Your most famous battles. [Archive]

hundurinn

12-23-2006, 21:27

My most epic battle was when I fought as the English against the French. I had little over 1000 men and the French more than 2000. They surrounded me and came wave after wave. My force was a mixture of longbow men, Dismounted English Knights, swordsmen and heavy cavalry. I divided my force into two armies. One would defend my rear and the other would attack the main French force.

When the battle finally begun I sent my main force to attack the largest French force. My archers weakened their ranks while my troops got into position. The heavy cavalry went through the forest, unseen, and prepared to attack them from behind. The French Catapults were wrecking havoc on both my forces. A new strategy was needed.

My rear force, DEK and swordsmen attacked the force behind me. A long battle which was very hard to fight but they were victorious in the end. The main force attacked and was losing, my archers had to come to aid them. My heavy cavalry was attacking the catapults and my general and king was losing his bodyguards fast. When my force had almost been wiped out by the French main force my general miraculously killed the French general and things became easier, I gained the upper hand and the defend force came to their aid, after slaughtering the French force attacking my from behind. Needless to say, the prisoners were executed. No one messes with my force and lives to tell the tale.:whip:

Roy1991

12-24-2006, 13:56

Mine was a bridge battle against 2 full stacks.

I was playing as the Byzantines, and was attacked by 2 full Venetian stacks.
One of them had to cross the bridge, but their reinforcement stack entered the battle from behind me.

My army consisted of:
- 2 Generals
- 4 Varangian Guard
- 5 Byzantine Guard Archers
- 2 Kataphraktoi
- 1 Latinkon
- 3 Dismounted Latinkon
- 3 Dismounted Byzantine Lancers

I left the Varangian Guard, the Dismounted Byzantine Lancers, the archers and 1 unit of Katapraktoi (to chase down routers) to defend the bridge.

I deployed the generals, the Latinkon and the other unit of Katapraktoi near the spot where I thought their reinforcements would arrive, so I would be able to charge them immediately.

I left the Dismounted Latinkon somewhere in the middle between my cavalry and the infantry defending the bridge, as reserve.

When the battle started, the first Venetian army immediately rushed the bridge, but my infantry was able to hold it.
After about 2 minutes their general was killed by my archers, and that caused I chain rout.
The Katapraktoi captured more than 400 enemies on the bridge :charge:

In the meanwhile the enemy reinforcement army had arrived (it consisted mainly of archers and light infantry, + several units of Venetian Heavy Infantry and mounted knights).
I charged them immediately, and my cavalry massacred their archers and militia units.
The enemy cavalry tried to flank mine, so I had the Dismounted Latinkon that were in reserve attack them.

I lost about 450 men, killed about 1200, and took 500+ prisoners. :knight:

Zheng He's Lost Son

12-24-2006, 15:21

I call mine Hamburger Hill, with myself as the English against the Mongol leader and his heir.

There was only one piece of high ground on the map, and it was closer to his territory. Immediately I sent cavalry to secure a way up, but their spears arrived too soon and I had to watch as the leader's armies marched up the hill and waited for his son's rear reinforcements.

He waited there while I tried to devise a flanking plan. I picked off some missile cavalry units, but there was no way my horses could climb the hill under a rain of arrows.

So it was a full-scale infantry charge, a gruesome frontal assault that would've made green troops rout. I ran some cavalry around, hoping to climb the hill from behind, but again, his spears were too many.

My guys fought almost to the last man, and when they finally turned it was a long walk downhill. I have some epic after-battle screenshots, but they don't at all capture my thoughts at the time ("How am I ever gonna beat these guys?")

We lost, and lost big, but we cut their heart out in doing it. They weren't ever again a real threat, and I almost choke up when I mouse over the historic battle icon.

danfda

12-24-2006, 17:00

Has anyone else ever gotten a historic battle cross for a sea battle? The other day I had some brave Sicilian seamen defeat a larger Moorish foe, and I was amused to see the little crossed swords talking about my historic battle. It left something to be desired, however, as all I did was click the auto resolve button...

gingergenius

02-03-2007, 21:28

Battle of Southampton, 1080

Rebels attacking English

William the Conqueror is besieging the city of Southampton (Rebel owned) when a stack of rebels attacks him from behind. With his army of 1000 or so men sandwiched between 1000 rebels in front and 1000 behind, William was in an impossible situation.

As the battle started, he immediately marched quickly off to defeat the rebels to his rear, routing them after an intense battle. With Southampton's garrison then charging behind, William's forces turned around and battled their way to victory.

283 Englishmen died, and 1,179 Rebels.

Battle of Uppsala, 1129

Danes attacking English

Francis, England's 10* general, has already fought and won many battles against the Danes and Germans, but maybe laying siege to Uppsala with an army consisting of mercenaries and a few castle troops was a step too far. His force of 2000+ men was attacked by a two Danish stacks of 2000 men each, and the garrison from the castle of about 800. Taking up a defensive position on a ridge, Francis defeated each Danish force, winning a heroic victory.

770 Englishmen died, and 3057 Danes.

Battle of Aar, 1170

English attacking Milanese

Just to the north of the Milanese city of Bern was a stack of 2000 or so Milanese feudal foot knights and genoese crossbowmen. In reinforcement from Bern would be arriving a their heir to the throne with 3-400 men. Laurence Harris controlled an elite English stack from Hohenstauffen, consisting of English Knights, Armoured Swordsmen, and Retinue Longbowmen (over 2000 men in total). The Milanese picked an awful defensive position at the bottom of a mountain, and the English attacking from the top, crushed the Milanese crossbows with a cavalry charge. Before too long the Milanese reinforcements arrived and the battle turned bloody, before the Milanese were routed and most of them killed either in the battle or later on due to a failed ransom request.

437 Englishmen died, and 2398 Milanese.

JCoyote

02-04-2007, 01:46

1 Monster Bombard shot. 500 kills. Enemy Route.

Fookison

02-04-2007, 06:19

I just finished an epic battle where I had an English army of 98 units in the Scottish Highlands and was attacked by three separate armies of Scots. They first attacked me with their King and an army of 638 and I defeated them with my General, a group of spear militia, and some Hobilars. I started at the top of the mountain and used the terrain to my advantage. The second battle I had 68 units left and faced 498 and beat them. Finally I got attacked in the same area a third time with a group of 370 and I was down to 38 units including my general. The game settings are M game-VH battles. Clearly my best battles since I got the game.....:laugh4:

Derfasciti

02-04-2007, 07:13

I think one of my most epic battles was when I had an almost full stack of French troops invade England. They threw at me about 1 1/2-2 stacks worth of troops. The thing was that they were stationed all around me and I had to very quickly defeat one army and then turn on the next, I was ultimately very triumphant and was able to march on London.

sapi

02-04-2007, 07:26

A bridge not too far from Rome.

The holy roman emperor and his force of mercanaries and militamen are confronted by an army of the papal states.

They fought well and destroyed their foes, but were caught from behind by the garrision of Rome.

In fierce fighting the emperor was slain and his men despaired.

