Your most famous battles.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

Well tell us your most famous battles. I don't have mtw2 yet (I will on Christmas ) so I can't say.

SO what are your most famous battles???

[hundurinn]

My most epic battle was when I fought as the English against the French. I had little over 1000 men and the French more than 2000. They surrounded me and came wave after wave. My force was a mixture of longbow men, Dismounted English Knights, swordsmen and heavy cavalry. I divided my force into two armies. One would defend my rear and the other would attack the main French force.

When the battle finally begun I sent my main force to attack the largest French force. My archers weakened their ranks while my troops got into position. The heavy cavalry went through the forest, unseen, and prepared to attack them from behind. The French Catapults were wrecking havoc on both my forces. A new strategy was needed.

My rear force, DEK and swordsmen attacked the force behind me. A long battle which was very hard to fight but they were victorious in the end. The main force attacked and was losing, my archers had to come to aid them. My heavy cavalry was attacking the catapults and my general and king was losing his bodyguards fast. When my force had almost been wiped out by the French main force my general miraculously killed the French general and things became easier, I gained the upper hand and the defend force came to their aid, after slaughtering the French force attacking my from behind. Needless to say, the prisoners were executed. No one messes with my force and lives to tell the tale.

[Roy1991]

Mine was a bridge battle against 2 full stacks.

I was playing as the Byzantines, and was attacked by 2 full Venetian stacks.
One of them had to cross the bridge, but their reinforcement stack entered the battle from behind me.

My army consisted of:
- 2 Generals
- 4 Varangian Guard
- 5 Byzantine Guard Archers
- 2 Kataphraktoi
- 1 Latinkon
- 3 Dismounted Latinkon
- 3 Dismounted Byzantine Lancers

I left the Varangian Guard, the Dismounted Byzantine Lancers, the archers and 1 unit of Katapraktoi (to chase down routers) to defend the bridge.

I deployed the generals, the Latinkon and the other unit of Katapraktoi near the spot where I thought their reinforcements would arrive, so I would be able to charge them immediately.

I left the Dismounted Latinkon somewhere in the middle between my cavalry and the infantry defending the bridge, as reserve.

When the battle started, the first Venetian army immediately rushed the bridge, but my infantry was able to hold it.
After about 2 minutes their general was killed by my archers, and that caused I chain rout.
The Katapraktoi captured more than 400 enemies on the bridge


In the meanwhile the enemy reinforcement army had arrived (it consisted mainly of archers and light infantry, + several units of Venetian Heavy Infantry and mounted knights).
I charged them immediately, and my cavalry massacred their archers and militia units.
The enemy cavalry tried to flank mine, so I had the Dismounted Latinkon that were in reserve attack them.


I lost about 450 men, killed about 1200, and took 500+ prisoners.

[Zheng He's Lost Son]

I call mine Hamburger Hill, with myself as the English against the Mongol leader and his heir.

There was only one piece of high ground on the map, and it was closer to his territory. Immediately I sent cavalry to secure a way up, but their spears arrived too soon and I had to watch as the leader's armies marched up the hill and waited for his son's rear reinforcements.

He waited there while I tried to devise a flanking plan. I picked off some missile cavalry units, but there was no way my horses could climb the hill under a rain of arrows.

So it was a full-scale infantry charge, a gruesome frontal assault that would've made green troops rout. I ran some cavalry around, hoping to climb the hill from behind, but again, his spears were too many.

My guys fought almost to the last man, and when they finally turned it was a long walk downhill. I have some epic after-battle screenshots, but they don't at all capture my thoughts at the time ("How am I ever gonna beat these guys?")

We lost, and lost big, but we cut their heart out in doing it. They weren't ever again a real threat, and I almost choke up when I mouse over the historic battle icon.

[danfda]

Has anyone else ever gotten a historic battle cross for a sea battle? The other day I had some brave Sicilian seamen defeat a larger Moorish foe, and I was amused to see the little crossed swords talking about my historic battle. It left something to be desired, however, as all I did was click the auto resolve button...

