Blitzmaster Challenge

[Grog]

Hail ATPG the Blitzmaster

Ah, but you truely are the overall Blitzmaster still.

Just look at your most excellent exploits in the BC mod, your utter blitz destruction of all opponents that dared face you in the open challenge duel to the death thread. Your current Darklord game is making me develop an evil chuckle (funny servile responses from your 'underlings' too)

You contribute far more to these forums than I ever will for a start..

In fact, this second attempt at a Turkish blitz was inspired by our current duel on LTC. I just thought I'd blast vanilla with the Turks to hone my fighting style and refresh my logistics after seeing your exploits on various threads, and sort of got a bit carried away by the momentum. (for the record, I can't get near your time with HRE, and Egypt are slower than the moors in my experience..)

For this Blitz, I used a similar structure to your HRE rush
ie: Jihad1 turns 2-9,
expansionism and general spawning turns 10-19
Jihad2 turns 19-25.

HRE have a better position in many ways, but Turks Horse Archers are the key here. Drill master general and 8 HA units on Jihad speed cover lots of ground. I rush deep into enemy territory, grab the biggest stack of crossbow/spear mercs, and nab a castle (easy to control). then expand and train from this point. Repeat everywhere and HRE can't match the pace or the turn 2 crusade.

Also, with a half HA stack and two generals as heavy cavalry the Turks can easily defeat any AI full stack early game just through attrition/skirmish and a few well timed general splits/charges, with relatively few losses.

I could go on in more detail , but its easier to post some saves up here if anyone is interested..

Could I beat 25? No idea, I made a few errors here and there, this is always balanced with luck and the AI doing stupid things in the long run.. didnt know I was going to beat 28 until turn 22/23..

Finally, to Factionheir. I apologise for the necromancy of the old blitz thread, but I'd rather stick it there with the rest of my blitzes for prosperity, rather than start a new thread.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Ok....
Grog....

If you think you've made errors...

I request that I challenge your Blitzmaster title one more time.

[Galain_Ironhide]

I knew you wouldnt be able to resist.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Status:

Turn 14, 41 provinces.

All of the middle east is mine, plus Egypt, tripoli, Tunis, Italy, Greece, half of Russia, half of Eastern Europe. Many provinces seiged, generals poised for assault.

Only one problem: I need generals and cavalry to zoom to Arguin. That's the final province I will be taking. I dont have anyone near there.

Grog made some early mistakes, where he sacrificed position for provinces. I managed to put some generals out further than he did, and I planned to use captains to take the missing ones. This plan has worked, and now I believe I have more forward-positioned generals than he had. However, I did not manage to get a general on the Arguin route. Closest one is my general at Ajaccio or Palermo.

I think I may be able to meet his record due to that error, but I doubt I can beat it.

EDIT: Turn 16, 48 provinces, many under seige.

Still need to get moving to arguin!!!

[Galain_Ironhide]

you are the turks right?

[Askthepizzaguy]

Yeah, Turks.

Problems though. Turn 17, looks to be out of range of Arguin, which spoils the entire run.

Gonna have to start over. I'll do a simulation to see how fast I can get to Arguin, but I'm going to have to restart I think.

[Grog]

Ah the Arguin problem

I had this in hand but also made a mistake here.

I sent my faction leader Sultan Jalal on this path at Jihad speed:

Smyrna > Corinth > Palermo >Algiers. The first Jihad ended here. Then its 7 or so turns to run a general + HA to timbuktu.

I got lucky with 3 tribesmen that I recruited right at timbuktu before sieging . I'd been montioring the merc pool all the way down in case moors were fast enough coming south after me. Then it was the simple case of picking up Jihad speed again over to arguin. Once you have arguin this stack is wasted, but I moved it back to timbuktu anyway in case the moors came down.

My mistake here was using my faction leader for this stack (waste of a nightfighter) but I don't think you have much of a choice tbh to get here this fast otherwise, as his is your most westerly general unit on turn1.

Some hints for beating my time:

Aim for structure:
2-8 Jihad 1 (get into europe and secure NE/SE corners and make for timbuktu)

8-18 Build/expand for jihad 2. Go off path to make as many generals as possible. Have no defined aims other than major castles, push northwest and go with the flow.

18-24 Jihad 2. win.

I took around 50 provinces in 6 turns with my second Jihad, could have done better with different prep/strategy/luck. If you end Jihad 1 start this Jihad2 turn earlier than I did, could edge a 24 turn victory maybe.

I had about 4 'wasted' stacks at victory on turn 25. Should have commited to hungarys destruction earlier, would have saved time in long run.

I didnt replay any turns. I did reload my end save three times, once to make minor troop move I forgot, twice to make siege engines I forgot to build..(lisbon/paris)

I fought a lot of battles early (about 20 heroics this game) but autoresolved about 60% overall for the sake of speed, so you could improve efficiency here.

I took lots of risks with ship borne armies that paid off every time.

I had one spy rush (accident, but probably enabled the 25 turn win in retrospect).

I used no mobile siege units (made 2 by accident turn 23 in spain, they were already obselete)

Try to do it in <150 battles fought and you will beat my time