Most memorable moment in m2tw

[Quillan]

Heh, that's funny. Actually it's a deliberate change from RTW. In Rome, routers running back into the city could be chased through the gates by pursuers, resulting in the loss of the city. In M2, if there are enemy units anywhere near, the gates will not open to let the routers in. In your case, the gate was already open, but closed when the pursuers came near. I'm sure they AI wound up losing the city anyway, but it made sallying somewhat more of a gamble in RTW. If you did more than fire from the walls at the besiegers, you ran the risk of allowing the enemy into the city. Now, that won't happen, although you can lose units outside that won't make it back in.

[dopp]

I kind of miss that feature. It actually happened several times in history where fleeing troops were unable to shut the gates in time and allowed their pursuers to overrun the city; Alexander's sack of Thebes is a possible example. Of course then you'd lose half your army passing through the gateway as the enemy unloads his inexhaustible reservoirs of boiling oil on their heads...

[Midnight]

My Scottish armies (2 stacks) against 3 stacks of French - I took command of King Edward's army, and prepared to meet the enemy in the field. I found myself fighting halfway up a mountain, with French armies at the top and at the base to the sides, and then I get a message, "Reinforcements delayed." Argh!

I formed two fronts, placing my archers to try to counter the French missiles, which were in the army above. I used Edward and his 4 units of Feudal Knights, backed by some of my Spearmen and Highlander infantry to charge downhill at the stronger advancing side army, while the rest of my men (including some Pikes) attempted to hold off the remainer.

The Knights didn't last long, and Edward lost all his bodyguard and had to retreat, while my infantry were performing pretty well (ie, not running away), but it didn't look too good, even though I was exacting a heavy toll on the French, they were bleeding me dry. Finally, the reinforcement armies turned up, just in time to sweep away what was left of the French. I've never been so glad to see reinforcements arrive!

[geoff300]

I have been playing this for a while and have had plenty of memorable moments in it. My favorite just happened last night.
I was in Jerusalem and was attacked by the Egyptian army. They had me sieged, but I felt I could take them, so I rode out to face them all. Anyway, I had one army with a single dismounted knight left in it and no where else to stack him. I also didn't have the means to retrain him, so, I was going to give him an honorable end. I sent everyone out my castle gates and lined them all up. The Egyptian gunners all opened up firing on my guys, so I sent the single one out to kill him off so my reinforcements could come in.
Well, not only did this man survive the long run up to the gunners, when he got up to them and killed ONE, the remaining gunners all routed with this one knight standing there ready to take on more. Needless to say, I won the battle. The single knight got his own fleet of ships home and was allowed to spend the rest of his days in my capital.

[diamondback88]

Recently in one of my Russian campaigns, I had taken my time gathering the rebel settlements up north from west at Stockholm to east and south at Kiev, and about 30 turns into it (I was taking my time...) the Hungarians come to me asking for an alliance. To test the water, I asked them for map information in return: Very Generous. I asked them for castle Iasi just to see what'd happen and offered them map information in addition to trade rights in return. They accepted, imagine that. Granted I got a garrison of peasants, but hey, I got a free castle. So meanwhile, the Hungarians and Byzantines are at war, and a few turns after being granted Iasi, the Byzantines besiege it and wipe out my gutless force of peasants. I take it back eventually and begin building it up.

Now, the following events take place over three turns after retaking Iasi.

First turn: Hungrians and Byzantines make peace. Oh well, chaos is over... I'm a little apprehensive at this point. I feel a TW moment coming.

Second tun: Byzantines and Hungarians ally with each other. Uh... right.

Third turn. The Hungarians, my allies whom I have Amiable relations with, march an army of knights over to Iasi from castle Bran and besiege it. I have just shifted from close allies to enemies without a clutch.

I'll remember that one for a while... Oh well, I guess it's an excuse to conquer Hungaria.

[Snite]

Playing as the Spanish I was beseiging some town(forgot which and what faction) when it came down to the last enemy units in the town square... or should I say unit? It was 13 Town Militia. I took my unit of 20 something dismounted fuedal knights who were lined up along the outside edge and sent them charging in.. Only they didn't.

Instead the walked - no, they strutted - into the square when suddenly, 6 of them lined up as perfectly as if on parade and charged into the quivering town militia while their fellows continued their arrogant stroll behind them. Those 6 Knights slaughtered their 13 enemies just in time for their fellows to pat them on their backs.

