strange battle victory

[lord illingsworth]

Well, this is the first time I have ever won a battle without even being in it :)

I had something very strange happen last night.. XL mod, playing the Polish.
I had a decent army of about ~600 men, and invaded Lithuania, which was being held by a similar, better army of Russians, expecting them to send most of those men to relieve a siege in Kiev. Well, they didn't go anywhere, and on the same turn the Novgorods (my ally) also sent a small force (maybe 100 men). However the Teutons also sent a good sized force as well of about 700 men, and were neutral, so I would have had to defeat them. I had a 4 command general, but both the Russians and the Teutons had 7 star generals.

I knew I couldn't beat the Russians alone, even with the small Novgorod force, but figured if the Russians and Teutons beat on each other some, maybe I could still win. So I started the battle.

And I see nothing but the Russians. They are waiting at the other end of the map. I have seen times when some of the participants drop out before the actual battle, so it looked like the Teutons changed their mind. They also knew they couldn't take both the Russians and I. I know I can't beat the Russians alone, so after some looking at the map, I start withdrawing. About 1/3 of my units are off the map when lo and behold the Teutons start pouring out of a forest! They were hiding the whole time, and I hadn't seen them. I hurriedly stopped my withdrawal (though my general and 1/3 my troops were gone) and watched the battle. The teutons definitely got the upper hand and appeared to be completely tearing the Russians up. I didn't have enough men left to take them on, so I just went ahead and finished withdrawing, figuring I would come back next turn. The battle still had to complete after I finished, and my men never even saw the enemy.

So I exit the battle and - to my surprise - *I* get the province! At the end of the battle screen, the Teutons are declared to be my ally, which they weren't. So since I had the most men left, it became mine, even though I did absolutely no fighting.

Has anyone seen this before? It was very strange.

[therussian91]

That's very awesome, I haven't seen it exactly like that before, but in my current Spanish campaign (XL, High, Extreme) I was attacking Valencia, which was owned by the Almohads, who had two full armies stationed there (I play on Huge settings), and the same turn an allied Venitian Crusade attacks Valencia. We met on a two bridged river, me and Venice on one side, and the Almohads on the other. Anyway, since the Almohads were defending, Venice just rushes across one of the bridges for the kill. I say, "Hey, why don't I just let them kill themselves, and I come in once everything is over and finish things up?" And that's what I did. I just camped my army upriver near the other bridge, and attacked right when the Venitian army began a massive rout.

In the end, I think I only lost 100 or 200 men. (again, on huge settings, that's next to nothing). The same year Venice was excommunicated, the Crusade disbanded, and I got Valencia, which I wouldn't have gotten since the crusade was larger than my invasion force.

[The Darkhorn]

On several occassions though never in large battles, I have seen rebel forces slink off to the edge somewhere and watch me and the third party battle it out. Granted that is usually when I got both a popular (faction) rebellion and vanilla rebels at the same time. It's still weird though.

[Martok]

Heh. Reminds me of a battle I fought in Shogun a few months back.

I'd invaded a river province defended by both the Uesugi clan and a rebel army (which I assure you I had asbolutely *nothing* to do with ). To my surprise and utter delight, the rebel army started out on the same side as the Uesugi forces. As a result, they immediately turned on each other, thus ignoring me.

Not only did the rebels actually end up routing the Uesugi and driving them off the field, but they were apparently allied with me as well. For as soon as the last of Uesugi's men withdrew, I was declared the victor! Thus, I won a bridge battle without losing a single man.

You gotta love them rebels.

[General Dazza]

I had a pretty awesome 4-way battle recently too. Me as crusaders against GH with an aligned swedish army (bigger than mine) also attacking. A small rebel army was also in there somewhere, but they got wiped pretty early.

The map was great. I was in a clearing with forest behind me. The GH was opposite me with forests on both sides. To my left were the Swedes. But the swedes couldn't go directly towards the GH due to the forest. So they had to sweep around in front of me and turn left.

I had a demi-culvs and a catapult, the swedes had similar and the horde had some too. Each army was about 2000 strong.

It was a all-in bloodbath. Missiles flying every direction, artillery smashing into crowded battlefields. Reserves coming in were quickly thrown into the fray as the battlefield was almost most of the map (except for forested areas). I knew it was going to be fun when the GH started its attack by sending its heavy cav through the forest to attack the swedish rear.

By the end the field was littered in dead from the Swedish line right round to the front of mine and to the GH line. The GH was defeated and Sweden won the province by virtue of a bigger starting army.

I think I saved it. I'll have to go back and review and post a pic.

[The Darkhorn]

I had a pretty awesome 4-way battle recently too. Me as crusaders against GH with an aligned swedish army (bigger than mine) also attacking. A small rebel army was also in there somewhere, but they got wiped pretty early.

The map was great. I was in a clearing with forest behind me. The GH was opposite me with forests on both sides. To my left were the Swedes. But the swedes couldn't go directly towards the GH due to the forest. So they had to sweep around in front of me and turn left.

I had a demi-culvs and a catapult, the swedes had similar and the horde had some too. Each army was about 2000 strong.

It was a all-in bloodbath. Missiles flying every direction, artillery smashing into crowded battlefields. Reserves coming in were quickly thrown into the fray as the battlefield was almost most of the map (except for forested areas). I knew it was going to be fun when the GH started its attack by sending its heavy cav through the forest to attack the swedish rear.

By the end the field was littered in dead from the Swedish line right round to the front of mine and to the GH line. The GH was defeated and Sweden won the province by virtue of a bigger starting army.

I think I saved it. I'll have to go back and review and post a pic.

That sounds awesome. Seems I might've once had a 4-way battle, but it only involved my troops, my enemy's, some rebels, and a 4th party invader. It would not have been a large battle though or I would've saved it.

The most awesome battle I ever fought was playing as the Polish in vanilla MTW. I had a large force in Khazar. This was an early game and I knew little about the game mechanics of the GH. There were two huge forests on the left and right, with a field and town in between. My men were slaughtered nearly to a man; 2,000 or so IIRC. But they gave the enemy a bloody nose; 5,000 or so IIRC (out of perhaps 15K-20K). Soon after the Khan died on the bridge to Kiev, creating a huge stack of rebels which kept invading me anyway!!!!

Anyway, it was my first REALLY HUGE GIMONGOUS BATTLE. It was awesome. The entire field between the forests was literally carpeted with dead men and horses. It would've been possible to walk from forest to forest without ever having set foot on the ground. I saved the replay of course.

[Bregil the Bowman]

I usually find that its my allies who pick up the goodies - just as I;ve set up a nice strategic conquest, they muscle in with 1000 peasants or something rubbish like that.

I did fight one battle where I was planning to fight some rebels in Anatolia with a couple of low grade units and ended up facing some Eggies (several companies of Saracen Infantry I think). They routed some of my men and the rest hid in a wood. Then the rebels - more than I had been expecting - arrived and routed the Eggies. My men in the woods then ambushed what was left of the rebels and routed them. It never seemed likely at the outset but somehow it worked out as my best ever result from a three-sider.