What Battles have you been Owned in???

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

What battles have you been completely confindent of winning, then suprised as the AI uses a trick to send your soldiers mass routing, or a fluke makes them brake through you lines and flank your best soldiers.

My story is when i was playing as England, i launched an attack on Scotland, the numbers were pretty even, but i was counting on my general to stop my men from routing and using flanked attacks to demolish the enemy. I rushed my spearmen in too quickly and forgot about the enemies reinforcements so sent my cavalry to kill them, but my spearmen were almost dead by the time my cavalry arrived and the enemies reserve spearmen came in and slaughtered my cavalry, Paul, Prince Roberts son, died along with the majority of his men. The main purpose of this battle was to lower my army count as my money was close to -4000, (my army was large and my economy sucked)

The Ransom amount was close to 2000 gold, but still, i managed to kill Edmund of Canmore, and King Phillip of Scotland So it wasnt all bad.

This was probably the worst, if you dont count the slaughter of Christendom at Jerusalem, many good men died there...

[Rhyfelwyr]

I've been pretty much insta-routed about a dozen times over several campaigns by the Timurid elephants and their dread Generals.

Assaulted Milan once as the Turks on Jihad, and got a large army wiped out when assaulting the walls by a pretty small number of Dismounted Feudal Knights and Pavise Xbows.

And some embarassing defeats in the New World with Scottish and Venetian armies. Sorted that since going the Byzantines though.

Thats about it...

[Eikon the Magistrate]

Playing as scotland the moors ransacked my front line of pikes with their heathen horsemen. Unfortunately the front line was engaged and could not turn...soo..the slaughter began...this was the last time I created a pike heavy force for a field battle. It was disgusting.

I had a win that was more like a loss but it was in MTW..against my arch nemesis the moor. In one of the crazy cross africa battles that were so common then. My entire 1st force was wiped out except the general and 1 swordsman unit. It was quite the sight to see the general and the sword hold on in the midst of their hundreds of fleeing/screaming bretheren..due to the superior reinforcement options in mtw i set the gather for the rest of my army to be in the center of that whole mess. complete devastation...was like 2300 of 2500 dead on my side... but i "won" somehow... pavise arbalesters....ahh how sweet

[Vladimir]

Tried to stop two Mongol armies from crossing a bridge with a full stack, medium, fire support army. Doesn't work so well when you don't have a lot of room to run around.

[Ramses II CP]

Okay, I didn't expect to win this battle, but I expected to pin at least a few more losses on the Mongols. I sent a stack of tier 1 javelin infantry against two partial stacks of Mongols, but the javelins just couldn't get through the Mongol general's armor. Worst loss ever for me.

Another battle comes to mind from my Danish AAR against the Timurids. In setup I made some very neat, looong lines of Swordstaff milita supported by Norse Archers, militia spearmen, and my first serpentine for use in the field. They are good, strong defenders, those SS militia, but I spread their lines so thin making my nice pretty formation that the first Timurid heavy lancer charge broke right through. My general warped back and forth from side to side trying to hold it all together, but in the end my men were slaughtered and routed and my serpentine crew was killed to a man.

Totally winnable battle too, I went back and played it again after writing it up as a failure, and I could've won it pretty easily. This wasn't an elephant Timurid stack.

I can think of a few more, but that's enough for now.

[Zim]

Okay, I didn't expect to win this battle, but I expected to pin at least a few more losses on the Mongols. I sent a stack of tier 1 javelin infantry against two partial stacks of Mongols, but the javelins just couldn't get through the Mongol general's armor. Worst loss ever for me.

Ouch. Don't most javelin units in BC not have the armor piercing attribute? That might be part of the problem.

Sadly, although I'm sure I've had many pathetic losses, I can't remember them right now. I lost an autoresolve battle in a hotseat game against rebels recently, with 2:1 odds in my favor. At least I could blame the crappy autoresolve for that one.

[Yoyoma1910]

Ah my friend, I will tell you the greatest battle I always loose, is the one for my heart.

Always I am ready to win, but never does it happen. I am like silly putty to the women's funny pages. They tear me from my egg and shape me into all sorts of silly things, and always I wake up in the morning with a new spiderman tattoo on my face.

ahhhhh.... but at least I am not a dried up clump of old Playdough.

[PBI]

I have been owned many, many times by the Timurids and Mongols, but one particular incident springs to mind.

I was fighting the Mongols as England. I had an army of roughly equal parts longbowmen and cavalry, and had set up a nice big obstacle of stakes protecting my entire army. So I sat back, and confidently waited for the enemy horsemen to blindly impale themselves.

However, rather than doing this, the Mongols general wisely sent his archers in to duel with my own. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea at this point to take his bait and charge my entire cavalry wing forwards into the enemy archers, expecting to effortlessly crush them and drive the enemy cavalry from the field. Of course, my entire cavalry force routed after a quick scrap with their heavy lancers, and, to no-one's surprise but my own, ran at full speed directly onto my own stakes.