[Hobart]

I'm playing English M/M. When the Pope called a crusade on Jerusalem, I farted around for a while before I joined - I didn't know I could get such good and cheap units as mercs, so I was building up some decent troops.

Anyway, I sailed to Jerusalem to find that the Milanese were there ahead of me and had already laid seige. meanwhile back in Eurpoe, the Milanese had allied with the French and were attacking me in Paris and Rheims. The turn before I landed in Jerusalem, the Milanese were excommunicated, so I walked up and attacked them to beat them off Jerusalem - which I easily won. And then I seiges and won Jerusalem, winning the crusade!

I was astounded at my good fortune - and the AI incredible stupidity in ignoring the papal edict to their great loss in another theatre entirely: I couldn't have done anything about them if they'd been in good graces with Il Papa. But I guess you get that.

[HughTower]

Playing vh/vh as Turkey in a long camapign on about turn 65.

I send an expeditionary force (containing a general & 4-5 HA units) out from Caffa to have a looksee at Kiev. My spy tells me that the Hungarian Emperor is in there along with a rag-tag militia & peasant army of about 8 units strong, so I think I'll besiege them, either to starve them out, or to entice them into a sally where I'll shoot them to pieces. First turn after, they sally, & I accept the challenge with alacrity.

The weather is fog so thick I can't see the city walls, but, I don't mind, I'll just surround the AI, put on fire at will & skirmish, & the battle will be over v shortly. I start fiddling about with my HAs in preparation.

Through the fog, I see some dim lights bouncing towards me. Curious, I pan forward to see what it is & it's the opposing emperor & his full 37 man unit barrelling at full pace towards my general (21 men), who is standing stock still while I faff around with the HAs. The severity of my predicament hits home about 2 seconds before the enemy charge does, & while I manage to get him moving, the momentum is all with my foe, & after 20 desperate seconds of trying extricate him, he routs. The bodyguard starts battering my HAs and I'm so stunned that I withdraw the rest of my troops to fight another day, not able to imagine ever regaining the upper hand in this encounter.

What I enjoyed about it was the utter surprise it caused me. I'd not seen the weather conditions that bad before, and I was so confident that I'd would decimate the AI as I'd done many times before, and its tactics were perfect for the situation. Brilliant!

I brokered a ceasefire with them the same go, and then spent the next 15 turns getting 6 spies & 4 assasins into the joint, getting PO down to 15% at its lowest ebb, waiting for it to go rebel & then occupying it with ease. Sneaky, but satisfying.

[Tiberius maximus]

i was playing as england so naturally the scots were in my site so i got my first good stack of men. marched on them then over them. i put all my archers on a hill and spearmen at the base and just demolished them it was my first victory

[Gorm]

Mine would be when a character with my actual first name became faction heir and then king (England). I made sure he was doing everything to become one of the most sucessful crusader kings! Sad day when he died...snif.

(My girlfriend thought I had cheated and put my name in!)

[zahidmaqbool]

My most memorable moment was when I was playing as turks. The Timurids laid siege to my castle with 3 stacks of armies somewhat around 3300 people.. and I was defending with and army of 800 which had few JHI , few JMusk... I defeated them very badly.. I stood at the gate didn't move from there and chopped one by one the entire timurid army.. JHI are an awesome unit, even to finish the elephant units.. It was a wonderful feeling..

[-Amon-]

Aaaaah, memories..

First time I play campaing, everything is normal,economy is normal, I'm in peace with everyone so I do not need Extra military..

Begining of the end has begin in 1230..Horde's fist wave has come as Mongols..soo I defeated them after many turns..But, Khan was smiling when he defeted..I didn't understand that why hi was smiling..

Then,Second wave has come,Timurids


They came almost 10-13 full stacks of warriors with 7-8 star generals leading to them..I saw them and I got closer to screen and said :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hey,WTF is going on?!

Yeah..I didn't see any army before like this..

[IrishArmenian]

Definitley an epic siege defense battle as the Russians against the Aztec Hordes. I had about 900 soldiers and the enemy had about 3000. Needless to say, it was a hard fought battle, but the Rus finally claimed victory!

