io Kukulcan

Anybody play Medieval, Medieval 2, Rome, or Shogun Total War?
I love these games.
Maybe you have awesome tales of amazing battles and campaigns?
Let's share them.

WarKirby Magojiro

In my current game, (Scotland, Britannia campaign) King Alexander has presided over the greatest era of scottish expansion in history, as william wallace leads the scottish army to drive out the vikings, and claim half of ireland.

Then, in his dying days, he witnessed his empire crumble, not to any mortal man, but to the plague

it be dark times now...

To add to this, alexander's sucessor was assasinated by the irish barely days after coronation, and HIS sucessor died a few months later from the plague. As well as 3 heirs who have died of the plague in the space of a few turns.

I can't even remember who my king is now, but the plague is destroying my royal family. Oh, and william wallace is on his last legs, too. He's about 65 already, and yet still a frontline general.


The only good news, is that the plague is pretty indiscriminate, so my enemies are being weakened too.

Playing as scotland is an interesting difference. Previous to that, I played as the english, and mostly ran everything down with heavy cavalry. Scotland specialises in pikemen, so I've had to develop different tactics. I usually have a huge line of heavy pikemen in spearwall formation, at least 3 ranks deep, with archers just in front, who can retreat behind the line as soon as trouble comes close.

I also keep a lot of highlanders on hand, ready to charge in. Although they're not great warriors, relatively speaking, they have the incredibly cool effect of scaring the shit out of the enemy. And I seem to win mostly by engaging the enemy on my spearwall, then charging them with hundreds of screaming, blue faced warriors, until they turn and run. Then I cut them down as they flee. Managed to win against heavily unfavorable odds like this, often not using cavalry at all.

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io Kukulcan

That is awesome.
I never would have thought to use pikemen against Scottish pikemen.

I played as English in the Britannia campaign once, and I relied mostly on heavy infantry, like billmen and men-at-arms, and a whole lotta longbowmen, with just a few cav units. This seemed to work well.
I had to take out Ireland and the Scots, but couldn't do them both, so I kinda let Ireland go, trying to just hold a couple towns over there, and focused on Scotland. Wallace appeared, and I crapped my pants. I hastily scrambled a large force of town militia, spearmen, archers, just whatever I could get there. And damnit, William Wallace moved his army into a fort, and I was able to bring a couple full armies of my crappy infantry, and just seiged him, until he starved. I know, not very manly or awesome, but you would've done it too. lol

These days, though, I'm playin' the Holy Roman Empire, I own most of the Middle East as well as Germany/northern Italy, but soon the Mongols will arrive, and I know they'll either head for Europe or go south into Turkey/Jerusalem area, so I know I'm going to have to fight them.

WarKirby Magojiro

At the moment, I'm only just starting to learn what effect a general's command ability has on a battle. I have to fight a battle with a completely talentless general, and though the odds are something I've overcome easily before with the talented Wiliam Wallace, my men seem to crumble and fight very poorly under an inferior general.

Flood Mommsen

One of my faves too. I'm in the "normal" english campaign now...

I still have trouble when conquering an enemy city, where the streets are rather narrow...I just can't get my troops to stand in a wide line, but have to send them in little bulks...right now I'm winning those battles only with a rush strategy, but my own losses are unacceptable high that way...I probably should work with more archers, and cavalry, and less infantry

Well, Maybe I'll find a better way...I hope soon...

Reality Control

I think Luc does.

They don't happen to have a demo, do they? I've been burned badly by games lately.

WarKirby Magojiro

I don't know of any demo, but I'd definitely sya this game is worth purchasing.

RE: Assaulting cities. There's really no way NOT to take high losses. It's recommended to outnumber your enemy 4:1 if you intend to take a fortified position in any strategy game, ever. real military tactics for that matter, too.

To minimise (your own) losses, I recommend bringing a LOT of siege weapons. And a lot of your most skilled archers. Without room to manoeuvre, using weaker troops as cannon fodder doesn't really work, and you're best using your strongest heavy infantry. Pikemen can work very well, as the enemy can't just go around your spearwall. Don't use cavalry or light infantry if it can be helped, though.

At the start of a battle, the enemy will usually be positioned on the walls. If you use siege weaponry to destroy a wall section, all troops on that wall will be killed instantly. So bring plenty of cannons and trebuchets. They will, however, quickly vacate the walls when they see your siege weapons, so overwhelming firepower from the get go is really needed.

This does have the unfortunate side effect of heavily damaging the city, though. Incurring reconstruction costs post conquering. There really is no easy way.

WarKirby Magojiro

The plaguye has passed now, for the most part. And I've mostly subdued the irish, too. I've got 3 full size armies over there, and 2 fortresses to retrain and recruit new troops as necessary. I control about 40% of ireland, and the rest of it is certainly doomed.

unfortunately, I have another problem. after 2 centuries of peace, england has decided to invade. King Edward died of the plague, so his sucessor, King Michell, is leading the rather pitiful invasion force. It's a rather stupid move, considering they still have wales and the baron's alliance (english splinter faction) to contend with.