[gingergenius]

Battle of Southampton, 1080

Rebels attacking English

William the Conqueror is besieging the city of Southampton (Rebel owned) when a stack of rebels attacks him from behind. With his army of 1000 or so men sandwiched between 1000 rebels in front and 1000 behind, William was in an impossible situation.

As the battle started, he immediately marched quickly off to defeat the rebels to his rear, routing them after an intense battle. With Southampton's garrison then charging behind, William's forces turned around and battled their way to victory.

283 Englishmen died, and 1,179 Rebels.

Battle of Uppsala, 1129

Danes attacking English

Francis, England's 10* general, has already fought and won many battles against the Danes and Germans, but maybe laying siege to Uppsala with an army consisting of mercenaries and a few castle troops was a step too far. His force of 2000+ men was attacked by a two Danish stacks of 2000 men each, and the garrison from the castle of about 800. Taking up a defensive position on a ridge, Francis defeated each Danish force, winning a heroic victory.

770 Englishmen died, and 3057 Danes.

Battle of Aar, 1170

English attacking Milanese

Just to the north of the Milanese city of Bern was a stack of 2000 or so Milanese feudal foot knights and genoese crossbowmen. In reinforcement from Bern would be arriving a their heir to the throne with 3-400 men. Laurence Harris controlled an elite English stack from Hohenstauffen, consisting of English Knights, Armoured Swordsmen, and Retinue Longbowmen (over 2000 men in total). The Milanese picked an awful defensive position at the bottom of a mountain, and the English attacking from the top, crushed the Milanese crossbows with a cavalry charge. Before too long the Milanese reinforcements arrived and the battle turned bloody, before the Milanese were routed and most of them killed either in the battle or later on due to a failed ransom request.

437 Englishmen died, and 2398 Milanese.

[JCoyote]

1 Monster Bombard shot. 500 kills. Enemy Route.

[Fookison]

I just finished an epic battle where I had an English army of 98 units in the Scottish Highlands and was attacked by three separate armies of Scots. They first attacked me with their King and an army of 638 and I defeated them with my General, a group of spear militia, and some Hobilars. I started at the top of the mountain and used the terrain to my advantage. The second battle I had 68 units left and faced 498 and beat them. Finally I got attacked in the same area a third time with a group of 370 and I was down to 38 units including my general. The game settings are M game-VH battles. Clearly my best battles since I got the game.....

[Derfasciti]

I think one of my most epic battles was when I had an almost full stack of French troops invade England. They threw at me about 1 1/2-2 stacks worth of troops. The thing was that they were stationed all around me and I had to very quickly defeat one army and then turn on the next, I was ultimately very triumphant and was able to march on London.

[sapi]

A bridge not too far from Rome.

The holy roman emperor and his force of mercanaries and militamen are confronted by an army of the papal states.

They fought well and destroyed their foes, but were caught from behind by the garrision of Rome.

In fierce fighting the emperor was slain and his men despaired.

The trajedy that was allowed the incidious papacy to hold power for another few years, but they were brought to justice in the end.

[Laconic]

I played a battle with my full stack, two allied Timurid full stacks, and four 75% stacks of Mongols (this was with the unlimited men cvar turned on in the preferences.cfg). Quite epic. Wish I had been taking screenshots.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Tried recreating Falkirk in Custom Battle, VH difficulty. I had mostly Militia Spearmen, Highlanders, Peasant Archers, light cavalry, couple of Knights, total half-stack. English had mostly dismounted/mounted Knights, Longbowmen, and some levies, total full-stack. I took the high ground, formed line of shiltrons. Extra height allowed my archers to meet Longbowmen's range. English still faring better, so I rush my Border Horse downhill and rout most of the Longbowmen. These Border Horse then lure the English cavalry uphill, who slam into the schiltrons. Both sides take heavy casualities at this point. Just as it looks like the English have broken the Scots spearmen, the Highlanders charge through the gaps between each of the Schiltrons, and the fearsom Higland charge turns the tide of the battle. The cavalry rout, and the English send their infantry uphill. The battle could swing either way, so the Scottish Knights charge round the right flank of the English infantry, focusing on the one flank as they lacked to power to fight on both sides. It turns into a rout on the one side, and so the cavalry continue to the left flank and mop up the English there.

