Baraka stood at the south gate of Iconium at twilight, watching the storm clouds gathering over the mountains in the distance. The town behind him bustled with evening activity, and dotted lights began to show across the plain as the farmers and herdsmen turned in for the day.
His eyes were drawn to a figure on horseback galloping towards him on the packed earth road, plumes of dust catching the last of the light. The rider slowed the horse gradually to a trot and finally a walk as he approached Baraka.
The black horse was of finest Vardiotori stock; strong and fiery, yet disciplined. The rider was more of an enigma. The strong frame and cold blue eyes of a northman were broiled lean and scorched by years of desert sun, laced with the scars of a thousand battles. He was clad a mix of old ragged chainmail and bedouin robes. A battered western longsword hung at his belt and a fine horsebow, with a bristling quiver of steel tipped arrows hung at the pommel.
The rider paused briefly to scratch at his second recently healed decapitation scar, then dismounted with the fluid ease of a horsemaster and approached Baraka.
General Grog smiled and taking the startled Iman gently by the arm, turned and began to lead him towards Sultan Jalal's palace.
Sultan Jalal sat on a slight rise south of Budapest, surveying the siege preperations. His entire army of hired swords was spread before him. They were willing to fight for free under the Jihad, but now Antioch had fallen, could he rely on their loyalty? Could he push them forward under the promises of plunder and looting, tales of rich european cities ripe for the harvest?
He remembered the words of Baraka, on that fateful night years ago in Iconium...
"Fly north Jalal, true as an arrow and crush all before you until you reach the icy seas.."
With a small shiver at the chill of this Hungarian winter, he turned and began to bark orders at his men..
Jalals HA attack rebels north of Budapest. Qilich spawns, and heads west towards vienna, recruiting mercs. Jalal continues northwards into the pass.
Mustafa and Qansawh siege palermo.
Salamish sieges Rome.
Caatay/Kujuk siege Tripoli (could only reach with horse, inf on boat to push in turn8)
Salih approaches Edessa, Kitbuga spawns from Captain HA stack attacking rebels NW Mosul, Curves towards Edessa. Capt Lajin follows with Baghdad militia.
Jalal nears Thorn, faraj is adopted at Krakow and follows Jalal solo to try Goad fat HRE garrison at Breslau.
Qilich sieges Nuremburg.
Berke heads NW above nuremburg to frankfurt border, grabs all frankfurt mercs.
Salamish pushed out of genoa last AI moves by tough Milan roamers (I just withdrew to hills west luckily), so heads west to join with mustafa on marseille siege.
Qansawh trudges south through the mountainous desert. much dust. many flies.
Caatay/kujuk near algiers in a leaky Cog.
Uthman nears Zagreb
Selim takes bulgar then heads west.
Shaban nears trebizond, Capt orhan sieges.
Damascus falls, Salih/Kitbuga head for Jerusalem
Tatar spawns from corinth rebels, heads North.
Mehmed takes Cairo with Derya. Derya takes horse stack on road to Dongola. Mehmed stays to gather troops/possibly repel Egypt at bridge.
The record is set, no one is gonna break that one. Well done Grog! :thumbsup:
09-25-2008, 02:57
El Diablo
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
..............and CHECKMATE.
Congratulations. That is very impressive. :2thumbsup:
09-25-2008, 03:02
Ratwar
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
All hail the true blitz master!
09-25-2008, 03:21
Chaotix
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Awesome. I wonder if anybody will ever be able to top that. Is it technically impossible to conquer all 106 provinces in less than 21 turns? ATPG thought it couldn't be done before turn 22... maybe the best you can do to this record is match it.
09-25-2008, 03:28
Monk
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaotix27
Awesome. I wonder if anybody will ever be able to top that. Is it technically impossible to conquer all 106 provinces in less than 21 turns? ATPG thought it couldn't be done before turn 22... maybe the best you can do to this record is match it.
I believe 21 is the fastest you are humanly possible to achieve without using cheats of some sort to reset movement. So it's very possible this record will stand for good. I'm sure lots of people will tie it, just to say they did, and even try to beat it. But 106/20 turns just doesn't seem possible, even by the crazy standards Grog and ATPG have set.