So with my general and all my cavalry gone, I resolved at least to make a stand with my archers, reasoning that they were untouchable behind the wall of stakes which had wiped out my own cavalry. I then watched in horror as the enemy lancers stopped just before my stakes, formed up into columns three horses wide, and calmly filed through the gaps between the sections of stakes, before butchering my longbowmen.

I lost an entire stack of my best troops and barely dented the enemy stack, and had been defeated at least as much by my own stupidity as by the enemy. I felt pretty silly after that one.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

I dont even see how you could lose so many men, but still, it has happened to me during the crusades

Also, PBI, i have had that happen, just as my cavalry made contact i was rushed by heavy cavalry and slaughtered :) oh well...

[Askthepizzaguy]

Pretty much anything that I let the computer auto-resolve when I had any weakened units in the first 6 slots or so.

Hint: Front load your heaviest infantry with the most troops first, then your healthy units, then your weak ones. otherwise the computer basically marches them single file into oblivion and routs your entire army.

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Once tried to take Krakow with a general and some minor militia men while on crusade to take the long campaign in 8 turns, only to have been ambushed with their mounted javelin throwers and their king.

I managed to slay their king and rout 90 percent of their troops, but being so very severely outmanned, their routing troops just kept coming back over and over, slamming into me from all directions and peppering the remnants of my troops with javelins and arrows. Couldn't rout them all, and my general was among the last to be slain. The battle ended one second later.

Almost all my troops were destroyed, and since I only managed to rout their armies, they pretty much survived. Cost me my 8 turn victory, and there was no way that redoing the battle would have won it. I tried. Repeatedly.

I just needed to commit more troops, that's all. After several valliant struggles, numbers eventually crushed me. I'm not immortal after all. Just practically immortal.

[ReiseReise]

@askthepizzaguy,
What about withdrawing as soon as the battle started? At least your general should have survived.

[PBI]

Pretty much anything that I let the computer auto-resolve when I had any weakened units in the first 6 slots or so.

Hint: Front load your heaviest infantry with the most troops first, then your healthy units, then your weak ones. otherwise the computer basically marches them single file into oblivion and routs your entire army.

The autoresolve results depend on the ordering of your units?

That's good to know. I always just assumed the computer had a particular hatred for my most expensive, hard-to-replace soldiers.

[Askthepizzaguy]

@askthepizzaguy,
What about withdrawing as soon as the battle started? At least your general should have survived.

Didn't matter. I was doing a Blitz run, I had to take the settlement the next turn. Withdrawing would have been the same as forfeiting the entire challenge. There is a record to beat, and you don't beat it by moving backwards.

Careful planning would have avoided that.

[Askthepizzaguy]

The autoresolve results depend on the ordering of your units?

That's good to know. I always just assumed the computer had a particular hatred for my most expensive, hard-to-replace soldiers.

It's fairly commonly accepted by now that if you have 3 weakened units and 3 mercenaries at full strength, the auto resolve results are better if you frontload the stronger unit.

Also notice, in auto resolve battles, most of the damage happens to your frontloaded units, or it's fairly evenly spread out. You will never get an instance where your frontloaded units escape unscathed and your back ones get pulverized.

Example: when on crusade, I always BACKload my crusader knights, because I know I want them to survive and they don't do well when frontloaded. Use heavy or full strength infantry at the front.

Your general is always in the front, so it doesn't matter where he is.

[Vladimir]

That would explain why so often your general becomes wounded in Stainless Steel.

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[Vladimir]

You must have been using an old version of the game. I haven't played around much with reinforcement postures but they could have avoided that.

[Askthepizzaguy]

I think this qualifies. I greatly outnumbered the enemy. Lost a general and my entire armed force.

But... I still win the battle. Because I am Askthepizzaguy the Most Merciless, and I will slay whomever opposes me to the last man.

Talk about your phyrric victories.

My general and his general were literally the last ones left standing. He also had armoured cataphracts remaining to guard him, and my other general, all my bodyguards, AND my troops were all slain.

I systematically slew the remaining armoured cataphracts, and engaged in a duel to the death in the castle courtyard, with bodies of the fallen strewn everywhere, my wounded men helpless to intervene, but watching as their great commander would not give up.

I finally slew the enemy general, the ERE's Prince. Not bad for a third rate general who had lost the battle by force. I think this man shall inherit the throne, and I will see to it that he shall. Men who do not waver even as they are the sole remaining soldier are men I want running my nation when I am long dead.

Also, 60 troops recovered from being casualties. Not bad, not bad.

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[Genaral Julis]

I once made the mistake of useing Pikemen against the Mongols....I'll spare you the details be suffice it to say..the ground was bathed in blood.

[Askthepizzaguy]

any time you use pikemen in unmodded or early modded M2TW games, they always get owned. Lesson learned: upgrade to latest mods, or send different troops.

[Genaral Julis]

any time you use pikemen in unmodded or early modded M2TW games, they always get owned. Lesson learned: upgrade to latest mods, or send different troops.

