Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns

[Grog]

Baraka stood at the south gate of Iconium at twilight, watching the storm clouds gathering over the mountains in the distance. The town behind him bustled with evening activity, and dotted lights began to show across the plain as the farmers and herdsmen turned in for the day.

His eyes were drawn to a figure on horseback galloping towards him on the packed earth road, plumes of dust catching the last of the light. The rider slowed the horse gradually to a trot and finally a walk as he approached Baraka.

The black horse was of finest Vardiotori stock; strong and fiery, yet disciplined. The rider was more of an enigma. The strong frame and cold blue eyes of a northman were broiled lean and scorched by years of desert sun, laced with the scars of a thousand battles. He was clad a mix of old ragged chainmail and bedouin robes. A battered western longsword hung at his belt and a fine horsebow, with a bristling quiver of steel tipped arrows hung at the pommel.

The rider paused briefly to scratch at his second recently healed decapitation scar, then dismounted with the fluid ease of a horsemaster and approached Baraka.

General Grog smiled and taking the startled Iman gently by the arm, turned and began to lead him towards Sultan Jalal's palace.

"Come, old friend. We have much work to do..."

Turkey 106 province Jihad

M2TW vanilla 1.3, VH/VH.

-No allies
-No active diplomacy
-No console
-No Quarter
-Sack/Ransom everywhere
-Massive multiple Jihad armies

Jihad 1: "The search for Antioch" Turns 1-6:

Empire report, turn 1:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 4 provinces.

Baraka calls a jihad on the fabled Lost city of Antioch.

Jalal joins the Jihad, and recruiting some mercs sets out towards Constantinople, to see if the
Byzantines know anything.

Salih joins the Jihad at Mosul and attacks Baghdad.

Other generals rest/position to form stacks for turn 2. Recruitment maxxed.

Empire report, turn 2:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 6 provinces.

Jalal gets a lucky garrison draw at Nicaea attacking the standing army, enabling a walk in, then a quick merc cog hop to siege constantinople.

Salih takes Baghdad then heads east across the desert.

Mustafa forms up in iconoium/caesora area and joins jihad, heads east.

Selim forms up, joins Jihad, sieges tbsili.

Empire report, turn 3:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 9 provinces.

Holy Night-fighting faction leader autoresolve, Batman!


Funding for Jihad 2 is secured:


Constantinople made capital.

New general Caatay is spawned on Byzantines standing army near Constantinople. Takes the army east.

Jalal heads up solo on the merc cog, grabs the big merc pool and rolls Bucharest. Makes a castle. heads to Bran.

Salih nears aleppo.

Mustafa nears Smyrna

Tbilisi falls, Selim heads North into the steppes.

Empire report, turn 4:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 9 provinces

Jalal sieges Bran.

Mustafa sieges Smryna.

Qansawh spawns off Byzantine army and sieges Thessolonica

Caatay adopts Kujuk, sieges Corinth

Salih sieges aleppo.

Selim nears Sarkel.

Mehmed spawns Iconium, gather garrison+merc, joins jihad.

Empire report, turn 5:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 15 provinces

Jalal takes Bran, heads NW to Budapest (Hungary stack in south pass cannot reach Bran atm)

Mustafa takes smryna then sails west.

Caatay and Kujuk take Corinth, then smash into the Venice standing army outside Iraklion, drawing and butchering the garrison to walk in ie:


Salamish takes thessalonica, heads for durazzo.

Selim sieges Sarkel.

Salih takes aleppo, discovers the Lost city of Antioch(!) and sieges it.

Mehmed sieges adana.

Note ships sailing blindly into Fog of war crammed with armies

Empire report, turn 6:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 19 provinces.

Jalal sieges Budapest.

Selim takes Sarkel, heads north to Bulgar.

Salamish+ Qansawh merge, take Durazzo, make castle, then sail acoss and siege Naples.

Mustafa camps on the western tip of sicily near palermo (couldnt quite reach..)

Caatay beaches east of tripoli (no mercs grrr..)

Mehmed takes adana, sails to acre, sieges.

Salih takes Antioch, ending Jihad 1:


Salih then heads north to rendevous with captain led stacks trained in baghdada/mosul last few turns, then take edessa.

New general at constantinople.

More to follow...

[Grog]

The expansionist years, turns 7-15.

