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nightcrawlerblue
03-09-2004, 00:45
I got MTW several weeks ago and thought that it would be a good learning experience to play in a PBEM and see what other players do. SO does anyone want to do a MTW 1.1 Spanish PBEM? There is only one special rule: You must be at war with the Almohads until either the Spanish or the Almohads are defeated.

Faction: Spanish
TW version: Original MTW 1.1
Rule: Always at war with Almohads after first attack
Difficulty: Any. Whatever any other participators want. The highest I've played on is hard though(and only twice).

Chimpyang
03-09-2004, 18:11
I'll play i'm angli_@hotmail.com and at the same time want to play in the Poland one?

nightcrawlerblue
03-11-2004, 21:37
I was hoping to use the PBM uploader because my dad doesn't like me to give out my e-mail. What difficulty do you want for this game?

P.S. - Sorry it took so long to reply. I'm fighting a cold right now and it has kept me away from the computer for two days.

Chimpyang
03-12-2004, 20:47
Well i dont paticuarly mind.....maybe we should wait until some otehr players join in... maybe put up an advert in the Entrance hall get sum eager young faces (or scarred old ones) in here

nightcrawlerblue
03-12-2004, 21:32
I agree. I'm hoping to get 4-5 players for the start. I've been practicing other factions on Hard/Expert levels so I'll hopefully be ready by the time we start.

nightcrawlerblue
03-16-2004, 22:26
Well this PBEM looks like a failure... Oh well, at least I might be in the Poland one.

Chimpyang
03-18-2004, 17:46
You'll be next in the Poland one after Omnelupi (or sumat liek that) has his turn.

Tricky Lady
04-07-2004, 19:44
Dunno if you are still interested to start up this PBEM but I would like to join if you do...

small note: haven't played on any other level than normal so if you play on hard I might play a weak king who only tries to defend the conquested territories http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif
Waddayathink?

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

nightcrawlerblue
04-07-2004, 23:20
Hmmm. If Chimpyang still wants to play perhaps we could. Also, don't worry hard and expert really aren't that much harder than normal in my opinion. I made the switch from normal to expert in one game and handled it well.

Vile_Mortis
04-08-2004, 01:14
if you're still willing to start, i'm game. I suggest Hard at least, you'd be suprised how little differance there is between easy and expert apart from starting money

Vile_Mortis
04-08-2004, 01:26
p.s, i think you should change the rule about the Almohads, to constant war until they're driven from Spain

Tricky Lady
04-08-2004, 16:37
If you decide to give this PBEM a go, you can count me in. I'll try a higher level. I guess I'll make the game a bit harder to you all, but, well, that's a nice extra challenge, isn't http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

Tricky Lady
04-08-2004, 16:47
BTW, do you want to play a GA or a total domination game?

nightcrawlerblue
04-08-2004, 17:31
I guess if Chimpyang is still in I can start it soon. Here's the game settings if no one has a problem.

Faction: Spanish
Rule: Total domination
Difficulty: Expert
Start: Early
Special Rule: After our first engagement with the Almohads we must continue war until one faction is destroyed.

If you're worried about the Almohad rule I should be able to finish them off in the first reign if you want. Spanish is my favorite faction so I have a lot of experience against the Almohads. They have very powerful starting generals but once you get past them they're fairly easy to beat. Just use certain provinces as choke points and you can easily defeat their entire lands (Almost every Almohad territory can be used as a chokepoint). The biggest problem is getting enough troops fast enough to start the war.

Tricky Lady
04-08-2004, 17:59
Hm, a first game on expert, and immediately in a PBEM campaign. I have a feeling I'm gonna ruin this game http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif You'll have to repair a lot of damage http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-blush.gif But I'd like to give it a try http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

Vile_Mortis
04-08-2004, 18:11
that sounds fine. i usually play Italians so the Spanish will be something new for me, so you can offically count me in http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

nightcrawlerblue
04-08-2004, 19:27
Quote[/b] (Tricky Lady @ April 08 2004,11:59)]Hm, a first game on expert, and immediately in a PBEM campaign. I have a feeling I'm gonna ruin this game http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif You'll have to repair a lot of damage http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-blush.gif But I'd like to give it a try http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif
Don't worry. It isn't as hard as you think. The hardest part is starting because of the low florin count. Battles are much harder but it doesn't matter if you mess up. Everyone will make some mistakes I'm sure (I know I will). PBEM's can be a valuable learning tool. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

Okay I'm thinking this schedule:

1. NightcrawlerBlue (I'll start it off soon)
2. Tricky Lady
3. Vile Mortis
4. Chimpyang (if he still wants to play)

Tricky Lady
04-08-2004, 22:20
Quote[/b] (nightcrawlerblue @ Mar. 16 2004,22:26)]Well this PBEM looks like a failure... Oh well, at least I might be in the Poland one.
Well, now your PBEM is finally launched... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

Chimpyang
04-09-2004, 08:42
yeah..i'm still up for it. Do we do writeups after thre reign?

Chimpyang
04-09-2004, 08:47
Quote[/b] ]Hm, a first game on expert, and immediately in a PBEM campaign. I have a feeling I'm gonna ruin this game You'll have to repair a lot of damage But I'd like to give it a try

Well thts also another fun part of a PBEM, making miraculkous recoveries http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

nightcrawlerblue
04-09-2004, 15:25
Quote[/b] (Chimpyang @ April 09 2004,02:42)]yeah..i'm still up for it. Do we do writeups after thre reign?
Not quite sure what you mean? You have to summarize what happened but it doesn't matter how you do it. As long as you express what generally happened it's fine. Just give the next person an idea of what happened and what he should do. Also, you can write it as detailed as you want, whatever.

P.S. I'm going to try and start it today. However, it may take a while since I'm doing 2 PBEMs at the same time.

Chimpyang
04-09-2004, 18:10
phew...i cant do writeups..ifor the Poland one i forgot to take notes and had to remember everything from memory. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif

nightcrawlerblue
04-12-2004, 00:50
Ok I have finished my reign as king. I will have the summary and savegame up soon but I'm having some computer troubles. Turns out my new PC doesn't seem to have winzip and the FTP program is set up for my dad's website not mine. So I can't post pictures or put up savegame yet. Should have it up within 1-3 hours probably.

nightcrawlerblue
04-12-2004, 01:20
http://members.cox.net/ben_pt/images/mtw/spbem_king.jpg

1087: Our king, Alfonso the fourth, looks over his provinces and knows the Spanish empire must expand and reach better heights. He orders a bribe to be sent to El Cid, general of the rebels at Valencia.
1088: The bribe of 3,421 florins to El Cid is accepted. His army prepares to join us. We begin amassing troops.
1090: An heir has reached maturity (Alfonso V) El Cid is put in command of the army to assault the Almohadian province of Cordoba.
1091: The pope gives us 1,000 florins We ally with the HRE.
1092: I ally with the Byzantines The Almohads attack and take Portugal It shall rebel next turn and when the rebels crush their army we will march into Cordoba
1093: Portugal revolts but the Almohads retreat to Cordoba Drat I march our mighty army into Cordoba anyway. Our 7 star general El Cid should wipe the floor with their 1 star general.
1094: In the first battle of Cordoba our armies are victorious (auto resolved) El Cid led our troops to victory. Reinforcements finish building in our Spanish homelands and are sent to Cordoba for defense. The king is sent to Cordoba temporarily because he is an excellent defender. We see prince Yusof (6 stars) near Cordoba with our emissary spy.
1095: Prince Sancho reaches maturity (5 stars). He stays at the capitol province.
1096: Prince Alfonso is married to Princess Valeria of the Italians. Cordoba is conquered.
1097: Split the army into two parts: defensive one with king to defend Cordoba and an offensive one to attack Granada (where Prince Yusof is).
1098: We win the battle at Granada but it was excruciatingly close. We nearly won and our forces with El Cid are nearly gone. King Alfonso decides to send most of our defense force and our attack force to storm Morocco. It is an important choke point vital to winning the war.
1099: Our forces invade outnumbering the enemy 3 to 1. However, due to my poor leadership skills and inferior troops I lose. El Cid is nearly killed when faced against the Ghulam bodyguards of the Almohad King.
1100: I have nearly built the army back up to its former glory. El Cid is gaining a new group of Spanish Jinette bodyguards and the introduction of a royal knight (along with several other troops) should take Morocco with ease.
1101: I send the new army to attack morocco Alliances with Hungary, England, and Danes.
1102: I invade Morocco and the Almohads retreat. However, the Almohadian king attacked Granada and was defeated by my defensive king. The Almohad king is killed and an heir takes over.
1104: Morocco is invaded and El Cid withdraws. I gather almost every troop in Granada and Cordoba and strike back
1105: Morocco is taken back with nearly 900 soldiers dead on the battlefield (400 Spanish and 500 Almohad).
1106: A year after the battle is won grave news reaches El Cid. The king has died and an heir takes his place as king. El Cid worries what changes will occur but shall battle for the Spanish empire. For this is… The Spanish Reign

El Cid advises that you should hold Morocco at all costs. Send reinforcements from Castile and Cordoba. Make sure that none of our provinces revolt because of weak internal defenses.

Ugh. Man I am wiped. I played that all in one sitting
Savegame (http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/SpanishPBEM1106.zip)

Tricky Lady
04-12-2004, 12:46
OK, savegame downloaded.
I'll try to post a (first) write-up next weekend.

nightcrawlerblue
04-12-2004, 16:00
Ok I tried to give you a good start but it really isn't that great. This was one of my most challenging Spanish starts. Usually I can beat the Almohads by the time my first dies.

I tried to roleplay El Cid a bit. I fought his smaller battles (some that I didn't mention). He's our best general so make sure you don't lose him. His bodyguards are easy to make (unlike royal knights) so he should last awhile as a 7 star general (when attacking).

Tricky Lady
04-12-2004, 20:38
I found some time today to continue the game. Unfortunately, it was a rather short game http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-cry.gif (my king ruled only 24 years).

Here's the write-up.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/KingAlfonsoVII.jpg
1106
I, Alfonso VII, inherited a great, and potentially strong, nation from my father, the great Alfonso VI. I am far from being a brilliant general, but I've got a fine education. I hate to spend time with the soldiers (I disgust and disapprove their rude behaviour). No, I prefer to read and, one of the most important things in life, to pray. A life as a cardinal would have suited me better, but, well I have to accept my destiny.
Now that the military part of the Reconquista is completed (the Iberian peninsular is rightfully claimed by the Spanish throne again, and our forces are still besieging the last Moroccan castle), I should finish my father's job by converting the peninsular to the only, true faith.

1109
Morocco falls. It is a pity that my father doesn't live to see this great event anymore.

1115
The people of Leon and Cordoba are most thankfull. Churches are being built everywhere in the country. Spreading the word of God is costly, so I have assigned a shipwright to the new ports of Granada and Castile. May they soon be sending out ships to support the trade with foreign countries.

1120
I hear rumours from the new conquered province of Morocco. It seems that the inhabitants of this province are still reluctant to adopt the true faith. I should send some of our finest engineers to Morocco. We must start constructing churches in the province. It is unacceptable that the majority of our subordinates are infidel

1126
I ordered the invasion of Algeria.

Word has reached us that the Almohad prince-general Ali cowardly retreated at the sight of our glorious Spanish army. I am not surprised. Our armies walk under the protection of God; those pesky devils can only run when we march through their lands.

1128
I was surprised to hear that the coward prince has counterattacked Algeria. I am most satisfied that El Cid, our finest general, stood ground and that the infidels retreated after losing 3 of their princes and many of their soldiers.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/AlgeriaFallen.jpg
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/AlgeriaConquered.jpg

The foolish Almohad princes are marching towards our defensive positions. Soon they will die in their attempt to defeat our superior jinetes. Only the general will live long enough to single-handed kill around 50 of our finest soldiers. One of them is prince Fernando.
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/AlgeriaBattle01.jpg

When the Almohad soldiers hear that their general was mowed down on the battlefield, they try to launch a final suicide attack on our lines, but they'll soon realise that this is all in vain, and retreat.
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/AlgeriaBattle02.jpg

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/AlgeriaBattle03.jpg

1129
It seems that the Almohad devils really want to reconquer Algeria. They have launched a second counterattack, but they've underestimated the tactical knowledge of El Cid. Once again, the Almohads have to retreat, leaving hundreds of dead compatriots at the battlefield.

1130
Death of King Alfonso VII.
Long live King Garc I
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/KingGarcI.jpg

Tricky Lady
04-12-2004, 20:47
Forgot to give the link to the zip file: Spain 1130 (http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/SpanishPBEM1130.zip)

I've followed El Cid's instructions, and held Morocco. I even got the time to prepare an invasion of Algeria, as the Almohads didn't attack Morocco. I have also tried to build up the Spanish home countries. There is a Chapter house in Leon, so one of the next kings can think of realising their forefather's greatest dream: a Crusade towards the infidels http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

Well, I enjoyed playing this PBEM, although I haven't fought an attacking battle (only had to defend). It was fun. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-smile.gif

nightcrawlerblue
04-12-2004, 23:10
Very good reign Nice write-up too

Sorry that it was only 24 years but I guess that's the way it goes sometimes. I didn't try to role-play my king since this was my first attempt at a PBEM in Total War but you did it very nicely.

Just one question: what condition is our army in right now?

Tricky Lady
04-13-2004, 16:49
I'll post some screenies of the main Spanish armies (garrisons left aside).

