Turkic game on 600AD is far harder than the 3000BC version. No Apadana Palace, less prebuilt improvements, and stronger enemies in Persia. While this guide seems to be very detailed there's no exact strategy for most city placement, conquest, improvement nor build orders. One thing's sure, the player should use Turkic unique trait to its full extent, and it's gonna be really dirty.
This guide is based on Regent-Epic game mode. In higher difficulties you will see more barbarian units and less friendly neighbors. You may not able to buy the key techs from them anymore.
Turkic game heavily relies on some uncertainties:
1. If the barbarians spawn on unfortunate locations, or don't spawn at all for long time, you're doomed. They're also attracted to goodie huts, which sometimes spawn on northern Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
2. The combat odd is often unforgiving, 4 Horse Archer shot dead by single unit is no rare sight. So always keep at least 4:1 number advantage over the enemy. And don't stand in front of their cities for too long, that will provoke them to train and promote more defender.
3. If Arab get flip war with Byzantine it's a bad news. I rather see 2 Crossbowmen and 1 Cataphract than 4 Mobile Guards and 2 Ghazis.
4. You need 2 Great Artists for UHV3 with only 3 or 4 opportunities to spawn them. However, the wonders of Herat and Shiraz give some chances for a non Great Artist unit to spawn.
Key tech:
Feudalism for Keshik and ascend into Medieval era, once you are in Medieval the game moves at 5 years/turn instead of 8.
Medicine for Medic promotion
Artistry for build Culture
Ethics for Monasticism
City options:
Mongolia:
I suggest Ulaan-ude(the northeast spot) instead of Ordu Baliq for better growth.
Western land:
Aktobe(Aktjubinsk): Easy to defend, nice production, has no name in game.
Bolghar or Sarai Berke: Good growth, large area, expensive maintenance.
Budapest or Yas: More access to barbarians and Byzantine Workers, very costly to maintain.
Taganrog: Like Yas but better, don't settle it before Russian flip.
Qazan: Spawn as barbarian city on 1200AD, if no civilization controls the area.
*the image should say Uralsk not Samara btw
Best cities to run artist:
Merv, Ulaan-Ude, Delhi, Herat and Shiraz. Run 2 artists once those cities reach 3 pop.
Where to see the barbies:
From France to Kazakhstan desert. 300-700AD: 4 Hunnic Horse Archer. Spawn near border.
Albania, Hungary, to southern Ukraine. 680-1000: 4 Avar/Bulgar Horse Archer. Spawn near border.
Southern Ukraine and Russia. 900-1200: 4 Cuman Horse Archer. Spawn near border.
Qazan(69'E 53'N, must be unoccupied). 1200AD: 3 Horse Archer. Spawn on the city.
Persia, Northeast Mesopotamia, northern Pakistan, Transoxania, and Kazakhstan(72'E 29'N to 101'E 43'N). 600-1040AD: 3 Turkic Oghuz. Spawn in random locations.
Around Caspian Sea. 1200-1600AD: 2 Tatar/Nogai Keshik. Spawn in random locations.
East of Caspian Sea to Orduqent. 1400-1700AD: 2 Uzbek/Kazakh Keshik. Spawn in random locations.
North of Samarkand to Mukden. 400-900AD: 4 Gokturk/Uighur Horse Archer. Spawn in random locations.
North of Kashgar to Mukden. 900-1100AD: 4 Jurchen/Khitan Keshik. Spawn near border.
India. 210BC-700AD: 1 War Elephant. Spawn near border.
North Africa. 50-900AD: 2 Berber Camel Rider.
North Africa. 900-1800AD: 1 Berber Camel Archer.
North Africa. 1200-1700AD: 1 Songhai Farari.
Other note:
The 20 improvement goal may seem impossible at first, but it is not. India has 3 improvements, Persia has 1, Byzantine has 5, Arabs has 0-2, Korea has 2(which you can "farm" twice), and China has more than 12 in mid-game. Send multiple Oghuz with Strength promotion so enemies won't try to face them.
The Great Work worth 2400 culture in Classical age, 3600 in Medieval, and 4800 in Renaissance.
Turn 0
Set all sliders to 0%. Beeline Feudalism.
Scout to Indonesia.
