The Bloody Crescent: Rise of the Turks

[Askthepizzaguy]

EDIT: Bloody Crescent 2: Wrath of Arslan begins on post 25... scroll down to read.


Marhaba and ahlan wa sahlan!

These are the official records of Kilij Arslan the Indestructible, the Magnificent and most feared Sultan of the Anatolian Turks. History shall forever remember his glorious campaign to revive the Great Seljuk Empire, gain control of the Broken Crescent, turn back the mighty Crusader armies, slaughter the Mongolian hordes, and crown himself Caliph of Islam.

This is Askthepizzaguy's official thread detailing the events of my latest single player blitz campaign. This one is slightly different, as I'm playing the Broken Crescent mod which is much beefier than the vanilla version. The AI is vastly improved, the program also spawns entire stacks of experienced and advanced troops out of THIN AIR, as you will see. This is, by the way, my very first SP campaign using the Broken Crescent mod... so I'm either confident or stupid to post the results before I even finish it.

I also promise to pace myself in each post so you can actually load the page, unlike my ill-fated HRE 28 turn blitz of the entire map (blatant plug: it's still in my sig. Check it out if you haven't already... now that it's on two pages it might be viewable).

Medieval 2: Total War
Broken Crescent Mod
Version 1.05
Single Player
Turkish Campaign (Anatolian Turks)
VeryHard/VeryHard

Without further ado, let the bloodletting begin.... Images in spoiler.

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Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The opening moves of the campaign:
4 settlements are under seige. Take no prisoners.

The largest threat to our nation lies to the west. We must destroy the Eastern Roman Empire.



Toghrul begins a seige against Amasia.



Turn two: Nicomedia is but the first to fall.



The enemy surrendered quickly, once they saw how overwhelming our forces were.



The Sultan's archers rain death upon the enemy, who quickly die.



Attalia falls with minimal losses.



Laying seige to Nicaea and Amorium... now the enemy has spawned two massive stacks of elite troops out of thin air. It is of no concern.
Soon the ERE will be crushed and young skywalker will be one of us.



Amorium stands no chance of victory.



Little militias cannot stop me.



Against humans, this movement is not advisable. But these are AI stacks which can be dispatched quickly. If they attacked me, it would just save me a turn of having to march towards them.

Ok, that's the first ten images. It's only turn two, I believe. Check back for updates... I have plenty more to post already. See those two stacks of doom? Yeah those are gonna die.

________________
To war, my brothers... to war...

[Askthepizzaguy]

Turn two continues:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Their main recruitment center is next on the chopping block.



All too easy.



And now... witness the final destruction of the Roman empire... and the end of your insignificant rebellion.
I don't waste much time, do I?



I have 2,780 troops, the enemy has 5,072. However, my Sultan has night fighter... which only slightly increases my odds, 1,246 versus 2,536, which is worse than 2:1 against me. And there's no mountains or river crossings to exploit. This is just a bloody, bloody battle.



My horse archers begin the assault...



Peppering the enemy to death brings out their general and their reserve cavalry... but he only charges towards his own death.



And now the real fun begins.



I could stampede over them now with just my elite general unit... but it's far more fun to rain death upon them, to put the fear of God into their hearts, so that when I do decide to trample over their broken bodies, the looks on their faces will be most amusing.



Routing so soon?



Lest you neglect to notice, that's 91 percent casualties versus 16. All the AI spawn in the world cannot save you now...

If the AI knew how to attack properly, this wouldn't be possible. Moving on... turn 3 still.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Turn 3 continued...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Epic win



We caught many prisoners this day. Let's see if our enemies can afford the ransom!



Nope... no ransom... BUTCHER THEM!!!



Starting to look a little better... all right men, full attack.



I have 2,613 men, they have 3,337... but I think you can guess the outcome. Begin round two. Still turn 3... no rest for the weary.



Again I pepper the fools to death with my arrows... which draws out the enemy general from hiding... and I promptly surround and slay him.



