The most satisfying moments in Medieval Total War

I was playing Medieval yesterday and was just fighting an annoying battle against the Spanish. I was watching my mounted sergeants surround a group of Jinetes from three directions and then charge them from all directions leaving behind a pile of Jinetes in a form where I prefer all fast missile cavalry, on the enemy side to be accurate. (dead, that is) I was looking at those poor guys desperately trying to escape from my advancing horses and then getting inevitably beaten from all directions, and deep inside of me a small,sadistic voice said: "damn, this has to be one of the sweetest things to look at in this game."

(I think this deep bitterness towards all fast missile cavalry is explained by my experiences with them especially in my current French campaing. I made two crusades to the holy land, and managed to capture Palestine and Tripoli from the cursed infidels, and had some very unpleasant encounters with the Turkish and their Turcoman horses. One battle comes to my mind in special, it was an absolute carnage on both sides, thanks to my small number of horses it was painstakingly difficult to beat their horse archers, but eventually I managed to win, over 600 of the Turkish didn't leave the field that day but i also lost well over 500 of my men, it was one of the costliest victories i've had. And like fighting the Turkish wouldn't be enough, the spanish decided to attack me back home in the old France and well, we all know that the AI loves to spam Jinetes...)

But now, back on topic, I started to think about all those happy moments I've had with this game and tried to find those that give me the most satisfaction and in addition to that thing with missile cavalry I already mentioned, these things came first to my mind:

- When you engage the enemy army, and watch your units fight bravely ignoring their losses, and then you hear that horn blowing that indicates that one enemy unit has had enough and has just routed, and then more horns start blaring all around the enemy lines and you see their lines crumbling to smithereens under the pressure of your units.

- No matter how the battle is going, but every time I fight a battle in a thunderstorm just gives such a great feeling to it that there isn't anything that can match it. I don't care how bad my missile units shoot in the rain but geez, when i see that flash and hear the peal of thunder, and suddenly everything is lit and then almost instantly the darkness covers everything again... My english isn't good enough to describe it.

- I've had so many campaings cut short because of a lack of heirs, I feel so relieved every time I open the faction heirs scroll and see at least 4-5 relatively young princes there, knowing my empire is safe.

I can't think of any more things right now, but feel free to post all those small things and events you have experienced in this game that give you that nice, warm feeling inside and keep you going despite all the obsticles you encounter.

(Off topic, but I just love this christmas theme here at the .org, absolutely wonderful!)

To finally inveigle a unit or two of ubercavalry around behind the enemy lines, when your men are at their most hard-pressed, & to smash those ubercavalry units in a perfectly executed one-click charge into the rear of the enemy, & see them melt like the snows of early Spring; & to hear the shrill retreat being played upon the horns of the enemy, & to look over your defensive position & view the welter of bodies, friend & foe upon the ground; & to run down the fleeing enemy like dogs...

Ah, is this not happiness?

(Apologies to Ching Shengt'an)

Hi,
the happiest moments are when the campaign is still dynamic - there are a lot of factions around vying for power and are all healthy financially - contest, skirmish for land, crusades, marriages, alliances, betrayals, excommunications all happen and matter.

All that is cut short once most factions are gone, the palyers faction is permanently safe and the campaign turns in a slugfest all the way to victory (be it GA or domination).

The biggest complain i have with TW campaigns is that they work as intended for a limited amount of turns. This happens in all incarnations of the game with the exception of Shogun.

In MTW the campaign works - that is there is uncertainty over the victor and potentially true danger for the players faction - for about 30 to 40 percent of the time frame. In Shogun in about 60 to 70.

!it burnsus!

I don't necessarily like to get myself into this position but if I am I love defending a castle.
I get all warm and fuzzy hiding behind my massive stone walls and watching as the enemy smash themselves to pieces apon it.
A group or 2 of hardy spear set to hold right at the gate mouth and I can happily sit back and turn the music up and watch every second of the assault.
grinning as ballista and catapault smash through the advancing enemy and watching hundreds of assaulters fall to archer fire from my battlements.
Give me a barbican and that tops it all off.

Best moment for me is re-emerging empires. Especially when they are in a year area of the empire with peasants holding the fort. Having to retake my land from a new army of high quality and often times high quantity units is fantastic.

Pressing the Shift button on the campaign map after 70 long years. Green is my favourite colour!

And those moments where you decide;

"Well, those silly Iberians are at it again - I saved them from the Arabs - I gave Algarve to Portugal and Cordoba to the Castilians, because they weren't trustworthy enough to hold their capitols. And now King Alfonso VII has made the decision to expand his little thiefdom into Algarve! Well! I'll have him starving in his little fort with his emaciated peasants!"

Or recently, when an interesting political situation developed for me, as the Aragonese (I am confronting my fears for Camel Archers);

I began the reconquista by uniting my Kingdom with the Castilians and Portugese, when I came the rescue of the Spanish king, besieged in Castile by his former allies, the Almohads!
Yes, I held the Arabs back from my kingdom on the Ebro river with 800 men, whilst they amassed 2600 for the assault from Africa. And Portucale! Beloved Portucale drove south to Algarve, diverting the Muslim eyes westward, and allowing me to launch an offensive which reached Granada in two years.
They are trapped in Cordoba! No matter how precarious my conquests are, I brought Christendom together in Iberia - I have never seen so much allied assistance before. Satisfying!

