When playing you will probably notice that you never get what you are looking for. Try to make the most of the unexpected, until mr Right turns up, or start again.
The game gives you very little of anything. Big armies on long trips are out of the question at the beggining. Getting the correct balance between too much and too little is what can make or break you right from the start.
To start with, armies are greedy! They can eat you out of palace and caliphate - literally. So to get things going try this as a fairly accurate gauge. The ratio for one man per month is: 1 man=3 units cash, 15 units food and 30 units water. So a typical army of 200 men would consume an average of 600 cash units, 3000 food units and 6000 water units and thats only for a month.
Only send out armies you know can afford (you are not alowed a budget defecit).
When the armies are ready you have to find something not too far away for them to attack. This should not be a caliphate as he will have too many men for you to fight. An indipendant fort is the answer. If on your first attempts you send out two armies, to the same castle, one can attack and the other sit in reserve until needed. If you should fail to take the prize the first time round, you can bring up the second army for a crack at the plum. You should find that the fort is substantially weaker.
If your first army was succesful, choose the fort icon on the left hand side of the screen and select military. Take the supply option, then use the army as a supply post for the fortress.
Your second army can then go on to continue your `message of frendship' to other tin pot dictators and the like and spread a little sunshine.
If you choose `storm the fortress' option you stand a very poor chance of succeding. you march your army as close as possible to the fort and then choose `offensive' option from the military menu. This will enable you to take the enemy head on, rather than trying to bribe your way in the back door, never a good option.
Trap door spiders have a novel way of attack. They lie hidden until their pray walks past the door, then they leap out and attack. Use this method of ambush against other armies. First send out a spy to determine the size of their army, then if its worth the effort, raise an unrealisticly large army and jump the unsuspecting baddies, get the loot and go home.
Archery is one of the first methods of attack that you will be using - unless you bump into an army on your `goodwill missions', then it is down to sword fighting.
With archery you must be careful that you know where your enemy is. they have a habit of getting behind your line of vision. To combat this always keep on the move and try to avoid incoming arrows. A good move is is to aim-move-fire continuesly until one side is down.
When sword fighting, a sure fire way is to cosh the arab over the head rather than slice it off. To do this move the mouse forward and then press the left mouse button.
These are a different kettle of fish altogether. Something you should avoid is to get too close. This means ramming is out-this tactic invariably ends in both sides sinking.
Get close, then let the archers and cannons loose at your enemy. When he has a fix on your distance, change distance and start again.
Trade is only really good in one of two situations, the first being the best-you have money to burn and you wish to buy castles. This way you gain a fort, men and whatever else is in it at that time, giving you another foot in the door.
The second, which if done incorrectly can spell certain doom, is if you sell too many forts to raise money. This will entail you becoming too poor to raise armies.
The final way, which also is not entirely advisable, is to move an army out and give them enough supplies to last them for a while. Then get a caravan to take the rest of the goodies out of the fortress. Sell the fortress to some unsuspecting neighbour and if and when it is bought, go on the offensive and attack it, thus gaining the money you sold it for and the fortress (if you manage to win). Either do not do this or only once or twice. Otherwise there goes the neighbourhood.
If you wish to stop your castles from being taken from you, it is sometimes a good idea to keep a good sized army in the fort. This prevents your neighbours getting bigheaded and trying to take over your forts. One way of actually getting soldiers on your side (not yours) is to corrupt them, but you need your spies to enable you to know how much is required to bribe them to fight the good fight.
Regular caravans from your fort are a very good idea, this prevents the enemy from getting their hands on your loot, if they attack and win one of your forts.
You`ve got to keep the masses happy-military and non-military personel. You need incentives to keep them on your side. Being a good guy is not always enough. If they are maltreated for too long-they rebel, either by burning the taxes or killing you. Neither is a good idea, so this must be avoided if you are to get anywhere in your regime.
Cities need certain amounts to be left behind or you lose them. This means finding out how much each city needs and either keeping it stocked up or regulary supplying it.
Every so often you have to be a generous ruler and give back to the people what you took from them. This has to be substantial amounts of money, otherwise they think you are taking them for granted.
Whatever you do you have to keep a balance in your forts or they will become independent, and you will have to fight all over again to regain your foothold.
Choose this character for a really testing game. It seems that his citezens are not very happy and keep burning his taxes, thus making it very difficult to get anywhere in the game.
This man may be old but he has a nice balance of most things. His people tend to be quite loyal, but can be pushed if not kept happy.
This character is middle of the road.
Choose this one if you want a reasonably easy life. Makes a good balance of taxes and lack of fires, but has an islans so you can see attacks from afar. However, watch you don`t get carried away.