Commission: Alternate Cold War

[Gamerprinter]

It's quite questionable it the Mongols could have conquered Europe. With every mile the drove westwards the number cities, castles and people increased and the Mongols were good in cavalry fights and open plain battles, not sieges.

Just some points of clarification regarding the Mongols. The Mongols nearly did conquer Europe - they were extremely skilled at Siege Warfare. The Mongols learned siege tactics when they invaded China, which is arguably their first major invasion. They would have never succeeded to making China a Mongol state, had they not learned siege tactics. The Chinese threw gunpowder bombs from the castle walls, which the Mongols adopted and added into their siege war tactics. Mongols created siege machines and batterring rams.

The Mongols battle tactics included all of the following: large masses of trained mounted troops - the Mongols had armies of 50,000 to 100,000 fighters when they invaded any land, including Europe, Mongols were experts in siege tactics, Mongols campaigned during the winter months (because much of the steppe is mush when its warm, which makes it bad for horses) while most European armies campaigned in the summer, Mongols themselves were self sufficient (they could hunt and forage for their own food) - whereas European armies had to be fed or would disband, the Mongols cut supply and communication lines, the Mongols used fear tactics to bring chaos to the civilized populations.

Really the only thing that stopped the Mongols from making Europe a Mongol state (as they had done to Russia) was their own laws which dictated that when the Khan in the homeland died, everyone had to attend the funeral - which is what happened to save Europe, the campaign ended and the horde returned thousands of miles to attend the Khan's funeral. Since the next Khan did not view the conquest of Europe on his agenda, Europe was saved.

While its certainly true that the bulk of the Mongol army consisted of mounted archers, they did use combined arms and specialized fighters such as siege specialiists, as part of their overall military superiority. Mongol battle tactics were more than just a horde of mounted bow shooters - they were military masters.

Just wanted to clarify some common misconceptions about Mongols and their battle tactics.

GP