[Ars Moriendi]

Most memorable moment for me came in an absolutely inconsequential battle. Playing Venice, I had a stack in march near Zagreb. It had to get there ASAP, so I left behind the carrocio they were carrying. Sure enough, the HRE with whom I was at war, attacked the single carrocio unit with a small army made of 1 unit of mailed knights (60) and two half units of armored sarges (40-50 each) - against my 45 standard carriers (pushers ?).
I almost clicked autoresolve, but I thought "hey, I never seen how the carrocio standard looks on battlemap" so I chose to play it out. I simply camped on a small hill, ordered them to drop the standard and put the soldiers in a square formation behind the standard as I thought it would protect them somewhat from the knights charge.
Then I went 6.0x and waited for the inevitable outcome. Seconds later (half a minute?), I noticed the HRE spearmen routing and I went to 1.0 again to take a closer look : the sarges who were attacking my right flank routed with about 10-15 men each. The mailed knights were down to ~30, and kept charging my left, pulling back and charging again. "Tough little buggers, this carrocio dudes" I thought, and waited some more. Soon enough there was only one carrocio dude standing. I watched, unbelievingly, this one guy there, defending the standard by himself and simply refusing to rout. Mailed knights, 9 of them remaining, were circled around him, taking turns hitting. He would stagger, recover and then stab back with his spear, each stab dropping a knight. He did it 6 times in a row before finally going down, with only 3 HRE soldiers left alive...

How's that "last stand" for an inspirational act of bravery and valor ? I don't usually care much for my soldiers, there are always others to replace the dead, but this one little spearmen I really felt sorry for..

[Thurak]

Defeating the Mongols this way...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

One crossed swords symbol was the battleground for two heroic wins. Most of those battles ambushes. Very funny.

EDIT: Fixed link ~sapi

[Budwise]

Having an Heroic Victory without a single Calvery or Archer unit. Just mostly Militia units fought well.

[darsalon]

Was setting up a brilliant outflanking manoevre as the English against the Milanese, my troops charged in with the cavalry (including General) timed to hit them once the foot infantry had engaged. Unfortunately the milanese catapults were set up with sniper rifle sights and hit my general with their first shot. Poor Thomas Mortimer, my 8 star general died in a ball of flame.

I've always disliked siege artillery on the battlefield but this now means their crews have no chance against me when I come up against them in battle. I kill them all

[TevashSzat]

Losing my elite army sailing towards Italy because I forgot to merge the 1 ship carrying it with my 18 ship fleet two squares away...

[Dr Glock]

I had a mean old warrior King, who fought many battles, always killed his captives and had a ring of assassins working for him. By the age of 60 he was still somehow alive, but one day while trying to dash towards a town on the brink or rebellion in the South of France, he got caught by a large Moorish army, and could not flee.

I thought this was going to be the end, and I prepared a last stand on a mountain side. Just him and his bodyguard of 40 knights, again a 1000 Moors with their wicked curved blades.

They slowly trudged thier way through the woods and up the steep incline, the archers leading first followed by some light infantry. When the moment was right, I charged down the hill into their ranks. Each time I looked to get swamped or outflanked, i pulled back, jogged up the hill a little, then recharged back down. Over and over, until finally i was surrounded and at that point more costly to fight way out than to just stay put and fight to the death.

Slowly all the body guards were whittled down, leaving just the old king on his horse. Then at last he fell, and was captured. 40 Knights had been killed, but each one had taken 10 men with them to their grave.

I thought the Moors would execute this old, barbarous dog, but they released him without ransom. After that I was a changed man.

[Abokasee]

Want to know the result?

Releif, now I have more money to spend on bigger armys and cities!!

Im not sure what spend it on...

[Callahan9119]

playing as the moors and seeing the new castles in mountains for the first time, was a long bloody battle taking it from the spanish

[Rakker]

My most memorable moment was a while a go. I was playing for the english. A french stack under command of a captain entered my lands near Caen. Unlucky for them i created just there a brand new army with state of the art units and modern armour. Of course i was eager to test these new units...
There was only one little trouble, I wasn't yet at war with the french. However next turn a nice solution was presented to my eager troops. The french capitan decided to fight for his own instead of the french crown. And a rebel stack is a splendid training for my brand new army

So I moved my army to attack those rebels. The rebel army consisted of some townmilitia two units of light cavalery and some crosbowmen. My army has plenty of billmens, dfk's, longbowmens, some mailed Knights and hobilars. The battlefield was a nice open field surrounded by forests. I deployed my inf. in front, archers at the back, and the cav at flank.

