War Stories

[Fisherking]

To me the tactical scope of this game are much broader than the previous games. But hay, don’t take my word for it.



Let us share some of your exciting moments of great victories or unexpected defeats. We have all had them. Here is one of mine.


Giving Battle:

In a recent game as England, I was moving on a Venetian city. My general and the horse could reach it a turn before the infantry could, so I detached the horse to siege the city and prepare it for capture when the infantry arrived. As an afterthought I had the general buy up 3 Slavic Mercenaries and sent them ahead with the horses (three decimated knights). I wanted to keep the general in the stack with the infantry as a rebellion there would be devastating. He had the movement to get to the city and back so I moved him just short of the city to buy the mercenaries then put him back with the troops.

I knew there were four units in the city but not what they were. The mercenaries were just numbers. I find these guys are ram pushers but other than that they are just numbers for a garrison.
Well in the AI turn they attacked with a second stack. Its numbers were not so big but it gave the AI as the hands down favorite on the red bar indicator…But I was not running, yet.

I deployed on the right edge of the map near the back where there was a low hill with a steep drop off. I put the infantry up near the edge and the horse to there right on a lower more gradual slope.

Well the stack from town turned out to be two catapults and two DFKs. The second stack was three DFKs with a catapult.

For a short moment I thought of withdrawing but I sent a knight to try and kill off the catapults from the town group. I sent the other two knights to flank the group and get them to maneuver and not to close on my poor infantry.

I managed to kill off the catapults fairly quickly and sent the knights to harass the second stack. My infantry started a march to the rear. I was not going to let them engage the DFKs alone.

I used one knight to feint a charge and withdraw while one moved to the flank and one to the rear. I didn’t let them stand and become catapult fodder. With the knight in the rear I charged the rear of a DFK and quickly withdrew. The DFKs went after the knights in front of them. I charged the rear group of DFKs in the flank with one knight and the rear knights took out the catapult. I got lucky and killed their general on first impact. I quickly withdrew and regrouped to the flank with all three knights. The DFKs continued their march toward my hapless infantry.

I continued to take the DFKs in the rear and withdraw when ever I could and whittled them down and broke them before they got to my infantry. I then moved my attention to the town group that was still pursuing my infantry.

When I had the knights suitable close I reversed the infantry and charged. I charged the knights at the enemy rear. My infantry managed to kill their general to my great surprise, so when the knights impacted the enemy rear they quickly broke and ran.

I had lost half of my infantry in the short engagement and about a quarter of the knights but now their city was empty so it was grand! Until the next enemy stack appeared…

Well it was meant to be the killer. It had spears, archers, and more DFKs and catapults. I thought if nothing else I could lead them a merry chase, but I was not going to give up on an empty city.

My infantry was in no shape to be much more than bait. My knights were a little better off, but not much.

I deployed in an infantry group on one side of the map and a cavalry group in the center. When the battle started I sent the infantry marching for the enemy’s corner and got my horses out of the way of the enemy’s advance, hoping that they would follow the infantry. They sensibly came for the horses. I turned my infantry to threaten the enemy rear while maneuvering my horse to lessen the effects of the crossbows. I sent the weakest of the horse toward my infantry and split the other two toward the enemy flanks.

Thankfully the crossbows were sent off toward my infantry so the one horse coming from behind and the flank cut it loose from the herd and chewed it to pieces. By feinting here and there I managed to separate them enough from the catapults to take them out as well. I took on the DFKs when ever they exposed a flank or rear while using my pitiful infantry to apply pressure or as bait. I finally staged them halfway up a little slope with the cavalry off to their right. The spears broke from the mob and went for the horse so I sent the infantry after them and had the other two horse take the DFKs in the rear. When the infantry engaged the spear I sent the last horse in on it’s flank. The spears broke just about the time I managed to kill their general with the two other horses. From there the DFKs lost heart and when they routed I did not give chase. It was over at last and I occupied the city with a pitifully small force. Less than 60 infantry and about 35 horse. But I did see that the horses that had had copper chevrons at the start each bore a single gold one each.