King Garc's Army (in Castile):
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/ArmyKingGarc.jpg

Army defending Valencia:
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/ArmyValencia.jpg

El Cid's African Army:
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/ArmyElCid.jpg

Some more screenshots to give an idea of our situation.
Spanish territories:
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/StatusSpain1131.jpg

and our treasury:
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain/Treasury.jpg

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-thumbsup.gif

nightcrawlerblue
04-13-2004, 18:13
13,000 florins? Whoa http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-stunned.gif Good job with the army it looks in top grade. no rebellions, good army, lots of florins, new churches You sure this is your first time on expert? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-inquisitive.gif

Tricky Lady
04-13-2004, 20:46
I may drop dead if I lied.

*doesn't drop dead*

I've only played on normal mode so far. You know, I have a lot of problems with getting a game running (I don't know why, but I always seem to do something wrong). Most often I quickly type in the money cheat because things are getting too desperate http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-no.gif Not fun. Just quit a Byz campaign/early (one of the easiest modes, right?) where I got owned by Turks & Egypts. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif I don't get it, because I read everywhere on these forums that it is very easy to deal with them. Ah well. Keeping on trying, I guess. Maybe I just got some bad luck.
This game was rather easy, coz you got a good start for me (thanks). http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif I just tried to manage the economy. And it worked well, I suppose.

nightcrawlerblue
04-16-2004, 17:57
OK, it's been 4 days since the save has been posted. Vile Mortis is nowhere to be seen. I'll give him one day (Saturday) and if he doesn't show it'll be Chimpyang's turn. Then, Vile Mortis will go after Chimpyang.

Vile_Mortis
04-16-2004, 21:50
i am here, im very sorry ive had to be away from my pc for a long time, very sorry, but im here now

Vile_Mortis
04-16-2004, 21:53
i will upload now. I must say the other players have done very well now andi seem to have a good kingdom to build upon (or level to the ground whichever. cheers

Vile_Mortis
04-17-2004, 13:36
i have played through twenty years of Garc's reign. i will post a full AAR after he dies but i can tell you the Spanish are doing very well, we are very rich. there has been war, bribery, crusades, trickery and we came out on top everytime, ill finish the reign soon and get you the AAR asap.

nightcrawlerblue
04-20-2004, 18:10
So... How's it going?

Chimpyang
04-20-2004, 18:37
was gonna ask that same question myself. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Tricky Lady
04-20-2004, 18:53
Me too. I'm really curious how Garc I is doing so far...

nightcrawlerblue
04-23-2004, 22:52
Ok I think it might be time. If Vile Mortis doesn't reply within 24 hours the game will go onto Chimpyang. Sorry Vile Mortis but I'm trying to keep this thing moving.

nightcrawlerblue
04-25-2004, 16:09
Ok. Chimpyang you're up

Sorry Vile Mortis. You can do the next one.

Chimpyang
04-25-2004, 19:45
Got it, started it.

Chimpyang
04-25-2004, 20:18
Ok the year is 1137, i've finished off the Almohads with the killing of their king in Tuinisia..realising i didn't have the troops to maintain peace i left it to the rebels. I have also bribed portugal so how we have some hight quality Italian Inf and 3 units of Foot Knights. Aragorn too kthe oppertunity to attack us in 1132 but their pitiful army (lead by a 6 star general http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif ) was repulsed. I then hired a small army of mercs whihc continually raided Aragon until the pope asked me to stop. But that dusnt help Aragon as they only have a tiny army now. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Chimpyang
04-29-2004, 18:21
Ok i'm done now...the file is up in the PBEM filespace and is Spanish PBEM 1166. The next king is King Enrique I and here is the map of how I finished my reign.
http://www.geocities.com/zentra_man/endmapspain.gif

nightcrawlerblue
04-29-2004, 23:37
I'll give VM 2 or 3 days to reply and if he doesn't then i'll take it.

Chimpyang
05-05-2004, 17:06
Placeholder

nightcrawlerblue
05-06-2004, 02:29
I'll start it soon. I've been really busy lately. I'll be really busy until summer unfortunately... I'll try to have it finished by friday or saturday.

nightcrawlerblue
05-08-2004, 00:53
It turns out I'll be busy and won't be able to play it Saturday.

Tricky Lady, I believe you're up.

Tricky Lady
05-09-2004, 00:07
I'll try to play the next king tomorrow; can you place a link to the savegame somewhere?

Tricky Lady
05-09-2004, 09:42
OK, got the file. I'll get back with a write-up as soon as possible...

Tricky Lady
05-10-2004, 01:01
Et voilà. I've played King Enrique's reign (a long one, btw).

The next player can download the savegame here: Spain 1213 (http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/The_Spanish_PBEM_1213.zip)

Here's the write-up (sorry if it is a bit uninspired, but I'm not such a good writer) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

Source: http:\\en.trickypedia.org.

Enrique I, King of Spain 1166-1213, born Valladolid 1139, died Bordeaux 1213, age 74.
Enriques reign started disastreous. Trying to take over the command of the crusade against the excommunicated Germans, he failed miserably. His attempts to replace the commander of the crusader army lead to an open revolt and to a massive desertion of unhappy and discouraged Spanish soldiers. When the remainder of the once great crusader army arrived in Tyrolia, in 1171, scouts reported that Innsbruck castle was being besieged by Italian armies. Austria, the final destination of the crusade had already fallen into Italian hands. As the former German province was again in true Catholics’ hands, the pope lifts the approval of the crusade, and orders Enrique to disband it. The Spanish king obeys the pope, and orders the Spanish participants of the crusade to return to their homes and take their places in the Spanish army again. As Enriques influence suffered badly from the failure of the Crusade, none of the soldiers obey their King’s request. Not a single soldier returns to Spain.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/King_Enrique.jpg
King Enrique's influence after the Austrian Crusade's disaster.

It is reported that the king retreated from public life for a few years. It is told that he retreated to a Castillian monastery to comtemplate. His brothers take care of the day-to-day government issues.
In 1179 king Enrique is seen in public again. On his request a trade fleet is being constructed in the ports of Valencia and Granada. Several years later, the Spanish home countries will trading valuable spices and goods with foreign oriental and nordic countries. The booming economy allows Spain to assign extra funds for castle and fort building, and for the training of new soldiers.
The English army launches an attack on the relatively poor defended province Navarra in 1187. The Spanish commander tries to repel the invading army but due to the lack of ranged weapons in his army he cannot withstand the English attack. The Spanish soldiers flee of the field after a long battle.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/Navarre_action1.jpg
Here the Spanish men-at-arms and militia can still outnumber the English cavalry (hobilars) and defeat them.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/Navarre_action2.jpg
A bit later the situation has changed dramatically. Some Spanish units have routed, and the remainder will be torn into pieces by a few units of royal knights and hobilars.

The next year, King Enrique launches a simultaneous counter-attack on Navarra and Aquitaine. The English retreat from Aquitaine, leaving the province intact for the Spanish crown. Prince Sancho leads the attack on the English positions in Navarra.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/AttackNavarre_englishdefense.jpg
The English defenses, drinking tea at the hilltop.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/AttackNavarre_action3.jpg
Whoopsie Our feudal sergeants are flanked by the English general's unit of hobilars.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/AttackNavarre_action4.jpg
Luckily a unit of men-at-arms was nearby to attack the general in the back.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/AttackNavarre_action2.jpg
Only one minute after the MAA attack, the English general routs.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/AttackNavarre_action1.jpg
A unit of royal knights commanded by a Spanish prince mops up the last resisting English unit.

The King of Spain also wanted to wash away the humiliating defeat of the Austrian crusade in 1171, so he launches a new crusade to the pagan province of Novgorod. The crusade will arrive in the northern province in 1193, after looting the Polish province of Prussia in 1191.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/Looting_crusaders.jpg
Show me the money Oh. Is this all you get? Hmm... Okay then

This crusade doesn’t fail, and Novgorod is conquered easily when the rebels retreat to their small wooden fort, and abandon the province.
As Enrique is very carefull not to wage war with fellow Catholics, he allows a few French crusades to pass through his lands on their way to Egypt. The grand-grand-son of the famous Spanish general El Cid decides to join the First French crusade to Egypt.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/El_Cid_crusader.jpg
Didn't pay attention to the French Crusade passing through Cyrenacia, and the next turn The Cid joins the frogs... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

Unfortunately for him, the crusade gets smashed by the overwhelmingly present Egyptian forces. The second French crusade to Egypt is a success. But the Egyptians manage to reconquer their homelands after 5 years, crushing and killing the French armies until the very last man. The Egyptian sultan is so angry about the French crusades arriving in Egypt through Spanish lands, that he decides to punish Spain by invading Cyrenacia. Fortunately, the invasion can be backed off and the Spanish navy in the Eastern Mediterranean and along the Nile Coast can sink the small Egyptian navy, so that Egypt cannot invade from other provinces than the Sinai.
The next year, pope Nicolas calls for a Holy Crusade against the infidel Egyptians. Enrique is most willing to obey the pope, and prepares for his own Egypt crusade. When the crusade is almost in Egypt, the enemy attacks Cyrenacia again. The massive Spanish army is too strong for the Egyptians, so the muslim general orders a retreat, leaving many dead Egyptians on the battlefield (many Spanish died too). As the Egyptians weakened their own defenses now, the Crusade doesn’t meet a huge resistance when invading the target province. Egypt is captured in 1206.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/King_Enrique_72.jpg
King Enrique's stats, a few years before his death.

The flourishing Spanish economy has suffered a lot from the recent wars over the past decades. Even though the treasury is full, the net profit decreases year by year.

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/Financial.jpg

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/Spanish_kingdom.jpg
Our glorious Kingdom

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/King_Fernando.jpg
¡El Rey ha muerto ¡Viva el Rey

The new king is very old, but the next prince is only 19 years old, so perhaps the unmarried old Fernando can mysteriously die to make place for the young prince Garc? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

Another thingie. I think the next king will have some troubles fighting off the emerging horde. The crusader provinces are not really ready to face them (I think).

nightcrawlerblue
05-10-2004, 22:37
Good job. I'll try to play it soon but it appears I have caught some kind of illness. I barely even have the energy to reply to this right now so playing it is out of the question.

nightcrawlerblue
05-19-2004, 17:54
Well I'm finally recovered and I forgot all about the PBEM. Sorry If Chimpyang wants to go he can. I'll try to do it but I'm on my final 2 weeks of school so it's really gonna be rough until school's over.

Tricky Lady
05-19-2004, 18:16
Don't worry, we'll wait. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

nightcrawlerblue
05-22-2004, 02:53
I've downloaded it and I'm gonna try to do it all today. I'm reading your write-up, Tricky Lady and then I'll start. I hope my king is old...

EDIT: You... You... You killed El Cid...? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

Demon of Light
05-22-2004, 07:29
El Cid died in the French Crusade. It was his choice. Too bad, so sad.

Tricky Lady
05-22-2004, 11:11
Quote[/b] (nightcrawlerblue @ May 22 2004,03:53)]EDIT: You... You... You killed El Cid...? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif
I didn't kill him, he...errr... committed suicide by joining the French Crusade http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-embarassed.gif

nightcrawlerblue
05-22-2004, 20:09
Here's a teaser of my reign. I'll have the rest up in 1-2 days probably. If the rest is anything like these first 3 turns it's gonna be a LONG writeup.

I didn’t feel like spending all that much time on it (plus my skills have diminished because I haven’t been playing MTW) so I auto-resolved all of my battles. This write-up is in the form of like the king’s apprentice.

1213: Our country continues to mourn the death of El Cid. The king has made EC day (the day of El Cid’s death) to be a national holiday. King Fernando realizes that if we are to have a war we are to have an offensive war. He orders a large attack on the Egyptian province of Sinai. Three of our mighty armies are planned to overwhelm the elite Egyptian forces there. Our wise king moves our forces in preparation for an attack on the English city Anjou.
1214: Our forces in Sinai are victorious Though taking heavy losses they fought through and routed the Egyptian soldiers. They will not last long with their limited supplies in the castle. Our army marches towards Anjou. The king is certain the English will not survive our attack. He teaches me that aggressive tactics are the key to winning. However, he also says not to be foolish. He teaches that the French are treacherous and could attack at any moment. He says that he will make sure not to spread our forces too thin.
1215: Smolensk is invaded by the Novgorodians Our forces are barely victorious. Our army reaches Anjou but when they attack they are met with an extremely tough battle. The enemy lost 883 men while we lost 884. It was a very close battle that we nearly lost. Our king was very surprised and locked himself in his room for 3 days. He never ate for that duration of time until finally he came out and acknowledged that it was basically a loss. We won the battle but our forces in the northwest part of the world have diminished greatly. We no longer have enough for defenses. Our empire rests on the French now. If they attack they can obliterate us.

nightcrawlerblue
05-26-2004, 00:08
I'm sorry guys but I may have run this PBEM into the ground with one mistake. I don't think I can manage to save our empire from this mess I have created. Here's the update...

