Book 3, List 73
This was the third Turkish army morphed out of my generic troops. The others being Central Asian and Sha-t'o Turkish armies. I chose to do this army after painting up the first batch of figures for my Ghurid army as it can have a Ghurid allied contingent in the army of the Sultanate of Merv from 1117AD to 1157AD. So the Seljuqs were used as a vehicle for me to start using the Ghurids. However, as I quite liked the army and it cannot be seen as a power gamers killer army I've used it a few more times.
At it's heart the army is a fairly normal nomad horse army being based on Cv and LH, however, it has a few very important differences. Firstly it cannot have the usual nomad Cv(S) option, secondly it has a compulsory Turkoman allied general and thirdly it can have the Seljuq generals, Cv(O) and LH(S) upgraded to Askaris - Reg Cv(O). It also has a number of options in the list based on different Seljuq states but in the main part these add very little to the basic army - in fact IMO it is only the Ghurid ally that adds any significantly different troops or capabilities. The other useful, practically compulsory, troops available are the 6 Ax(S) Dailami.
As you would expect the organization of the army is constrained by the compulsory Turkoman ally who can only command Turkomans of which there are 20-40. Of course as the army's other generals can command Turkomans this does put an effective minimum of 6 with the ally which reduces the impact if he is unreliable. The majority can then be placed under a Seljuq general.
In use tactics are standard nomad type of looking to get at flanks, etc. as so little of the army has a great impact frontally. However, this is complicated by the Cv(O) grading of the Askaris which means that they may have to be used 2 deep in some cases to make up for the lack of (S). The lack of (S) is especially telling against Knights and in these cases it is advisable to have a small reserve of LH(S) behind the Cv to plug the gaps that will appear over time - the LH quick kill on the Kn may in fact deter some enemies from attacking as soon as they would otherwise like due to worrying about just this.
A reasonable amount of bad going can be coped with by this army thanks to the above mentioned Dailami and the basic Seljuq foot available. These can be Ps(S) or Ax(O) and up to half can instead be Ps(O)/Bw(I) as archers. These combined mean that whilst they will not dislodge a bad terrain specific army they can easily deal with run of the mill situations.
The Ghurid allies that I have mentioned are especially useful in my opinion, as they provide a block of solid close formation foot well supported by Cv(O) and LH(S) - in fact you get a miniature Ghurid army with all it's component parts and options including the Ps support for the spearmen. With the option to have the ally general as Reg you can remove the chances of him changing sides should things go badly elsewhere and this also lets you access a couple of Reg Cv(S) who can then be supported by the Cv(O). As mentioned in the Ghurid description the unusual appearance of the Ghurids is in itself a bonus as it can be a distraction to you opponent.
seljuqwithghurids450ap.txt - is a 450AP Sultanate of Merv army 1129AD to 1141AD.
seljuqwithghurids500ap.txt - is as above but 500AP.
seljuq400ap.txt - the list I used quite successfully at Campaign 2003, 400AP.