Your most famous battles.

[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.