The " 0h-$#!% " moment

[Duke Bart]

Have you ever in any game had one of those moments where perhaps you over extended yourself or lost critical battles where you notice that the last fifty turns that you spent building up may be all for nothing because enemies on all sides mixed with some unfortunate and tough battles resulted in you taking quite a few steps back.

A good example of this was in my poland game. I expended west to eliminate HRE(they lost bologna so they are 100 percent gone) and east to take out russia. Mongols where at turkey so i assumed i was safe, but then disaster strikes.

I lose a large battle to the danes resulting in a huge, gap in my north western defences. And they have a large fresh army marching on me right then and there.

Then the hungarians venetians and byzantines(sp?) they do not like me so nearly every city on my southern border is under siege.

To top it all off the mongols got bored of the middle east and a few stacks of them are seen by kiev.

So yeah, over the next few turns i lose my south, my northwest is retaken but incredibly fragile, my east is gone (although it will be retaken since a few spies and diplomats show that mongols are near collapse) and overall im right back down to 10 settlements from the 25 i had just a little bit ago.

My story may be a bit extreme, but have you guys ever had a campaign, region or even a battle suddenly go wrong?

[Zim]

I do remember one game shortly after the 1.2 patch came out with its increased naval invasions. I was playing Spain and had conquered Iberia, counting on good relations with all neighbors to keep me safe until the point where I could sail to America with pike and musket armies for fun.

Suddenly, France attacked me. They were pretty big, but the hapless AI was no match for me and I slowly pushed them back. Then England invaded by sea with a full stack, when I had very few troops left in Iberia proper. Then 1-2 Italian factions invaded around Valencia. If I recall correctly, the Moors had gotten in on it before I decided fighting endless stacks wasn't very fun and started a new game.

An even bigger " 0h-$#!% " moment occurred during my first fight with the Mongols. I was playing Russia and turtling. Even avoided Kiev to stay friendly with Poland, so I had mostly worthless steppe provinces. The Mongols invade around Sarkel and make a beeline for my territories. I manage to defeat several waves of stacks, but am pretty badly damaged and in debt, so I disband my remaining men. Turns out one more wave was yet to come and three more Mongol stacks appeared. :eek:

Probably the first time I quit a game because I figured I was going to lose. Subsequent experience makes me think the AI would not have waged war effectively enough to take all of my settlements, but it was a game I defiantely should have lost if I continued.

[Ramses II CP]

Leading the rebels (by the nose as France) to victory in my TE campaign I had a pretty typical battle against the Timurids, where they brought 1.5 stacks against my one. All is going to plan, with one of their generals dead under my big guns and the other leading the initial attack. He crashes through my lines scattering some arquebusiers, no big deal since it's where I invited him to, when suddenly my general, who has been killing Timurid HA on the other side of my line, bites it.

Talk about a moment. With a high dread general behind my army chasing some routing gunners my entire line suddenly goes to 'wavering.' And this is the half stack attacking, not the big no-general one.

I pretty much figured I was done, but I could go down swinging. I got my Aventuriers on the flank, behind where my general died and his men are running for the hills, to engage the Timurid HA at range and up close. Turned the other flank of my spear line to help the gunners and catch the company of heavy lancers that were following their general, and tried to rally some gunners.

Even after I killed their general, still behind my lines, and cleaned up his men I was still facing an essentially whole Timurid army including a grand bombard, and they did not want to come and attack me. I wasted some men killing their bombard crew, the destruction of which finally brought them forward so I could engage the standard battle tactics and cause a rout. Victory by a nose, but I really did think I had borked it when my general died. Even worse, due to the campaign rules the army was 7+ turns from reinforcement except what was already there in the field. A defeat there might've swung the whole campaign past the time limit and to ultimate strategic defeat.

...and I still remember it as one of the most fun battles I've fought. Need to let my generals die more often.

[Ratwar]

Well, most recently in an English Campaign, I was fighting Milan, they had two stacks, and I only had one. Being a smart commander, I used my Catapult to attack their General. So after about five minutes of missile fire and positioning, we joined in a melee. By the luck of the draw, their General went after my archers (I was attacking, so no stakes), and my deficiency in infantry left my own general as the only suitable counter option. Yeah, I forgot to retarget my catapult. In five seconds, both Generals were dead. Oh, and did I mention that my General was my king? I won the battle, but my family tree ended up in shambles due to having a dead king, a series of Princes who were totally mad, and then the rest of my family decided money grew on trees after a bit too much sacking :(.

