These two civs have market advantages that makes for a lot of overlap in talking about them, in my opinion. They are also perceived as "slow" civs.
Both have great camels, hussars and cav archers but less-than-great knight lines.
Why are the Saracens and Turks Allowed to Hunt Boars? -- A bizzare foray into political correctness. Apparently, the fact that Islamic societies are portrayed as boar hunters in this game caused some offense when non-playing, devout Muslims were told about it.New found respect -- Somebody tries the Saracens, and likes them.Skirms, archers and camels. -- My attempt to debunk the myth that skirms counter camels. Paladin or Hussar???? -- Fully explores the merits of both. Good post-patch discussion.Mamelukes do have a counter -- Many old myths are debunked, and some new ones, on this topic.Saracens -- Even mamelukes need some help sometimes. Various combos are discussed. Turkish Castle Age Rush -- Advocates an early Castle Age light cavalry/cav archer attack. Contains my exhaustive comparison of the Huns and Turk at this game plan. Led to Turk-Style Cavalry Archer/Light Cavalry Attack for Pocket Players.Any suggestions for a Turk Rush or Boom? -- Straight question. Some straight answers.Saracen Civ -- MFO thread with a link to a very good game by ForceMid; A fine example of how Saracens should be played.The reason why market exists — One of the most valuable threads about the Saracens ever launched, in my opinion. A disbeliver but first-rate game player tries out the Saracen market bonus and posts a game on it, giving many concrete facts to work with. The wood bottleneck issue rears its ugly head.The thread spun off from Should you sell your stone and buy food? and led to Famine flushTurks HCA -- Nice discussion of the under-rated Turk cavalry archer. Followed up much later in Turk HCA IIA FINAL, COMPLETE AND PLAIN-ENGLISH GUIDE TO USING THE SARACEN MARKET BONUS IN THE FEUDAL AGE (Long) — The absolute last word on whether Saracens should dump stone when they get a market up, in my humble opinion.The Celt, Saracen, Spanish, Turk and maybe the Viking Uncharacteristically Fast Feudal — This thread is the completion of the earlier A Breakthrough of Sorts. It is, in my opinion, the fastest possible way to fully exploit the Saracen and Turk market advantage.Saracen Scout Rush — Valid strategy and important post over at MFO. While the author and I don't always agree, he is a respected forummer over there. The discussion is good, and the author's decision to post about this marks an important turning point. The idea of market-based strats gets some mainstream acceptance.The Saracens *holler* "How you gonna counter that" — First of a proposed series on effective Saracen tactical combos. Unfortunately, it again turns to another debate on the merits of the market bonus. I modestly believe my posts answered the remaining questions.Doug, i keep getting knight rushed as sarcs!!! — Saracen player keeps getting rushed by knights. Good discussion of Saracen feudal strategy, with an excellent post by Tripod-Cat that says it all.The Saracens — Someone doubts their worth. Legitimate questions are raised.Saracens suck!! — Dumb comment draws good answers, proving once again that there is no such thing as a stupid question.The Saracens...flushing SHUT YO MOUTH — Can it be possible? Apparently so, with the patch.How do you stop the Sarcans post-imp??? — With great difficulty, apparently.POSTS BELOW ARE PRE-PATCH
The Simplest Strat Ever Invented: SNUFF v.2.0 — My attempt to take all the mystery out of using the Saracen market bonus and the SNUFF, which has a longer thread linked below.Market Fun! — ZED puts the SNUFF to a practical test, and posts some demos. Also features debate on “famine attacks.”
Saracen Market Douche - Smouche -- Quite a debut for Avarice, this is a well-thought-out strategy that takes full advantage of the Saracen market bonus to make a devestatingly fast feudal attack. The author also warns of the pitfalls and spells out the conditions needed for this strat to work. Well done. So well done, it gets an exception to the "10 response" rule.Consumer Protection: A price guide for everybody -- Supercedes the older "Saracen Price Guide" and adds to the earlier Another Market Powerhouse: The Turks.This post was later superceded in turn by the much simpler, less detailed The Market's Three Rules
Saracens: A Bonus for Everything. -- A plain-English description of how the Saracen bonus works and how to use it.Regarding the Saracen Cavalry Archer... -- A very important thread that really started the debate that lead to the SNUFF. Lead directly to The Saracen Plague of Locusts,An idea on how to use the Saracen anti-building archer bonus and camel bonus for very destructive raiding. New Strat: The SNUFF fast feudal. -- An attempt to use the Saracen market bonus to survive in a flusher’s world. Long, very detailed.Don't BUY Into The Saracen Market Bonus... Or YOU WILL ONLY GET RIPPED OFF! -- The misconception that selling your starting stone is the only way to take advantage of the Saracen market bonus proves to be tough to overcome. Many good points are raised, though.Short and simple SNUFF build order -- A more to-the-point discussion of the SNUFF, and what to do after you feudal.The Douche Database (Part I) -- Very interesting post by Avarice about how the Saracens can use their market for a very early "town center" attack in some situations.[This message has been edited by Doug Thompson (edited 10-25-2002 @ 10:19 PM).]