Glorious Victories

[ULC]

Whats your Best or most Brilliant victory? As in kills/casualties, performing a unique maneuver, routing the enemy (almost) instantly, going down in flames (losing all your men but no rout), etc. Pics are welcome (and would in fact be enjoyed!)

State the faction you were playing as, whom you were fighting, and anything you see fit. Also, discussion on battlefield tactics is also welcome, I'd love to learn how you guys play, as I'm still a bit of a standard tactician.

I'll post Mine as soon as I can get images on the page. Cheers!

[Martok]

Well certainly one of my most memorable victories came ine one of my very first campaigns as the Spanish. I managed to *just barely* successfully defend against an Almohad counterattack in Cordoba while outnumbered 3-to-1. Considering that even now my battle skills are only average, back then winning such a victory was impressive indeed! :yes:

I have an old AAR on the battle written up somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and repost it here.

[Innocentius]

I remember one of my best battles - in a way - that I fought when I had just downloaded XL. I was playing as the French in Early, I don't remember the exact year or prelude to it, but anyway it came to a big show-off against my full stack against a full Germans stack (I had already defeated the English by this time). I can't remember where the battle took place but it was a relatively flat map so I guess either I lost ground (like Champagne) or I had taken my troops well into Germany proper (Franconia, for example).
Anyway, my army was unusually cavalry heavy, and I was still quite a newbie at battles, but this time I managed to pull of a decisive victory beyond the ordinary. I don't remember the exact composition of my army, but I moved my archers and FS up against the enemy front (I was attacking). At the same time, I moved my entire cavalry force (at least 4 units, can't remember which but probably a few FK or even Norman Knights as this was late in the 12th C) up and positioned them in a straight line to the right of my enemy.
A short artillery duel took place, and then just a big clash. Once my heavily outnumbered infantry began to crumble before the enemy, I charged my cavalry perfectly in the flank of the enemy and even in from behind. The result was quite obvious, mass rout and a total victory with pretty much all my enemies killed or captured.

https://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8525/wegwegkn8.png (https://imageshack.us)

https://img505.imageshack.us/img505/9903/wegweg2rw0.png (https://imageshack.us)

Can't claim that it was really glorious. My army commander was far better than the German one, and as it was in fact an AI-army, it was composed mainly out of utter crap troops. At least it looked good.

[Csargo]

I remember a battle against the French. I was outnumber three or four to one, but I still decided to fight. My army was mainly archers, billmen, and hobilars. It was a glorious victory for me as I only lost about a 1/4 of my men, and completely routed or captured the French army. I made a killing off those guys I captured. :beam:

[Mithrandir]

I remember many (online) games where people kept sending more and more cavalry to keep my camels at bay, failing miserably ofcourse...

[Martok]

I remember many (online) games where people kept sending more and more cavalry to keep my camels at bay, failing miserably ofcourse...
But of course. ~;)

By the way, it's good to see you poke your head in here, Mithrandir. :bow:

EDIT: I found my AAR of that battle I was referring to. Here it is:



Probably my most memorable battle was a couple years ago when I was playing as the Spanish. It was early in the game--maybe 10 years in. My king had attacked Cordoba and was starving out the castle garrison when the Almohads sent in a large force to break the seige, led by the Caliph himself.

I had excellent ground on which to defend--the top of a long wooded hill up which the enemy had to climb--but I only had about 450 men, whereas the Almos had something like 1200-1300. The only other real advantage I had was that King Alphonso had 7-8 Command stars (because of the +2 bonus from his Expert Defender trait), and the Caliph only had 4-5.

The Almos wasted no time in attacking my position. My 1 unit of urban militia and 2 units of spearmen (all of whom were under-strength) managed to hold off repeated assaults by the Almos' infantry for what seemed like an eternity. Meanwhile, my 2 units of archers and 2 units of Jinnettes were doing a wonderful job of picking off the AUM and Berber Camels, although my Jinnettes were eventually forced to pull back to my left flank when the Caliph sent a strong detachment of enemy troops to engage them.

