper, because you have a tech discount for the first 10-20 turns. You can check that your tech costs rise from the start, eventhough you don't go over ten cities.

About Ottomans:

Yes, you are right that the outcome of the game is highly dependant on the matter of taking Constantinople asap. However, you can also use mercs for that.

@AP: Overall, I get the feeling that you underuse the mercs in this mod, since they play a much bigger role in SoI than regular RFC. They are also cheaper to upkeep.
 
I've never been able to hire any mercenaries in the first ~50 years as Ottomans.
 
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