Abbasid stalemate - any help/tips?

[bigdaddy1204]

I'm trying to play as the Abbasids and re-create the great Arabic empire of the umayyads, but I'm stuck! At the start of the campaign, there is so little money available it's almost impossible to field an army. I tried invading the Seljuks to the north, crossing the Zagros mountains into Iran, but they blocked me at a river crossing with a much larger force. I restarted the campaign and tried agian, this time walking down the Persian gulf coast to attack Shiraz. I managed to capture the city but took heavy infantry casualties in the assault. They then immediately counter attacked with a full stack army that was about 3 times the size of mine. My soldiers fought bravely in the town square and we ALMOST held out, but it came down to the last spear unit of about 150 men (out of 3,500 they started with) and I simply ran out of soldiers - nobody was left alive. We lost. Two generals were killed and my entire army was wiped out.

I then had to fight a desperate defensive battle at a river crossing outside Basra to stop them taking my city. If I had lost, I was going to have to quit the campaign as it was game over. But we managed to hold them (just). I then rebuilt a new full stack army and am about to counter-attack them. But it seems really hard!

Does anyone have any advice on the Abbasid campaign?

Thanks

[Larkin]

What a surprise! The tiny Caliphate isn't financially or militarily capable of fighting against the much larger Sultanate! It's almost as if things were intended to work that way...

You have to be patient. Very patient. Expand slowly, build economically in Baghdad (it becomes a money pit). Scout rebel cities, take them with small forces, stay at peace with the Seljuks - even if it means becoming their vassal.

You can gently exploit the chaos created in Outremer with the warring factions/Crusades etc and slowly build yourself up a small but economically healthy and well defended kingdom. Try to avoid fighting anyone but rebels if you can.

Then the Mongols come. Then is your time to party. The Mongols will likely sweep the Seljuks aside. And if all goes to plan, ignore you. You can try to ask them for an alliance or something early on, at least get trade rights - hope they focus on cities other than yours, since you should be just out of the way of their line of conquest. Ensure you're well fortified regardless - a full stack should be able to hold against any Mongol army in city defense. Don't fight them in the open if you can avoid it.

The Mongols will eventually run out of steam. Now, now is your time. Sweep forward, conquer their poorly defended or rebelled cities, take everything from the Persian Gulf to the north coast of the Caspian, and then turn your focus West. Now the real fun begins.

[Dekhatres]

with eastern factions i almost always rely on archers to rain down death from the top of a mountain, works quite well, first thing you should do is kill or greatly weaken enemy cav with archers, then take out the enemy inf with your general's bodyguard (charge them in the back), very important thing is if you position your army on a mountain on the campaign map your army will be on a mountain on battle map too