The trajedy that was allowed the incidious papacy to hold power for another few years, but they were brought to justice in the end.

Laconic

02-04-2007, 19:27

I played a battle with my full stack, two allied Timurid full stacks, and four 75% stacks of Mongols (this was with the unlimited men cvar turned on in the preferences.cfg). Quite epic. Wish I had been taking screenshots.

Rhyfelwyr

02-05-2007, 00:26

Tried recreating Falkirk in Custom Battle, VH difficulty. I had mostly Militia Spearmen, Highlanders, Peasant Archers, light cavalry, couple of Knights, total half-stack. English had mostly dismounted/mounted Knights, Longbowmen, and some levies, total full-stack. I took the high ground, formed line of shiltrons. Extra height allowed my archers to meet Longbowmen's range. English still faring better, so I rush my Border Horse downhill and rout most of the Longbowmen. These Border Horse then lure the English cavalry uphill, who slam into the schiltrons. Both sides take heavy casualities at this point. Just as it looks like the English have broken the Scots spearmen, the Highlanders charge through the gaps between each of the Schiltrons, and the fearsom Higland charge turns the tide of the battle. The cavalry rout, and the English send their infantry uphill. The battle could swing either way, so the Scottish Knights charge round the right flank of the English infantry, focusing on the one flank as they lacked to power to fight on both sides. It turns into a rout on the one side, and so the cavalry continue to the left flank and mop up the English there.

lucased1

02-06-2007, 01:01

Was Playing as The English and i prepared my Invasion into paris but i got confronted by an army of 2000 Frenchmen just outside paris mostly armoured Spearmen, since i had an army containing 12 Units of English Knights and 2 Armoured Swordsmen and 1 General unit i decided to Attack them.......

First of all i had my Armoured Swordsmen Charge down to the French Spear men and occupy them for as long as possible but they were surrounded quickly but being french they turned their backs to my english knights, which was a death wish, so my English knights and general charged down the hill and routed the french army almost instantly i killed 1965 french troops and paris was mine not long after the battle.

But i released the prisoners because i wanted my general to have Full Chivilary :laugh4:

by the way English Knights own anything even Spearmen :2thumbsup:

Marquis of Roland

02-06-2007, 01:34

This is not a great battle but probably a more historic one that I had (and enjoyed, purely for the historical aspect). I was going to post my two-front bridge battle but someone already posted a similar one.

1st Crusades, Anatolia -

The Pope has called a crusade to retake Jerusalem from the infidels. England, the Holy Roman Empire, and Milan take up arms and march towards Constantinople, meaning to cross over to Asia Minor from there. The Milanese were the first to cross, and - mirroring history - their army was composed of many pilgrims and camp followers (in game terms this would translate to roughly 10 peasant and peasant archer units, with the rest of 10 units made up of 1 general, 2 knights, 2 light cavalry, and the rest men-at-arms).

The Turkish Crown Prince, in command of an army of Turkomen horse archers, spied the Milanese crossing the Bosphorous and planned an ambush in some hills along the road to Iconium, and waited.

The Crusaders finally approach, with darkness coming on soon, looking for a place to camp. As the road wound down into a shallow valley below the hills, the Turkomen horsemen emerged from the hills and quickly forced the crusaders down into the valley. The valley resembled a shallow bowl and as the crusaders tried to form some form of defense at the bottom, the Turkomens rode around them and lined the lip of the "bowl", and started firing down into the valley full of men.

The knights and their retainer sergeants tried valiantly to charge up the hill, but were cut down like grass by massed arrow fire from all directions. Unable to attack the fleet-footed archers on top of the valley, the surviving Frankish cavalry retreated back to the bottom of the valley to attempt a final stand to protect the pilgrims. However, the mass of pilgrims themselves made it difficult for the actual fighting men to redeploy, and all the time with arrow storms raining down on them.

Eventually the crusaders saw the futility of staying where they were and attempted a breakout to the west, by going back up the road they came. The swift Turkomen cavalry followed them on both sides and shot them down. The road back was littered with the dead and dying, and as the English and German armies passed by the site of the battle weeks later, the English were so affected by the sight that they turned back, leaving only the Germans to carry out the Pope's mission (in game terms, they just kept going in circles for some reason until they lost all their men and the army was disbanded).

Lord Fluffy

02-06-2007, 18:32

I've been trying to kill off my mad prince. So I sent him off to fight several stacks of rebel. At one point him and his bodyguards fought a rebel unit consisting of 2 spearmen and an archer unit. Now while I wanted him dead, I also wanted him to die a glorious death. So he charged at the rebel line several times, pulling out each time the rebels were about to outflank him. He survived that battle and several more after that.

Feeling merciful, I had 4 units of knights join him. He was soon attacked by a stack of Venetian army led by their doge, 3 units of spearmen, 4 dismounted knights, 4 pavise xbows, 4 peasants and 4 trebuchets. Long story short he killed the doge and routed the Venetian army. He quite a few of his men but only left 10 men alive on the Venetian side.

With his ragtag army roaming the area near Venice, he was surrounded on all sides by enemies. A Hungarian stack to the east and 2 Venetian stacks blocking the passage home. Feeling sorry for him I sent a relieve column. At the moment he had just destroyed another Venetian half stack led by the new doge. I think I'll keep him, be nice to have a mad king for a change.

Lorenzo_H

02-07-2007, 12:50

I once fought a battle where I had 500 Spaniards against about 1200 English. I had 4 cannons, but they were destroyed within the first few minutes of fighting. My infantry also was looking like it was going to be overwhelmed by the masses of English foot soldiers and Archers. Eventually though I managed by some fluke to kill both enemy generals with my Generals Bodyguard, and ended up with every cavalry unit I had dead apart from my one little General.

In the end I won the battle by routing all the remaining archers with less than 10 men total! It was funny to see about 6 Sword and Buckler men and the General chasing around huge masses of enemy archers.

TravPaul

02-07-2007, 17:02

I would have to say mine would be a battle where I had about 188 men to their 1300. All of mine were cavalry tho. I won with a loss of 143 men to their 1150 or so. Needless to say that was a heroic victory.

gingergenius

02-07-2007, 17:11

The Battle of Venzsia, 1197

Venetians attacking English

Michael Furillo was a Venetian General laying siege to the English city of Zagreb. He then accepted some money and changed his nationality to English. Hiring an army full of mercenaries from the Balkans and northern Italy, he marched on his hometown, Venice, and laid siege to it. 6 months later, his army of over 2000 men was attacked by a small Venetian force of 500. However, coming up from the rear was the 2000+ strong garrison of Venice. Furillo arranged his men in a defensive formation, before abandoning it and charging at the small Venetian army, routing them. He then turned his men around and into a defensive formation, before the onslaught began. Despite not one of the English soldiers on the field being English, they held their line and eventually routed their opponents in a heroic victory, giving them a free march on to Venice itself.

1,115 Englishmen died, and 1,711 Venetians.

