Hey, Ala here again.
This is *another* Bohemia one, but unlike the Swords & Axes one, this won't have story/plot. It'll be more of me showing how exactly I blitz off the bat with Bohemia.
As one of his responses to the Swords & Axes blitz-war:
Originally Posted by
DaVinci
This is played on H/VH, really?
However, i'm amazed how you did this all
The Rise of the Knighthood campaign has a harder start for Bohemia for sure (i'm the one who created all start situations in this mod since version post 0.34). I over the time increased the possibility to suvive, for Bohemia, as they (had) have as AI a very hard situation, and often were killed pretty soon. Still, their start situation is compared to others pretty hard, and it is different in the Rise of the Knighthood, also if the starting leaders are younger. Ie. the Saxon region in your western neighborhood is independent in Rise of the Knighthood, and have quite strong armies who are eager to attack the human player in the field (this is what happened to me, and they killed my family member(s), version 0.99.x.
If you don't believe this, then try the same some day in future, on H/H, with the Rise of the Knighthood. If you can achieve the same result as in the above AAR, then you for me the "Master of Bohemia"
I'm playing this on Hard / Very Hard (or Knight / High Noble Knight) for the same reasons as in S&A - Hard campaign diffivulty gives the AI +10000 gold/turn, this dissappears in Very Hard (possibly a bug).
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PART 1 ========
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For those of you who've used this faction, Bohemia starts with 2 regions under it's control. And a few spear militia/archer units. I disbanded the archers immediately, but the spears could be used for pushing rams.
Poland didn't feel up to an alliance. Meh, I blized them in S&A and 2 versions back in Chiv. They have undeveloped towns that will harbor lots of unrest, so I'll leave them alone for a while.
If you were wondering, I moved my faction heir up to the capital to join the faction leader. This first turn, they'll chill, as their bodyguard count isn't at its maximum (will be next turn).
Ok, second turn, the two of them set out north. You can see that the rebel town seems to have no one in it - usually, there will be one rebel family member there - there is a stack of rebel troops around. I didn't see them this turn, which is annoying.
Grab a quick alliance with Hungary. They share a border with only one of their regions - they're not the best targets for now, either.
Since I have no idea where the rebel stack is, I just go ahead and siege the city with the Faction Leader / Heir.
Originally Posted by
DaVinci
When i as Bohemia for example besieged the northern Sorbic neighborhood "Bidzyzin", i instantly was attacked by huge independent stacks (in the camp "Rise of the Knighthood" though), and lost latest the second battle, and my Family member(s) died heroicly.
Remember what he said, it'll become obvious in a moment why this is important. I click "End Turn".
This drew in the wandering stack. Observe the family member appearing as reinforcements - that's very bad, because of how powerful knights are, especially with the AI's bonuses on elevated difficulty settings. I simply run away, and :
They follow. Now there are no knights with them. As a result:
Ahaha~ silly AI. Alright, onto my turn...
I got a family member joining. This is VERY odd, as I had two, and two regions. Still, that's fine.
He goes down to my second town. My capital is Tier 3, this one is only Tier 2. Tier 3 (castle) is important because it allows the upgraded tavern, which means Experience 1 Doghead units.
These axe-wielding canines are something I will leverage to a ridiculous amount, allowing me to build only 3+6 turns of military (tavern + upgrade) and then a lot of economy.
Dogheads are armor piercing. Against an armored spearman, which might have 8 armor, that 2 attack turns into 2+4 = 6. Against a light/medium horse with 4 armor, they have a -1 penalty, so it's 2-1+2=3 (not too bad, that's the same for a Feudal/Dismounted Sergeant). VS heavy cavalry, like family members or knights with 12 armor, Dogheads have 2-1+6=7 attack.
As you can see, armor piercing units get better as the enemy brings out heavier troops. Eventually it doesn't work, as you will see, but a full stack with maybe 10 units (or more) of these can indeed shred knights and heavy foot. (If they don't rout). But anyway...
I take a spear militia unit from the capital and siege the town again. This time there aren't any rebels who will come to help it.
Little city gets some basic rights.
I try to get Poland to ally again. They just give cash? Whatever ...
One trick. If all the cities have no governor but one, guess where all the slaves go? Alternatively, if there are NO governors anywhere, the slaves just spread all around, I think.
AI's turn passes without incident. I prepare to assault the town. With all my knights vs the AI's, even a +7 attack bonus won't save them.
Ramming down the gate. Note how nicely the ram works 
Generally, if you don't have a unit step inside the square, any AI units "defending" it will stand still. Here I line up the heir to get a charge into their backs.
Get the charge off, it goes pretty well. Usually charging into a plaza can be a little buggy - I've seen units slowly walk up and never charge at all.
Into the melee. I switched to swords just for fun. Though it's a huge mess there, it's very fine, as each AI knight is being attacked on all sides by my own. They go down fast, as they lost some in the charge, and others have lost 1 HP.
The only real reason I can get 15 kills to 2 is because of that. If the numbers were more even (like 20 vs 15) I would take quite a few losses thanks to the AI's bonus. But they were massively outnumbered there.
