Battles to be remembered.......

[Lars Jorgensun]

Describe some of your best or worst battles. I'd love to hear them. Gimme details!!!!!! Staggering odds, incredible losses, deaths of Kings and rises of new nations!!!

[Vladimir]

If I could post screenshots from work I would give you the results from when the Kahn assaulted my fortress in Kazar. 3/4 of my army was destroyed but so was the horde.

[Lars Jorgensun]

I love playing defensive seiges. Escpecially when I'm playing as a muslim faction, cause they get some pretty good defensive troops.(Saracen Infantry, and Jannisaries and AUM)

[Martok]

Check out this thread; a number of us members posted some pretty good stories there. Enjoy!

[Budwise]

Describe some of your best or worst battles. I'd love to hear them. Gimme details!!!!!! Staggering odds, incredible losses, deaths of Kings and rises of new nations!!!

Worst battle, I outnumbered the enemy 3 to 1 and I had way better troops. I rushed into the battle HEAD ON without trying to flank and my general dies almost right off the bat. My army then routs within 4 minutes of the battle. I can't believe I lost. Its not like I rushed my general in by himself or in the first wave. I used him and only him to flank the side and he dies.

[Ciaran]

Yes, that´s the nice thing about MTW, if you´re not careful you can still loose, even if the odds seem to be in your favour, some routing units and your whole frontline crumbles to dust. It happens far more often than in Rome, or so it seems to me. Dito, I´ve won more than one battle despite my army was already starting to run away collectively.

I love playing defensive seiges.

I seldom played defensive sieges, the AI usually starves out the garrison or the forces left are so paltry that there´s no chance to win the battle.

[Weebeast]

LOL I love defending castles too, even if I know that I have no chance to win.

Speaking of remembering, this is a recent battle I had as the Scots. I bribed the longbows in Wales (I hadn't made Welsh a new faction) but on the next turn, just when they're under my banner, the English invaded Wales full power. It's only the fifth turn in the game and it's early so the english were made up of archers and royal knights. I was gonna capture him for extra money but it was impossible as I didn't have cavalry so I let my spears impale his arse. The king was a great fighter but his soldiers were not lol.

https://img487.imageshack.us/img487/2916/scots9gt.jpg

Well I had lots of cool battles but I can't remember them lol.

[Patron]

Eh? What's going on here?

I've saved quite a few battles involving 20 to 80 pictish elite berserkers and royal bodyguards destroying entire armies of mercians and such like. I tend to use AI stupidities as much as possible to prevent being flanked. If you can get berserkers into 1 on 1s they are practically invincible, but if they are flanked the kill ratio goes down from around 1:10^500 to 1:10.

[miho]

I once had a battle with little less than 6000 enemy soldiers against my 3950. I only used my 500 knights. In the end I killed over 3000 enemy soldiers and lost less than 50.

Before the battle:


After the battle:

[X Clan]

Well I’ve had a few where even out numbered before the start of mayhem; I'd maneuvered one unit (i.e. HR) into a position up hill and behind my adversary only to watch them withdraw from battle without a single shot fired.

[Eternal Champion]

Well I’ve had a few where even out numbered before the start of mayhem; I'd maneuvered one unit (i.e. HR) into a position up hill and behind my adversary only to watch them withdraw from battle without a single shot fired.

That usually happens when I'm really looking for a fight. Then when I hit end year "just one more time", bang you get slammed by a 3,000 strong, 2 hr battle.

[Ciaran]

Just now I had a battle to remember, not so much because of its uniqueness or because it was a surprising victory - though it was, even if I lost the battle itself. One of my usual run-of-the-mill armies of four Feudal Sergeants, three archers, two arbalests, two Feudal foot knights (dismounted mercenary Druz*whatever* cavalry, very handy if you can get them), two Chivalric Knights and a Royal Cavalry against a couple of those typical Horde armies with massive armoured cavalry, Horse archers and Horde foot warriors. At first I thought "I can take ´em", usually its a matter of finding a good position on a hill, let your sergeants absorb the missiles from the foot guys and kill the armoured cav with your crossbows. Works like a charm, really. For some reason, the Horde guy stop just short of my spears, let their archers shoot at the front rank and leaver their precious cavalry in crossbow range like sitting ducks. So they did this time, with their army being lead by their king or Khan. Well, whatever, obviously, he ended as a pincushion, what with 160 arbalesters putting their bolts into him. That´s usually nice, since when the general´s done this world the service of leaving it, things usually go downhill. Well, all the units on the battlefield were properly horrified and fled, sadly making space for those thrice - blasted Horse archers that no decent catholic cavalry can catch. My spears shot to pieces by the foot soldiers, my archers out of ammo and all of my army generally pretty tired, the reinforcements swept me off the field.
I was already thinking I´m done, the Horde would sweep all the way through my precious and expensively built empire, when I came to the strategic map, I was told the Horde was no more! Their Khan had no heir left when he let himself turn into a pincushion
That´s what you get from being brave instead of sensible - as my generals are, watching the action from a bit back and let the fighting for those who are more...expendable

