Crazy war with the Franj! Crusade stories

(Playing as Egyptians) I just had a series of 5 battles, in a row against 5 Franj crusader armies, Hungarian, Polish, Sicilian, Danish and Venitian all aimed at taking Antioch (why Antioch I don't really know, If I were Pope I would say aim for Al-Kuds, but whatever). I had really only 3 armies in range of defending my city, all of them consisted of Mamluks, Mamluk horse archers and foot archers (as you can tell, Im not good at preparation) and lacking in any real "attacking" units or infantry. I halt the Hungarians twice once with me attacking, and surrounding them, and then being pushed back and defeating them by means of just shootin' and running away. That was it for the Hungarians, but 4 crusader armies were left. They quickly besiged Antioch, and my armies from Dimashq and Acre were coming as fast as possible when the large Polish army attacked my little cavalry continget outside of the walls. It seemed as if hope had run out, but luckily, the Polish army was made up of mostly fanatics, and my mamluks won, but with a huge price. With only 100 men outside of Antioch, I positioned my cavaliers behind the biesieging Danes and wated for reinforcements southwards...

The Danes made an unsuspecting move and bought the entire area worth of Merc's and assulted. I was vastly outnumbered, but entire army was archers and I was thinking this could be the end. But it was not so. The danes came head on in a line, and I wated, literally for an hour, and watched as my archers literally poured ammo onto the army and my mamluks held the front gate, once the mamluks were killed the Danish army advanced and I put my mamluk archers outside the gate (the ones I placed behind, beforehand) blocking the only way out. Now, they were surrounded. By 5 minutes time, every Dane on that crusade had an arrow in him. The entire army was shattered, and I had soldiers to spare (as well as wicked experience!).

I then took every soldier I could spare and cleaned out the rest of the armies. One could just imagine the men of antioch, all armed with their fantastic bows, being honored by the great Sultan for their bravery against the Franj....

Does anyone else have a story to boast? If so please post

Shukran wa Ma'salema!

1502 in the Year of our Lord,
After just taking this city we were besieged and by none other than those strange fanatics who are native to this exotic place. They look terrifying with their odd painted faces, skins of wild beasts and clubs. These Pagans had besieged this city many times, but never had they amassed an army such as this. Earlier sallies had left the initial siege army weakend and dwindled their numbers down to 300. But now, a new force had joined them. A man whom the locals call Emperor Neozapatlin had positioned his army of 1000 men strong just outside the walls. Soon, the army of heatens attacked, leaving no chance for reinforcement. The only men left guarding this city were 500 men. Most of our forces were mercenaries and we had few quality troops. I was one of the few lucky ones. I belonged to the Cossack Musketeer company of which only six of us were left after taking this city. The only other ranged units under command of Artoym the Chivalrous were a comapny of 26 mercenary Arquebusiers from France, 6 Boyars Sons and another 8 Boyar Sons. Artoym commanded us, along with the Arquebusiers, 50 Dismounted Boyar Sons and a 90 Tlaxcalan Mercenaries. The Rest, mostly Native Mercenaries, a few units of Tlaxcalan Mercenaries, Sergei of Shudzal and 1 Germanic Knight were to hold the gates and the rest of the city. Both of their ladders reached our walls. Before the ram got close to our gate, Brave Sergei and the Boyar Sons rode out and defeated the Eagle Warriors pushing the ram and one more unit behind them. They proceeded back to the city and through the gate, waiting for another unit to pick up the ram. Meanwhile, I was having no shortage of Targets, as we fired at the Jaguar Warriors who stood in front of the enemy General. The Warriors, unprepared and barely knowledgeable to the existence of firearms fell as trees by the mightiest of axemen. Slowly but surely, their numbers were falling, but what was this? The savage general and his guards had picked up the ram! Wanting to conserve his troops, Artoym did not send Sergei or the Boyar Sons out to contest them. All this time, Jaguar Warriors and Eagle warriors were fighting Tlaxcalan Mercenaries on the walls to my left and right. The Dismounted Boyar Sons, kept as reserves on the walls, fought back the Jaguar warriors who nearly routed a unit of Native Mercenaries. Ha! Russian Steel had shown the savage why we were superior! The Jaguar warriors who had fought against the sons of Russia were killed with none left to retreat back to thier remaining cities. I kept shooting at whatever presented itself, but I soon recieved orders to shoot at the Cachequinech, fearsome warriors with painted faces and large clubs. Their prowess on the battlefield could not save them from our musket fire! The Jaguar warriors to the right side of me were routed by two Tlaxcalan regiments. Then, Sergei and the Boyar Sons road out and as lightining destroys a tree, killed the enemy General in an instant. The Boyar Sons unloaded their javelins on the already decimated Cachequinech, forcing them to flee. I was celebrating our most wonderful victory, and yet it seemed to easy. Little did I know however, that the other 1000 Aztecs were hiding literally behind the city and they had yet to attack... I will post part two later!

Dig it!

