Lost at the brink of victory?

[NewJeffCT]

Has anybody had it happen to them? You get to be the big power on the map - maybe not 50-60% yet, but you easily have the biggest, most teched up armies and are the richest and more technologically advanced overall. You get there and something happens and you lose it all, or most of it?

The only time this happened to me was in my second ever campaign as the Spanish. I had conquered everything except the Papacy, who held the Papal States, Rome, Tuscany & Naples. Rather than just overwhelm them with 4 armies of 10,000+ troops each, led by lancers, chivalric knights, culverins, etc, I decided to dust off my king and send him over in hopes off beating the Pope 1 on 1. I immediately got excommunicated, and since my king was away from home and cut off due to the port being destroyed, literally more than half the map rebelled due to the excommunication It took a good decade to get it all back under control - much of it through bribery.

[Satyr]

I have been losing late in the game with some regularity since I started playing Medmod 3.14. There are inevitably 2 or 3 other factions that get quite powerful and sooner or later they all attack me at the same time. If it is too soon in the game I will get overwhelmed. If I have had time to prepare for the inevitable then I come out ok.

Once though I was playing as the Byz and the Russians attacked Constantinople and I wasn't prepared for it and retreated my king to his castle. Instant rebellion with 0 loyalty all over the place. That was a real screw-up that I haven't ever repeated since.

[son of spam]

Well it wasn't really at the *brink* of victory, but I was doing pretty well as the English in medmod/early/hard, having taken over all of France, England (except Ireland), Spain, and North Africa. Then the danes declare war on me and sink all of my ships (stupidly I was trading with them) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif . Then they transport 2 stacks (probably half their army) onto my homelands in England, which are undefended, since my armies were on the continent and took out wessex, mercia, and northumbria. My king was stuck on England, so the next turn there were massive rebellions in Spain, the spanish reemerged, and I gave up. I had no navy so I couldn't take back my homelands http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-wall.gif

[Ellesthyan]

Another nice story about medmod/early/normal;
Playing the Egyptians, I had taken out the Almohads early, slaughtered the Turkish with Russian help, and then defeated the Russians with Italian help. My country stretched from Cordoba to Georgia, to Trebizond. In these 3 border provinces about 6 stacks of crack troops and bribed units.

Then I make a serious mistake. As the Italians are beating up the Russians, and already own a quarter of Central Europe + Constantinople, I decide that they are my number 1 enemy. As I don't wanna war them (they've got HUGE armies), I try to kill of their faction leaders with assasins. First try with about 10 assasins kills the poor doge...

Next year: Pope asks for a crusade, the Italians lauch a HUGE crusade to Egypt, and sink 3 quarter of my ships
I manage to kill the next doge, but still no loyalty problems... The Aragonese (who control Castille and Navarre too) declare war, and the Swedes in Leon/Portugal too; sending together about 14 stacks into Cordoba... I decide to withdraw. Italian forces land in Algeria and Tunesia, I retreat to the castles. 5 stacks of Almohads come back in Tunesia, Morrocco (where my army from Cordoba is) and Granada...
My fleet is now vanished thanx to the Aragonese, but I dont fear; I've got an 8 star general in morocco. No problem think the swedes... 6 swedish stacks attack morroco, together with the 6 Almohad stacks. My army is smashed apart and my general is killed.

From there I've been able to defeat the Italian Crusade by Algeria (causing a civil war), end the war with the Swedes, Almohads and Aragonese by default, I've taken Khazar, Kiev and Constantinople, my new west border is Algeria.
I really thought of quitting, but my poor enemies could not match my superior economy and my overdosis of shipbuilding provinces http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[gaijinalways]

My Italian, early on expert GA campaign when I almost overexpanded was a toughie. I later did a lot of slashing and burning, even taking down some buildings I built. These usually were buildings I wasn't using anymore after I acquired some good buildings from the Spanish in a few other provinces. I basically needed to reduce my expenses and put some cash in my kitty to get my building and troop making going again.

[Nowake]

Indeed, it happened .. no heirs, civil war, owned 90% of the map. But I didn't lost, it was the best civil war ever. elite armies from both parts, and the AI played those battles decently .. well, he had 2-3 9 star generals http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-toff.gif