Sultan Jalal sat on a slight rise south of Budapest, surveying the siege preperations. His entire army of hired swords was spread before him. They were willing to fight for free under the Jihad, but now Antioch had fallen, could he rely on their loyalty? Could he push them forward under the promises of plunder and looting, tales of rich european cities ripe for the harvest?

He remembered the words of Baraka, on that fateful night years ago in Iconium...

"Fly north Jalal, true as an arrow and crush all before you until you reach the icy seas.."

With a small shiver at the chill of this Hungarian winter, he turned and began to bark orders at his men..

Empire report, turn 7:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 23 provinces

Jalal takes budapest. Hungary destroyed.


Jalals HA attack rebels north of Budapest. Qilich spawns, and heads west towards vienna, recruiting mercs. Jalal continues northwards into the pass.

Mustafa and Qansawh siege palermo.

Salamish sieges Rome.

Caatay/Kujuk siege Tripoli (could only reach with horse, inf on boat to push in turn8)

Salih approaches Edessa, Kitbuga spawns from Captain HA stack attacking rebels NW Mosul, Curves towards Edessa. Capt Lajin follows with Baghdad militia.

Mehemed takes Acre then sails NW and smashes standing army at Nicosia, getting a walkin and finishing byzantines.


Selim trudges north towards Bulgar...

New generals finishing forming up at constantinople last turn. Uthman now attacks Sofia with a milita/merc stack. Malik heads W from constantinople.

Empire report, turn 8:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 27 provinces

Jalal nears Krakow.

Qilich sieges Vienna.

Salamish takes Rome and marches on Florence

Qansawh and Mustafa take Palermo, Siciliy destroyed:


Qansawh grabs all the horse and ships west to begin the long dusty trek to timbuktu. (see turn 8 end screenshot to survey his mighty army!)

Mustafa takes the Infantry and sails for cagliari.

Caatay/kujuk take Tripoli then sail NW for Tunis.

Mehmed sails for Alexandria.

Salih and kitbuga siege Edessa. (lajin near to the E)

Selim still marches north to Bulgar, grabs 1 pitiful horse merc.

Sofia falls, Uthnam heads NW. Malik remains to gather troops.

Building in Tbilisi/yerevan to conquer local rebels then march on Trebizond.

Empire report, turn 9:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 29 provinces

Jalal sieges krakow.

Qilich takes Vienna, heads Northwest.

Selim nears Bulgar(....)

Edessa falls, armies move southwards to begin working down through the Levant towards Egypt.

Mehmed lands at Alexandria and attacks.

Qansawh beaches east of Algiers.

Mustafa sieges Cagliari.

Caatay/Kujuk siege Tunis (again horse only just reach from the ship...)

Salamish sieges Florence.

Malik heads NE from Sofia.

Uthman and HA head W to Zagreb.

2 new generals (suleymen/tutush) head North from Constantinople to rendezvous with Malik around bucharest-ish.

Capt Orhan leaves yerevan after defeat rebels (no general spawn grr, too close), heads west to trebizond.

Empire report, turn 10:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 34 provinces.

Jalal takes Krakow, heads North.

Qilich diverts from prague approach to spawn Berke off a HRE stack.

Uthman still heading for Zagreb.

Salamish takes florence and lands near genoa by cog.

Mustafa takes Cagliari, sails for Marseille.

Caatay/kujuk take tunis, sail for Algiers.

Mehmed takes Alexandria, sieges Cario. Deyra spawns off loose Egyptian stack but misses knock in

Kitbuga/Salih siege Damascus.

Capt. orhan heads for Trebziond.

Shaban spawns constantinople. heads east on Cog with 2 militia to rendevous at trebizond.

Malik nears Bucharest (suleyman/Tutush close)

Qansawh passes Algiers, dumps cog and heads south into desert.

Selim sieges Bulgar (finally....)

Empire report, turn 11:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 37 provinces.

Jalal nears Thorn, faraj is adopted at Krakow and follows Jalal solo to try Goad fat HRE garrison at Breslau.

Qilich sieges Nuremburg.

Berke heads NW above nuremburg to frankfurt border, grabs all frankfurt mercs.

Salamish pushed out of genoa last AI moves by tough Milan roamers (I just withdrew to hills west luckily), so heads west to join with mustafa on marseille siege.