1216: Anjou is invaded by English forces. Our king is aggressive but he is not stupid. He retreats our forces to Aquitain. He orders reinforcements for our brave army. He orders an attack on the Novgorodian province of Muscovy. The Novgorod king is currently stationed there.
1217: Reinforcements arrive at Auquitain. The king is preparing to attack Anjou again. Our forces at Muscovy prevail because we had them massively outnumbered (1000 to 60). Our king is worried and feels that wars on 3 fronts may lead to the destruction of the Spanish empire.
1218: Reinforcements continue to pour into Auquitain. Sinai is finally captured and our war continues Our forces march into Arabia.
1219: Arabia was taken by our forces. However, grave news has reached us. Our forces in Aquitaine were met by a French crusade. Our army denied passage (I’m sorry I didn’t know that they would declare war). The French, outraged, declared war on our country. The pope decided to excommunicate us, and my king’s mighty Spanish nation is panicked.

Kommodus
05-26-2004, 14:42
Quote[/b] (nightcrawlerblue @ May 25 2004,18:08)]Our army denied passage (I’m sorry I didn’t know that they would declare war). The French, outraged, declared war on our country. The pope decided to excommunicate us, and my king’s mighty Spanish nation is panicked.
Did you not read the message that was displayed when the crusade attempted to enter your territory? It tells you that if you refuse passage the crusade army will attack; that should've made things clear enough. Just what exactly did you think would happen if you engaged in battle with a crusade sanctioned by both the church and the king of France?

Well, sounds like you've got quite a war on your hands. Maybe pull back some of those troops from the Egyptian front if you can't handle the French? Hopefully you've got a navy. And look on the bright side - this campaign is now a challenge; that should make things interesting, even if you lose some valuable territories to the French.

Good luck...

Tricky Lady
05-26-2004, 17:04
Quote[/b] (nightcrawlerblue @ May 26 2004,01:08)]Our forces in Aquitaine were met by a French crusade. Our army denied passage (I’m sorry I didn’t know that they would declare war). The French, outraged, declared war on our country. The pope decided to excommunicate us, and my king’s mighty Spanish nation is panicked.
Well, well. Another event that spices up this campaign. Good work http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif
I'm sure you'll manage. You have some battle experience so I think those Frenchies will regret going to war with the mighty Spanish.
And only 19 years before the Horde will arrive on the Eastern borders...

Good luck, nightcrawlerblue

PS. Can you post some screenshots too? If you don't have the webspace, you can email them to me, and I'll host them.

nightcrawlerblue
05-26-2004, 20:32
Oh no... I totally forgot about our ships Our trading empire will be ruined Oh man I've gotten us into such a huge mess. When the horde comes I am just going to let the Turks etc. deal with them. I'll try to defend our land but I doubt I'll be able to stop them from being taken. I have to make sure that I don't spend too much because even those 60,000 florins won't be enough if our trading is destroyed.

I'll start the game up again soon but I'm kinda scared to. As soon as I end the turn the French will capture half our main provinces and destroy every ship we have. I'm going to stop the agressive war against the Egyptians and just play defense but that won't help much. Oh man I have gotten into a mess.

econ21
05-26-2004, 20:59
Sounds grim, Nightcrawlerblue. I once faced a tough situation in a PBM - I think it was as Almos and I was faced with 10+ potential battles in one turn - and one thing that I realised was the importance of picking your fights. Better to surrender half your contested provinces without a fight and beat the AI in the other half, than to fight and lose all of them. Look for natural choke points, be very careful about loyalty - if your leader is isolated, you can get mass rebellions and guard your key troop producing provinces. The AI is pretty good, but not very strategic so you can sometimes get a local superiority of force and win against the odds.

Crusades can be paper tigers - beat them decisively once and then they may keep attacking and withdrawing, constantly sucking up enemy troops and earnings lots of nasty vices for their leader until they dissolve.

Mercenaries can be very useful in a tight spot; inns only take 2 turns to build, IIRC, so can be worthwhile if you are short.

To survive against the odds, you may need to fight at least they key battles manually. If there are lots of battles in a year and I am playing late at night, I often do a dummy run and end the year autoresolving everywhere. Then when I know how many battles there are to fight, I work out if I have enough time to manually play them that night. Yes, it's kind of cheating, but unfortunately the save between battles option seems bugged and often does not work for me.

Chimpyang
05-26-2004, 22:09
If you want i'll have a go at it....or i can just suggest you pull our ships out of french waters and then gang up on smaller french fleets like a mob hit.;)

nightcrawlerblue
05-26-2004, 23:01
I'm going to try to beat this. I admit I thought about assasinating myself and dumping the problem on TL but I decided to try it (If I'm taking too long out come the assasins however http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-anxious.gif ).

Tricky Lady
05-27-2004, 17:50
Quote[/b] (nightcrawlerblue @ May 27 2004,00:01)]I admit I thought about assasinating myself and dumping the problem on TL but I decided to try it (If I'm taking too long out come the assasins however).
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-stunned.gif You must be kidding.

If you're gonna use your assassins, send them to the his Holyness in Rome, please. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-sneaky.gif

Ellesthyan
05-27-2004, 22:58
Pssst, to bide some time against the Horde, just get an emmisary in Khazar and ask them for an alliance ASAP. That should keep you save until they've conquered half the world.

nightcrawlerblue
05-27-2004, 23:25
Quote[/b] (Tricky Lady @ May 27 2004,11:50)]
Quote[/b] (nightcrawlerblue @ May 27 2004,00:01)]I admit I thought about assasinating myself and dumping the problem on TL but I decided to try it (If I'm taking too long out come the assasins however).
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-stunned.gif You must be kidding.

If you're gonna use your assassins, send them to the his Holyness in Rome, please. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-sneaky.gif
That was worth it just to see the smiley you used...

katank
05-28-2004, 03:20
if you are only in sinai, the horde rarely comes down that far.

focus on the french.

can't you hold onto navarre/aragon as chokepoints?

try that.

archers parked on these steep hills will easily destroy the opposition.

by the reference to the horde, I assume you are in high and can produce arbs, right?

the crusade isn't that tough with strategic volleys of arbs to cut down the knights which are the real threat.

CMAA can also be helpful.

if things look really grim, coutnerraid them with a large force.

the AI is less strategic and in a guerilla war will lose.

you can raid their provinces and raze everything to leave only destruction in your wake, cripling their production.

if you keep most of Iberia and key production centers, you'll win in the long run.

good luck http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

nightcrawlerblue
05-28-2004, 17:38
Quote[/b] (katank @ May 27 2004,21:20)]can't you hold onto navarre/aragon as chokepoints?
Let's see... Aragon is a French province... The French have about 6000 troops in Aragon (The reason I'm so worried)... I'm thinking that I won't be able to...

katank
05-29-2004, 02:18
oh I see...

how did one let it become a French one in the first place?

as the spanish, you should always unite the two crowns of Iberia.

anyhow, taking it if possibel would be good.

can you bait them to attack Valencia? the bridge battles can attrit them and then you can sack aragon successfully.

nightcrawlerblue
05-29-2004, 16:33
Really sorry it's taking so long guys. My finals are next week so everything has just been so busy with school and stuff. Anyway here's the next portion of my writeup. I'm trying really hard to make this a really good, long writeup.

1219: Arabia was taken by our forces. However, grave news has reached us. Our forces in Aquitaine were met by a French crusade. Our army denied passage (I’m sorry I didn’t know that they would declare war). The French, outraged, declared war on our country. The pope decided to excommunicate us, and my king’s mighty Spanish nation is panicked. Our alliances our broken but our king decides to fight to the very end. He gave a speech to calm the Spanish people down yesterday. Here is a copy of it:
“We are at war with the French nation. They are a mighty nation and war with them shall be hard. However, if we stand united as one nation we can beat back the French troops and victory will be ours I call for every Spanish man and boy to come and fight For against us the French have no defense We have had many bloody wars before. We have always prevailed and we shall still prevail The empire shall not fall as long as I a single Spanish person is here to defend it For glory”
“For glory”. The king’s battle cry. He speaks as though we are invincible. I am afraid that we have to be invincible to win this war. Soon after the speech our king issued an order for every man to march to Aragon. All our armies in the surrounding provinces marched except for a small garrison in Aquitain. The king planned to end the war in one stroke by defeating the huge garrison in Aragon. Almost 3000 troops awaited us there… Our troops marched under our king but every man had fear in his eyes.
1220: Our armies marched towards Aragon and the enemy fled They attacked both Aquitain and Navarre at the same time, capturing both. Our defending armies fled to the castles but they won’t be able to stay there long. Our armies march to defend Navarre. We dispatch 1 unit out of 4 at Aragon to deal with what our king calls “The Navarre/Auquitain Incident”. We send an assassin against the pope.
1221: Our forces at Navarre fail (I don’t know why It only gave me 300 of my 600 troops). We dispatch another army to try again. Our king seems to be doubting himself. Despite what he tells the people he does not think that we can win this war. Our treasury is declining fast (-2000 florins a turn now because our trade has been hurt and armies have been built). The French have huge armies everywhere. We cannot anticipate where they will strike and we do not have enough armies to hold them back. Our assassination attempt at the pope failed. I fear our Spanish empire is falling from its greatness.

yes, all of that was only 3 turns...

katank
05-29-2004, 22:57
if the province from which you are attacking is attacked, then the troops from that province would be called back to the province to defend, thus making your attack force less than they anticipated.

just go for the kill.

have your best general blaze a path of destruction to Ile-De France and Champagne to raze their capital and troop production to ground if things are deseperate.

kill their ship production too.

fight delaying actiosn to not lose Castille or Leon.

Taking Anjou would also give you strike capacity at most if not all of their provinces.

Good Luck.

Nice writeup.

nightcrawlerblue
05-30-2004, 00:19
The problem is getting to Anjou. The French provinces are PACKED. Most provinces have 2 full armies on them I only have about 4 nearly full armies and nothing else besides pitiful garrisons.

katank
05-30-2004, 01:05
are you autocalcing?

if you fight it out, a concentrated stack and half should be able to cut through their 2 stack provinces.

don't even try to hold the provinces you take.

just raze all and move on.

try to limit loyalist rebellions is all.

nightcrawlerblue
06-01-2004, 21:50
The end of my reign Here is the entire writeup.

1213: Our country continues to mourn the death of El Cid. The king has made EC day (the day of El Cid’s death) to be a national holiday. King Fernando realizes that if we are to have a war we are to have an offensive war. He orders a large attack on the Egyptian province of Sinai. Three of our mighty armies are planned to overwhelm the elite Egyptian forces there. Our wise king moves our forces in preparation for an attack on the English city Anjou.
1214: Our forces in Sinai are victorious Though taking heavy losses they fought through and routed the Egyptian soldiers. They will not last long with their limited supplies in the castle. Our army marches towards Anjou. The king is certain the English will not survive our attack. He teaches me that aggressive tactics are the key to winning. However, he also says not to be foolish. He teaches that the French are treacherous and could attack at any moment. He says that he will make sure not to spread our forces too thin.
1215: Smolensk is invaded by the Novgorodians Our forces are barely victorious. Our army reaches Anjou but when they attack they are met with an extremely tough battle. The enemy lost 883 men while we lost 884. It was a very close battle that we nearly lost. Our king was very surprised and locked himself in his room for 3 days. He never ate for that duration of time until finally he came out and acknowledged that it was basically a loss. We won the battle but our forces in the northwest part of the world have diminished greatly. We no longer have enough for defenses. Our empire rests on the French now. If they attack they can obliterate us.
1216: Anjou is invaded by English forces. Our king is aggressive but he is not stupid. He retreats our forces to Aquitain. He orders reinforcements for our brave army. He orders an attack on the Novgorodian province of Muscovy. The Novgorod king is currently stationed there.
1217: Reinforcements arrive at Auquitain. The king is preparing to attack Anjou again. Our forces at Muscovy prevail because we had them massively outnumbered (1000 to 60). Our king is worried and feels that wars on 3 fronts may lead to the destruction of the Spanish empire.
1218: Reinforcements continue to pour into Auquitain. Sinai is finally captured and our war continues Our forces march into Arabia.
1219: Arabia was taken by our forces. However, grave news has reached us. Our forces in Aquitaine were met by a French crusade. Our army denied passage (I’m sorry I didn’t know that they would declare war). The French, outraged, declared war on our country. The pope decided to excommunicate us, and my king’s mighty Spanish nation is panicked. Our alliances our broken but our king decides to fight to the very end. He gave a speech to calm the Spanish people down yesterday. Here is a copy of it:
“We are at war with the French nation. They are a mighty nation and war with them shall be hard. However, if we stand united as one nation we can beat back the French troops and victory will be ours I call for every Spanish man and boy to come and fight For against us the French have no defense We have had many bloody wars before. We have always prevailed and we shall still prevail The empire shall not fall as long as I a single Spanish person is here to defend it For glory”
“For glory”. The king’s battle cry. He speaks as though we are invincible. I am afraid that we have to be invincible to win this war. Soon after the speech our king issued an order for every man to march to Aragon. All our armies in the surrounding provinces marched except for a small garrison in Aquitain. The king planned to end the war in one stroke by defeating the huge garrison in Aragon. Almost 3000 troops awaited us there… Our troops marched under our king but every man had fear in his eyes.
1220: Our armies marched towards Aragon and the enemy fled They attacked both Aquitain and Navarre at the same time, capturing both. Our defending armies fled to the castles but they won’t be able to stay there long. Our armies march to defend Navarre. We dispatch 1 unit out of 4 at Aragon to deal with what our king calls “The Navarre/Auquitain Incident”. We send an assassin against the pope.
1221: Our forces at Navarre fail (I don’t know why It only gave me 300 of my 600 troops). We dispatch another army to try again. Our king seems to be doubting himself. Despite what he tells the people he does not think that we can win this war. Our treasury is declining fast (-2000 florins a turn now because our trade has been hurt and armies have been built). The French have huge armies everywhere. We cannot anticipate where they will strike and we do not have enough armies to hold them back. Our assassination attempt at the pope failed. I fear our Spanish empire is falling from its greatness.
1222: French forces invade Navarre and Aragon The king decides to pull our troops at Navarre back and abandons the province. He promises to his people that Navarre will be retaken. A battle of over 4000 men in total happened at Aragon. Our forces numbered 2000 while the enemy had 2300. Our men were brave and fought hard. The battle was won with the enemy losing 1500 as we lost only 800. The men knew this would be the battle that decided the war and they fought for Spain. The king realizes our enemy has been weakened, his armies split. He invades Navarre and Auquitain.
1223: Our forces in Navarre slaughter all the French Not one is left alive. The French retreat from Auquitain. Our king was ready to fight and destroy all who oppose him His plans were already set in motion and he planned to carry them out however it was not to be. The Spanish king has died. His instructions left were to finish the French. Keep attacking and don’t let them regroup.