Of course, the there was that Russian campaign. Slowly advancing into Poland, after initially Turtling. I had left many of the Poor eastern provinces rebel, as I wanted a buffer against the Mongols, who I had never truly faced before. So, they arrive, and decide to make a beeline towards Kiev, which I now know is standard operating procedure for them. Meanwhile, I'm pulling troops from everywhere possible, and building as many as my budget will allow. I decide my best option is to attempt to hold them off at the river crossings. My meager army awaits with a worthless General, who's primary purpose in life had been setting up watch towers. Then, just as the Mongols approach the River, the worst possible thing happens, the General decides he has a better chance going rebel than to fight the Mongols, so I lose the army I had poured a great deal of cash into, and he goes to defend a watch tower he had built just a few turns ago. Many good Christians in Kiev died due to his treason, and I was left in a rather crippled state.

[Eikon the Magistrate]

Worst ever for me was the 1st time I encountered the Timurids. I didnt even know at that time where all the cities were located, so my armies were spread out all over the russian heartlands trying to find them, was on my way to bulgar/sarkel...I saw their stacks and figured no biggie, I had forces all over...then the inevitable happened, in the 1st battle my king died and 1 by 1 all those stacks evaporated into rebels as the Timurids killed off my officers that were left and swept through my eastern empire. It was my first total rout was pushed back to literally the start point of my empire and I quit in disgust.

Idk if it qualifies as a moment but I once sent an army to attack marrakesh (ports vs moors) I didnt check the route and there was a boat in the way... needless to say a very long walk around the mediterranean. I eventually realised what happened and why my relations were getting ruined with everyone even tho I was paying tribute to 1/2 of them.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Fighting against a Portuguese army containing many foot knights, I had a similar army but with a little more cavalry. Anyway, our centres met and were battering each other to death. I planned to tip things by charging my cavalry in from the flanks, but I timed it wrong and failed to cause a rout. To make things worse, the enemy bodyguard charged into one flank and massacred my cavalry. My line gradually got down to wavering before a couple of units right in the centre broke. My General tried to cover the gaps left by the routers, but he soon got bogged down and killed, with my army getting slaughtered.

Plus in every battle against the Timurids there's an "0h-$#!% moment".

[Duke Bart]

Well, it takes a lot to make me decide to stop playing a game, but my recent game as sicily went horrible so fast that i dropped it.

in a string of horrible battles and events, my whole faction went to hell.

first, i won a battle at constantinople that cost me a large amount of my troops and barely secured the city. Then the hungarians invade resulting in the city between durazzo and constantinople to be lost (they actually brough artillery!)

then the venetians capture durazzo, which should not have happened and only happened because their catapaults had some AMAZING shots straight into my general and elite infantry that took out the bodyguard and most of the unit.

finally, upon the start of my turn constantinople rebels, killing my general there and milan which i recently captured started rioting which killed two family members.

So that leaves me with ONE family member who is in timbuktu where i sent him to live out his days in exile since he was so worthless. Now king Lamberto has nearly no stats besides one star and one little authority crown.

I realized that turn that even though i probably could play on, since my african provinces and southern italian ones where alright, i really just didnt want to waste my time on so much rebuilding.

Complete "Oh- $#!% moment!"

[Galain_Ironhide]

My first 'OH $%#%' moment would have been during my first ever Grand Campaign as the English, when I had my first encounter with the Mongols.

I had a stack, led by a General, on a crusade heading east for the target city of Antioch from Africa (accross the bottom of the game map). At this point I was not as advanced in the gameplay as I am now and I had not sent any spies to that area for any reconnaissance.

As soon as my stack reached the outskirts of Gaza, they finished their move smack bang in the middle of 4 Mongol stacks, that were heading west for Alexandria. The Mongols owned everything from Baghdad to Gaza and had a formidable army. This is where I said to myself 'oh #$%#'.

Needless to say my stack got annihilated after being bounced around like a pingpong ball between battles.

[tigger_on_vrb]

As the English I was fighting a reasonably easy battle. I was well outnumbered, but the enemy was spilt into 3 armies and the AI sent them in 1 at a time rather than a coordinated attack against my defensive position which was surrounded with stakes. My army was also led by a legendary general with every positive virtue and retinue you could imagine.

I beat the first wave and my general went off to collect some routers and then returned to meet the second wave. Of course being wise I made sure my general was WALKING towrads my stake defences. I then set about reorganising my yeoman archers and DFK to meet the second wave. Having given them move orders I automatically hit ctrl+A and then run to get them in position quickly.... just as my general hit the line of stakes

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Galain_Ironhide]

another instance that has made me go 'oh %@#$%'.