Qansawh trudges south through the mountainous desert. much dust. many flies.

Caatay/kujuk near algiers in a leaky Cog.

Uthman nears Zagreb

Selim takes bulgar then heads west.

Shaban nears trebizond, Capt orhan sieges.

Damascus falls, Salih/Kitbuga head for Jerusalem

Tatar spawns from corinth rebels, heads North.

Mehmed takes Cairo with Derya. Derya takes horse stack on road to Dongola. Mehmed stays to gather troops/possibly repel Egypt at bridge.

Malik/suleyman/Tutush head for Iasi.

Empire report, turn 12:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 41

Jalal/faraj siege Thorn (HRE didnt take the bait)

Berke sends his infantry SW, and moves north with HA towards Hamburg 'merc hunting'

Qilich takes Nuremburg, then heads west to merge with Berkes merc inf. Then Qilich heads SW towards Staufen.

Mustafa/Salamish take Marseille, then head for Toulouse via cog hop.

Qansawh heads south to Timbuktu.

Derya heads South to Dongola.

Kitbuga/Salih siege Jerusalem (Kitbuga destroys Egpyt army with HA rush, but misses knock in.)

Malik/Suleyman/Tutush siege Iasi.

snap HA army trained at Palermo incase the moors attack Cagliari (they have landed here, not sieged yet)

Selim trudges westward.

Trebizond falls, Shaban sails NW.

Tatar heads N to Thessolonica.

Uthman takes Zagreb, makes castle. Heads NW to venice border.

Caatay/kujuk siege Algiers.

Flroins 'a little bit scarce' now....

Empire report, turn 13:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 45 provinces, Long Victory.


Jalal take Thorn and heads N, undecided between Russia/Europe atm so hedging my bets.

Qilich nears Staufen.

Berke camps on Hamburg/Arhus border, 5 mercs.

Selim trudges west..

Shaban nears Caffa.

Malik/tutush HA stack leaves IASI NW, Suleyman follows with Inf.

Derya, recruits 3 tribesmen at Dongola and sieges.

Jerusalem falls, Kitbuga rushes Gaza with HA stack, Salih follow with Inf.

Qansawh heads south...

Algiers falls, caatay/kujuk sail west.

Uthman defeats venice army, nears Venice.

Tatar nears Durazzo.

HA capt ships palermo-cagliari to break Moors siege, no general spawn (boo! hiss!)

Mustafa/salamish siege Toulouse.

Skint now, as starting prep for Jihad 2 as well as all the stuff last few turns...

Empire report, turn 14:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 49 provinces.

Jalal/faraj head west to Stettin.

Berke splits army and lauches joint sieges against hamburg and Arhus. (no sign of any dane army)

Qilich sieges staufen.

Uthman sieges venice.

Tatar at durazzo.

Malik/Suleyman/Tutush approach halych with infantry. HA split off and spawn Ali off loose poles.

Selim trudges west.

caffa falls, shaban sails N.

Toulouse falls, Mustafa/salamish head N.

Caatay/Kujuk siege granada.

Qansawh trudges south...

Dongola falls, derya heads east.

Gaza falls.

Much logistics throughout the empire for Jihad 2...

Empire report, turn 15:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 54 provinces

Jalal/faraj siege Stettin.

Hamburg and Arhus fall. Berke recombines army. Danes destroyed.


Qilich takes Staufen, sieges metz.

Uthnam takes Venice, sieges Milan.

Tatar sieges Ragusa.

derya heads east across desert.

qansawh heads south to timbuktu still.

Shaban heads North.

Selim nears Ryazan.

Mustafa/salamish siege Bordeaux.

Caatay/Kujuk spawn cerrah, take Granada, sail W for marrakesh.

Halych is sieged by Malik and Co.

mehemd/Fadlullah/Salih/Kitbuga/Nuzket position for Jihad 2.

more to follow...

[Grog]

Jihad 2: The fall of Europe and Russia.

Empire report, turn 16:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 59 provinces

Jihad 2 is called vs Novgorod, all active stacks join:


Jalal/faraj take stettin, siege Madgeburg.

Berke sieges oslo (had to sell baghdad racetrack to pay for the cog )

Halych falls, ali/atilla/mailk/suleyman head north.

Ragusa falls. Tatar ships NW past Venice.