In contrast, my first encounter with the enemy was on the first turn when I sent a peasant west of Nottingham to scout. A rebel stack pounced on him and I withdrew. They chased and caught him so I auto resolved…giving me two lost battles before I could say hello.

[Ramses II CP]

Recently in a Turkish campaign I had an almost full Egyptian stack under a general siege Acre right after I'd finished converting it into a town. I had two full companies of town militia, a company of peasant archers, and a partial company of Turkomans with some experience.

Right off the bat they have peasants pushing the ram, so I immediately decide to send my Turkomans out to kill them and put my town militia on the walls to hold against the siege tower/ladder combo. Click, click, click, and I'm moving on to repositioning the archers so they get some enfilading fire on the gate area, when I notice something strange...

My first company of town militia are marching slowly out of the gates and my Turkomans are standing stock still by the walls. DOH! :embarassed:

The Egyptian general is leading from the front, and before I can withdraw the militia (I should've ordered them on out the gate) he has engaged them with the company half in and half out the gate. I order them to form up in front of the gate, send the 2nd company of town militia running for the square, and send the Turkomans racing to exit the east gate and get behind the enemy.

The town militia can't even get fully formed up in the gate before the pressure mounts too high and they start to flee. Fortunately towers and archer fire have inflicted some losses, and the immense mass of troops in the gate are stuck trying to capture a few of the routers who are, in turn, stuck around the edges of the gate. I switch my archers to fire arrows to try to do some morale damage as the Turkomans come in behind the mess.

The AI general eventually cuts his way through and charges the town square, but he's alone. Everyone else is still stuck in the gate massed around their ram and the routers. (Yes, it's a bug, but it was a pretty funny one with 1500+ troops stuck there trying to capture 4-5 militiamen). Most of the fleeing company of militia are ridden down or stuck, but a funny thing happens as he's racing away. A volley of fire arrows lance into the general's body guard and he dies.

His men continue the charge and the first company of town militia, who made it back to the square whole, start getting butchered by them but hold because of the morale bonus. Meanwhile back at the gate the peasant heavy Egyptians are suffering some heavy attrition and morale problems. I charge the Turkomans into a bunch of peasants and withdraw them immediately, then charge again. The peasants break and rout.

Slowly, slowly I work my way through the Egyptian companies, fire arrows, charge, rout. In the end a few tougher units are left, but there's no formation and their men are all strung out and tired now, so I'm able to 'sweep' the Turkomans through them and cause a general rout.

Now the funny part, though. The Town militia back at the square are almost dead and the general's bodyguard still has about 25 men. I bring the archers down off the walls and send the few remaining Turkomans to stand behind the gate and keep the towers firing at any Egyptians who recover their courage. They only do so in singles, and they all flee before getting back in the gate.

The archers advance and start firing off arrows (I stuck with fire arrows, didn't have many volleys left and was hoping for morale problems). The last few town militia get ground under, and the enemy captures the square. What can I do? I charge the peasant archers at the remaining Egyptian bodyguards. They are standing at the edge of the square and they meet my tired peasants before they can get the morale boost and the archers rout. A lot of them are captured, but some make it to the square and try to fight.

The time is now, if it's going to happen, so I pull the ~15 remaining Turkomen away from the gate and go in after the general's bodyguard. Even fighting on two fronts those men won't break, but the weary Turkomens do and eventually the enemy kills every one of my men at the square and the timer counts down to an Egyptian victory.

So close! But foiled by the mighty bodyguards. Needless to say the very next turn I sieged Acre with a stack and recaptured it quickly, but it was a pretty strange battle. The AI's infantry around the gate kept getting through in little trickles and scattering out on the street, but they never made it to the square or reformed and I think it really hurt their morale to be in that position.

:egypt: