Mamluks
Description
A scn dedicated to Allard Hoefelt
THE HISTORY OF SCENARIO
In the readme of Komenai scenario I've written that the idea of event recruit system got me during my Italian holidays. It isn't quite true; then, I thought of mamluk recruit system, and ERS in the way it was used in Komnenai, this idea struct me only when I was writing a mail to Bernd Brosing. Mamluk recruit system was a heavily complicated ERS. Eventually I noticed some mistakes in it and though it could be corrected I decided to make it all easier to You and simply give You the recruits on Kipchak plains instead of forcing You to recruit it there in a complicated manner. I'd make this scenario a long long time ago but I had no access to computer during the period between holidays '01 up to the start of '02 holidays. All because of my studies... Anyway, I started making the map for it before my departure, and finished it quickly after I came back. That was the end of easy things here. I received little help and no-one wanted to playtest the scenario. I have little time, and the scenario probably won't be finished in time. I must admit I miss some help, advice... For example; when you kill Kitboga, Mongols get a technology that (thanks to Leonardo Workshop in disguise), changes all their mighty cavalry into crap, so that You could take Syria; however, there's still a lot of it... And after You reach a proper expansion level, they'll get a new technology that will make them dangerous again (but by taking another city, You make Leo obsolete, so this won't be a shock and the fall of your kingdom). After I reduced the tech paradigm to a proper level, they get the possibility of researching the second tech after getting the first one, and they may get it even before You manage to make Leo obsolete - it may be a serious trouble for You... Now wouldn't it be a nice thing to let it this way, making You hurry with conquering Syria? On the other hand, it may be dangerous to a gameplay... What to choose... And I am a very hesitant person... So many problems to solve... And only two days left... And no-one to help me. Final notes; Oh, I had to change the place of different city styles to make use of all people styles... It looks much worse now; the Latin and Roman cities are smaller now, while Egyptian are bigger... grrr --- Though I released the scenario in 2002, it got little attention and I could not spend a lot of time advertising it, being very busy and lacking access to internet or computer even. It was never published elsewhere than my thread at Apolyton. In early 2004, I asked someone to host it, and the Spanish Civ2 Site was so nice to agree to do it. THANKS. But I got to the point I should look for some buggs in the scn. I had little, really little time to do it, and indeed I found several things that could, or some would say "had to" be fixed. Now, conscripts won't appear in the middle of Arabian penisula anymore, Latin knights won't appear in Syria after the fall of Outremer, and the conquest of it should be a bit harder. Several minor corrections were made. I don't have anyone to playtest it all again, and am already tired after playing it over and over again, so some mistakes may remain, but in general, I'm pleased with this scenario. It was supposed to be something different from two earlier, "monumental" (he he) works I've made. The scenario is shorter - 150 turns compared to 400 of Komnenai and 200 with extension in Fading Lights. Difference between FL and Mamluks are more visible when You compare the timeline they cover. Komnenai covers almost 200 years of history. Fading Lights cover another 200. Mamluks cover 40 years only!. Thanks to that, t needs one events file only (well, I didn't make some events that would make sense due to the lack of event space, but they are not necessary). It differs from two previous scns with one more thing, though not to the extent it was supposed to. The idea was to make a scenario where repeating events construct the scn reality rather than big historical changes stimulated by one-time events (with exception of Hulagid conquest of Syria). Also, I think that the cities I have made for this scn (the Egyptian ones and muslim upgrade) are my finest civ2 artwork yet made.
Historical Background
EGYPT BEFORE MAMLUKS
Egypt has always been, since the times of pharaohs, in the center of world politics. In the age of great heresies, under Roman Empire, Egypt played a role of birthplace of Arianism and later Monophysitism. Coptic church, persecuted by Roman authorities, soon became a separatist movement and no compromise with it could be reached. Later on, Roman war with Persia started and Egypt was captured by Sasanians for a while; though later it was returned to the Empire, the province was never quite peacefull. During the early Arab expansion, due to the dynastic crisis and personal ambitions of the orthodox patriarch (Kyros, Al-Mukawkis, the one who sent Muhammad Coptic women Mary as his wife), Egypt was ceded the Muslims without a real fight and though later Constnatinople attempted to correct its mistake, Egypt remained in Muslim hands for ever, since 641 up to today; the history of it was not quite simple, however. It was one of the most valuable Arab provinces, and the home-region (with Syria) to first Arab fleet (though betrayal of Coptic sailors was supposed to be the cause of some Arab losses at the sea). I think it was from Egypt that revolted soldiers came to the third caliph, Uthman. They've killed him, starting a great civil war that eventually ended up in the reign of Umayyad dinasty. Under the next caliph dinasty, the Abbasids, Egypt became almost independent, under the rule of Ichshidids and later Tulunids. Formally, Ichshidid and Tulunid rulers were no more then simple gouvernors of Abbasids - and it was reflected by the influence of Samarra's Abbasid mosques on fameous Ibn Tulun's mosque in what today is Cairo. It is no suprise that after almost 700 years since when Egypt could rule itself on its own, the geopolitical directions of expansion haven't changed for Egypt - Syria soon became a posession of Egypt. Though Abbasids managed to regain control over Egypt, their victory didn't last long, as their great enemies, the Fatimids, the self-calimed descendants of Fatima (daughter of Muhammad) and Ali (his cousin) and leaders of a small Shii sect that conquered (NW) Africa and later Egypt and made their base out of it, moving themselves to Al-Qahira, Cairo, their new capital. Fatimids obviously took Syria as well, halting Byzantine progress there. But Fatimid caliphate didn't last long. Great Seljuk invasion took Syria away from them, and soon the rule over the state moved from caliphs to their visiers. When, due to a civil war started by Latin attempt to conquer Egypt, a sunni Saladin, military emissary of atabag Nuradin of Syria became the visier (1171) , and Fatimids' black armies were destroyed, so was the Fatimid caliphate. Saladin was free to rule in Egypt, and the title of visiers - sultan - became the title of the rulers since then; When Nuradin died, Saladin captured Syria, and Yemen was taken too; this was the advent of Ayyubid dinasty, of Kurdish root. A single centralised Ayyubid state didn't exist, but amongst the kings of different Syrian cities, of Yemen and of Egypt the last one usually played the most important role. On the other hand, Egypt was considered the weakest part of Muslim world, and the richest one too, and as such, it was the victim of several crusades. These looked about like that; crusaders come, take one of Egypt's main ports, are offered Palestine in return for that city but prefer to take take entire Egypt, so they move further, are defeated and lose everything.
THE ORIGINS OF MAMLUKS
It was no different this time, when St Louis of France took Rosetta, and headed for Cairo. In that critical moment, sultan As-Salih died and only the strong will of the widow, Turkish girl Sagar ad-Durr, who kept the death of her husband in secret, Egypt survived and didn't suffer a civil war in this crucial moment. She's sent the army against crusaders, and though the leader of it was killed in a lost battle, crudaders didn't manage to take Al-Mansura city and during their retreat, were defeated and St Louis was captured. Later He was exachanged for Rosetta. It was year 1250. The victory in (yes, in) Al-Mansura was due to a deed of the previous sultan, who brought some Turkish slaves and made them his personal guard. After Mongol conquest of great plains of eastern Europe, the economic situation of the Qipchaq Turks living there deteriorated to an unimaginable extent. In result, the supply of slaves improved, and obviously the price for them decreased. The idea of forming the guard out of foreigners is old, and Qipchaq Turks seemed perfect for it; They were not Muslims, and so they could be turned into slaves, they had military abilities, they were white, and their representative appearance made them good guard members - and good lovers for sultan sometimes. Women were welcomed too - one Turkish slave, Sagar ad-Durr, became As-Salih's wife and his advisor. As-Salih trained his new recruits of Rawda island -Bahr- on the Nile, and so the first mamluks were called "Bahriyya", Bahrites. After the training, they were given freedom, but were taught obediance to their master, loyalty to Islam, and to some extent towards their fellows of the guard too. They had no feelings of loyalty towards the state or the family of their master, however. Keeping the death of sultan As-Salih in silence allowed his son, of other than Sagar mother, Turan-Shah, to take the throne without any trouble. Turan-Shah wasn't at all thankfull to her for that, or to the Bahrites for saving Egypt. Not only he refused to fight Latins and would rather spend his time on having fun, not only did he maltreat Sagar, but also fired Bahrites of some of their offices. The result was him being killed "by sword, by fire and by water". The main conspirators were amir Faris ad-Din Aqtay, leader of the Bahrites, amir Baybars al-Bunduqdari, one of them, and perhaps Sagar herself. After Turan-Shah