What would Saladin do?

[Locki]

I recently decided that I would choose a particular leader that I would play as for the next lil while and for fun try to

1. better my skills with that leader (and traits)
2. roleplay a little in terms of trying to do what they would do.

I decided my leader would be Saladin (spiritual / philosophical) because I saw him in a movie a while ago and he just seemed like an interesting character. well that and green is my fav color .

Anyways here's the question, what is the most appropriate way to play as saladin? What would saladin do?

I know a bunch of you are history buffs and I plan on reading the info (civilopedia or whatever its called) on Saladin to see if I can learn more about him tonight when I get home from work so please help me out on this.

Locki

 

[Civistynyt]

I decided my leader would be Saladin (spiritual / philosophical) because I saw him in a movie a while ago and he just seemed like an interesting character.

Kingdom of Heaven?

 

[Locki]

Yeah I think it was that one.

Oh and I just remembered I forgot to say I'm looking civic types, favorite war units, battle styles the whole bit.

 

[pholkhero]

an interesting thing i did with Montezuma was read through the wiki entry on him and the Aztecs and created variants based on that. Might be a good thing to read up on him around the web and see what sort of ideas strike you.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Since he's Spiritual, Philosophical, I've seen a lot of people use him to get a bunch of great people (changing between governments to maximize what you have). If you actually want to use him historically, I'd go out conquering (destroy the infidels and unite those with your own religion under your rule). He fought with the Crusader states and he conquered Egypt, so he attacked both christians and muslims (he unified the muslim world under his rule).

 

[Thehistoryman]

Darn Louis beat me to the 'kill the infidels' comment. I think that the best thing to do, and this is just for starters. Is rush(as much as possable) to get Islam. Try to avoid other religions as much as possable(found as few as you can). Make sure someone else has founded the religion before you even start the tech until you get to divine right, then rush the crap out of it. Immediatly convert and switch over to Theocracy to ****** the spread of other relgions then spread spread spread. Demand all allies to convert. Make no deals except open boarders so you can spread the religion until they do. If they consistantly refuse declare war. leave no infadel un jihaded.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Keep in mind this is Saladin, not just any arab leader. Saladin went further to unifying all arabs under one government than any other leader. He conquered Shi'a Egypt (and the Shi'a leaders "mysteriously disapeared" after that), he tried to get the city of Damascus to declare their allegience to him (rather than remain independent). It was only then that he attacked the Crusader Kingdoms to expell them from the Middle East.

 

[Elhoim]

He also built many universities.

 

[dh_epic]

Saladin was considered pretty merciful by the standards of the day, actually.

His top priority was unifying the Muslim world -- and yes, he did use force, as made sense back then. But for the most part, he wasn't interested in fighting the Crusaders and the Knights Templar. In fact, he was happy to see Christians in charge of the Kingdom of Jerusalem because it made for a buffer between him and Syria.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was ruled by a french dude named Guy, who basically called Saladin out, and attacked nearby caravans. Eventually, he even invaded Saladin's territory. So Saladin had to smack him down. In the end, he actually only imprisoned Guy, and eventually let him go.

This provoked the third Crusade. Which actually ended diplomatically. Richard of England and Saladin agreed to keep Jerusalem under Muslim rule, but allow Christian pilgrimmages. Saladin was actually HIGHLY respected by Christian intellectuals at the time, which is no small feat. When Dante says "No, Saladin isn't in hell, he's in the place with the other virtuous pagan souls", that's a REALLY high complement for the 13th century.

If you want to play as Saladin, you would basically try to conquer all Islamic cities... fighting other defensive wars only as necessary -- and being merciful once you've thwarted their attack. You would also have tremendous respect for honorable civilizations -- and deal with them in kind.

Otherwise, he was a pretty devout muslim, built a lot of forts. And conducted very wise diplomacy. He was also a Kurd, not an Arab -- but hey, Stalin is from Belarus, Alexander is Macedonian, and Asoka is Vedic.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I thought Stalin was Georgian (you could add Corsican Napoleon to your list with Alexander and Asoka if you want).

But I agree with your analysis of Saladin

 

[salty]

Saladin would immediately sign a defensive pact with Rome and form the powerful Caesar-Saladin Alliance. Har har.

 

[dh_epic]

Woops, my bad about Stalin. But yeah, the main point -- a lot of these leaders weren't from the Nation or Empire proper, but they can be thought of as part of the larger Meta-Civilization. (e.g.: Greek civilization means the Hellens, the Minoans, the Macedonians, and the Byzantine Empire. Mali means Ghana, and Songhai.)

 

[Wodan]

I think that the best thing to do, and this is just for starters. Is rush(as much as possable) to get Islam. Try to avoid other religions as much as possable(found as few as you can).

One thing about CIV is that all religions are names, no more no less. There's no distinction between Islam and Judaism or any of the others.

So, IMO Saladin would choose a religion, the name meaning nothing, and would apply all of the other excellent advice everyone has been giving.

Whether that religion is named "Islam" or what have you, is irrelevant, as far as CIV is concerned.

Wodan

 

[dh_epic]

Good point. There's a good chance that Saladin would care about whatever religion he found himself with, and conduct himself accordingly.

 

[Tarkhan]

If you want to see Saladin in action, as far as his in-game mechanics, check out Sulla's Civ4 Walkthrough.

http://www.civ4info.com/Sullla/civ4_walk_1.html