Disgusting Injustice!

[PershsNhpios]

After enjoying so much of the Seljuk campaign which I posted in the AAR thread, I went on the play the year 1115.

I had a common army of 8 Turcomen, with Armenian Heavy Cavalry and a Ghulam Bodyguard.
The Fatimids had 6 camels and 6 Nubian spearmen.
Both armies were entirely valour 4, excepting my general, who was 8, and the enemy's, 6.

What happened next has forced me to abandon the campaign.

Using my proper method, I routed the infantry and drew the camels into a trap.
I knew that Camels defeat Heavy Cavalry and light horse in my own experience with the Byzantines.
But not when surrounded.

Oh no, no I was very wrong.

With the Nubians routed, and the other camel units fleeing, the Fatimid Generals camel went on to kill over 800 men, Armenian Heavy Cavalry, Ghulams, and Turcomen.
Without exaggeration, he killed 350 on his own - literally.

Yes, my great army was routed by single man mounted upon a camel with 6 points of valour.

And if that wasn't enough, he did the same again in 1116 when, after calming my anger and deciding I had enough resources to allow this fluke to pass, I invaded Syria again.

Except this time that single unit killed three units of Armenian Cavalry and five of Turcomen, most of which were 6-7 in valour.

The Fatimid General somehow saw his entire unit get slaughtered and then killed half of my veteran army, yet my General, 8 in valour, was the third man in his own unit to die.



It really, quite unfairly ruins all my entertainment and enjoyment when something so meaningless and detrimental like this occurs.
I often need to check myself from quitting when the hind three provinces of the Sultanate are taken by a pittance of the enemy due to poor garrisoning.
I tell myself that it was my fault for not providing protection against the enemy navy, and that a solution is available due to nearby troops.

But in this case it is not my fault - what more can one do when his entire army has surrounded one man - only to flee in chaos two minutes later?

... On to yet another campaign.. I have lost my taste for the east and it's terrible balance of units..

[gollum]

i feel for you Glenn,

i think i mentioned in the *Help me enjoy MTW* thread of yours that titles and vices and virtues help in creating jedis and that XL actually encourages this trend.

But take heart - there is a very easy way out - just shoot them to death; if you have taken that general out by say throwing a spear unit at him in hold formation/hold position (to give extra defence) and then sniped him with javelins or better still crossbow bolts from behind, your problems would be over. Arrows are less optimal because they fall on an area but if nothing else is available they ll have to do.

The other alternative is to tire him till he routes - first rout the rest of his army while you keep him occupied with a spear unit ideally, then throw your units one at the time at him (if you have that luxury) and wait till he is tottaly exhausted - its the only way to rout jedis.

best of luck

EDIT
If you took those cavalry heavy armies you used against the Byzantines - its no wonder why a camel jedi general feasted on them, especially if you play in say expert. A few infantry units spears and shooters might have helped. Also sword units are a bane for camels - FMAA work swell, but as the Turks you can throw them Gazis or Futtuwas on the rear - they should work well.

!it burnsus!

[gollum]

Speaking of XL, you might want to use the new tag available to indicate that the thread is for XL

!it burnsus!

[Fagar]

I feel your pain Glenn.

I have a similiar dilemma at the moment.
Playing as the English I have crusaded for Greece, initially taken the province with around 2100 men.
The Byzantines attacked back next turn with what only amounts to a hotchpotch army mainly consisting of broken Slav Jav and trebizond archers (around 9 units of archers) and were led by a 8 star 8 valour uber general Kata.
The tricky thing here is that he is only one horse the other 39 presumably died in another battle with the Hungarians and he sits well back out of arrow range and I cannot get to him.
I tried to get mounted crossbow to him but got cut to pieces by his trebizond archers and I could not get my infantry through either.
The Slav Jav and then trebizonds in hand to hand just decimated my numbers.
I dropped a good army with a 5 star prince into the crusade before hand and so had nice valour and full troops on the battle field but it was not enough.
My Fuedal Sargeants and FMAA were just destroyed.
I charged my heavy horse into the flanks nonetheless of his archers and did they rout, no they turned and cut down my horse like they were made of butter.
My prince died at the hands of an archer for goodness sakes.
All this because of a single Uber general that I couldn't even engage!
He had invaded with only 780 men to my 2100 and I managed to kill only around 450 before my whole army was routed and kicked back to Croatia
And this was me defending!!! Normally my stronger suite.