When te battle began, i saw the enemy infantry line deployed at a hill. His crosbows came skirmishing down the hill. Of course i charged in my cavalery who chased the crosbows from the field into the forest where they began to flee, pursued by my cav. In the meantime my heavy infantry (billmen, DFK's)
marched uphill to molest the town militia wich formed the enemies main line.

When the infantry engaged all seems to go very well. However suddenly out of the forests at both my flanks there came the enemies light cav. One unit charged in on my longbows, who where watching the unslaught at the top of the hill. The longbows decided quick to run instead of to fight. The other light cav unit charged in on my right flank where my billmens were fighting. At that moment those billmens also decided to run causing a chain reaction. In 5 seconds my complete infantry army fleed and runned back to the sea.

My cavalry happily chasing down the last crossbowmen, saw the disaster in their back, and trotted back to the battlefield only to face a huge number of town militia in the forest wich they couldn't defeat. After a few brave charges i decided to pull my cav back to safety

I was complety astonished. I never saw the AI perform such a perfect ambush with such a disatrous result. The AI set a trap, and i was stupid enough to trip into it. Because I outnumbered my foe, I had superior material and i seldom lose a battle against the Ai, I wasn't aware enough of the possible dangers.

The result: my brandnew army has collapsed. It took almost 3 years to recover it and destroy that french rebel armee.

But it was quite amusing to fight that battle, even more when i realised the Ai has lured me into his trap and the battle was lost. This is how the game is ment to be...

[Rebellious Waffle]

In one of my Denmark campaigns, I ended up with a ridiculous general -- he had the following traits going for him:

Fine Armor (+4 Hit Points)
Bastion of Health (+6 Hit Points)
Berserker (+4 Hit Points)
Brutally Scarred (+8 Hit Points)
Swordbearer (+1 Hit Point)
Shieldbearer (+2 Hit Points)
Stalks His Prey
Tactically Sound
Fears No Odds
Suicidal Attacker
Bloodthirsty
Lacks Compassion
Warlord of Terror
Underhanded
Spits Venom
Dangerously Mad

Bloke was mad as a hatter -- he couldn't be trusted anywhere near a settlement, and had an awful command score -- but with 25 bonus Hit Points, he was an army of one. Had to be, really. (He got maximum Dread from charging alone into enemy armies and executing the survivors over supper.)

The most memorable moment was when he ambushed a passing group of a hundred Dismounted Feudal Knights heading for the front. His bodyguard couldn't keep pace with the old bear, of course, and died almost instantly; but it was amazing and intensely satisfying to see him kill forty of the buggers by himself before they ran in terror before his l33t head-chopping skills...

[Ars Moriendi]

@ Rakker : Ouch ! It's certainly exciting when the AI manages to pull us in this kind of traps ; unfortunately, it happens so rarely I suspect it's more by dumb luck on its part than by any kind of deliberate behavior.
Oh, and welcome to the .org...

@Rebellious Waffle : you wouldn't happen to have a savegame with the ninja sith lord of hell still alive ? Coz I'd like to have some fun driving him in a one-man terror campaign ... (never happened upon such a phenomenal character myself)

[Rebellious Waffle]

No, unfortunately he was sent to the pyre by an inquisitor immediately after the battle with the Dismounted Feudal Knights. He was fun while he lasted, though...

[[R]icK]

Mine has to be the Battle of London Bridge in my French campaign. I had successfully united all of France and secured an alliance with The Holy Roman Empire, Venice (Who were keeping Milan Busy) and Spain so i felt i was secure on all fronts.
This was pre-patch so an English invasion of France was out of the question so i decided to secure the whole of the United Kingdom and turn them into cities and make some serious florins. I had decided to send three full stacks of the finest french soldiers of the time (Dfk's, Volgue, Feudal and mailed knights, Sergeant spearmen and crossbow men)

All three armies landed near the forest south-west of London and a spy proved the city to be defended by a general some spear militia and a few Mailed Knights. This was a job for my young in-experienced prince to take some glory by taking the enemy capitol while the other armies moved up towards Nottingham and Wales to take out the troop producers before the English had time to react.

