Hi. Long time passed, Redux 1005 is released and I'm now again fighting for the Glory of Christianity :-).
In this post I want to share with all of you a story of fantastic heroic battle I've fought.
Strategic background ... :
I'm playing Redux 1005 VI, Aragonese, with some my own minor modifications (I'm software developer) but units stats are unchanched.
So, situation from 740 year ...
there is peace, all my defence against Moors are concentrated in Andalusia, my defence system assumes that Castilie will remain in Spain hands. If Castillie falls to Moors
- Moors will have access to all my Iberia provinces and I can't afford to have full stack army in each province. If Castilie falls - this is strategic game over.
In year 744 from my spies I've received information that Spanish King has been killed in battle - defending Castilie against Moors !.
Somehow - thanks to bridge defence - Spanish won this battle, the Spanish prince became King.
For me it's obvious that sooner or later, maybe int next 1 - 2 - 3 year, Moors will attack Castillie again and won.
I see their full stack coming from Africa ...
So, in ... 744 I've decided to attack Cordoba - to possibly route or kill one of Moors armies - to help Spain.
Maybe it will be suicide attack, but I have nothing to loose.
I rapidly gathered all available forces and attacked Cordoba.
The forces are as shown :
as you see :
Aragonese: 825
Moors: 2000 of superb units !!
I've got two advantages over enemy :
- all my forces have armor upgrade, and most of my sword / halberd infantry has weapon upgrade.
- archers - 2 units of 100 men, basic ones but Moors have only some small 40 man archer unit.
And in general - my army is well balanced - archers, swords, spears / halbediers, heavy cavalry.
And here starts on of the most strange & exiting battle I've fought in in all Total War battles :-). (Shogun, Medieval, Rome)
Remember - I'm the attacker, Moors are defending ! Diff level is Redux Veteran (hardest).
As you can see - Moors general feels so self-confident that he attacks !!!
Video time:
- 2:00 min - Moors are splitting forces, strong cavalry-camel wing splits from main forces to attack me from my left flank or behind !
- 2:45 - Moors want to crash me from opposing directions, leaving no chance to escape ... . I'm starting to fix my battle lines ...
- 3:15 - first serious mistake by Moors. They came to close with camels wing to my battle lines ... my archers starts shooting ...
- 3:40 - My left wing is ready to encounter flanking camels, I'm setting up the right wing to met main Moorish forces ...
- 3:50 - My brilliant decision - to shorten / centralize my positions.
Benefits : my archers could fire on both sides - very effective. I have short communication routes between two wings, my wings can quickly help each other. - 4:10 Almost final defense setup. While having a lot less of men, I want to have big advantage in numbers and quality on left wing to quickly destroy / route Moors camels flankers. I hope my right wing will hold on for a while. It's risky but could lead to victory ... .
My battle lines are 'Reversed V' formation. I've never seen it before !! :-) - 4:20 - Full Moorish assault from both wings. And their biggest mistake in this battle ! If they tided a lot of my forces on my left wing and are in worse position, they should wait with the attack on my left wing !! Time is playing for them !! But they attack on both wings, allowing me to quickly destroy their camels on left wing !!
- 4:45 - Moorish camels are destroyed or routed. My left wing is free and rapidly runs to right wing - because Moors have big advantage on my right wing ! On right - Moorish starts to outflank me, but my left forces - cavalry are one the way. Light billmen will be routed by Moorish boddyguards. RIght wing cav is doing brilliant maneveour - is escaping from spear infatry, leading it far far from battle and charging at enemy lines from behind !!
- 5:00 - I'm starting to outflank enemy on top of reversed V - it's done by infantry from left wing. My king clashes with Moorish Bodyguards !!
- 5:15 - It looks likeMoors outflanking manaveur on right bottom wing is stopped. If my central battle lines - infantry - will hold little longer I will be able to use my 'liberated' units as advantage !
- 5:18 - My brave King with his companions KILLED enemy commander !!
- 5:30 - YES YES YES - FULL Royal Knights CHARGE from rear, which will initiate routing sequence !!! On top of reversed V - infantry flanking is done !!
- 5:45 Y E S !! Y E S !! Enemy is running away !!! But that is only half of success - Moors have huge reinforcements.
- 6:00 Here starts second phase of battle - killing routers and figthing with reinforcements.
I really hate those phase of battle and do not have good fighting patterns. It's one big mess !! But slowly I'm pushing enemy to map corner
Screenshot from the begining of battle with units banners :
And final battle kills & looses :
As you can see, Aragonese killed about 1660 enemies while loosing only 480, own / enemy looses are less then 30%. But my army is dramatic conditions, only archers are operational. My King's companios
payed high blood price, and so other units .... .
Strategis situanion after battle :
In the same year 744, parallel to my attack at Cordoba, Moors has again attacked Castilie and conquered it !!
So their stack from Cordoba conqured Castilie, and their stack from Grenada moved to Cordoba and lost battle wit me.
In the next year I immediatelly attacked Castilie - it was second near-suicide battle 800 vs 1200, no anything to loose.
I've managed to conquer Castillie, but my King was forced to abandom Cordoba with his 400 army - he has no chance of fighting with next full stack.
So after a few more battles - everything on the edge of survival - situation stabilized in 749.
Casilie & Andaluzja in my hands, acting as main defence provinces, in Castilie is a river bridge defence position.
!!! I'VE DONE THIS !!!
Conslussion:
- It's effective to move war to enemy territory, even if you ca't hold conquered enemy province for a longer time.
- Enemy will loose province profit from his territorry, even for a year or two - it's worth, maybe some builiding destroyed.
- You will not loose profit from your provinces.
- You have a strategic initiative. You can try to capture some enemy army in province with no escape and after won battle destroy such army.
- Battle tactic : in my opinion and experience it's good to keep your guys together each other. So rather focus - tide up your units that scatter all around.
Rather use Roman-style tactic (your army inside square area) than very long single battle line. But of course it depends on particular situation.
Axalon - Redux 1005 is very very good !
I like economic slow-down. Units are perfectly balanced.
In the near future I'll write my proposals to improve Redux even more.
Or propose my own little mod to Redux which fits my feelings.
!! REGARDS !!