In the past I was profound for forgetting to enable Guard mode / disable skirmish mode for my archers. Then of course instead of firing volleys of arrows at close quarters in to the enemy, they would be instead fleeing for their lives making the distance between them and the battle bigger. Or alternatively they would be chasing after the first wave of routers only to get chewed up by the next wave of enemy troops because they were well past the protection line of my spears and swords. I can still hear myself saying "DISABLE SKIRMISH MODE GALAIN! DAMN IT! "

I've learnt now though.

[PBI]

I have had many similar "Oh $#%&#%" moments using crossbows or gunners, thinking that skirmish mode would be sufficient to get them out of the way of the charging enemy cavalry. Of course, the poor fools instead insist on standing there reloading while the cavalry mow them down. I then have to mess up my nice infantry line getting them to rush forwards to try and save my archers.

Also, one of my men had his very own "oh $#%*&" moment the other day; as a unit of DFKs was mercilessly carving its way through my unit of scots pike militia, I heard, above the din of battle, a very clear cry of "bloody hell" in a thick Glaswegian accent. It made me smile.

[Martok]

Also, one of my men had his very own "oh $#%*&" moment the other day; as a unit of DFKs was mercily carving its way through my unit of scots pike militia, I heard, above the din of battle, a very clear cry of "bloody hell" in a thick Glaswegian accent. It made me smile.

I didn't realize individual soldiers said anything intelligible during battle. (Of course, I've not played the game that much.)

Still funny either way, though.

[Pater Familias]

As Milan, I sailed in a middling stack of cavalry, including a general, as reinforcements, landing right behind the Sicilians besieging my castle with its handful of missile troops and not much else (one light cavalry unit, two peasant archers and the dregs of two mercenary crossbows who had taken the castle in the first place).
The Sicilians had brought along a general of their own, one spear unit, one militia, one archer and a 2/3rds stack of mixed cavalry.
I was a little surprised when on the AI's turn, Sicily attacked anyway, because I knew I would wipe them out between the archers on the walls and the cavalry reinforcements disrupting them from the rear. Only when the battle screen came up, my reinforcements didn't register ... obscured by the little status tag under the castle on the campaign map, I had landed not one but TWO spaces behind the Sicilians ... OH @$%*^&
I lost the battle (only able to burn one of two rams at which point it was their cavalry v. my archers), then had an all-cavalry stack of my own outside the walls with a two-turn sail between me and the mainland ...

[The New Che Guevara]

I haven't played Medieval II enough yet to get these situations, however, I have done with Rome.

Sorry for those that don't know Rome well enough. I was playing as Julii and the Egyptians started on me. Being a noob I only put my fleets on like two or three ships. Set them with full armies. The egyptians had superior naval force. My campaign autosaved before my worst turn ever. The egyptians met my small fleets and then every naval battle during that turn was a loss resulting in my armies meeting the bottom of the mediterranean and that campaign being terminated.

[TheLastPrivate]

I was playing as turks and mopping up rest of byzantines in the valkans,
and found a ever-so popular army of trebuchets and catapults.

To minimize losses i take my general and a few fast cavalry troops to deal with the oddball of an army.

The battle starts and I march towards the line of siege weaponry, the first shot by their trebuchet lands on my 10 star faction leader, frying him into a crisp mass of armor and burnt flesh...

[PrestigeX]

Marched out of city with an army of peasant archers, some spear militia (no armor or experience) and a handful of Highlanders, and General...

Thought I was taking on a small force of Catapults and Xbows .. but hidden from my view came a huge force of Spanish , full stack of Catapults/Ballistae and Jinettes, with some almughavars.
I was creamated lol
but on the plus side,
My General Survived :)

[Iñnsomñni]

Sorry all non-RTW players here, but one of my oh $#!% moments was as i was playing a campaign as the Julii against the Gauls. I was winning many battles against them, and then suddenly as there last unit, there warlord, with around 29 cavalry. Charged into my barbarian warband (they actually have spears) They routed, then their general sped through perhaps 10 units of Hastati, killing over 1000 men, and i think my Hastati managed to kill 5 Warlord Cavalry, i was distraght, so i adbandoned mediolanium and charged another huge stack at him, this time containing 4 general cavalry, that won the battle for me :)

[lilo lol]

Just now.. I had emigrated spain to the holy lands and was swarming europe with huge stacks (about 20 I guess lol), too bad I forgot about the timurids who are now standing at bagdad with my nearest army in greece...