Today I fought the most annoying battle I can remember in a long time: My once- great crusade army licking its wounds in Tripoli was attacked by the rebels from Antioch, well at that point I though "bah, rebels, I'll crush them with a single mouse-click!" But then I looked at their army and I wasn't that sure anymore if I would be able to win after all. The rebels had 10 units of Turcopoles + an odd unit of horse archers and Turcoman horses, and I had lost almost all of my light cavalry a while ago. Luckily I had three units of archers and some pictish crossbowmen (those scots sure loved to travel around europe in those days, they can pop up in just about anywhere on the map.) and somehow I managed to shoot majority of their HA's to the kingdom come. But damn those infidels, they just kept rallying back and running around my army shooting everything they could hit. I was this close to command all my remaining cavalry into a foolish charge towards the Turcopoles, but then I saw that the enemy finally decided to march their infantry towards my lines, and finally, after crushing their footmen and routing them they decided that maybe Tripoli isn't that tempting after all and turned around riding behind the horizon. I have never been that happy listening to the happy tunes of victory than that time.

A small quirk guys but I love when playing as an Islamic nation, asking for an alliance with an Alim.
The prayer-music just sounds sweet.

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Originally Posted by Fagar

A small quirk guys but I love when playing as an Islamic nation, asking for an alliance with an Alim.
The prayer-music just sounds sweet.

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I have the same quirk, I often find myself playing islamic factions just to hear that music sometimes.

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Originally Posted by Xehh II

I have the same quirk, I often find myself playing islamic factions just to hear that music sometimes.

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ha.
I thought I might be the only one.
I just think it is a very cool touch.
Little details sometimes make all the difference

Taking out Byzantine princes and the emperor with javelin infantry.

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Originally Posted by Caliburn

Taking out Byzantine princes and the emperor with javelin infantry.

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I would say it's much more satisfying to take the Janissary Heavy Tin Openers to them.

:laugh4:

Ah yes.
The building sound FX when you finally complete your Military Academy and prepare to build your JHI.
You can nearly hear the Katatanks quiver in their mailed boots.

- clicking the "kill all prisoners" icon when you get to 1,000 ...
- your king is 78, his first son and heir matures !!!
- discover that the first byzantine heir is a 0-star idiot ...
- sinking the last dromon that evaded you for 50 years and sunk 53 of your ships ...
- silly enemy king with attacks with a stack that includes all its 7 and more stars generals ...
- big rock thrown by cataput hits enemy general's head (or even better byz emperor's crown ...)

Some of the best are those "just in time" moments.

My favorite was a Turkish battle early in the campaign.

I face an AI assortment of militia, peasants, swords and a cpl archers. I'm outnumbered but saracens, ghazi and AHC should make this easy.

Battle is up a steep hill; np I'll fight a holding action on the hill and circle my AHC to the rear; I auto all 5 AHC to march a 4-5 waypoint journey to the top...no running I want them to be fresh.

Battle is joined! I am hard pressed everywhere! I run around shoring up morale, fixing lines switching units to "attack"/"hold" or rally...OMG! the centre is about to collapse!! Rush a unit of ghazi in to strengthen resolve and teach the infidel a lesson!

Time passes...I continue patching the line but the whole thing is going to collapse...hmmm, what are these 5 untouched AHC units? Oh yeah!:idea2: I remember them, and here they are! At the top of the hill, untouched and fresh the AHC have done the Long March!

The resulting surprise charge smashed the enemy, only the peasant commander put up any fight at all.

God that felt good!!! I don't think I have ever enjoyed the "clean up" phase so much:yes:

side note: the ghazi support unit sent to the centre early in the battle survived...3 men cursing the denial of paradise:clown:

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Originally Posted by Jxrc

- clicking the "kill all prisoners" icon when you get to 1,000 ...

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I love that one. :smitten:

Had a great momemt playing as the Almo's in early recently.
In a pitched battle with the French in Provence.
Both of us with 4 star princes leading.
It was only early in the battle and the frontlines were holding each other up but I managed to get a unit of Ghazi around the side of the ranks and threw them into his archers that were peppering me mercilessly.
The result was brilliant his archers folded immediately as expected but the best bit was in my pursuit the Ghazi streamed past a group of hobilars and with barely breaking stride cut them clean in half.
Not into the flanks just past the head of the unit as it was manouvering into position.
The ghazi only engaged for about 10 seconds and Hobilars went from 40 to 18 horse.
I love it because it was so symetrical and clean, just like a scapel.
The Ghazi continued the pursuit of the archers and the Hobilars just halted stunned.
Priceless.

There's so many simple pleasures, its hard to choose.

1 Sometimes you get to take down an "uber" unit easily using inferior troops to do it. I thinned a Varangian guard unit with a single javelin unit once, and it was a pleasure to see how little fight was left in them when my melee troops closed in on them front and rear. One of the joys of playing Irish in Viking Era is the chance to maul a Huscarl unit with your javelins, and maybe send someone in to finish them off or maybe retreat when you run out of javelins, only to maul them again next year.

2 Defeat, oddly enough, can be fun sometimes. I was playing the Scots in Viking era, and trying to take over Ireland. To make it more challenging, I only allowed myself to use troops raised in Ireland Now, Spearmen and Highland Clansmen aren't good at going toe to toe with Gallowglasses raised in the province that gives a Gallowglass valor bonus, but its about all I could raise in Ireland for quite some time.

