Sword of Islam: Strategy discussion

1984 references FTW! Anyway, I'm playing as Ajmer, and I just learnt that you can prevent the spawn of Delhi (not sure, but maybe the ones in Karnataka aswell). How? Thx for the help

Edit: I meant the Delhi Sultanate

Don't let the Ghorids to collapse or keep your own stability high enough to prevent them from (re)spawning.

Yeah, KoJ can use the same strategy to keep Fatimids alive and avoid trouble with the Ayyubids (Mamluks aren't mitigatable though).

First try at "Sultan" although it's really monarch, since we're all Orthodox, no?

Build capital 1W, and Ani 3 NW. Build granaries and switch to settler as soon as pop hits 5. Manazkert is founded and becomes military center/great artist generator.
3 Orthodox Churches needed for a cathedral which was built in Manzikert.
Befriend Byzantines and Georgia, and eventually the latter will vassalize to you. I even got the Principality of Antioch to vassalize and was friendly to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Civics: Religious law and Aristocracy--don't choose castes, it'll decrease great people, and you can easily get artists by building racing tracks.
Bahgrati Cathedral, Narekavank are only Orthodox wonders I built.
It's actually good to have other religions spread to you--build a missionary and spread it back to capital. I built several wonders for other religions (like Krak des Chevaliers, Mevlana's Tomb, Al-Azhar, Tomb of Al-Khalid, Minaret of Jam, Kutlag-Timur).
The culture part is a piece of cake (I had 3 great artists and something like 40000 culture near the end). The hard parts were to
1. Survive the Mongols and the various DOW by Islamic cultures like Zengi and Seljuks (who called a Holy War on me and even involved my great friend and benefactor the Byzantine Emperor)
2. Expansion of territory which will increase instability (I was close to collapsing near the end, with my empire stretch from north of Antioch to Georgia).

Found Sana'a on site, send 2nd settler to coast (Taizz which encloses both pearls and crab). Sufism will spread to you. Build 3rd settler for Ahwar SE of Sana'a.
Don't trade away incense until you have built all 3 Sufi Shrines (because Sufism might leave your cities).
Heroic Epic in Sana'a, churn out axemen with city attack II and catapults, capture Makkah (moneybags) and Medinah, and you'll get the 2nd objective.
Then all science towards Companies (expensive tech) to reveal the 2 coffees in Yemen, 1 in Ethiopia and 1 in Sudan.

Be peaceful and cultivate relations with the Abbasids, Saladin and then the Mamluks when they appear--you'll get much needed health resources.

During your GA it might be useful to change to Empire (much less maintenance for your large empire stretching from Medina to Taizz, and Al-Qadarif (Sudan) to Salalah). Apparently the AI doesn't like that, so even though I switched to Sunni, some of them DOW'd on me, especially Oman who destroyed my workboats.

AnotherPacifist said:

First try at "Sultan" although it's really monarch, since we're all Orthodox, no?

Click to expand...

You mean Despot

Found Cairo (more correctly, switch civics the first turn when Cairo has no culture squares to work with, to avoid losing population), convert all improvements to farms and windmills. That's it. Oh, and then build 10+ wonders there.

Destroy the Kingdom of Jerusalem first (Cairo builds a couple catapults and trebuchets first, then Heroic Epic), and gun towards the tech for Mamluks (super-lancers which kill everything except arqubusiers). Expand southward carefully, always making sure that the newly conquered city has 2 defenders which can easily venture out to kill barbs.

Let Zengi be for a while (good buffer between you and the Ottomans). Conquer Hejaz and Yemen, and build some drydocks in the Yemeni coastal cities and just churn out great galleys. Even though they are inferior to carracks, it's exactly the advantage you have--luring those precious carracks out from formerly Omani cities and kill them with your superior numbers. Then go after Zengi when Ak Koyunlu spawns.

The Ottomans will declare war eventually (close to 1485), just destroy their siege weapons first, then attack. I captured 2 of their coastal cities but couldn't keep the inland city since I didn't have black powder (I had so many cities that it was taking 20000+ to steal it, and I was gunning towards Compass which I didn't need in the end).

2 questions:
1. Is the Suez Canal buildable in this mod?
2. The Abbasids seem to be really good with trades (even at a disadvantage to them)...any reason?

Very nice guide! I enjoyed it

AnotherPacifist said:

2 questions:
1. Is the Suez Canal buildable in this mod?
2. The Abbasids seem to be really good with trades (even at a disadvantage to them)...any reason?

