Your most famous battles.

[Marshal Murat]

Battle of Cordoba
Early Era

Ive got 200 spearmen militia, besieging the city of Cordoba, held by the Moors. He comes out with 100 knights, 200 spearmen, 100 archers. I've got the Portuguese coming as reinforcements. I don't know what he has, but I know it's only 100 men.

I decide a schiltron will be the best posture. I put my men in such a position, spaced a little close together. Enemy rushes out of the gates, and my schiltrons are hit by enemy cavalry. I'm down to 50 men. Then the Portuguese ride in MAILED KNIGHTS, and smash the Moors apart, drive them into the city, and we capture it.

(I back-stab them 4 or 5 turns later)

[Memnoch]

My greatest M2TW battle only occurred a few days ago - as Turkey against the Mongols. I've posted a thread here where I was having problems with my budget and decided to take drastic measures to correct it, mainly by cutting my military spending.

My timing was impeccable; my wave of retrenchments, redundancies and sackings came just a few years before the Horde arrived. They came in around Yerevan and Baghdad (like they did in my Danish game). In my Danish game they ambled around for many turns without attacking anything; in this turn they went straight to Mosul, about seven or eight stacks, and sieged it.

This was not good as I'd gutted Mosul of its defenders - it was as far away from my frontline as could be, after all. I'd had about a couple of turns to frantically churn out some javelinmen, naffatuns and Turkish archers to try and man the walls - I think I had about half a stack in total. Unfortunately I went overboard on the missile troops and ran out of time to build any infantry. The Mongols attacked - they had built a couple of rams (good for them, as I destroyed one with my archers and naffatun), broke down my gate, and took my city square while I rained arrows down on them. They didn't even need their second army as their first routed me fairly easily once I had to demount from the walls. The castle succumbed with a whimper to the loss of all defenders.

They didn't hang onto the castle, but sacked it and moved on to Baghdad - a huge city with many defenders. I'd had some forewarning after the Mosul fiasco and had recruited some Janissary Heavy Infantry, Halberd Militia and Spear Militia, as well as a number of Sipahis and Turkomans. So I had a full stack army defending the Round City. Unfortunately I had no missile infantry (I couldn't recruit Janissary Archers yet and could recruit no other missile troops in the city) and my sole missile-recruiting settlement in the area (Mosul) had been sacked, but I did have ballista towers. The Horde attacked after building a couple of rams and a siege tower - two full stacks, the Mongol van led by the Khan himself.

The first Mongol army deployed before my gates in full battle array. It was comprised heavily of cavalry, with heavy horse archers, horse archers and lancers on the wings and missile infrantry in the vanguard. They took their rams and their siege tower forward towards Baghdad's walls. I managed to destroy the siege tower with my ballista towers, forcing the Mongols to come through the gates, where I had all my infantry. I routed the first army (led by the Khan, no less) by placing all my Janissaries in front of the gates, supported by halberd militia and my horsemen clustered around. I had my weaker spear infantry manning the walls so that the towers rained death on the Mongols as they clustered before the gates. The Khan shamed himself by turning tail and fleeing like a frightened goat after his horsemen had destroyed themselves on the halberds of my infantry but I took some pretty heavy losses as well, particularly the priceless Janissaries. As a result when the second full stack wave of the Horde came the infantry defending the gates were composed largely of conscripted spear militia, of questionable temperament. I hoped that the presence of pockets of battle-hardened Janissaries and halberd militia would stiffen the backbone of my defensive line, but routing the Khan's first army had come at a high price.

