Speaking of satisfying moments, I had a real nail-biter last night in
Axalon's Redux Mod.
I'm playing the Germans for the 1st time - normally I prefer a faction that starts somewhere isolated or near chokepoints, so I can turtle for a while after initial expansion until I've developed some infrastructure/tech. Not in this game, surrounded by way too many factions.
At any rate, after a few decades of opening play, no more rebel provinces are around in my neighborhood and tensions are rising. The Norse open hostilities by sinking one of my ships, followed by an invasion of Pomerania. My garrison there is too weak, I withdraw and abandon the province temporarily. After shifting forces and reorganizing, I kick them out of Pomerania, then move on Denmark for revenge. The AI retreats from Denmark, then retreats from Sweeden, and is left with only Norway. But it's packed full of elite Norse units, almost all with high combat stats and elevated morale/valor.
But their Highking (who's in command) is only a 2-star General, while mine is 6-star. So while my units are somewhat inferior to the Norse, and my army (18 units totaling 1080 troops) is slightly smaller than theirs (21 units adding up to 1260 troops), I gamble on the extra command proving decisive. I have a big advantage in missile troops, but the map favors the melee defender - full of heavily wooded hills. I'm having 2nd thoughts on all this, but the AI has deployed at the fairly flat top of a hill that has one clear slope, one that starts out steep but shallows near the top. I'm hoping to get near the shallow incline, and shoot up any AI troops that exit the woods to attack.
Things go just as planned at first - the first two units that attack piecemeal (a Norse Spearmen and a Norse Swordmen) are almost destroyed by crossbow bolts and rout (only to rally later). I move closer to the treeline, and hope to provoke other units to attack by shooting at them. Multiple Norse units emerge, and a fierce melee develops on my left flank, but no general engagement. So I'm able to outnumber and flank those units on the left, meanwhile feeding defenders one by one into the fray as more enemy units attack. Finally all my units are involved in combat, except to two of the four crossbowmen (one's chopped up to a remnant and routed, the other is stuck in melee), an Irish Kern I'd been saving, and my Imperial Knight (10 men) General's bodyguard. Out from the forest emerges the Highking's Norse Bodyguard (base stats of 5/8/5/5/10 chg/melee/def/arm/morale - 20 men) - one very tough cookie. As the enemy General approaches, I note that one of my formerly 60-man Frankish Spearmen (now down to 17 men) is standing around, having defeated their Norse opponent. So I send them to intercept the Highking, and take the initial shock of the charge, while positioning the Kerns and my General to flank. Meanwhile, the rest of my line is close to breaking, only my swordsmen (with their higher morale) still holding - several units on both sides have already routed.
The two available Crossbows (depleted down to less than 30-men each) fire on the Highking as he gets closer. They only get a couple of volleys off before the Frankish Spearmen make contact (and immediately start losing badly), so the missile attrition isn't much. That is, until the Kerns launch a volley from behind, and drop 30% of the bodyguard. Then my General hits, gets a good charge in, and takes them down to about half. But as they settle into melee, the Frankish Spearmen break and run, so now the Norse Bodyguard are chasing them rapidly - presenting a poor target for the javelins. And my Imperial Knights are dropping fast, what with the uber stats and armor-piercing abilities of these Norse.
The Highking's bodyguard is whittled down to one man, the Kerns are out of javelins, and my Knights are down to four men, when a victorious Norse Axemen unit emerges from the general melee and moves to save his King. In a desperate move to stave off disaster, I sacrifice the Kerns to delay the enemy rescuer, hoping to kill the King before it is too late. In a gamble to execute the Norse monarch, I turn the Crossbowmen's fire back onto the enemy leader (I'd turned them off that target when my General got involved with him). The Kerns were being chewed up rapidly, my line was wavering, my General was down to only a few men, and that darned Highking wouldn't go down. The tension was incredible ... then it happened - someone got the critical hit in (my leader or the missiles, I still don't know which) and the enemy leader fell dead.
Several Norse units broke at that point, others were off chasing my routers, so my General and Crossbowmen attacked any enemy close by - luckily the Norse morale was very low and they shattered readily. By then another remnant crossbow unit (16 men) rallied and rejoined my severely diminished forces. But I had no melee unit other than my General (4 men) to face the Norse remnants and reinforcements soon to arrive. So I ordered in my only reinforcements (2 units: a light Halbardier (40 men) and a Light Cavalry (40 men also), withdrew to the nearest clear hillside, and waited. A few small and fatigued enemy units showed up while I waited, and were sent packing by concentrated volleys from the Crossbowmen. My small band rested on that hillside until the reinforcements arrived, meanwhile we could see new enemy forces marshalling in the woods across the valley. With two fatigue bars restored, my small band cautiously marched in the clear areas, seeking enemy resistance.
We found two Norse Bodyguard units, one at 9 men, the other at 7, parked near one map edge. As we approached within missile range, they took off towards the reinforcement map edge. We gave chase, shooting whenever possible, until they stopped where a unit of spearmen joined them. My units were still uphill, and focused on the bodyguards until they broke under fire, taking the spearmen with them. Then all that was left were three units of peasant reinforcements, which didn't offer much in the way of resistance. The Light Halbardiers and Cavalry drove them off after a little melee. As we moved to follow the routers, the message "
the enemy flees the field" was displayed and the ordeal was finally over.
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Casualties were horrendous - I lost more men that the Norse, and their survivors would have outnumbered my remaining forces by 3 to 1 if the fortification had been larger. Thank goodness all those extra enemy men, who wouldn't fit in the Fort, were lost.
I haven't had such a roller-coaster ride in MTW in a long, long time. I'd like to thank Axalon for a great mod, one that's made my favorite game even better.
Cheers all - enjoy!
Archived: Redux adventures (2nd ED)
Originally Posted by Geezer57
Speaking of satisfying moments, I had a real nail-biter last night in Axalon's Redux Mod.
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