Part II
Quickly noticing the enemy army hiding behind the wall, Artoym sent two contingents of native mercenaries to run to the towers and operate them. The Enemy, having no way to get through the east gate, had to march all the way to the front gate. The enemy army split in half, sent one half along the North Wall and another along the South Wall. As they marched, the natives ran along the walls with them to each tower, decimating the enemy army and making this battle surely a costly won. If they would win, it sure would by pyhric. The two halves of the enemy armies finally reached the West Gate. A unit of Jaguar Warriors, already down to 3/4 strength moved up the North Ladders, while a unit of the same troop type, yet at full strength, clambered up the south ladders. The experienced units of Tlaxcalan mercenaries, Native Mercenaries and one brigade of Dismoutned Boyar Sons held them off with a ferocity that I had never seen before. I was ordered to fire at the Cachequinech, who were slowly but surely deteriorating due to musket fire and arrows from the towers. They routed soon, and, seizing the oppurtunity, Sergei and the Boyar Sons charged at some arrow warriors who were waiting to use the ladder.The heathens, fearing the horses, broke and ran. Sergei turned his attention to some spear throwers while the two units of Boyar Sons attacked some more archers. All of there ranged units had now routed! Meanwhile, some Aztec Warriors climbed the ladders, but again were reppelled by the steel of Russia! As soon as the savages saw that this was not working, the took what they had left of their army and charged through the gates. Artoym called all the men on the walls except for us down to defend. We were ordered to shoot at the General's bodyguard, many of whom were killed before they entered the gateway. Now, Artoym was in an incredibly advantageous position. The gateway formed a bottle neck, which cut off the Aztec's ability to use their numbers to overwhelm us. They had to come attack us two units at a time! The mercenaries held the line whil Artoym prepared for a charge. Sergei and the Boyar Sons, who were positioned outside the wall, did so too. Artoym charged the Aztec Warriors, while Sergei and the Boyars charged a small unit of Aztec Spearmen from behind! Both groups then retreated and prepared to charge again. By the time Artoym charged the next time, the Aztec general was engaged in combat. As soon as the charge hit, he perished, striking an unbelievable blow to his army's morale. I shot onto the gateway's entrance to the city, blindly killing whichever sad soul happened to be in my line of fire. Artoym had obviously prepared for this and made sure few friendly soldiers got in the way of our muskets. Sergei and Artoym charged again and again, but after the sixth charge, everyone routed. The Aztec army routed, and our calvary rode them down, taking many prisoners. We had destroyed their whole army, and they could not pay the ransom. Poor fools! Russia has taught them a lesson they shall never forget!

Well my story is as being a Crusading Franji; Every other Catholic Kingdom had been crusading against that ever popular target Antioch except for France. No the French crown had Imperial ambitions and getting dusty and dirty marching a army across Europe wasn’t up to the French Crown’s dignity. So the French conquer Italy, Sicily, Crete and Rhodes. Nice royal seaway to the Holy Land. Then after a practice Crusade against Tunis the main advent; a crusade against Jerusalem!

So the French Dauphine gathers his elite army (complete with that most important of Crusading accessories; cart mounted True Cross™ ), gets on the French super fleet sweeps across the sea, blasts threw the Eygptian navey, lands on the Palestine coast before Egyptians can react and the entire garrison of Jerusalem is this old Egyptian general. (kind of a let down)

I could almost see the old Egyptian general thinking Jerusalem is a great place in the sun to retire too. Far from the Byzantines and the Turks were the war and he can go worship at the Dome of the Rock on Fridays. The next thing he knows these ragged Christian fanatics are crawling over the cities walls like human bugs and some Franji prince and his men in their full barbarian garishness charging threw the streets for him. I swear the general’s figure had a look of “these guys can’t be for real”.

:laugh4: Nice!

I know I would like to retire to Al-Kuds too, sigh.

But reguardless. I have another story as well. This time involving (grumble) the Mongols.

These beasts literally appeard from out of nowhere, and avoided attacking my turish neighbors. They all besieged Antioch, which still housed the famed Anticohen Archers and the great general Al-Hakim, The Holy Warrior (or Mujahadeen in Arabic, I think). Anyways, they assult, with only one siege tower and one ram. I have all of my archers lined up (mind you, Archer militia) hoping for some grand victory, alas the mongols defeated me, but not after I killed about 10% of their horde.

The mongols then captured this fair city and the land was in chaos. I summoned every general affordable to retake the city. Three stacks of pure cavalry, (this time with more royal mamluks and mamluks) surrounded the borders. To provoke an attack, and therefore gain a defensive edge (don't ask me why, im just good at defending) I send a commander, Nasir, with a large amount of my mamluk archers and arab cavalry just into the territory, bordering the Orontes. They make three assults, the first led by the Khan.

The battle itself was extremely difficult. Both of our armies were very well matched, basically consisting of the same amount of horse archers and with very little "shock cavalry". In the end, I witnessed a deul between Nasir and the Khan. Nasir's fine Damascened blade outshone the foul Oriental beast and he struck him down after a huge struggle. Eventually, I cornered the Mongols into a deep valley and kept my humble Mamluks upon a hill and fired thousands of volleys. The fierce mongols then broke into retreat and Nasir followed...

After a stunning victory against the bloodthirsty Khan, and then against an unsuspecting commander (fought at the same battlefield as mentioned beforehand), I commishon my troops for Jihad to retake the fabled city of archers. After many years of besiegement, the settlement fell, and Nasir the Holy Warrior became crown prince of the Sultanate.

Peace returned to the land....for now!!