TravPaul

02-07-2007, 20:32

Here is a screenshot with my most famousest of battles.

https://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9261/heroicbc2.th.jpg (https://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heroicbc2.jpg)

Lorenzo_H

02-08-2007, 08:13

Here is a screenshot with my most famousest of battles.

https://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9261/heroicbc2.th.jpg (https://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heroicbc2.jpg)
cor! What were you fighting against - peasants?

Jonathan_Thompson

02-08-2007, 08:49

Most famous battle was against a venetian army. I had 7 Varidotai, 3 Byzantine Lancers and a 3 star General. They had 10 spear militia, 3 archer militia, 7 peasant militia and 2 catapaults. Immediately sent my Varidotai to his flank and started squeezing the infantry together. They eventually turn and try to engage the varidotai in melee. By doing this they may as well have put a bullseye on his flank. Slam into the infantry with my lancers cause a chain rout entire army defeated. Over 2000 men killed in 3 minutes:smash:

gingergenius

02-10-2007, 12:29

The Battle of Avellino, 1200

Sicilians attacking English

Sweyn of Haderslev was a general in charge of a band of brigands in Sweden. After being 'convinced' to become English, he journeyed South and became governor of the newly acquired English city of Bari. However, weeks after arriving in Bari, he was ordered to besiege the Sicilian city of Naples. Hiring a force of all the mercenaries he could muster, plus some peasant archers, Sweyn set out. On the road, nearby the small town of Avellino, to the East of Naples, a Sicilian army under the command of Jacopo Martinelli attacked him. The odds were stacked heavily against the English, being outnumbered 2 to 1.The battle raged with Sicilian trebuchets wreaking havoc to the English line, which otherwise was holding up well. Sweyn took his bodyguard round to take out the trebuchets, but in the way he was intercepted by Martinelli and his bodyguard. Sadly, Sweyn of Haderslev was personally killed by Martinelli, before the Sicilian himself met his death. His army soon routed at their General's death, giving the English army a heroic victory.

162 Englishmen died, and 731 Sicilians.

Sheogorath

02-10-2007, 17:14

The Last Stand at Iasi
~500 Russians vs. ~2,000 Byzantines
Russians mostly composed of militia spears and mercs. Faction heir and a unit of Druzhina.

I managed to beat the Byzantines off their ladders and siege tower, but the stupid jerks went and snagged a ram once my archers were out of arrows. Busted the gates down and all their cavy flooded in.
I figured I would do something cool looking, so I lined my remaining cavy (Faction heir was the only one left in his unit, about 20 Druzhina remaining in the other) and charged them up the main street at the Byzantines.
I was rather dissapointed that my faction heir only killed one Byzntine horse-archer before they got him. Mostly he just stood there. :shame:

In any case, the end casualties were something like:
500 Russians against 1700 Byzantines
Not quite as good a ratio as others, but remember, the Byzantine starter units are just a tad stronger than your average Russian archer/spear militia :P

gingergenius

03-02-2007, 00:39

The Battle of Alberche, 1251

English attacking Portuguese

Portugal is in its last throes. They had just lost Toledo to the English, who also were besieging their cities of Leon and Valencia. Just Sevilla remained safe, which was under threat from Turkish and Moorish forces. Early in 1251, Josias of Dunwich and his horde of Armenian Cavalry, Alan Light Cavalry, Hospitaller and Templar Knights had already defeated a large Portuguese army that year, losing 295 of his 1200 or so men. He then marched north to engage the Portuguese Prince Manoel and a stack of around 1300 men just north of Toledo, a newly captured English Citadel. Arranging his horsemen into a single line, Josias charged the Portuguese line, with cavalry looping round the back and surrounding their Aventuros pikemen, the biggest threat to the English riders that day. Soon, the Portuguese were routed and their Prince taken prisoner, leaving a heroic victory for the English.

104 Englishmen died, and 1,246 Portuguese.

TevashSzat

03-02-2007, 03:57

In my best battle, I was the Hungarians and just took out Constantinople due to a sneak attack and a well planned crusade, I was marching on Nicae with a ragtag army. One pretty good general, 2 half strength ha, and 1 13 man armenian cavalry as well as 2 balkan archers, and 4 pilgrims. The byzantines attack me with their king, about 10 units of various militia, 4 units of turkoman, and about 5 units of various archers. All were at full strength. Odds were against me, but I was defending a river crossing. I positioned my army so that my melee units would stop the charge and my cav would charge from the side. When the battle started, the byz sent all of their militia units and their general across. My first charge killed militia easily, but the general posed problems. By the time he charged, I was down to a 15 man general in my cav, but I barely defeat the byz king with 1 man left, my general. The turkomans and archers then spring across. I withdraw my army a little bit back and with a good use of fire arrows and well planned charges, rout the turkoman. As for the rest of the enemy archers, I destroyed their morale with fire arrows and the just charged into them killing them all. Odds were about ten to one I think. In the end, I started with around 450 and left with 250. Enemy, 1053 to 170 something

Werner

03-02-2007, 09:18

OMG I have to share this. Just had the most amazing battle ever. 2 1/2 full enemy stacks of danish versus my 2 full stacks of Scottish crusaders (made up of templars, noble swordsmen, and dismounted feudals + two of my best generals) I have been at it with the Danes ever since the beginning and they just fell out of grace with the pope so I called a crusade against them. They started letting go of all the sieges on my cities and I was there with my best stacks waiting. The battle started in a hilly plain on a rainy day so I waited, perfect beautiful weather. I moved my large assortment of siege weaponry into position and realized my second stack of reinforcements wasn't entering battle (a bug they really need to fix)... So it was really like 1 of my stacks versus 2 1/2. I sent all my crap pilgrims up on their flanks to distract them and sent my cannons/balistas etc up to confront the archers. Absolute mayhem, there were about 525 pilgrims in all, look so cool in their hooded outfits!

As the pilgrims started to fall I knew I couldnt hold out long without my reinforcements (with the bulk of my infantry). My templars (only 3 units) took on the entire Danish army while my new reinforcements humped in up to the front lines. With less than 3 minutes to complete the battle I managed to get my new troops in line (exhausted from running) and route the enemy army.

Final:
Over 3,400 enemy losses with the death of one of their heirs. Thousands of flourines lost due to all the siege equipment they dropped. Only 900 losses on my end with just over 800 troops remaining. Promotions and experience points across the board.

On a larger scale:
The bulk of the danish military might was exhausted in this battle, they are now on the retreat toward Hamburg and will face the brute of crusader armies from around the world.

Absolutely phenomenal.

sbroadbent

03-02-2007, 09:28

One of my more famous battles in my english campaign was when Venice was rebel after the fall of Milan. The Pope ended up taking the city, but I forced it to rebel once more. I was preparing to siege the city when I saw Venice come with a full stack. My initial army there was 2 Generals, 2 English Knights, 3 Feudal Knights, 2 Mailed Knights and 3 units of archers (I think they were Yeomen archers). My troops numbered 473.