Unfortunately for me it was too high. The morale of my militia troops was found wanting in the crunch - I looked like I was holding my own against all odds and was still holding the line just behind the gate (my Turkomen and Sipahis had run out of arrows and were throwing their bodies (and that of their horses) into the line to repel the invaders from the east, when one moronic spear militia unit decided to rout even though they still had 63 men in the unit! (And it was ultimately fruitless as all they did was rout to the square where they were cut down by the Mongol heavy cavalry that poured through the gap - I'd have killed them myself if the game would have let me.) This created the hole which the Horde desperately needed, and I just couldn't contain them after that - they overcame me in a battle of attrition. My last soldier (a Janissary, believe it or not) died trying to fight the last 5 Mongol Horse Archers that had taken the city square. I'd never seen so many bodies piled up behind the gates. If that bloody spear unit hadn't routed at that particular time (and they were cut down running away anyway, may they burn in Hell), I'm sure I would have won! They were down to FIVE men.

So that's my greatest battle. As a consequence, the humiliation of losing Mosul and Baghdad in quick succession has galvanised the Sultan to decisive action. I've now thrown my budget out the window, executed all the accountants and beancounters who contributed to this fiasco, and have been raising armies in my heartland with total disregard for cost (Janissaries and Hashashim from Antioch and Damascus, Sipahis from Aleppo, Ottoman Infantry and Javelinmen from Caesarea and Acre, Sipahi Lancers from Gaza, and Saracens from Adana and Edessa. I've had to put a temporary halt to my efforts to destroy the Portuguese to get rid of these Mongol pests. I hope my next battle with them will be as exciting!

[Tiberius maximus]

alright playing as the russians. i was invading the last handful of regions the danes held for my plan is to conquer the north.
my general
4-dis. boyar sons
4-dis. dvors
2-tsars guards
2-dvors
4-dismounted druzhina
2-druzhina
2-basilisk

agaisnt two stacks of danes alot made up of the praised norse war clerics. any way it was in winter so no advantage that way. i was attacking so i let them get into there positions then with the basilisks i took out as many cavalry as possible before i moved in with the archers.

but fisrt i sent the dvors to lure away the remaining cavalry. when this was succesively done. the tsars took over from there.

with threat of cavarly totally extinguished, the tsars circled behind the enemy lines to wait. i charged the infantry at several ranks, and waited for the wavering sign to appear on the enemy units then the tsars came in.

it was intense

[gingergenius]

call me a nerd if you like, but I'm recording all my battles. I've played an English campaign up to 1262 on 0.5 years/turn, and not counting naval battles, I've lost 39,895 men and killed 97,745 over 115 battles. Unfortunately, I've only fought a few battles with over 3000 casualties, my biggest being Uppsala where 3,827 men died on both sides. The Mongols are already established in Turkish territory, but I can't wait to go to war with them so have some epic battles. Same for the Timurids and Aztecs.

In this campaign I'm trying to fight against every faction in at least one battle, just to prove my soldiers are superior. I've fought against the now destroyed Scots, Milanese, Germans, Danes, Sicilians and Portuguese. The French are now based in southern Egypt and the holy land cos I kicked them out of France, the Venetians had their empire nicked by me and now have just one province in North Africa, which is also where the Papacy fled from my armies to. Spain has the Balearics only, Hungary is now based in Turkey thanks to me booting them out of Europe, and Poland have lost ground too. I'm fighting a war with the Byzantines, although not having a border with them means I don't want any of their cities. To ensure the survival of the Turks (I haven't fought them yet), I gave them Granada and Cordoba. They took Sevilla from the Moors as well.

I can't wait to test my Englishmen against the best the Moors/ Turks/ Russians have to offer. (I have borders with these guys, all they need do is attack me). Then, the Egyptians and the Mongols. I'll keep posting any famous battles I get.

[RoadKill]

MY most epic battle would be when i was the french and i was invaded by HRE. They had 4 full stacks while i had 2 full stack of
-2 general
-4 armoured sergents
-3 crossbowmen
-2 fedual knights
-2 dismounted fedeul knights
-2 dismounted chivalic knights
-1 catapult
My other stack was a full stack of peasents with one general. lmfao
I dont have a screen shot of it but i ended up winning with all my peasents dead and the general, but with my other stack i had a catupult and one general left and i had a lucky shot of the catupult and they all routed.

[JJx]

The most fantastic bataille are the one were you end up with one or two (2) regiments on both side out of an army of 2000.
Or when you defend against several armies attacking one after an other.
Definitively the difficult one.

