Well, I haven't got the unit guide, but I've found that Saracens are much better at holding the line because their defence rating is better, and there are more men in the unit so it doesn't get wrapped as much. Muwahids I'm finding are great as reserve troops, because you can use them either defensively (to plug holes in your line) or offensively (to flank). Ottomans are great as long as you're fighting heavily armoured foes - they're not great fighting your fellow Muslims in the desert (I prefer to use futuuwas for that, they are better against lightly armoured opponents).
I've had to change my tactics considerably to adapt to these Turkish hybrid units - but I'm really starting to enjoy using them. I just fought two MASSIVE battles with the Byzantines over two years to try and get control of Nicaea - they had twice as many troops as me over the campaign, they had heaps of Byz infantry, kataphraktoi, spears, trebizond archers, napthas and a whole bunch of peasants to support them - they had four armies in there, maybe 3000+ troops. All I had was Turcoman Horse, Ottoman Infantry, Saracens, Muwahids and one Ghazi suicide squad. AND I BEAT THEM!!!!
It was tough though, the first year I sent in four units of Turcoman horse to basically try and decimate as many of their expensive units as possible and I managed to waste some of their valuable kataphraktoi and Byz infantry units before withdrawing when I ran out of ammo. Then the second year I staged my initial assault. I used my Turcomans to split their army, their spears and archers drew away, exposing the peasantry and infantry which I rained arrows down on. When the Byzantine infantry charged they hit my Saracens head on, while their peasants routed. My Saracens pinned the infantry while my Muwahits flanked and charged from the side (they've got a very high charge rating). Meanwhile the spears basically got cut to shreds by my Turcos though two of the four units got decimated by their archers and they ended up routing (but I didn't need them by then). They had reinforcements pouring in like you wouldn't believe, I was all out of arrows, and their general just would not die, I had my entire army attacking him but he was like Drizzt Do'Urden, almost impossible to kill. He finally fell after 10mins of real time trying to bring him down with my entire army surrounding him. Unbelievable. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]
BTW, you shouldn't need a late-era campaign to get Ottoman Infantry Chewy - all you need is a Keep and a Bowyer's Shop. I got them well before I got futuuwas (since I held off on building castles till as late as possible).
[ 09-12-2004, 05:08 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]