Mamluk Ideas

[SaxonWarchief]

So I got Cradle of Civilization and decided to try out the new features playing as the Mamluks. I am still pretty new to the game and don't really know which ideas would be best to pick. Are there ideas that you choose on all of your play throughs? I figure it would be different ideas depending on what your goal is... My goal for my Mamluk game is to conquer all of Africa. What would be the best ideas for this? Thank you in advance!

 

[holyvigil]

It doesn't really make sense to conquer Africa as The Ottomans need to be taken down, you can't steer trade in west/south/central Africa to your trade node, a lot trade you could get is not in Africa, It is hard to reach all corners of Africa, and practically none of your same culture is in Africa.
Having said that though If I was intent on conquering Africa with any Sunni power I would pick Humanist first, then Exploration and then whatever. Most of Africa is Sunni So Humanist helps out more and you'll be aiming at Coptic first so you need Humanist first. Then I would pick exploration because some places are impossible to get to without no cbing or waiting until the 1700s if you don't have exploration.

 

[TenshiN]

No-brainer ideas i personally pick for most countries:
1) Administrative: Well, you don't really need half the bonuses, but the second idea of -25% Reduced Core Cost is just too good. Can just unlock the first two ideas to get this one and leave the rest.
2)Diplomatic/Influence: Diplomatic is good in general with cheaper province warscore cost, huge discount to Warexhaustion reduction, additional diplomat... while Influence is better for vassal-heavy play: cheaper vassal integration, increased vassal forcelimit contribution, increased vassal income and some generally useful stuff. (Can be switched for Exploration if you plan on colonising/dislike vassals. Actually, thats what i'd do for Mamluks going for Africa because of all those empty provinces and expansion shortcuts unlockable by colonizing)
3) Religious/Humanist: Group chosen based on your country's own ideas and your religion's possible amount of missionaries. For religions like innate tolerance bonuses and no bonus missionaries like Fetishist, you'd pick Humanist. In case of the Sunni Mamluks, who can get many missionaries via conquest (Rome, Mecca+Medina, Jerusalem...), you'd pick Religious. One of those is instrumental for keeping your country relatively stable and free of corruption from low religious unity.
4) Quantity: My favourite military pick. Although not making your army stronger directly, it makes it much more sustainable because of huge bonuses to manpower, attrition reduction, less upkeep... While also giving a whooping 50% forcelimit increace as a finisher. Besides the obvious bonus of having a larger army, it also gives you weight on the diplomatic stage, as other countries start respecting/fearing you more just because your army is large. Although sometimes, for countries that can easily stack a particular quality bonus, i'd go for other military ideas. Example: France with its Elan giving 20% moral. can be made much more lethal by picking Defensive and unlocking its +15% morale idea for the awesome +35% morale bonus in total.

After that - ideagroups of your choice. most often it will be stacking all the other military ideagroups for wiping the floor with the AI's guts even more
I hope that helped!

 

[qwertzuiop]

As a Sunni country that is only focusing on Africa, you don't really need Religious nor Humanist. (Of course these idea groups are still useful, especially Humanist, but they are really much less required than in other areas of the world). Africa only has pagans, other Sunnis and the Coptics in Ethiopia.

That said, if you want to expand into other directions as well, then Religious/Humanist is very important. I think for fast conquest into Africa, I'd pick something like Influence/Admin/Exploration (in any order) as my first idea groups. Coptic lands can be given to a vassal.

Also I wouldn't recommend taking Diplomatic early on, it is a great idea group (one of my favourites) but it doesn't really synergize well with the Mamluks in my opinion. I think Diplomatic is stronger for certain tags in Christian Europe, but Influence is the stronger idea group for general purposes. Even if you don't use vassal feeding, it also reduces AE and gives -50% unjustified demands.

 

[HydroAC]

I'm at 1560 in my Mamluk campaign. My goal was to take down the Ottomans (DONE!), expand into Europe as secure land and trade by Constantinople and Crimea (essentially done), and then proceed southeast to secure the trade node in the the Gulf of Aden (done!) and then east to India (first TC Indian completed).

For my ideas I selected:
1st: Admin - mainly for coring, haven't finished yet (4/7 done: too many uses for Admin)
2nd: Quantity (done) - get a huge army to crush enemies, keep costs in check, and scare away coalitions (allies of Hungary and Austria help)
3rd: Humanist (done) - prevent pesky revolts, and get a free point of splendor during the Age of Reformation (very handy)
Next - Exploration when I get Admin 14 so I can get colonies in Indonesia, Africa, and perhaps the Americas

 

[Badesumofu]

I recommend for a newbie - pick what ever you like the look of. When we talk about how Admin-Influence is crucial and you should avoid mil groups inside the first 4-5 groups you select we're talking about the most efficient way to a WC. That is not so relevant for a new player. A Mil group first might well be the best idea for you - Offensive is fantastic and gives you a great leg up in your military power. On the other hand the power of Admin-Influence might not be so relevant if you aren't conquering vast swathes of land, or regularly integrating vassals, or you're one of the many new players with an allergy to loans and mercs.