Uthnam sieges Genoa.

Bordeaux falls, mustafa/salamish siege Angers.

Metz falls. qilich sieges rheims.

qansawh nears timbuktu.

Derya heads east.

Selim sieges ryazan.

Abi/fadlullah leave constantinople.

Salih/kitbuga/nuzhet leave egypt by boat and siege Rhodes.

Mehmed/fadlullah sail west.

stack splits: cerrah rents cog and sails south to siege marrakesh, caatay/kujuk sail N and siege lisbon.

Shaban sieges Kiev.

Empire report, turn 17:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total:70 provinces

Jalal/faraj take Magdeburg, siege Prague

Berke takes Oslo, sail for Inverness.

Qilich takes Rheims, sieges Antwerp.

Angers falls. New genral killiij is spawned on loose rebels, sieges rennes.

Mustafa/salamish sail for Ireland, stopping in cornwall for mercs.

Qansawh sieges timbuktu.

Derya takes Jedda, makes castle.

Hajii sails NW to near Iraklion.

Rhodes falls, Salih and co beach west of Corinth.

Genoa falls, Uthman sieges Milan.

Tatar sieges Innsbruck.

Abi/fadullah full stack heads NW to Budapest.

Kiev falls, shaban heads NW.

Ryazan falls, Selim sieges Moscow.

Ali/atilla/malik/suleyman ship from north thorn to stockholm.

Mehemed/fadullah ship to the south of Palermo.

lisbon falls, stack splits. kujuk sieges Cordoba, caatay heads for leon.

Cerrah takes marrakesh, then sails up to rendevous with Kujuk.

Shaban sieges Smolensk.

Tick tock....

Empire report, turn 18:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 80 provinces

Jalal takes prague. sieges breslau.

Berke sieges Inverness.

Mustafa lands near edinburgh after taking Dublin.

Qlilich and co take Antwerp then siege Paris.

Kilij/khali(new) takes rennes, then siege Caen.

Uthman/tatar form up and head for bern once they win at innsbruck/milan.

Selim heads for Novgorod.

Ali/malik and co take stockholm, make castle, sail helsinki.

Shaban siges smolensk.

Qansawh takes timbuktu (4 tribesmen recruited), heads for Arguin.

cerrah/kujuk Take cordoba, head for Toledo.

Caatay sieges Leon.

mehmed and fadlullah camp on cagliari, heading for spain.

Khushqadam is spawned in italy, gathers up a garrison stack to take ajaccio.

Salih and co stack sails to just north of Ragusa.

hajji makes corinth.

HA leave toulouse for spain under capt.

Empire report, turn 19:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total:86 provinces

Jalal takes breslau, moves NE.

Ali/attilla siege helsinki alone. malik/suleyman + troops split down and siege Riga. low on troops so need 2 turn sieges on both of these to build..

Selim destroys Russian army, positions near Novgorod.

Shaban takes smolensk, heads for novgorod.

uthman/tatar siege bern.

Berke takes Inverness, sieges edinburgh. Mustafa joins him after smashing some scots.

Qilich and co take Paris siege Bruges.

Qansawh heads for arguin.

Cerrah/Kujuk siege Toledo.

Caatay nears pamplona.

Mehmed and co land south of valencia.

Salih and co siege Bologna.

Abi split and merge NW to frankfurt.

Fadlullah follows with inf.

Derya leaves Gaza.

Empire report, turn 20:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total: 94 provinces

Jalal sieges Vilinus.

Shaban sieges Novgorod. (selim takes split to help at helsinki)

Malik and co maintain siege on Riga (capt reinforcements arriving from thorn)

Abi smashes HRE standing army and sieges Frankfurt.

Berke takes Edinburgh, split half the army to siege caervanon.

mustafa takes the HA, ships down and rushes York village (makes castle), then ships to notts.

khalil and co win at bruges then hop the channel and dual attack london/nottingham. (Qilich takes the London siege)

Caatay sieges pamplona.

cerrah/kujuk take toledo, then siege Zaragoza.

qansawh nears Arguin.

Bologna falls.

Ajaccio falls.

Empire report, turn 21:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Total:106 provinces

Arguin, valencia, zaragoza, pamplona, caervanon, nottingham, london, frankfurt, riga, Vilinus, helsinki all fall this turn.

