most satisfying MTW moments

[sbreden]

How satisfying is it when an enemy faction gets out of line by sinking s ship or assasinating one of your generals and you retaliate by sinking all of his shipping and taking multiple provinces from him in your very next turn

What are some of your most savored MTW moments?

[Heraclius]

I guess one of my earliest Byzantine campaigns was my greatest moment. Due to my utter and complete incomptence I lost Asia Minor in two or three years but pushed back and completely destroyed the Turks by 1215. It was great. I spared noone or nothing in my revenge. then I realized that i had destroyed the richest provinces in the game etc but that's a story for later http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Basileus]

I felt real good after i kicked some naughty butts as poland..i took over evrything preety quick on expert had almost the entire map when evrything went to hell hehe well untill that point i was satisfyed i guess http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Satyr]

My most satisfying battle lately was one where the Germans and French both attacked me at the same time. Both came in with more troops of approximately equal quality as mine. I routed the French fairly easily but then broke off the chase to confront the oncoming Germans. The French retrenched and hit my backside pretty hard. I was down to 2 companies of billmen who were not quite holding their own when some of my troops finally rallied. I finally managed to finish routing the French and the Germans with about 40 troops left out of about 600. Very good battle. Not one of my best, but that I pulled it out after being surprised and flanked is what made it so memorable. This was after applying the Wes mod that has added new life into the game for me.

[Crimson Castle]

It usually involved a moment when my smaller army defeated a larger better equiped one.

Playing the English I used the static spearman/ defending archer defense and knocked back a big royal knight army.

However, I found that you have to order your spearmen to HOLD POSITION otherwise they get too excited and run off by themselves and do a 1066 (see Battle of Hasting).

[kataphraktoi]

Discovering why I kept getting wiped by thr Turks and falling into debt, the day I discovered why was the day the Turks trembled before the hooves of my army.

No more one last stand on my last province in Rhodes.

No more overstretched empire with little or no money.

[Brutal DLX]

Personally, I get extreme joy out of killing any high star enemy general, especially when I see that faction has way too many of those, like the Almohads, Byzantine or Spanish.
It's no fun facing them early when all you have is a 3 or 4 star guy.. especially at the harder difficulty levels.

[Houston]

Finally playing online. It is quite satisfying to lose to a human compared to crushing the AI on expert.

[HindSight2020]

I enjoy invading three contiguous provinces at once. Last night, in an Italian game, I invaded Silesia, Poland, and Moravia -- all held by the Polish. Then I invaded Flanders, Saxony, and whatever the province is to the east. Knocked out the Germans in one blow. All six invasions in the same turn. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[NewJeffCT]

Well, I have a favorite moment, and that was as the English in my very first campaign. I had held onto my original six provinces, and maybe had snagged one or two others after the French had gotten their butts whupped by the HRE. The French had had their king ransomed back home and were confined to just Brittany. We had been at war for years, but it had not been active for at least the last several. But, I was always worried with the huge HRE to my East, and the French to my backs.

So, one year, the French offer a ceasefire. I gladly accept, thinking at least my back will be safe for a little while, allowing me to hang on versus the massive HRE, who had conquered Poland, Denmark, Hungary and Italy, as well as eastern France. (Not to mention the insult of them getting Ireland&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Of course, the very next year, the French launched a 3 pronged attacked out of Brittany into 3 different provinces of mine. The first two, I managed to repel fairly easily. However, there was a third battle that had me quaking in my shoes. 341 French soldiers, led by their king and another whole group of royal knights. So, 41 royal knights. The attackers also had 100 spearmen and a mix of urban militia and peasants. Not very impressive, but I only had 200 spearmen and 60 militia sergeants. Well, I put my spearmen in an upside down V with the militia sergeants in between them to rush in and fill up any gaps.

Naturally, the impetuous French royal knight rushed up and charged right into my spearmen. Then, their spearmen and urban militia and peasants attacked and things looked grim. However, my militia sergeants rushed through to attack the spearmen, and then suddenly the French king started running away and the whole French army started routing. I was so happy. Nowadays, as I have become more proficient at combat, I would laugh at those sorts of odds –but, back then, it was very exciting. The next year, I counterattacked into Brittany and wiped out the French

I have since played as the Spanish, Egyptians, Byzantines, again as the English and now as the Polish. I still hate the French over that.

