Sword of Islam: Strategy discussion

Another question: if I (as the Byzantines) have vassalized the Sultante of Rum, and they are still alive in 1300, would the Ottomans spawn? From what I can tell in the riseandfall.py file, if the AI is playing Rum and their stability is not >0, the Ottomans would spawn. Is that right?

That's how it currently works iirc. The question is whether we want to restrict the Ottoman spawn even further.

Speaking of the Ottomans, is there a guide for them around already? I've finally decided to start a game as them, but from how it looks I'm not doing that good. I'm continuing the initial war with Byzantium for years with minimal progress, and research is bad. Is it better to make peace as soon as possible and build up infrastructure and army first?

It is best to capture Constantinople asap with mercs. That will bring the war against them to a quick end. The shrine does wonders to yor research too.

Okay, I stayed away from mercenaries to not ruin my research and focused on the surrounding Anatolian cities only. The problem is, I didn't even make it to Black Powder before 1450 and Constantinople is unassaultable with trebuchets. There's not enough espionage to bring their defenses down the subversive way either ... I'll try rushing Constantinople next

Use the mercs as 'trebutchets', no point to pay their maintenance costs for long.

All in all mercs play a lot bigger role in this mod than basic RFC

Definitely Their initial costs still drain a lot on the economy.

Try to get a spawn where the Byzantines only have a horseman in their capital.

Not nearly as much of a nightmare as RFC Europe's Byzantines. Stability wasn't an issue at all except for a short while after the Rum were vassalized (should have just annihilated them to prevent the "we want to join our motherland!" unhappiness.

I had close to 80000 gold and generating 2000g/turn in the end...sort of overkill.

Some things I did that were useful:
1. The only early city I built was Germanikeia (1 NE of Sis which prevents its spawn).
2. Gave a city (Sevasteia) to Armenia (so that they will vassalize as well as help me research 2 techs) which helped my maintenance costs immensely.
3. Captured Tarsus early on and spread Sunni in capital. I was 2 turns from the Spiral Minaret! But in general, I spread religion around so that I can build the wonders. Got Al-Azhar, Imam Reza Shrine, the Observatory, the Workshop, Shalimar Gardens, Qutb Minar, Grand Bazaar, the Embassy, even the Minaret of Jam. And of course Kizil Kule in the capital, the Bagrati Cathedral and Narekavank.
4. Razed Antioch to disallow spawn of PoA, and built a fort on the forested hill just north of it--voila, the only other entrance to Tarsus is blocked off (besides my city Germanikeia).
5. The only difficult thing was to combat the Rum after my soldiers were wounded by the Seljuk barbs. Took a little longer than the Ottomans (who died within 5 turns).
6. All cities destined to flip built nothing but granaries, barracks, blacksmith and troops. (Maybe an occasional church for stability) Right before the spawns, drafts were made and cities were starved so no troops can be drafted by the newly spawned civs. (I starved a size 18 Smyrna all the way down to size 5) Strategic resources like horses and iron were pillaged before spawns.
7. The Fatimids are your friends (stealing 3-4 techs from Alexandria was great), whereas the stupid Abbasids and Zengids kept declaring war.

As Byzantine I found it more rewarding to deny the flips. Especially the Ottomans do down easily that way.

How can the Gold from Mali event be dealt with. Its absolutely brutal and pretty much ends the game.

Build gold generating buildings and give away unnecessary/far away cities. It can be overcome (as Ayyubids I had a 0% research with negative gold per turn to 80% science with positive gold balance at the end).

I still think it should be a time-limited event though, and should only affect Egypt. Maybe instead of inflation, all Egyptian cities have 100% higher maintenance.

I figured you'd say that. It definitely seems like a the event could be handled in a different way.

Not nearly as nightmarish as I thought.
Mosaic Art is important (turn culture dial up to 20% and the culture part is set, besides building wonders).
Captured all cities in sight till Tarsus (massacred non-Sunni population), built many farms and cities, maximize food. Used all floodplains.
Persecution is key (religious inquisitors take way too long to build).
Since Orthodoxy is the main competitor, the most important cities to spread Sunni (via Sufi missionaries who don't need OB): Constantinople, Sinopi, Smyrna, Edirne. Cairo and Domyat are needed too but Cairo was only a measly size 8. I gave a size 9 Sunni city (Kermanshah) in Persia to the Seljuks. I tried to win before the Rum showed up, and they boosted my 48% to 50%.

