My Timur was rather lame. He found most cities in sight to be rebel, and very few foreign religions to extinguish. Nevertheless, it's actually easier to win this way.
Turn culture slider to max (no techs will need to be researched--Music Theory can be traded for). Market economy and religious law again, aristocracy is optional. Samarkand builds monument and market, then Royal Mausoleum when other monuments come online and National Epic. Be sure to have a great artist to spawn in Samarkand (some cities might overtake it with priests like Otrar--so I used him for a golden age). The 2nd most productive city builds Heroic Epic and churns out troops. The most commercial city (way up north, since it's the farthest from all the other civs) builds Karimi Fundiq and Royal Mint.
If a rebel city has a foreign religion, massacre. If not, see how much infrastructure is saved--anything less than 3 buildings-->raze. (I actually razed all the Khwarezmid cities since they are tough to defend, then later on rebuilt just one for the land).
Don't need any science buildings at all.
Some safe places to found cities are the Taklamakan Desert, the mountainous land between that desert and your southern cities, and east of Otrar (can found a city without name).
As long as you get something like 8000+ culture you should win even without provoking major war with the highly cultured civs like Ajmer or Byzantines. I didn't even venture beyond Western Khorasan. The Delhi Sultanate was my friend, no war at all between the 2 of us.
Here's my human shield in 1500 (in case I didn't win, since Samarkand was defended very lightly!) So
that's why Timur always collapses around that time...
Another great guide. I think the general consensus is that it is a good idea to get all 3 UHVs by 1500.
Being ever the warmonger, I had different ideas. Ajmer (!) had ventured into Tocharistan and Khwarezm, capturing Kunduz and Khiveh (which was then recaptured by Barbs 1 turn into my game). The rest of the region was owned by Mongol barbs, including Mazar-i-sharif (1N of Balkh) being founded by the Samanids way back (I checked in the victory timeline screen) instead of Balkh. This whole situation had 3 implications:
1. My starting cities had few or no buildings and even fewer improvements- I was starting from scratch and my economy sucked, but I got ~12 free heavy horse archers.
2. I was at war with the entire Indian subcontinent (everybody was vassals of Ajmer, including Sindh, which found itself with possessions in the Hindu Kush!
3. I got another super stack o'death due to flip and then war with Ajmer (I got Kunduz from them, garrisoned with a ton of marksmen and elephants.
Opening moves (lots of saving and loading, as losing as few men as possible is essential):
-Switch religion to sunni, civics to Empire, Serfdom, Theocracy, Vassalage
-Massive land grab- heavy horse archers use free barb wins to capture Urganj, Khiveh, Merv, and Nishapur. These all had barb workers, which was nice. Promote to anti-missile cavalry when possible
-All 4 siege engineers (very OP UU imo) and 4 heavy lancers go to Kashgar along with a sunni missionary and a marksman- bombard and take it. Lucky for me it had 5 workers!
-All single movement units and 3 heavy horse archers go to to block the passes leading from the Hindu Kush into Tocharistan- Ajmer, Gujurat, and Sindh all sent huge stacks but they were no match for my men on forested hills. Held the gaps for 10 turns and then made peace.
-The caravan goes ahead to meet all surviving civs- this is important because you want to trade for as many techs and gold as possible.
-Science goes to zero for now (scarily enough I was still losing 70gpt on 0% science)
Expansion:
-All conquered cities build Marksman-yam-market, courthouse once available (one of the Indian civs usually has civil service) no need for workers (despite the landscape being utterly destroyed) because the barbs and indies had so many.
-Samarkand builds cash buildings, then heroic and national epic, then culture buildings, runs an artist (one or 2 great artists are necessary depending on your luck). I settled 2 great generals there + Cloak of the Prophet, built barracks and stable, and then spammed level 3 heavy horse archers with some settlers mixed in to fill up the core area. Also built archery range and marksmen, as well as health buildings. Needless to say, I chopped all the surrounding forests. Each city in or east of W. Khorasan needs 3 marksmen and walls to survive barbs. The key here really is to get Samarkand developed ASAP so you can get a unit each turn. Check the city every few turns to make sure that you only have an artist assigned in the city.
-Merv builds tons of sunni missionaries- you want sunni in all of your own cities, plus spread to all neighbors you OB with, since high piety = more stability and you need a lot of it.
-The big army (heavy horse archers, lancers, siege engineers) goes to Iran and snags everything from the Mongols and rebels. Siege engineers get accuracy promotion asap, but are only necessary attacking cities that are on hills or have walls + castle. Heavy lancers get strength promos, heavy horse archers get either Combat I-Combat II-Skirmish (anti missile cavalry), or flanking I-III and then flank attack if possible. Capture everything required to become Shahanshah (found a city in Tabaristan if there is not one there already). Massacre all populations with a foreign religion and you'll get the 1st UHV.
Around this time Ak Koyunlu shows up. Be nice- fighting them really sucks, and there's enough Turkoman barbs to deal with as is. If you can OB with them then you could spread Sunni to all their cities and they become your bff. Key thing is to get indy Baghdad before them so you become Commander of the Faithful and can call Jihad on anybody who attacks you.
Next target is Georgia (whether they're alive or not, they've got a lot of land and culture, and you happen to need both). There's usually a bunch of size-10 Orthodox cities and a few had 1000+ culture left over. Massacre, then spread sunni. With Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Khorasan, and your core region under control, you should easily get the 12%. All those missionaries from Merv are key since spreading Sunni to all conquered cities makes them pop a fat cross in 10 turns. I gifted a couple cities in Armenia to Ak Koyunlu since they were outside my stable provinces (technically the entire map save for Africa and some of India should be core or border provinces for Timur if those are truly determined by historical extent of the empire, but whatever). Each city builds defenses to help defend against Turkoman barbs once the buildings that help the economy are up, and Esfahan builds the Summer Palace. The main army goes back to the core provinces to prepare for the Uzbeks (with much help from our super-city of Samarkand). I culture-bombed 2 artists in Samarkand but it turned out I needed only one as I had massacred half of the map. Dealt with only one wave of Uzbek barbs and then won in 1500 (I was considering invading Hindu Kush and India if I had more time but it was not necessary).
Key here is really just playing nice with everyone and dismantling your opponents one at a time. In particular you want to avoid fighting Indian civs (they always end up teamed as vassals of Ajmer, Gujurat, or Sindh), Ak Koyunlu, and Byzantines/Ottomans (depending on which one has more land/is still around). Being friends with Ak Koyunlu is especially important as they are a nice buffer (just like in real history) between you and the powerful civs in the west of the map (Mamluks, Ottomans, Byzantines). I also became a royal saint in piety, which did wonders for my stability, likely stopped lots of people from declaring on me, and gave me that nice blessing promotion. The more cities you raze or massacre, the better.
Transjordan is a terrible province, only stone for later game when stone it exhausted near Aswan and Bagdad. In domination victory B'ir look preferable than Al-Karak.