[Dogmeat]

Playing as the russians in the high period. I had defeated the Horde, the Turks had taken most of the heat and took most of the horde with them, but eventually had been crushed. Anyway i felt inclined to finish their work and after a lot of battles, (oh i wished i could just assasinate the horde faction leader) i finally had defeated them.

However, my forces were reduced over my empire, and to make matters worse the byzans ( my fellow orthodox brothers no less ) declare way on me. The last stand of the horde had taken place in Syria, which they had stolen off the turks. My main force including my king is in Syria and i quickly move them to the byzan border keen on revenge, so i leave 4 small units of spearmen to garrison it, about 40 men to each unit. I played on retraining them to keep loyalty in this recently conquered province high. However rebels weren't the cause of my problem, i noticed there were 3 full stacks of egyptains next door but we had been allied since the beginning so i thought i could trust them, plus they were already struggling with the crusading Spanish. However as soons as i moved my king and his elite force out, they invaded, with everything they had

My 160 spearmen fled to the citadel. But i had bigger problems as the byzans and now the danes were invading my homeland of Novgorod So my king continued to move north, leaving the spearmen to their doom. The next year, the full egyptain army assualts the citadel with a force of 3000 men. For a laugh i decide to play the battle myself, to see how long i can last, not thinking i had a chance.

So the battle begins, i leave 3 units of spearmen near the keep and the other unlucky unit just inside the main gate. The enemy luckily only has one siege weaponry, and by some miracle, one of my catapult towers manages to destroy it with a direct hit within the first minute. So the egyptains have to charge the main gate, sending their heavy calvary to force it open while bizarrely a couple units of their spearmen decide to walk around my citadel, allowing them to be picked off by the arrow towers. The calvary are all killed by the arrows just before the door is forced open, so they send everything they have at the doors. I move the spearmen to just inside the door, so as soon as its open the spearmen block the doorway and in the narrow space only a few enemy units can fit through at a time, allowing my spearmen to hold them off making the whole enemy army easy pickings for the arrows. The fight goes on for a while and my spearmen are finally defeated. They move in, leaving a huge pile of corpses around the gates. The egyptains try and force the second gate open, but this time with 3 units of spearmen on the other side. The fight carries on the same as before, with many of the eygptain finally fleeing under the constant arrows and the sheer amount of corpses (i saved this as a replay as the number was the most i'd ever seen at the time, the castle grounds are littered with bodies). Finally the egyptains flee, the general (the egyptain king by the way) routed, taking all his men with him. They flee off the field, leaving my 14 remaining spearmen totally exhausted inside. There is a few minutes peace as the fleeing troops make way for the next wave of reinforcements, mostly peasants and some camel warriors. Most, if not all of the peasants rout as soon as they see the huge fields of bodies, but the camels break through, the fight carries on for another few minutes and finally the last of my brave spearmen is slain. They conquer Syria.

Ok, it wasn't a victory, but it was very nearly. I wish kills from the arrows towers were added to the total kills, but i guess over 2000 (mostly elite units) egyptains died, compared to my 160 simple spearmen. More so, the entire egyptain army is reduced to half a stack of peasants and their king is now widely known as a complete coward. They are swiftly defeated by Spain (who i prompty ally with) and Syria becomes a rebel province, which many years later is reconquered by my battle weary 68 year old king. The end.

Phew, i don't half ramble when i get on a roll http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[eXistenZi]

My first battle against Germany (as The Danes) was the coolest for me. I had about 600 vikings and a king unit (Heavy Cav). They had about 800 spearmen and some archers. I held them off for a while, leaving about 200 spearmen and having 3 units of vikings (40-50 men each).

I thought the battle was lost, so I pressed ctrl-w to retreat my vikings and my king (he was the only one left from his unit). Now, I found my men in a better position uphill.

I arranged them in horseshoe formation (keeping my king in the flank) and saw the enemy lining up, ready to attack (even though they could have just waited for the defense timer to go down). About 500 peasants came in as reinforcements, and for some reason, instead of overencumbering my line with their sheer numbers, the computer decided to attack two units at a time.

