First time I ever lost a campaign

[Hellenic_Hoplite]

Well I usually Play Rome and Medieval II but I decided to dust off an oldie but a goodie: MTW. I started a campaign as the Saxons in the Viking Invasion Campaign. Things were going well at first, I was happily taking rebel provinces and expanding my kingdom. Fast forward to the early 800's: I control my original Provinces along with parts of wales and the south western Tip of England, My lands are rich. My army is powerful and things seem to be looking up. The welsh decided they wanted to be My allies after I took one of their territories and I accepted although it was only temporary for me (so I could have time to re-orginise my forces) later in the campaign I decided to invade the welsh and I took another one of their territories and evan manage to destroy the main part of their army. Than...... The Mercians decided They wanted war... the started by supporting wales in a counter attack against one of my Welsh territories. They managed to take it. The mercians also managed to take my capital. (but I did destroy a MASSIVE amount of their troops) Fast forward to around 844. My forces have been pushed back to the south western tip of england and were finally destroyed.

Just thought I'd talk about it since it's my first time actually going through with a losing campaign to the very end.

[bamff]

I feel your pain, Hellenic Hoplite!

Strangely enough, my own darkest hour came whilst playing the Saxons. For me things started going bad when I seriously under-rated the effectiveness of the pointy things hurled by bonnachts and kerns.. ..the Irish massacred my armies in two battles, leaving my forces sorely depleted. Funnily enough, at that very moment, Mercia hit from the north, and hordes of angry Vikings landed along the south eastern coast....what was that thread "You know that the AI hates you when...."

Provinces rebelled, the surviving Welshmen joined in the "fun".....and that was that.....

[Brave]

Ahh the joys of competant ai.

[Martok]

I feel your pain, Hellenic Hoplite!

Strangely enough, my own darkest hour came whilst playing the Saxons. For me things started going bad when I seriously under-rated the effectiveness of the pointy things hurled by bonnachts and kerns.. ..the Irish massacred my armies in two battles, leaving my forces sorely depleted. Funnily enough, at that very moment, Mercia hit from the north, and hordes of angry Vikings landed along the south eastern coast....what was that thread "You know that the AI hates you when...."

Provinces rebelled, the surviving Welshmen joined in the "fun".....and that was that.....

I had a similar experience in my Mercian campaign a few weeks ago. My invasion of West Seaxe ended in disaster, and weakened me to the point that I couldn't fight off both the Saxons and the Northumbrians (who decided to join the fun once they realized I was seriously wounded). A tragic end, but it was fun -- albeit in a slightly masochistic way -- to actually get my butt whupped.

[caravel]

I played a campaign as the welsh around the time Martok was playing that Mercian campaign, and deliberately turtled so as to have to face the Huscarles. It was murder but I did manage to wipe out all of the English factions eventually and once I'd established aborder with Picts and held one province in Ireland I decided to call it a day. Currently I'm playing the SW mod so I haven't played VI since then.

[Hellenic_Hoplite]

As hard as it is to belive, I actually thought I'd have a chance of holding off the Mercians once they drove me to the very tip of Britain but alas, I was wrong.

[caravel]

The Mercians start with a lot of provinces, huge income and decent units, with Huscarles available not much later on. Unless you hit them early on they will become a massive problem for you later.

[Vladimir]

The Mercians start with a lot of provinces, huge income and decent units, with Huscarles available not much later on. Unless you hit them early on they will become a massive problem for you later.

Once they gain the initiative you're in trouble.

[Heidrek]

I think I'm going to end up facing off against them in the end of my campaign. They have no navy though so I think I will be able to take them without too much difficulty by making surgical strikes where they are weakest or by overwhelming and crushing key income and troop prodcuing provinces.

They are currently taking on the Saxons for control of the lower half of Britain, while I engage in a cold war against the Vikings and saving the Picts from destruction by having spies stir up rebellions in provinces recently taken by the Viks. Loyalist revolts have provided the Picts with a much needed influx of troops and pesant revolts have allowed the Scotish to re emerge so the north is no longer a Viking playground. I control Ireland and the central belt of britain.

Current priorities are:1. build income to fund navy. 2. Establish large numbers of ships to control the coastline. 3. Kill off the Vikings to eliminate their navy. 4. Bulk up the border garrisons and pick an enemy to go after.

[seireikhaan]

Hmm...

First time I ever lost was actually my first campaign, as the Almohods. I virtually had no clue how to play, because, as always, I forsook the tutorials in favor of on the job training. Got my tail kicked by the Spaniards all the way from Cordoba to Cyrenacia...

