The first vote was near unilateral. Free
Jim Profit Asad ad-Din!
It was a gud choice because Asad is a gud hero. The "general" type, like Raynald of Tripoli.
I give him one point in leader of light inf (more are unnecessary, they only increase the range) and two in heavy inf.
Also, in case you wondered about the fat bearded dude that replaced the crusader priest - it's an imam
he has the exact same function.
Research was split 50/50 between Turk bowmen and consolation prize. The die ultimately favoured the money.
However, after picking it, we still have 1 research point left. So I go ahead and use it on Confusion.
Al-Jazira was the only map during the crusader campaign to pit us against assassins. Guess it makes sense to give 'em to us after the mission.
Here we are, men.
Here are the other men.
Saracen horsemen, 2x seljuk horsemen, 2x mounted archers, 3x warriors
and 1x mameluk lancers, newcomers to this LP.
That is a lot of cavalry. Maybe I should get another regiment of spearmen...
And then there are these men.
All of them are trash tier - crusaders, bowmen, spearmen. Only the single crusader elite unit stands out.
We might want to leg it to these here bushes.
The Fremen cavalry of course decides to come after us.
The infidels, otoh, take their sweet time marching ahead at minimum speed.
We set up with cavalry and spearmen in front of archers, then unleash hidden fureh.
Those mounted archers are real motherfuckers, because they never stop. They just keep bouncing to and fro from our dudes. However, for some reason they aren't shooting.
These dudes are still just marching on cluelessly. Good.
The rest of the enemy cavalry also just keeps bouncing ahead and back all the time without any purpose
Until they finally get closer. Maybe they were waiting for the heavy cav.
I send our horsemen after one mounted archer unit while bombarding the other with archers. Also, seems the seljuk warriors are now coming to beat us up too.
when suddenly...
Our seljuk horsemen go from 30 dudes to 14 IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE. WHILE
ATTACKING
ARCHERS
IN MELEE
YOU USELESS FUCKERS
I try to retreat them to safety, but to no avail. The freshly recruited horsemen regiment marks our first casualty in this campaign, and 2nd in this LP
I have absolutely no idea what happened back there btw. There might be more to the mounted archers than meets the eye.
Nevertheless, the cavalry is out, so we pull back a little and start poking the light infantry.
After which I let Asad and his own seljuk warriors show what they've got.
Soon it's only the battered horse archers left.
Like I said, real motherfuckers. They just keep running around shooting arrerz, being annoying and impossible to catch.
You can bet your ass they are hiding behind that ravine and yelling "TROLOLOLOLOLOLO"
Still, we have other concerns.
Plan A - Let them kill eachother - didn't quite work, so we'll have to get our hands elbow-deep in gore.
Also, all of a sudden, Saladin loses 2 bodyguards to the under-half-strength mounted archers that he was chasing...
I have this weird theory that engaging them in melee makes them fire some sort of, I dunno, point blank salvo that does x10 damage. Because nothing else makes sense.
Starting with these conveniently out of position crusader elite.
Doesn't take long.
But it triggers the rest of the fuckers.
Alhamdulillah, the way they marched across the entire desert throughout the mission has left all of them at 0 stamina.
So we wait for them to get close and open fire.
Then try to charge the bowmen with our remaining cavalry once the spearmen are out of the equation.
Their friends are quick to follow from the other flank.
MEANWHILE THE SELJUKS BARELY GET CLOSE WHEN THEY GO DOWN TO 4 MEN.
GRANTED, THEY WERE ALREADY WOUNDED BUT FOR FUCK'S SAKE
THOSE WERE LEVEL 0 BOWMEN!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Fortunately, they manage to get away by the skin of their teeth.
These guys here are a bit confused and refuse to attack our position, which only profits us.
And once they do get closer - SURPRISE!
While Asad and the infantry engage the crusaders, Saladin lives his fantasy dream and rides around on horseback, killing things.
Suddenly some crusaders I haven't noticed run dangerously closer to our archers, lolwut.
The situation is soon contained, however
(i dont at all like these losses)
And what's left is mopping up stragglers.
The map is clear... but no victory!
What could be this great mystery?
PEEKABOO.
A bunch of panicked spearmen tried to hide in the forest
ugh
lotsa loot at least
Zing.
These reinforcement costs
Also, meet the assassins. They are basically super-heavy light infantry.
Note the "attack 8, defence 5". The actual numbers hiding under these pointless tags are 1600 HP/piece (hero bodyguards have 2000) 55 resistance (whatever it is, but usually even heavy infantry doesn't go above 40), 140 damage at level 0 (seljuk swordsmen at level 5 currently do 138). Their only problem is their superlow armour (5), but you know what they say. No cover, all man.
They also have an ability that makes them permanently invisible. That's right. No matter the land, no matter if moving, always invisible, unless someone gets close enough to spot them. Which also happens to, if I recall correctly from my first playthrough years back, completely break the enemy AI. Not to mention the near-constant double damage from ambushes.
We shall make great use of these men.
Some level-ups.
Scatter, obviously.
I also get another light horsemen regiment to replace the fallen.
I give Asad the new healer as well, for good measure, and raise leader of heavy inf.
And speaking of Asad - imagine him and a bunch of assassins running into the enemy with leader of light infantry triggered (20% damage boost, among other things). Awwww yeah baby.
Seljuk archer first skill tier is as useless as you'd think. Picked surprise shots.
New event, with pretty straightforward options.
Do we take +1 faith, or do we add 5 healers for hire? Decisions decisions.
Finally, new maps.
Damascus.
Suddenly not called "Caliphate of" anymore
Ah, then obviously this should just be a formality.
With the help of the arisen moderate rebels, we shall...
Three phases.
Phase 1 - kill the crusaders in Damascus.
Phase 2 - build fortifications.
Phase 3 - destroy the massive crusader army that even on the map here outnumbers us almost 3:1...
And all that with just 6 regiments because the rest of the army is blocked from participating!
And though you might expect the map to give us local reinforcements, there's nothing on the mission maps that would suggest that actually happening :^)
MOVING ON
Medium looks more reasonable.
Damned Frenchies.
Oh, pretty generic then. "Go out there, kill the infidels". Got it.
Asia Minor (aka french plan uphill straight through 9387693847 trebuchets) and Arabia (aka cowardly nobles fleeing through the oasis) are still available too.
SO
- What do with the dervishes?
- Where next to take our trucks of peace?