09-25-2008, 06:17
Askthepizzaguy
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
I'm not going to bother challenging this one for a while. I have too much stuff on my plate.
You've earned it Grog. Enjoy it!
09-25-2008, 16:01
Martok
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Dang, that's some crazy blitzing, Grog. Congratulations! :medievalcheers:
09-25-2008, 17:37
TheDruid
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
lol yesterday i was searching for ATPG's posts about the turks blitz.
couldnt find it though.
anyway : how can you go to constantinople and others in jihad for antioch??
Dont those mercenaries rebel?
and how do you keep those cities calm ?
oh and grats
09-25-2008, 19:14
Grog
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
I believe 21 is the fastest you are humanly possible to achieve without using cheats of some sort to reset movement. So it's very possible this record will stand for good. I'm sure lots of people will tie it, just to say they did, and even try to beat it. But 106/20 turns just doesn't seem possible, even by the crazy standards Grog and ATPG have set.
Personally, I think 20 turns is possible with the Turks once you understand and eliminate some of the early logistical problems. However, you'll probably need a fair bit of varied 'Blitz' experience under your belt to see the problems before it's too late :inquisitive: In the above account, I only really detailed my generals movements. I don't really go into the 'estimated near future sacking income vs turn+5 deployments/training' theories/overlaps etc etc, or I'd still be typing away furiously on turn 12... :laugh4:
I made quite a few mistakes in the above run, but 'replaying' turns isn't really viable when you can be making ~200+ seperate decisions/turn. Besides, a fair deal of luck and gambling on 'what will the AI do?' and constant readjustment of a multi-tiered loose strategy always plays its part :2thumbsup:
Also a lot of efficiency could be gained through playing more battles. I tend to AR if I have 3:2+ odds and manually play if odds are less, or I see the AR result as too costly. I would estimate 80% of my battles were 3:2+ in my favour, although I do tend to devastate the AI open field with HA/generals at every opportunity that presents itself, which leads to good odds in sieges.
Another area to explore would be initial positioning/objectives and overall Jihad structure. All I am going to hint at is this: What do Rebels do?
Anyway, challengers are most welcome. I won't be posting another vanilla Blitz run until ATPG or another equals/crushes this run :clown:
09-25-2008, 19:27
Grog
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDruid
lol yesterday i was searching for ATPG's posts about the turks blitz.
couldnt find it though.
anyway : how can you go to constantinople and others in jihad for antioch??
Dont those mercenaries rebel?
and how do you keep those cities calm ?
oh and grats
You can move any direction for the first 10 turns of any Jihad, just leave/join once each turn with each general led stack. After 10 turns you lose troops etc.
Mercs don't rebel, as they are only recruited into general-led stacks. Use captains to attack AI stacks open field to spawn more generals.
Cities are kept calm in a number of ways.
If it is a small city, smash it in and convert to motte+bailey. leave it empty or with heavily depleted unit. Build barracks next turn. Make peasant next Turn. job done, it won't rebel in the 2 turns before your peasant garrison is made.
For larger cities that you cannot convert to castles:
Sack, repair, build church/mosque. All troops leave city, general leaves crusade. Move 1 unit back into city. rejoin crusade/jihad. 90% of these won't rebel, and city is usually under control/garrison available before holy disbanded troops rebel. Don't be afraid to leave castles empty. Also, generally doesnt matter if stuff does rebel as its more sacking income for wave 2/3. riots everywhere are fairly commonplace, overall glory bonus from unbrideled blitzing usually stops outright rebellions..
:smash:
09-26-2008, 05:59
Kadagar_AV
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Why the turks though?
Wouldnt hungary or HRE have a better starting position? Even the Bys?
09-26-2008, 07:19
phonicsmonkey
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kadagar_AV
Why the turks though?
Wouldnt hungary or HRE have a better starting position? Even the Bys?
The success of this uber-blitz strategy depends on the exploiting of the jihad / crusade mechanic in the way that Grog describes above. The sooner you can jihad / crusade, and therefore spend ten turns expanding in all directions with free troops, the quicker your time will be.
Only the Islamic factions can call a jihad / crusade on turn one.