Everything is going fine London is under seige from the south and my two stacks are closing in on their targets. Everything seemed quiet no resistance no troops in the field i was guessing the scottish were proving tough in the north. Ended the turn feeling quite pleased with myself and planning what to do with all the money i would get from taking the cities. On the next turn the smile was wiped from my face as there was a full stack in the Wales region and lots of little stacks near nottingham which would make a full stack if joined. The thing that really surprised me was there was a full stack of the finest English Knights and Infantry sat next to London threatening my young prince. I decided to lift the seige and (Not sure if i moved back across the bridge or i was already sieging from that side) and wait for them to attack me. Ended the turn by starting production of another stack in the Motherland as i sensed England alone was going to be a tough nut to crack nevermind Scotland.

As soon as it got to the English turn they merged the stack from Nottingham and obviously recruited some more men in London and 3 armies attacked my young Prince from the North side of the bridge. I thought what the hell im going for a last stand and imagined the outrage of the kingdom if my prince was to die (My inner role play coming into action once again) I formed my men tight to the bridge with crossbows at each side of the bridge spears blocking the end of the funnel and my swords behind them to plug any gaps. My cavalry was about 100 metres away from them ready to charge when they inevitably broke. The English wasted no time and stormed the bridge with horse and foot (Amazingly there was no longbows or they could of butchered me without even crossing over) I could not believe i was being so lucky to receive one of about 10 real battles id had before i installed the patch (Usually the Ai would send 1 unit at a time onto my spear wall) I zoomed right into the action after about 5 minutes of bloodshed and was happy to see my spears were holding and the swords were cutting down anyone who got near them. About 10 minutes later the fight was still going on and my numbers were falling but stupidly one of their generals leading the first stack charged the Volgue and was promptly cut down this lead most of the army to rout back across the bridge which must of slowed down the other army which was moving with the garrison of london to finish my infantry of. I decided to move my men back and let them get some ground on my side of the river when i thought what the hell im not going to beat them muscle to muscle again and charged all my knights and the prince towards the bridge and into them. I Don't know if they tried to turn and hold their north side while i attacked or just plain ran but every single man turned and my men cut them down like daises and plowed through everyone capturing about 1000 men and killing anyone who fought on.

The aftermath was amazing and i really wish i had a screenshot or saved the battle because although id lost most of my foot the horst just butchered the entire army and left about 20 men alive who could not even garrison the city again as they merged into the peasant population leaving the city empty and a free catch. My prince survived the battle and got almost every single trait and retinue ever. His command went up about 6 stars and he got a Dread Knight and a Berserker if i remember correctly.

I ended up taking the whole island with the other two stacks in about 10-20 turns and i feel this battle was the best one i had ever fought in so far!

[Kaidonni]

Just today I decided, for a single turn, to leave an army destined for rebel busting (just in case any rebel army spawned on my territory) without a named general. I took Prince Simon of Sicily back to my capital a few paces away...

What happens next turn? That army of mine has turned rebel! LOL! I leave Captain Viaro alone for one moment and he betrays me! Suffice it to say, whatever god he worshipped only has to do the deciding now...

[imnothere]

was taking over Edinburgh from Scotland with minimum casualties.

then decided to minimise it even further by charging my 2nd general with his double-silver stripes in order to save up some cash. afterall, me thought, what can happen to him? the only unit he is charging is a scottish general, with only 2 bronze stripes, same number of men. and he is used to charging units by him and his mates... etc...etc...

you guess it, both generals got free tombstones dont even ask me how, was so sad that nearly quit the English campaign.

i guess i am unlucky in life AND in game.

[Rebellious Waffle]

Heh, that's funny. Actually it's a deliberate change from RTW. In Rome, routers running back into the city could be chased through the gates by pursuers, resulting in the loss of the city. In M2, if there are enemy units anywhere near, the gates will not open to let the routers in. In your case, the gate was already open, but closed when the pursuers came near. I'm sure they AI wound up losing the city anyway, but it made sallying somewhat more of a gamble in RTW. If you did more than fire from the walls at the besiegers, you ran the risk of allowing the enemy into the city. Now, that won't happen, although you can lose units outside that won't make it back in.

Er...

::Looks back at sieges::


Yeah.

I've taken at least half a dozen cities that way in M2TW. The trick is to get your cavalry into the mob of routers and pace them, then halt once you're through the gate. The mob moves on, you don't, and you win the gate by default since no enemy units are nearby and you've got a gaggle of soldiers on the other side.

[pike master]

well it brought tears to my eyes.

tears of joy

the day i finally got lucky enough to get a multiplayer game to work