Anyway, this was fairly significant because the troops I was facing were mostly spear, peasant and cavalry. They numbered 1109. I had a stack of spears and swords myself that were preparing to mobilize but there was a slight problem in that the Pope had a stack or two between Balogna and Venice, meaning that they would not be able to take the short route around. Fearing that Venice would interfere, I went ahead and sieged the city. My network of spies was enough to open the games, and I charged in. Knowing a full assault on the center where all their troops would most likely meet in failure, I divided my troops. 2 units of cavalry went left and prepared to flank in a clockwise path, once they entered the city, 2 units of cavalry went right and went in a counter-clockwise direction. My two generals followed the second group, but stopped to be prepared to charge when I lured units to the gates I entered from. The other three units of cavalry did similar to the first, but also acted to lure units from the defenders defensive position. My archers stayed outside because the rebels had a unit of archers or two, and tried to pick off as many archers on the walls that stayed up there. They unfortunately weren't particularly effective.

I wish I had a battle replay as it was a fairly difficult battle, and I ended up fighting and giving orders to units at three parts of the city. Fortunately the groups I had sent up enabled me to flank and destroy much of the spear without too much loss on my own side. They do tend to break easily when you smack them on both sides with a cavalry charge.

Faction: Deployed Lost Remaining Enemies Killed/Captured
English: 473 221 252 820(288)
Rebels: 1109 1109 0 257(0)

My survivors (men remaining):
Generals: 9, 8
Feudal Knights: 5, 7, 14
English Knights: 7, 8
Mailed Knights: 7, 8
Archers: 42, 50, 48

I had one other heroic victory, although due to the difficulty setting, and the lack of a german infantry (they were obsessed with Crossbows when I had mainly cavalry... go figure) where 4 units of mailed knights took on an entire german stack of units. That battle was hugely in my favor because I had the high ground, and for some odd reason, their crossbows came after me (they did attack my units).

I ended up meeting them half way up the mountain, and charged into them routing them fairly quickly, and then routing the next several. They did have some Armored Swordsmen, and some artillery. I decided it was in my best interest to take out the crossbow and artillery first, so I ended up flanking the swordsmen, and charging away to rout their artillery. Eventually the battle with the swordsmen had to take place, but I'm fairly certain they had some major morale penalties as most of their stack has been devastated, most likely including their General as well. It ended fairly quickly as I flanks and crushed them.

Whacker

03-02-2007, 09:31

cor! What were you fighting against - peasants?

I once had a victory like that in RTW. Two general's units and a severly depleted unit of hastatii and early roman archers (total of little over 200 men) caught off guard by a greek army, just over 1000 men. Single general, rest were militia hoplies, skirmishers, and archers. I ended up losing one of my generals and about half of my forces, but I won with 900 greek deaths, the rest I had to let escape. It was a very very hilly steep map, which helped my case greatly as they had to run all the way across the map uphill to get to me.

Metarius64

03-03-2007, 00:46

Oneof my most fun battles was playing as the Byzantines. I attacked the Hungarian city of Budapest, and it was their last city. They then attacked with 3 armies, all mostly composed of spear militia, some pavise crossbow militia, and a few Hungarian Nobles, along with 5 General Bodyguards. I had a about 7 units of Vardiatori, 2 Byzantine Calvary, and I General Unit.
To make a long story, I rode continuously around them, shooting them from behind, isolating them, and then charging from behind. I finished by killing over 2,500 men, while losing about 170 Varditori, and 20 Byzantine Calvary.
The Hungarians died the next turn.

Marquis of Roland

03-03-2007, 02:29

Medieval Hamburger Hill, 1405

Turks: 1 stack (1 gen, 1 qapukulu, 2 Sipahi HA, 4 Jan. Archers, 4 Ottoman Inf., 6 JHI, 2 cannon)

Hunagrians: 2 stacks, 1 reinforcement stack (1 gen, all others are a mix of crossbow militia, DFK, various types of mounted knights, and supporting bombards and trebuchets).

Attacking up the Dalmation coast against the Hungarians, I ended my Sultan's army's turn on the inland side of the mountain ridge running down the coast. The Hungarians immediatel sent 3 full stacks against this 1 stack and attacked me where I ended my turn.

They couldn't have attacked me at a worse spot. I was on top of a steep rocky hill with two grades, probably about 35 degrees up halfway and 25-30 degrees the rest of the way up. The rocky nature of the hill presented the Hungarians with only 2 ways up the hill, 2 draws that eventually met together before where I positioned my army, much like an inverted "Y".

As the Hungarians at the bottom of the hill formed up for an assault, my cannons opened fire on their artillery. My gold-striped cannons shot accurately and made quick work out of their artillery, even before the hungarian infantry finished forming up. With the artillery out of the way, I shelled the now slowly advancing hungarians with impunity.

Their 2 starting stacks formed up at the bottom of the hill directly in front of the two draws leading up to my army, and began to advance, crossbowmen in the fore. Artillery fire was constant this whole time, though I held archer fire till both Hungarian armies met at the intersection of the "Y", halfway up the hill. The grade of the hill becomes slightly less at this point, and from the Turk's perspective, this point is the first point where my Ottoman infantry (in the front rank to make their shots more accurate) will be able to see the full bodies of the advancing Hungarians. Moreover, the intersection was only wide enough to fit 1 army through at a time, so thus both Hungarian stacks began to bunch up dangerously. At this time their third stack appeared and started to immediately move up the hill using the draw on the left.

Once the Hungarians crested over this grade-change, the order to open fire was given to the archers. I don't think I've ever seen so much blood-mist spray or so many men go down in one massive volley. Images of Saving Private Ryan came up in my mind ( reminiscent of the first scene where the boat ramp opens and everyone in the boat is blown away by a MG-42). The front ranks of the hungarians were getting mowed down so fast that their army looked like it was standing still yet they were advancing.

Their cavalry were moving up the hill behind their dismounted knights, so i had to switch to target them. Luckily, as the first volley left, the knights were in the process of moving up through their mass of infantry, so practically every arrow hit something. In a matter of 3 or 4 volleys, all of their knights were dead, along with any infantry standing close to them.

While I was concentrating on the knights, the crossbow militia broke through the bottleneck and deployed in skirmish right in front of my army, ducked down and started to return fire. It really looked like modern soldiers spreading out and taking cover and digging in. However the concentration of arrows was so thick that 1 volley effectively destroyed any skirmishing crossbow unit that made it out of the bottleneck. 1 crossbow militia made it up to my Ottoman infantry, and actually killed 1 ottoman before getting butchered. Someone please give that man a medal.

As the very, very few survivors of the first 2 stacks retreated down the hill (all the while being shot in the back as I turned on fire-at-will now) ran right into the advancing third stack, slowing it somewhat. As soon as the third stack came over the grade-change, all archers and cannon opened up on the lead units. 3 out of 4 cannons got a direct hit right in the center of their mass of men; this may be exaggerated, but I do believe that is the first time I've seen over a hundred men fly through the air. The survivors immediately routed, with my archery fire shooting them up all the way back down the hill.