The savegame is in the uploader index thing. For some reason it wouldn't let me link to it. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

Tricky Lady
06-01-2004, 22:13
Aha So Spain (and you http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-wink.gif) survived. Good to know.

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-grin2.gif

nightcrawlerblue
06-01-2004, 22:27
Quote[/b] (Tricky Lady @ June 01 2004,16:13)]Aha So Spain (and you http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-wink.gif) survived. Good to know.

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-grin2.gif
You shouldn't have any trouble with this game now. I basically dispanded 2/3rds of the French army on the last turn. If only my king had lasted 3 more turns I might've been able to completely defeat the French. Grrr. I knew I should've told him to eat the salad instead of the chicken all those times... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

Tricky Lady
06-01-2004, 22:32
Yeah.

But you played king Fernando's reign, didn't you? That guy was 47 when he was crowned King of Spain...A bit unlucky for you.

BTW, are there some new players around who can pick up this game?

katank
06-02-2004, 02:18
if no one picks up, may I recommend that nightcrawlerblue gets to play the next king as well?

it should be considered an exception if the king is a very old geezer when he hits the throne.

Tricky Lady
06-02-2004, 17:11
Yes, that would only be fair.

nightcrawlerblue
06-02-2004, 20:21
Wait, are you saying you want me to another reign?

Tricky Lady can go if she wants. TL's first reign was short too.

BTW, Katank do you want to join? I don't know if you're a PBEM person but if you want to join you're welcome to.

Tricky Lady
06-02-2004, 21:16
Quote[/b] (nightcrawlerblue @ June 02 2004,21:21)]Tricky Lady can go if she wants. TL's first reign was short too.
Do I *have* to? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

If no-one else volunteers, than I'll take up the reign of the next king of Spain...
I'll give it till next Tuesday, when I'm back from a short holiday...

nightcrawlerblue
06-02-2004, 22:10
Quote[/b] (Tricky Lady @ June 02 2004,15:16)]
Quote[/b] (nightcrawlerblue @ June 02 2004,21:21)]Tricky Lady can go if she wants. TL's first reign was short too.
Do I *have* to? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

If no-one else volunteers, than I'll take up the reign of the next king of Spain...
I'll give it till next Tuesday, when I'm back from a short holiday...
hehe. I'll go if you want me to but if you want to play then do so.

I just noticed your own PBEM. Good luck with it. I'd join but unfortunately I don't have VI. I've got to save up for some stuff at the end of the year so I can't get it. Oh well... Good luck and may the English destroy all opposition. Though could you skip the Spanish...? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

Tricky Lady
06-02-2004, 22:29
OK, I'll play the next king. But I will only play the game next week, so don't expect anything too soon.

Gotta think of a strategy to crush the French.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

Chimpyang
06-02-2004, 23:03
ooooh here's one, keep going for the King for ransom money, apart from that don't kill him (like i did 3 times) and don't get almost all your heirs killed by their army (i admit, me again)

katank
06-02-2004, 23:52
is toulouse still isolated?

a raiding strategy into Ile-de-France could cripple them and split them.

then take out their weakended carcass at your leisure.

liberal monarch ransoming is great but the pope might object.

still, the money is more important than the excomm early in the game.

Did either of you do a North Africa crusade run?

it's great fun and having 3-4k crusader troops right next to the holy land sure guarantees those GA points.

thanks for the invitation from nightcrawler blue but it seems my savegames don't work for other people.

I tried to join a few PBEMs before and played quite a bit but these problems made it impossible.

I did play the first reign of an older Sicilian thread though and the new thread is partially due to it.

Tricky Lady
06-08-2004, 22:01
OK, just finished King Garc II's reign, and this is the actual situation:

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/MTW/PBEM_Spain2/Spain_1243.jpg

I forgot to storm Navarra castle, so I got a warning from the pope rather soon in the game. Also in turn 1 or 2, the Italians attacked us (naval attack), so Spain was at war with Italy and France at the same time. I continuously attacked the French and Italian fleet, and withdrew the Spanish crusader forces from Russia. I got lucky that there were a lot of loyalist rebellions in Russia, which gave us some very decent troops for free.
But the source of all troubles was a loyalist rebellion in Navarre which led to the excommunication. [I realised afterwards that I probably could've withdrawn the rebel troops and avoid the war with France]
Anyway, the excommunication allowed me to freely attack France and Italy with the extra resources from Russia, and to the end, England decided to backstab us, what costed them Anjou and Normandy. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-grin2.gif

PS. Horde annilihating Turkey in the East. France and Italy (Genoa, Venice and Sardinia went rebel, so they're stuck on Malta, hahaha) nearly extinct. Spanish treasury dramatically low, but when Italian fleet is destroyed, trade can be resumed easily.

Chimpyang
06-09-2004, 21:52
I've lent MTW 1.1 out to a friend so cant play for a while.

nightcrawlerblue
06-09-2004, 22:22
Want us to wait for you or should I go? I don't mind waiting.

nightcrawlerblue
06-16-2004, 21:52
Um... TL? How's the reign going?

Tricky Lady
06-17-2004, 16:58
Quote[/b] (nightcrawlerblue @ June 16 2004,22:52)]Um... TL? How's the reign going?
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-sweatdrop.gif

Reign? Which reign?

:checking previous posts:

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-oops.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-speechless.gif

I completely forgot about my screenshot placeholder...

Hmm... gotta look into my papers. Hope I can find back my notes.

And I forgot to upload the savegame too
Just uploaded it, you can download The Spanish 1243 here (http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/The_Spanish_1243.zip).

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

Tricky Lady
06-18-2004, 17:43
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-oops.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-oops.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-oops.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-oops.gif

I cannot find back my notes on my last Spanish game.

So this is definitively a http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ceasarno.gif for me. You guys will have to do it with the rushed write-up I posted when I just finished my campaign (about 5 posts above this one).

I'll delete my placeholder post.

sorry. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-embarassed.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/shogunshame.gif

nightcrawlerblue
06-18-2004, 17:58
OFF WITH YOUR HEAD (j/k)

So Chimpyang is up Also, to every other PBEM player:

YOU CAN SIGN UP ANYTIME SO HURRY UP WE NEED MORE PLAYERS

please?

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

nightcrawlerblue
06-24-2004, 19:43
Uh, Chimpyang... You're up...

Chimpyang
06-24-2004, 21:43
mtw 1.1 is still with a friend i'm afraid.

afrit
07-02-2004, 03:22
Is this PBM still alive? I am interested in joining. I downloaded the saved game and played a couple of years. Found it very enjoyable since I never get to that late in years in my solo campaigns ( I play early mostly). Didn't know caravels could cross 2 sea regions in a single turn http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-smile.gif and arbalests rock http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif (killed the Italian king and ended his faction using them in one battle).

Anyway, I would like to sign up and am willing to play next or any turn.

Afrit.

Tricky Lady
07-02-2004, 22:37
I think you are very welcome to play the next reign, afrit. Most players had a second reign already in this PBM so it is good to get some fresh blood into this game, IMHO.

I'd say: go on and finish off those Italians http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-thumbsup.gif

afrit
07-03-2004, 00:59
Ok. I'll get on it tongight after work. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ceasaryes.gif

About the Italians. Yes I did eliminate the faction, BUT then I lost power (electrical power that is ) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-furious3.gif and the last autosave was before the battle of Tyrolia where I killed their king http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-wall.gif

I did save some screenies, but I'll have to reload the campaign from start. I'll probably write up the erased campaign as a vision in a dream http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif (I had a vision last night. Our army was camped on the high ground somwhere in the Alps. The arrogant Italian King approaches with his so-called elite knights. The order to our arbalests is shouted down the hill Shoot them Shoot them all. A hail of arrows rains on the Italians, and cuts them down. Their King is now alone and our valiant sergeants charge him. I see a vision of his body dragged on the field and his nation in tatters.... Then darkness falls over everything [power cut] and I awake. That is the vision I had, and by the Grace of God we will realize this vision and smite down the haughty Italians. Thus spoke the new King of Spain at the beginning of his reign. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

thanks for letting me play

afrit

afrit
07-04-2004, 20:25
Reyes De Espana http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

I played the reign of Pedro I (1243-1282). It was long and glorious. Writeup to come soon. The file is uploaded as The_Spanish_Reign_1282.zip . Just a warning, it may not be as interesting anymore, since I crossed the 60% Europe conquered mark http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif (methinks he should be nicknamed the Pedro the Conqueror).

In reality TL had set it up easy for the next King. France and Italy were effectively neutralized. England and Germany watched each other most of the reign (it was fortuitous that there was no border with the English so we were trading with them for quite a while http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif). The main challenge was taking out the Golden Horde. They handed King Pedro's generals several nasty defeats before they were banished off the face of the earth... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

The next King would be Sancho III, age 28.

AFRIT

afrit
07-06-2004, 04:42
Here's the writeup. It is my first in the THrone room and I hope it is well received. It is on the long side of things, so be patient. If anyone cares, I can upload screenies later on.


NightCrawlerblue Alfonso VI 1087-1106
Tricky Lady Alfonso VII 1107-1130
Nightcrawlerblue Garc I 1131-1165
Tricky Lady - Enrique I, 1166-1213
Nightcrawler blue ??? 1213-1223
Trickly Lady Garc II 1224-1243
afrit Pedro I 1243-1282


In 1243 the Spanish realm extends from the borders of rebel Portugal to Arabia and Sinai. Spanish arms have reached the English Channel and are in the process of removing the last vestiges of French rule from Brittany. In fact, the once mighty French are reduced to just 3 provinces: Champagne – totally surrounded by their mortal German enemy-, Swabia and Switzerland. In central Europe, Spanish troops besiege Italians in Milan and Tyrolia. The defeats inflicted by the late King Garc II on the Italians have caused them to fracture into civil war. The Italian Doge barely holds on to Austria, Greece and Malta.

Pedro's first acts are to reorganize the armies and appoint capable generals in each area of the frontier [turn on clean-up units and assemble into fewer but bugger stacks]. He also appoints Governors to the conquered provinces to improve tax collection and keep his new subjects in line.

He continues his father's building program and orders new buildings constructed in almost every province. In that regard, he is aided by his inheritance of 60,000 florins. But his true achievements are the conquests under his reign. For the entirety of his reign, Spain was at war with some nation or another in almost every year. A chronology of these wars follows.

1243

Spanish barques eliminate the last Italian ships from the English Channel in a naval battle. Trade with Northern Europe can now resume. The war with the French winds down, with the assault and capture of Nantes castle in Brittany.

On the Italian front, Milan is assaulted and taken, while Tyrolia is besieged. Expecting that the Italian King will come to the aid of the garrison at Innsbruck, Lord Velazquez De Aragon reinforces the troops in Tyrolia with arbalests. At the ensuing battle, the Italian King tries to charge the Spanish line uphill. Arbalest arrows thin his bodyguard and he is killed. This ends his dynasty and the remainder of Italian lands fall into the hands of his former generals or enemies. In Venice, Bohemond de Tankerville becomes ruler, while Turkish loyalists take back Greece. This seemingly unrelated event, gives enough breathing room for the Turks to survive the onslaught of the Golden Horde and continue their fight.

Also in 1243, King Pedro starts his building projects. He orders a port in every coastal province to facilitate passage of trade and troops. And he arranges for the future training of chivalric knights in Leon by ordering the necessary facilities. At the same time, he spends money on recruiting for a crusade in Navarre. He is able to do all this because of the treasury bequeathed to him, but he knows that such a building spree will need to be financed from new income at some point. And so he orders improvements in farms and mines and trading outposts in the entire realm.



1244

The fleet in the Mediterranean reports no sight of Italian enemy ships. Their once mighty navy apparently disbanded upon the death of their last king. This permits our trade ships to sail unencumbered to the Eastern Mediterranean. With the new Caravels from Granada, Spanish fleets would soon sail all around the Mediterranean. [that was really a big break. I did not need to build any new ships for a long time]

Fresh from his victory over the Italians, Lord Velazquez de Aragon, with his Lieutenant Chort Milov, a Varangian, pushes North into Switzerland. The French abandon the province and retreat to Swabia. Unfortunately, this leaves Tyrolia unguarded, and the sneaky Polish King orders his army there. Our small army maintaining the siege retreats and the Poles grab the province. With this shameful “theft of the Tyrolia” , the Poles start a long war that would consume most of King Pedro’s reign.

