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Longbows win the day
I am English and have all of western Europe wrapped up and a nice north-south border in place against the Poles and Hungarians. I am fighting epic battles against the Egyptians, who rose to huge proportions in the east, in Croatia and Serbia every year. Every battle is 2-4000 men on each side and has huge losses on both sides as our 8 star generals go head to head turn after turn. We are both sending replacements there each turn to keep status quo. The Balkan provinces are a wasteland and neither of us has the manpower to tip the balance so far.
The Spanish were vanquished long ago and I control Iberia down to Granada except for rebel held Portugal. 3 scary stacks of rebels there and I cannot spare the troops to both defeat them and also have enough left to garrison Portugal properly since it rebels so easily anyway.
My preoccupation with the Egyptians kept me from forming a decent army in former Spain to march further south. A rather large and elite rebel force holds Morocco. It’s on my “list” of things to deal with after the Balkans issue is resolved.
The rebels shocked me one year after decades of peace they sent in a stack to Granada I wasn’t ready for this but managed to squeak out a defending victory. I sent some of the new troops built that I usually earmark for Croatia to Granada instead having lost almost my whole army to the rebels attack last year. I yank my reserve 7 star prince who sits in a port for emergencies such as this and move him to Granada as well. His presence and the somewhat better, yet not really great army seem to be enough to keep the Moroccans quiet for a while and I turn my attention to my attrition war against the Egyptians again.
I got Aragon up to Bowyer’s Guild and am pumping out longbows there and was sending them in sets of 5 to the eastern front via naval transport.
Then in 1215 the Spanish reappear They appear as total replacements for the rebels in Portugal (no fight? The rebels just turned yellow in one turn?) and a 4 stack Spanish army and king appear in Morocco to face the rebels there.
Hmmmmm……..
I just lost 1100 men in my last epic Balkan battle as the Egyptians sent more reinforcements into Serbia last turn to go at me again so the demands on my troop replacements are starting to be desperate.
Now the Spanish show up where I do not expect them: half in my backdoor in Portugal and a half on my southern border.
They attack and easily crush the rebels in Morocco who I expected might thin them out better. I have a looksie and see the lost heir of Spain has quite a nice army Hordes of Chiv. Knights, CMAA, Chiv. Sarges and plenty of archers. I send an emissary in attempt to make him an ally. No surprise here….he said “heck no”
I decide I cannot wait around for him to build up even stronger so I better nip it in the bud now. But with what? I am grossly undermanned and over-extended to be able to handle this correctly.
I cobble together mostly rabble troops I can spare from every port province I have and include a few chiv knight, couple billmen and CMAA units newly built and march my prince into Morocco. Then I remember my longbow factory in Aragon 6 longbows are waiting around for orders Thank God Off to Morocco they go
I count on my archer rich defense garrisons in Cordoba and Leon to defend themselves in case the Spanish in Portugal come at me. I can always retake anything they get in a few years anyway.
I am out manned about 2.5:1 and mostly outclassed except in bows.
My ragtag army invades Morocco led by my prince and straight away I bring all my longbows into the initial force. Begin the battle and see the Spanish army way, way back on a hill so high it could be a mountain He has 5 archers up front waiting to drill me as I approach. I send my cav. far to his right flank and this draws 3 of his spears in that direction…breaking his lines a little for me. I keep half an eye on that side and run my cav. up and down to keep them from harm.
My main lines inch forward. As the differing speeds of the men and buildings split my lines up I stop and reline them, then continue forward. Up up one hill…….sloping down to the final valley and facing the next huge hill the Spanish sit on.
I am just out of his archer’s range and I stop. Reline again and readjust a few billmen to where I want them and then move a nice long line of longbows JUST a step ahead of my spear wall. One more step or two and we should be in range. The tone of the music track changes (I really love how they did that) and I know someone is dieing somewhere.
My longbows open up on his archers. I watch the radar screen to see that lovely green line advance far right and see only a small dot of red. So much happiness from a simple line graphic
His archers back up and he advances about half his lines forward into my longbow fire. How stupid I am eating him alive He send about 75% of his lines running at me down the hill. Just like in braveheart….I do not panic. I hold all lines and continue longbow fire right up to the last possible moment before running them back behind my spears at the same time moving my spears forward a few steps so the trade of positions time is halved.
PERFECT His men crash into my lines and my long bows begin a withering fury on his men. As they run out of ammo I dismiss them one at a time to recall some cav. and whatever else I have in reserve. The radar screen green line looks more like I just attacked an army of peasants with all Hvy Cav. than what the real match up was here.
His morale must be wavering because one by one his units start routing. I close in on his King who joined the battle late and surround him. He finally starts running off the field (SOB got through my men somehow) and his route finishes off the morale of his army.
They all run from the field.
I spend another 5mins chasing off his endless waves of reinforcements but with no commander on his side they route rather easily each time.
Final numbers:
Spanish – 1553 dead, 710 captured and the rest ran into the castle.
I lost 350 dead, none captured and have just pulled off the funnest and best victory in a long time.
Longbows ROCK
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Hurrah Sounds like a fun battle you had there, Tozama. It's always nice to be able to pull a win out of the bag like that
I love the Longbows. They really are battle winners, as you've just proved. https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/no...s/bigthumb.gif I once had a battle where the enemy general-for some reason-decided to 'do a bit of recon' and sent his twenty-strong royal knight bodyguard unit up to my army. Whoops Six units of longbows opened fire and there wasn't a man left standing in the unit. https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/no...icons/wink.gif
You gotta love those guys
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yep, longbows are awesome.
I've gone with as many as 10 longbows before and they wreck pure havoc when parked on a fat hill.
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yo lads, 10 is not excessive bring 16 https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/no...ns/biggrin.gif thaT CAN WREAK SOME HAVOC. also you don't have to recall them, they're all right light inf. but their defense aint great
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ummm, their defense means getting overrun by enemy cav.
their 3 AP attack is nice though.
if their ammo is spent, they actually work better on flanks than FMAA due to the AP ability.
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Longbows are my favorite unit. The most common formation I use is:
--------[L][L][L][L]--------
--------[L][L][L][L]--------
--------[L][L][L][L]--------
[C]---[S]----------[S]----[C]
The bowmen square is easy to defend and unleashes devastating volleys of arrows.
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You're a man after my own heart, Tozama. I love killing from afar. I thought I had this game all figured out with just archers til some brighter lights turned me on to, how to use arbs. https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/no...gc-curtain.gif And now I kill even more from afar.
Playing England in any age is just too much fun after you get real good. https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/no...s/bigthumb.gif
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And then to imagine that there are people here who doubt the value of archery...
@Toz
So, now that you've cleared Morocco, are you gonna march along the African coast towards Egypts homelands?
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oh this is good stuff https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/no...evalcheers.gif
always good,
longbows definetly rock...
those sherwood guys grew on me too...
and hey trebizond archers are good at what they do...
https://forums.totalwar.org/forum/no...evalcheers.gif