In the end, there was no more grass that can be seen up the hill, the bodies were piled up perhaps 4-5 high. Hungarian losses came up to just over 5000, while my own losses were 1 killed (the ottoman that got killed) and 2 friendly fire. Of the few crossbow militia that actually fired, not one of them killed any of my men with their crossbows.

Marshal Murat

03-03-2007, 02:40

Battle of Cordoba
Early Era

Ive got 200 spearmen militia, besieging the city of Cordoba, held by the Moors. He comes out with 100 knights, 200 spearmen, 100 archers. I've got the Portuguese coming as reinforcements. I don't know what he has, but I know it's only 100 men.

I decide a schiltron will be the best posture. I put my men in such a position, spaced a little close together. Enemy rushes out of the gates, and my schiltrons are hit by enemy cavalry. I'm down to 50 men. Then the Portuguese ride in MAILED KNIGHTS, and smash the Moors apart, drive them into the city, and we capture it.

(I back-stab them 4 or 5 turns later)

Memnoch

03-03-2007, 06:40

My greatest M2TW battle only occurred a few days ago - as Turkey against the Mongols. I've posted a thread here where I was having problems with my budget and decided to take drastic measures to correct it, mainly by cutting my military spending.

My timing was impeccable; my wave of retrenchments, redundancies and sackings came just a few years before the Horde arrived. They came in around Yerevan and Baghdad (like they did in my Danish game). In my Danish game they ambled around for many turns without attacking anything; in this turn they went straight to Mosul, about seven or eight stacks, and sieged it.

This was not good as I'd gutted Mosul of its defenders - it was as far away from my frontline as could be, after all. I'd had about a couple of turns to frantically churn out some javelinmen, naffatuns and Turkish archers to try and man the walls - I think I had about half a stack in total. Unfortunately I went overboard on the missile troops and ran out of time to build any infantry. The Mongols attacked - they had built a couple of rams (good for them, as I destroyed one with my archers and naffatun), broke down my gate, and took my city square while I rained arrows down on them. They didn't even need their second army as their first routed me fairly easily once I had to demount from the walls. The castle succumbed with a whimper to the loss of all defenders.

They didn't hang onto the castle, but sacked it and moved on to Baghdad - a huge city with many defenders. I'd had some forewarning after the Mosul fiasco and had recruited some Janissary Heavy Infantry, Halberd Militia and Spear Militia, as well as a number of Sipahis and Turkomans. So I had a full stack army defending the Round City. Unfortunately I had no missile infantry (I couldn't recruit Janissary Archers yet and could recruit no other missile troops in the city) and my sole missile-recruiting settlement in the area (Mosul) had been sacked, but I did have ballista towers. The Horde attacked after building a couple of rams and a siege tower - two full stacks, the Mongol van led by the Khan himself.

The first Mongol army deployed before my gates in full battle array. It was comprised heavily of cavalry, with heavy horse archers, horse archers and lancers on the wings and missile infrantry in the vanguard. They took their rams and their siege tower forward towards Baghdad's walls. I managed to destroy the siege tower with my ballista towers, forcing the Mongols to come through the gates, where I had all my infantry. I routed the first army (led by the Khan, no less) by placing all my Janissaries in front of the gates, supported by halberd militia and my horsemen clustered around. I had my weaker spear infantry manning the walls so that the towers rained death on the Mongols as they clustered before the gates. The Khan shamed himself by turning tail and fleeing like a frightened goat after his horsemen had destroyed themselves on the halberds of my infantry but I took some pretty heavy losses as well, particularly the priceless Janissaries. As a result when the second full stack wave of the Horde came the infantry defending the gates were composed largely of conscripted spear militia, of questionable temperament. I hoped that the presence of pockets of battle-hardened Janissaries and halberd militia would stiffen the backbone of my defensive line, but routing the Khan's first army had come at a high price.

Unfortunately for me it was too high. The morale of my militia troops was found wanting in the crunch - I looked like I was holding my own against all odds and was still holding the line just behind the gate (my Turkomen and Sipahis had run out of arrows and were throwing their bodies (and that of their horses) into the line to repel the invaders from the east, when one moronic spear militia unit decided to rout even though they still had 63 men in the unit! (And it was ultimately fruitless as all they did was rout to the square where they were cut down by the Mongol heavy cavalry that poured through the gap - I'd have killed them myself if the game would have let me.) This created the hole which the Horde desperately needed, and I just couldn't contain them after that - they overcame me in a battle of attrition. My last soldier (a Janissary, believe it or not) died trying to fight the last 5 Mongol Horse Archers that had taken the city square. I'd never seen so many bodies piled up behind the gates. If that bloody spear unit hadn't routed at that particular time (and they were cut down running away anyway, may they burn in Hell), I'm sure I would have won! They were down to FIVE men.:furious3:

So that's my greatest battle. As a consequence, the humiliation of losing Mosul and Baghdad in quick succession has galvanised the Sultan to decisive action. I've now thrown my budget out the window, executed all the accountants and beancounters who contributed to this fiasco, and have been raising armies in my heartland with total disregard for cost (Janissaries and Hashashim from Antioch and Damascus, Sipahis from Aleppo, Ottoman Infantry and Javelinmen from Caesarea and Acre, Sipahi Lancers from Gaza, and Saracens from Adana and Edessa. I've had to put a temporary halt to my efforts to destroy the Portuguese to get rid of these Mongol pests. I hope my next battle with them will be as exciting!

Tiberius maximus

03-03-2007, 17:25

alright playing as the russians. i was invading the last handful of regions the danes held for my plan is to conquer the north.
my general
4-dis. boyar sons
4-dis. dvors
2-tsars guards
2-dvors
4-dismounted druzhina
2-druzhina
2-basilisk

agaisnt two stacks of danes alot made up of the praised norse war clerics. any way it was in winter so no advantage that way. i was attacking so i let them get into there positions then with the basilisks i took out as many cavalry as possible before i moved in with the archers.

but fisrt i sent the dvors to lure away the remaining cavalry. when this was succesively done. the tsars took over from there.

with threat of cavarly totally extinguished, the tsars circled behind the enemy lines to wait. i charged the infantry at several ranks, and waited for the wavering sign to appear on the enemy units then the tsars came in.

it was intense

gingergenius

03-04-2007, 15:08

call me a nerd if you like, but I'm recording all my battles. I've played an English campaign up to 1262 on 0.5 years/turn, and not counting naval battles, I've lost 39,895 men and killed 97,745 over 115 battles. Unfortunately, I've only fought a few battles with over 3000 casualties, my biggest being Uppsala where 3,827 men died on both sides. The Mongols are already established in Turkish territory, but I can't wait to go to war with them so have some epic battles. Same for the Timurids and Aztecs.

In this campaign I'm trying to fight against every faction in at least one battle, just to prove my soldiers are superior. I've fought against the now destroyed Scots, Milanese, Germans, Danes, Sicilians and Portuguese. The French are now based in southern Egypt and the holy land cos I kicked them out of France, the Venetians had their empire nicked by me and now have just one province in North Africa, which is also where the Papacy fled from my armies to. Spain has the Balearics only, Hungary is now based in Turkey thanks to me booting them out of Europe, and Poland have lost ground too. I'm fighting a war with the Byzantines, although not having a border with them means I don't want any of their cities. To ensure the survival of the Turks (I haven't fought them yet), I gave them Granada and Cordoba. They took Sevilla from the Moors as well.

