Post thy Truely Epic Battles

[Sheogorath]

My latest Truely Epic Battle was a very nasty 'Alamo' at Iasi. I was in a long drawn our war with Poland as the Rus, when those Byzantine jerks decided to side against me (despite our alliance) with the Catholic pigdogs.
Iasi was the first line defence of my nation, if youve played the Rus you know that reinforcing garrisons is much more difficult, and that every town is essentially required to be self-sufficient in order to defend itself, since getting infantry from one city to another takes 2-3 turns on average, even with roads.
Anyway, I had just fended off a rather nasty Polish attempt at an attack, I managed to kill/route all their infantry, forcing their superior cavalry force to retreat.
Next turn, boom. Full stack of Byzantines appears on the bortder.
I said to myself, "Oh (explitive)".

Sure enough, next turn I have a full Byzantine stack sieging my pitiful force of three units of archers, two Slav mercenaries, four horse archers of various types and my generals cavalry. Also included are a unit of six Brigands and eleven Alan light cavalry.
I thought to myself 'This is going to be quick.'
So, I did the best I could. I lined my archers up on the walls, stuck two units of HA's at the rear gate and had my general wait in the middle until I decided what to do with him.
I was faced with about ten units of Byzantine spears, a few archers, a couple of units of those Byzantine crossbow cavy and a lot of spear cavy, plus two generals.
I started the battle, then waited until the ram was in range. My Alans got to martyr themselves first, in order to stop the ram, since the Byzantines ALSO had a superior cavalry force, so my archers could blast it with fire arrows. It didnt catch on fire, but I held them long enough that they decided to route all their other units to the siege tower/ladders which they now had up.
Through some miracle, my Slav mercenaries managed to hold off ALL of the assaulting infantry on the right with the tower, and the one on the left (with the ladders) killed enough that my archers managed to hold back the waves.

I have to say, those Slav Spearmen are bloody heroic. I watched as the single guy left in the unit on the left killed FIVE Byzantine spearmen before going down.

Anyway, all was going well, I had killed almost %80 of the enemy infantry, and it showed. Corpses all over the walls and at the base of the towers/ladders. My cavy archers who were harrassing the enemy flanks ran out of arrows, so I had them charge the buys at the base of the ladders/towers. That bought me some more time and routed the enemies there.

My downfall was at hand though. A unit of infantry came back from their previous route. I was otherwise engaged and my last unit of cavy which could get to them was fighting some sneaky Byzantines who tried to get to the rear gate. I sent my General out and watched as the Byzantine general's bodyguards slaughtered them, leaving only my General alive, so I had him run back inside the castle. A few minutes later, the gate was down. I ran the remnants of my Slav spearmen down there and watched as they, to, were destroyed. My archers still had some arrows left, so I had them fire at the flanks/rear of the cavalry now swarming through my gate, with little effect I might add.
I practically cried as my lone general rode down the street to meet his death, I did, however, get a kick out of his routing a unit of twelve Byzantine Cavalry after killing six of them (as in there were 18 originally), before that bastard of a Byzantine general killed him.
The Byzantines then rode to the castle square, starting the countdown timer. With only my archers left, there was little I could do, so I lined them up on the street and managed to get off two volleys before the cavalry arrived, killing all of them.

The final score?

780 Byzantine deaths
220 Russian deaths (only thirty-something captured and executed)

I hope you like your castle, you traiterous Byzantine jackass.

[Jediknight73]

work's way better with screenshots.

[Mechstra]

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes a thousand words is worth a hundred pictures.

That battle sounds fantastic. I know what you mean about those last stands, they're great.

[Sheogorath]

Trouble is I didnt save the replay. It was 1am at the time and I was tired and not thinking clearly. I wish I had though. So no screens, anyway.

[Headlocked]

sounds great, well-written post!

got any regular battles?

still waiting on my copy from play.com :( :'(

pictures might be good, but one's imagination is enough sometimes!

HDD

[TinCow]

This is too good an idea for a thread to let die. I have had two battles (well, 4 battles, but 2 pairs of 2) lately that both had me on the edge of my seat.

Playing Venice on VH/VH.

Having finally secured all of northern Italy, I dispatched my faction leader with a strong army and siege weapons to take the Sicilian territories. I am at war with everyone who surrounds me, except France. Milan and Venice are up to large walls with ballista towers and are defended by almost full stacks of Italian Spear Militia and Pavise Crossbow Militia, with 2 Corrocio standards (or whatever the morale boost things are called) and 2 catapults in Venice, as well as my faction leader, a fabulous general with gold chevrons. HRE sends a full stack to besiege Venice. They assault the second turn.

