{"id":2153,"date":"2015-08-16T10:18:49","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T10:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kalle-online.net\/blog\/?p=2153"},"modified":"2015-09-25T08:23:20","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T08:23:20","slug":"into-the-renaissance-ayyubids-strategy-deity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kalle-online.net\/blog\/into-the-renaissance-ayyubids-strategy-deity\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Renaissance Ayyubids Strategy (Deity)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Into the Renaissance – Ayyubids Strategy (Deity)<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Ayyubids<\/a> were ruling the Holy Land during the time of the crusades. Their empire stretched from Aleppo and basically modern day Syria in the Northeast to Libya in the West and the holy cities of Islam in the Southeast. Now playing the Ayyubids in the Into the Renaissance Scenario<\/a> means reestablishing the Ayyubid empire and requires century long war with the Turks<\/a> in the North, as Aleppo is their capital and they strive for dominance in the Holy Land.<\/p>\n

Also unlike the real Ayyubid Empire, you will hold the Holy Land and (as an unfortunate downside of the scenarios mechanic) no crusader will ever set foot in your realm!<\/p>\n

Prologue: The Ayyubids Unique Traits & Happiness<\/h3>\n

The Ayybids have an awesome unique ability: Saladin’s Justice grants you a free (!) Courthouse in each captured city. This is great in so many ways: It saves tremendous amounts of cash not buying them or immediately gives you the happiness bonus you wouldn’t have if you’d build the courthouses. Also: No maintenance costs! In the end I had ~30 cities, about 25 of them captured, so saved ~100GPT on maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Mamluk<\/th>\nMadrasa<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
The Mamluk is not a very powerful unit. But it’s special ability (not getting a penalty attacking cities) makes it worthwhile having a small army of these.My usual promotion path for Cavalry in this game is: Shock (or Drill) 1, 2, 3, March (to heal while moving), +1 Movement Point, +1 Attack and Bonus against wounded units. Equipped like this, a Mamluk can reach deep behind enemy lines and with it’s unique ability even attack a city twice.<\/td>\nUnfortunately the Ayyubids unique building is of not much use: The Madrasa produces additional faith unlike the University it replaces. Not a bad thing per se, but you’ll only get to Education very late in the game and as you won’t even try to score Exploration VP, IMHO there’s no need to build Madrasas at all.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Given Saladin’s Justice plus all the Social Policies (see dedicated section) my happiness rating was always between 20 and 35 depending on how many cities I had just conquered. Only in the very end with HUGE Constantinople and Nicaea (both cities of 13-15) revolting, my happiness was “only” 1-3.<\/p>\n

Part 1: Establishing your Empire<\/h2>\n

Playing Into the Renaissance Ayyubids has one big advantage and disadvantage together: You’re in the far Southeast corner of the Into the Renaissance map<\/a>. The good thing about this: You’ll have only two fronts and don’t need to defend everywhere. The bad thing: You’ll only score victory points (VP) very late in the game, as you’re Muslim and the Turks, your first big rival, are too.<\/p>\n

Chapter 1: Initial Build Order and Social Policies<\/h3>\n
\"Civilization<\/a>
Unlocked Social Policies at the end of the game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Ayyubids have several advantages here again: You can go Honor very early on, because you don’t need to build many cities early. Also happiness is less of a problem compared to other nations, because the City States you capture provide luxury resources early on. So here’s my order of Social Policies:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Tradition<\/strong> <\/span>– for more culture in your capital<\/li>\n
  2. Legalism<\/strong> <\/span>– for 4 free culture buildings in your first cities (also grants buildings in puppet cities)<\/li>\n
  3. Landed Elite<\/strong><\/span> – for more growth in your capital, which needs to produce all your units at the start<\/li>\n
  4. Honor<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Warrior Code<\/strong><\/span> – for an early General +production bonus on melee units<\/li>\n
  6. Military Tradition<\/strong><\/span> – for +50% XP for all units, which you need early to grow a huge number of veterans<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    After that, complete the Honor<\/strong><\/span> tree with Discipline<\/span> <\/strong>(+15% bonus for melees flanking each other), Military Caste<\/span><\/strong> (Happiness and Culture from city garrisons) and Professional Army<\/span><\/strong> (Happiness from defense structures and decreased upgrade costs. The earlier to complete the Honor tree, the better, as the additional gold from killing Turkish units will boost your economy!<\/p>\n

    Initial Build Order<\/h4>\n

    Cairo builds a watermill (one of the best early buildings, as it boosts both growth AND production) followed by 3 Composite Bowmen. Those plus your swordsman will need to stop the Turks from capturing Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

    After that – find the balance between units and improvements. I built two catapults to support my own siege of Jerusalem. These became the veteran cannons (all possibly promotions) laying siege to Constantinople.<\/p>\n

    Infrastructure and Movements<\/h4>\n

    Have one worker build a road to Jerusalem immediately. You’ll need to get your troops there as fast as possible. You might even connect to the city already, but definitely build a road south of it, out of their border. This way you can rotate archers and melees even whilst at war with Jerusalem and fight off the attacking Turks.<\/p>\n

    Research<\/h4>\n