Selçuküler
The Selçuküler have the Power of Diversity.
Despite what sedentary peoples may say of them, there is no one race in the world any more enterprising nor martially endowed as the Turks - and the pedigree and feats of the Selçuküler are proof of this. Being descended from the great and glorious Oghuz horde, the Selçuküler have proven themselves and their ancestry by first ousting their Ghaznavid rivals from southern Khorasan, then seizing the great city of Nishapur and claiming the lordship of eastern Persia for themselves.
Since then, the Selçuküler have only grown from strength to strength, and now control vast tracts of Asian land in the name of the Caliph of Baghdad, having even seized almost all of Anatolia from the Romans. Yet it would seem, that this time, the Selçuküler bit more than they could chew - in their haste to conquer the Romans and their city of Constantinople following a stunning success at Manzikert, the Selçuküler provoked the Pope, the spiritual head of all the Latins, into rallying the Franks to go on Crusade - this the Franks have done and despite initial failure, the Franks have successfully wrested the Holy Land from the Selçuküler, along with the holy mosques of al-Haram and al-Quds in Baitulmuqaddis.
Thus far, Selçuküler prestige has been broken by the inability of their great sultan to rally his subjects and scour Baitulmuqaddis clean of Crusader rule. But should that task ever be undertaken, the Selçuküler can't be said to be bereft of the tools required: generations of carefully curated multiculturalism and the adoption of Persian-style governance to supplement the legal traditions of sharia' have given the Selçuküler access to some of the best units this mod has to offer: be it Turco-Persian Transoxanian cavalry for early cavalry rushes, fierce Steppe Nomads or even Arab infantry and cavalry in the form of mamluk horsemen or infantry jund, the Selçuküler are very much in possession of a grand army and a vibrant and thriving economy that stretches from the Mediterranean to the very shores of the Caspian Sea; it is then only a question of will and unity of purpose with regards toward ousting the Franks and then achieving true worldly greatness for the Selçuküler.
Faction overview
Military Tradition: Barracks units are cheaper, trained faster and deal more damage to buildings, based on your Military tech level.
Land of Milk and Honey: Farms are 50% cheaper.
Masters of the Sea: Ships are 10% cheaper.
Strengths
Passable economic bonuses, formidable cavalry superiority, good potential for early game rushing.
Weaknesses
Limited naval and artillery support, no proper heavy infantry.
Despite the loss of Palestine and the Levant to the Christian Crusaders and rogue warlords refusing to bend the knee to the King of Kings, the Selçuküler are still very much a force to reckon with, with their access to some of the best cavalry units, as well as some strong cultural bonuses and a plethora of Wonders, making the Selçuküler a highly diverse and flexible civ to play with. The most obvious ones to pay attention to, being Ghilman Cavalry, Mamluk Lancers and Transoxanian Cavary, are probably the staple of most heavy cav tactics - use these units to break down scores of weaker enemy units, particularly infantry, to then allow your units a clear path into your opponents' cities. And should this fail, the Selçuküler still have other weapons to deal with - Horse Archers, Trebuchets, and the weaker but faster moving Spear Jund provide the Selçuküler many options in dealing with cavalry counters and pesky fortifications. These are all supplemented by the Selçuküler ability to construct Farms and Trawlers more quickly and easily, thus allowing the Selçuküler an advantage in preparing for and launching an early-game rush .... and the luxury of being able to mount a counterattack or a second larger rush if so needed. Being able to generate Food quickly means more units, easier access to Administration research, and tentatively faster acquisition of Wonders for diplomatic clout or even a Wonder victory.
