Stronger Player - Turtle vs. Hare

[Askthepizzaguy]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I concur as much as it hurts as i prefer the slow and gentle way (with the occasional bit of maniacal frenzy, I must admit )...

I (and ATPG, sorry for the acronym but your name is just too long ) would like to be proven wrong but I don't think it is possible unless you're one hell of a general and can surmount impossible odds on the battle map...

But I agree it is debatable and that's the whole point of this forum...

Here's the test. See how you do:

Play a custom battle, with you as the attacking force, and the AI as the defending force. Or even a human.

You get to have peasant archers, militia spearmen, light horse, and a general. You also get to have another stack filled with the same. You are allowed to have one catapult.

You are fighting a citadel filled with dismounted knights, mounted knights, and longbowmen. Can you win this battle?

Answer: I can, easily. Strength in numbers. I could pummel both outer walls with just the catapult and force a retreat of your men. If you sallied, you would have to sally against both armies, and I have yet to see an entire garrison escape through a gate to attack me without me being able to easily pin your troops at the bottleneck and surround them until they rout, even with bad troops.

Granted, I'd lose a lot of men. But I can replace them quicker than you can replace good troops. And I would sack your city and burn it to the ground and use the florins to build yet another stack of raiders. If you were able to actually get all of your troops out of one of the side gates, I'd be on top of your walls with ladders, open your gate, and lock you outside your own castle. From there, taking the center of town is a cinch. If you did it with just your mounted units, I'd bog them down with an endless wall of spearmen, and use my light cavalry to box them in so the spears can do their work.

Better equipment and armor does not make up for a tactically weak position of being forced to defend, sally, or die, does not make up for the limitation of having all your florins spent on mere defense which wreaks havoc on your offensive game, and does not make up for the fact that more troops beat better troops.