has anyone actually lost a campaign?

[octavian]

hey folkes, i have played every faction on hard (at least), and, while i have not finished all the campaigns, i have yet to lose. so, my question is, is it truly possible to lose a campaign? please include the faction you played and what diff. if you have yet to lose (assuming you ever do) please include the the specs requested above.

thx everybody

[Monk]

yes it is.

On expert with the Turks.

I fought a two front war and barely defeated the Byzantines and the Egyptians by use of force. Both Constantinople and Egypt fell to me and i was feeling pretty good about myself. When a few turns later who should come knocking on the back door? You got it, The Mongols

The Bulk of my army was In Constantinople fighting off Crusaders when the Mongols rode south and drove me out of Georgia. I quickly rallied and marshaled a defense ready to bear the attack. I fought them for years with battle hardened veterans and cavalry, Sultans and princes. but in the end i could not defeat them. The Spanish invaded Africa and pushed me out after ten years of heavy fighting. The Crusaders broke through at Constantinople and overran most of Asia Minor and along with the Mongols drove me south. Only to meet the advancing Spanish.

IIRC i held them off in Palestine, Tripoli, Antioch and Syria for quite some time before they finally overpowered me and the game was over.

[o_loompah_the_delayer]

As Italians on expert, was trying to play a peaceful game and had only taken Hungary, when the Sicilians took out the Pope. The Pope remerged adn proceeded to beat me up instead of the Sicilians . Then everybody started to crusade against me and the Hungarians re-emerged, adn I gave up on the game at that point.

[Gregoshi]

Most definitely.

I lost an early Spanish campaign through stupidity. Attacked the Alhomeds with overwhelming force including the whole royal family. First the Alhomeds reinforced so the overwhelming part of the attack went away...then it turned out the fight was a bridge battle. I should have withdrawn immediately. I said should have.

[katank]

yes, medmod hard HRE. typical HRE fare except in MedMod, I ended up with loads of Destriders pouring across the borders the exact same year that the English Longbows decided to make a shoing in Friesland.

A year later, Poles and Hungarians got ideas. It was darn hard to hold them off and I had a civil war while foreign factions continued to pour in.

I managed to repress the rebellion only to have my king killed in a one on one with the Hungarian king. I didn't know that their BG unit was antivcav Doh.

he died without heirs and it was GG. first loss for me, within 30 years too.

[Aleksandr Nevsky]

Certainly,

There are numerous uncountable times when I have been too eager with my king early in the campaign, and he has died on the battlefield without heirs.

I've lost to the AI otherways too, but other than what I have said above I just quit the campaign because it is hopeless.

[ichi]

Sure, since I rarely reload a saved game I have lost as the Irish, the English, the Russians, the HRE, and the Aragonese.

Usually get overwhelmed too many fights not enough economy so after a few years get behind on technology or simply outnumbered.

Sometimes I die without an heir, an occasionally I have had civil wars.

All learning experiences.

ichi

[Aelwyn]

I haven't lost yet with the Polish, but am very close at the moment. They are tough in the High era, especially if the Russians can't deal with the Golden Horde. They are attacking me every turn in about 3 provinces, and there doesn't seem to be an end to their troops. I'm the same as ichi, not enough economy. Its not really my strong point.

[Cazbol]

It was my first Byzantine campaign. I set out to defeat the Turks as quickly as possible. In the first year my emperor started the conquest by taking one of their provinces, probably Lesser Armenia. The next year the Turks counterattack. They outnumbered me but I decided I should put up a bit of a fight before retreating, thus reducing their numbers a bit. The idea was to be close to map edge to be able to retreat quickly, but seeing the map I got tempted into setting up my defence some distance away from the edge, because there was this steep hill with a cliff on one side. Before I realised what was happening, my force was surrounded by horse archers which mowed my men down before the main force moved in. My emperor was killed and thus ended the imperial line, on the second year.

[Clips]

I have played many thousands of campaigns yet only lost one with the turkish, but it wasnt because of the faction or woteva ok i put it on the hardest level like i usually do but this time after a few years my kings died and a damn plague came to then all my men die and there is no one to take over so it ends lol mad or what.
Yet since then i have won expert ilevl i think it is many time :) and to win a the vikings was very hard, you know with stealing places then destroying all the buildings to make money but a good idea makes viking era and being viking very fun, trying to steal and destroy to be the richest COOL :P

[Ser Clegane]

I am more a casual player and always have a good chance of loosing a campaign when I play on hard or expert (and I am actually quite happy about this - I hate it when after palying even only a few times an actually good game gets so easy that it is impossible to lose ... made this experience with Star Wars: Rebellion)

[econ21]

I've tried Northumbria in the VI campaign a couple of times and given up in despair when faced with the Viking raids and massive Mercian armies that can emerge if you turtle.