[Garnier]

I fight so many battles in the big meatgrinder that they are now boring... Nothing new in any of them. Half of them are winter... and its just ugly.

[gingergenius]

The Battle of Sierra Morena, 1324
Turks attacking English

When the Mongols invaded, there was a serious threat that the Turks might be wiped out. Being the global power of the time, only the English could prevent this, and, obtaining Cordoba and Granada off Spain, gave these to the Turks as a new homeland. Over the next 60 years, the Turks expanded their borders, helped by the Portuguese and Spanish capitulation to English expansion. When they took Lisbon from the Moors, the whole of Southern Iberia was Turkish. By 1324, the English hadn't fought a battle for over 30 years, having been involved in a long naval war with the Byzantine Empire. Growing tiresome, they sent out poor assassins to convince the Turks to declare war - this they did, and the first Anglo-Turk meeting took place in the Sierra Morena mountains northeast of Cordoba. Captain Aston and his highly professional force of 2000 men were attacked by a huge Turkish shock force, outnumbering the English. Lining up defensively on a ridge, the battle was mainly between English longbows and Janissary gunners. However, the English suffered heavy casualties from Turkish trebuchets and bombards, so sent a unit of Hospitallers around the Turkish flank to sort them out. As Turkish charges were held by the English line, the cavalry broke free to mop up the routing Turks, giving Captain Aston a heroic victory.

429 English died, and 1974 Turks.

[Kanonen80]

Battle of Milan
England (me) vs. Milan

The set-up:
Milan had been at odds with the Pope pretty much the whole campaign so I decided to push down towards Italy and take some of their more lucrative territories. Having pretty good standing with the Pope at the time, I convinced him to call a crusade targeting Dijon. I sent a full army with fresh units and a decent general on that crusade, then sent a couple more armies to capture a few neighboring cities. Next, I dispatched one of my armies down to Genoa and took that after a short fight. At this point, the Spanish were starting to close in on Milan. The only army I had available was the army I had sent on the crusade several turns earlier, though I sized up Milan's garrison of 900+ men and decided that my force of 800 crack troops would win easily in the eventual siege.

I had sprung the trap. Their King had been hiding in the nearby woods with an army of nearly 1000 men. During Milan's turn, the King's army sandwiched mine against the City.

The battle:
At this point I had no idea what the King had brought to the fight. I knew Milan's garrison consisted of 1/3 Pavise Crossbowmen, 1/3 Italian Spear Militia and 1/3 Italian Militia. My army was made up of the General's Bodyguard, 3 units of English Knights (slightly worn, but with good experience), 6 units of heavy infantry (DEK, Armored Swords; These had taken a decent beating when I stormed Dijon), 2 culverins and 1 bombard, 6 units of Retinue Longbowmen and Yeomen Archers. (Estimated on memory)

In my deployment area I was lucky enough to have a small hill with a pretty much even slope on all sides. As I was placing my units to make their stand, I suddenly wished I had brought a few more infantry units. Because I had no idea where the enemy would be coming from, I decided to try to defend every approach to the hill as well as I could. I made a ring of my archers around 75% of the hill and had them deploy their stakes. In the center of the ring I placed my infantry and my General, along with a couple of Knight units. The rest of my Knights guarded the un-staked portion of my hill; I then guessed where the main assault would come from and positioned my artillery to give them good coverage of that area.

As soon as the battle started it became apparent that I had guessed wrong. The closer enemy army (the King's) was at my "rear", covered only by my English Knights. His army consisted of 3 Trebuchets, several pavise crossbow units, a mix of Italian Spears and Dismounted Feudal Knights, as well as his bodyguard and another cavalry unit. The crossbowmen immediately charged into position and the siege engines rained flaming shot down on me. The Milan garrison was still a little way off, but I could tell they were making a bee-line for my position. While I raced all of my archers into two lines to face the King's army, my artillery opened fire on the garrison army.