Well, I remember one battle I lost, but not until I had destroyed the bulk of the enemy Gallowglasses. I knew that in spite of the outcome of the battle, I had won the war, because Spearmen and Highland Clansmen can deal with lots Kerns, a few shattered Gallowglass units, and the odd troop of Royal Guardsmen. I could watch my terrified Scots flee with the satisfaction of a job well done.

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Originally Posted by drone

I love that one. :smitten:

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I'm not alone! :jumping:

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Originally Posted by HopAlongBunny

Time passes...I continue patching the line but the whole thing is going to collapse...hmmm, what are these 5 untouched AHC units? Oh yeah!:idea2: I remember them, and here they are! At the top of the hill, untouched and fresh the AHC have done the Long March!

The resulting surprise charge smashed the enemy, only the peasant commander put up any fight at all.

God that felt good!!! I don't think I have ever enjoyed the "clean up" phase so much:yes:

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That one has my vote every time. It's great when your units are battling away and you're worried they won't hold out for much longer then to bring up your cavalry or flankers onto a particularly hated enemy's rear and/or flanks and slam them into foe with conviction, saving your beleaguered men then turning them on the enemy and hunting them down to the last man, with the prisoners tally increasing rapidly...

I've done this when playing as the Turks with Futuwwa. It's a beautiful thing to see them emerge from the woods, charging with swords drawn and hitting the enemy where it hurts.

:bow:

A lot of the above are great reminders of all the quirks that keep me playing! Here are a few more of my own...

- Realising that you got the direction of the enemy right when forced to deploy trebuchet's in the field!

- Holding off a massive rival empire and your defensive wins cause them to succumb to a civil war.

- Also, I really like fighting battles in the snow. It feels more atmospheric as you can't really see the enemy until they are upon you!

The realism settings just work so well in this game.
They have a rustic feeling and pixelatic graphics and that is what actually makes them great.
My favourite is the lightening sound FX, especially if it is really pouring rain and you have just completed the slow march up the hill and the lightening highlights your enemy and the battle music begins.
Sensational.

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Originally Posted by Fagar

My favourite is the lightening sound FX, especially if it is really pouring rain and you have just completed the slow march up the hill and the lightening highlights your enemy and the battle music begins.
Sensational.

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Yes! :yes:

I don't know how many time I've closed with the enemy; peel of thunder! flash of lightning!!; my heart skips a beat: "Canon!??? they can't have gunpowder yet!! wt@$#%$@!!!"

Composure is regained as you hunker down to the battle at hand...feeling like a noob:clown:

And yes, it looks great!:beam:

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Originally Posted by Caraveloto

I've done this when playing as the Turks with Futuwwa. It's a beautiful thing to see them emerge from the woods, charging with swords drawn and hitting the enemy where it hurts.

:bow:

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Futuwwa, Ghazi the Turk roster abounds with armed and dangerous loons! Gotta love it:laugh4:

Hi people,

For me it is always wonderful to execute few thousand peasants or something like that (slaughtering those blasted and worthless horse archers is certainly a worthy candidate as well). In the original game it is always an abundance of peasants everywhere. Executing them and cleaning up MTW Europe makes it a better place you know….

- Just your average peasant-hater signing off. :mickey:

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Originally Posted by Ironsword

- Holding off a massive rival empire and your defensive wins cause them to succumb to a civil war.

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A nice refinement on that one - the rival empire was considerably stronger than you, so you made an alliance for your own protection. Your trecherous new ally soon attacks you, and succumbs to civil war the very next turn because the attack failed. I've only seen that once.

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Originally Posted by Axalon

- Just your average peasant-hater signing off. :mickey:

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Why don't you mod your game so that no one can build peasants or Muslim peasants? It should be pretty easy to do with gnome editor, so long as you back up your files to prevent accidents.

You can get gnome editor at https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...=N&pp=5&page=3

Ah, I nearly forgot!

One of the most satisfying moments for me is when the girlf is out, I have three hours spare and hear the intro music! :yes:

Sadly, this doesn't happen all that much!

My most recent campaign (Cumans, Early, Hard, GA, XL+Tyberius): the Cumans do not get arbs so I was forced to use arqs much more than previously. Sicily declared war, so its fleet in the Tyrrhenian interdicted the link to the Khan's capital province. Sardinia rebelled, mustering about 600 rebels including a unit of horse. My garrison didn't amount to much and I elected (And gambled.) to build a unit of arqs.

The battle opened. When the rebel horse were in range the arqs fired a volley taking out 2 or 3 of their number. The horse formed open order and made to charge the arqs. They were so nearly upon them I thought, "This is it. Adios amigos." At the very last millisecond the arqs unleashed a volley that sounded like a thunder clap. About twenty of the horsemen dropped (no surprise, it was point blank range) and the remaining half dozen bolted, routing off the field.

Boy did I enjoy that: the tension, the outcome, pure immersion.

Even after that the rebel spears and peasants put up a decent fight; they had a two-star general versus my no star chap.

All in all a real fun episode. I still slaughtered the ringleaders.

VGB

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Originally Posted by Ironsword

Ah, I nearly forgot!

One of the most satisfying moments for me is when the girlf is out, I have three hours spare and hear the intro music! :yes:

Sadly, this doesn't happen all that much!