Thus it would seem that the Selçuküler aren't just tactically flexible, but strategically too, with the military and economic resources to cater for different play styles. That said, there are several glaring areas that a Selçuküler player ought to be wary of. The most glaring one is the near-lack to good infantry. While the Selçuküler do have access to Crossbow Infantry, the inability to upgrade the weaker but faster-moving Spear Jund poses problems - a faction with good heavy cavalry could well pose a threat, and while the Selçuküler have some options, like mercenary Camel Archers, it would seem that the best bet is to keep repeatedly raiding an enemy with cavalry to prevent their access to stronger but costlier units, such as the Tiefutu of Dajin, or the Lay Knights of the Crusader States. Siege weapons also do not provide any further relief - the lack of access to Springalds leave the Selçuküler player somewhat vulnerable to attack at long range or by cavalry, unless the Selçuküler can match their foes with their own fast-hitting cavalry units - a tactic that works well early in the game, but is of less value later on. Finally the Selçuküler have access only to Fire Vessels and Barques at sea. These units may prove to be cheaper to build, but it also complicates things in coastal assaults - the lack of warships such as Heavy Galleys and Roundships make landing operations difficult for the Selçuküler, and render their navy as a purely defensive one, albeit one that is highly proficient.
These issues aside, the Selçuküler are still a fairly viable faction to play with, depending on their cavalry superiority and their middling infantry and artillery support to provide a useful defensive force whereso needed, or to facilitate an outright victory by conquest. Strike early and often as you can, if you cannot win an outright early game rush, so you can keep your economy working while you degrade the opposition's own capability to out-produce yours.
Unique units and structures gallery
Mamluk Lancer
A genus of heavy cavalry common in the Arab lands and shared in common with the Ayyubids of Egypt, this noble mounted unit is endowed with powerful attack, exceptional armour, but has far more limited mobility compared to more agile medium cavalry or horse archers.
Ghilman Cavalry
Like Mamluk Lancers, ghilman are slaves, commonly recruited from Central Asian peoples (but also occasionally Europeans) to serve in the armies of Islam. While not as powerful as the mamluk class they are still worthy of respect, being toughened medium cavalry units capable of knocking out other light cavalry units, and swarming heavy cavalry.
Transoxanian Lancer
Heavily armed warriors on horseback trained from a Corral, commonly found throughout Persia and Khorasan. So skilled with lances are these horsemen that they will always be the first to strike against other melee units.
Camel Archer
Despite being slower than Horse Archers, Camel Archers have one special bonus - they have better armour and HP, and take less damage from melee horse cavalry. Camel Archers are often recruited as mercenaries not only by the Selçuküler, but also by many Middle Eastern and Central Asian nations, even as far away as western China.
Spear Jund
Saracen spearmen commonly found across the Middle East and Persia that sacrifice defence for unit speed. Clearly faster than Spearmen, but more vulnerable to missile attack.
Citadel
As in The Hellenistic Era, the Citadel (alongside its weaker counterpart, the Guard Tower) continues to be the most powerful form of point defence in this instalment in the Kings & Conquerors family of mods.
Nobles' Court
Sumptuous and stately yet foreboding, the Nobles' Court is the ultimate expression of regnal power, consisting of a vast castellated estate around which the nobility of the land must rally around. It is not as cheap as a Mansion nor as easy to come by, but its ability to boost the size of your Territory around it, and the fact that it is immensely powerful as a point defence structure means that a Nobles' Court can be more than capable of defending your borders, whilst training some of the most powerful land units available in all of this mod.
AI leader names
- Masud
- Malik Shah
- Muhammad Shah
- Suleiman Shah
- Arslan Shah
- Qizil Arslan
- Toghrul
Settlement names
- Nishapur
- Ishafan
- Rayy
- Hamedan
- Tehran
- Baghdad
- Felujah
- Basra
- Raqqa
- Mosul
- Rasht
- Bam
- Yasuj
- Halabja
- Rigan
- Abadan
- Marvas
- Shiraz
- Khomein
- Sinop
- Qon
- Istahbanat
- Bushehr
- Baku
- Kerman
- Mashhad
- Yazd
- Arak
- Konya
- Sanandaj
- Skymet
- Astana
- Tashkent
- Meymand
- Shoosh
Other chapters:
Wolf Among Lions [Steam | XBOX/EE | Gold]
Rise of the Barbarians [Steam | XBOX/EE | Gold]
Imperivm Invictvm [Steam | XBOX/EE | Gold]
Hammurabi: [Steam | XBOX/EE | Gold]
Other mods:
Rise of Kings: Chronicles [Steam | XBOX/EE | Gold]
New World Empires: Swords of the Prophets [Steam | XBOX/EE | Gold]
Warbirth: The Crucible [Steam | XBOX/EE | Gold]
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