View Full Version : Thrilling battle!
Just had a great battle! I was outnumbered 1250 to 700, the French are coming at me, the English. I have a unit of Clansmen, four of Foot Sargeants, one of peasants, one of archers, and two of Spanish Jinettes. He's got mostly Urban militia, and Royal Cavalry http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif
I send my Jinettes out to skirmish, cause some disruption and casualties. That slows em down. It's pretty cool to see units break off, run a bit, get their stuff back together and return. Anyway, their lines are wavering in the face of the Jinettes, but my cavalry get caught up in the middle of some infantry and take some damage - and my Jinettes and general runs off the field!
Well, I figure I've lost now, but let's see what happens. As they approach I order my peasants to charge - that's all they are good for, defense isn't good. My sargeants are rock sold, repelling attack after attack. The enemy breaks off, retreats and tries again. My one unit of archers keeps firing. The peasants are whacking the militia with their hoes and pitchforks, my sargeants are standing firm with their spears and shields, then out of nowhere come the royal cavalry - it's the French king himself charging my left flank. I throw my last reserve - my uncommitted Scottish Clansmen at the Royal Cavalry before they can flank my infantry line - and it's a desperate battle.
Again and again, his infantry break off and return. Finally one unit moves towards a gap in my line - all I have left are my archers and I give them the order to charge them in the flank! It works and throws them back. And amazing, the Clansmen are doing a job on the Royal bodyguard - the King quits and runs!
I reform my infantry and march forward, still having to repel militia that reform and recharge but they have no spirt, making half hearted attacks. I chase the French off the field, taking about the same number of dead, 250, but I also took a couple of hundred prisoners - cheap French wouldn't pay though http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif Typical!
All in all my most thrilling battle.
Grifman
My most lopsided defeat is when I attacked the Almohads. I think I killed 150-200 to around 700-800 lost. His general is much higher than mine, I concede, but I didn't know how powerful the almohad urban militia is. I thought they were only slightly more powerful than my urban militia but looking at the stats it turns out they are even slightly more powerful than my feudal men-at-arms.
Nobunaga0611
08-27-2002, 12:22
I've had some pretty lop-sided battles, including : a battle in which I had 1100 kills to 150-200 losses, as well as 48 kills to 550 losses (a chain route, I sat here and laughed as my units were much better and there was no reason for ALL of them to route).
But for the most part, the AI has been suprising me due to the fact that I don't have enough money to train better troops, and have armies that start off worse than my enemies. I'll still win, but only by a few hundred kills.
Don't be so sure. Some factions have a tech advantage over others early on and some higher tech units provide more bang for the buck. For example, chivalric knights are more expensive and powerful than feudal knights, but they cost less to support afterwards.
Swoosh So
08-27-2002, 13:46
lol did you ever doubt scottish clansmen?
swoooooooooooooosh
Clansmen die very quickly. They also kill very quickly. They are low honor nodachi. In fact, they have the same powerful attack but have relatively even less defense.
As a Scot it does'nt suprise me your Clansmen kicked ass.
Toda Nebuchadnezzar
08-27-2002, 18:36
Scotland the Brave!!!!!!!
as a scotsman also...I'm surprised you(Grifman) were surprised that the clansmen managed to defeat the Royal Knights. Its text-book stuff. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
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Jaguara-Spoken like a TRUE SPAMMER Toda!
No Fear Legend.
TenkiSoratoti
08-27-2002, 20:12
when i get the game im gonna mash scotland with my english soldiers and defeat that punk william wallace.
ohh its scot bashing time hahahaha
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"The good fighters of the old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an oppurtunity to defeat the enemy."
GAH!
Vanya defending Sicily from a counterattack by the Sicilians...
Vanya had about 550 men... all feudal sargents or feudal men-at-arms, plus a unit of mounted sargents and a jinetes unit.
The Sicilians came in with 2000 men!
GAH! Double-GAH!
Vanya won easily, as His troops seriously outclassed the enemy's. Although they did have several royal kinigits in there...
Final tally was something like 1400 enemy KILLED (Vanya tends to kill captured men) and 150 of His own men killed.
GAH!
S-W-E-E-T!
In that battle, Vanya killed 2 heirs and the King! Sicily is no more. Malta, their last holdout, fell soon thereafter. IT was nowhere to be found... http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/eek.gif
GAH!
My clansmen were great also. The French Royal knights were about to turn my left flank when my Clansmen who had been hidden in some woods came charging out and hit the knights in the flank. They broke in 5 seconds and the king ran off. I gave the Scottish general the Count of Flanders title as a reward even though his acumen was only 3.
Funky Phantom
08-28-2002, 01:54
This week of reading the battle reports of other has taught me one thing, never underestimate any unit, no matter how crap you think it is http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
Im gonna be very careful in my game, take no chances and give every unit (especially the scottish ones http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif) a lot of respect http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
Quote Originally posted by Funky Phantom:
This week of reading the battle reports of other has taught me one thing, never underestimate any unit, no matter how crap you think it is http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
Im gonna be very careful in my game, take no chances and give every unit (especially the scottish ones http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif) a lot of respect http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif[/QUOTE]
Don't become complacent when you invade Egypt with chivalric foot sargents and kinigits. Just because the enemy has peasants and ballistas alongside their king does not mean they won't stand up and fight...
GAH!
Kalisari
08-28-2002, 11:09
(Note, I might have my unit numbers wrong, cause it has been a while... but this is how I remember it)
I think my greatest battle was between England and France, at Flanders.