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HA HA How true is this!
Me I so look forward to my monthly RDO, smile and send the GF off to work, wave good bye, have a lovely day dear.
Immediately bolt back inside put the computer on, boil the jug make a coffee and turn the speakers up!
Sit back in true contentment as the intro music starts up and "THIS IS AN AGE OF DARKNESS"

for me, it's probably seeing 5,6, or 7 star heirs mature that aren't first in line to take over the throne when the King dies. that, or being pleasantly surprised by how fun certain factions can be that i've never used before. i've still never played as any of the Muslim, Pagan, or Scandinavian factions and have never really finished any of the campaigns that i've started with Orthodox factions, so hopefully there's a few more pleasant surprises down the road.

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Originally Posted by Brandy Blue

Why don't you mod your game so that no one can build peasants or Muslim peasants? It should be pretty easy to do with gnome editor, so long as you back up your files to prevent accidents.

You can get gnome editor at https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...=N&pp=5&page=3

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Hi there Brandy,

I appreciate the friendly advice here and the link, but I really dont need a GnomeEditor. Thanks anyway, If you for some reason are intrested as for why that is, just click on my signature and you would find out pretty fast I'd guess.

Hating peasants is just thing I have, not to make too much fuss about. Just
keep them out of sight and we are all good... :laugh4:

- Cheers

Speaking of satisfying moments, I had a real nail-biter last night in Axalon's Redux Mod.

I'm playing the Germans for the 1st time - normally I prefer a faction that starts somewhere isolated or near chokepoints, so I can turtle for a while after initial expansion until I've developed some infrastructure/tech. Not in this game, surrounded by way too many factions.

At any rate, after a few decades of opening play, no more rebel provinces are around in my neighborhood and tensions are rising. The Norse open hostilities by sinking one of my ships, followed by an invasion of Pomerania. My garrison there is too weak, I withdraw and abandon the province temporarily. After shifting forces and reorganizing, I kick them out of Pomerania, then move on Denmark for revenge. The AI retreats from Denmark, then retreats from Sweeden, and is left with only Norway. But it's packed full of elite Norse units, almost all with high combat stats and elevated morale/valor.

https://img353.imageshack.us/img353/...enorwayik1.jpg

But their Highking (who's in command) is only a 2-star General, while mine is 6-star. So while my units are somewhat inferior to the Norse, and my army (18 units totaling 1080 troops) is slightly smaller than theirs (21 units adding up to 1260 troops), I gamble on the extra command proving decisive. I have a big advantage in missile troops, but the map favors the melee defender - full of heavily wooded hills. I'm having 2nd thoughts on all this, but the AI has deployed at the fairly flat top of a hill that has one clear slope, one that starts out steep but shallows near the top. I'm hoping to get near the shallow incline, and shoot up any AI troops that exit the woods to attack.

Things go just as planned at first - the first two units that attack piecemeal (a Norse Spearmen and a Norse Swordmen) are almost destroyed by crossbow bolts and rout (only to rally later). I move closer to the treeline, and hope to provoke other units to attack by shooting at them. Multiple Norse units emerge, and a fierce melee develops on my left flank, but no general engagement. So I'm able to outnumber and flank those units on the left, meanwhile feeding defenders one by one into the fray as more enemy units attack. Finally all my units are involved in combat, except to two of the four crossbowmen (one's chopped up to a remnant and routed, the other is stuck in melee), an Irish Kern I'd been saving, and my Imperial Knight (10 men) General's bodyguard. Out from the forest emerges the Highking's Norse Bodyguard (base stats of 5/8/5/5/10 chg/melee/def/arm/morale - 20 men) - one very tough cookie. As the enemy General approaches, I note that one of my formerly 60-man Frankish Spearmen (now down to 17 men) is standing around, having defeated their Norse opponent. So I send them to intercept the Highking, and take the initial shock of the charge, while positioning the Kerns and my General to flank. Meanwhile, the rest of my line is close to breaking, only my swordsmen (with their higher morale) still holding - several units on both sides have already routed.

The two available Crossbows (depleted down to less than 30-men each) fire on the Highking as he gets closer. They only get a couple of volleys off before the Frankish Spearmen make contact (and immediately start losing badly), so the missile attrition isn't much. That is, until the Kerns launch a volley from behind, and drop 30% of the bodyguard. Then my General hits, gets a good charge in, and takes them down to about half. But as they settle into melee, the Frankish Spearmen break and run, so now the Norse Bodyguard are chasing them rapidly - presenting a poor target for the javelins. And my Imperial Knights are dropping fast, what with the uber stats and armor-piercing abilities of these Norse.

The Highking's bodyguard is whittled down to one man, the Kerns are out of javelins, and my Knights are down to four men, when a victorious Norse Axemen unit emerges from the general melee and moves to save his King. In a desperate move to stave off disaster, I sacrifice the Kerns to delay the enemy rescuer, hoping to kill the King before it is too late. In a gamble to execute the Norse monarch, I turn the Crossbowmen's fire back onto the enemy leader (I'd turned them off that target when my General got involved with him). The Kerns were being chewed up rapidly, my line was wavering, my General was down to only a few men, and that darned Highking wouldn't go down. The tension was incredible ... then it happened - someone got the critical hit in (my leader or the missiles, I still don't know which) and the enemy leader fell dead.