I can't wait to test my Englishmen against the best the Moors/ Turks/ Russians have to offer. (I have borders with these guys, all they need do is attack me). Then, the Egyptians and the Mongols. I'll keep posting any famous battles I get.

RoadKill

03-04-2007, 16:12

MY most epic battle would be when i was the french and i was invaded by HRE. They had 4 full stacks while i had 2 full stack of
-2 general
-4 armoured sergents
-3 crossbowmen
-2 fedual knights
-2 dismounted fedeul knights
-2 dismounted chivalic knights
-1 catapult
My other stack was a full stack of peasents with one general. lmfao :smash:
I dont have a screen shot of it but i ended up winning with all my peasents dead and the general, but with my other stack i had a catupult and one general left and i had a lucky shot of the catupult and they all routed.

JJx

03-05-2007, 04:36

The most fantastic bataille are the one were you end up with one or two (2) regiments on both side out of an army of 2000.
Or when you defend against several armies attacking one after an other.
Definitively the difficult one.

Garnier

03-05-2007, 14:31

I fight so many battles in the big meatgrinder that they are now boring... Nothing new in any of them. Half of them are winter... and its just ugly.

gingergenius

03-14-2007, 18:12

The Battle of Sierra Morena, 1324
Turks attacking English

When the Mongols invaded, there was a serious threat that the Turks might be wiped out. Being the global power of the time, only the English could prevent this, and, obtaining Cordoba and Granada off Spain, gave these to the Turks as a new homeland. Over the next 60 years, the Turks expanded their borders, helped by the Portuguese and Spanish capitulation to English expansion. When they took Lisbon from the Moors, the whole of Southern Iberia was Turkish. By 1324, the English hadn't fought a battle for over 30 years, having been involved in a long naval war with the Byzantine Empire. Growing tiresome, they sent out poor assassins to convince the Turks to declare war - this they did, and the first Anglo-Turk meeting took place in the Sierra Morena mountains northeast of Cordoba. Captain Aston and his highly professional force of 2000 men were attacked by a huge Turkish shock force, outnumbering the English. Lining up defensively on a ridge, the battle was mainly between English longbows and Janissary gunners. However, the English suffered heavy casualties from Turkish trebuchets and bombards, so sent a unit of Hospitallers around the Turkish flank to sort them out. As Turkish charges were held by the English line, the cavalry broke free to mop up the routing Turks, giving Captain Aston a heroic victory.

429 English died, and 1974 Turks.

Kanonen80

03-25-2007, 08:22

Battle of Milan
England (me) vs. Milan

The set-up:
Milan had been at odds with the Pope pretty much the whole campaign so I decided to push down towards Italy and take some of their more lucrative territories. Having pretty good standing with the Pope at the time, I convinced him to call a crusade targeting Dijon. I sent a full army with fresh units and a decent general on that crusade, then sent a couple more armies to capture a few neighboring cities. Next, I dispatched one of my armies down to Genoa and took that after a short fight. At this point, the Spanish were starting to close in on Milan. The only army I had available was the army I had sent on the crusade several turns earlier, though I sized up Milan's garrison of 900+ men and decided that my force of 800 crack troops would win easily in the eventual siege.

I had sprung the trap. Their King had been hiding in the nearby woods with an army of nearly 1000 men. During Milan's turn, the King's army sandwiched mine against the City.

The battle:
At this point I had no idea what the King had brought to the fight. I knew Milan's garrison consisted of 1/3 Pavise Crossbowmen, 1/3 Italian Spear Militia and 1/3 Italian Militia. My army was made up of the General's Bodyguard, 3 units of English Knights (slightly worn, but with good experience), 6 units of heavy infantry (DEK, Armored Swords; These had taken a decent beating when I stormed Dijon), 2 culverins and 1 bombard, 6 units of Retinue Longbowmen and Yeomen Archers. (Estimated on memory)

In my deployment area I was lucky enough to have a small hill with a pretty much even slope on all sides. As I was placing my units to make their stand, I suddenly wished I had brought a few more infantry units. Because I had no idea where the enemy would be coming from, I decided to try to defend every approach to the hill as well as I could. I made a ring of my archers around 75% of the hill and had them deploy their stakes. In the center of the ring I placed my infantry and my General, along with a couple of Knight units. The rest of my Knights guarded the un-staked portion of my hill; I then guessed where the main assault would come from and positioned my artillery to give them good coverage of that area.

As soon as the battle started it became apparent that I had guessed wrong. The closer enemy army (the King's) was at my "rear", covered only by my English Knights. His army consisted of 3 Trebuchets, several pavise crossbow units, a mix of Italian Spears and Dismounted Feudal Knights, as well as his bodyguard and another cavalry unit. The crossbowmen immediately charged into position and the siege engines rained flaming shot down on me. The Milan garrison was still a little way off, but I could tell they were making a bee-line for my position. While I raced all of my archers into two lines to face the King's army, my artillery opened fire on the garrison army.

By this time the King's Pavise Crossbowmen were in range and pelting my shifting troops. To relieve some of this pressure, I sent my English Knights charging down the hill and into the unprotected crossbow units as well as a division of Dismounted Knights but had to pull them back soon after as Italian Spearmen started to give chase. My archers were now in position and showered the enemy as they continued to run full speed. It was only moments before they whole army was about to overrun my archers, forcing them to draw their swords. Half of my Knights engaged the King and his other cavalry unit while the rest made repeated charges at their heavy infantry. I knew that the longbowmen would probably be able to hold their own against spearmen but I desperately needed to keep the heavy infantry and cavalry off them.

Noticing that my artillery was no longer firing, I swung the camera around to see that the Army from Milan was inches away from overrunning my position. The enemy were navigating their way through the stakes and began to assault the cannon crews as my heavy infantry charged in. Meanwhile, I sent my general between both sides of the battle, trying to hit key enemy positions. Meanwhile, the Milanese crossbowmen were peppering the hill from both sides and the Trebuchets had yet to let up.

The battle began taking its toll on my Knights, charge after charge. My heavy infantry was fairing a bit better, so I shifted one unit to help out my archers in their melee. Shortly after, I was elated to hear that the Milanese King had fallen in battle and sent what was left of my knights to chase down the trebuchets and the crossbowmen around them. The rest of my army was sent to dispatch the rest of the Milan garrison. Even a culverin crew took part, chasing some routing crossbowmen from the field. Finally, after a last surge of Englishmen, the remainder of the Milanese army fled the field.