Turkey is the best placed of the three, according to current blitz theory...
EDIT: And congratulations Grog! A frightening display of super-efficient blitzing. Still more terrifying is your claim that you could have been 'more efficient'. Chilling indeed...
09-26-2008, 11:12
Kadagar_AV
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Ah, thanks for the clarification, that makes sence indeed:)
Quote:
Still more terrifying is your claim that you could have been 'more efficient'. Chilling indeed...
I think he left that in to mess with the other OCD-characters on these boards...
09-26-2008, 12:13
cambovenzi
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
not a big fan of blitzing.
but that is pretty sick.
game over in 21 turns.
09-26-2008, 13:39
TheDruid
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
ok thx. :) now i finally got the crusades thing :P
09-27-2008, 21:44
Proserpine
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
I have a question, in 2 parts for Grog & other uber-blitzers. What's the current record for a crusading (i.e. catholic) faction. Would it be possible to do, say, the Danes in 21 turns do you think?
09-27-2008, 23:31
Anonymous II
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
So now I know there are more castles than cities in this game. :book:
I wouldn't actually have thought that.
09-28-2008, 00:27
Galain_Ironhide
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Congrats Grog :2thumbsup:
09-28-2008, 01:15
Askthepizzaguy
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
At some point, I will do this in 20 turns.
ATPG will return...
09-28-2008, 10:17
Grog
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Proserpine
I have a question, in 2 parts for Grog & other uber-blitzers. What's the current record for a crusading (i.e. catholic) faction. Would it be possible to do, say, the Danes in 21 turns do you think?
ATPG holds the current record for catholic factions with HRE at 28 turns. I think he started crusade around turn3?. ie: 1-2 build/sack, 3-8 crusade1, 9-17 expand, 18-28 crusade2 iirc? :book:
The danes would struggle compared to say HRE, due to two main reasons.
1/ Starting provinces and location: 1 province in the north compared to a central 6 for HRE. The Danes also have less florins/income/standing armies/generals at the start.
2/ I don't know if Danes get a starting diplomat/princess (or townhall...), but if they do it's still a good 5-6 turns from Arhus to Rome before you can call a crusade.
Given these two factors, I would probably put the danes low-mid thirties turnwise for a 106 province total blitz. Feel free to prove me wrong :2thumbsup:
09-28-2008, 10:34
Grog
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Quote:
Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy
At some point, I will do this in 20 turns.
ATPG will return...
Please do! please do!
This Throne of Enemy Skulls is uncomfortable to sit on, and the underground volcano base is draughty at night. The monorail contractors are being a pain, despite numerous beheadings, and I don't really want to change my Ginger Tom for a white Persian.
Also, dealing with a constant stream of british '00' agents in new and inventive ways is becoming tiresome.. :clown:
09-30-2008, 23:29
Marauder
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Can anyone get me sharks with friggin' laser beams??!?!?
Congratz on 21 turns, 20 turns seems pretty tough. Do you think there was that much slack in your play? A few more "Man of the Hour"s? If you never auto-resolved and tried to save your units to keep up strength, you might have a few more units at the end.
On the nerdy side, someone could do a great graph theory project on this. The roads provide the connections and each city is a node... I'm sure someone could calculate the minimum number of turns to dispatch an army to every city, of course you'd have to win the battles....
10-06-2008, 21:34
KingKnudthebloodthirsty
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Are you blitzing guys tactical genius? cuz in order to speed acrooss the map, there is no time to wait for reinforcements and mercs could only do so much. so with so little troops spread out in a vast area, i doubt autocalc would be reliable.
10-07-2008, 20:49
Abokasee
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Heres what I would like to see a blitzs of: Portugal and France
01-29-2013, 03:11
LegendofTotalWar
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
I know this is an old thread, but I have beaten this record. I did it in 14 turns.
02-04-2013, 04:30
Chaotix
Re: Turks Blitz: 106 provinces / 21 turns
Quote:
Originally Posted by LegendofTotalWar
I know this is an old thread, but I have beaten this record. I did it in 14 turns.
Wow, super-necropost there.
This is one of Grog's earlier runs. He later managed to do a 16-turn blitz, I believe. That was his best record.