Novgorod sallied AI moves turn 20 (my only AI sally ) which denied me my Jihad 2 "win" screen, but gave me a nice consolation victory:


So there ya go, 106 provinces in 21 turns

Off to bed now, will neaten this up later

[Kadagar_AV]

It became very green very fast...

[Monk]

The record is set, no one is gonna break that one. Well done Grog!

[El Diablo]

..............and CHECKMATE.

Congratulations. That is very impressive.

[Ratwar]

All hail the true blitz master!

[Chaotix]

Awesome. I wonder if anybody will ever be able to top that. Is it technically impossible to conquer all 106 provinces in less than 21 turns? ATPG thought it couldn't be done before turn 22... maybe the best you can do to this record is match it.

[Monk]

Awesome. I wonder if anybody will ever be able to top that. Is it technically impossible to conquer all 106 provinces in less than 21 turns? ATPG thought it couldn't be done before turn 22... maybe the best you can do to this record is match it.

I believe 21 is the fastest you are humanly possible to achieve without using cheats of some sort to reset movement. So it's very possible this record will stand for good. I'm sure lots of people will tie it, just to say they did, and even try to beat it. But 106/20 turns just doesn't seem possible, even by the crazy standards Grog and ATPG have set.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I'm not going to bother challenging this one for a while. I have too much stuff on my plate.

You've earned it Grog. Enjoy it!

[Martok]

Dang, that's some crazy blitzing, Grog. Congratulations!

[TheDruid]

lol yesterday i was searching for ATPG's posts about the turks blitz.
couldnt find it though.
anyway : how can you go to constantinople and others in jihad for antioch??
Dont those mercenaries rebel?
and how do you keep those cities calm ?
oh and grats

[Grog]

I believe 21 is the fastest you are humanly possible to achieve without using cheats of some sort to reset movement. So it's very possible this record will stand for good. I'm sure lots of people will tie it, just to say they did, and even try to beat it. But 106/20 turns just doesn't seem possible, even by the crazy standards Grog and ATPG have set.

Personally, I think 20 turns is possible with the Turks once you understand and eliminate some of the early logistical problems. However, you'll probably need a fair bit of varied 'Blitz' experience under your belt to see the problems before it's too late In the above account, I only really detailed my generals movements. I don't really go into the 'estimated near future sacking income vs turn+5 deployments/training' theories/overlaps etc etc, or I'd still be typing away furiously on turn 12...

I made quite a few mistakes in the above run, but 'replaying' turns isn't really viable when you can be making ~200+ seperate decisions/turn. Besides, a fair deal of luck and gambling on 'what will the AI do?' and constant readjustment of a multi-tiered loose strategy always plays its part

Also a lot of efficiency could be gained through playing more battles. I tend to AR if I have 3:2+ odds and manually play if odds are less, or I see the AR result as too costly. I would estimate 80% of my battles were 3:2+ in my favour, although I do tend to devastate the AI open field with HA/generals at every opportunity that presents itself, which leads to good odds in sieges.

Another area to explore would be initial positioning/objectives and overall Jihad structure. All I am going to hint at is this: What do Rebels do?

Anyway, challengers are most welcome. I won't be posting another vanilla Blitz run until ATPG or another equals/crushes this run

[Grog]

lol yesterday i was searching for ATPG's posts about the turks blitz.
couldnt find it though.
anyway : how can you go to constantinople and others in jihad for antioch??
Dont those mercenaries rebel?
and how do you keep those cities calm ?
oh and grats

You can move any direction for the first 10 turns of any Jihad, just leave/join once each turn with each general led stack. After 10 turns you lose troops etc.

Mercs don't rebel, as they are only recruited into general-led stacks. Use captains to attack AI stacks open field to spawn more generals.

Cities are kept calm in a number of ways.

If it is a small city, smash it in and convert to motte+bailey. leave it empty or with heavily depleted unit. Build barracks next turn. Make peasant next Turn. job done, it won't rebel in the 2 turns before your peasant garrison is made.

For larger cities that you cannot convert to castles:
Sack, repair, build church/mosque. All troops leave city, general leaves crusade. Move 1 unit back into city. rejoin crusade/jihad. 90% of these won't rebel, and city is usually under control/garrison available before holy disbanded troops rebel. Don't be afraid to leave castles empty. Also, generally doesnt matter if stuff does rebel as its more sacking income for wave 2/3. riots everywhere are fairly commonplace, overall glory bonus from unbrideled blitzing usually stops outright rebellions..

