Your most... painful Defeat

**Odin** · 01-10-2006, 20:14

English Early XL Mod.

I had decided to leave France alone and consolidate Britian, Ireland and Wales then look to the continent. I bribed the Welsh gaining the longbows and crushed the scotish by force of arms.

So I look at Ireland and arrogantly decided to allow my heirless king to lead the conquest. It was a long bloody fight, I could not get the Irish to move from thier superior defensive position and marched my longbowmen into range to soften them up.

Normally I would have danced a cav unit infront of them to bring them down from thier pearch but since all I had was the king I was aware of his vulnerability. The longbowmen get a few rounds off when the Irish come down in force. The entire Irish army commits to the charge....

I had never seen the AI do this before, normally a few melee units run down then back up once you pull out of range. Surprised I tried to hurry my spear units to the point of attack to soften the blow on the longbowmen, no luck. The longbow take the charge and fight admirably but cant hold, my spears do get thier and a fight ensues which I believe I can win as the down hill charge bonus was already absorbed.

I commit the kings knights to the right which was comprised of 2 dartmen units and the whole fight is a melee, the longbowmen break and run and the AI smartly disengages from thier pursuit and atacks my kings position( I believe it was still william, but its been a while). I select all and try to hit the dartmen so I can break my king free of the Melee, not becoming overwhelmed and surrounded.

The longbowmen rallied but did not make it back in time, the King fell, the fight went from bad to worse and needless to say my campaign was over as I had no heir. It was my most painful defeat only because I underestimated the AI. I had never seen it commit to a full all out charge, given the circumstances of my army it was the best chance it had for victory, and it was successful.

I wont claim to be the best MTW player but I have played this game for hundreds of hours and to this day I still respect the AI's ability to hand me my hat from time to time

**scotchedpommes** · 01-10-2006, 20:34

Suffered several painful defeats mostly due to poor tactical decisions on my
part, however the most recent harsh defeat that comes to mind was in VI, as
the Welsh, I think it was. Two Royal Viking Huscarle units had landed in a
relatively undefended coastal province, and I brought up several units [Celtic
Warriors, some Horsemen, and one Prince] to prevent them from launching an
assault.

{At this time it should be said I was unaware of the Jedi status, as it were, of
Viking Huscarle units. As has been mentioned earlier in the thread, they are
tough, and certainly stronger than I had expected then.}

Firstly they only brought one Prince's unit forward, [the other one standing some
distance away, unmoving] which clashed with Celtic Warriors. Moved another
unit of the same type around behind and charged them, then brought two units
of Horsemen down onto one of their flanks, fully expecting them to break. They
swiftly began massacring the Celts, although they did start to take a significant
number of casualties. This quickly became academic though, as my Horsemen
then routed, and when I brought my Prince into the Vikings' other flank they cut
his bodyguard down too. When the Vikings' numbers were reduced so much so
as to make it an even fight, the other Viking Prince simply waded in to the rallied
Horsemen and Celts that were still engaged and put paid to any hopes of
salvaging some kind of victory.

**Roark** · 01-11-2006, 00:17

My most painful defeat was as the Scots, against the Northumbrians. My Pictish allies betrayed me and sent 4 units of Berserkers into the rear of my army (which was busy carving up the Northumbrians). Needless to say, I was butchered.

**Cowhead418** · 01-11-2006, 00:23

Originally Posted by Roark

My most painful defeat was as the Scots, against the Northumbrians. My Pictish allies betrayed me and sent 4 units of Berserkers into the rear of my army (which was busy carving up the Northumbrians). Needless to say, I was butchered.

That is just one reason why you should always let your allies engage the enemy first.

**Lanemerkel1** · 01-11-2006, 00:55

when my 640 Byzantine Pronoiai Allagion lost a battle to 320 Rebel Steppe Cavalry

**Roark** · 01-11-2006, 02:42

Originally Posted by Cowhead418

That is just one reason why you should always let your allies engage the enemy first.

Cheese alert!

I try not to exploit the game's weaknesses TOO much, squire...

**Cowhead418** · 01-11-2006, 04:05

Originally Posted by Roark

Cheese alert!

I try not to exploit the game's weaknesses TOO much, squire...

I understand, but if you're going to engage the enemy be sure to keep your flanks protected then. Plus, when I go into battle with an ally, I march my soldiers alongside his troops so that we can engage the enemy pretty much at the same time.

**Roark** · 01-11-2006, 07:19

Yeah, me too. I like to maintain the feel of a "concerted effort" with my ally.

At this stage of my MTW obsession, though, I didn't even know that the AI could betray an alliance on the battlefield, so it was a nasty shock. My best army was destroyed by 48 half-naked maniacs. All of my strategic plans were set back by 10 years.

That's what I love about this game though... lots of surprises.

**Cowhead418** · 01-11-2006, 00:20

There is one battle that sticks out in my mind. I don't remember too much of the specific details of the battle, only that I was enraged afterwards.

I remember fighting a crucial bridge battle against who I believe was the HRE. I don't really remember who I was playing as but I think I was the Russians. I had about a 700 men quality army defending a key point against some few thousand German troops. My men fought valiantly and broke the enemy's first wave. I made a mistake and pursued to prevent their good quality troops from re-grouping. My troops rushed across the bridge and before they got far the enemy's reinforcements approached.

I quickly organized my army and engaged the fresh enemy soldiers. I had brought nearly my entire army across the bridge but had left my general behind to prevent a mass rout if he were killed. My troops were gaining the upper hand and I saw the enemy troops were beginning to waver so I encouraged my men on to victory. Just as the enemy was about to break, one of my units routed and caused my other troops to waver. Soon after the rest of my line broke and ran like cowards. Rejuvenated by my army's cowardice, the enemy pursued and crushed my remaining force. I didn't even bother to ransom back the fools, I was so angry.

I also remember a time I lost an English campaign within the first 15 turns. It was on vanilla MTW and two of my heirs had become of age. I invaded Wales with my two Princes, my King, some archers, a Hobilar unit, and some regular spearmen. The rebels consisted of nearly all Longbowmen and situated themselves on a nice steep hill on all sides. Seeing as I had no choice, I foolishly charged up the hill with my Princes and King at the head of my troops. The Longbowmen cut down my Royal Knights but succumbed to my Cavalry after I engaged them in melee. The enemy had caused more casualties then I had dealt, but I figured my losses wouldn't hurt me too bad.

When I got back to the campaign map I realized that my two princes had both been struck by an arrow and slain on their suicidal charge up that fateful hill.

My king was already around 55 years old and died of old age withing the next five turns. I had no heirs of proper age and my kingdom collapsed into chaos.