Pisa Final Victory (All 199 Settlements, 9 Mongol Armies Defeated)

[Alavaria]

After defeating 9 Mongol armies, the Pisans have unified the land. And now peace until the Timuids* arrive...

*Timurids not included

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The Mongols have arrived. Grabbing their foothold, they will find us ready.

Estimates suggest our total strength is thrice theirs, and indeed every soldier is moving towards the great battle!

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Historically, when the Mongols swept into Europe, they encountered... well, not this:





In the year 1216, a long 85 years after the reemergence of Our Lady, the union controls 90% of the world's strategic points

The chosen Visconti family bear the burden of leadership in these times, as we prepare for the incoming invasion from the east.






When the Mongols arrive, they will likely tear through a Seljuk faction weakened by heavy fighting on its west. However to us, the Pisan Empire, the current conflict might as well be a training exercise before the Mongols reach our borders (after passing through the Seljuks, that is).

Unified under the commanding leadership of Our Lady of Mercy, the Deity of Unnumbered Wings, we will show the eastern horse lords a might they will never have encountered before.




A day of great judgement is coming. Countless numbers of soldiers stream to the east, towards the Eastern Defense Line projected to be somewhat within the (current) Seljuk lands.

When the enemy arrives, they will find us prepared!

Spoiler for Earlier: A few comments: 

• Missile
  Ranged units range from being really deadly to being nearly ignorable. However, the fact that arrows and the like are area attacks means that when the AI does its dumb "clump everyone together in the city/castle square" it will lose really really badly. Or when it has all the infantry in a massive blob in front of your lines.
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• Cavalry
  Heavy cavalry are rather crazy in that there's few good responses to them. I've fought tons of Moorish Christian Guard and Egyptian Amir's Guard and of course bodyguards everywhere.
  What really stands out is that they can charge in stupidly narrow streets and kill tons of heavy spearmen. And I'm using just about the heaviest spearmen around too. That and infantry are really bad at killing horsemen.
  However, the Byzantines don't have the old Stainless Steel immortal horse units. Also, missiles are pretty good against mounted units.
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• Infantry
  A mixed bag, some factions have pretty much no access to good spear units, though nearly everyone has strong sword-type heavy infantry.
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• Settlement building
  The main thing is having Chivalry governors about. Getting Large Towns to Cities is a pretty big boost and requires only a little help (but almost no settlements can do it without this help). Meanwhile raising Cities to Large City will require a maxed out Chivalry general (which is 7+ points for +5% growth).
  As for castles, I only use the barracks (and the core building but that goes without saying), as cities produce Pisa's best missile units.
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• Sacking/Exterminating
  Annoyingly, while Exterminating will destroy whole buildings, Sacking is pretty bad as well in that it will de-level them. Considering how quickly populations regrow to their equilibrium point for larger settlements (and construction times) you are probably best served in Occupying and dealing with the extra Chivalry by spamming Gallows or something. (Or sneak up your chivalry governor to take credit if it's just a simple autoresolve you can have him command the stack for)
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• Assassins and Spies
  Very handy, flood your enemy's lands with them. There are some tricks you can do that help early on especially (for factions that don't start with Trebuchet production) as opening gates can be very useful in assaults as well as strategically.
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• Trebuchets
  Amazingly useful, it takes only one to knock a hole in the walls of Cities/Large Cities. You will need 2 for a Huge city. I recommend taking 2 for a Fortress as well.
  Don't bother trying to take out towers though, those are really tiny things which you can't reliably hit. Make sure to use assassins to sabotage Ballista Towers as those are annoying.
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• Building Times
  It takes a long time for a new City or Large City to build what is worthwhile. In fact I think I haven't ever yet "finished" a whole level.
  And thankfully so, with nearly 140 settlements (even if a number of them are idle Large Towns) there's enough to manage in terms of construction...
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• Dread
  The best way to win field battles.