By this time the King's Pavise Crossbowmen were in range and pelting my shifting troops. To relieve some of this pressure, I sent my English Knights charging down the hill and into the unprotected crossbow units as well as a division of Dismounted Knights but had to pull them back soon after as Italian Spearmen started to give chase. My archers were now in position and showered the enemy as they continued to run full speed. It was only moments before they whole army was about to overrun my archers, forcing them to draw their swords. Half of my Knights engaged the King and his other cavalry unit while the rest made repeated charges at their heavy infantry. I knew that the longbowmen would probably be able to hold their own against spearmen but I desperately needed to keep the heavy infantry and cavalry off them.

Noticing that my artillery was no longer firing, I swung the camera around to see that the Army from Milan was inches away from overrunning my position. The enemy were navigating their way through the stakes and began to assault the cannon crews as my heavy infantry charged in. Meanwhile, I sent my general between both sides of the battle, trying to hit key enemy positions. Meanwhile, the Milanese crossbowmen were peppering the hill from both sides and the Trebuchets had yet to let up.

The battle began taking its toll on my Knights, charge after charge. My heavy infantry was fairing a bit better, so I shifted one unit to help out my archers in their melee. Shortly after, I was elated to hear that the Milanese King had fallen in battle and sent what was left of my knights to chase down the trebuchets and the crossbowmen around them. The rest of my army was sent to dispatch the rest of the Milan garrison. Even a culverin crew took part, chasing some routing crossbowmen from the field. Finally, after a last surge of Englishmen, the remainder of the Milanese army fled the field.

In the end, I had lost 485 men while killing and capturing over 1400 Milanese soldiers. (When I got to the campaign map, I received a message that my general had died in battle, but I don't remember that happening at all). I was actually pretty surprised that I won the battle; I thought their sheer amount of numbers would overwhelm my less-than-fresh army. I'm sure you guys have had more heroic battles than this one, but I just thought I would share it with you since it was my first "underdog" victory. (I usually like to choose my fights more carefully;-) )

[gingergenius]

Battle of Khodoriv, 1350

English attacking Russians

The Anglo-Russian war had just begun in the winter of 1349. Three stacks of highly trained English armies are heading towards Russian cities from the castles at Przemyśl, Iaşi & Halych. Russian armies are marching the other way. At Khodoriv, the English army from Przemyśl had followed a Russian army as it headed towards English land, and attacked. With their army consisting largely of Cossack Musketeers and Dismounted Dvor, thr Russians had little to protect them from the English cavalry charge, and their army was obliterated.

170 English died, 1489 Russians.

Battle of Ту́раў, 1351

Russians attacking English

By this point in the war, the English had advanced far into Russian lands, having suffered just one defeat in seven battles. As an army marched on Ту́раў, two Russian armies confronted it, meaning that the English were outflanked. Holding one Russian army in place with their longbows, the cavalry charged the other army, quickly destroying and routing them. They then came back and finished off the remaining Russian forces, almost being completely destroyed themselves.

795 English died, 1517 Russians.

Battle of Aqyar, 1357

Russians attacking English

The Anglo-Russian war was still raging, and by this point the English had reached the Crimea. Again outflanked and outnumbered by the Russians, the English cavalry won the day against the Russian missile troops.

859 English died, 2246 Russians.

Battle of Novgorod, 1358

Russians attacking English

With Vilnius & Minsk under their control, the English moved North to Novgorod. Here they were met by a large Russian garrison, plus a reinforcement stack. After the battle, both were obliterated.

728 English died, 2117 Russians.

Battle of Kefe, 1360

Russians attacking English

The final battle in Crimea for the English, again gaining a heroic victory.