[Lars Jorgensun]

NIce. The only way I've ever killed the Khan was through assination. I built up 13 assassins by wacking catholic preists and emissaries till they all had 3 valour, then I sent them all after the khan as soon as he attacked khazaar. 9 dead assassins later the khan was roasting his toes in hell, and his army became a mass of *masked breathing* "Rebel Scum.

[m52nickerson]

In my last two Polish games I killed the Khan, but it did not help. The now Kanless horde continued to attack my kingdom. The only good thing is that with out a leader they are cheaper to by off.

[Grond]

NIce. The only way I've ever killed the Khan was through assination. I built up 13 assassins by wacking catholic preists and emissaries till they all had 3 valour, then I sent them all after the khan as soon as he attacked khazaar. 9 dead assassins later the khan was roasting his toes in hell, and his army became a mass of *masked breathing* "Rebel Scum.

Why not train up your assasins on, say, peasant generals? They're less expensive (200 of them to train on for 100 florins) than the 100 a pop emissaries, unless you mean enemy emissaries and priests.

Although... it's only 100 for an emissary, once, and there's no maintenance cost, whereas the peasants, if you have them for 10 years, cost you 750 florins overall or so.

[Grond]

I pinned the Khan, once, and not in the fraternity sororiety way, either. I chased him through four provinces with my throw away army (a group of spears and archers and swords and junk that was all outmoded; I combined all of them together and sailed them into Georgia, while my new modern armies kicked it back in old Snorri-land. All those hard-bitten mean-ass crotchety old generals, all sitting around, madder than hell that they're being phased out, and I drop them into Georgia... on a whim. The Khan runs like a squealing pig, so I naturally chase him). After taking the fourth province, I manage to get the guy into battle. I've got 6 longbow troops, each trained in close combat longbow take-downs and other longbow special forces tactics that flew in on an aging Russian Tupolov, and they're specifically tasked with one thing: Put an arrow through the Khan's neck.

They succeeded, they did.

I expected the whole khanate to collapse in dust, but they guy had spawned an heir.

[IrishMike]

I gotta say the best battle i've ever had came from HTW. It was 6,000 of my brave spartan warriors against an upwards of 15,000 persians. After round after round of renforcements, and it had to be a bride battle to, both sides were uttly exhauseted. The battle ended up with them suffering around 12,000 casulties to my 2,000. God that was a great battle.

[Byzantine Prince]

It was with the Mongols, when they invaded one of my castles and I had to hold them off for so long fighting tooth and nail for every inch and not losing time after time after time, even when they had re-inforcements. That was a winning streak I'll remember and one for the ages.

[m52nickerson]

I had a group of battles like that, but mine were fought on a bridge in Kiev. The first year the Horde out numbered my forces 3 to 1. They were beaten back, but I had some losses from all there missile. The next year they came with a bigger force. My army held for a long time but they finale broke through on my side of the river. I had not units left, as I had thrown every thing at the mouth of the bridge. Lucky I was able to take Kiev back the next year as I had fresh troops arrive.

[Ciaran]

Why not train up your assasins on, say, peasant generals? They're less expensive (200 of them to train on for 100 florins) than the 100 a pop emissaries, unless you mean enemy emissaries and priests.

Although... it's only 100 for an emissary, once, and there's no maintenance cost, whereas the peasants, if you have them for 10 years, cost you 750 florins overall or so.

If you train them on foreign emmisaries and priests it doesn´t cost a pence. And those are sitting ducks and usually plenty, too.

[Lars Jorgensun]

If you train them on foreign emmisaries and priests it doesn´t cost a pence. And those are sitting ducks and usually plenty, too.

exactly

[Vladimir]

I've tried to train assassins on foreign agents in my territory. Too many of them seem to have ESP and head to a neighbor’s place with a border fort.

