Strong defensive positions

[Martok]

Cordoba also offers an interesting defensive position over what is a nice little pass, the enemy usually appears right in.

I'm quite fond of Cordoba -- it's the site of one of my greatest victories (AAR in this thread).

In my battle, the map consisted of a long, moderately-sloped hill, and was fairly heavily wooded on the top (in which I hid most of my men). In addition, the sides of the hill were quite steeply sloped, making it almost impossible for the enemy (Almohads) to flank my position. In essence, the entire map more or less consisted of a large natural ramp, with me waiting at the top.

The end result of this was that the enemy (Almohads) were forced to march all the way across the map, up the hill, and straight into the middle of my formation -- which was precisely what I'd hoped for.

[Roark]

G'day Dazza,

Good to see another Aussie warmonger in here.

I know exactly the map and position you're talking about! Beautiful for ambushes. I launched a Hashishin nightmare onto some evil Christians on that map once. It's the only battle I've ever actually recorded for replay. Sweet.

[General Dazza]

G'day Dazza,

Good to see another Aussie warmonger in here.

I know exactly the map and position you're talking about! Beautiful for ambushes. I launched a Hashishin nightmare onto some evil Christians on that map once. It's the only battle I've ever actually recorded for replay. Sweet.

G'day Roark!

Not sure there's that many of us here. Don't regularly see that many daytime-ourtime posts.

It is a fantastic position. Even a human attacker would stand a slim chance (by my un-educated reckoning re multiplayer gameplay) against a defence with the right troop mix. The AI in my game stood no chance at all.

[Bregil the Bowman]

I have found Syria provides some excellent defensive terrain. One map gives you a slope over to the right hand that is all but impassable on the furthest side, making outflanking very difficult. Add to that the impact of the opponent having to cross desert to get there and you'll find this is the ideal spot for bringing a crusade or the Army of the Golden Horde to a spectacular standstill.

Switzerland also presents some excellent natural defences - there is one that provides a nicely-projecting flat-top hill ideal for placing troops in a defensive half-hex. Whichever side the enemy comes from they have to climb a steep slope in full view of whatever missile units you have to hand.

See here for what happened to a Sicilian crusade in Switzerland:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...=47087&page=34

And see here for my response to the Golden Horde threat:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=61410

[seireikhaan]

Well, I had one battle in Lithuania where I fended off a byzantine invasion that was about my size, but they consisted of about 6 or so cataphracts and P.A., along with some biz infantry and spearman as support. Also, a unit or two of archers.

My force, consisting of only two cav(mounted seargeant and a jinnette, my general), was mostly vikings and huscarles, with a few landsmen as well. Ordinarily, their cav would have torn me up, at the least. However, this is Lithuania, famed for its woodsmen. Why do they need such good woodsmen? Because there's A LOT of forest. A single massive forest stretched from left to right, for a good section of my side of the map. I mean, this was the forest to end all forests.

I patiently waited for them, and the bizz foohardely charge nearly their entire cav line in the frontal charge. In addition, I left my mounted seargeant in yet another forest towards the edge of the map. The almighty cataphracts get repulsed and routed. The MS shoots from the edge of the map, collapses their flank, and runs roughshot over the entire army, as their morale collapsed upon seeing their toughest units come screaming out of the forest, which didn't include their general, a cataphract who died in the foolish assault. Their entire army soon routs, and the MS and Jinnettes have a field day, capturing, killing about 250 by themselves.

[Caliburn]

Maybe it was the winter but...

Lithuania can be a killer.

One of my most glorious defeats happened in Lithuania.

I lead a good quality, full stack Turkish army (Jannissary Infantry, Saracens, Ghazi and a variety of horses, no JHI yet) against a low-quality, full-stack army with lots of woodsmen and a couple of Lithuanian cavalry. The enemy were deployed inside the forest, and I engaged them carefully, but unable to use the missile power and the horses I had effectively. I'm not sure what exactly happened - the spears broke formation and missile infantry got bogged down early I guess - but in any case, the "New Army" got all but slaughtered. Great stuff that happens in MTW at times.

[The Unknown Guy]

The pyrinees often provide good battle maps against incoming armies.

In one of the older pocket mods, AKA: one that had not the "compound bow" modification for all troops described as using compound bows yet, I was fighting a battle in a map with a flat hill with mountains behind overlooking the path which the enemy had to take, meaning they had to come from the north-northwest, excepting units which attempted to flank, which wouldn´t really be a problem. I used an army composed of Almohad Spanish militia, or however they´re called, as shocktroops, some Muratibin infantry as protection for my ranged units, which were: three catapults for long range attacks (since in the PM muslims don´t get arbalesters, and besides, I like pounding my enemies with huge rocks almost as much as I like pounding them with heavy artillery), several crossbow sçuads for medium range (particularily effective in this context as there were lots of armored crusaders coming in from the north, althrough in general I tend to favor crossbows over "normal" bowmen in most situations, as they perform well if you time their shots right) and a naphta unit for close range, which I threw in for the hell of it, in case the enemy general came close enough to be locked in combat by one of my other units (preferibly something less expensive than the ones I mentioned earlier. I think I brought a cheap fodder unit -I always do when I bring naphta- but I don´t remember what was it). Which, after bouldering and crossbowing the incoming onslaught, was exactly what happened. To my glee. Naphta tends to either hit your own troops more than theirs, or get the AI paranoid after them, so I like the times when they fulfill their proper purpose, that is, blasting lots of enemy troops to bits in a few throws.