605 English died, 1198 Russians.

Battle of Azov, 1365

Russians attacking English

This was the penultimate battle of the Anglo-Russian war, which had cost over 45,000 lives. Had the English not wanted a buffer against the soon-coming Timurids, the Russians would have been destroyed, and Azov was their final oppurtunity to repel the English. Attacking with a huge force that included plenty of Tsar's Guard heavy cavalry and missile troops, the Russians made a fatal error. 4 units of Tsar's Guard charged the English front line, and every single one of them was scuppered on the stakes of the longbowmen. Those that survived this were easily dealt with by the levy spearmen and armoured swordsmen on the English front line. At the same time, the Russian reinforcements entered the battle. The Knights Templar charged at them before they had a chance to form up, and the Reinforcements were quickly routed. Then the cavalry moved to finish off the remaining Russians who hadn't succumbed to stakes or a flaming arrow. Despite being heavily outnumbered and surrounded, the English had won a heroic victory, and decisive since in 1366 a peace treaty was agreed against the Russian's will, from this the English also gained the city of Tmutarakan, giving them total domination of the Black Sea.

653 English died, 2354 Russians.

[Didz]

The Battle of Nottingham - Winter 1100

This battle was the crisis point of my current Scottish campaign and was a really close run thing that climaxed with a king v King showdown and set the tone for the rest of King Edwards reign.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...1&postcount=19

[gibsonsg91921]

battle of bruges

me & my 1500 british versus two 1000 danish armies, one head on and one on my extreme flank.

i ran my cavalry around back of the head-on army and charged them as my catapults took a deathly toll. by the time i destroyed or routed that army, the other one was right next to me.

i charged my unused infantry to match their line and flank it slightly, and i sealed the envelope with my cavalry. instantly over 800 good troops were fighting to the death, and i took almost all of them prisoner.

heroic victory

1500 v 2000
ends up like
1000 v 100

[CMcMahon]

Scottish vs three Milanese armies. I had a full stack, made up of a general's bodyguard, two mailed knights, two border horses, two Scottish archers, one merc crossbowmen, five militia pikemen, one heavy pikemen, two feudal knights, and three merc spearmen.

All three armies hit me from the same direction. I completely routed the first, taking all but 12 of them (it was a 3/4 stack) prisoner or to the grave. Then the second army (a full stack) came in to my now stopped battle line, and they too were routed, and then the third army (a 1/2 stack made up mainly of artillery) was also routed.

I think I lost 130 men, whereas the Milanese lost all but 40 or 50 of their much larger force, with the remaining men deserting, allowing me to take the city of Milan with minimal losses.

[hisn00bness]

In my campaign as turks; I had one full infantry stack + 2 cav halfstacks see off three full timurid stacks with twelve elephant units in total. It was insane; I had almost no men left...

[gingergenius]

Battle of Afyonkarahisar, 1376

Mongols attacking English

The English had been fighting the Mongols since they went on jihad in 1368. However, all of the 12 battles of the war so far had managed was the English capture of İzmir, and the Mongol capture of Kutaisi, with the English taking and then losing Antalya. However, having reinforced İznik to defend from a Mongol attack that never came, these troops were then sent to attack Ankara, under the command of Captain Walter. Walter's army, which consisted mainly of spear and archer militia, with some additional demi-lancers and arquebusiers, was attacked by Kublai, a Mongol 6* general with an army made up mainly of Khan's Guard, Light Lancers, Mounted Archers and Heavy Archers as well as some Mongol Infantry and artillery. Outnumbered and outgunned, Walter stood his ground. Aligning his army in high ground with a slight ridge taking most of the trebuchet fire, Walter waited as the Mongols attacked in waves. Each wave ended with heavy Mongol casualties, mainly from gunfire but also the Archer Militia. Then, the Mongol cavalry began to move forwards, and the 3 units of Demi-Lancers used their gradient advantage and charged at the right flank of the Mongol archers. Meanwhile the spear militia and missile troops valiantly held against the heavy cavalry charge. The Demi-Lancers wrecked havoc amongst the Mongol lancers and their missile troops, before surrounding Kublai and killing him. Soon, the Mongols were routed giving the English a heroic victory. Captain Walter was subsequently promoted, as Walter Arthure.