[BetterDeadThanRed]

Perhaps not an "Oh-$#!%" moment as just the closest call I have ever seen in a battle.

I was the English launching my final invasion of Denmark onto their then capital, Oslo, which was manned by a half strength collection of militia and low level infantry. Easy as pie, until another force of several hundred late game Danish appears right behind me and attacks my besieging army. All I had brought with me was a collection of Yeoman archers, quarter strength Feudal knights, a few dozen soldiers worth of dismounted knights, and a nil experience general, after all, I just sent some of my spare troops from my Arhus garrison to finish off a crappy garrison of militia.

The battle was hardly an epic slogfest between massive armies, but facing fresh Danish heavy infantry and heavy cav with nothing more than a hodgepodge of heavily depleted units, of which 3/4 were archers, was going to be quite challenging.

I opt for a defensive position on a hill creating a half circle of archers and stakes with my very few infantry behind them, and my dozen or so remaining knights on the flank. I saw the approaching force and knew I was in for a hard fight. The Yeomans did hardly any significant damage before they were upon me. I charged with what little infantry I had and did a flank charge with my Yeoman, but was dismayed to see the reports of,

"Defeat is a certainty, only a military genius could win this battle."

My archers were dropping like flies and I resorted to repeatedly charging the rear of the mass of infantry with my pathetic unit of knights. I did enough damage this way to start the rear unit into a rout and then the rest began to flee in a domino effect, but not before I lost nearly all of my precious knights.

Feeling pretty good about my victory, I send my general to hunt down the routers... then it hits me...

The "Oh-$#!%" moment: I had only destroyed the cities garrison, the real army, the one with all of the heavy horsemen and axemen was closing rapidly on my flank out of the woods, and worse yet, all of my units were winded and my only horsemen were all the way across the map chasing routers.

I'm really not sure how I managed to survive, but realizing a one-on-one fight would be certain doom, I scattered my units and hoped to force the enemy to do the same. Just when I thought that things might actually work out, I realized that my general (who had been running the length of the whole map) ended up impaled on my archer's stakes.

I'm really not quite sure how I managed to pull a victory out of that one, but needless to say, I had no more than 20 soldiers left by battles end.

The enemy had none.

[Duke Bart]

whoa i didnt think this thread would be up again, but now that i see it again i do realize that i have a pretty cool "oh-$#!%" moment to share.

I was playing as portugese and it was early in the game so i only have precious few family members. Unfortunately in my game my family members just did not breed!

I do not really take much issue untill i realize i have been declining a bunch of adoption/man of the hour requests (they where all old and worthless to me at the time)

It turns out that the game starts offering stuff like that when you really need family members.

I didnt notice before, but all i had left was a 50 year old king. THats it. The closest son was 4 years old and for some reason the man of the hour offers just stopped coming! And since my princesses died off or got too old marriage was out of the question.

thats where my moment came but luckilly the 4 year old got to 16 when the king was still kicking at 62. He died a turn after the only heir became of age.

Luckilly my family members now breed like rabbits but i still cannot beleive that i almost lost because i ran out of family members early on...

[TheLastPrivate]

@Duke Bart

I had to laugh at that one though.Time to put a ban on birth control! :lol:

[Askthepizzaguy]

I think the first time the game caught me truly off-guard was when I was playing the War for Independence campaign as Sicily. I had liberated my core 10 provinces and then I was going to turn the rest of the map rebel. Well all my forces were off killing the Byzantines and I had only one stack remaining at home. It was on the Lands to Conquer mod, Vh/Vh difficulty.

Well, the HRE declared war on me and sent 3 stacks of their best troops against me, and their homeland territories had plenty of reserves. Not to mention under the house rules, I had to release all prisoners and allow their lands to rebel properly.

So even after beating the first stack over and over again, and releasing the prisoners, and having it at half strength after all that, two more were arriving and I had no money or forces in the region to stop them. The invasion of northern Italy was at hand. Then the French declared war on me, and the Moors, and I wasn't winning against Byzantium.

At that point I realized no matter what I did, I was not going to gain any ground for the next two decades of war. And I would lose ground before the end of the war anyway. That was the first time I had devised rules to the game, coupled with the Lands to Conquer Mod, which actually allowed the AI to challenge me to the point where I questioned how I could win the war.

I tipped over my king and called it a day. I had midterms and stuff to do and it would have taken forever to recover. That was the first time I lost a war.