My viking/king combination dispatched most of the units (my king was about 9 valor and he had a full command/dread rating), and routed the rest. I was sooooo happy. My units gained a whole lot of valor that time http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif.

[Obex]

Playing as HRE, france was set to invade with a large teched up army. my solution was to deny access to the english crusade bound for the same province. my smaller army of spearmen, archers, and urban militia positioned themselves on the map so france would have to march through the english. the resultant battle was spectacular; i watched as the crusader units thrashed the french royal knights and fma. by the time they got around to attacking me, the french king was dead, and the english had routed. a little camper archery protected my men until the french routed as well.

not the bravest story, but i really liked "defeating" two superior armies in one shot.

[Papewaio]

Playing as the Byzantines, my third generation king started off with 0 stars (father had nine + bonus stars).

By the time he was king he had the vice of running from battle (-3 morale).

By the time of his death he was a four star king with:
Frequent Mercy (+20 Happiness)
Skilled Defender
Skilled Last Stand
Skilled Attacker
Skilled Attacker against the odds (can't remember the exact name for it)

This and he had no brothers, and did not father a son until he was almost forty. So I was risking him continously despite not having any heirs... just had a large army belonging to one of his ex-princely uncles http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

The son started off with a base of 6 stars and by the time his father died (the new king is 22) he had the expert attacker against superior odds (+2 stars) and skilled attacker and the butcher + scant mercy (1001+ prisoners slaughtered in a battle of 2000 Byz vs 12000 rebels).

So now I have a great king with 3 younger brothers. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Knight_Yellow]

When in a 2v2 MP game

The enemy general tried to head a large rock hurtling towards him from a catapult.

but ofcourse i charged in trying to get his whole army to rout in the confusion, evidently my general then decided to get an own goal and headed one of his own rocks routing me completely.


not very satasfying but still pretty funny.

[solypsist]

few things make me as glad as when an enemy invades one of my territories and we get a river battle - and I'm totally ready for it. but then, who doesn't like a massacre?

[Goatus Maximus]

My favorite moment came while playing the Spanish. It was 1360, and I had built up coffers of over 3.5m florin. My only considerable enemy was the Byzantine, who as always, had a buttload of 7-9 star generals (OK, just 8), some in charge of some pretty decent stacks of Kataphraktoi, Varangian Guards, etc. He held most all of the land in a line from Greece to Finland, although I had Constantinople and Khazar as my pillars of defence. I had infiltrated his provinces with both Cardinals and Diplomats. I had tried bribing most of the generals in the years preceding, with most of them too loyal to desert, boosting up their bribery rate to 100-200%.

I attempted a mass scale bribe that year, targetting each of the 7-9 star generals, as well as on several other lesser stacks...a total of 24 bribes were authorized that year

Some trigger must have occurred in the game, because lo and behold, all but 1 of the 7-9 star guys accepted bribes, and a total of 20 out of the 24 stacks switched allegiance to my side. SWEET

The most I paid for a stack was 280k florin, and I shelled out a total of 1.9m florin Totally awesome just seeing the entire Byzantine line disintegrate into a sea of yellow...

[solypsist]

oh one more.

as a general thing that happens in most battle:

i still get a chill up my spine when the enemy breaks and flees en masse. nothing like seeing the entire front line turn and run, especially from uphill. second to that is clicking the button that sends out my cavalry to start mowing them down.

[A Nerd]

I always feel better when those million stacks of annoying mongolian skirmisher armies are finally wiped out http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[BDC]

My 400 spearmen and 600 archers and 20 Gulum Bodyguards getting surrounded and charged by 800 mounted sergeants. Was looking very bad when, suddenly, a Gulum cut down the enemy general and they fled.

[rspete]

The most satisfying experience in the game is when my heavy units catch those annoying horse archers and proceed to beat them into a bloody pulp.

[ErikJansen]

Ah nice topic http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I figure one of the most satisfying moments I've experienced was playing on the dreaded Desertflat04 in a 3v3 vs a pretty decent Clan. It was my first time defending the map, and i figured we (the defenders) were in for a smooth ride. FYI the 04 is defenders paradise http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

The assault commenced and I routed my enemy pretty easily, chewing up his army and forcing it off field with little stress. I had also committed some troops to aid our centre tho, but to my horror while I reform my army after the first clash, these troops are routing madly along with both centre and far left, and leave the map in short order.