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1) Seeing as the Suez Canal was built to meet European interests and that the game ends at 1700, no I don't see the Suez Canal being a possible wonder/Building
2) Perhaps it's a highly prized tech which they want, and that they are actually cheating you

I think he refers to Suez canal as a collection of forts to connect the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, and I see no reason why not ... not that it has much relevance either, the naval aspect only being secondary in this mod.

It would make a difference because you can then build ships from Egypt and the Levant and send them towards the Red Sea, instead of relying on conquering Yemen (Mecca has sucky production).

You don't need to go as far as Yemen. Your Red Sea ports Aqaba and Raithu can get you masses of warships early and easily.

2phunkey4u said:

You don't need to go as far as Yemen. Your Red Sea ports Aqaba and Raithu can get you masses of warships early and easily.

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Yeah but the distance to go is too long. Even from Yemen it takes almost 8-10 moves before they get anywhere close to Oman.
I built up a fleet of 8, and then just replenished them constantly with packs of 2 from my 2 Yemeni ports.

Aqaba by itself is enough in the Red Sea.
Mekkah is much better off building wealth buildings.

That's true. In my first Mamluk UHV victory, Aqaba was building War Galleys from the turn it flipped to me and it still was close to defeat these annoying Portuguese carracks in time.

Aqaba and Raithu (with drydocks) can each spill out war galleys every second turn. There is plenty of time to travel to greet the Portuguese.

I´ve got a question: When Mongols capture some cities during the invasion, will they create a state? Or will they just raze them, like normal barbarians?

Jusos2108 said:

Aqaba and Raithu (with drydocks) can each spill out war galleys every second turn. There is plenty of time to travel to greet the Portuguese.

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The two Yemeni cities were averaging 1-2 war galleys every turn (depending on how many hammers were left over) with dry docks. And, if the Yemeni were to respawn, since they DOW'd on me, I might have to deal with their ships too, so I conquered them after they collapsed.

And how can you beat COFFEE! (got the one in Soba too)

(And I had to conquer Aqaba--it was KoJ's first and the Yemeni stole it from me just as I was about to capture it)

If there is no Raithu and Aqaba is underdeveloped, then it makes sense to conquer Yemen. Otherwise the two are enough, however, taking another port in Yemen (with Coffee) is also a good idea anyways.

Found capital on site. Hook up iron ASAP (the copper can wait). Conquer Gwalior (rebel city to the east) and Chittor with 2-3 cats and 4-5 axes. Build Heroic Epic in capital. Wait 10 turns, then destroy Gujarat (don't ever let them hook up the copper). Then Malwa's turn. Then Sindh's turn. Then Ghaznavid's turn. Then Multan, Delhi, Lahore (before 1150 at least) and finally the Ghorids.

I was a little hesitant to bring war and destruction to my enemies since it meant less GG points generated. But the Ghorids stupidly invaded Lahore and I got my 3rd general just in time. In fact, the Khwarezmids invaded too, so I got another 2 GGs.

The late spawning Bahmani Sultanate was no match for me--even though they flipped Kolhapur, they hadn't even had time to build a barracks.

Switch to Empire early on.

Important techs are: Literature (Heroic Epic--allows capital to churn out axemen and cats in 2-3 moves initially, then later 1 war elephant per move), the religious ones (Religious Unity for Persecution), Cash Cropping (agrarianism rocks for a superlarge empire), Cheque System (need to build gold to sustain a large empire), and finally Selective Breeding (get it in time for the Mongols--the War Elephant is the only consistent unit that can kill a Mongol horse archer, other than the Mamluks). All the others are just fluff.

By the end, I was many times a Hindu saint, since I had cities from Kandahar to Dehli, Bamiyan and Kabul to Vijayanagara--29 cities in all. All completely Hindu.

Wow that is alot of cities, AnotherPacificist . I'm surprised though that Gujarat didn't declare independence on you. Good stability should prevent this but since Gujarat is one of Ajmer's early conquests, I don't have enough time to build stability-producing buildings and my army. I could always destroy their cities and rebuild later but my stability would be even worse, especially since we're both Hindus. It's a veritable Catch-22 for me. I wish I could just vassalize Gujarat but the Religious Prosecutor bug prevents me from getting my UHV .

Building lots of Hindu temples and courthouses helped. My really strong economy helped too. I was solid by the end.