[miho]

I've tried to train assassins on foreign agents in my territory. Too many of them seem to have ESP and head to a neighbor’s place with a border fort.

If you see that your targeted emissary,bishop,etc. has gone to a neighbors province you can call off your assassin.

[Ludens]

If you see that your targeted emissary,bishop,etc. has gone to a neighbors province you can call off your assassin.

This does not work if the assasin and the target are in the same province. Then the assassin will follow him (and usually get caught) into the other province.

The A.I. knows when you target its agents.

[Feanaro]

The battle I remember most clearly saw me playing the Russians in Late period. The Golden Horde popped up a WEEE bit earlier than I expected, by about twenty years. I scrambled to assemble the best force I couldn't afford in the appropriate province. My army had a paltry thousand men. The bulk of of them were spearmen(Feudal, I think) and halberdiers, a few swordsmen, a unit of archers and two Boyars for support. My enemy? More than six thousand of the Mongolian's best troops.

After changing his underwear, my general decided that the best course of action was to hide in a forest. It was located by a road cutting through the middle of the map, on the far eastern edge. It had a kind of split in the middle, a clearing on the western side. I positioned my archers and Boyars there. My infantry positioned themselves just on the edge of the forest, facing the road. The Golden Horde approached and I fully expected to lose the battle. But I hoped to kill as many of the swarthy men as I could. If only I had been playing England, I could have read a few lines of Kipling...

My general noticed something quite strange. The Mongols would not send their footmen into the forest. Perhaps it had something to do with their skirmisher status. They were also reticent to fire into the woods. They milled around at the edge of the forest. So, I charged. Hammer 'n' anvil, I swept over their right side with swordsmen and routed them. I withdrew to the forest, I couldn't spare the Boyars and had no fast units to chase them. They reformed and came back. This time they attempted to send a few units around the forest, into that little clearing. I threw them back, first with missle fire, then with steel. Their other units were sent off with their tail between their legs.

My general was just starting to pop open a bottle of vodka when he noticed they had reformed... again. Back to fighting. This time they didn't even bother fighting, they broke for good when they got near my units. I suspect it was my general's alcohol drenched breath. He didn't brush very often. My men breathed a sigh of relief... until they saw the reinforcements. The battle lasted into the night, with wave after wave of dark invaders smashing against my lines, counter attacks, reformations, and skirmishing. By the second or third wave I was out of missiles. My men were often exhausted, always tired, and their weapons were beginning to blunt. It didn't seem that my general could hold this together for long.

But my soldiers held the forest, giving their all for king and country. The dust had cleared by the time to first rays of the sun fell upon the body of the Mongol leader lay amidst four or five thousand of his comrades. I had lost some four hundred troops but I was victorious. My general started whoopin' 'n hollerin', calling for a round of vodka. I found that a little uncouth. I sat still for a moment and then said "YES! Take that you Mongol [naughty word]". I insulted their mothers, questioned their sexuality, told them to do some anatomically impossible things, and so forth. That continued for about two minutes before I realized that it was attracting unwanted attention.

I wish I could find that replay. May have deleted it, may just have lost it. But that was an epic, if draining, battle. I've fought bigger but rarely against excellent troops.

[miho]

The A.I. knows when you target its agents.

That could be considered as cheating.

[Grond]

That could be considered as cheating.

Miho! No, no, if the AI does it, it's a feature. (Sort of like the fact that they also cheat to look at your moves and react accordingly sometimes. It gives the AI a slight edge that it doesn't get from having a brain.)

[Grond]

The battle I remember most clearly saw me playing the Russians in Late period. The Golden Horde popped up a WEEE bit earlier than I expected, by about twenty years. I scrambled to assemble the best force I couldn't afford in the appropriate province. My army had a paltry thousand men. The bulk of of them were spearmen(Feudal, I think) and halberdiers, a few swordsmen, a unit of archers and two Boyars for support. My enemy? More than six thousand of the Mongolian's best troops.

After changing his underwear, my general decided that the best course of action was to hide in a forest. It was located by a road cutting through the middle of the map, on the far eastern edge. It had a kind of split in the middle, a clearing on the western side. I positioned my archers and Boyars there. My infantry positioned themselves just on the edge of the forest, facing the road. The Golden Horde approached and I fully expected to lose the battle. But I hoped to kill as many of the swarthy men as I could. If only I had been playing England, I could have read a few lines of Kipling...