So its a 2v1 now and I'm outnumbered numerically about the same amount of troops. I rest up my depleted Gazi, JI, JHI and JA.. awaiting the slow approach of my opponents Pavs. At the final moment of their approach I counter advance downhill and tie up their main line and Pavs in HtH, holding back some v3 JA's to let off their last shots. As I'm outnumbered the enemy manages to flank me with 2 Order foot at my right flank. I'm sending one 12 man Gazi to charge them, while in their rear the v3 JA's charge. The combination of morale penalties rout both Order foot, and so the chainrout begins.

Even as my main line wavered, one JHI got around the other flank after having dispatched some Alans who tried to flank, and both enemy armies start running hard. Spreading out, my exhausted Turks pursue and continously chain rout both armies nicely off the map. Some of their units rally, but are caught up in the maelstrom of fleeing soldiers and decides to rout again.

Safe to say, I won't forget this ever. I even got the replay, and its a treasured one http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Regards,

[USMCNJ]

Happened today.
My 6 star general commanding an army of 1000 Teutonic Knights, and two units of Swiss Armored Pikemen. Defeated a 9 star Horde General Controlling 7000 men.
Total casualties for me was 109, the Horde lost 2700+, and the rest ran away. Before this point the horde had half of the map. After the battle their whole country had a civil war and alot of revolts, a year later they only have 3 provinces. I defeated en empire in one battle, All of the cathlic nations finally became my friends.

[starkhorn]

A small battle but one which I was quite shocked about and reinforced my opinion of the stupidness of the AI when attacking.

Expert as Russians in high period.
Straight away I bribe the lithunian rebels on t1. However, the loyalty is real bad and I need to send virtually all my forces from Novogrod to Lithunian to maintain 100% loyalty.

I leave only 120 milita sergants in Novogrod which was bordered with rebels in Finland, Livona and Smonelsk. No problem I figured as rebels rarely attack.

Gulp. Novograd was invaded with a 3 start rebel general who has 1 lith cav, 1 feudal knights, 1 horse archers, 1 spear, 1 archers and 2 woodmens. Basically it's 120 v 500+ but it's my homeland on t3 of the campaign so I desperately didn't want to lose this province and all of the buildings that it started with. So I defend.

My general was 0 with 0 val on both units....basically I had no chance. It's a completely flat map with trees so naturally I stick both units in the trees to provide cover against the arrows.

So what would you do in this position as attackers ? You would get your archers and horse archers to fire on my units....hoping that they would break cover from the trees. When they do break cover hit him in the front with spears and woodsmen and flank them with the cav ? That's want a human would do if his was attacking...yeah ?

The AI decided it would charge the trees with the lith cav and feudal knights whilst the inf was miles away. Naturally the miltia sergants destroy both units quite easily with few losses. (trees and mil serg's has bonus against armoured units) They dispatch both cav units just in time to face the infantry. spears, 2 * woodsmen, archers and horse archers. Now instead of trying any type of flanking move, they simply charge head-on into the trees with their spears in front. Not only that but they charge in with their archers and horse archers as well. It takes a well with both my milita sergants down 50% but their valour is now up to 2 and 3 respectively. Anyway, the woodmens run first, then the spears, then the archers and finally the woodsmen general runs. Battle won.

One unit of milita sergant killed 240 units on his own gaining 3 valour. My general killed 150 gaining 2 valour, 1 skill command rank and last stand defender skill.

It was great to get the victory when I shouldn't have got it but I really would expect the AI on expert to be try to flank my units. I guess this is the reason why I'm playing mp more often now. AI on expert is okay on defend (due I think to the morale bonus) but is normally dreadful on attack.

Anyway, just thought to share this moment.

Cheers
Starkhorn

[Magraev]

I had a really satisfying moment in my latest campaign (late, english) when I established the land-bridge from Aquitaine (only starting province on the mainland) via Anjou, Ile-de-France and Flanders to Wessex.

Every battle had been fought against superior numbers, with only troop-quality in my favor (the french went for the "milita/peasant-defence").

Well - that was really satisfying, much more than when the last french province (Normandy) was crushed under my english boot - by then it was easy.