Most Annoying Battles

[Katana]

Hey Everyone

I think it'd be fun if we'd all share some of our most annoying battles in MTW. I'll start us off, I guess.

I know I've had my fair share of pointless battles, but the one I just had tonight takes the cake. I was playing as the English (High MA starting period) and had recently taken Navarre from a full stack of rebels. The army I used was composed of Longbowmen, Norman Foot Knights, Billmen, Hobilars and some Royal Lancers for heavy cav. My army was about 800 strong. After taking the province, the next turn 1800 Basque rebels appeared, composed of Spanish Jinetes, Javelinmen, a few spearmen, and for some reason Irish Dartmen (weird, I know). My army was 75-85% infantry, making the whole fight was a huge test of my patience. I eventually killed or captured all but 100 of them, and I promptly refused all ransom offers and executed all my prisoners. That'll teach those damn skirmishers.

As an aside, what does it take for a Longbow unit to gain a valour point? I had 4 units of 'em all kill 80+ men (I'm playing on Large unit scale) and take under 10 losses, but not one of 'em got a point. What gives?

[ajaxfetish]

Most annoying battles?

Anything against the Turks in early game. Dang horse-archers! Stand and fight like a Christian!

4-6 hour Mongol battles right after that 'just one more endturn and then I'll go to bed.'

Crusade battles against 20 stacks of Egyptian camels.

Anything with Jinettes. Turcomans are bad enough.

What am I missing?

Ajax

[Knight Templar]

Definitely my first Egyptian battles, when playing against armies composed of 4 horse archers and 4 other units. It was, for example, 350 vs 350 men battle, and it took me 30-40 minutes to play . After that, I auto-calc all battles against HA armies.

As an aside, what does it take for a Longbow unit to gain a valour point? I had 4 units of 'em all kill 80+ men (I'm playing on Large unit scale) and take under 10 losses, but not one of 'em got a point. What gives?

Gaining valour is a bit more complicated. Every men in unit has his own valour. You can see it if you have "create battle log-file" option on. After the battle (or many of them), exit game and go to your Total War\logfiles folder. Find logfile of your battle (I recommend sorting files by "date modified"). You can see there how many men has each men in your Longbowmen unit killed, and his pre-battle and post-battle valour.
Unit valour is just average valour of all men in the unit.

[Scurvy]

when i have few cav and enemy has many archers and reinforcements....

[matteus the inbred]

Vikings v Irish in VI when you brought huscarles and no cavalry, especially when it rains or snows...

Anything in the snow when the AI brings tonnes of reinforcements...can i win before my army freezes to death?

AI armies full of Jinettes. Must rank as 'Most Hated Enemy Unit'.

Battles where the enemy army finds the highest point on the map and sits on it and i have no archers.

But most of all...battles where they just will not stand and fight, and it becomes a game of 'chase the AI around the battlefield while swearing furiously'.

Can't remember any specific ones, but battles where you're definitely going to win and then your general gets unluckily killed, resulting in mass routs...they're... annoying.

Good thread. Sharing the pain might help!

[Odin]

Novgorod in XL defending Moscow against the Mongols.

I hid in the woods and they just kept coming and shooting arrows and once in awhile venture in and get chopped up by my Rus Spearmen. After about 2 hours of this and knowing that there were piles of reenforcements I just quit.

The mongols can be a real pain if you have to take them all on, the battles can last hours and hours (if you play no time limit that is).

[Martok]

I definitely echo the sentiment that fighting any battles against the Turks are incredibly annoying (hate....horse....archers....so....much.... ); I usually auto-calc them as well. Whether I'm the Eggies or the Byz, taking out the Turks is always first on my list of priorities, just so I don't have to deal with their stupid HHOAD's (Hordes of Horse Archers of *DOOM*).

Fighting the Mongols are rather wearisome for the same reason.

[Katana]

.
Battles where the enemy army finds the highest point on the map and sits on it and i have no archers.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I really hate the way the AI camps some of the ridiculously inclined maps. Still, it's always satisfying to force them off the hill and right into the maw of an ambush.

[Roark]

Yeah... Scotland and Switzerland suck big time.

[matteus the inbred]

and Navarre. Some of the most frustrating battles i've ever fought have been border warfare against the Spanish in Navarre with their hordes of invincible jinettes sat on mountains waiting to swoop down on me. i think i bribed them in the end, at extortionate cost, cos i just couldn't face fighting them again...

[Banquo's Ghost]

Mind you, it cuts both ways.

I'm sure the AI is as frustrated as anyone when it comes to fighting me up the mountainsides of the Balkans

[Budwise]

Yeah, I just got done fighting the hordes rebels (I had 10 archer units and just concentrated all fire on Khan. After Khan fell, I did a mass rout to refight the rebels when I was better equiped.) and after a two hour battle against horse archers. IT CTD!!!!!! ARGGGGGGGGG I did so well too, I had a kill ratio of 2/1 using mostly futwas or whatever playing Turks.

[Wizardofthedribble]

I hate having to grind out long battles (2hr+) when the AI lumps 7500 or so vikings, arbs and xbows at my 2000 serious soldiers! takes soooooo long, but you have to fight it out cos the auto resolve only manages to produce you a spectacular 1400 - 600 defeat, when if you fight it personally you can win and murder 4000 danes....

[Budwise]

I don't know why everone is complaining about horse archers. When I play against the Turks (I usually almost ALWAYS have an infantry only - or close to it) I build a mostly archer army and take those stupid HAs down.