I find that given the right planning and positons...Pikemen can be very effective on an unmodded verison of MTW2. I did manage to stop the Mongols eventully...I fought a 100 year war against them and the Trimuds and people who I just generally didn't like (I.E: all other Factions in the game)..But in the end...I emerged as the Ruler of a war ravaged and largely devasted world.

An empty victory but a victory nonetheless, one might say.

[PrestigeX]

People always say this and that about how 'pikemen' get owended but, I don't really agree with that. i found pikemen extremely effective, they are defensive troops, not to mention you have to be able to take them off spearwall , run them into formation, stop them, put them into spear wall and defence mode.
I think a lot of people just don't know how to use pikemen in this game and expect that the pike units will just do it all by themselves.
I'm on v 1.2 and i noticed that using pike units allow me to f---ing OWN..

[Askthepizzaguy]

There are known bugs with two handed weapons and pikemen in the unupgraded versions of M2TW.

Once these guys switch to their secondary weapon, their pikes become useless, and they are no more effective than peasants. Perhaps someone can explain it better.

True, you can use them in battle, sometimes even effectively, but when they switch to their little dagger in melee, I'd much rather trade them for pitchfork wielding peasants.

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

I can remember my Crusade battle pretty clearly now..

I had just ported loads of crusaders from England, they werent in the best mood, but i dont particularly care, they had lost men due to deserters, but enough to take a wall pretty quickly. As soon as we docked, my men went to Jerusalem, and then i noticed a huge egyptian army outside jerusalem, with an equally large army garrisoned, distraught, i charged the the large army patrolling the area, when the battle started a huge army of archers ran from their lines to shoot at mine, i thought that they were simply stupid, then i realised they had four units of cavalry ready to flank, so i sent my horses after them, but forgetting to put infantry in loose, the infantry took heavy casualties chasing the archers, then i looked at my cavalry and they routed, and my infantry continued to chase the archers, by then the enemy cavalry went to flank my soldiers, and the enemies infantry engaged my infantry, my spearmen were quickly surrounded and morale dropped instantly, although they could have won the battle if they had continued to fight they decided to rout and most of the soliders were captured, and so ends the battle. I believe that the egyptians executed around 800 soldiers, including my general.

[Motep]

The Timurds....

I was playing as the english and had a full, balanced stack with two family members. I was assaulted by the timurdian stacks. ...
They got me...I lost all of my men (four were taken hostage, but I declined to save them), but at least I killed their leader and about another stack and a half.

That screwed my crusade all up, and hungary got it instead...

[Genaral Julis]

I can remember my Crusade battle pretty clearly now..

The AI does have its moments of genius doesn't it?

[TinCow]

I've had several. Most of them were against the Mongols, but I also got wrecked the first time I attacked a city with cannon towers. I wasn't aware the city had them, didn't know what they would do even if I had been aware, setup close to the enemy walls, and relied on towers and rams to take the city. It was a massacre and I ended up running away about 5 minutes into the battle just to save as many men as I could.

[Monk]

The first campaign I ever played with the HRE was a lot of fun. They are smack in the middle of Europe and If you're not careful you're gonna get excom'd and at war on multiple fronts.

Anyway, I decided the Milanese had life a little too good, and in an effort to unite my northern empire with the one province the HRE get in Italy I made a push against their capital, Milan. I thought my well trained army of dismounted fuedal knights, mailed knights and a solid backbone of archers would be enough to sweep in and take Milan before they could react. I was wrong..

Sure the initial siege went well but just as I was about to attack the city a full stack appeared on my armies southern flank. Facing a sally-battle with another army at my rear wasn't my idea of fun so I had to withdraw. The commander in charge of the expedition to Italy was the very best the empire had to offer, so I was confident about his ability to hold off the poorly equipped militias the Milanese sent against me.

The first battle went smoothly, camped on the slope of a mountain I had picture perfect ground to take advantage of my archers range on the Milanese, They were picked apart and by the time they hit the lines they were not even a threat. That's the end of the story right? haha.. WRONG

Another stack appeared and clashed against my army before I could move it (it was the Milanese' turn.. after all ). This one was a much better troop mix and took it's toll on my army. I lost quite a bit of men but still won the battle. Again, I'm thinking this is the end.

It wasn't. A third stack appeared and slammed into my weary army. By this time my numbers had been thinned so greatly that even though my troops were of better quality they just couldn't hold their position. The army was utterly destroyed and one of my only competent generals was dead. I never saw vanilla AI act so mercilessly, and never have since (I play with mods now ).

Still the defeat was significant, I lost two provinces on the border with the Milanese in the resulting war before I could get a ceasefire. It taught me a lesson I still haven't forgotten.

Do not mess with Milan.

[Heinrich VI]

mtw2 1.2
playing a migration game with england. the timurids arrive head for antio my capital. after forcing their king to retreat behind a river i decided it would be a good idea to destroy all other timurid stacks in one battle and be done with it.

well...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

the worst defeat i ever suffered at the hands of the AI.