[lucased1]

Was Playing as The English and i prepared my Invasion into paris but i got confronted by an army of 2000 Frenchmen just outside paris mostly armoured Spearmen, since i had an army containing 12 Units of English Knights and 2 Armoured Swordsmen and 1 General unit i decided to Attack them.......

First of all i had my Armoured Swordsmen Charge down to the French Spear men and occupy them for as long as possible but they were surrounded quickly but being french they turned their backs to my english knights, which was a death wish, so my English knights and general charged down the hill and routed the french army almost instantly i killed 1965 french troops and paris was mine not long after the battle.

But i released the prisoners because i wanted my general to have Full Chivilary

by the way English Knights own anything even Spearmen

[Marquis of Roland]

This is not a great battle but probably a more historic one that I had (and enjoyed, purely for the historical aspect). I was going to post my two-front bridge battle but someone already posted a similar one.

1st Crusades, Anatolia -

The Pope has called a crusade to retake Jerusalem from the infidels. England, the Holy Roman Empire, and Milan take up arms and march towards Constantinople, meaning to cross over to Asia Minor from there. The Milanese were the first to cross, and - mirroring history - their army was composed of many pilgrims and camp followers (in game terms this would translate to roughly 10 peasant and peasant archer units, with the rest of 10 units made up of 1 general, 2 knights, 2 light cavalry, and the rest men-at-arms).

The Turkish Crown Prince, in command of an army of Turkomen horse archers, spied the Milanese crossing the Bosphorous and planned an ambush in some hills along the road to Iconium, and waited.

The Crusaders finally approach, with darkness coming on soon, looking for a place to camp. As the road wound down into a shallow valley below the hills, the Turkomen horsemen emerged from the hills and quickly forced the crusaders down into the valley. The valley resembled a shallow bowl and as the crusaders tried to form some form of defense at the bottom, the Turkomens rode around them and lined the lip of the "bowl", and started firing down into the valley full of men.

The knights and their retainer sergeants tried valiantly to charge up the hill, but were cut down like grass by massed arrow fire from all directions. Unable to attack the fleet-footed archers on top of the valley, the surviving Frankish cavalry retreated back to the bottom of the valley to attempt a final stand to protect the pilgrims. However, the mass of pilgrims themselves made it difficult for the actual fighting men to redeploy, and all the time with arrow storms raining down on them.

Eventually the crusaders saw the futility of staying where they were and attempted a breakout to the west, by going back up the road they came. The swift Turkomen cavalry followed them on both sides and shot them down. The road back was littered with the dead and dying, and as the English and German armies passed by the site of the battle weeks later, the English were so affected by the sight that they turned back, leaving only the Germans to carry out the Pope's mission (in game terms, they just kept going in circles for some reason until they lost all their men and the army was disbanded).

[Lord Fluffy]

I've been trying to kill off my mad prince. So I sent him off to fight several stacks of rebel. At one point him and his bodyguards fought a rebel unit consisting of 2 spearmen and an archer unit. Now while I wanted him dead, I also wanted him to die a glorious death. So he charged at the rebel line several times, pulling out each time the rebels were about to outflank him. He survived that battle and several more after that.

Feeling merciful, I had 4 units of knights join him. He was soon attacked by a stack of Venetian army led by their doge, 3 units of spearmen, 4 dismounted knights, 4 pavise xbows, 4 peasants and 4 trebuchets. Long story short he killed the doge and routed the Venetian army. He quite a few of his men but only left 10 men alive on the Venetian side.