[Kadagar_AV]

Why the turks though?

Wouldnt hungary or HRE have a better starting position? Even the Bys?

[phonicsmonkey]

Why the turks though?

Wouldnt hungary or HRE have a better starting position? Even the Bys?

The success of this uber-blitz strategy depends on the exploiting of the jihad / crusade mechanic in the way that Grog describes above. The sooner you can jihad / crusade, and therefore spend ten turns expanding in all directions with free troops, the quicker your time will be.

Only the Islamic factions can call a jihad / crusade on turn one.

Turkey is the best placed of the three, according to current blitz theory...

EDIT: And congratulations Grog! A frightening display of super-efficient blitzing. Still more terrifying is your claim that you could have been 'more efficient'. Chilling indeed...

[Kadagar_AV]

Ah, thanks for the clarification, that makes sence indeed:)

Still more terrifying is your claim that you could have been 'more efficient'. Chilling indeed...

I think he left that in to mess with the other OCD-characters on these boards...

[cambovenzi]

not a big fan of blitzing.
but that is pretty sick.
game over in 21 turns.

[TheDruid]

ok thx. :) now i finally got the crusades thing :P

[Proserpine]

I have a question, in 2 parts for Grog & other uber-blitzers. What's the current record for a crusading (i.e. catholic) faction. Would it be possible to do, say, the Danes in 21 turns do you think?

[Anonymous II]

So now I know there are more castles than cities in this game.
I wouldn't actually have thought that.

[Galain_Ironhide]

Congrats Grog

[Askthepizzaguy]

At some point, I will do this in 20 turns.

ATPG will return...

[Grog]

I have a question, in 2 parts for Grog & other uber-blitzers. What's the current record for a crusading (i.e. catholic) faction. Would it be possible to do, say, the Danes in 21 turns do you think?

ATPG holds the current record for catholic factions with HRE at 28 turns. I think he started crusade around turn3?. ie: 1-2 build/sack, 3-8 crusade1, 9-17 expand, 18-28 crusade2 iirc?

The danes would struggle compared to say HRE, due to two main reasons.
1/ Starting provinces and location: 1 province in the north compared to a central 6 for HRE. The Danes also have less florins/income/standing armies/generals at the start.

2/ I don't know if Danes get a starting diplomat/princess (or townhall...), but if they do it's still a good 5-6 turns from Arhus to Rome before you can call a crusade.

Given these two factors, I would probably put the danes low-mid thirties turnwise for a 106 province total blitz. Feel free to prove me wrong

[Grog]

At some point, I will do this in 20 turns.

ATPG will return...

Please do! please do!

This Throne of Enemy Skulls is uncomfortable to sit on, and the underground volcano base is draughty at night. The monorail contractors are being a pain, despite numerous beheadings, and I don't really want to change my Ginger Tom for a white Persian.

Also, dealing with a constant stream of british '00' agents in new and inventive ways is becoming tiresome..

[Marauder]

Can anyone get me sharks with friggin' laser beams??!?!?

Congratz on 21 turns, 20 turns seems pretty tough. Do you think there was that much slack in your play? A few more "Man of the Hour"s? If you never auto-resolved and tried to save your units to keep up strength, you might have a few more units at the end.

On the nerdy side, someone could do a great graph theory project on this. The roads provide the connections and each city is a node... I'm sure someone could calculate the minimum number of turns to dispatch an army to every city, of course you'd have to win the battles....

[KingKnudthebloodthirsty]

Are you blitzing guys tactical genius? cuz in order to speed acrooss the map, there is no time to wait for reinforcements and mercs could only do so much. so with so little troops spread out in a vast area, i doubt autocalc would be reliable.

[Abokasee]

Heres what I would like to see a blitzs of: Portugal and France

[LegendofTotalWar]

I know this is an old thread, but I have beaten this record. I did it in 14 turns.

[Chaotix]

I know this is an old thread, but I have beaten this record. I did it in 14 turns.

Wow, super-necropost there.

This is one of Grog's earlier runs. He later managed to do a 16-turn blitz, I believe. That was his best record.