It may well be that Offensive-Economic-Humanist-Quantity is the way to go. Some great policies with that lot and they will help you with your military and economy a great deal. Humanist will largely eliminate rebels which is nice.

For me, for a WC it is something like Admin-Exploration-Humanist-Influence-Diplomatic then whatever because those are the only 5 idea groups I really need. I might take some kil groups after that since they are convenient. OTOH I'm trying to build up profesionalism in my current game to experiment with it so if I was to consider quantity I'd have to consider how much manpower I could just outright buy with the 2520 MIL it would cost to fill out the idea group. I could quite literally buy 40 years worth of manpower with that many points assuming I started with 80 professionalism. So maybe no MIL groups ever is the way to go.

 

[bbqftw]

I suggest Mughal ideas

 

[qwertzuiop]

I recommend for a newbie - pick what ever you like the look of. When we talk about how Admin-Influence is crucial and you should avoid mil groups inside the first 4-5 groups you select we're talking about the most efficient way to a WC. That is not so relevant for a new player. A Mil group first might well be the best idea for you - Offensive is fantastic and gives you a great leg up in your military power. On the other hand the power of Admin-Influence might not be so relevant if you aren't conquering vast swathes of land, or regularly integrating vassals, or you're one of the many new players with an allergy to loans and mercs.

It may well be that Offensive-Economic-Humanist-Quantity is the way to go. Some great policies with that lot and they will help you with your military and economy a great deal. Humanist will largely eliminate rebels which is nice.

That's also true, picking the very best idea groups isn't always required depending on the playstyle. Economic is a strong group which can make the player's life easier. Offensive is the best general purpose military group in my opinion, with the other MIL groups being slightly more specialized.

But I think there has to be a distinction between "good groups that can give you a lot depending on your playstyle" - such as Economic or a MIL group as first pick - and "bad or very situational groups" - such as Naval (bad), Maritime, Expansion (both very situational) or Innovative (an idea group that seems to be quite popular but I think it's not that good).

 

[Robert de Bruce]

You should keep an eye on what kind of monarch points you can spend in idea groups. I usually pick a diplo idea group first, because I need 2 admin techs for the first idea group, but I don't need diplo 5 early. Mil points I need first for military tech, since it's dangerous to be behind in mil tech.
In 99% of the cases it's then influence or exploration for me. In my Mamluk run I chose influence, since you start with some vassals and can get easy new ones, even peacefully. But exploration first is good, too, especially if you want all of Africa and colonize everything. In that case you should push South fast to reach the next colonizable island (Mahe) and then continue to Cape and South America to spawn or spread colonialism institution to you.
Most times my second idea group is a military one, I usually get aristocratic (this is special me, most guys here don't do this), since I love the extra diplomat and most other stuff is very useful, too. In my current run, I picked admin second, however since I lacked military points but couldn't spend my admin ones.
Other picks can be of use, too. Hands off maritime, naval, espionage.

 

[ParagonSaber]

I'd go with something along these lines:

1. Humanist. Having to deal with only one wave of rebels (unless you get tons of overextension) is amazing.

2. Offensive. Two free combat pips, +20% siege ability, and discipline - all great tools for ending wars quickly and in your favor.

3. Quantity. Especially with the advent of drilling and professionalism, manpower is one of your most precious resources and you need as much of it as you can.

 

[makaramus]

I am currently playing mamluks and formed arabia to become empire. my allies are spain and hungary.

my idea chooses in order
1)defensive
2)religius(humanist may look better first but you are starting with holy cities all around you moment I complated this was moment I united arabia and conquered QQ )
3)Trade
4)*gonna pick* admin

reasons:
defensive:Early game morale boost is nice and units become cheaper to maintain. if you think you can defeat ottoman without morale pick quality so you can dominate them at seas too.

religius:Tolerance of true faith is a thing I really love to stack with high missionary strenght you can avoid rebellions all the time... mamluk goverment giving you TONS OF culture acceptence so you can accept all cultures you stated

trade: Mamluks are sitting between india trade and mediterrian trade! their provinces are highly productive(nile got nice bonus boosting grain production a lot and yemen lands got bonus coffee) and their trade goods are rich too (not english but still better than %85 of other trade nodes in that area).

Admin: I want to pick this idea group to have more states and core trade companies easier. with deus vult I can simply snowball india and turn it into trade company with ease while stating anatolia and greece.

rembember: while prussia is military genius mamluks are trade/admin genius. they are able to generate massive amount of admin points so picking admin ideas are priority if you are not going for world conquest. after admin I think I gonna ignore military idea group again and pick exploration to colonize west america coast .

I kept my self at legalism despite of having religius.for tech cost + bonus man power so I can keep my army proffessional wich I need desperatly because not picking mil idea group

advantages I felt: I didnt run out of man power ever , had huge income and gonna get +4 advisors soon and great military.