I've also wimped out of games as HRE in older versions of MedMod (haven't tried the later versions).

Having your leader die heirless is the worst way to lose a game, of course - quite a danger in VI before the patch.

[desdichado]

My Danish king and his two sons invaded Norway and got cut to bits by some screaming vikings in short order.

That campaign took about 4 game years and 15 minutes at most of playing time

[PseRamesses]

I´ve never managed to win as the Northumbrians, Picts and Scottish in VI. And never as Aragon in MTW. Plus about five or six games where my king died heirless.

[squippy]

I have had soem untimely demises of the royal dynasty. I have not been defeated militarily.

[Bezalel]

Expert Turks on late can be challanging, lost one that way. Also, on hard Byz high, my king died at the age of 65 w/o any heirs.

[Sjakihata]

Yes, for me it seems impossible to win

[[DnC]]

I've lost a couple of times, at least once as the Aragonese when the Spanish obliterated me in a couple of turns with forces I didn't have the manpower to stop (note: I did came through the next Aragonesian campaign I started right after and had/have a large empire - haven't played the campaign for a while anymore). And I've lost once as the Italians due to having no heirs left to take the throne.

[nightcrawlerblue]

I got beat on the 2nd turn with the Danes. I sent my King and a viking to attack the rebels. My king got stuck and was obliterated by the 2 rebel units. It was first turn so no heirs... Man that was stupid.

[Sociopsychoactive]

I got completely defeated down to every last man once. Was playing Aragonese, early, expert, the spanish backstabbed me as I attacked the french and then rode on in with their swarms of jinettes, after my main army had just died honourably against the french.

They took all my provinces and sieged my then king, then invaded aragon itselfthith the heir on the year the king died, backed up by an allied force of Almohads

We fought the batle and lost, now down to one heir, then they assaulted the castle and killed him. Every single aragonese person was killed, down to a man.

[HopAlongBunny]

Possible to lose? Yes

Many times; sometimes gloriously but most often as a pauper...poor, homeless, chased by bankers from Syria to Scotland...pathetic really

[lancer63]

My Egyptian campaing. Made the mistake of sending my sultan and his only heir into a disastrous campaing against the Turks. Both got killed in the battle. Next thing I know I got kicked out of the game.

[discovery1]

Usually when I loose it's because I'm out of heirs. Once I lost b/c of too few GA points. Whenever I am loosing militarily I start over (yeah I know it's sad). An example would be when I was the HRE. I couldn't loose ANY provinces w/o triggering a civil war, which was quite impossible, beyond my skill anyway.

[gaijinalways]

My first campaign with the English on normal, my kind died with no heirs

And one with the Turks on expert, I gave up as I could never get a decent starting position with the Byz and Egyptians giving me hell.

[son of spam]

I haven't lost a campaign that I actually tried hard on, but there was this one example that I played for fun as the swiss on expert/late with medmod. I finally got so pissed off with the negative income that I decided to run around HRE with my king seeing how many provinces I could take. Well the first battle in austria went well, but then the germans counterattacked, and took switzerland and tyrolia, as I left no troops there. So I decided I pretty much lost, and I went on a rampage thorough HRE which was quite fun. Eventually everyone in my army got killed, but not before I caused a civil war

[The_Emperor]

If you guys go to the Throne Room you can see a Play by Email campaign that ended in dismal failiure. (sadly it was on my turn)

The Saxons are no more (oh damn those re-emerging armies of Mercians)

[Ser Clegane]

Quote[/b] (The_Emperor @ Mar. 03 2004,03:13)]If you guys go to the Throne Room you can see a Play by Email campaign that ended in dismal failiure. (sadly it was on my turn)

The Saxons are no more (oh damn those re-emerging armies of Mercians)

Just read your about this campaign in the Throne Room - interesting development, but that's what makes the campaigns of this interesting IMO - even if you lose you had an interesting game and made some history (as mentioned before, I am actually glad that the AI still provides some challenge for me...)

[Ulair]

On dying heirless - is there any way to mitigate against this, or is it just that once in a while bad luck (or bad random numbers :-) will decree your king will have no heirs and you'll be off. I tend to keep an heir somewhere safe, just in case.

Is your monarch's spouse guaranteed to produce a certain number of children over, say, 10 years, or is it some random chance per year - and does it vary with difficulty level?

It's kind of a shame if there's always a chance to lose ignominiously in this way, but I guess it may not happen too often (although it's a common remoark in this thread...)

Cheers,
Ulair

[katank]

no real way to prevent this except by using the .unfreeze. cheat.
even that takes 16 years to work.
I think it's all random. I've had kings producing 6 or even 7 heirs and others who don't get any for 50 years and then getting an heir at the last moment weird