My general noticed something quite strange. The Mongols would not send their footmen into the forest. Perhaps it had something to do with their skirmisher status. They were also reticent to fire into the woods. They milled around at the edge of the forest. So, I charged. Hammer 'n' anvil, I swept over their right side with swordsmen and routed them. I withdrew to the forest, I couldn't spare the Boyars and had no fast units to chase them. They reformed and came back. This time they attempted to send a few units around the forest, into that little clearing. I threw them back, first with missle fire, then with steel. Their other units were sent off with their tail between their legs.

My general was just starting to pop open a bottle of vodka when he noticed they had reformed... again. Back to fighting. This time they didn't even bother fighting, they broke for good when they got near my units. I suspect it was my general's alcohol drenched breath. He didn't brush very often. My men breathed a sigh of relief... until they saw the reinforcements. The battle lasted into the night, with wave after wave of dark invaders smashing against my lines, counter attacks, reformations, and skirmishing. By the second or third wave I was out of missiles. My men were often exhausted, always tired, and their weapons were beginning to blunt. It didn't seem that my general could hold this together for long.

But my soldiers held the forest, giving their all for king and country. The dust had cleared by the time to first rays of the sun fell upon the body of the Mongol leader lay amidst four or five thousand of his comrades. I had lost some four hundred troops but I was victorious. My general started whoopin' 'n hollerin', calling for a round of vodka. I found that a little uncouth. I sat still for a moment and then said "YES! Take that you Mongol [naughty word]". I insulted their mothers, questioned their sexuality, told them to do some anatomically impossible things, and so forth. That continued for about two minutes before I realized that it was attracting unwanted attention.

I wish I could find that replay. May have deleted it, may just have lost it. But that was an epic, if draining, battle. I've fought bigger but rarely against excellent troops.

Dear Ivan:

Our law office has been retained by the most recently deceased Khan's bereaved widow and grieving orphans. It seems that the Khan and 6000 of his closest friends were traveling to church, to attend the wedding of his beloved niece, when he was beset by churlish drunken Russian rogues who obviously were accosting him for his money and horses. Of course, the Khan fought back in self-defense, but it appears that he was overwhelmed by the heavily armed Russian thugs. The Khan, may he rest in peace, was wearing only his Sunday-best and carrying a small pair of nail clippers, so it is no surprise he was unable to properly defend himself from a well-executed ambush that exploited the fact that he is afflicted with four well-known phobias: defecaloesiophobia (fear of painful bowel movements), deipnophobia (fear of dining or dinner conversation), demophobia (fear of crowds), and Dendrophobia (a fear of trees), the last being the most relevant. We are informed that when he was initially accosted by the Russian ruffians, all of whom were wearing "I heart King Ivan" patches on their left chest plates, they initially tried to feed him several pounds of chocolate, then surrounded him and started light dinner conversation whilst steering him into the trees, before cruelly slaying him and the entire wedding party of 6,000 peace-loving Mongols. We are outraged at this behavior, and our shock to find you condone this conduct was only eclipsed by our greed and our rush to file a lawsuit against you.

Of course, the fact that these Russian fellows all identified you as the instigator and true king involved, we feel it is necessary to inform you that we will be initiating a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the Golden Horde (Case #43, The Successors In Interest and Bereaved Heirs of the Khan, the Golden Horde, a limited liability corporation formed in Mongolia, vs. Ivan, an individual, and The Principalities of the Russias A.G., a country, and Peasant Does 1 through 50,000). Please advise if you will accept service in Moscow by our 4000 underpaid horse archers? (Said horse archers currently work for the Khannate, but are working as individual contractors part time in the service business to earn extra florins.)

I remain,
very truly yours,
Raymond B. Disbarr
Barr, Disbarr, & Crowbarr LLP

[Feanaro]

Dear Ivan:

Our law office has been retained by the most recently deceased Khan's bereaved widow and grieving orphans. It seems that the Khan and 6000 of his closest friends were traveling to church, to attend the wedding of his beloved niece, when he was beset by churlish drunken Russian rogues who obviously were accosting him for his money and horses. Of course, the Khan fought back in self-defense, but it appears that he was overwhelmed by the heavily armed Russian thugs. The Khan, may he rest in peace, was wearing only his Sunday-best and carrying a small pair of nail clippers, so it is no surprise he was unable to properly defend himself from a well-executed ambush that exploited the fact that he is afflicted with four well-known phobias: defecaloesiophobia (fear of painful bowel movements), deipnophobia (fear of dining or dinner conversation), demophobia (fear of crowds), and Dendrophobia (a fear of trees), the last being the most relevant. We are informed that when he was initially accosted by the Russian ruffians, all of whom were wearing "I heart King Ivan" patches on their left chest plates, they initially tried to feed him several pounds of chocolate, then surrounded him and started light dinner conversation whilst steering him into the trees, before cruelly slaying him and the entire wedding party of 6,000 peace-loving Mongols. We are outraged at this behavior, and our shock to find you condone this conduct was only eclipsed by our greed and our rush to file a lawsuit against you.