With his ragtag army roaming the area near Venice, he was surrounded on all sides by enemies. A Hungarian stack to the east and 2 Venetian stacks blocking the passage home. Feeling sorry for him I sent a relieve column. At the moment he had just destroyed another Venetian half stack led by the new doge. I think I'll keep him, be nice to have a mad king for a change.

[Lorenzo_H]

I once fought a battle where I had 500 Spaniards against about 1200 English. I had 4 cannons, but they were destroyed within the first few minutes of fighting. My infantry also was looking like it was going to be overwhelmed by the masses of English foot soldiers and Archers. Eventually though I managed by some fluke to kill both enemy generals with my Generals Bodyguard, and ended up with every cavalry unit I had dead apart from my one little General.

In the end I won the battle by routing all the remaining archers with less than 10 men total! It was funny to see about 6 Sword and Buckler men and the General chasing around huge masses of enemy archers.

[TravPaul]

I would have to say mine would be a battle where I had about 188 men to their 1300. All of mine were cavalry tho. I won with a loss of 143 men to their 1150 or so. Needless to say that was a heroic victory.

[gingergenius]

The Battle of Venzsia, 1197

Venetians attacking English

Michael Furillo was a Venetian General laying siege to the English city of Zagreb. He then accepted some money and changed his nationality to English. Hiring an army full of mercenaries from the Balkans and northern Italy, he marched on his hometown, Venice, and laid siege to it. 6 months later, his army of over 2000 men was attacked by a small Venetian force of 500. However, coming up from the rear was the 2000+ strong garrison of Venice. Furillo arranged his men in a defensive formation, before abandoning it and charging at the small Venetian army, routing them. He then turned his men around and into a defensive formation, before the onslaught began. Despite not one of the English soldiers on the field being English, they held their line and eventually routed their opponents in a heroic victory, giving them a free march on to Venice itself.

1,115 Englishmen died, and 1,711 Venetians.

[TravPaul]

Here is a screenshot with my most famousest of battles.

[Lorenzo_H]

Here is a screenshot with my most famousest of battles.

cor! What were you fighting against - peasants?

[Jonathan_Thompson]

Most famous battle was against a venetian army. I had 7 Varidotai, 3 Byzantine Lancers and a 3 star General. They had 10 spear militia, 3 archer militia, 7 peasant militia and 2 catapaults. Immediately sent my Varidotai to his flank and started squeezing the infantry together. They eventually turn and try to engage the varidotai in melee. By doing this they may as well have put a bullseye on his flank. Slam into the infantry with my lancers cause a chain rout entire army defeated. Over 2000 men killed in 3 minutes

[gingergenius]

The Battle of Avellino, 1200

Sicilians attacking English

Sweyn of Haderslev was a general in charge of a band of brigands in Sweden. After being 'convinced' to become English, he journeyed South and became governor of the newly acquired English city of Bari. However, weeks after arriving in Bari, he was ordered to besiege the Sicilian city of Naples. Hiring a force of all the mercenaries he could muster, plus some peasant archers, Sweyn set out. On the road, nearby the small town of Avellino, to the East of Naples, a Sicilian army under the command of Jacopo Martinelli attacked him. The odds were stacked heavily against the English, being outnumbered 2 to 1.The battle raged with Sicilian trebuchets wreaking havoc to the English line, which otherwise was holding up well. Sweyn took his bodyguard round to take out the trebuchets, but in the way he was intercepted by Martinelli and his bodyguard. Sadly, Sweyn of Haderslev was personally killed by Martinelli, before the Sicilian himself met his death. His army soon routed at their General's death, giving the English army a heroic victory.

162 Englishmen died, and 731 Sicilians.

[Sheogorath]

The Last Stand at Iasi
~500 Russians vs. ~2,000 Byzantines
Russians mostly composed of militia spears and mercs. Faction heir and a unit of Druzhina.