1 Oghuz to Byzantine.
3 Oghuz to China. Don't Open Border with China yet!
1 Settler with Oghuz to Mongolia.
1 Settler with Oghuz go Northwest.
1 Worker build road 2N 1E of Dukhan.
2 Workers build Cottage in Kashgar.
The Archers should stand by in these positions: Samarkand Horse, 1NW of Merv, 1NE of Ordukent, the hill between Dukhan & Kashgar, and 1NE of Dukhan.
Merv build Granary or Theatre then Weaver. Others build Worker. Whip if able.
Turn 1
Trade Nobility for Politics.
Dirty trick #1: Destroy Byzantine Pasture, Open Border with them, put an Oghuz on Trabzon Iron.
Dirty trick #2: 1 Oghuz in China go to Beijing hill, the rest capture any Worker on sight(usually 1W of Beijing). Open Border with China afterward. Else, you can delay the OB and kidnap 2 Workers on the Silk 1NE of Kaifeng(it's dangerous to do this in higher difficulty as China starts with more armies).
The stolen Worker help build road to Mongolia/build Plantation.
Mongolian and Eurasian cities build Tengri Obo, then Monument or Theatre.
Turn 2-6
The 3 Oghuz in China go to Simiyan Hoton(Mukden). Don't attack the city yet. Pillage the Horse and stay there till Korea attack the Archer(usually on turn 5).
After the Archer is destroyed or injured, send 1 Oghuz to kill remaining Korean unit around the city. Then use the other two to take Simiyan Hoton.
If your workers are done making Cottage, build Plantation on Kashgar Silk.
Turn 7(656AD)
Declare war with Byzantine. Bomb the Iron mine in Trabzon, then you can either run away or continue to pillage surrounding area.
You can also send that Oghuz to the hill in Kiev to catch more Horse Archers.
Catch any Barbarian on sight!!
Pillage the Pig in Korea.
Turn 8 to 12(664-696AD)
I leave the improvement order to your judgment. But I suggest focusing 5 Workers to improve Transoxania.
Samarkand build Skirmisher or Palace, then whip Settler(if it reach 4 pop).
If either Merv or Orduqent reach 4 pop, whip for Settler.
Kashgar and Dukhan build Obo, Monument, and anything with culture points. Mind that Islam tend to spread to Kashgar, obsoleting the Obo.
Gift Generalship to Indonesia. Then trade for Medicine and Artistry. Don't buy other tech!
Keep your eye on the Korean Iron, once their Workers done building the mine, send 3 nearest Oghuz there immediately. Don't forget to burn the mine.
Use the stolen Workers in Mukden to road the way to Mongolia.
Send at least 8 units to invade Trabzon. If your timing is right they won't have more than 1 Crossbow in each city, hopefully they don't have any Cataphract left. If you catch no Turkic & Hunnic barbarian, then you should prioritize Arab and Persia first.
If you got 4 cav units or more, send 3 to the Gems 2N 1E of Herat to bait their Crossbowmen. Other stays in Merv to sweep surviving Crossbows. Repeat the process till you kill 3 Crossbowmen. Keep the sweeper at least 3 tiles away from Herat so the AI won't get wary of them.
Turn 13 to 24(704-800AD)
Note: If you own both Herat and Shiraz, your core will shift into much smaller area of Persia, resulting to economic and stability recession. So think wisely whether you need Shiraz for the UHV or not. Mongol also won't flip Transoxania as long as your core isn't Persia.
Another note: If you can bring some cities to Developing culture(triple ring), you might not need India at all.
Send more cavalry to Persia. Declare war and take their cities.
Herat build Theatre, Aqueduct, and Weaver.
Once Persia is done, send some Oghuz to India. Just try to bait the Patiyodha, then declare war to capture the cities.
Declare war on Abbassid Caliphate. Baghdad and Tabriz have bigger area and weaker units so they should be prioritized.
Turn 25 to 37(800-896AD)
Send 2 Oghuz to the Deer in South of Kaifeng. 1 Oghuz stay on Beijing Horse.
Dirty Trick #3: Close Border with China, destroy any improvements on sight. Once you're done, Open Border again with the poor neighbor before they get mad at you for not accepting Confucianism.
Settle Itil, Azak, or any close spot in Eurasia. Focus on culture.
Settle Isfahan. Focus on growth.
Now for the hardest part, attack Damascus and Jerusalem. You can sack Damascus and Tabriz for extra money, their border won't grow much anyway.