753 English died, 1390 Mongols.

[OverKnight]

This is my favorite battle so far from the PBM I'm in. I foolishly volunteered to attack the last surviving full stack of Mongols, not realizing that a.) I had to attack up hill and b.) This was a Mongol stack that had mostly heavy troops, i.e Heavy Lancer and Archers. Oh and c.) VH

It was a nasty, bloody, drawn out affair and was a lot of fun.


https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...3&postcount=87

[Monsieur Alphonse]

The commander in chief of the forces protecting the eastern borders of the British Empire got the message that the Mongols (who else) had arrived. The eastern border stretched from Thorn in the Baltic to Iasi near the Black sea. All river crossings were guarded with strong forces. The supreme commander in the east was the crown prince. He had a trait with strong / foul or something language. I wanted to hear his speech so I attacked the Mongols. His speech was the best I ever heard but now I had to fight the battle. I even considered quiting because it was almost midnight but I decided to fight. I set up my seven longbow in an arc on something that hardly could be called as higher ground. You know I wanted to hear the speech so I didn't look for a favorable battlefield. Some hundred meters behind the longbow i placed 6 armored swords. The flanks were protected by six fully upgraded (including two gold chevrons) English knights. My faction heir overlooked the battlefield from the center. I had placed the stakes a little apart so that a cavalry unit couldn't charge between them.

The Mongols had two stacks. The first did what Mongols are suppose to do and attacked. Because one of the gaps between the stakes was a little bigger than intended the Mongols could charge through that gap. My longbow (retinue and yeoman) had withdrawn some 80 meters. The AS and the longbow withstood the charges that passed through the gap remarkable well and killed the cavalry of the first stack. My cavalry destroyed the infantry with an awesome charge. The second stack was lingering in the corner of the battlefield. I decided to march forward and take the high ground overlooking that corner. Because my archers were now done to third of their arrows I had to be carefully with their ammunition.

I managed to get to the high ground without a Mongol attack. One of their heavy lancers was stuck so they waited. On the left I had a strong defensible position and on the right my six English knights were approaching. Because I couldn't reach the Mongols from the high ground I decided to form a firing line at the bottom of the cliff. Here I made a mistake because when I ordered my men down the formed two groups to descend the cliffs. The group on the extreme left consisting of two armored swords and three longbows was an easy target for a cavalry charge. The Mongols attacked my left and I had to rush my center to support them. The Mongol infantry was now without support of their cavalry so I ordered my cavalry to attack. The Mongol right flank was easy destroyed. Now all that was left was the heavy cavalry and the horse archers who were attacking my left and were already attacked by my center. The Mongol Kahn was slain by my armored swords. The rest of his army was destroyed by a combined charge of heavy cavalry and my archers (now without arrows) and armored sword from the center.

Almost all Mongols were dead and I had lost a third of my army. My faction heir got some extra command and dread and I could go to bed.

[samiosumo]

THE THIRD BATTLE OF ANTIOCH


EGYPT VS. ENGLAND

1166 AD

BACKROUND

After fighting off crusades from Venice (1st battle of Antioch), Poland (2nd Battle of Antioch) and Scilily (Cut off at Aleppo), I faced the my hardest task yet. 3 Armies of the English. They consisted of:
1 King
2 Generals
10 Mailed Knights
5 Hobilars
12 Spear Militia
20 Pligrims
5 Crusader Knights
5 Peasants

I sent my heir (5 star command - 7 while attacking) against them. He had:
1 General (heir)
5 Mamluks Archers
4 Arab Calvalry
5 Saracen Infentry
5 Hashashim.

I also had my Antioch garrision. They were:
1 2 star general
5 Saracen Militia
4 Turkomons
3 Desert Archers.

[Ramses II CP]

I was just opening a wedge into the Holy Land as the English when a Jihad was called against me, with the perfidious Turks, who had been my allies for many years, immediately answering the call. Jerusalem was in no real danger with seasoned ranks of English longbowmen waiting to sally out against foolish seiging armies, so I went on the offensive against the recently stripped Turkish and Egyptian cities.

