Odd win

I thought I've played hundreds of battles on STW, MTW, RTW and now M2TW, but this is the first of its kind I've seen.

I was Scotland on a VH/VH game. Into turn 14 or so, I assaulted the rebel controlled "the Wales town" on the main Britain island. My 2 generals and 3 border horses were there first. My infantry lagged behind by 2 tiles. I let the generals and the horsemen build a few siege equipment. My spy actually has opened the gate for me, but I will still wait for my infantry to give me less casualty on the horses.

The AI defender, which was consisted of a major leftover from the British faction (reduced to rebels by my sea of assassins), attacked me during their turn. The AI fielded about 16 units (about 1000 men), including the default rebel Welsh longbowmen, heavy cavalry, and lots of spear and regular militia.

I had about 170 horses. I thought, yeah, I will just run around the castle until the battle timer goes out, no big deal.

I did just that.

Let's say the castle is a clock, and the gate is at 12 o'clock. The AI rushed out at 12 o'clock, and I started moving counter-clockwise.

The AI general (heavy cavalry) was stupid enough to charge into me. My horses ganged up and won that one. The Welsh longbowmen were firing at us from afar, so I lost about 10 horses there. This happened at around the 11 o'clock location.

There were still 900 angry rebels chasing after me. So I kept running and walking. The AIs were all infantry, so they had to run almost all the time. Every few seconds I hear the "wha!" chant from the chasing horde. (They were responding to the running order, I guess.)

At around 8 o'clock, I thought, hey, the castle is completely defenseless. If I rush one of my border horses in (since my spy has opened the gate), wouldn't I be able to hold the town center for 3 minutes for sure?

So I did just that. I let one border horses sprint ahead, while my 2 generals and 2 other border horses running/walking just slightly ahead of the AI army. I timed it perfectly - the gate opens for me at 6 o'clock. The farthest distance for the AI to go back to reclaim the town center.

The AIs was smart enough to realize that it has a higher priority now. They suddenly turned back and started running back to the castle. I guess the exact timing is about 6:30, or if it is 5:30 they would have run into me. (The AI always take the shortest distance.)

Then I thought, hey since they now show their back to me, can't I charge into their back?

So I did just that. My first obstacle was the Welsh longbowmen, who were firing at me. My brave highland generals charged into them, with the aid of the border horses assaulting from the rear (gotta love their speed). The bowmen rout.

Great. I let the border horses take care of the routing bowmen, and let my generals charge forward to catch the back of 2 fat units of militia spearmen, about 20m ahead.

The horns sound, and you gotta love the sight that heavy cavalry charge into the rear of a whole unit. Men were sent flying, and they rout in no time. Again I sent my border horses to take care of the routed, and sent my heavy cavalry to charge the next. My capture counter goes up and up, 100, 200, 300, 400....

So the rear charge continued all the way from about 7 o'clock to 11 o'clock. The 3-minute timer expired! The game asks me whether to continue or not - of course not. My border horses has no way to kill off hundreds of remaining spearmen at the town center!

So I won a heroic victory, getting rid of 1000+ men while losing 10. Fun battle.