Even after conquering Damascus, your total land area may not reach 5% right now. So it's time to raise the culture slider and build Culture on your periphery cities. Your area will grow drastically in just under 5 turns. Be considerate though, especially if you have negative minimum GPT.
Here is the screenshot of one of my games, I reach 6% without having to conquer India and Shiraz.
900 to 1100AD
Congratulations if you achieve the first goal! But the next goals are deceptively hard. Your empire might also collapsing at this point.
Turn up the research slider, you can catch the cool Keshik once you have Feudalism. Be careful, they are very fast and may appear without any alert.
Build Palace in Samarkand. You'll get a big gpt boost for building Palace so you should prioritize it over Market.
Use first Great Artist in Samarkand for the third goal. This will also make Kashgar focus its culture Westward.
There are 2 ways to complete the Silk road. Settle the desert hill for instant border or trust Dukhan and Kashgar to grow their borders.
Release Indian cities. You may keep Lahore to get the Incense.
Improve Persian land so your new core cities can quickly grow.
Switch to Islam and Clergy or Monasticism.
Watch out for Egypt! Prepare some units in Jerusalem to anticipate Ayyubid invasion.
1100AD to 1190AD
Dirty Trick#4: In 1185AD, place a military unit one tile away from all of your Northern cities. Once Mongol spawned, immediately take all of their cities. Poof! They vanished without trace. But remember, they will respawn around 1230 or 1260AD along with a conqueror event. In that case...
Make sure you're most populous city is in Persia. When Mongol comes, you'll get free Palace there.
1190 to 1400AD
When you see the menu to accept Mongol spawn, just press Yes. They'll auto declare war no matter what you choose.
Dirty Trick#5: You can completely block Mongolian conquerors by placing units around Isfahan, Shiraz, and Herat. Do this until 1230 or 1260AD.
Beeline Cartography to build Gur e Amir in Samarkand, just for historical fun
. Alternatively you can go for Heritage for quicker Renaissance or Firearms to fight Mongols.
The UHV3 will depend on your luck. Hopefully the 2 GA spawn in time. It's also possible to win the game by settling 1 GA, or using Great Work after you get Renaissance.
Hope this guide will be helpful. And feel free to share your own experience!
This guide is based on Regent-Epic game mode. In higher difficulties you will see more barbarian units and less friendly neighbors. You may not able to buy the key techs from them anymore.
General tips
Turkic game heavily relies on some uncertainties:
1. If the barbarians spawn on unfortunate locations, or don't spawn at all for long time, you're doomed. They're also attracted to goodie huts, which sometimes spawn on northern Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
2. The combat odd is often unforgiving, 4 Horse Archer shot dead by single unit is no rare sight. So always keep at least 4:1 number advantage over the enemy. And don't stand in front of their cities for too long, that will provoke them to train and promote more defender.
3. If Arab get flip war with Byzantine it's a bad news. I rather see 2 Crossbowmen and 1 Cataphract than 4 Mobile Guards and 2 Ghazis.
4. You need 2 Great Artists for UHV3 with only 3 or 4 opportunities to spawn them. However, the wonders of Herat and Shiraz give some chances for a non Great Artist unit to spawn.
Key tech:
Feudalism for Keshik and ascend into Medieval era, once you are in Medieval the game moves at 5 years/turn instead of 8.
Medicine for Medic promotion
Artistry for build Culture
Ethics for Monasticism
City options:
Mongolia:
I suggest Ulaan-ude(the northeast spot) instead of Ordu Baliq for better growth.
Western land:
Aktobe(Aktjubinsk): Easy to defend, nice production, has no name in game.
Bolghar or Sarai Berke: Good growth, large area, expensive maintenance.
Budapest or Yas: More access to barbarians and Byzantine Workers, very costly to maintain.
Taganrog: Like Yas but better, don't settle it before Russian flip.
Qazan: Spawn as barbarian city on 1200AD, if no civilization controls the area.
*the image should say Uralsk not Samara btw
Best cities to run artist:
Merv, Ulaan-Ude, Delhi, Herat and Shiraz. Run 2 artists once those cities reach 3 pop.
Where to see the barbies:
From France to Kazakhstan desert. 300-700AD: 4 Hunnic Horse Archer. Spawn near border.