I managed to beat the Byzantines off their ladders and siege tower, but the stupid jerks went and snagged a ram once my archers were out of arrows. Busted the gates down and all their cavy flooded in.
I figured I would do something cool looking, so I lined my remaining cavy (Faction heir was the only one left in his unit, about 20 Druzhina remaining in the other) and charged them up the main street at the Byzantines.
I was rather dissapointed that my faction heir only killed one Byzntine horse-archer before they got him. Mostly he just stood there.

In any case, the end casualties were something like:
500 Russians against 1700 Byzantines
Not quite as good a ratio as others, but remember, the Byzantine starter units are just a tad stronger than your average Russian archer/spear militia :P

[gingergenius]

The Battle of Alberche, 1251

English attacking Portuguese

Portugal is in its last throes. They had just lost Toledo to the English, who also were besieging their cities of Leon and Valencia. Just Sevilla remained safe, which was under threat from Turkish and Moorish forces. Early in 1251, Josias of Dunwich and his horde of Armenian Cavalry, Alan Light Cavalry, Hospitaller and Templar Knights had already defeated a large Portuguese army that year, losing 295 of his 1200 or so men. He then marched north to engage the Portuguese Prince Manoel and a stack of around 1300 men just north of Toledo, a newly captured English Citadel. Arranging his horsemen into a single line, Josias charged the Portuguese line, with cavalry looping round the back and surrounding their Aventuros pikemen, the biggest threat to the English riders that day. Soon, the Portuguese were routed and their Prince taken prisoner, leaving a heroic victory for the English.

104 Englishmen died, and 1,246 Portuguese.

[TevashSzat]

In my best battle, I was the Hungarians and just took out Constantinople due to a sneak attack and a well planned crusade, I was marching on Nicae with a ragtag army. One pretty good general, 2 half strength ha, and 1 13 man armenian cavalry as well as 2 balkan archers, and 4 pilgrims. The byzantines attack me with their king, about 10 units of various militia, 4 units of turkoman, and about 5 units of various archers. All were at full strength. Odds were against me, but I was defending a river crossing. I positioned my army so that my melee units would stop the charge and my cav would charge from the side. When the battle started, the byz sent all of their militia units and their general across. My first charge killed militia easily, but the general posed problems. By the time he charged, I was down to a 15 man general in my cav, but I barely defeat the byz king with 1 man left, my general. The turkomans and archers then spring across. I withdraw my army a little bit back and with a good use of fire arrows and well planned charges, rout the turkoman. As for the rest of the enemy archers, I destroyed their morale with fire arrows and the just charged into them killing them all. Odds were about ten to one I think. In the end, I started with around 450 and left with 250. Enemy, 1053 to 170 something

[Werner]

OMG I have to share this. Just had the most amazing battle ever. 2 1/2 full enemy stacks of danish versus my 2 full stacks of Scottish crusaders (made up of templars, noble swordsmen, and dismounted feudals + two of my best generals) I have been at it with the Danes ever since the beginning and they just fell out of grace with the pope so I called a crusade against them. They started letting go of all the sieges on my cities and I was there with my best stacks waiting. The battle started in a hilly plain on a rainy day so I waited, perfect beautiful weather. I moved my large assortment of siege weaponry into position and realized my second stack of reinforcements wasn't entering battle (a bug they really need to fix)... So it was really like 1 of my stacks versus 2 1/2. I sent all my crap pilgrims up on their flanks to distract them and sent my cannons/balistas etc up to confront the archers. Absolute mayhem, there were about 525 pilgrims in all, look so cool in their hooded outfits!

As the pilgrims started to fall I knew I couldnt hold out long without my reinforcements (with the bulk of my infantry). My templars (only 3 units) took on the entire Danish army while my new reinforcements humped in up to the front lines. With less than 3 minutes to complete the battle I managed to get my new troops in line (exhausted from running) and route the enemy army.

Final:
Over 3,400 enemy losses with the death of one of their heirs. Thousands of flourines lost due to all the siege equipment they dropped. Only 900 losses on my end with just over 800 troops remaining. Promotions and experience points across the board.