Adding insult to injury, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Sultan of the Turks both cancel their treaty of alliance with us, citing their relation with the Polish. Needless to say, time will prove they chose the wrong side.

Also in that year, a trusted emissary of the King manages to convince Bohemond de Tankerville, now a rebel , to change allegiance for the price of a few thousand florins. Thus Venice is conquered and a capable general recruited without shedding blood.

1245

Lord Velazquez sends an urgent message to the King. Should we hold Switzerland? or retreat to more defensible borders and retake Tyrolia?

The King asks his advisors “What is in this “Switzerland”?” “Sire, it is but a poor nation, without riches. Its people are fiercely independent and warlike. They are best known for their skill with the Halberds. It is said that Halberdiers trained there are the best in the world”. “Well then”, replies the King, “do not abandon the province and start training those warriors”. “But Sire, there are no facilities there. We have to build a Citadel to house them. It takes 16 years to finish”. “Then get started” shouts the King. And thus Spain decides to hold Switzerland for many years until the first professional swiss halberdiers join the Spanish force (in 1265?).


To hold onto the Alpine provinces, troops are sent from all the French provinces east to Provence and then into Milan and Burgundy. This prevents the Polish from further expansion

1246

More reinforcements pour into Provence on their way to Tyrolia. Velazquez methodically leads his troops into battle, but the Polish simply retreat with minimal losses, abandoning Tyrol to the Spaniards

News reaches us of heavy fighting between the Turks and Mongols in Asia Minor. Aided by loyalist rebellions, the Turks are able to push the horde back a little bit. “Good riddance to both infidel kings” says the King.

1247

Prince Felipe comes of age. During the banquet in the Prince’s honor, the King is proclaimed a “builder” because of his massive construction program.
Of course, his aggressive development and army recruitment drives the Treasury down to 16,000 florins.

To enrich his coffers, King Pedro looks to the riches of the east. He develops agriculture and trade in Egypt. And he eyes the gems, silk and cotton of Antioch and the spices of Tripoli. These two provinces are currently the last holdings of the Egyptian Sultan. And so a crusade is declared in the Navarre Chapterhouse with the goal of reclaiming Antioch for Christendom.

The crusade sails immediately to Antioch, where it is joined by Lord Velazquez De Normandy as commander. The Egyptians withdraw to Tripoli, leaving the city to the crusaders. Pillaging returns 1450 needed florins to the royal coffers. Celebrations in Castile at the news of the successful crusade increase the King’s stature.

Further good news comes from north Italy this year. Lord Velazquez De Aragon scores a second victory defending Tyrol, this time from the Polish. He faces 1300 polish troops with his 1100 veterans. Again the arbalests prove crucial in weakening the enemy’s royal knights and then when charged by the main line, they break. Only the lack of light cavalry prevents this from becoming a wholesale massacre of the polish. Still Velazquez manages to kill and capture 900 enemy to the loss of 109 of our own. These 2 victoruies in Tyrolia earn our commander his sixth rank and the title of “skilled defender”.

Also in North Italy, Hugh De Payns achieves a hard-won victory against Italian rebels in Genoa. His 870 men, mostly feudal knights and archers, faced 1440 troops including 2 full strength units of the vaunted Italian Infantry. Using a series of brilliant feints, he lured them into an archer’s trap and whittled them down. Then he surrounded one unit of their infantry from all sides with cavalry. The Italians in that unit fought like devils and did not break until they were down to 20 men or so. The rmainder of the battle was hard fought and De Payns resorted to the last drop of reinforcements to barely win the day. That bloody victory cost us 700 men, many knights in the flower of their youth. But the road to the great citadel of Genoa lay open.

1248

By winter of 1247, Spanish arms are scoring great victories. But the treasury dips to a low 6,500 florins. The King has to order a slowing down of troop recruitment throughout the realm. The only troops to be trained this year are Turcopoles in Antioch.

Tripoli, the last holdout of the Egyptians, is invaded in 1248. Luckily for the spanish, the defending Egyptians are led by their incapable Sultan, instead of their brilliant commander Fakh-Ed-Dine [a 6 star. BTW, Fakhr-Ed-Dine is a true historical character, he was prince of Lebanon –my home country- in the 1500’s, so a bit after the MTW era. Still it was nice to see him in there]. Lord Velazquez de Aragon commands our 1379 men against their slightly larger force of 1773, including a sizeable contingent of desert archers. “We must neutralize their archers before we join battle. Otherwise, we will reach their lines with a decimated force” thinks Velazquez. “Order the Jinetes to take the archers with the sword”. And so a unit of Jinetes engages them on each flank. On their left, the Jinetes are caught by his main infantry and Ghulam guards and have to make a run for it. But they manage to distract their main force, and thus the Spanish infantry line is able to advance against their center quickly and without many losses. The fighting is fierce, but our professional troops eventually beat down their Saracen infantry. Their king retreats without routing. Knowing there are still reinforcement to face, Velazquez calls off the pursuit. He is soon surprised to see elite Ghulam and Mamluk cavalry among their reinforcements. A second battle ensues. Our tired troops waver against their fresh princely Ghulam units, until Velazquez personally leads a charge of royal knights and routs one of their Ghulam corps. This rallies our troops and they beat back the Egyptians off the field. This long day costs Spain 481 of its finest, but the last vestiges of Egyptian power are now trapped in Tripoli keep. The poor Sultan cannot even ransom his own son, prince Baybars, who is sent to do slave labor in the mines of Tunisia.

In north Italy, Hugh De Payns continues the siege of Genoa, while Lord Velazquez de Aragon takes Innsbruck keep in Tyrolia. The polish King dies around this time with the bitter knowledge that his theft of Tyrolia has been an utter failure.

This good news is capped by the birth of a lovely princess, named Leonor in honor of the our armies that are fighting like lions for the glory of Spain.

But in late fall, news reaches the King of sneak attack by the treacherous Hungarians against our fleet in the Adriatic. The sea lanes to Venice are now cut and Spain finds itself at war with yet another nation. [the list now has France, Poland, Hungary and soon-to-be-defunct Egypt].

1249

The new declaration of war by the Hungarians and the status of the treasury (c. 13,000 florins) prompt King Pedro to try and improve our diplomatic situation. He offers Princess Violante in marriage to the new Polish king. He refuses. “Well, well” replies King Pedro, “he is worse than his father He’ll get his punishment, but in due time. We have more urgent matters to attend to.”
On a better note, our alliance with England is enhanced by the marriage of our lovely Princess Sancha into their royal line. An armistice is offered to the French and they officially accept the next year. They are probably influenced by the news that Spain has the largest army in the world that year


The war with Hungary is pursued with vigor. Our caravels sink an advancing Hungarian fleet in the Aegean. Prince Enrique leads a raid from Venice into Croatia at the head of 440 men, mostly knights. The cowardly Hungarians flee to the keep, and abandon a hefty 4350 florins worth of booty for our starved treasury. To the north, Lord Velazquez moves from Tyrol into rebel Austria in order to threaten Hungary. The 60 odd rebels in Austria offer token resistance only [auto-calced].
Hugh de Payns [4 star urban militia] is ordered to assault the citadel of Genoa and manages to take it after a bloody day that cost us 434 men [from that point on, I auto-calced all assaults. Assaulting with meager artillery is no fun at all]. For his efforts, De Payns is made Censor of Genoa.

News reaches the King of fighting between the Mongols and Turks in Constantinople. The Turks appear to be holding their own. But we cannot count on them to last for a long time. Spain may have to intervene against the Horde soon.


1250

Sultan Ali surrenders in Tripoli after a 2 year siege. He is never seen again and was rumored to be laboring in the depth of the Tunisian gold mines. Egypt is finished.

Agents of the Spanish crown are now spread all over Europe, keeping the King appraised of developments everywhere. The Spanish empire is now far and wide. But Portugal, just next door, is independent. An attempt is made to bribe the head rebel, Rodrigo Claris. But at the last minute, the renegade general ups the amount. With the weak treasury, the King bitterly abandons the bribe.

Meanwhile, Prince Enrique continues his daring raid into Hungary. Abandoning Croatia after looting it, he moves east into the rich plains of Hungary. There he is faced with the Hungarian King at the head of 670 men, many of them horse archers. A flowing cavalry battle results where our Mounted Sergeants keep chasing their horse archers most of the day. Eventually, Prince Enrique’s guards catch up with their king at the edge of a forest. Cornered, the Hungarian monarch fights bravely to the death. With his demise, his forces disperse and the Hungarian plains are laid waste . 1650 florins are sent to the treasury.


1251

After raiding Hungary, prince Enrique returns to Croatia where, again, the Hungarians flee without a fight. This time they abandon the keep, but the loot is less: 1050 florins.

Meanwhile, our emissaries in the East report that the war still rages between the Mongol hordes and the Turks. Provinces change hands, but it appears that the Mongols are the stronger protagonist. The Turks barely hold on thanks to loyalist rebellions in captured lands. The King decides that the time has come to fight the Horde, before the Turks are finished.

Our bishop in Syria reports that the horde is besieging the Turks in Damascus castle with a small force. The King decides to come to their aid. Adding Syria to the realm will strengthen the Eastern border, which now has 4 border-provinces (Antioch, Tripoli, Palestine, Arabia). In his zeal , the King declares a crusade to Syria. He even pays the greedy Pope 2750 florins for his blessing. Unfortunately, he soon realizes that even if the crusaders manage to lift the siege of Damascus, they still must wrest it from the Turks. He asks his emissary, “What if we wait till the horde captures the castle and then attack?” The messenger replies: “Sire, it seems the garrison will hold indefinitely And the Mongols have no siege weapons. ”. “Well then. We will have to take it ourselves to fulfill my crusader pledge, even if it means war with the Turks” replies the King.

Thus Spain is eventually forced to fight both Eastern powers. [Yeah, I realized the mistake after declaring the crusade, but there seems no way to recall that move]

Later that year, a scouting force sent into Syria discovers that the Mongols had reinforced their troops.. News of the crusade declaration must have reached the ear of the great Khan The small attack is called off, and our troops await the crusaders who set sail to the Levant.

1252

Our crusaders and other troops now assemble in the provinces bordering Syria in anticipation of the attack. A temporary alliance is offered to the Turks, but they decline.

Plans for the attack, however, are disrupted by surprise incursions of Mongols into Antioch and Tripoli. The Antioch garrison, strengthened by the arrival of the crusaders, is too strong for the Mongol commander and he calls of the attack. His comrade in Tripoli, however, is braver. Despite being outnumbered 765 to 381, the Mongol devil orders the attack. Our troops, mostly chivalric sergeants and spears supported by 2 archer units, are well positioned on a hill. Their horse archers harass our lines, while they send a heavy cavalry corps behind us. This flanking maneuver distracts one of our archer units, giving their horse archers more breathing room. Soon our losses to their archers start to rise. The sergeants are ordered to charge down hill. They encounter a unit of steppe Cavalry, which, amazingly, manages to hold against the sergeants and another spearmen unit. The morale boost form their commander and the support of horse archers must have been crucial. With our front line committed, the flanking Mongol unit charges our right wing. Our reserve sergeants are committed to defend it. Then their general charges the gap between our right and center. The weak spear unit sent there can barely organize before impact. Its rout triggers a wholesale collapse of our line. At the end of the day, Spanish losses total 485 men, more than the entire Mongol force

(This was the first of many encounters with the Horde. And that scenario was to repeat several times before the Spanish fully realized the power of mongol units. There is no doubt that the Horde was King Pedro’s most formidable foe. )[this is the first time I played against the Horde. It is quite a challenge]

While the Mongols sallied from Syria against the Spanish, the Turks managed to sneak in a relief force, probably from Rum or lesser Armenia, and lift the siege in Damascus. The Mongol force returning from the aborted attack on Antioch is then forced into Edessa. More importantly, the Mongol force in Tripoli, despite its recent victory, is now stranded.


1253

Intent on re-supplying its army in Tripoli, the Horde attacks Antioch in force. Lord Velazquez de Normandy, with over a 1000 men including crusader Order Foot, defends against 469 Mongols led by an unknown Mongol Warrior commander.