Of course, the fact that these Russian fellows all identified you as the instigator and true king involved, we feel it is necessary to inform you that we will be initiating a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the Golden Horde (Case #43, The Successors In Interest and Bereaved Heirs of the Khan, the Golden Horde, a limited liability corporation formed in Mongolia, vs. Ivan, an individual, and The Principalities of the Russias A.G., a country, and Peasant Does 1 through 50,000). Please advise if you will accept service in Moscow by our 4000 underpaid horse archers? (Said horse archers currently work for the Khannate, but are working as individual contractors part time in the service business to earn extra florins.)

I remain,
very truly yours,
Raymond B. Disbarr
Barr, Disbarr, & Crowbarr LLP

This is the legal representative of His Most Gracious Majesty Ivan the Mildly Terrible, King of the Provinces of Russia, Archduke of Poland, Defender of the Faith, etc.

We are most displeased with news of this lawsuit. It has never been our wish to provoke enmity between the great and noble peoples of Russia and the unwashed, but brave and well dressed, barbarians of the East. We have endeavored to keep friendly relationships with all the worthy men in the worlds. His Most Gracious Majesty even provided the dowry(Two casks of the finest Russian liquors, five bushels of potatos, and one bard) for one of the Khan's great-grand nieces, thrice removed.

We can provide the eye witness reports of some eight hundred Russian soldiers and one wandering gypsy to the effect that the deceased, Khan of the Golden Horde, did not only initiate the attack that lead to his untimely death, but that he commited deeds which are almost unspeakable. His Most Gracious Majesty was most greived when he learned of how the deceased had most egregiously broken his trust.

The soldiers of the Seventh Brigade of Russia(the aforementioned eye witness soldiers) were marching their usual patrol when they chanced upon the deceased and his soldiers. These soldiers, and the gypsy, will attest that the Khan was, with malice aforethought, burning down one of our fine villages. His men did even set fire to an orphanage, funded by His Most Gracious Majesty. Said soldiers were also engaged in acts of murdering the innocent men of the town, enslaving the women, and raping the livestock. In the face of these despicable acts, it is our view that His Most Gracious Majesty's only course of action was to, in his words, "Kick the short little basterds back to Mongolia."

Despite being outnumbered and armed only with dinner forks, our brave soldiers put aside their current work(building shelters for battered women and children) and performed their duties admirably. His Most Gracious Majesty and his soldiers were most saddened that the deceased was made so in these efforts but, we hold, it was a justified course of action.

In the interests of promoting further understanding and unity between our two peoples, we are more than willing to go through the proper legal channels to settle this matter. If you and the plaintiffs wish to pursue legal action, His Most Gracious Majesty and the eye witnesses in question would be more than willing to meet in Moscow. However, we regret to inform that the horse archers of Mongolia cannot be provided for. We are currently providing boarding for refugees from the current war between the Holy Roman Empire and the French, as well as various children and abused persons.

Yours,
Vladistock Z. Kriminol
Kriminol Law Services, "Sue 'em or kill 'em, whatever is the customer's pleasure."

[jadast]

I just attacked the Horde with my Spanish army. I brought 8000 - mostly chiv knights and chiv sergeants with some pav arbs - they had over 9000 - mostly heavy cav and mongol warriors.

The 1st wave of each army was evenly matched. My chiv sergeants were tiring, my cavalry had been chopped to pieces. Their heavy cavalry were decimated and their mongol warriors were standing off shooting into the fray. My pav arbs were shooting into the line of mongol warriors. Suddenly their general was killed.

No one routs but they disengage and march quickly off screen. I watch as all the reinforcements appear on the horizon and just as quickly retreat. 10 minutes and this is over. I had expected an hour or more of constantly shifting battle.

Fortunately for me this horde army had no where to retreat and was killed when the ransom was refused. I feel cheated but now have my own over large army poised to strike into former Horde territory.