In the end, I had lost 485 men while killing and capturing over 1400 Milanese soldiers. (When I got to the campaign map, I received a message that my general had died in battle, but I don't remember that happening at all). I was actually pretty surprised that I won the battle; I thought their sheer amount of numbers would overwhelm my less-than-fresh army. I'm sure you guys have had more heroic battles than this one, but I just thought I would share it with you since it was my first "underdog" victory. (I usually like to choose my fights more carefully;-) )

https://img84.imageshack.us/img84/5628/0018ag8.th.jpg (https://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0018ag8.jpg)

gingergenius

06-09-2007, 09:40

Battle of Khodoriv, 1350

English attacking Russians

The Anglo-Russian war had just begun in the winter of 1349. Three stacks of highly trained English armies are heading towards Russian cities from the castles at Przemyśl, Iaşi & Halych. Russian armies are marching the other way. At Khodoriv, the English army from Przemyśl had followed a Russian army as it headed towards English land, and attacked. With their army consisting largely of Cossack Musketeers and Dismounted Dvor, thr Russians had little to protect them from the English cavalry charge, and their army was obliterated.

170 English died, 1489 Russians.

Battle of Ту́раў, 1351

Russians attacking English

By this point in the war, the English had advanced far into Russian lands, having suffered just one defeat in seven battles. As an army marched on Ту́раў, two Russian armies confronted it, meaning that the English were outflanked. Holding one Russian army in place with their longbows, the cavalry charged the other army, quickly destroying and routing them. They then came back and finished off the remaining Russian forces, almost being completely destroyed themselves.

795 English died, 1517 Russians.

Battle of Aqyar, 1357

Russians attacking English

The Anglo-Russian war was still raging, and by this point the English had reached the Crimea. Again outflanked and outnumbered by the Russians, the English cavalry won the day against the Russian missile troops.

859 English died, 2246 Russians.

Battle of Novgorod, 1358

Russians attacking English

With Vilnius & Minsk under their control, the English moved North to Novgorod. Here they were met by a large Russian garrison, plus a reinforcement stack. After the battle, both were obliterated.

728 English died, 2117 Russians.

Battle of Kefe, 1360

Russians attacking English

The final battle in Crimea for the English, again gaining a heroic victory.

605 English died, 1198 Russians.

Battle of Azov, 1365

Russians attacking English

This was the penultimate battle of the Anglo-Russian war, which had cost over 45,000 lives. Had the English not wanted a buffer against the soon-coming Timurids, the Russians would have been destroyed, and Azov was their final oppurtunity to repel the English. Attacking with a huge force that included plenty of Tsar's Guard heavy cavalry and missile troops, the Russians made a fatal error. 4 units of Tsar's Guard charged the English front line, and every single one of them was scuppered on the stakes of the longbowmen. Those that survived this were easily dealt with by the levy spearmen and armoured swordsmen on the English front line. At the same time, the Russian reinforcements entered the battle. The Knights Templar charged at them before they had a chance to form up, and the Reinforcements were quickly routed. Then the cavalry moved to finish off the remaining Russians who hadn't succumbed to stakes or a flaming arrow. Despite being heavily outnumbered and surrounded, the English had won a heroic victory, and decisive since in 1366 a peace treaty was agreed against the Russian's will, from this the English also gained the city of Tmutarakan, giving them total domination of the Black Sea.

653 English died, 2354 Russians.

Didz

06-09-2007, 10:57

The Battle of Nottingham - Winter 1100

This battle was the crisis point of my current Scottish campaign and was a really close run thing that climaxed with a king v King showdown and set the tone for the rest of King Edwards reign.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1552251&postcount=19

gibsonsg91921

06-09-2007, 15:34

battle of bruges

me & my 1500 british versus two 1000 danish armies, one head on and one on my extreme flank.

i ran my cavalry around back of the head-on army and charged them as my catapults took a deathly toll. by the time i destroyed or routed that army, the other one was right next to me.

i charged my unused infantry to match their line and flank it slightly, and i sealed the envelope with my cavalry. instantly over 800 good troops were fighting to the death, and i took almost all of them prisoner.

heroic victory

1500 v 2000
ends up like
1000 v 100

CMcMahon

06-09-2007, 18:25

Scottish vs three Milanese armies. I had a full stack, made up of a general's bodyguard, two mailed knights, two border horses, two Scottish archers, one merc crossbowmen, five militia pikemen, one heavy pikemen, two feudal knights, and three merc spearmen.

All three armies hit me from the same direction. I completely routed the first, taking all but 12 of them (it was a 3/4 stack) prisoner or to the grave. Then the second army (a full stack) came in to my now stopped battle line, and they too were routed, and then the third army (a 1/2 stack made up mainly of artillery) was also routed.

I think I lost 130 men, whereas the Milanese lost all but 40 or 50 of their much larger force, with the remaining men deserting, allowing me to take the city of Milan with minimal losses.

hisn00bness

06-10-2007, 07:43

In my campaign as turks; I had one full infantry stack + 2 cav halfstacks see off three full timurid stacks with twelve elephant units in total. It was insane; I had almost no men left...

gingergenius

06-10-2007, 18:33

Battle of Afyonkarahisar, 1376

Mongols attacking English

The English had been fighting the Mongols since they went on jihad in 1368. However, all of the 12 battles of the war so far had managed was the English capture of İzmir, and the Mongol capture of Kutaisi, with the English taking and then losing Antalya. However, having reinforced İznik to defend from a Mongol attack that never came, these troops were then sent to attack Ankara, under the command of Captain Walter. Walter's army, which consisted mainly of spear and archer militia, with some additional demi-lancers and arquebusiers, was attacked by Kublai, a Mongol 6* general with an army made up mainly of Khan's Guard, Light Lancers, Mounted Archers and Heavy Archers as well as some Mongol Infantry and artillery. Outnumbered and outgunned, Walter stood his ground. Aligning his army in high ground with a slight ridge taking most of the trebuchet fire, Walter waited as the Mongols attacked in waves. Each wave ended with heavy Mongol casualties, mainly from gunfire but also the Archer Militia. Then, the Mongol cavalry began to move forwards, and the 3 units of Demi-Lancers used their gradient advantage and charged at the right flank of the Mongol archers. Meanwhile the spear militia and missile troops valiantly held against the heavy cavalry charge. The Demi-Lancers wrecked havoc amongst the Mongol lancers and their missile troops, before surrounding Kublai and killing him. Soon, the Mongols were routed giving the English a heroic victory. Captain Walter was subsequently promoted, as Walter Arthure.

753 English died, 1390 Mongols.

OverKnight

06-11-2007, 10:11

This is my favorite battle so far from the PBM I'm in. I foolishly volunteered to attack the last surviving full stack of Mongols, not realizing that a.) I had to attack up hill and b.) This was a Mongol stack that had mostly heavy troops, i.e Heavy Lancer and Archers. Oh and c.) VH

It was a nasty, bloody, drawn out affair and was a lot of fun. :2thumbsup:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1570533&postcount=87

Monsieur Alphonse

06-11-2007, 10:53

The commander in chief of the forces protecting the eastern borders of the British Empire got the message that the Mongols (who else) had arrived. The eastern border stretched from Thorn in the Baltic to Iasi near the Black sea. All river crossings were guarded with strong forces. The supreme commander in the east was the crown prince. He had a trait with strong / foul or something language. I wanted to hear his speech so I attacked the Mongols. His speech was the best I ever heard but now I had to fight the battle. I even considered quiting because it was almost midnight but I decided to fight. I set up my seven longbow in an arc on something that hardly could be called as higher ground. You know I wanted to hear the speech so I didn't look for a favorable battlefield. Some hundred meters behind the longbow i placed 6 armored swords. The flanks were protected by six fully upgraded (including two gold chevrons) English knights. My faction heir overlooked the battlefield from the center. I had placed the stakes a little apart so that a cavalry unit couldn't charge between them.