The Mongols split their force, sending their heavy cavalry units to our right in a flanking maneuver. Seeing their commander protected by lightly armed Mongol Warrior archers, Velazquez spots a chance. “Let’s capture their commander before their cavalry flanks us Send one unit of Order Foot after him . He will surely rout quickly and our Jinetes will chase him. Then the enemy will be weakened And keep the Knights of Santiago and other Order Foot in reserve to counter their flanking cavalry”. Brilliant orders, or so it seemed. Unfortunately, Velazquez under-estimated his counterpart. The enemy general unit manages to hold off the Order’s troops well. Jinetes and Mounted Sergeants are sent in as reinforcements , and finally the enemy general routs. But not before his heavy cavalry manage to organize on our right flank. The enemy general then rallies and springs his troops. A mighty charge by the Mongol Heavy Cavalry is bravely met by the Order Foot soldiers and Knights of Santiago. Their left-most unit is surrounded by our Knights and annihilated. But the Order Foot in the center buckle under the pressure and start to rout. Velazquez ponders sending in his royal knights and Santiago units to counter the enemy. “It is hopeless Sire”, he is counseled by his loyal squire. “You shall surely meet death if you charge them. And while none doubts your bravery, you ARE the best commander Spain has in the East. Retreat so that you can fight another day”. Knowing that his King will need him again, Velazquez wisely withdraws his unit with his honour intact. Soon it is a general rout and the Order Foot are massacred. But just as the last troops leave the field, fresh Turcopole reinforcements arrive on our side. The tired enemy cavalry is barely able to chase them around. Soon, the Turcopoles spot the enemy general -with his weakened unit- and give chase. He is routed and flees. He must have been a mighty hero because it takes a whole unit of spearmen and Turcopoles to capture the lone Mongol Warrior. With their new prisoner, the Turcopoles try to hold the field. But eventually the Mongol heavy cavalry catches up with them. Seeing that they are to be routed soon, the Turcopoles execute their valuable prisoner. Velazquez never learns the identity of his worthy adversary. After the rout of the Turcopoles, a lone unit of 3 Men-At-Arms is all that Spain has on the field. Despite the unit being in full view of the mongols, the decimated enemy never attacks and the day is counted as a victory for spain. A victory, but at what cost 1400 spaniards lay dead to 400 mongols (and their unknown commander). But Antioch is saved and the stranded Mongols in Tripoli are doomed. [Sidenote: I consider claiming a defensive win with a solo depeleted unit running around cheesy, but in this case the enemy commander was dead and my unit was not hiding anywhere, just hanging around my starting position. So I consider this one a fair win. Also, I had the Turcopoles execute the enemy general because I read somewhere that prisoners may be freed if I start losing again and I did not want that general out there.Any idea who he was?].

In the same month, Hugh De Payns, buyoed by his victories in Genoa, arrives in Tripoli to take command of the besieged forces. With the help of fresh reinforcments, he sallies out at the head of 800 men. Luckily, the battle takes place in the suburbs , in a wooded area that helped neutralize the advantage of Mongol horsemen. The battlefield is split into an “upper wooded field” and “lower plain” separated by a cliff. “To the trees To the trees” orders de Payns as soon as the enemy horse is spotted. Only the Knights of Santiago and light cavalry stay on the lower plain. The Mongols split their force. In the upper field, fighting is hard between their heavy cavalry and our infantry aided by the forested landscape. With help from an archer unit the Mongols are beaten back. Meanwhile, their General’s unit had engaged our Knights in the lower field. The fighting is heavy and despite the benefit of numbers, we are unable to break them. But then our archers, fresh from their engagement on the upper field, start raining down arrows from the top of the cliff. This tips the battle and their general flees. Although he escapes on the battlefield, he has nowhere to go and surrenders later that year. He gives his name simply as “Genduk”. He is offered for ransom, but the Great Khan didn’t care much for losing generals. De Payns then executes him.

Half a continent away, the other Lord Velazquez (this one the duke of Aragon), advances from Austria unto Hungary at the head of 667 veterans. He faces 953 men across the Danube river. “Wait for a rainy day to attack. Otherwise their missiles will annihilate us on the bridge”. On the morning of the third day, the heavens open with a heavy downpour. Velazquez orders the Chivalric Men at Arms across the Eastern bridge. The battle is fierce and shouts rise up from the melee. Then the Hungarian commander commits a grave mistake: he withdraws his unit gurading the other bridge to the west. “Send the Jinetes and Mounted Sergeants across the Western bridge” orders Velazquez. Meanwhile, the valiant CMAAs are decimated and abandon the fight. Royal Knights are thrust onto the bridge to keep the pressure. The Hungarians counter with more units in the melee. But just as the Hungarians are beginning the charge, they spot our flanking Jinetes and Mounted Seargeant racing towards their rear. They enemy loses heart and routs, and Velazquez crosses with his main force into Hungary.

At the same time, the Hungarian fleet is cleared from the Adriatic and Venice can trade again.

Tales of these mighty battles are celebrated later that year at the coming of age banquet of young prince Alfonso. A “natural leader”, he is destined to fight some day and all these stories only encourage him (he fights his own bridge battle later on and dies in the attempt) .


1254

As if the wars in Hungary and the Levant are not enough, 1254 sees the resumption of active hostilities with Poland. Their newly built fleet in the Baltic is attacked and sunk by our ships before it becomes a threat.

In Hungary, Velasquez de Aragon completes the investment of Budapest. Soon news reaches him that 1300 enemy are approaching. With only 575 men, he ponders a retreat. But with his reputation as “skilled defender” at stake, he decides to fight. Luckily for him, the enemy approaches from the south, where the border with Serbia is protected by the Drava river. Velazquez moves his force towards the river, but not before a unit of enemy royal knights had crossed over [I hit the Start Battle button prematurely ;-) ] . Seeing an opportunity, Velazquez seals the bridge with a unit of Chivalric Sergeants, while Mounted Sergeants taunt the enemy Knights away from it. Soon the enemy unit is surrounded by our forces and is cut down completely. After that memorable engagement, the battle degenerates into futile attacks by enemy troops onto the bridge while our well positioned arablests mow them down. The death of the enemy general from an arbalest eventually triggers a Hungarian rout. They are pursued across the bridge by the mounted sergeants. The hungarians lose 600 killed and 400 captured that day, to our 240, mostly in the units that held the bridge.

Meanwhile, Bohemond De Tankerville, now in Spain’s service, moves from Croatia towards Serbia. He arrives to find Beograd castle protected by a tiny force, the main corps of the Hungarians having gone north toward Hungary. He easily takes posession of the province for the crown of Spain, but not before pillaging 1150 florins

In the Levant, our victorious forces in Tripoli and Antioch move unto Syria, the Crusade’s declared target. The Turks run to Damascus castle. Having previously sustained a Mongol siege, they are well prepared and appear ready to last for a whole 7 years



Further north, in Asia Minor, an earthquake hits the Mongolian province of Trebizond. Coupled with their recent loss of Syria and Tripoli provinces, the Khan’s grip on Asia Minor is weakened and now bandits appear in his province of Lesser Armenia.

Knowing that war with Turkey was coming, our naval commanders launch surprise attacks in the Aegean and Dodecanese against the Turkish fleets. We win in the Dodecanese, but lose the Aegean.

This year (1254) also brings the birth of Prince Sancho (the future king), in Toledo Citadel.

1255 (being the 12th year of King Pedro)

The war against the Hungarians winds down in 1255. Our fleet in the Adriatic destroys the last vestiges of their navy; while Tankerville assaults Beograd castle and takes it from its lone defender [yes, it was held by a single man]. Budapest falls after a 2 year siege. These losses trigger rebellions in Carpathia and Bulgaria against the Hungarian crown. Seeing the Hungarians at the brink of disaster, the Pope sends us a warning to desist from attacking them further. “Hah After they attacked first But let’s humor His Holiness. Anyway, we have captured their richest provinces already, and I want to concentrate on the war in the Levant. So no more attacks against Hungary” is the King’s reply.

Meanwhile in the Levant, De Payns is besieging Damascus castle when a large force of Golden Horde and a smaller Turkish army simultaneously invade the province. It is a 3-way battle. Our troops take position on a good hill. The battle starts with the Mongols quickly beating back the Turkish to the far right of the battlefield. Meanwhile, our skirmishing archers and catapult are able to keep the Mongol archers at bay with the advantage of higher ground. But then the foolish Turks attack our right flank. Payns commits the heavy cavalry and a unit of spears to repulse the attack. The Turks attack further and rout the Knights. Soon Turkish troops, though few and scattered, are in the rear of our line facing the Mongols. The Mongols begin to move. Seeing his main line caught between Turks to the rear and Mongols to the front, De Payns is forced to sound a general retreat. The Mongols charge and manage to catch up with several of our slower units, costing us 450 men that day. After the exit of the Spanish, the Horde wins the battle against the Turkish remnants and grabs the Syrian countryside. The Turkish garrison in Damascus now finds itself besieged yet again by a different enemy.

The bad news of the loss of Syria is tempered by the birth of beautiful Urraca, and the recovering health of the treasury, now at 31,000 florins and rising.

1256


Spain’s reaction to the Syrian defeat is quick. Marshalling a huge army under Lord Velazquez, supreme commander in the East, Spain again invades Syria. The Mongols retreat like dogs. The Turkish garrison in the castle sees yet another change in the identity of its besiegers.

The Turkish fleet, which 2 years ago had escaped destruction in the Aegean, is pursued into the black sea and sunk. Thus the trade lanes to English-held Crimea are re-opened and our armies could plan future landings on the Northern shores of Asia Minor.

Besides the naval engagement, there are no major battles this year, but an interesting episode worthy of mention occurs. Our emissary in Prussia was trying to secure the hand of a foreign princess for our young Prince Enrique. Thinking he was approaching a Polish princess, and wanting an armistice from the Polish, he asked for the hand of lovely Princess Sarolt. To our amazement, it is the Hungarian king who replies in the affirmative next year. It seems that the emissary confused her nationality, with all the similar attire of eastern Europeans [Polish and Hungarian colors are similar]. And so Sarolt is betrothed to prince Enrique, who , as you may recall, had killed the previous King of Hungary in battle in 1250 Thus fate cursed Sarolt to wed the killer of her father In fact, rumors later spread that it was the prince himself who drove the lance into the heart of the old King. But eyewitness accounts [replays rock] clearly showed that the man who slew the King did not carry the commander’s banner.

[We reply by offering an official armistice, but the Hungarian king refuses. Go figure]


1257 is a second year without major battles. The Turks and Mongols continue to do battle in Asia Minor. This time, the Turks are aided by a loyalist rebellion in Edessa.

We assault Damascus Castle and take it [auto-calc]. News of the success of the Crusade finally reaches Navarre, 7 years after its launch in 1250.

1258

With the completion of the crusade to Syria, a new one is declared. The King chooses Turkish Greece as the destination. It is an easy target and it seems the Turks are now winning against the Horde and need to be slowed down. The crusaders set sail immediately from Cordoba to Greece. They are joined by Bohemond De Tankerville who moves south from Serbia to take command of the joint army [I do not put in my commanders in the crusade. Rather I have them fight side by side]. Faced with overwhelming force, the Turks retreat into Athens Castle.

All this time, troops are trained all over the realm and transferred on board our fleets to the Levant. The reinforcements poured into Antioch and Syria prove timely, as probing attacks by the Horde retreat without a fight.

The tide of the war seems to be changing dramatically against the Horde and the Turks. The Castilian treasury is in great shape (40,000 florins and rising) thanks to trade being reestablished all over the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Spain truly rules the seas without a challenger.


1259

Again no major battles. Athens is about to fall to Tankerville’s ever-growing forces in Greece. News of battles in Ryazan between Mongols and Turks and of the Khan losing Trebizond to the Sultan are music to the King’s ear. Meanwhile, the healthy treasury permits raising a fresh army and assembling it as a reserve in the province of Cordoba in the space of 2 short years The target of the new army is yet to be determined.

Rodrigo Claris, rebel leader of Portugal is again offered a bribe, this time in excess of 5400 florins. But he insolently refuses. “Claris, Claris” thinks the King. “That name makes me wonder if he once served my fathers. And the traitor dares to refuse my generous amnesty. His day shall come ”.

Also in 1259, news of the discovery of a new substance, black powder, reach the King. He immediately orders facilities to be constructed in many provinces to put it to use in his army. Unfortunately, he later finds out that his troops are not yet willing to part with bow and arrow, and refuse to use the new material. “Maybe my son will get to use it. Sometime after 1300 I think” [It was a bummer to realize that all these Gunsmiths and shops I built won’t be useful till Late Era].


1260

Prince Felipe comes of age in Cordoba. “Perfect timing” thinks the King. “I have a force readily assembled here. Who better than my son to teach that insolent Claris a lesson? Besides the Portuguese rebels will help hone his military skills”. And thus Prince Felipe leads an elite force of Feudal and Royal knights against the rabble in Portugal. With the help of speedy Jinetes, he captures 1040 men in a single day. Knowing that the Portugese are rebellious by nature, he cows them by ordering the execution of all the captives. Thus he earns the titles “butcher” and “skilled attacker”.

Meanwhile, in the East, Sultan Bayezid I wrests control of Georgia from the Khan. He thus connects his holdings in Khazar and Volga with those in Asia minor. But the Horde still has some quality troops in reserve, and cannot be discounted yet. In fact prince Chagatai recaptures Edessa from rebel Turks, although Lesser Armenia is now permanently in bandit hands.

Athens falls that year to our troops and the crusade is fulfilled.

1261

With Greece securely in spanish hands, the King now envisions two pincers of Spanish troops advancing on Asia Minor. Tankerville and Velazquez De Aragon from the West; De Payns and Velazquez De Normandy from the South]. “The end of the Horde is near” the King was heard to say.

[sidenote: I hate how the computer refers to all titled general as Lord this and Lord that. It makes hard to track ex-royal princes once they become governors]

Fresh from the capture of Athens, Tankerville invades Constantinople. He is joined by a newly declared crusade. Despite having more than 2000 troops defending the province, the Turks retreat inside the ancient walls and wait for reinforcemetns.

To the South, Isaac Phocas, rebel leader of lesser Armenia, is bribed to join his brethren Christians against the infidels. His Saracen Infantry and Turcoman soldiers will prove valuable in the future [OK, how come a guy with a greek sounding name is commanding clearly muslim troops?] . At the same time, Lord De Payns invades Edessa at the head of a great host. The Horde retreats to Rum and Anatolia.