death, Sagar was elected (the first in the Muslim history) female king; her rules were legitimised by being mother to As-Salih's son, who's died already, however. Egyptians were mocked all over Muslim world for being reigned by a women, and Damascus rebelled against Egypt. Sagar decided to abdicate; atabag Aybak at-Turkumani as-Salihi was elected the sultan, and married Sagar, but under pressure of Bahrites, who demanded Ayyubids to return to the throne, he had to abdicate too and became the atabag and co-sultan to a young Ayyubid, Al-Asraf Musa. That's not what the Bahrites wanted, and Aqtay married Ayyubid princess so that He could claim the throne. Aybak felt strong however, after having the Arab rebel in lower Egypt and Ayyubid interveniants defeated. He killed Aqtay by hands of a mamluk named Qutuz. Most of the Bahrites, with Baybars and Qalawun, fled Egypt then, sheltering in Syria, from where, under the lead of Baybars, they were trying to attack Egypt, without success, however. It was then that Aybak dethronised Al-Asraf Musa, and Ayyubid rule over Egypt was definitely over,
EARLY MAMLUK HISTORY
Aybak seemed strong, but when He wished to marry a princess of Al-Mawsil of Zanki's rout, Sagar ad-Durr murdered him in a bath. Then she was murdered herself by the mamluks of murdered Aybak, and his son, of other mother than Sagar, Al-Mansur Ali, became the nominal sultan, while the fight between mamluks of Aybak and the Bahrites still lasted. Sangar al-Halabi was made atabag, so the guard of Aybak (Al-Mu'izziyya) made Qutuz the viceroy of Egypt. Meanwhile, Mongols approached Syria, and so Baybars, still in Syria, and Qutuz decided to unite against them; it resulted in great victory of Ayn Galut, when Mongols were stopped for the first time (1260). It allowed Mamluks to take Syria from them, and reduce Ayyubids to a puppet status, but when Qutuz, despite his promess, didn't make Baybars the gouvernor of Aleppo, he was murdered by him. Though the council of amirs wanted to elect someone else on the throne, Baybar's claim that according to the old turkish law, the one that killed the ruler takes his place, prevailed; He killed two sultans, so he deserved the throne doubly in fact. It reminds me the Perdikkas case a bit - just a thought. Baybars became the sultan, and the New Saladin for some. He lacked the culture and sould of the first one, however. Saladin would never destroy the church of admired also by Muslims virgin Mary without any reason. The only thing that He was similar to Saladin in were his conquests in Outremer. But when the conquests of Saladin were result of a great Hattin victory, Latin Syria in the times of Baybars was defenceless. As one emissary said to the king of Acre; "There are more Franks in dungeons of Cairo than in the entire army of your kingdom". Baybars was very brutal, but pretty effective. He captured all Christian ports south to Acre, took two greatest castles of Franks, Safad and Krak des Chevaliers, defeated Armenians, conquered (and destroyed) Antioch. Except for that, He defeated all revolters, and kept Euphratus boarder with the Ilkhanate despite all the trouble. He took Kayseri for a while, and did much to convince the Golden Horde to a Muslim conversion... His successor was his son, Baraka-Khan, but he was forced to abdicate. The next sultan was his another son, Salamish, who also was dethronised, and then Qalawun took the reigns of power; He captured Tripolis and prepared for Acre; his son, Al-Ashraf Khalil, was the one who fulfilled the will of his father and reduced Outremer to a hopeless Arwad island, soon abandoned. Al-Ashraf Khalil was murdered by Turkish mamluks eraged by his own Circassian mamluks. His brother, An-Nasir Muhammad I, was twicely dethronised, but eventually kept the throne up to his death.
YOU You are the Egyptians. The Ilkhanate and other than You Muslims are your eternal enemies. Latins ARE NOT. I strongly discourage You from attacking them early in the game. You'll have no chance to defend against them on the sea and to attack them in their Outremer posessities. If You want to repeal Mongols, to have some strong units, You have to move your fleet from Egyptian shores to Crimea, and it'll be hard if You are at war with them... The same problem is with Romans and the Golden Horde. You need to keep good relations with them - but unlike Latins, You should have no intention of attacking them anytime in the game. I still haven't decided if the game should be objective or normal scn... Again, the objective system is not objective; You can conquer lots of cities and not win. On the other hand, that could make You expand in "proper" regions. Very early in the game, your only problem are bedouin attacks on your oases in the west, Bahrite (barabrian) and Ayyubid (Muslim) attacks in the east, and some Nubian barbarian attacks in the south. I've made an experiment; if you do nothing, Egypt should be destroyed quite quickly. Later, the things get worse, as the Ilkhanate should expand rapidly in Mesopotamia and Syria, and Egypt even - if You don't stop them. After Damascus falls into Mongol hands, unit named Kitboga shall be created somewhere near Al-Quds, Jerusalem; You should destroy it no matter the costs. It won't be easy. Latins will not attack You, but can ally with the Ilkhanate and probably won't do that with You (You can try). If Al-Quds is still in Muslim hands, You can expect their attack. If it is in Mongol hands, assault on Kitboga will be even more difficult. Mamluk units have ignore zones of control ability, which shall make it all a bit easier for You. In fact, this expedition is mission impossible, You probably can't save participating units. But I can assure that after You succeed, Mongols shall become much weaker and conquest of Syria shall be possible - and that's just what You should do. After that You can prepare for the conquest of Outremer.