Albania, Hungary, to southern Ukraine. 680-1000: 4 Avar/Bulgar Horse Archer. Spawn near border.
Southern Ukraine and Russia. 900-1200: 4 Cuman Horse Archer. Spawn near border.
Qazan(69'E 53'N, must be unoccupied). 1200AD: 3 Horse Archer. Spawn on the city.
Persia, Northeast Mesopotamia, northern Pakistan, Transoxania, and Kazakhstan(72'E 29'N to 101'E 43'N). 600-1040AD: 3 Turkic Oghuz. Spawn in random locations.
Around Caspian Sea. 1200-1600AD: 2 Tatar/Nogai Keshik. Spawn in random locations.
East of Caspian Sea to Orduqent. 1400-1700AD: 2 Uzbek/Kazakh Keshik. Spawn in random locations.
North of Samarkand to Mukden. 400-900AD: 4 Gokturk/Uighur Horse Archer. Spawn in random locations.
North of Kashgar to Mukden. 900-1100AD: 4 Jurchen/Khitan Keshik. Spawn near border.
India. 210BC-700AD: 1 War Elephant. Spawn near border.
North Africa. 50-900AD: 2 Berber Camel Rider.
North Africa. 900-1800AD: 1 Berber Camel Archer.
North Africa. 1200-1700AD: 1 Songhai Farari.
Other note:
The 20 improvement goal may seem impossible at first, but it is not. India has 3 improvements, Persia has 1, Byzantine has 5, Arabs has 0-2, Korea has 2(which you can "farm" twice), and China has more than 12 in mid-game. Send multiple Oghuz with Strength promotion so enemies won't try to face them.
The Great Work worth 2400 culture in Classical age, 3600 in Medieval, and 4800 in Renaissance.
Detailed Guide
Turn 0
Set all sliders to 0%. Beeline Feudalism.
Scout to Indonesia.
1 Oghuz to Byzantine.
3 Oghuz to China. Don't Open Border with China yet!
1 Settler with Oghuz to Mongolia.
1 Settler with Oghuz go Northwest.
1 Worker build road 2N 1E of Dukhan.
2 Workers build Cottage in Kashgar.
The Archers should stand by in these positions: Samarkand Horse, 1NW of Merv, 1NE of Ordukent, the hill between Dukhan & Kashgar, and 1NE of Dukhan.
Merv build Granary or Theatre then Weaver. Others build Worker. Whip if able.
Turn 1
Trade Nobility for Politics.
Dirty trick #1: Destroy Byzantine Pasture, Open Border with them, put an Oghuz on Trabzon Iron.
Dirty trick #2: 1 Oghuz in China go to Beijing hill, the rest capture any Worker on sight(usually 1W of Beijing). Open Border with China afterward. Else, you can delay the OB and kidnap 2 Workers on the Silk 1NE of Kaifeng(it's dangerous to do this in higher difficulty as China starts with more armies).
The stolen Worker help build road to Mongolia/build Plantation.
Mongolian and Eurasian cities build Tengri Obo, then Monument or Theatre.
Turn 2-6
The 3 Oghuz in China go to Simiyan Hoton(Mukden). Don't attack the city yet. Pillage the Horse and stay there till Korea attack the Archer(usually on turn 5).
After the Archer is destroyed or injured, send 1 Oghuz to kill remaining Korean unit around the city. Then use the other two to take Simiyan Hoton.
If your workers are done making Cottage, build Plantation on Kashgar Silk.
Turn 7(656AD)
Declare war with Byzantine. Bomb the Iron mine in Trabzon, then you can either run away or continue to pillage surrounding area.
You can also send that Oghuz to the hill in Kiev to catch more Horse Archers.
Catch any Barbarian on sight!!
Pillage the Pig in Korea.
Turn 8 to 12(664-696AD)
I leave the improvement order to your judgment. But I suggest focusing 5 Workers to improve Transoxania.
Samarkand build Skirmisher or Palace, then whip Settler(if it reach 4 pop).
If either Merv or Orduqent reach 4 pop, whip for Settler.
Kashgar and Dukhan build Obo, Monument, and anything with culture points. Mind that Islam tend to spread to Kashgar, obsoleting the Obo.
Gift Generalship to Indonesia. Then trade for Medicine and Artistry. Don't buy other tech!