[Heidrek]

First got hammered as the Picts. Sounded cool and wanted to have a crack so off I went. Followed Kamikhaan's strat of not doing tut's, rather just get stuck in.

Quickly ran out of money and got slaughtered by Vikings for mistakenly thinking Border Forts would provide some defense against invasion,

[bamff]

Actually there's an odd thought....the times that I have been wiped off the map were all times when I tried some of the supposedly "easier" factions - Saxons and Byzantines...oh and there was that absolute disaster that was my only attempt thus far at a muslim faction...the Turks...where I got smashed in record time by suspiciously well co-ordinated attacks from the Byz and the Eggies....but all were good "learning experiences"!

[caravel]

I find the Turks quite easy, but that's probably because they're faction I've played as the most. As the Turks in vanilla MTW the beginner strategy is simple: Go straight for Egypt and don't stop until they're wiped off the map. After Egypt are gone you're in a much stronger Position and ready to take on the Byzantine. The Egyptians tend to be unreliable and will stab you in the back. The Byzantine are actually surprisingly more predictable. They will refuse alliance but usually will leave you alone for a good while. This gives you time to whack the Egyptians, tech up your provinces and raise an army and navy before going for Constantinople.

[Ironsword]

Okay I admit it! I've lost quite a few times, but I usually don't see it to the bitter end. To my shame I usually leave the remnants of my old empire and start again.

How about you guys? Do you fight on until every man jack has been annihilated, dealing as much death and destruction as you can before the final inevitable fall of Constantinople?* (*Wessex/Antioch/Grenada/Whatever)

[Jxrc]

Lost quite a few times due to:

- lack of heir;
- king being killed in battle (trying to improve your king's stats does have its downside)
- civil war (ending up alone in Malta was the best ....).

Usually I do not need to fight till I loose my last province cause I become a bit reckless and make huge gambles that end I utter failure with my kind dead (loosing for loosing, might as well go down quickly with some "panache") ...

As far as I can remeber, I lost (for other reason than lack of heir) when playing as:

- the Turks (Byz hammer + Egyptian anvil )
- the Aragonese (Spanish hammer + Elmo anvil )
- the HRE (lost battle + rebellion + lost battle + rebellion, etc ... )
- the Sicilian (three crusade markers destroyed due to destruction of chapter house by earthquacke )
- the Spanish (first time I met the AUM ... the kind of evening when you cannot stop uttering "what the f... : " twenty times per battle/slaugther)
- the Hungarian (got reckless and attacked the Byz .... )
- the Danes (firts battles with the Viking in Norway sometimes do not work as planned ... )

[macsen rufus]

I've never lost a campaign......








.... without having made some sort of monumental error of judgement first. For instance: HRE "I can cope with being excommunicated....", XL Lithuanians "Oh, this is going well, let's extend just a little bit and grab Flanders...." and a couple of cases of "Wtf where have all my heirs gone, my king is 72!"

Generally, on the campaign map as on the battle map, the worst thing you can do is over-extend. In both cases I have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by being over-ambitious when the battle or war would have been won if I'd just sat back and regrouped a bit

[Kaidonni]

Just a word of advice...don't play Bohemia on Expert. Seriously. I recall someone telling me in the Pics & History Of Your Empire topic about their campaigns as Bohemia ending not so well. Well...when the Hungarians destroy you, and leave your king trapped in the Keep, while your remaining troops are either pitiful remainders of the other units they destroyed, waiting out their untimely demise with your king - or are troops you really REALLY can't replace, in Bavaria, where you have one of the Fort-level castles...that's what I think he meant. I gave up on that campaign.

Apart from that, most campaigns I have not died. But probably only because I turtle. And build nice full stacks. And because I'm not modest and don't realise the damage the AI might really be able to cause.

EDIT: Ah, yes, just checked the topic. It was Martok who told me about his not so fortunate campaigns as the Bohemians. I've contemplated trying them on Hard again at some point...but my brother is upgrading the computer (to a new one), so I'm not sure if MTWI will work anymore.

[Martok]

Yep, that would've been me. I don't think I ever did get them to survive more than a couple decades or so....

[jadast]

I get killed off every time I play Poland. I can never establish enough cash flow to build enough units to expand or defend what I have.

[DaVega]

I think nothing is as frustrating as having a very large empire (the Danes in the early period) and suddenly running out of heirs whilst my king was about 63 years old..

[Martok]

I think nothing is as frustrating as having a very large empire (the Danes in the early period) and suddenly running out of heirs whilst my king was about 63 years old..

See, that's when I often start planning my very own civil war. Sure it can be a pain to retake all the provinces I lose when that happens, but it beats losing the game entirely.