Artwork
I tried to make some artwork myself, but I had little time so there's not as much of it as in Komnenai.
UNITS
1. row; is mainly old, except for Sudan unit - based on image of Michalek's book. The rest is also mine, but old; exception for Mongol infantry, which is Alex Mor's.
2. row; second unit, St Louis (not too good, I know) is based on a medieval drawing. Three units in the end of it are also new, based on Michalek's book; the rest is original civ2 stuff obviously.
3. row; except for the original units, they are mine, but only fourth unit is new. (based on Michalek's book; weak, I know)
4. row; units are all mine except for three (two) by Alex Mor; the Mongol infantry mentioned earlier and Byzantine galley. Only first unit (knight), third (mongol cavalry), and the second one from the end (Krak des Chevaliers) is mine. Except for Krak des Chevaliers, they are based on Michalek.
5. row; except for the original civ2 submarine, all units are mine, but only second/fifth is "new" -upgrade of once made mamluk unit that works as Amir (found in the net), but this time I made its colours fit the suit that mamluk sultans were putting on their uh "coronation". third unit is "new" -the mentioned Mongol cavalry
6. row; the second and the last unit are original, the first unit is new, mentioned earlier, as well as vice last one; third, fouth and vice-last are old, upgraded units by me (based on Medieval drawings); the head of Arab figure was based on someone's unit, as well as the dark man of the sixth unit (based on some drawing by Alex Mor.
7. row; the mountain unit is just a part of nice mountain terrains by someone, Kitboga unit is mentioned mongol cavalry.
IMPROVEMENTS
Palace is new, based on some palace on Palermo barracks and granary aren't mine. Mosque unit - mine of Komnenai. Marketplace, Library and courthouse aren't mine. City walls are new, based on a gate of Sana, and would be much nicer if opened, but I didn't know what to draw behind it ;) Well - old (Komnenai), based on a well in Athos. Caravanserai - new, based on one caravanserai in Cairo (of a bit later times but who cares) Monastery - a photo os part of St Catherine's monastery on Synaj. University -new, based on part of Al-Azhar in Cairo. Next icon is not mine. Cathedral is mine, (Komnenai), based on a basilica in Thessaloniki. Next five icons aren't mine, Next three are mine, old, (Komnenai). Next icon, which unfortunatelly isn't very good, is new, based on necropolis of Asuan. Next two icons aren't mine. Madrasa is mine, based on an upper part of mihrab of one madrasa of Aleppo. Next two icons aren't mine, then there's one mine (Komnenai), one not mine and again one mine (Komnenai), and the rest is not mine.
WONDERS
Ctesiphon is new, based on a photo. Qubbath as-Sachra is mine (Komnenai). Umayyads' mosque is new, based on a drawing I've made while working over Fading Lights Abu Mina is new, a part of photo from the net, as well as the next thing, Lalibela. next woner is blank. Mccheta is new. Great Citadel of aleppo dates to Qutremer I think. Acco is new, a photo from the net. Holy Sepulchre is new, and was pretty hard - the two buildings in the front are my imagination partially. Ince Minare is old (Komnenai). Al-Azhar is new and also used as University improvement. Sana - new photo. Eczmiadzyn - new. Persepolis - new, corrected photo. Hagia Eirene - (Fading Lights I think). Al-Mustansiriyya - new Ar-rauk - not mine, symbolical picture. Faras - new, a bit corrected photo. Pyramids - new, a bit corrected photo. Qalawun's mosque - new Abbasids' caliphate - new Antioch - new, part of a photo of a mosaic. Tcherkess Sultanate - new, a symbolical picture. Akropolis - new, based on a scan used in Komnenai. Hagia Sofia - (Fading Lights) Ghurids' Mosque - new Al-Kaaba - new
CITIES
the first city style is new, but weak, as I've made it in hurry. They are based on two Nubian churches, and some strange little Nubian pyramids. I'm no expert when it comes to Nubia so I can't tell You much about it.