Keep your eye on the Korean Iron, once their Workers done building the mine, send 3 nearest Oghuz there immediately. Don't forget to burn the mine.
Use the stolen Workers in Mukden to road the way to Mongolia.
Send at least 8 units to invade Trabzon. If your timing is right they won't have more than 1 Crossbow in each city, hopefully they don't have any Cataphract left. If you catch no Turkic & Hunnic barbarian, then you should prioritize Arab and Persia first.
If you got 4 cav units or more, send 3 to the Gems 2N 1E of Herat to bait their Crossbowmen. Other stays in Merv to sweep surviving Crossbows. Repeat the process till you kill 3 Crossbowmen. Keep the sweeper at least 3 tiles away from Herat so the AI won't get wary of them.
Turn 13 to 24(704-800AD)
Note: If you own both Herat and Shiraz, your core will shift into much smaller area of Persia, resulting to economic and stability recession. So think wisely whether you need Shiraz for the UHV or not. Mongol also won't flip Transoxania as long as your core isn't Persia.
Another note: If you can bring some cities to Developing culture(triple ring), you might not need India at all.
Send more cavalry to Persia. Declare war and take their cities.
Herat build Theatre, Aqueduct, and Weaver.
Once Persia is done, send some Oghuz to India. Just try to bait the Patiyodha, then declare war to capture the cities.
Declare war on Abbassid Caliphate. Baghdad and Tabriz have bigger area and weaker units so they should be prioritized.
Turn 25 to 37(800-896AD)
Send 2 Oghuz to the Deer in South of Kaifeng. 1 Oghuz stay on Beijing Horse.
Dirty Trick #3: Close Border with China, destroy any improvements on sight. Once you're done, Open Border again with the poor neighbor before they get mad at you for not accepting Confucianism.
Settle Itil, Azak, or any close spot in Eurasia. Focus on culture.
Settle Isfahan. Focus on growth.
Now for the hardest part, attack Damascus and Jerusalem. You can sack Damascus and Tabriz for extra money, their border won't grow much anyway.
Even after conquering Damascus, your total land area may not reach 5% right now. So it's time to raise the culture slider and build Culture on your periphery cities. Your area will grow drastically in just under 5 turns. Be considerate though, especially if you have negative minimum GPT.
Here is the screenshot of one of my games, I reach 6% without having to conquer India and Shiraz.
Spoiler 3 screenshot :
900 to 1100AD
Congratulations if you achieve the first goal! But the next goals are deceptively hard. Your empire might also collapsing at this point.
Turn up the research slider, you can catch the cool Keshik once you have Feudalism. Be careful, they are very fast and may appear without any alert.
Build Palace in Samarkand. You'll get a big gpt boost for building Palace so you should prioritize it over Market.
Use first Great Artist in Samarkand for the third goal. This will also make Kashgar focus its culture Westward.
There are 2 ways to complete the Silk road. Settle the desert hill for instant border or trust Dukhan and Kashgar to grow their borders.
Release Indian cities. You may keep Lahore to get the Incense.
Improve Persian land so your new core cities can quickly grow.
Switch to Islam and Clergy or Monasticism.
Watch out for Egypt! Prepare some units in Jerusalem to anticipate Ayyubid invasion.
1100AD to 1190AD
Dirty Trick#4: In 1185AD, place a military unit one tile away from all of your Northern cities. Once Mongol spawned, immediately take all of their cities. Poof! They vanished without trace. But remember, they will respawn around 1230 or 1260AD along with a conqueror event. In that case...
Make sure you're most populous city is in Persia. When Mongol comes, you'll get free Palace there.
1190 to 1400AD
When you see the menu to accept Mongol spawn, just press Yes. They'll auto declare war no matter what you choose.
Dirty Trick#5: You can completely block Mongolian conquerors by placing units around Isfahan, Shiraz, and Herat. Do this until 1230 or 1260AD.
Beeline Cartography to build Gur e Amir in Samarkand, just for historical fun
. Alternatively you can go for Heritage for quicker Renaissance or Firearms to fight Mongols.The UHV3 will depend on your luck. Hopefully the 2 GA spawn in time. It's also possible to win the game by settling 1 GA, or using Great Work after you get Renaissance.
Hope this guide will be helpful. And feel free to share your own experience!
Last edited:
