Ones that got away

[King Kurt]

Has this ever happened to anybody? In my current Early, Hard, Byzantine VI campaign I had wiped out the Egyptians quite early. In true form they came back in Sinai a few years ago. Quite a big army - mainly archers, UM, Ballistas and a few Gulams. They imediately invade Egypt where I have a small army of 400 men - 240 horse archers, a 7 star prince with about 30 Katanks, about 12 cavalry in 3 units, about 20 tresbond archers and some rubbish infantry. The enemy - about 4,000 strong! So I fight it out. My HA harass away and the Egypt general gulam unit charges conviently into the midst of my army. It gets shot to pieces, I charge with a HA unit plus a small good cav - their general runs away. Then a long battle with my meagre forces in which I wear down the Egyptians. I am down to about 70 men and the Egyptians are on their last legs as I have routed, captured and killed thousands - I am waiting for "the enemy are fleeing the field" message when the game crashes to desktop!!! - my first ever. So my greatest ever victory was snatched away - I looked at autosaves etc but no joy. I reloaded, did things slightly different, got to the crucial battle with more men - still outnumbered about 1200 to 3200 - couldn't face another upset, autocalculated - and won!! - so there is justice after all.

So, in true fishing style, how about some ones that got away stories

[Legorreto]

Once, I was fighting some battle (I can't remember which factions) but the fact is that it happended exactly the same thing and the PC actually restarted completely. I was also in a winnig position in a decisive battle and I understand perfectly well how that feels...!

After some several new tries and again and again, and I found out that before starting M:TW, I had my Norton Antivirus enabled as well as some other small aplications.

So, what I do since then is to disable all non crucial apps or software in order to release som RAM resources and, since then, I haven't have that problem before.

[Roark]

I have dozens of stories of "the one that got away" which are all about the Pope screaming like a schoolgirl as he flees the field.

In almost a year of playing MTW, I have never successfully captured His Holiness on the battlefield for ransom.

[ajaxfetish]

My most bitter regrets are not from ctd's (which have stolen battles from me), but from cool battles I just forgot to save afterwards. I was especially fond of on German battle where the Poles were attacking me with a good sized army and a decent commander but then but then acted about as sharp as a mashed potato sandwich (and twice as smart!) in their maneouvering. I defended my hill against several assaults withoug a single casualty, and the one man I lost before routing their entire army was lost to a ballista that was firing uphill at an awkward angle and probably the least likely thing in their army to do any damage to me. I hadn't even installed VI yet then but I still miss having a replay of that little battle.

Ajax

[scotchedpommes]

I have dozens of stories of "the one that got away" which are all about the Pope screaming like a schoolgirl as he flees the field.

In almost a year of playing MTW, I have never successfully captured His Holiness on the battlefield for ransom.

Only dozens? The key is to surround him utterly, and pull him by his pretty papal
dress off his horse. [Of course, ignoring the rest of his army while doing so leads
to severe casualties and the odd mass rout, but at least the Pope dies.]

[matteus the inbred]

i don't need CTD to rob me of a decent position! recent French campaign, fighting the evil dastardly Spanish...their king repeatedly (and i mean about five times) gets his army killed, gets surrounded and then runs for it and gets away. the list of cowardly vices got so long it's amazing he could persuade any of his troops to go anywhere near a battlefield. on one occasion i sat on a big hill with no arrows left and watched at least 800 Spanish troops advance, run away in panic, advance, run away in panic and so on until the time ran out. however, just as i was looking set to win and finally kill the little b*stard, he died of an illness (probably a heart attack from all the running), his faction collapsed and the Almohads and Sicilians split Spain between them, leaving me sitting in the Pyrenees shouting 'no fair!' all that fighting, all those victories, and because i couldn't kill him on the field i got nothing.
on a more relevant to the topic note, i often can't fight large battles with three or more factions on the field or with both sides having reinforcements due to my graphics card being a bit rubbish. in the same campaign this led to my crusade losing an autocalc'd battle and thus the objective. coupled with the Spanish setback, this in turn reduced my king's influence from 8 to 1, and shortly thereafter to zero thanks to a needless defeat in Cordoba. naturally, my next heir was a slobbering idiot and no-one wants to ally with me now.

[Roark]

Only dozens? The key is to surround him utterly, and pull him by his pretty papal
dress off his horse. [Of course, ignoring the rest of his army while doing so leads
to severe casualties and the odd mass rout, but at least the Pope dies.]

Yeah, I've killed him plenty of times. I just can't seem to capture the bastard...

[scotchedpommes]

Yeah, I've killed him plenty of times. I just can't seem to capture the bastard...

Ah, apologies - seem to have overlooked that minor detail. As it happens I
don't think it's possible to capture the Pope, or at least even if you could it
would seemingly be pointless. There would be no-one to ransom him to, seeing
as the faction is removed and a puppet installed in his place.

[Having said that, once I can get the game working again for any length of time
I will make a point of attempting to capture him myself.]