Despite the spectacular performance of my front line and my archers (who seemed to kill someone with every arrow they loosed), I doubt I would have won the battle--except that the Almohads made what turned out to be a critical mistake. The Caliph, growing increasingly frustrated by my stubborn defense, decided to take matters into his own hands. He led his bodyguards in an attempt to smash my spearmen that were holding my right flank (who by now were right on the edge of breaking).

That was when two things happened: 1.) My archers (who were almost out of ammo by this point) started gunning for the Caliph; and 2.) King Alphonso and his knights finally emerged from the woods where they'd been concealed and charged right into his rear. Caught completely flat-footed by my king, and unexpectedly coming under fire from my arrows, the Caliph's bodyguard simply collapsed and he was soon slain. My Jinnettes (who had finally managed to rest a bit), immediately attacked and fell upon the enemy's (now demoralized) right flank, which crumpled almost instantly.

A scant few seconds after that, the entire Almohad army was fleeing down the hill. My exhausted infantry and archers could only watch and cheer on my king as he and the Jinnettes chased down dozens of routers, all the way to the edge of the map. Once there, they stayed and ran off the few reinforcements that appeared (just some peasants and spearmen).

I don't remember the exact final tally anymore, but it was something like 600 enemy killed and 300 captured, while losing about 150 men. All in all, a most excellent and satisfying battle.

[Galagros]

https://img259.imageshack.us/img259/6052/00000001jk4.png

I was messing around as the Portugese, basically turtling for a decade or two. I can't remember which mod I was playing, either XL or BKB. The Almohads invaded with somewhere between 1200-1500, but 600 or so were archers. The rest were Ghazi infantry or spearmen with 2-3 of their princely units. I arrayed my forced attop a large hill, while my infantry was trying to hold back their many counterparts I sent in my 6 units of knights down and around to slaughter their archers and kill their general, which lowered morale significantly. Once my cavalry went back to help my infantry, most of the enemy routed, which began the slaughter.

The actually numbers are enflated because I executed all captives. Still, those are the best numbers I've ever attained.

[seireikhaan]

I had one particular battle that had me on the edge of my seat as the danish. I invaded wessex, which belonged to france, and engaged in a river battle with about 550 or so on each side. I felt confident because I had a good commander leading my vikings, highlanders, an exra rk unit, and two units of bulgarian brigand mercs. However, I, fell for the old bridge trick. I sent units of vikes in the first wave to, ideally, bust a hole through so everyone else could pour out. However, the AI waited on the other side of the bridge, not crossing, and summarily pounded the first vike into running with three units.

Chasing after, they followed onto the bridge, where I was finally able to get one on one vikes vs. spearmen. I got the hole and marched everyone accross as soon as possible, with my two RKs leading the rest accross. Meanwhile the vikes went after one of their archers, to keep them busy if nothing else. Then it all went wrong. Somehow, my largest unit of RK's got absolutely slaughtered my one of the french RK's, barely taking two down. I managed to flank their RK with my general while getting a feudal seargeant into the front just after the RK died. Somehow, my feudal seargeant gets routed by the rk, leaving my general in a bad spot. The good news is he finished off their RKs. The bad news was he got flanked by their general, the five star command um that france starts with, and died.

As of this moment, both armies were in tatters. The only units resembling something decent were my BB and their archers, who were trying to duel my BB on their side of the river. My BB started routing, but I managed to quickly rally one of them. The other ran clear back to my side of the river and well past the bridge before it composed itself, along with a few units of vikes and a unit of highlanders, none of which had over 14 guys left. Now all they have left is their UM, with 19 guys left, and two archer units with thirty or so. Their general chased my routers as far as he could, while back on their side, my BB slaughtered each of the archers in hand to hand, one at a time.

Back on my side, I eventually was able to surround the general, firing arrows into him with both BB's, and collapsing on his flank with a wavering clansmen. Overall, my forces ended the battle with about 80 soldiers, 48 of which were Bulgarian brigands. All of my units were flickering back and forth to wavering/routing by the end. The forces that they were able to retreat with was 18. Considering all of the cavalry perished halfway through the battle, I think that was probably my bloodiest battle ever.(in terms of percentage of total soldiers who were killed/captured) I also never imagined that bulgarian brigands would ever save the day for me!