Several Norse units broke at that point, others were off chasing my routers, so my General and Crossbowmen attacked any enemy close by - luckily the Norse morale was very low and they shattered readily. By then another remnant crossbow unit (16 men) rallied and rejoined my severely diminished forces. But I had no melee unit other than my General (4 men) to face the Norse remnants and reinforcements soon to arrive. So I ordered in my only reinforcements (2 units: a light Halbardier (40 men) and a Light Cavalry (40 men also), withdrew to the nearest clear hillside, and waited. A few small and fatigued enemy units showed up while I waited, and were sent packing by concentrated volleys from the Crossbowmen. My small band rested on that hillside until the reinforcements arrived, meanwhile we could see new enemy forces marshalling in the woods across the valley. With two fatigue bars restored, my small band cautiously marched in the clear areas, seeking enemy resistance.

We found two Norse Bodyguard units, one at 9 men, the other at 7, parked near one map edge. As we approached within missile range, they took off towards the reinforcement map edge. We gave chase, shooting whenever possible, until they stopped where a unit of spearmen joined them. My units were still uphill, and focused on the bodyguards until they broke under fire, taking the spearmen with them. Then all that was left were three units of peasant reinforcements, which didn't offer much in the way of resistance. The Light Halbardiers and Cavalry drove them off after a little melee. As we moved to follow the routers, the message "the enemy flees the field" was displayed and the ordeal was finally over.

[IMG]https://img177.imageshack.us/img177/...enorwaywy3.jpg[/IMG]

Casualties were horrendous - I lost more men that the Norse, and their survivors would have outnumbered my remaining forces by 3 to 1 if the fortification had been larger. Thank goodness all those extra enemy men, who wouldn't fit in the Fort, were lost.

I haven't had such a roller-coaster ride in MTW in a long, long time. I'd like to thank Axalon for a great mod, one that's made my favorite game even better.

Cheers all - enjoy! :2thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Geezer57

Speaking of satisfying moments, I had a real nail-biter last night in Axalon's Redux Mod.

Cheers all - enjoy! :2thumbsup:

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Wow!
Nail-biter is an understatement:laugh4: That's the sorta stuff that keeps the game interesting!

Congratulations on the heroic victory! :smash:

Very nice post Geezer.
Those momemts where your battle is right on the edge are definately memorable.
A most rewarding victory!

I have plenty but what I like the most is when the win or even lose track starts to play. Then I get to tour around the battlefield and see all the dead bodies stretched from one start flag to another. That means I and AI are doing something right.

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Originally Posted by HopAlongBunny

Wow!
Nail-biter is an understatement:laugh4: That's the sorta stuff that keeps the game interesting!

Congratulations on the heroic victory! :smash:

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Originally Posted by Fagar

Very nice post Geezer.
Those momemts where your battle is right on the edge are definately memorable.
A most rewarding victory!

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Thanks for the kudos, guys. It was definitely one of the highlight moments in my many, many, MTW battles. Upon reflection, I think I've uncovered a factor I'd overlooked, one that might explain why those Norse were so incredibly tough - don't defenders who have no escape province get an extra morale boost? I was so wrapped up in pushing them back a province at a time, I completely forgot.

From the Numerology Thread at the .com site: "+8 Morale to any units fighting where there is no escape (ie Castle defense, or surrounded by enemy provinces)"

I already knew they'd get a nice boost from the Expert difficulty, but I'd overlooked that little extra. If I'd have thought of it before the battle, I might have waited some turns for a more favorable force ratio. :eeeek:

Cheers!

Hi people,

Geezer57: A fine battle you had there and fun to read about. Don’t feel bad about the losses – you meet a serious foe thus you might end up with serious losses. Besides its redux, it’s more lethal and unforgiving. I’m actually a little surprised that you won at all – it sure was not a given with the troops you committed. The Norse had in overall better troops than you did. Infantry is kind of their specialty, so you really fought them on favorable terms for ‘em. I think what saved you from defeat were your decent amount of ranged troops and some decent generalship as well. All in all, well done. :mickey:

Yeah the numerology thread – don’t leave for battle without it. Great thread.


- Cheers
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There is a battle-thread over at the redux area – perhaps you should give it a try Geezer57? I’m sure that plenty of people would think that was fun and interesting to read about. I know I would. Of course it is supposed to be a bit more hardcore on tactics but you seem able to handle that pretty good, so feel free to try it out and post a battle report. An excellent solution with the screen on the troops btw, you save yourself a lot of writing and headaches with that maneuver – I’ll try that out myself next time I post something in the redux battlethread. As for the traits of troops and stuff like that, such things are obvious and specific redux-matters and as such it should be discussed over at the designated redux-forum.

My most satisfying MTW moments:

5. Using my sole heavy cavalry unit to successfully perform a Suleyman gambit in wedge
formation against a vastly superior army ("The enemy general is dead! A blackguard gone to his deserved grave.")
4. The pop-up message which says that the Mongols have degenerated into minor rebels.
3. (As the Turks) ...being informed that 3 different crusades are heading for, or through, Istanbul. Bring it on, whitebread!
2. Watching as the cream of the enemy knighthood goes for my pavise-infested hillside adjoining a forest full of my fastest cavalry.
1. Witnessing the coming-of-age of a firstborn son who ISN'T a proud, crazy, alcoholic, inbred paedophile.

