Battles to be remembered.......

[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.