It was an interesting battle. I was slightly outnumbered: around 1500 vs 1650. (Note that I was using unit size as huge)
Of my army, 500 of my soldiers were mercenaries shipped in by sea, so if I lost, they were all be killed.
Thinking out my deployment, I began the battle with all of my longbows (480), some urban militia (360), and all my mercenaries (2 heavy cavalry, 1 horse archer, 200 spears). For support I think I had another 2 or 3 urban militia units
My army marches forward, towards the enemy, when I come into sight of their army! 2 Crossbows, 3 spearmen, 2 feudal men-at-arms and 2knights, 3 units of royal knights, and what completely shocked me - 2 units of halberds!
I personally was dismayed and demoralized, but I knew I could not retreat now. So charging forward, I began using my troops in combos - longbowmen fire supporting militia advance, and cavalry for flanking attacks.
To my surprise, their army practically melted before me, and several units began running!
Their spears and halberds fled the field, slaughtered by my bows, but the rest of their army rallied. And their reinforcements - units of feudal sergants, marched in.
Confident in my troops, now that the threat of the halberds were was gone, I engaged them. This time, however, my thoughts betrayed me.
No sooner than I engaged than did my longbows grow VERY short on arrows. And several of my militia companies, injured badly in that first battle, routed, causing the rest of the militia to rout! Their men-at-arms with the crossbows managed to slaughter my cavalry, and suddenly, my army was suddenly routing with heavy casualties!
Pulling far back, I gathered back my forces, while taking a look at theirs.
The army was badly injured. Only their royal knights remained strong. But 2 of their 3 units of knights were still fully functional.
My army was deciminated. I barely had any cavalry save my commander (royal knights) and I was not going to risk my only good general (lvl 6) in battle! I didn't have many melee forces save those 3 urban militia, and only 3 of my longbow units had arrows - and all 3 were VERY low.
My mind told me to retreat - my core, the longbows, were all alive still, and the main casualties were the mercenaries.
But quickly, my thoughts were replaced. If I lost this battle, I would lose my grip on ALL the lands in central Europe. I had very few forces on those territories (in fact, I didn't train anything but some hobilars, and all 3 territories on the mainland were surrounded by french lands anyways).
So instead of retreating, I ungrouped those arrowless longbows, and used them to support my militia in melee.
The following battle was hard and brutal. The remanents of my mercenary forces went off and took out a good chunk of their crossbows. Arrows from my longbows was enough to slaughter their royal knights, and the militia with the longbow support and my commander (always coming in late so he would live) was able to hold their army, but barely.
The morale of all my troops was uncertain at this time, and they were pretty close on the verge of routing when suddenly, the French began withdrawing!
My troops gave chase, but only half-heartedly, and they walked off the field, where I emerged victorious, with only 400 longbows and around 300 militia (counting those who fled) standing.
What surprised me after was that I discovered in that battle, I had managed to take out their heirs as WELL as their king, killing off the French as a faction.
I still have no idea why they withdrew from the field. They still had like 2 units of feudal sergants to send against me, along with 1 crossbow unit. Even though their king and princes were dead, they still could of won that battle at least...
EDIT:
Sorry if that was a bit long http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif
[This message has been edited by Kalisari (edited 08-28-2002).]
Azmogeddon
08-28-2002, 13:17
Hey I love the long posts, they're what keeps me going until that lovely game drops through my letter-box. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
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Azmo
[long-time lurker]
Keep 'em coming... Keep 'em coming!
We, the poor souls from Europe needs the daily dose of battles...
RageMonsta
08-28-2002, 18:30
Your puny battle tales make Monsta laugh...
Monsta beat 1000 gun monkeys to death while stood alone only armed with a raddish...oh and up hill..walking backwards.
My most lopsided battle so far was Me (Danes) agaist the british. I lost like 60 men to 890 and around 210 prisoners.
This was on a defence mission with a bridge. Dont think I have to explain anymore. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
I still today cant figure out why he attacked I outnumber him greatly.
Papewaio
08-28-2002, 18:36
Must have been a cunning plan.
Quote Originally posted by RageMonsta:
oh and up hill..walking backwards.[/QUOTE]
I see... walking backwards uphill, then you were fighting downhill (taking a good deal out of your supposed greatness http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif), as well as you were walking backwards, that means the gunmonkies were pushing you back... tsk tsk tsk... Not that great I must say. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
[This message has been edited by Kraxis (edited 08-28-2002).]
Quote Originally posted by Kalisari:
(No sooner than I engaged than did my longbows grow VERY short on arrows. And several of my militia companies, injured badly in that first battle, routed, causing the rest of the militia to rout! Their men-at-arms with the crossbows managed to slaughter my cavalry, and suddenly, my army was suddenly routing with heavy casualties!
[/QUOTE]
Question, because I haven't used them - do men at arms have xbows? Or are you talking about dedicated xbow troops. A nice option if you had melee troops with xbows.
Grifman
Quote Originally posted by Grifman:
Question, because I haven't used them - do men at arms have xbows? Or are you talking about dedicated xbow troops. A nice option if you had melee troops with xbows.
Grifman
[/QUOTE]
GAH!
With Bowyers Workshop, you can build crossbow units. And if you have horses, you can build Mounted Crossbow units.
Both are dedicated crossbow units.
GAH!
Kalisari
08-28-2002, 21:48
oops...
yea I meant men-at-arms supported by crossbows http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
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