It is a large army composed of mainly spear militia with a few units of knights and some assorted dismounted heavy infantry. I have two peasant archers who fail miserably to burn the siege towers and approaching ram. With most of my spears on the walls, I watch in horror as the gate breaks. I have 2 spears there in schiltrom formation as an emergency and immediately rush 2 more from the walls to help. The schiltroms hold against the initial cavalry onslaughts, but they are wiped out by the following heavy infantry. A few tentative fireballs from the catapults, stationed on the road back from the gate, results in friendly casualties and a quick ceasefire. By pinning them in the gate area with spears on two sides, I am eventually able to win, but at a loss of 2/3 of my men. Still on the AIs turn, a half-stack HRE army arrives and lays siege again, preventing me from producing reinforcements.

The second battle looks nearly hopeless. It is only a half stack, but I am down to 1/3 of a stack myself, and most of that is crossbowmen. My melee is limited to 2 full strength Italian spear militia, two partial strength dismounted feudal knights, and my general. Their forces are mainly inferior spear militia, but with a core of 2 feudal knights and the general. Once again, the ram fails to burn and in rushes all of the melee. This time I could only afford one schiltrom by the gate and it is hopelessly outnumbered. In desperation, I pull all of my remaining melee units off the walls, letting the crossbowmen fight there, and rush to the gateway. The mass of HRE horse and foot completely fills the gate area and annihilates the schiltrom, then begins to push outwards in both directions. My thin lines of spearmen from the walls are holding, but they are slowly being pushed back, allowing HRE infantry up onto my walls through the gatehouse doors. In desperation, I unleash my catapults again. With such a huge mass of HRE men in the gateway, it is impossible to miss. The second fireball takes down what looks to be about 50-60 men at once, including the enemy general. 3 of the units break and I charge in my faction leader in an effort to route the rest as well. However, the rest hold and my faction leader goes down. I\'m in despair as the last of my dismounted knights dies on north side of the gatehouse and there is nothing to prevent HRE from taking the city with cavalry from that direction. However, I still have my 2 Corrocio standards, placed a bit of a way off to both sides of the gate, providing morale to the walls. They are only 40 or so men per unit, but they are all I have left. I tell them to drop the standards and charge in. They die, but slowly and hold the line on both sides. A few more catapult fireballs breaks the HRE morale and they all route, chased by my 8 surviving bodyguards. When it is all over, the only melee units I have left are 2 half-strength Carrocio standards and 20 spearmen. Remnants of a melee heavy full 20 stack army prior to the first battle.


Ragusa has been entirely isolated and self-dependant for almost the entire game. I sent a few generals and critical reinforcements across by boat when possible, but Ragusa held on by the skin of its teeth for the majority of its existence. After I had gained control of all of Italy, I was finally starting to have a good economic return, allowing my to build up Ragusa and train loads of Venetian Archers and Dismounted Feudal Knights. I sent a large contingent off south under a captain to counterattack against Byzantium. Hungary took this moment to launch a fresh wave of assaults.

They besiege and assault the second turn with loads of missile cavalry and light infantry. With a 2-wall fortress to defend and a still rather large stack of high quality archers and heavy infantry, nothing could hurt me, right? Wrong. A hit the Start Deployment button and to my horror, the battle simply begins. A spy has opened my gates, preventing pre-battle setup. My units are scattered all over the fortress and it will take several minutes for most to arrive at the attack area.

I rush as many as I can to the gates, rushing them up to the walls to fend off the 3 ladders and 2 siege towers. The men at arms hold the walls, but take high losses from what turns out to be several full units of Crusader Sergeants who must have returned from a failed crusade. Just as I think I have them beaten on the walls, I notice the unit I have placed by the gate for emergencies is fighting! I had forgotten that they could enter the gates anytime they wanted, and they had finally done so, driving a mass of cavalry in when I was not watching. I have 2 mounted feudal knights units near the gatehouse and I charge them in to hold the breach. All available infantry come off the walls and arrive to help hold the enemy. In a long battle of attrition, the enemy is routed and destroyed, by I lose every last one of my feudal knights. My melee units are down tot 1 and 1/3 units of dismounted feudal knights and 1 and 1/3 units of armored sergeants.

Of course, Hungary besieges again that very same turn before I can reinforce. On the second turn, they assault again… once again with a spy who has opened the doors, preventing me from deploying. This time it is hopeless. The only units near the gate are a unit of 17 venetian archers, 19 armored sergeants, and a full unit of peasant archers. Everything else is scattered around and no-where near available. Hungary advances with 2 seige towers and 2 ladders, their army being almost exclusively infantry. There is no way I can get enough men to the main gate in time to hold it, so I order all other units back to the second wall defenses. The 3 units near the attack remain to do what they can and to keep the outer defense towers shooting as long as possible. I pull the peasant archers back when they are threatened, since it is a large unit and I will need their arrows. The walls soon swarm with Hungarian infantry and my outer wall units are destroyed. I have just barely managed to man the inner wall defenses when I completely lose control of the outer.