The Mongols had two stacks. The first did what Mongols are suppose to do and attacked. Because one of the gaps between the stakes was a little bigger than intended the Mongols could charge through that gap. My longbow (retinue and yeoman) had withdrawn some 80 meters. The AS and the longbow withstood the charges that passed through the gap remarkable well and killed the cavalry of the first stack. My cavalry destroyed the infantry with an awesome charge. The second stack was lingering in the corner of the battlefield. I decided to march forward and take the high ground overlooking that corner. Because my archers were now done to third of their arrows I had to be carefully with their ammunition.

I managed to get to the high ground without a Mongol attack. One of their heavy lancers was stuck so they waited. On the left I had a strong defensible position and on the right my six English knights were approaching. Because I couldn't reach the Mongols from the high ground I decided to form a firing line at the bottom of the cliff. Here I made a mistake because when I ordered my men down the formed two groups to descend the cliffs. The group on the extreme left consisting of two armored swords and three longbows was an easy target for a cavalry charge. The Mongols attacked my left and I had to rush my center to support them. The Mongol infantry was now without support of their cavalry so I ordered my cavalry to attack. The Mongol right flank was easy destroyed. Now all that was left was the heavy cavalry and the horse archers who were attacking my left and were already attacked by my center. The Mongol Kahn was slain by my armored swords. The rest of his army was destroyed by a combined charge of heavy cavalry and my archers (now without arrows) and armored sword from the center.

Almost all Mongols were dead and I had lost a third of my army. My faction heir got some extra command and dread and I could go to bed.:beam:

samiosumo

06-11-2007, 12:45

THE THIRD BATTLE OF ANTIOCH

EGYPT VS. ENGLAND

1166 AD

BACKROUND

After fighting off crusades from Venice (1st battle of Antioch), Poland (2nd Battle of Antioch) and Scilily (Cut off at Aleppo), I faced the my hardest task yet. 3 Armies of the English. They consisted of:
1 King
2 Generals
10 Mailed Knights
5 Hobilars
12 Spear Militia
20 Pligrims
5 Crusader Knights
5 Peasants

I sent my heir (5 star command - 7 while attacking) against them. He had:
1 General (heir)
5 Mamluks Archers
4 Arab Calvalry
5 Saracen Infentry
5 Hashashim.

I also had my Antioch garrision. They were:
1 2 star general
5 Saracen Militia
4 Turkomons
3 Desert Archers.

Ramses II CP

06-11-2007, 21:01

I was just opening a wedge into the Holy Land as the English when a Jihad was called against me, with the perfidious Turks, who had been my allies for many years, immediately answering the call. Jerusalem was in no real danger with seasoned ranks of English longbowmen waiting to sally out against foolish seiging armies, so I went on the offensive against the recently stripped Turkish and Egyptian cities.

Adana was the obvious key to the entire seaside territories of the Turks, so I sent my King with two units of Mailed Knights, one of Hobilars, and a mix of militia archers and spears, probably 3 units of each. A pair of spies revealed that the fortress was defended solely by the Turkish leader's bodyguard unit. Unfortunately I was unable to reach the walls in the same turn as my spies, and the next turn a full reinforcement stack of Turks showed up, under command of a solid general, but stopped before entering the fortress.

My general, having fought a successful crusade already, was reluctant to let the enemy strengthen his best position, and so determined to attempt to capture the fortress first, and then beat back the reinforcements. I'd not been in this situation before, so it seemed logical to me that if my cavalry raced ahead and took the walls and gates before the enemy reinforcements entered the city that I could hold them as in a normal seige, and deal with the enemy's king at my leisure.

The seige opened in good weather, and my Hobilars roared through the west gates, thanks to my spies, with no resistance at all, quickly followed by my general and his knights. We raced to the north gates, and captured the walls ahead of the Turkish reinforcements. The reinforcing units had appeared to be making for the walls, but they pulled back outside of arrow range as the last of my units moved into the fortress. With no reinforcements in sight, and the gate held under my control by two units of archers and spears, I crushed the enemy king when my archers forced him to charge, losing only a few militia spearmen and knights. That being done, I turned my attention to his 'reinforcements' who now, in my estimation, had the tough job of recapturing the city.

I put my archers on the walls by the north gate, and sent the depleted spear unit and the Hobilars outside the walls to draw the enemy in. In they came, with three or four units of cavalry archers chasing my Hobilars and the rest of the enemy force, almost exclusively melee of various kinds, engaging my schiltrom'd spearmen just inside archer range of the walls. Those men fought well, and several times tried to fight 'to the death' before a gap opened a few attempted to flee in the direction we'd entered the field from. I sent my other cavalry units out the west gate to trap the enemy HA and resuce my Hobilars. My archers had many more arrows to spend, and I thought I'd have to send another spear unit out, but the mass of enemy melee moved in a uncoordinated rush towards the gates... which opened before them as though controlled by Turkish spies! :wall:

Three units of militia archers with 2/3rds or so of their arrows still in the quiver, two fresh units of spearmen, and 600 or more enemy melee units assaulting the gates, backed by a competent general. Fortunately my spearmen were well placed, overlapping and blocking the gate as best they could. I set each archer unit to firing on the enemy general, and turned my cavalry back to race around the walls northward and take the enemy from behind. The enemy general had been working his way through the mass of troops toward the gates, and I was worried my archers wouldn't be able to fire at him any longer when an arrow finally caused his death. My spearmen, stretched and on the point of breaking already, rallied a bit and held just long enough for my mailed knights and bodyguard unit to draw up in ranks and charge the rear of the enemy. With their general recently dead and a series of nasty charges across flat, open ground hitting them from behind, the enemy mass began a chain rout. I sent my archers down to melee with the spearmen because I couldn't tell for sure if the rout was towards the center of town or back the way they had come. None of them escaped the encircling arms of my cavalry in any event.

Unfortunately for my Hobilars, I'd neglected them while setting up the perfect charges, and they'd been all but annihilated and were routing. I pulled back inside the walls and let my remaining archers spend their arrows in a duel with the enemy HA, who had carefully moved back to their original position before attacking the walls, until they depleted their stock and fled the field.

I really should've lost this one from sheer pig headedness because I didn't sit in the square and force the 3 minute end, but because the AI made a number of bizzare choices and had to be provoked into action by my attack I won. The lesson is, seige reinforcements can enter a gate even after you capture it.