Bedouin tribes/Strategic Overview

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===Strengths===
*Cloakable light infantry capable of harassment and psychological damage
*Very good mercenary units
*Able to build anywhere, making them highly mobile
===Weaknesses===
*Technologically inferior faction
*Lack of mansion or academy means that stronger, more technologically and tactically advanced units are unavailable
Unlike other factions, the Bedouin cannot build academies or even fortifications other than fortresses, but host camelry from the barracks, as well as a unique slew of mercenary units. Saharan jihadis in the Mercantile Era, followed by Eununch Retainers in the Imperial Era.
The Bedouin share several units with other Indo-Muslim factions, namely the Azap line, which consists of line infantry initially armed with swords who then upgrade to muskets and rifles.These units are fairly cheap, but sacrifice range and firing rate for a stronger attack, and a faster movement speed, meaning that while they cannot take European line infantry head on, they are still capable of flanking attacks. Of equal note is the goumier, which can be best described as a true sniper. Capable of withstanding attrition, and also with the ability to cloak, goumiers are some of the most fearsome units in the Arab arsenal. Several goumiers scattered around the map can act as a defence network, or otherwise be used to harass the enemy. With cavalry, however, the Bedouin are extremely weak, being capable only of hosting camelry, a medium cavalry unit with a strong attack against heavy cavalry units, and an even stronger attack against war elephants.
Despite these advantages, however, the Bedouin are still a very weak faction. They only have pikemen to serve for heavy infantry, and even more advanced units such as grenadiers and halberdiers are absent, as with normal cavalry. A Bedouin player will thus find it extremely challenging and will have to spend great amounts of wealth to amass mercenary cavalry, but fortunately many of the cavalry units the Bedouin receive from the fortress are quite good: Saharan jihadis are crack shots with their rifles, while the eununch retainers are strong fighting men in their own right, even despite armed with just swords and shields. The navy of the Arabs is a mixed bag of blessings. On the one hand, they only have access to galleys, fire ships and Xebecs. The Xebec is a strong ship in its right from the start of the game, being a cross between a galley and a light ship. Although with poor armour and toughness as a galley, the Xebec is cheap and also just as fast as any Imperial Era warship, so your enemies will be playing catch up with you. Xebecs are no use against a fleet of heavy vessels, however: you will need to make judicious use of them to dispose of heavy shipping. Fortunately they can be upgraded later to destroyers as well as the Toro-class submarine. Swarm enemy fleets of light ships with Xebecs once their galleons are sunk, and use the galleys to bombard enemy warships from a distance.
With this in mind, it pays the Bedouin to outproduce opponents at all cost. Since camelry and citizens produce food, as do mercenary cavalry, the Bedouin will have to work hard at population growth, and the strategic positioning of cities. The ability to place cities in unclaimed territory is a powerful tool that can be used in tandem with an army based on disruption tactics. Deny your opponents ground, and soon they will have no grenadiers or heavy warships. As for sea battles, take control of the seas as fast as you can with your faster-producing and cheaper navy. The key to winning at sea and at land is thus creating fortified towns in strategic areas to either extract resources or to maintain choke points. The Bedouin however are weak at naval combat in huge areas of water, and must ally with other factions with a strong naval tradition, such as the Western powers.
Category:Rise of the Moderns factions
Category:Spoiler