Adana was the obvious key to the entire seaside territories of the Turks, so I sent my King with two units of Mailed Knights, one of Hobilars, and a mix of militia archers and spears, probably 3 units of each. A pair of spies revealed that the fortress was defended solely by the Turkish leader's bodyguard unit. Unfortunately I was unable to reach the walls in the same turn as my spies, and the next turn a full reinforcement stack of Turks showed up, under command of a solid general, but stopped before entering the fortress.

My general, having fought a successful crusade already, was reluctant to let the enemy strengthen his best position, and so determined to attempt to capture the fortress first, and then beat back the reinforcements. I'd not been in this situation before, so it seemed logical to me that if my cavalry raced ahead and took the walls and gates before the enemy reinforcements entered the city that I could hold them as in a normal seige, and deal with the enemy's king at my leisure.

The seige opened in good weather, and my Hobilars roared through the west gates, thanks to my spies, with no resistance at all, quickly followed by my general and his knights. We raced to the north gates, and captured the walls ahead of the Turkish reinforcements. The reinforcing units had appeared to be making for the walls, but they pulled back outside of arrow range as the last of my units moved into the fortress. With no reinforcements in sight, and the gate held under my control by two units of archers and spears, I crushed the enemy king when my archers forced him to charge, losing only a few militia spearmen and knights. That being done, I turned my attention to his 'reinforcements' who now, in my estimation, had the tough job of recapturing the city.

I put my archers on the walls by the north gate, and sent the depleted spear unit and the Hobilars outside the walls to draw the enemy in. In they came, with three or four units of cavalry archers chasing my Hobilars and the rest of the enemy force, almost exclusively melee of various kinds, engaging my schiltrom'd spearmen just inside archer range of the walls. Those men fought well, and several times tried to fight 'to the death' before a gap opened a few attempted to flee in the direction we'd entered the field from. I sent my other cavalry units out the west gate to trap the enemy HA and resuce my Hobilars. My archers had many more arrows to spend, and I thought I'd have to send another spear unit out, but the mass of enemy melee moved in a uncoordinated rush towards the gates... which opened before them as though controlled by Turkish spies!

Three units of militia archers with 2/3rds or so of their arrows still in the quiver, two fresh units of spearmen, and 600 or more enemy melee units assaulting the gates, backed by a competent general. Fortunately my spearmen were well placed, overlapping and blocking the gate as best they could. I set each archer unit to firing on the enemy general, and turned my cavalry back to race around the walls northward and take the enemy from behind. The enemy general had been working his way through the mass of troops toward the gates, and I was worried my archers wouldn't be able to fire at him any longer when an arrow finally caused his death. My spearmen, stretched and on the point of breaking already, rallied a bit and held just long enough for my mailed knights and bodyguard unit to draw up in ranks and charge the rear of the enemy. With their general recently dead and a series of nasty charges across flat, open ground hitting them from behind, the enemy mass began a chain rout. I sent my archers down to melee with the spearmen because I couldn't tell for sure if the rout was towards the center of town or back the way they had come. None of them escaped the encircling arms of my cavalry in any event.

Unfortunately for my Hobilars, I'd neglected them while setting up the perfect charges, and they'd been all but annihilated and were routing. I pulled back inside the walls and let my remaining archers spend their arrows in a duel with the enemy HA, who had carefully moved back to their original position before attacking the walls, until they depleted their stock and fled the field.

I really should've lost this one from sheer pig headedness because I didn't sit in the square and force the 3 minute end, but because the AI made a number of bizzare choices and had to be provoked into action by my attack I won. The lesson is, seige reinforcements can enter a gate even after you capture it.

[JFC]

England V Milan.

Well I suppose I had the advantage with being on the receiving end of these Milanese brutes. So I went to work creating the a place where the Milanese will just DIE:


Milan, approaching under a hail of Arrows would have had this view of English Steel and Anger:



Now the Battle unfolds, as now the Milanese cannot even swing their swords:


Time to flee!!


And time to gloat at the carnage:


As if the English needed to see this result.