On a larger scale:
The bulk of the danish military might was exhausted in this battle, they are now on the retreat toward Hamburg and will face the brute of crusader armies from around the world.

Absolutely phenomenal.

[sbroadbent]

One of my more famous battles in my english campaign was when Venice was rebel after the fall of Milan. The Pope ended up taking the city, but I forced it to rebel once more. I was preparing to siege the city when I saw Venice come with a full stack. My initial army there was 2 Generals, 2 English Knights, 3 Feudal Knights, 2 Mailed Knights and 3 units of archers (I think they were Yeomen archers). My troops numbered 473.

Anyway, this was fairly significant because the troops I was facing were mostly spear, peasant and cavalry. They numbered 1109. I had a stack of spears and swords myself that were preparing to mobilize but there was a slight problem in that the Pope had a stack or two between Balogna and Venice, meaning that they would not be able to take the short route around. Fearing that Venice would interfere, I went ahead and sieged the city. My network of spies was enough to open the games, and I charged in. Knowing a full assault on the center where all their troops would most likely meet in failure, I divided my troops. 2 units of cavalry went left and prepared to flank in a clockwise path, once they entered the city, 2 units of cavalry went right and went in a counter-clockwise direction. My two generals followed the second group, but stopped to be prepared to charge when I lured units to the gates I entered from. The other three units of cavalry did similar to the first, but also acted to lure units from the defenders defensive position. My archers stayed outside because the rebels had a unit of archers or two, and tried to pick off as many archers on the walls that stayed up there. They unfortunately weren't particularly effective.

I wish I had a battle replay as it was a fairly difficult battle, and I ended up fighting and giving orders to units at three parts of the city. Fortunately the groups I had sent up enabled me to flank and destroy much of the spear without too much loss on my own side. They do tend to break easily when you smack them on both sides with a cavalry charge.

Faction: Deployed  Lost  Remaining  Enemies Killed/Captured
English:    473     221     252            820(288)
 Rebels:   1109    1109      0             257(0)

My survivors (men remaining):
Generals: 9, 8
Feudal Knights: 5, 7, 14
English Knights: 7, 8
Mailed Knights: 7, 8
Archers: 42, 50, 48


I had one other heroic victory, although due to the difficulty setting, and the lack of a german infantry (they were obsessed with Crossbows when I had mainly cavalry... go figure) where 4 units of mailed knights took on an entire german stack of units. That battle was hugely in my favor because I had the high ground, and for some odd reason, their crossbows came after me (they did attack my units).

I ended up meeting them half way up the mountain, and charged into them routing them fairly quickly, and then routing the next several. They did have some Armored Swordsmen, and some artillery. I decided it was in my best interest to take out the crossbow and artillery first, so I ended up flanking the swordsmen, and charging away to rout their artillery. Eventually the battle with the swordsmen had to take place, but I'm fairly certain they had some major morale penalties as most of their stack has been devastated, most likely including their General as well. It ended fairly quickly as I flanks and crushed them.

[Whacker]

cor! What were you fighting against - peasants?

I once had a victory like that in RTW. Two general's units and a severly depleted unit of hastatii and early roman archers (total of little over 200 men) caught off guard by a greek army, just over 1000 men. Single general, rest were militia hoplies, skirmishers, and archers. I ended up losing one of my generals and about half of my forces, but I won with 900 greek deaths, the rest I had to let escape. It was a very very hilly steep map, which helped my case greatly as they had to run all the way across the map uphill to get to me.

[Metarius64]

Oneof my most fun battles was playing as the Byzantines. I attacked the Hungarian city of Budapest, and it was their last city. They then attacked with 3 armies, all mostly composed of spear militia, some pavise crossbow militia, and a few Hungarian Nobles, along with 5 General Bodyguards. I had a about 7 units of Vardiatori, 2 Byzantine Calvary, and I General Unit.
To make a long story, I rode continuously around them, shooting them from behind, isolating them, and then charging from behind. I finished by killing over 2,500 men, while losing about 170 Varditori, and 20 Byzantine Calvary.
The Hungarians died the next turn.

