Re: Laying plans for a HRE game
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Originally Posted by The Unknown Guy
I kind of wish that France invades Burgundy through Ile de France. I want to see what the Ballistas I accumulated thanks to a loyalist uprising can do at a bridge bottleneck.
Unless you get lucky and the French are dumb enough to send their general within ballista firing distance, not too much. That ballista is shooting a javelin (as opposed to a catapult or a trebuchet, which are firing large boulders, or a cannon, which is firing a lead ball). As soon as somebody 'catches' it, i.e. gets impaled with it, it stops. Translation, for each shot on your ballista, you may kill exactly one target, assuming you hit any of them (but with the force it carries, I imagine armor and shields will be useless).
Therefore, even though it's cheesy (as they always seem to have ballista-javellin magnetic armor on), aim for the general and hope to take him out. Otherwise, they don't do all that much.
In my opinion, the BEST thing to bring to a defensive bridge battle? The Organ Gun I had perched on a knoll next to the bridge when the horde finally crossed into one of my territories (I was playing as Italy, but I had started in High. I want to say it was Hungary, but I could be mistaken). That organ gun SHREDDED the Mongol Heavy cavalry. My Doge was actually my general that day. He personally wept and kissed each man of the crew, who picked up something like 3 valor from that one battle (no kidding, they killed 250 guys).
Re: Laying plans for a HRE game
I made in the past some custom battle experiments on the Acre map with artillery. The highest casualty-causing ones were by far Culverins (as you can blow things up from very far away, thus starting the massacre early on), followed closely by Demi-Culverins and Organ-guns in a turtle-array. Serpentines were pathethic, as far as cannons go. They didn´t deal nearly that ammount of casualties, and were useless in assaults, as they didn´t deal nearly as much damage as a Culv, or even a DemiCulv (less damage&range but more ammo than the Culv). The Serpentine was a kind of very weak version of the Demiculv, having a shorter range, a closer firing limit, and dealing puny damage to walls.
And yes, I know, from those experiments, that the most pathetic of all siege weapons was the Ballista. I just want to try it because of two things
- I have six, and in bridge battles I wont need many melee units.
- The French will/have frustrated my assault attempt at Tolouse using them, by going straight ahead for Burgundy. I use that relative time term because the CTDs altered the nature of space-time in my TW game.
-Furthermore: I don´t have trash units to throw into the arrowfest, and I knew that, should I/when I divert enough units to defend Burgundy, my assault would/had failed (see explanation above)
Re: Laying plans for a HRE game
Ok, the çuicksave trick saved me from the crash:
-Big debacle in the south. Had to raze Venice, as it was about to be invaded. Burgundy holds, on the other hand, and I managed to make razia attacks against the surrounding conçuered French lands, getting some ransom cash, or at least dealing heavy casualties with few losses. I´m particularily interested in cutting off conçuered provinces in order to get loyalist revolts. Or plain revolts. I don´t care.
-On the East: Conçuered the province of Novgorod. After that their remaining forces (which are considerable, as they roam the steppes-- Byzantium is left to roughly Greece + Asia Minor, I think they still hold former Turkish lands) were beaten trying to retake it, they decided to take the battle to me, at Pommerania and Brandenburg. Not a particularily smart move. They suffered heavy losses at Brandenburg, and in Pommerania, I just retreated to the castle, so that I can launch some sergeants I have at Saxony as a relief force (they don´t have a REAL army there. Just enough to beat my meager, formed-by-sheer-chance, javelinmen garrison if they felt like it)
-The battle for the North Sea continues: I have to cash out 350 florins every turn to keep the french from owning a sea route right into my North stronghold
-On the bright side: besieging Flanders, with a force composed mainly of men-at-arms, which should be enough to repell any attack for the two turns I need to starve the garrison out (or simply assault it with trashtroops to break the gates and then pummel to death whatever remains)
In general, taking a severe beating, but as long as I keep myself in the blue, I should be able to hold on. Plus, I own Novgorod.
Sidenote: going to stop to rely on trashtroops for defense. They have the nasty habit of running away from their reflection, lowering the morale of my better troops in the process. I´m pondering disbanding them all, and use the extra income to keep building up my economy & get more men at arms & keep teching up to some decent cavalry (there´s virtually NO decent cavalry around. A combination of Knights and Men at Arms should cut through my enemies liike butter). In fact, they are now a hindrance more than an aid in any battle except sieges (where I need something cheap to take the oil discharges)
Re: Laying plans for a HRE game
Glad to you were able to recover your campaign, man. :medievalcheers:
A pity you had to sacrifice Venice, but it's good to see you've at least got Flanders under siege. Taking the county will be a significant blow to the French, not to mention which her income will add quite nicely to your own coffers. As far as spurring revolts in further French-held domains, I encourage you to send in a few spies if you've not already done so -- they can really make a difference in these types of situations, especially if you've dismantled the border forts in the lands you've razed.
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Sidenote: going to stop to rely on trashtroops for defense.
An excellent idea. :yes:
Re: Laying plans for a HRE game
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unknown Guy
Sidenote: going to stop to rely on trashtroops for defense.
I second that. I always have my quality troops in my border provinces and use trashtroops as backfillers to keep loyalty up in the rear. When you organise it well your quality troops can keep moving forward while your trashies backfill just as quickly.