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Originally Posted by Fagar

Ah yes.
The building sound FX when you finally complete your Military Academy and prepare to build your JHI.
You can nearly hear the Katatanks quiver in their mailed boots.

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Haha... Bloody oath!

Playing as the Mongols in XL/Tiberius, and taking on all comers, armed with their knights, men at arms, and halberdeirs, and crushing army after army through arrow and pony. :charge:

Most recently playing as the Hungarian.
Bribing a rebel army in Aquitaine even though it is surrounded by rampaging Spanish and bracing for the inevitable asssaults and knowing you can only build and replenish one unit at a time as you do not yet have sea support!

The most satysfying being planting yourself on the same hill year after year turning away scores of Jinette's and javelin men with your slowly dwindling spears, UM, vanilla archers and 2 units of horsemen until every units valour is sky high and your originally 3 star general has been promoted twice!

When you've chased the single unit of enemy horse archers that avoided the mass rout around a desert and finally catch them

:2thumbsup:

-- Finding a suitable and honorable use for high-valor, severely undermanned mercenary units. Namely, sending mounted archers/javs against vastly superior forces to take out enemy royalty or high-star generals. After all, they're only mercs.

-- When you are in a defensive, rearming phase of the campaing and two or three neighbors decide it's a good time for a dogpile. Your plans go out the window and you are forced into new directions. Two moments I love here: the one were sea battle results are displayed just before the turn begins where you are wondering who had the audacity to backstab you, and the moment right when the turn begins when you must take stock of the actions of your bellicose rivals.

-- Anytime an inferior unit that is not supposed to make it through an engagement survives with massive casualties, earning valor and a place of honor in the King's vanguard.

After I can't remember how many times of playing as the French to finally achieve all the GA points in the allocated times.
Including The Krak des Chevaliers!

Well, that makes one of us. Well done, dude. Not easy.

Thanks Roark.
It was really difficult, no other expansion and basically no other infrastructure, focusing on the GA mode only as there are no pints in early for the French homelands. Just crusade after crusade.
Royal treasury strained to the absolute limit and relying on my travelling crusades to pick up enough men from my neigbours so that their garrisons remained small and did not feel confident enough to invade.
The HRE did eventually but I was able to repel them mainly because they had piecemeal armies as well.
So now it is about 1191 and I am still building vanilla spears and UM
uh oh!

Firing your first catapult shot at long range and killing the enemy king, then watching his forces turn and rout while you send your horsemen in pursuit. Pure Heaven.
Now.. if only my nVidia graphics card would allow me to play the game I'd restart yet another campaign....

Spending campaign after campaign avoiding the mongols until they are spread out and manageable but finally finding yourself in a position to take them full front on.
As the french and owning everything else planting 4500 elite troops in Kazar and turning away the scourge in one turn.

winning as the aragonese :P

winning as every faction in the game, ahh if only i hadnt formatted my pc id still have the saves :)

edit : ohhhh i forgot 1 - editing the campaign AI so that every christian faction was crusader expansionist, every muslim faction was expansionist and every orthodox faction was expansionist. Best map ever, the middle east was littered with christian factions with single provinces, and the pope had several provinces around the black sea :D

Outnumbering the Golden Horde the moment they appear in Khazar playing as Byz. One of my favourite memories...

Khan: "Like the storm of the great steppe we will sweep across the lands..."
Advisor: "Sire!!"
Khan: "... of these petty fiefdoms who they call kingdoms and empires..."
Advisor:" SIRE!!!"
Khan: "What?"
Advisor: "We're surrounded..."
Khan: "..."

Being suprised by the little details.
Starting a campaign in high period as the English, build an assassin nearly straight away to get to work on the enemy spies that are everywhere. Pleasantly suprised it is Guy of Gisbourne!
5 Valour off the bat...excellent.

Having a 10 star Byzantine Jedi stare down turks whom outnumber him 10:1 and then watch as he methodically mows them down.

Watching My Danish vikings crush the peasants/town militia.

Watching my Swabian swordsman cut through French lines and take Paris

Watching my Boyars bring order to the lawless east

Watching my Italian infantry unite the peninsula

Taking the holy land

Campaigning as the English.
remembering the Byzantines lost their fight with the Turks, tracking down the remainents to Crete and seeing spawn after spawn of Kata there and nothing else.
Sending in a welsh created longbow heavy army protected by some quality spear and mowing them down.
Slaying nearly 400 Kata and only losing about 20 spear.
Satisfying!

Quote:

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The most satisfying moments in Medieval Total War

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TO CRUSH YER ENEMIS, SEE DEM DRIVEN BIFORE YOU, AND HEAR DE LAMENTATIONS OF DEIR VIMEN

http://geekofalltrades.files.wordpre...8/01/conan.jpg

How about when you kill or capture the entire enemy army? I like to see my flag flying over the castle next turn with no assult, no seige, no loss of buildings, no mess, no fuss.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brandy Blue

How about when you kill or capture the entire enemy army? I like to see my flag flying over the castle next turn with no assult, no seige, no loss of buildings, no mess, no fuss.

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good call. i'll add taking a castle or citadel and it not getting destroyed in the process. or even better, finding out that the AI faction was upgrading to a castle,citadel, or fortress and finished on the turn that you took the province.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jxrc

your king is 78, his first son and heir matures !!!