[General Dazza]

Last night I had a victories as HRE which was a pivotal battle against the papacy, and was like Greater Khan's above.

We both had about 1800. I placed my army upon a slight ridge with a forest to my right and left. The ridge dropped down to a village then rose on the other side to another forest. I had infantry in front with archers behind and cav to the sides.

The Papacy attacked in force up the ridge with infantry and some cav from the side. It was a pretty dour battle. They got the upper hand however and my front routed. I managed to withdraw some cav units though and get some infantry to halt too. Half their force gave chase. But as my units routed, the reinforcements came in numbers and, combined with my leftover front line troops, managed to encircle their chasers and smash them. I reassembled my troops and began the march back to his side of the field. As they came up the rise towards the enemy they opened up withy their hidden catapults. I sent my cobbled together cavalry troops ahead to remove them. The advantage I had was that I had now some archers and they didn't, so I reassembled the front line and marched to within archer range. Their front line then attacked and, again, routed my centre infantry, However I managed to, again, keep some milita sergeants and cav to the side. And again half their force chased my routers.

I then encircled the non-chers (peasants, orban militia and militia sergeants)and smashed/routed them. Their troops that gave chase had given up in the village at the middle of the field. I regrouped my men (for about 4th time)and moved in, surrounded them and totally wiped them out in a village battle. In the end the body count was pretty even (he lost about 200 more), but the victory was mine - and very enjoyable for its to-and-fro desperate nature. :sweatdrop:

[Caliburn]

A couple of years ago I had a great campaign as the byzantines, there are two especially memorable battles, both against the Spanish.

In the first one, my army led by an ex-prince landed to some montainous Spanish region. The battle took place on the coastal map where there's a bowl-like valley in the middle, surrounded by steep hills. The Spanish had a full stack of good quality troops, and I had my basic Byzantine setup boosted with Steppe Heavy.

They were half up the hill, but still in a weaker position than they could have had. I marched the main part of the army down to the valley, using one of the Steppe Heavies to absorb enemy missiles and try to get them to charge, which was a mistake, as the cavalry was quickly reduced to 1/3 by the enemy missile fire. My cavalry started forming into a long, perfect line on the coastal side, ready to flank the enemy. There was nothing fancy here, the main lines clashed. But I've never managed such perfect cavalry charges as that day.

In the other battle I had to attack an army of the Spanish sitting on a mountain. I had some mercenary spearmen with me, which is why I probably won the battle: My main infantry force (maybe seven units total, Byzantine Infantry and archers) approached the enemy directly from the bottom, while I sent my four spearmen units along with one unit of Varangian Guards on an approach from the left side of their flank. The main infantry stopped, and I used my spears to lock enemy infantry so I could bring my Varangians to the highest point of the mountain. And indeed, the spears locked with an enemy line running parallel to the mountainside, thus they were on an even footing, no high ground bonuses to the enemy. Yet, the spears were starting to waver, but just in time the Varangians arrived on the top of the line, punched through the enemy, and as the Varangians were now on the high ground, they quickly rolled the enemy line, routing most of the enemy army, who fled downhill to the infantry waiting below.

[ULC]

Ok here they are!

I was steamrolling the Baltics as the Teutonic Order by the Popes authority, as the danes had excommunicated themselves by attacking the poles. I was wrong though, as they were simple consolidating their forces in Friesland (I couldn't see it at the time). 2 turns later, after a naval blitz, they invade Lithuania with 5000+ men to my 1500 men.The results...

https://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w17/YourLordandConqueror/00000013_f1.jpg

My personal best was when I was playing as the Portugeuse. I had captured Burgundy the previous turn and the french invaded 2000+ strong, compared to my 800-850. It was both a bridge battle and a massacre. I slaughtered them with my archers and jinetes as they attempetd to cross the bridge. The French King then attempted a massive cavalry charge mostly composed of RK's, which were in turn met with the same predictable fate as his spearmen and men-at-arms. During this time I had used a total of 4 units to hold the bridge, with one unit going so far to personally kill 232 men. Almost all units that came after the first two waves were routed insantly by my Jinetes and Ex-Prince. Results below...

https://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w17/YourLordandConqueror/00000015_f1.jpg

Oh, each battle has it's own replay, so if there a way to post movies, tell me.