Despite of all these efforts in fighting the infidels on behalf of Christendom, the King continues to be backstabbed by his fellow Christian Kings. The English fleet suprises our Barques in the North Sea and sink them. Trade to the Baltic is cut. To make matters worse, storms off the Costa Verde next year further impair our ship line.

Better news comes later in the year from Switzerland where the great Citadel has been completed after 16 years. Immediately, construction of a Town Guard is started. Soon, Swiss Halberds will join the fighting line.

1262

Our troops in the Levant brace for major attacks. De Tankerville awaits the Turkish attempt to relieve Constantinople; De Payns holds newly conquered Edessa and Velazquez de Normandy awaits in Syria. With the “purchase” of lesser Armenia, Antioch is now away from the border for the first time and lightly guarded.

The attacks come with much vigor, as expected. Only Syria is spared the onslaught.

In Constantinople, the Sultan sends his best troops against Tankerville: Khwarazmians, Futuwwas, Ghulams.. Tankerville assiduously positions his arbalests on a small wooded hillock and uses them to thin out the enemy Khwarazmian and Ghulam. In frustration, the Turkish commander throws his troops at our center. The fighting is fierce at the edge of the forest. Tankerville then swings a unit of feudal knight around the hill, and smashes it in the center of the Turks. Disconcerted by the enemy in their rear, they flee. Our cavalry gives pursuit and Tankerville captures 491 warriors that day The fate of Constantinople is sealed.

In Edessa, Payns again has the misfortune of facing the Mongol Heavy Cavalry. Their superior cavalry simply rushes the gap to our troops before our archers could have much effect. The Chivalric Sergeants rout and Payns is handed another sound defeat by the Horde, with 200+ lost and 470 captured. He is now a “weak defender” and he foreswears defending any garrisons, but is still eager to attack.


1263

Naval battles with the Enlgish rage in the Channel. We lose one and win one. Trade lines are reestablished in Costa Verde, but the Baltic is still cut off by the English.

Still, the economy is healthy and the treasury is now at 50,000+ florins. It is time to take on the Horde with strength.

Velazquez de Aragon moves down from Hungary onto the isolated Horde in Bulgaria. Seeing they have no retreat, the 380 mongols decide to resist his 1600 troops. Velazquez maneuvers carefully, having heard from his counterparts in the East that Mongol Heavy Cavalry is an adversary not to be taken lightly, even when outnumbered. And that day it seemed the enemy force was thick with their armor

The enemy takes a position on a sloping hill. Velazquez maneuvers just out of their archers’ range onto the neighboring ridge. They abandon their position and move down into the plain to charge the last of our troops going up the hill. This gives our arbalests a clear view of their heavy units. Efficient volleys thin their ranks. Still they manage to outflank our line on the left. A feudal knight unit in reserve is ordered to charge them (downhill) and they are rolled back. With the defeat of the heavy cavalry, the enemy infantry is routed and killed easily. Only their damned horse archers manage to last quite a while before they are cornered and defeated. At the end of the day, the remnants of the horde retreat to Turnovo castle. Bulgaria is ours.

Just to the South, Constantinople falls to Tankerville’s besieging force. Furhter east, reinforcements are poured into newly purchased Lesser Armenia to join with the local troops. Despite orders to the contrary, they pillage and destroy 550 florins. And just next door, Velazquez de Normandy retakes Edessa by intimidating the horde with huge host of troops. It appears the Khan decided to concentrate on retaking Georgia from the Sultan that year and thus no counter-attacks against Syria are launched by the Horde.


1264

The King calls all his important generals to a central meeting. He starts by granting the title of Governor of Constantinople to Chort Milov, commander of a Varangian Guard unit in Tyrol. “It is only fitting that you govern the province where your ancestors used to train” the King is heard to say. The new elevation increased Milov’s fame among his troops and makes him a better commander [+2 star title for total of 6 stars]. He is put in charge of the central European armies now that his previous commander, Velazquez de Aragon, is fighting the Horde in the East.

Having secured the central command, the King addresses the other Generals. “This is the year in which we conquer the Horde and the Turks. Some of you have fought them and know how hard it is to beat their heavy cavalry on the field. Going through Asia Minor province by province will cost Spain too much. Rather, we shall attack them this year from all sides: from the South, the West and the Sea. We shall overwhelm them with numbers so that they retreat without fighting, but simultaneously cut off their retreat lines With luck, we may conquer Asia Minor without a single battle “

And thus the great plan was devised.

Tankerville crosses the Bosporus from Constantinople into Trebizond, which is abandoned by the enemy.

Velazquez de Aragon leaves the siege in Bulgaria to Prince Enrique and sails onto Nicaea. There he encounters a weak Turkish force of 250 men which is easily beaten.

Velazquez de Valencia leaves his command in Normandy to his lieutenant and sailed with his best troops to Georgia. There he is joined by a newly declared crusade. The enemy run to the Castle at the sight of his great host.

Enrique De Olivares moves from Syria into Armenia. The Horde abandons the entire province, including the castle.

Velazquez de Normandy leads his army from Edessa into Rum. Again the enemy retreat to the Castle.

Finally,Lord De Payns, Censor of Genoa, moves from Lesser Armenia into Anatolia. There the Horde decides to make their last stand. Payns commands 890 men -including Turcoman archers, Saracen Infantry and Jinetes- against the Horde’s 169. Despite the numerical advantage, Payns is careful not to assume victory, for the enemy are all Heavy Cavalry and seasoned veterans. And they are probably commanded by one of their famed generals. So he proceeds carefully. He surveys the field and sees the enemy poised on a gently sloping hill waiting for our assault. He knows that even his superior numbers cannot hold against a downhill charge from their cavalry. Luckily, at the bottom of the slope, there is another small wooded hillock. He moves all his archers onto the hillock and positions his saracens in the shallow ravine between the hillock and the enmey. Then he uses his light cavalry as a lure to draw down the enemy. The impetuousness of the vaunted mongols proves to be their undoing that day, for they take the bait and charge downhill. Soon they hit the wall of Muwahid and Saracen foot soldiers, while the Turcoman archers and arbalests rain arrows on them. Still they fight like devils. On our right they are on the verge of routing a Muwahid unit until Payns throws his Feudal Knights at them and then manages to run a unit of Saracens into their rear. They fight till the last man, knowing that their general is about to break through our left wing. And although he succeeds in turning our left, our lighter troops run to the trees where he cannot not pursue, and thus he can not capitalize on his victory Soon our victorious right wing rolls over their center leaving their general isolated. All our troops then go after him and he is captured. With that, Lord Payns celebrated his only victory in the field against the Horde, and this engagement came to be known as “Payns’ revenge” for it avenged his 2 previous losses at their hands.

It also means that the Hordes’ armies in Asia are trapped. With nowhere to go for the winter, the Khan’s army surrenders to our generals. The ransomed captives include Khan Ogadai, Prince Chagatai, Prince Batu and Prince Subutai. They have to humiliatingly return to Ryazan, somehow escaping through Turkish controlled Khazar. We net 12618 florins for that crowd. And they were never heard of again

1265

By 1265, the 13th year of Pedro’s reign, Spain is clearly on the ascendant. Its treasury overflows with 60,000 florins. The Horde is finished militarily. Chivalric knights are being trained for the first time in Leon, probably the only one in all of Europe. Soon, they are to be joined by the best halberdiers from Switzerland. Clearly Spain has the power to dominate Europe. No wonder the might of its armies is the news all over Europe this year

After the great campaigns of last year, Spanish armies mop up the remaining castles in Asia Minor. The title of Duke of Bulgaria is given to Stepan Maksimov, commander of arbalests. With his prestige enhanced, he becomes yet another general [5-star] ready to fight in central Europe along his compatriot Chort Milov [did we get all these from the old days in Novgorod?]. Tankerville is also promoted to the title of Duke Of Rum, earning his 7th rank.

Tired of all this fighting, the King wants peace with the English. He orders all our fleets away from English lands as a measure of goodwill, hoping for an armistice [how does the auto-armistice work again?].

1266

Instead of replying with a truce, the treacherous English take advantage of their temporary naval superiority in the Channel and invade Normandy Without a strong general (Lord Velazquez being still in the East), the lieutenant in command has to withdraw to the castle.

1267

Revenge is swift against England. The king orders the fleet back into the Channel thus cutting off their army in Normandy (Flanders, on the land route to Normandy, is held by the Germans). A successful attack in Normandy will relieve the siege and destroy the enemy army in one blow. Unfortunately, there are no capable generals around, having sent them all to the East. And so a novice commander, Pietro Machiavelli, has to face the seasoned Lord Marshall, Earl of Northumbria [5 star]. Despite having 1225 men to their 665, the battle is hard. Their highland clansmen, never encountered before, terrorized our spear line with their charge Their commander also fights valiantly alongside his troops. Despite commanding simple urban militia, he is able to hold off several attacks by our cavalry. With the loss of the initial engagement, Machiavelli pulls back and waits for reinforcements. Soon he is able to resume the fight against the weakened English, and things look good, but then he falls in the melee. His troops immediatley break and are routed. Thus the day was lost and Normandy castle remained besieged.

To add insult to injury, the King receives a letter of excommunication from the Pope for attacking the English. It seems His Holiness does not care that our fight is in self-defence Seeing that their agression cost him the ability to launch crusades, the King decides to finish off the English.

At the same time, Spain finds itself embroiled in fighting in Eastern Europe. The King had decided to finish off the Hungarian nation to simplify our borders. And so Tankerville sails from Trebizond and takes Moldavia from the Hungarians who flee to the keep. Simultaneously, troops move from Hungary into rebel Carpathia. The rebels put up a token fight and are defeated. From the South, a rising commander [3-star] named Orekh Kuz moves up from Bulgaria into Wallachia. With nowhere to go, the Hungarian king decides to fight at the banks of the Danube river. Our men at arms are sent across the bridge. In a fierce melee, they take down many enemy troops but cannot break against the royal knights. Then Kuz orders a unit of halberdiers to charge. They make quick work of the Hungarian horse, and their King has to flee.

Unfortunately, with all the fighting to the East, the garrison in Hungaria province was weakened. This was seen by the Polish King as a golden opportunity and he invades. In command of the garrison is Don Rodrigo de Trastamara, a novice. At the head of 439 men (feudal sergeants, halberdiers, arbalests and CMAA), he has told the province against 740 enemy. Wiser men would have retreated, but the young Trastamara, eager for glory, decidesto fight. He secretly hopes that the enemy was mostly a force of peasants and low quality troops. Little did he know that he faced the Polish King himself The battle starts with Trastamara positioned at the edge of the battlefield, in a forested area at the top of a slope. The first enemy to appear are mounted crossbows. They lose out in the duel against our arbalests who have the benefit of range and higher ground. Soon enemy troops appear in force, among them royal knights. Trastamara knows his only hope is in keeping to the trees, and so he orders all the men to hold positions. Enemy militia attack, but they are beaten back by the superior training of our chivalric men at arms. In frustration, the enemy king charges our troops. The fool In the trees, our CMAAs cut down his troops and the halberdiers almost finish him off. He barely manages to escape with his hide With their leader on the run, the polish rout. They are pursued for a short distance, but without cavalry our forces are unable to keep the pressure and soon find themselves exposed to enemy archers. The arbalests and one unit of CMAA dishearten and flee, but young Trastamara is able to rally his remaining force and take refuge in a copse of trees. There, he is safe from enemy archers. Their arrows fall harmlessly on the trees. Despite some probing hand-to-hand attacks by their crossbows, they are unable to dislodge him from his safe position. Nightfall finally forces the Poles to retreat. Thus, Trastamara manages to repel the Polish King from Hungary and carve a place for himself in the history of glorious Spain.

1268

The war continues in Eastern Europe. Orekh Kuz, having successfully crossed the Danube last year, assaults Bucharest castle and captures King Samuel III. His ransom of 12,300 earns Orekh Kuz his promotion to the 4th rank. (The destitute Hungarian king did not last long in his refuge of Volhynia where he retreated after ransom, for rebels are said to have captured him and killed him). Tankerville also assaulted Moldova castle and took it.

In the west, a fresh Spanish force under Lord Mendoza sallies in Normandy again. With their supplies cut off, the English were found to be down to just 81 men after the long battle the previous year. A quick fight [auto-calc] ends in the capture of Lord Marshall and his ransom for 947 florins. At the same time, our navy manages to sink English fleets in the Channel and the North Sea, reopening sea lanes to the Baltic.



1269

The war with Poland is renewed with vigor. The King had recalled his best commanders from the East and was ready to inflict defeat on the Polish king. He orders simultaneous attacks on Polish lands.

Tankerville invades Poland from Moldavia at the head of 590 men. Surprisingly, the Polish abandon their homeland province and retreat to the castle. The pillage of the rich country yields 2750 florins.

De Payns invades Bohemia from Hungary with 800 men. Again the Polish retreat. Rich Bohemia is plundered for 2900 florins.

Meanwhile, Spanish arms move into Carpathia Castle, and occupy Corsica. With all the plunder that year, the treasury now exceeds 100,000 (104,640 to be exact)

With such a rich treasury, a new army is quickly raised from the various provinces and assembled in Brittany for an invasion of England. It only awaits a good commander.


