I advanced inland from Satara to Hyderabad in India...

**Megas Methuselah** · 11-02-2009, 02:11

...And lost more than 5000 Moroccan soldiers and auxiliary troops in the fight to capture the Maratha city of Hyderabad in a series of two battles. Our empires had been at war for some time now, and I sent massive expeditionary forces to Maratha India and the Middle-East in retaliation to their previous invasions of Muslim Europe. And so, over time, it came to be that I had 4 full stacks in India that had conquered Satara and the province directly north to it, and sent two of those stacks east with the intention of "liberating" Hyderabad.

At first, the Marathas intercepted my two advancing stacks. They had two stacks near the city and a third hidden in a forest, equalling roughly 14000 troops. For my part, my two stacks, consisting of Moroccan Nizam and artillery regulars and various auxiliaries, including Native African Line Infantry, Moroccan Desert Warriors & Deli Horsemen, and European (Iberian, to be specific) Provincial Line Infantry & Cavalry, totalled up to a bit over 10'000 soldiers. Outnumbered, I fought defensively to hold my ground. The game told me I won a Pyrhicc Victory, losing over 4000 soldiers, against the Maratha loss of over 8000.

Entire units of my soldiers were wiped out in that Battle of the Titans, and I was quite relieved at the fact that I managed to win at all. During the battle, the ground shifted so much as units routed and reinforcements newly entered the fray, that the corpses were, quite literally, scattered across the entire battlefield.

That very same turn, scared that the Marathas might bring in a full stack from the next province over, I decided to attack Hyderabad itself rather than fall back and lick my extensive wounds. Luckily for me, I wasn't outnumbered this time; in the previous battle, I had driven the remnants of a stack entirely out of the area, and so the armed city mobs who joined the fight only brought the enemy's depleted numbers to 4000 men (against my battered and bloodied 6000 troops

). Being more skilled at attacking than defending, I was able to almost completely wipe out the enemy, losing only 1000 brave soldiers in the process.

In conclusion, over 16'000 men died in the fight for Hyderabad. My victory ensured that the 5000 deaths amongst my own forces was not in vain. The main Maratha army fled in shambles, whilst I occupied one of the confederacy's most important cities. New offensives are planned as two entire stacks are brought over to the Indian theatre from Morocco and Spain.