Love the stories guy's, keep em coming. Hey, maybe we could run a bit of a competition for "Most Glorious Victory"

[Voivode of Romania]

A couple of weeks ago, I had a glorious victory with the Byzantines.

It was quite early in the campain. I decided to invade Hungary (held by the Hungarians) I had an army of about 2000 men vs the Hungarian's 1500 men.

I had around 1500 units of Byzantine Infantry (very good in MedMod v1.85), 150 Kataphraktoi, 200 Trebizond Archers, and somewhere between 150 and 200 mounted sergeants (mercs.). I also had 7 units of reinforcements, mainly ciks and spearmen. My first move was with the Archers. I sent them in a forest with a good view of the Hungarians. I managed to take out a few men, but over half of my archers got slaughtered, so they ran.

My next momve was sendinng my mounted serg. to the left of their army, and about 80 Kataphraktoi to the right. Befor I attacked with mt cavalry I sent about 500 Byzantine Infantry to the dead center of their army. :wall:

Of course most of my Infantry were killed, but the remaining held the line, so I charged my cavalry to the back of their army's general. (I was surprised how good the Kataphraktoi were).

Then I sent half of the remaining infantry to help in the fight. After about 5 minutes, I had captured abou 700 men and killed about 1000. The rest ran away. I had only lost about 350-400 men. I rarely send my king/main general into battle. If he dies, your army's morale will take a beating.

[cegorach]

That was something to remember.

The 'peasants' in the Wallachian army are not peasants, but rebels with pikes/spears.:yes:

https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b356/cegorach/superbitwa.jpg

Battle was relatively bllodless, because I waited on the opposite side of the river and shot anyone who crossed the bridge.

The two enemies fought each other and I took the province back.:yes:

I lost about 3-7 men dead and killed at least 1200 capturing another 400.

Not fair and incredibly lucky, but otherwise I would be crushed like a bug, so no wonder I still remember it.



MY Hungarian campaign in PMTW was incredibly hard with about 8 massive battles ( 5 : 1 - 8 : 1) fought one after another. Not all of those were victorious, but I suffered only one-two defeats just like this one.

https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b356/cegorach/defeat1.jpg


Later it was becoming increasingly easier, as always it does, especially when my generals reached 8-9 star level in defense, but not without some really hard battles before.:egypt:





In earlier times - one of my epic battles in 'friends only' mod baesd on known tabletop battle system - against 4 armies of Undead. Very, very hard battle.

https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b356/cegorach/Undeadslayers.jpg

[Martok]

Yeesh, cegorach; those were some long odds you were fighting. ~:eek: I'm particularly amazed you won the battle in Constantinople. Even with the Spanish and Wallachians fighting each other, things must still not have looked very good for you....

[John_Longarrow]

I have a habit of killing off crappy generals/heirs/leaders by having them go on suicide attacks against rebels. As the Danes, I had a totally bad king who had just come into the throne. I didn't get him to Sweden quickly enough to get him killed off when his father died.

To show that he wasn't all bad, just a horrible leader, I sent him on a one way trip to Norway. Norway with its 360 Vikings. Well, after his visit, at funeral, there were about 30 left.

Yes, One general VS 360 vikings. Yes, it was a fantastic, long, vicious slaughter that I was afraid I was going to win! In the end, the Vikings did what I needed them to and killed him off. I was amazed at how well he fought and for how long.

Over 300 killed for his 20 losses. Not bad if you ask me!

Lets just say that I did a lot of repeat charges and withdrawls for this fight.