An arrow slices him through the face, impaling his skull, and knocking him off of his horse.



Never lose your general in battle... a lesson I recently and painfully learned in multiplayer.



Their reinforcements have arrived. Good. More pigs for the slaughter. My reinforcements, by the way, cannot all fit in the battle at once due to performance issues. But the AI gets theirs... and so they must die painfully.



Those cataphracts were giving my generals trouble, so I had to pull back and use the rest of my troops to surround and pound them to death. Gah... I hate cataphracts! Nevertheless, they all will die by my hands.

Next: more of turn 3.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Another 16 percent casualty win, versus 100 percent dead.



Almost lost Malik there for a second... and my Sultan is much bloodied... but still, everyone made it out alive, except for the enemy.



2,330 prisoners... thats kind of a lot.



One hefty ransom, considering there isn't a king or an heir involved, or even a family member. The enemy cannot afford my terms, and so they are all put to the sword. Would I accept the ransom? Yes, because I can beat these standing armies all over again, and I need the recruitment florins.



Still turn 3: Nothing left of those stacks of doom, or their reinforcements. Now their southern territories are en prise and their capital is defenseless.

Defenseless* should have an asterisk next to it... as you will see later.



Time to retrain my troops? Yes.



Turn 4... more territories on the chopping block.



You really need infantry for seiges.



A hard win, but still a win.

This battle is tricky, because the enemy have some good troops here.

Turn 4 continues...

[Askthepizzaguy]

To the end of turn 8... Rome collapses under the weight of the mighty Turks.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

More losses due to seige conditions... the only thing the AI can do competently is defend walls.



Turn 5: marching on Constantinople.



Ha! The capital is relatively undefended!*

Asterisk...



Surprise! AI spawn strikes again... only this time, very painfully. The enemy sally forth with Imperial Guardsmen, Armoured Axemen, and gold and silver chevron units of every type. I am at an extreme disadvantage here, because they have enough space to sally effectively.



Begin the strategy: Pepper the AI from a distance to draw out their forces.



21 percent dead already versus 2 percent dead on my part. But these arrows won't last forever.



Yes, chase my general and my heavy cavalry, as they cannot run very fast... but you've made a fatal error, seige boy.



I now hold your citizens ransom... if you do not surrender, I will butcher your families.



Not to be too cheesy, I insist on slaughtering as many as I can. They are attempting to retake the city, but my heavy cavalry mow them down while my light cavalry block the gates. It's a trap... and it works.

I honestly didn't need to lose this many men. I could have been a coward and ran away and kept them all alive. But I crave battle scars.



And so the outcome is more reasonable and realistic: I destroy more than half of their men and end up in the superior tactical position. The enemy, with their citizens in my possession, wisely surrender.



But there will be much pillaging...



Allahlalalalalalalalalalalallah!!! Constantinople becomes Istanbul on turn 8.



Marching on Armenian-held Seleukeia.



Caught his faction heir undefended...




Still turn 8: Heraclea is under seige.



Time to regenerate.



The climactic finish of turn 8... Rome has fallen, and we declare on Armenia.

That's all I have for now... so check back for updates. I have to play some more and post more screenshots.

By the way... I have the save for the epic battle at Constantinople.

If you want a REAL CHALLENGE, I urge you to play the battle and win.

http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/EpicBattle.zip

Your version has to be Medieval 2 Total war 1.3, Broken crescent mod 1.5 in order to play the file.

Also, if you feel like mowing down the AI spawn from a couple turns ago, I can go back and upload the save file to that as well. See if you can do better than me. (I'm sure you can, I was rushing).

[phonicsmonkey]

nice AAR, good to see you bringing your inimitable style to Broken Crescent

and I'm pleased to see that the siege AI has held you up in the same way as me - your casualty rates assaulting cities are about the same as mine (although not for the same battles, I haven't played as the Turks)