There are two entrances to the inner area, the gatehouse (door open thanks to spy) and one end of the main wall, which is accessed from the outer wall area. Hungary assaults from both directions, with heavy infantry and cavalry and my melee is now limited to 1 unit of dismounted feudal knights, 1 large (but not full) armored sergeants, and 1/3 of a group of feudal knights. The segeants hold the gate and the knights are on the wall, to protect my archers, who can hit anything in the city with their long-range arrows. If I keep them alive and shooting, I might be able to win. The enemy general tries to force the gate. With half my segeants down, I charge in my general and manage to kill him. His bodyguard route and are cut to pieces by the archers as they flee. Hungary then moves 2 dismounted feudal knights and 2 crossbowmen units to the wall and beings marching towards the wall entrance to my rear area. I send out the 1/3 unit of dismounted feudal knights to re-activate the towers in the threatened outer-wall area and to hold them for as long as possible. They do not last as long as I was hoping, routing and dying to the last man. However, I noticed that the combination of my archers and the re-activated outer towers were inflicting significant losses on the enemy. I decide to go for broke and send my full unit of feudals to do the same thing the smaller group did.

While this is going on, 2 Hungarian infantry units attempt to charge the gateway, but massed arrows inflict heavy casualties and they are repulsed after a short bout of melee with the remaining sergeants. On the outer wall, the towers are doing much more damage than I had hoped and the feudals are holding well, but the Hungarian crossbows in the street are firing at them and I cannot get to them as enemy foot on the wall blocks the way. With my archers now running out of arrows, I charge my general out and take the crossbows in the rear. I route them with about 6 surviving bodyguards. All across the fortress, the Hungarians are retreating, so I pull all my archers off the walls and send them out across the city to re-take the outer walls. There is some final hand-to-hand fighting near the gatehouse, but the fortress is secured and the battle won.

[Sir SillyDuck]

Headlocked, Randarkmaan, Seogorath maybe even most because of starting this, and the others, Thanks for the great stories. All are captivating..

Headlocked, about your comment on the game, the AI and all: I couldn't agree more. This game is Digital Gold.

[absents]

Right, I guess not every person has high standards and doesn't mid being fed crap, since that's all they've been eating since childhood?

[Sir SillyDuck]

Oh thy of small faith and imagination, go eat a horse turd (whoa, just roleplaying here moderator!).

Truly absents, I have played more computer games than I can count on my hands, even if my hands had 50 fingers each. A significant part of those were wargames, strategic games, etc. This game just isn't dissappointing me. I'm trying honestly to see something that turns me off, but I just can't find it! Off course there are things like an enemy coming to a siege with too few infantry (dont bring a knife to a gunfight), but these things are REALLY incidental. Commonly though, I am pleasantly suprised by as good an AI I have ever seen. He attacks when He is strong, he offers peace or refrains from attacking when weak. His battles are mostly excellently fought, for an AI. And that means it has tricks, it waits and let you come or it just rolls over you, not too many obvious repeatitive errors.

Sorry you are dissapointed, for god knows why (are u playing VH/VH?), but frankly I don't really care to hear you guys foaming over for what is really a VERY GOOD game.

[absents]

You have played a lot of games. That does not prove anything.
I guess being around during the golden age of FPS shooters (96-03) has spoiled me somewhat, seeing as each new game had to push the curve in some way due to painstaking competition. CA has no competition to it's TW title. None. Nada. Zilch. Zip.

The series has stagnated. The last real gameplay enhancements were seen in MTW. After that, the game got new graphics, and that's it. M2TW adds absolutely NOTHING of value over RTW, there are no new gameplay elements and whether or not the AI is improved is at best, debateable.

I am dissappointed. Dissappointed, because no other company is taking a proper crack at this genre, and it's costing us, the fans, many headaches.

[Sir SillyDuck]

Well, I'm sorry you are dissappointed. I don't know much about FPS, except doom/doom2 and a bit of BF and CoD/CoD2 (in the years inbetween, I saw nothing that attracted me personally). What I do know is that those games focus more on action than strategy.
The games I liked most were Close Combat 2 and Shogun. Strategy there comes first, not reflex-ability, or the ability to make good headshots. It calls for more for things like maneuvring and anticipation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying FPS don't need strategical insight, certainly not the later, groupwise like BF and CS. But it is significantly leaning more on reflexes and hand-eye coord. than strategy, compared to TW.

In TW, it is like master Sun says: Strategy without tactics is the longest road to victory, tactics without strategy is just the noise before defeat.

I guess what it boils down to is that I find you are not speaking for 'the fans', not by a long shot.