Next, on the Broken Crescent Mod, as the Turks, I had defeated the Eastern Roman armies which the script had spawned and forced them all the way back towards their main city, Constantinople. I had surrounded the city with what was left of my invasion army, and they had only a few soldiers left.

Then, I hit the end turn button. Then I watched the AI spawn an entire stack of fully armoured axemen, spearmen, cataphracts, complete with silver and gold chevrons, clearly outclassing my forces by about 3 to one, and then they sallied.

I was absolutely blown away by their forces... they were much too strong. I could charge full tilt into those axemen all day, and more of my horsemen would die than the axemen, who outnumbered me, and they NEVER rout.

My infantry was pathetic, and they were invulnerable to arrow fire. Their general had some 50 something gold plated bodyguards and mine wasn't even close. Just the general alone could have wiped out half my army, and he did.
Being a mostly light cavalry and light infantry faction, I threw my heaviest troops at them once I saw charges and arrows weren't doing any good.

My Ghulam cavalry was butchered immediately and the Romans kept advancing... I fought to the death and lost by a wide margin. Totally unprepared... Well I come back a few turns later with my main forces, and catch their huge stack o doom wandering outside their city, so I promptly surround them and attack. After a horrendously bloody battle, I killed every last one of those buggers, and laid seige to Constantinople with my bloody and battered forces.

And then I had to pick my jaw up off of the floor when the game's script spawned ANOTHER indestructible army with gold plated fully armoured axemen, spears, and other unmentionable soldiers who represented death incarnate. One of these stacks could pound the entire Mongol horde into oblivion.

After wiping the mess out of my pants, I proceeded to tip my king over and abandon the campaign. I had lost my best, most experienced troops already, several family members, was behind in development, and I was doing a blitz run. There was no way to recover from this and take the city and forcefully blitz the map either.

I was more successful... much more successful... the next time I played. However, that's twice in my campaigns that I've seen the opposition and bowed out of the game in disgrace, because as much fun as it is to battle forces you cannot defeat within an acceptible time frame... I had better things to do, and it's not like anyone would have been impressed by my bravery in accepting the unwinnable challenge.

I would have fought back and eventually won... because the AI is incompetent... but in those two instances, I was guilty of the same thing and I deserved to be defeated.

[Duke Bart]

Well, i guess this is my last "oh-$#!%" moment for a while.


I was playing some m2tw when suddenly i realised that i just wasnt that into the game anymore.

The tour ends here guys, it was fun.



see you guys when empire total war comes out!

[Veho Nex]

I had one game where I was at 99% victory but, something happened in the center and I went from a nice arrow head defence to a Two spearmen pincer move on the remnents of the enemy army. I still won but I had lost only 5 men up till the rout where over 1000 of my men were captured

[oz_wwjd]

I had ones as the Byzantines. I was fighting the Hungarians on a bridge,and had postioned 2 units of Javelin throwers eaither side of the bridge to hopefully take out their general as he came over.When he came over I got one volley up against him,them asigned them to different tragets as my general was locked in combat with him,but one of them didn't get the message and rained both of them with javelins dropping my general from 28 men to 2,which made me go oh-$#!%" as he was also my kings with no heirs yet...

[Galain_Ironhide]

Well, i guess this is my last "oh-$#!%" moment for a while.


I was playing some m2tw when suddenly i realised that i just wasnt that into the game anymore.

The tour ends here guys, it was fun.



see you guys when empire total war comes out!

You'll be back.
TW's a sickness and it grab holds of you, and when you think the fever is past, BAM! You're playing as the HRE trying to beat Askthepizzaguy's blitz record.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Do I still hold that record? It hasn't been broken yet?

...

Hurry up will ya?

[Quickening]

Uploaded another battle to my youtube channel last night and thought of this topic. Not so much an "Oh-$#!% " moment as a "Oh God am I ******* stupid" moment:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBWTpyECAkA

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPaFoK-5Iv8



[Swear words must be completely replaced by asterisks. -- Martok]

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Uploaded another battle to my youtube channel last night and thought of this topic. Not so much an "Oh-$#!% " moment as a "Oh God am I ******* stupid" moment:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBWTpyECAkA

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPaFoK-5Iv8

Why did you let your general stay in there? Just pull him out and let him charge again.

[Quickening]

Why did you let your general stay in there? Just pull him out and let him charge again.

I did order him out but he refused to stop fighting those spearmen. I should never have sent him in. So annoying.

Nevermind started a new campaign as Wales now and I won't repeat such a stupid mistake