2phunkey4u said:

Sidenote:
Conquering other levantine cities apart from Al-Quds seems a waste of resources to me. They drain your econ and will flip away anayway. To me, it's best to raze them initially and rebuild them (or take from the crusaders) later when your economy is much stronger.

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BTW, I note that earlier strategies don't mention capturing all the rebel cities...which is a mistake. Once other religions are eradicated, Antioch, Tarabulus, Tarsus, Edess can grow really big. It's more than possible to win before any Crusaders arrive.

Depends highly on lucky spawns. If the Ak Koyunlu are powerful (or are vassals of the Fatimids or Ottomans, and have their capital moved to one of your cities--i.e. it won't flip to you), it makes it really much harder. If the Fatimids are alive, you can basically ignore the Shia criterion--they will spread it far and wide, and all you might need to do is to persecute some of your own cities.
Make peace with Georgia ASAP, they are usually involved in wars against its western enemies.
Most imporatantly, switch to Religious Law, Market Economy, Aristocracy, Serfdom. Stay in OR until you're ready to conquer. This combination will allow fastest generation of great engineers (I had 6 of them, all waiting for techs to be done). Persia is usually pretty undeveloped and serfdom is needed to improve the land quickly. Make sure after you build the Imam Reza Shrine (not in Mashdad, but in Kermanshah, the most productive city usually that flips to you) that you reassign engineers, not priests. I got a great saint despite this and used him for a golden age instead.
Keep research high, even if it means building wealth and not conquering rebel cities or founding new ones.
The Mughals are the biggest headache. They beat me to the Taj Mahal, Bridge of 33 Arches, Shalimar Gardens, and the Blue Mosque. I went for Imam Reza Shrine, Grand Bazaar (of Esfahan, presumably), the Shah Mosque and Topkapi Palace (the only non-Persian wonder). Funny how it mimics history...
Oman's city in Fars (Siraz) is pretty easy to capture. Finish him off in Hormuz.
Bribe the Khanate of Bukhara to declare war on the Mughals while you're battling Oman, and when they are reasonably unprepared, capture Western Khorasan's 3 cities. Paved roads are essential to get a Quzilbashi cavalry from one end of the empire to the other in 1 turn.

AnotherPacifist said:

BTW, I note that earlier strategies don't mention capturing all the rebel cities...which is a mistake. Once other religions are eradicated, Antioch, Tarabulus, Tarsus, Edess can grow really big. It's more than possible to win before any Crusaders arrive.

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You are right, although I did mention that here, I just had to mention that. IIRC my earliest win has been ~1030. Getting Sufism to Antioch is really important, because it can pump out missionaries in couple turns. Abbasids are SoI's Persians, scorewise that is.

I always assumed it meant the Grand Bazaar of Constantinople. But the more ambiguous, the better

Jusos2108 said:

You are right, although I did mention that here, I just had to mention that. IIRC my earliest win has been ~1030. Getting Sufism to Antioch is really important, because it can pump out missionaries in couple turns. Abbasids are SoI's Persians, scorewise that is.

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Sorry, my bad, you did mention it.

How do you GET Sufism to Antioch? Doesn't it just spread randomly depending on your incense count? I had it in my main cities, and as you know, Samarra, Al Kufah don't have the best production, and Baghdad was busy building health buildings to get big. So I used my production city--Gundeshapur, which I think is better than Ahvaz because it has access to more floodplains--to build Sufi missionaries and that took an extra 3 turns to just get to Antioch. I do have it in Damascus but it was my Heroic Epic city.

No, Sufism prefers cities with appropriate buildings (libraries etc.), so it's at least indirectly controllable.

Leoreth said:

No, Sufism prefers cities with appropriate buildings (libraries etc.), so it's at least indirectly controllable.

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Good to know. I didn't build a single library in any of my cities but had plenty of madrasahs, but not in Antioch which was just busy building granary, walls, fairground and a workboat for Tarsus.