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Ive been know to wheap with joy when this has happend with my French campagin shouting "le Dauphin". Dolphin loving Frenchys :duel:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brandy Blue

How about when you kill or capture the entire enemy army? I like to see my flag flying over the castle next turn with no assult, no seige, no loss of buildings, no mess, no fuss.

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Yep. Bingo. That's a huge one.

Nothing's more demoralising than seeing the Pope scarper off the battlefield (despite being utterly MOBBED by your own troops), and knowing that you'll have to assault his citadel/fortress next turn.

Wow, some interesting stories here by now. Geezer57, that is one amazing battle you had there! The feeling you get from winning a battle where the enemy clearly has the upper hand sure is sweet..

By Crom, The Unknown Guy, you really got that right there!

Recently I experienced yet another memorable moment relating to MTW. I wouldn't describe it to be satisfying though, actually it was quite the opposite, but I think it's still worth sharing: My mom was doing something on the computer and she started nagging something about this computer (How slow it is etc etc.), and I made the fatal mistake and tried to advice her a bit. Well, thanks to my advice she started to browse the files of the computer and deleting practically everything that she thought sounded weird or unfamiliar to her. (Which propably applies to about 90 % of the stuff that is on this computer.) Well, to make a short story even shorter, I started this computer the next day and surprise! MTW was no more. And she had even managed to delete the goddamn game entirely, no save game- file left, nothing in the trash can either.

Well, these things happen. At least now I will have time to finish my run through the Baldurs Gate game series, and one beautiful day I will re-install MTW again and wreak chaos and destruction all over Europe once more! (The situation isn't that bad actually, I still have one copy of MTW on my computer with the Warlords-mod, so maybe now I will finally have time to give it a proper try.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Haccapelite

By Crom, The Unknown Guy, you really got that right there!

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Actually that quote is a rehashed version of this one that is attributed to Temujin.

“The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters.”

:bow:

Not really a "most satisfying moment," but it adds to the game's flavor ...

Sometimes the battle commentator makes rude remarks. My favorite is when he informs you that the enemy general is fleeing to his harem women. My second favorite is when he tells you that the enemy general is more foolish than 1000 fools.

Byt the way Roark, I fought a battle last night, and just one router got away. I didn't notice him until too late. Naturally, he holed up in the castle with enough food to last until 1453, and demanded a bribe that would take me years to pay. Well, I bit the bullet and threw him out by force. Lo and behold, the Mongols wiped out his faction next turn. Should have waited for him to turn rebel and tried another bribe.

That fool was worse than 1000 popes!

For me, those are the most detestable moments in MTW.

"Lord der Baer is besieged in Vienna Fortress with 14 men - ... will not fall without a direct assault.."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

Had quite the "Whoopeee!" moment playing 1.09 Beta of Caravel's/Asai Nagamasa's Pocket Mod.

Having lasted until 1289 as the French, my massive crusade that was aimed at Antioch only managed to push the Turks back across the Balkans to the middle of Greece, when the turn my king dies the chapter house burned down back at home, killing the crusade & starting a civil war.

I back the rebels, who consist of about four stacks led by my insane, jealous, four-star religious zealot crusade leader, who becomes Etienne the First of a new royal True French line centred in Greece.

Because of the civil war, one of my crusading stacks (the one composed almost completely of knights & men-at-arms, natch) decides to rebel, & the Turks counter-attack from Constantinople & across from Anatolia with at least six stacks of their own.

Three-way battle ensues. I think "Arrrgghhhh, if these two co-ordinate their attack I'm dead!" so decide to seize the initiative & take the battle to my foes.

I mount up all my horsies in my first wave, put all my crossbowmen in as well (once I've pushed them back I want to give them the incentive to stay back) set up right at the front of the deployment zone & charge straight into the sultan with everything I've got as soon as the battle starts. The Turks hold for a while in a desperate thrashing melee while the rebels (smaller but infinitely more suited to this kind of work), move up along my flank & hover threateningly just out of range. My faction leader (remember, recently "promoted" from mere Order Foot to owning a nice shiny unit of Royal Knights) manages to get near the Turkish ruler, & cuts him in twain. The Turks tremble then flee, & don't stop until they've reached the far end of the map.

I gather & turn my (severely depleted) forces about, expecting at any second a counter-attack by the fresh uber-troops, only to find the rebels marching swiftly to a large outcrop of rock on the very far right-hand edge of the battle area, there to form a defensive formation.

Thinking, "Right, that lot can stay up on that rock" I turn my attention to the Seljuks, & send a unit forward into the trees at the far end of the map on a recce mission. Their droves of horse archers & camels are coming on only so far as the deployment area, whereupon they turn tail & exit.

I think seriously about assaulting the rebels atop their rock, look closely at the combat timer, & withdraw a safe distance toward my edge of the map. The timer bleeds dry, the Seljuks flee the field, I capture a full uber-stack without suffering any extra casualties, & my leader gets "Good defender".

Just one of those happy, carefree, stupid moments when boldness (or perhaps bloody-minded stupidity & brash naivety) trumps calculation & cunning.

NB: Cunning is fine too, but it's nice to know that every stratagem has its place, as it were.

Spiffing, sah!

I like to hear someone else talk about how they have, 'lasted', for once - instead of all this nonsense that the game is too easy!
I'll have you know that I am rather intelligent, and yet I can never conquer the entire map - never 60% before 1280!