I think the AI is pretty dumb at times....

Lucifer Baphomet

Yah I play

There was a demo of Rome floating about. not sure about Medieval 2.

Im on hiatus from total war till EB2 is released

WarKirby Magojiro

Just finished one of my most epic defences ever. The first act of agression by the english, was to attack one of my fortresses on the border. In this fortress, I had

2 units of highland archers
2 units of highlanders (light infantry)

roughly 400 men in total. And they brought..

2 catapults
1 unit of armored swordsmen (heavy infantry)
1 unit of armored seargents (spearmen)
1 unit of billmen (light infantry)
and the general's 45 man bodyguard unit (heavy cavalry).

Approx 300 men, though better trained and equipped than mine.

Not only that, but the english King Mitchell decided to personally lead the charge. Odds were 4:1 in their favor.

.....


By the end of the battle, the English king lay dead in my castle courtyard. there were 16 english survivors total. The rest were wiped out. My casualties were only about 40.

I sent them hameward
tae think again

WarKirby Magojiro

Argh. Bad news always follows good, sadly.Just as william wallace was getting on a boat to leave for england (from ireland), and take the fight to the enemy, he died of natural causes. His age was somewhere in the mid 60s, and by the time he died, he had maxed out command, loyalty, and chivalry, and was officially a saint. His name actually changed to "William the Saint" a few turns before he died

In this alternate universe, he never even crossed swords with an englishman once in his life. Though he did drive out the vikings and conquer half of ireland.

I've never played a strategy game where I've gotten so attached to a hero before :O
At least his legacy will live on. The men who followed him to victory have, through their conquests, become some of the finest soldiers in the world, and they will crush the english like he never had the chance to.

One unit of cavalry in particular, has two gold arrows now. And seems capable of destroying anything in their path. like irish swordsmen outnumbering them 5:1

Reality Control

Do a lot of people tell stories about their battles, etc? Reminds me of the Dwarf Fortress community who'll actually pass around saved games of cities and let people write different periods.

Lucifer Baphomet

Yup...

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WarKirby Magojiro

Are there any forums anywhere NOT powered by vBulletin ?

Lucifer Baphomet

Several.
Lots of PHPBB and Invision boards out there.

Reality Control

Vanilla is nice too.

io Kukulcan

I like hearing the tales of other's battles. I know it's incredibly geeky.

Warkirby, that is an awesome tale of you holding that fortress. I would've thought you were doomed for sure.

Yesterday, playing my Holy Roman Empire campaign, the Mongols finally showed up, and they went south and started gobbling up Turkey. By this time I have most of the Egyptian empire, due to crusades.

So south the Horde came, they were spread out, thankfully, dealing with Turks and Byzantines. But the Khan himself decided he wanted Baghdad. And set off with just 1 army by himself.

I had 1 army nearby too though, consisting of mostly pikemen and crossbowmen, no cav, and just one General, who wasn't very loyal, had a secret male lover, and was deranged. I didn't have very high hopes.

I decided to go out into the open however, 'cuz I was confident in my army's units, knowing the Khan probably had mostly all cavalry, which my pikemen will eat for lunch, presumably.

Mr. Khan attacked me, and I lined up my men behind a thin line of trees, with the crossbowmen behind my pikemen. Khan advanced, and I was sure he was going to charge, or outflank me or something awesome. But he stopped and just turned around and fled! Funniest thing I've ever seen in the game.

I'm trying now to catch him, I have an entire division of Teutonic Heavy Cav closing in. It will truly be epic if I can get these guys to fight.

WarKirby Magojiro

crossbowmen are pretty good at stopping an advance. I learned that the hard way fighting the milanese in my england campaign.

Normally, cavalry can run right over archers. So when they fielded an army that was 70% crossbowmen, I figured it would be an easy win.

I charged them head on, and they literally annihilated all my cavalry mid charge, from afar. I barely even touched them. Crossbows can be pretty nasty.

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In my current scotland campaign though, things are going nicely. Since I sent their king's head back home in a box, the English don't seem so keen on invading anymore, and haven't tried to attack again. I sent a spy down, and found out why.

The english empire isn't so great anymore. They've lost a good chunk of their territory to the welsh and the baron's alliance, and seem to be struggling to survive. They've lost london and york, two of the biggest cities.

And I'm slowly beating down the irish resistance. I now have about 60% of ireland, and the armies they field to try to stop me are getting smaller, as their cities come under my control. they have 3 towns left, and they won't last long

io Kukulcan

god I hate the Milanese too. In my HRE campaign, I think on my second turn I seiged Milan, I do not want them to be my neighbors. they're evil. I wiped em out quick and early, thank heaven.
I played as Milan once, and it's like you don't really need castles with them, they're city military units are pretty badass, and cheap.

your Scottish campaign sounds epic, I'll probably play one soon, I wanna be Wallace.
It's going to be interesting when you finally have to fight the Welsh and the Barons. Damn longbowmen, grrr...

Lucifer Baphomet

I can't play total War just now.
My DVD drive has crapped out.