[Martok]

Yep, there's definitely something to be said for those suicide missions, isn't there? ~D

They're pretty much a win-win proposition: At the very least, you'll have lost your crappy king/prince and his retainers, but not before he kills a bunch of enemy troops. At best, he might start to win so much and build up decent stats that he might actually become worth keeping. :yes:

[Kavhan Isbul]

Actually, at worst he loses, killing only a few enemies, but survives as he flees from the field, developing cowardness. :wall:

[seireikhaan]

Haha, I love suicide missions, much more entertaining than killing him with an assassin. Once, as the almohods, I found the perfect way to ensure a good result. I had the spanish beseiged in Leon, with a fort. I sent him to assault the 200 some odd garrisson by himself. When he was knocking down the door to the fort, the enemy actually opened the gate themselves with some UMs they sent to block the door with. The BG's battered them up, pushing them back into the fort. Upon entering the fort, the doors closed behind him! This was one trapped rat. Either he miraculously slaughters the entire garrison and I take the province, or I lose an heir I don't want.

[Kavhan Isbul]

When I have a poor prince, sieges are the best way to get rid of him, even if it is a mere fort. Just put him in range of the missiles coming out of the fortifications and put the speed slider on maximum. Soon he is dead. Even the worst morale princes do not run, as they never come close to the enemy - sure, they start to waiver when they lose most of their men, but I have never had a unit of Bodyguards run while sitting still in front of the walls. Field battles have way too much risk that the intended suicider will survive by virtue of his own cowardice. And once they run, it is even harder to make sure they stay long enough to get killed the next time.

[Martok]

Actually, at worst he loses, killing only a few enemies, but survives as he flees from the field, developing cowardness. :wall:
Which is why I often send him to an overseas location. If he turns tail and runs, well I can always claim I couldn't afford to pay his ransom. ~D

[macsen rufus]

When suiciding princes, when there's the option, I usually dismount them. Even if they run, they can't run FAST ENOUGH :laugh4:

[Deus ret.]

Now look. You've turned a thread about glorious victories into a discussion of suicide mission techniques :hijacked: actually this topic should have its place far from anything 'glorious' ~D.

[ULC]

Hey, this is supposed to be about amazing victories and battle stratagies, not campaign stratiegies!:hijacked:

Speaking of which... Last night I was playing as the russians when the golden horde invariable invaded with 55,000 men:skull: :skull: ! This is the most I have seen them come in with, ever. My 2,540 men in Khazar felt the hammer first and last. An started with 8 units of halberdiers, 6 Arbalests and 2 Boyars.
Well the battle started out okay, with me losing men mostly to the GHA, them losing any GHC or GHW they sent over. For 6 striaght hours this continued, and they still kept coming long after the death of thier khan (who oddly enough was killed by his own archers, as I had run out of Arbalests by this time.) I was down to 3 units of Halb's and a Boyar. All of a sudden they retreated. Left. Just simple walked away. It was the most incredible thing ever! My men had killed 15,329 men to 1,342 losses, but captured a total 39,622 men! To bad the khan wasn't still alive, that would have been quite a pay check.

[Martok]

55,000 men?? Holy crap! :jawdrop: You didn't mod the GH in some way did you? :dizzy2:

[Deus ret.]

55,000 men?? Holy crap! You didn't mod the GH in some way did you? :dizzy2:

I think the main reason is the 2,500 men he had in the province. The larger the garrison in 1230, the larger the Horde will be...although I admit to have never seen SUCH a number myself!

[ULC]

I didn't modify the Golden Horde directly; I modified the Unit choices (AI) part for barbarian_raider, increasing the numbers to 200-320, depending on the unit. This has resulted in massive armies with the Golden horde. For fun, I modified the number to all 500. I was rewarded with about 70,000 troops, of execellent mixtures too. BUt I could achive no more, and these massive number even at such high priorities were extremely rare. After 5 days of testing (russian High), they appeared only 5 times with more then 35,000 men out of 134 times tested. So it appears my men were INCREDIBLY LUCKY/UNLUCKY depending on point of view.