I have an idea for you;

Write an AAR about your French campaign and pop 'im in the thread at the top of the Main Hall.

Finally! After hundreds of MTW XL Tyberius Mod 3.0 games, hundreds of princesses marrying my princes, someone died and left their land (provinces) to ME! :idea2: I thought that it was just a legend or a tormented twist of some coders mind. But I was playing the Teutonic Order and in the year 1345 the Sicilian King died after marrying his Princess to one of my Princes. There was no message to me about the land transfer, however I received most of north France coastline (Normandy, Flanders, Friesland) and Sweden. Very Cool! Still fighting off the Ayyubids in Eastern Europe and Turkey, back and forth.

Regards

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ingersoll

Finally! After hundreds of MTW XL Tyberius Mod 3.0 games, hundreds of princesses marrying my princes, someone died and left their land (provinces) to ME! :idea2: I thought that it was just a legend or a tormented twist of some coders mind. But I was playing the Teutonic Order and in the year 1345 the Sicilian King died after marrying his Princess to one of my Princes. There was no message to me about the land transfer, however I received most of north France coastline (Normandy, Flanders, Friesland) and Sweden. Very Cool! Still fighting off the Ayyubids in Eastern Europe and Turkey, back and forth.

Regards

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Forgot to upload picture links:

https://i357.photobucket.com/albums/...quiredland.jpg

And one of my favorite of all times:

https://i357.photobucket.com/albums/...Inquistion.jpg

5 Grand Inquistiors in Rome "People Killed: 30800"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ingersoll

Finally! After hundreds of MTW XL Tyberius Mod 3.0 games, hundreds of princesses marrying my princes, someone died and left their land (provinces) to ME! :idea2: I thought that it was just a legend or a tormented twist of some coders mind. But I was playing the Teutonic Order and in the year 1345 the Sicilian King died after marrying his Princess to one of my Princes. There was no message to me about the land transfer, however I received most of north France coastline (Normandy, Flanders, Friesland) and Sweden. Very Cool! Still fighting off the Ayyubids in Eastern Europe and Turkey, back and forth.

Regards

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Such inheritances are indeed rare, and therefore they are certainly "special" moments when they do occur. I had one in an XL campaign, playing as Serbia. Imagine my surprise when Castille collapsed and all of the very Catholic provinces of the Iberian peninsula fell under my control - notwithstanding that SErbia is an Orthodox Church faction. I even scored two Catholic bishops! Very odd indeed!

Now that is definately one of the oddest things I have heard in MTW.
What did you do with the sudden overt catholicism?

Wow, that IS bizarre...

I've never had an inheritance, but if I could pick my choice of lands/empires, the Castille region would be right up there... :-)

Yeah it was a weird one alright!

The inheritance included the provinces of Algarve, Cordoba, Portucale, Leon, Castile, Granada, Valencia, Murcia, Aragon, Navarre, Tripoli, and Savoy - imagine the boost THAT gave my treasury!

I set about reinforcing the garrisons of any provinces that appeared to be .... shall we say "less eager" to accept the teachings of the Orthodox Church, and posted Orthodox clergy to all new provinces.

Those factors, added to lower taxes, served to win them over. There were a couple that resisted, but judicious use of assassins soon cleared these "issues".

As for the Catholic bishops - they proved very useful in arranging alliances with Catholic factions. Whether it was "real" or imagined, their religion did appear to play a part. There were a couple of factions that I had been unsuccessfully trying to ally with for some time (using my Orthdox priests). Both immediately accepted the invite from my new Catholic bishops.

Another example of the glorious unexpected strange turns that the game sometimes takes, eh?

One of my favorite moments was when I was playing as England and following some strict iron man rules. One of the rules was no expansion during the early period (to give the AI a chance to build up).

So I started the game and immediately began building toward making a fleet so I could reinforce my lands in France. I also began building my army in Aqutaine preparing for the inevitable French assault.
France attacks with a smallish force and I easily beat it and ransom back the prisoners and use the ransom to train more soldiers. They attack the next year with a few more people and I'm still able to beat them back and ransom their prisoners. And again for a third battle.
Every time I win, all the ransomed prisoners go to Brittany, so after three battles Brittanny has quite a few soldiers plus that 5 star general that France gets at the beginning of the game. By now I'm pretty tired of the French attacking and the French are pretty tired of losing, so they send overwhelming force with the 5 star general. All my troops are very depleted and I know this is the last chance I have to keep Aquitaine.

I put a unit of hobilars in the woods and line up the rest of my troops and hope for the best. The French general is in the center of his line and shortly after our lines engage he routes my center. The hobilars attack from the woods but it's looking like it's all over, so in desperation I select all and click the French general. After a moment my troops kill the general and his entire army routs.
I chased down and captured all the French soldiers but one. Then, as a message to the French king, I executed all the prisoners.
The next year - no invasion. My troops were completely depleted, but they wouldn't invade.

In fact, the French never invaded again. They were fighting a war with Germany and had plenty of troops stuck in Brittany , but they wouldn't invade.
I was quite happy with the AI that day.

Another notable moment - I was playing as Spain or Aragon and wasn't paying attention to the eastern part of the map. So when I get the message that the Mongols have arrived, I chuckle about the poor AI country that's about to get creamed. The next year there's a popup that the Mongol king has died in battle and all his troops are now rebels. The AI destroyed the Mongols in one turn!