1270

War in Eastern Europe continues. Payns is attacked in Bohemia and is outnumbered 2:1. He wisely decides to retreat (with his reputation as “weak defender”, who blames him for not offering battle). Meanwhile, Tankerville reinforces his army in Poland through Moldavia. In fact, Moldavia port on the Black Sea becomes the preferred route for Spanish armies heading to Poland until the Skagerrak and Baltic were re-opened. In Tyrolia, Maksim Stepanov, duke of Bulgaria, enrolls the first units of Swiss halberds in his army, in preparation for invading Bavaria.
In the west, the invasion of England is launched. Lord Velazquez de Aragon (now 8 star when attacking) is put in command of the armada assembled in Brittany and crosses the Channel into Wessex. The English retreat to the Tower of London. The looting of the rich province yields 3150 florins

1271

The invasion of England continues, with Prince Sancho left in command of the force besieging London, while Lord Velazquez advances into Mercia. Again the English retreat, this time abandoning the Castle as well. The pillage of the rich province totals a stunning 4175 florins.

Further east, Payns reclaims Bohemia at the head of 2000 men. The Polish simply retreat to the Castle. A feeble polish attack against Tankerville in Poland is called off. Simultaneously, Stepanov advances onto Bavaria. A lone band of 8 knights decides to make a last stand. Eager to see the Swiss halberds in action, Stepan Maksimov commands the attack in person. He is not dissatisfied. He writes back to the King that a single unit of Swiss halbs took down the eight knights in less than a minute The King was clearly correct in his decision to hold Switzerland at the beginning of his reign. Stepanov enters the undefended castle (all eight enemy were killed).

Meanwhile, the French King agrees to give his daughter Agnes to young prince Sancho, who is designated as the heir-apparent. The wedding takes place in Wessex of course, where Sancho was besieging the English in the Tower of London.

1272

Soon after his wedding, Prince Sancho receives the surrender of London. Meanwhile, old Velazquez presses on with the invasion and moves into Northumbria. The English King retreats to Scotland where he will make his last stand.

In the east, Payns continues the offensivc against Poland, moving into Silesia from Bohemia with 1300 troops. This time the Polish decide to fight with 900 men. Although the enemy was camped in an advantageous position, Payns simply orders his better armored and trained troops to march up the hill. His 300 arbalests provided archer support. The poles are methodically pushed back and retreat to the castle.

With Payns moving unto Silesia, Stepanov takes over the siege in Bohemia. There he is surprised by a combined attack of German and Polish troops. It seems our erstwhile friend, Emperor Heinrich, decided to assist his neighbor and long-time rival.

Stepanov positions his troops on a hill, with a forest protecting his right flank. The Germans approach on the left, while the Poles approach on the right. Stepanov concentrates his attention on the Germans, knowing that the infantry units in the forest on his right are capable of holding off the Polish knights. The Germans advance slowly, exposing their knights to arbalest fire. This forces them to attack. Stepanov then orders his Swiss halberds to charge and they make contact with the enemy knights. Again the Swiss prove their mettle and rout the enemy. With their heavy cavalry defeated, the Germans are rolled back. At the same time, the Polish knights are beaten in the forest and retreat. Being in a defending position, Stepanov does not give pursuit. Prague is about to fall.


1273

Old Velazquez presses north into Scotland. There the English King makes his last stand on a hilltop. After some maneuvering, the Chivalric Knights of Leon, numbering several units, manage to corner the enemy King and capture him. Velazquez ransoms him for 12,804 florins (our treasury was fine, but we wanted to see his worth).

In Europe, the war now spreads with Germany having joined our enemies.

A German attack into Burgundy is beaten back by the forces under Chort Milov (Auto-calced). But De Payns’ force in Silesia is defeated by combined Polish-German force and we lose the Province. Emboldened by the Polish victory and by the news of German support, Polish loyalists in Bohemia rebel.

1274

The Bohemian rebellion is crushed ruthlessly by Don Felipe Velazquez. In a day-long battle his 1900 men overcome the 1700 rebels. Their losses total a 1000. In addition, they have 367 prisoners that are brutally executed. Bohemia shall not rise in rebellion ever again.

Further west, Chort Milov moves into German held Ile-DeFrance. He faces a bridge battle on the way from Burgundy. After a long fight in which CMAAs fail to push through, he sends in halberds and Swiss halberds. Again the Swiss halberds show their superiority and reach the other bank. After pillaging 1050 florins, Paris castle is besieged.

In Britain, the English King reassembles in Wales after being ransomed by his men. He faces a small Spanish army under a novice general. After a bitter back-and-forth fight, the English are about to be defeated. But the death of the Spanish General in battle saves the English from destruction. They live on to fight again.



1275

The King, now in the 22nd year of his reign is tired from all the wars. He decides to finish the war with the Germans, English and Polish quickly. So he orders armies to be assembled from the entire realm and landed unto German and Polish shores. With the large number of troops mobilized, he calls upon his sons to lead several armies. And so 1275 sees fighting in many provinces.

In the East, Tankerville takes Pomerania while Stepanov moves into Silesia. Both provinces are abandoned by the Poles.
In the west, newly-wed Prince Sancho leaves Wessex for the mainland to join in the final assault on Germany. The Germans retreat from Flanders at the sight of his army.
Prince Enrique lands with 3000+ troops in Friesland. The Germans retreat again.

In central Europe, Lord Pieritz leads a motley force into Lorraine. There he happens to face the German King and one of his sons at the head of 40 royal knights. With only a few woodsmen, halberds, sergeants and archers, Pieritz uses devious tactics to try and kill the enemy king. With some maneuvering, he manages to lure the princes’ knights into a fight with the halberds. With support from the archers they are defeated by the halberds and run. Then he advances against the King, who keeps his distance. Despite arrow fire, the Emperor refuses to engage against the halberds. He is down to 7 knights when he finally attacks. Luckily for him, the first unit he charges -urban militia- routs immediately, panicking the entire Spanish line before the halberds could join the fight. Pieritz has to withdraw. Although he lost the day, he managed to severely weaken the enemy king.

The final battle that year was the one that brought the most sadness the heart of the old King. Prince Alfonso had crossed from Bohemia into Franconia in pursuit of the enemy King. His 920 men encounter the enemy’s 770 at the bridge over the river Elbe. The enemy are camped on the sloping far bank with good archer support. Our infantry is unable to force the way open and the enemy refuse to budge from their position. So the prince orders his archers across the bridge, to engage the enemy hand to hand. Once halfway across, he halts them and orders them to shoot at enemy knights. This tactic causes the enemy knights to charge down. Of course the archers rout immediately, but the enemy are now within range of our deadly arbalests and are mowed down. This tactic is repeated until we run out of archers. Judging that the enemy has been weakened enough, Alfonso orders his cavalry across. They manage to cross the river and establish a bridgehead. But the fighting is fierce. Hoping to turn the tide decisively, he charges personally across the river. Alas, his personal guards reach the far end only to find their comrades had already been massacred by the enemy. The prince is trapped with nowehre to retreat. The arbalesters try to provide assistance from across the river to no avail. The prince falls after a valiant fight.


1276

Deep in mourning over his lost son, the King does not pay attention to the war the whole year [I hit the return key while going for the shift key ;( ]. The only orders issued were to Lord Velazquez to take Wales. There, the old general quickly surrounds the English King who dies in a brave fight. His successor somehow manages to escape to the Crimea, where the English Kingdom survives to this day.

In central Europe, Polish counter-attacks retrieve Pomerania and Silesia. On the other hand, having suffered the loss of several provinces, the German monarch finds himself facing rebellions in Champagne and Lorraine.

As if all this was not enough, the Pope too decides to join our enemies and his ships sink our Adriatic fleet.

1277

The King returns from mourning and orders fresh attacks into Europe. Orekh Kuz takes Franconia from the rebels, while Prince Sancho grabs Champagne. Prince Enrique continues the siege in Friesland. Even young prince Garc, who came of age at the death of his brother, joins the fight. At the head of an army of Knights he lands into Saxony. A short encounter with the enemy leaves two enemy royal knight corps destroyed and Saxony castle under siege.

On the polish front, general Stepanov takes Silesia back for the third time. Further west, the castles in Flanders and Ile De France fall to our troops.

The might of Spanish armies must have caused jealousy in the heart of the French King, Jacques I. For how else to explain his sudden invasion of Burgundy? Or maybe his feeble mind was influenced by the Pope. In any case, his surprise attack on weakly defended Burgundy forces our garrison into the castle.

On the (new) Southern front, the papal troops surprise us by taking Serbia province and attacking Genoa. Our feeble garrisons wisely retreat to the castle in both cases.

1278

The French King’s insolence is quickly punished. Chort Milov commands a force across the bridge into Burgundy. After initial resistance, the French collapse under a Swiss halberdier assault. Our heavy cavalry cross the bridge, but the French manage to retreat in order.

Unbeknownst to them, the way back to Swabia had been cut off by Orekh Kuz’s forces moving in from Franconia. A lone French gang of 3 knights tried to hold on to their last province but was easily massacred by our forces. With nowhere to go, the French King surrenders and is executed. His nation is finished.

Poland also suffers serious losses. Simultaneous attacks forces them to abandon Brandenburg, Silesia and Pomerania. Only Prussia survives our attacks, and becomes their last stronghold in central Europe (they also hold Sweden). Pushed from Brandenburg and Silesia, the Polish King finds himself forced to enter Saxony, where our Prince Sancho was besieging the Germans. Wanting to avoid his elder brother’s fate, and faced with long odds, Sancho abandons the province to the Poles. Somehow, the province reverts to Germany however And the Polish King finds himself forced to pay ransom to the Germans in order to make it back to his province of Prussia. [the only way I found that is that the next year the Polish army showed up in Prussia ransomed But since we did not collect the ransom, the Germans must have]
On the German front, Prince Enrique invades Lorraine, the last loyal province in the empire. The enemy put up a token fight and are beaten [auto-calc]. Somehow, the German emperor manages to come up with his ransom and he reappears in Saxony, recently liberated by the Polish. He must have paid his ransom from the one he collected on King Casimir I of Poland.



1279

But the Emperor’s new freedom was short lived, for early the next year, general Stepanov invades Saxony and captures it. The German King dies defending the bridge to his last province and his empire dies with him.

In the south, we counterattack in Serbia and relieve Zara castle, after sinking the papal fleet in the Adriatic. We also send relief forces to Genoa and invade Tuscany, which the pope abandons.. However, the pope had also reinforced Genoa and we are forced to call off the attack.
The next year, however, forces pour into Genoa and the papacy is beaten back. The new southen border of the Spanish realm becomes Tuscany and Venice.

1280-81

The last years of King Pedro’s reign were spent in quiet contemplation. The sieges of the last German holdings in Europe were winding down, while the papacy continued to be a minor irritant in Italy, sending forces into Tuscany and Venice only to retreat when confronted.

The King was starting to feel weak, and he lost interest in the fighting. He ordered that the borders of his Kingdom be set and to leave any expansion to his successor. He designated Georgia, Moldavia, Poland, Pomerania and Saxony as the eastern and northern borders, while Tuscany and Venice where the southern border provinces.

His last year was spent inside Toledo castle, which had achieved the level of Fortress a few years before. It was unique in that respect in all Europe. And the King knew that most Europe lay at his feet. With a treasury of 236,823 florins, it would be only a matter of time before his young son, Sancho, conquered the rest.

And there ends our story.

Afrit

Tricky Lady
07-06-2004, 16:50
Quote[/b] (afrit @ July 06 2004,05:42)]NightCrawlerblue Alfonso VI 1087-1106
Tricky Lady Alfonso VII 1107-1130
Nightcrawlerblue Garc I 1131-1165
Tricky Lady - Enrique I, 1166-1213
Nightcrawler blue ??? 1213-1223
Trickly Lady Garc II 1224-1243
afrit Pedro I 1243-1282
Just a small correction.

The reign of King Garc I was played by Chimpyang IIRC.

An excellent write-up by the way. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-thumbsup.gif
I would love to see some screenshots, but don't feel obliged to put screenies on-line.

nightcrawlerblue
07-06-2004, 19:31
I'm gone for a week with an illness and you let another guy join the PBEM? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif

Good http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif Nice to have another ruler with us. Welcome afrit.

So Chimpyang do you have your copy of MTW back yet?

Blodrast
07-06-2004, 19:31
yup, very nicely written indeed http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

afrit
07-07-2004, 19:08
Quote[/b] (Tricky Lady @ July 06 2004,10:50)] An excellent write-up by the way. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-thumbsup.gif
I would love to see some screenshots, but don't feel obliged to put screenies on-line.
Glad you (and Blodrast) liked it. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-blush.gif

It took almost as much time to write it up as to play the game In truth, I enjoyed the writeup as much as the game itself (and I suspect that is true of many PBMers).

I am working on getting some screenshots reformatted into JPEGs. I haven't figured out how I can put them inside the text yet. Something to do with external references to other web sites http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif ...

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/medievalcheers.gif

Afrit

nightcrawlerblue
07-12-2004, 18:55
I fear this PBEM is slowly dying... Anyone even remember who's up (damn I hope it wasn't me)? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-confused.gif

Tricky Lady
07-12-2004, 20:04
Chimpyang's up, but he posted that he doesn't have his MTW1.1 disk for the moment. So this means...

...you are up

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-grin2.gif

afrit
07-13-2004, 00:44
nightcrawlerblue,

with the situation the PBM is in (200K in the bank, 90% of map conquered, 28 year old King) I think you can finish it in one reign http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ceasaryes.gif

I say go conquer the world http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ht_charge.gif and let's compile all the writeups in one post or thread.

or you can engineer rebellions and make it interesting again...

afrit