the second city style is new; the mosques of third and fourth city is of Komnenai, but were corrected, and the rest is completely new; the first city is based on Samarra's mosque, I kind of united the minaret of the great mosque and of the second important one ;). The second city is based on Al-Aqsa, in Jerusalem. The third is based on Qubbath as-Sachra, Jerusalem. The fourth is based on Ummayads' mosque, Damascus.
the third city style is new. First mosque is based on both Al-Aqmar and Baybar's one, Cairo. second - Al-Hakim's, cairo, third - Ibn tulun's, Cairo, fourth - Qalawun's, Cairo.
the fourth city style is old (Komnenai), but third city was corrected and changed majorly. The smallest city's ivan is based on ivan in harem court of tash Hauli palace in Khiva (?) The second city is based on Ulugh Begh's madrasa in Samarqand the third and fourth city are based on friday mosque of Herat
the fifth city style is old (Komnenai), unchanged, and based on Theotokos church in Constantinople, second one is based on St Apollinaire's basilica in Classe, near to Rawenna, third is based on Theodoric's palace in Rawenna and Hagia Sofia in Thessaloniki, fourth is based on Hagia Sofia in Constantinople and there's a little example of Byzantine church too. The colour of city walls is incorrect and houses are probably incorrect too, though.
The last city style is old (Komnenai), unchanged. The first city is based (I know, it's very weak) basilica of st Michael in Pavia, second is based on church in Vamb, Sweden, third depicts cathedral of Spira (Speir?) in Germany, the last is based on the fameous cathedral of Pisa.
FLAGS
Byzantine - Paleolog is new. So is Nubian. Latin-Jerusalemian is old (Outremer), but colours were corrected. Mamluk is old (Fading Lights). "Mongol" one is in fact Golden Horde's only, and is new.
OTHER
Fortress is by me, fortification - by Jesus Balsinde I think. Fight is not by me. By Bernd Brosing perhaps? Cursor and background is new. Advances' icons are old (Komnenai). Those little icons are old - sometimes by me, sometimes not.
PEOPLE
All by me, only Nubian (and little Muslim) are new, but some old (Fading Lights) were corrected.
TERRAINS
Using the same stuff in terrain 1 as in Komnenai. Terrain 2 is new and I've taken it from "Lebensraum" scenario
ThankYous
Thanks to CASE, KOBAYASHI, PROMETEUS for their help on civFanatics forums Also thanks for a guy in OT Apolyton (Azazel) who tried to help me with Acco image problem. Thanks to Alex Mor for some graphics and to the authors of the other graphics I'm using. Also thanks to Bernd Brosing - whose idea of little ships as resurces I'm still using. And, finally, big thankyous to anyone hosting this scn
Exile's Review
Mamelukes is one of a series of medieval scenarios by Hereson. It is colorful, directed, and informative.
There are so many things I like about this one. Here is a list;
1.) The map. This is the medieval middle east as seen from the Arabic viewpoint. It is complete in ways that very few other maps have been. It includes regions that were vital components of the political and diplomatic situation of the time, but that have, to my knowledge, been incorporated in no other map of the region.
2.) The training of recruits to generate better troops. This is a unique and ingenius idea.
3.) Mamluk Egypt as last bastion of Islamic west asia against the incursion of the Mongols.
4.) Unit and city graphics. So well done, totally orginal designs. Great detail paid to historical accuracy.
5.) Overall attention to historical detail. The intimate history of the Mamluk state was a gap in my own knowledge. The readme file proved enlightening.
6.) The inclusion of the Sudan and Ethiopia.
Unhappily, this is one that seems to require some major revisions to be completely workable. The problems encountered were these;
1.) The mongol units event-generated at a very low number. 50 turns into the game, most of the central portion of the map is covered by them.
2.) Getting the recruits to Egypt. This is a very innovative idea, but its implementation here is problematic. The Crusaders/Franks and then the Byzantines both will attack the unarmed convoys from the Trade point, and if the trade point itself is overrun, no more recruits at all. You have no time to build the necessary fleets to convoy these units safely.
3.) On the higher settings, the Beduins of the desert west and south of Egypt prove almost unstoppable. Preserving the nascent Mamluk state from being quickly overrun is very difficult. Is this historically accurate?
There are so many things to enjoy in this scenario, but renewed testing could be very rewarding, and is necessary.