[Marquis of Roland]

Medieval Hamburger Hill, 1405

Turks: 1 stack (1 gen, 1 qapukulu, 2 Sipahi HA, 4 Jan. Archers, 4 Ottoman Inf., 6 JHI, 2 cannon)

Hunagrians: 2 stacks, 1 reinforcement stack (1 gen, all others are a mix of crossbow militia, DFK, various types of mounted knights, and supporting bombards and trebuchets).

Attacking up the Dalmation coast against the Hungarians, I ended my Sultan's army's turn on the inland side of the mountain ridge running down the coast. The Hungarians immediatel sent 3 full stacks against this 1 stack and attacked me where I ended my turn.

They couldn't have attacked me at a worse spot. I was on top of a steep rocky hill with two grades, probably about 35 degrees up halfway and 25-30 degrees the rest of the way up. The rocky nature of the hill presented the Hungarians with only 2 ways up the hill, 2 draws that eventually met together before where I positioned my army, much like an inverted "Y".

As the Hungarians at the bottom of the hill formed up for an assault, my cannons opened fire on their artillery. My gold-striped cannons shot accurately and made quick work out of their artillery, even before the hungarian infantry finished forming up. With the artillery out of the way, I shelled the now slowly advancing hungarians with impunity.

Their 2 starting stacks formed up at the bottom of the hill directly in front of the two draws leading up to my army, and began to advance, crossbowmen in the fore. Artillery fire was constant this whole time, though I held archer fire till both Hungarian armies met at the intersection of the "Y", halfway up the hill. The grade of the hill becomes slightly less at this point, and from the Turk's perspective, this point is the first point where my Ottoman infantry (in the front rank to make their shots more accurate) will be able to see the full bodies of the advancing Hungarians. Moreover, the intersection was only wide enough to fit 1 army through at a time, so thus both Hungarian stacks began to bunch up dangerously. At this time their third stack appeared and started to immediately move up the hill using the draw on the left.

Once the Hungarians crested over this grade-change, the order to open fire was given to the archers. I don't think I've ever seen so much blood-mist spray or so many men go down in one massive volley. Images of Saving Private Ryan came up in my mind ( reminiscent of the first scene where the boat ramp opens and everyone in the boat is blown away by a MG-42). The front ranks of the hungarians were getting mowed down so fast that their army looked like it was standing still yet they were advancing.

Their cavalry were moving up the hill behind their dismounted knights, so i had to switch to target them. Luckily, as the first volley left, the knights were in the process of moving up through their mass of infantry, so practically every arrow hit something. In a matter of 3 or 4 volleys, all of their knights were dead, along with any infantry standing close to them.

While I was concentrating on the knights, the crossbow militia broke through the bottleneck and deployed in skirmish right in front of my army, ducked down and started to return fire. It really looked like modern soldiers spreading out and taking cover and digging in. However the concentration of arrows was so thick that 1 volley effectively destroyed any skirmishing crossbow unit that made it out of the bottleneck. 1 crossbow militia made it up to my Ottoman infantry, and actually killed 1 ottoman before getting butchered. Someone please give that man a medal.

As the very, very few survivors of the first 2 stacks retreated down the hill (all the while being shot in the back as I turned on fire-at-will now) ran right into the advancing third stack, slowing it somewhat. As soon as the third stack came over the grade-change, all archers and cannon opened up on the lead units. 3 out of 4 cannons got a direct hit right in the center of their mass of men; this may be exaggerated, but I do believe that is the first time I've seen over a hundred men fly through the air. The survivors immediately routed, with my archery fire shooting them up all the way back down the hill.

In the end, there was no more grass that can be seen up the hill, the bodies were piled up perhaps 4-5 high. Hungarian losses came up to just over 5000, while my own losses were 1 killed (the ottoman that got killed) and 2 friendly fire. Of the few crossbow militia that actually fired, not one of them killed any of my men with their crossbows.