Send all the slaves over to my other city. (I'll call it the subcapital from now on). It's important to get it up to Tier 3 at some point, so that I will have the capability to train 2 units of Experience 1 Dogheads per turn. (Spammy - like the AI)
The population is mostly Christian, but the "official religion" is Paganism/Non-conformism. I just whistle up the inquisitors (reference to S&A). They'll riot for one turn and settle down. Note that the Faction Leader/Heir are NOT going to stay inside - that's just asking for someone to die pointlessly. Let the spear militia do it. 0% public order isn't a problem if it's only one turn.
What the knights do is make for the nearby rebel city. It's rather well built up, if memory served me correctly. Tier 3, though it can't train Dogheads. However, there's that one unit blocking me, and inside the city is a LOT of armored spearmen, so I'll stand on the river and wait for now.
Some other rebel stack came and attacked. I don't want to fight them along with the others, so I retreat.
They follow, of course. I was rather shocked to see the rebels somehow had two units of Saxon knights. That'll be screwy...
Set up on a hill. This is using the minimal UI, which is annoying as I don't know how to change the game speed with it.
The enemy's mounted sergeants (light horse) are in front. Excellent, they'll eat a downhill charge ...
One of their units is breaking off, maybe to flank me. However, as I don't have a center, I simply have one group to to the left, one to the right.
Left group getting ready.
Right group. Doesn't seem like the enemy will get off their own charge.
Left group charges and hits. Note that the enemy is STANDING there, as I charge them. Silly AI.
Similarly, the right group gets off a good charge.
The mounted sergeants break off. I let them, because I'm worried about those heavy horse that have gotten uphill of me.
The left group (faction heir) is having problems - getting swarmed. This is what I try to do to enemy knights. Anyway, the faction leader gets a running start and charges into the side of the enemy.
Not sure what the knights are doing there.
You can see both of the knight units standing to the side. I'm afraid that the AI thinks it's flanking me. Problem is that the heir, with his depleted unit, is on that side.
Enemy general staying far away. Good. I can't kill him quickly enough to prevent everyone else from swarming.
Enemy knights move uphill again. Not good.
Yep. they start chasing the heir. That one unit of knights that'll be distracted for a while. I can't withdraw, so he just runs as fast as he can so that the faction leader can kill as many as possible.
Trying to slaughter these guys ... but of course, there's just too many ...
I can't withdraw, so I just use the "other" option. Quit the battle. Auto loss, of course. Still, 2:1 kill-loss ratio isn't bad, for being outnumbered by AI units. Given, my knights have 2hp, and the AI's only had 1 ...
If you were worried about the heir with his 3 bodyguards and himself, they were fine. When it's my turn again, they have regenerated some. Not still at full strength, of course, so that'll be a lost turn. Remember that, you rebels - took down 50 knights!!
Anyway, I add a tavern in the capital. I think those mines were started on turn 2. They're VERY important - 1000 gold/turn means I can keep another 5 units of Dogheads. The upgraded mines will give +2000/turn.
Quick glance at my newest town. They'll be fine once the Holy Places kicks in and makes the official religion Christian.
It'll take a while before I can make Dogheads, queue up a spear militia for garrison/ram duties.
Moved up that third family member. Extra 16 knights - good stuff.
See that? AI again ... it's probably a single family member.
They're both rebel, but they won't help one another, just so you know. I just siege the town.
THIS again. Ok, I need to get away from the town reinforcements.
WHAT I don't ... all those infantry. ... and it's the same guy, too. Even got some of his mounted sergeants left.
Another glorious defeat for Bohemia. Everyone makes it back to the home base alive (well, the nobles anyway =P)
Add execution places. Note that the nobles are standing OUTSIDE the town. They're so penalized they make construction more expensive just by being in the city.
Come winter and full strength knight units, I wander out again - and get ambushed. Damn rebels ...
Another chivalric loss. Note that many, many rebels were killed, though.
Look at what two battles have done - my knights are fine, but the rebel troops have been chopped down to about 1/3 of what they started with. Ahaha~ General bodyguard abuse.
I add the upgraded mines (remember the 2000 gold/turn). Also queue up an upgraded tavern. No need to rush for it just yet, as the first few Doghead units will probably only push rams and garrison. This early on, knights will do the heavy (and light) lifting. I train a unit of DHs anyway, for the uses mentioned earlier.
There's some new rebel stack, but you can see they don't have a family member with them.
I set an ambush. Hopefully they will not just stucj next to that rebel family member stack that you see there and come by themselves to die...
Tavern in the subcapital. Need to get those channels open for mass Doghead recruitment.
Wow, that's the rebel stack... rather impressive, with mounted sergeants and armored spearmen.
Lalala~ knights are so overpowered, they stomp everything that isn't also a knight.
Put in orders for more dogheads. I see some quick town taking in progress, and will be moving garrisons up as I go along, of course.
Full of confidence, the knights run over to engage the rebels. Let's do this -
Victory! The other 256 guys you see "surviving" will disppear. The enemy noble is dead of course. Now the way is open to take that town!
Siege it. My knights can't scrape together a ram in a single turn. Pity, what a waste.
Come winter, two infantry units gets there and help build the ram.
Subcapital gets execution places queued up. Why not?
A fresh unit of dogheads starts moving to the front. They'll reach in time to take part in the assault, then they'll form the garrison.
Assault is nothing hard, just like the last one. AI is hopelessly outnumbered.
New town is already christian, great! And where are the knights?
Wait, what are you doing?
Ahaha~ Got you! Next turn, I'll get another town.
Oh, come ON. Of all the ... well, I just give up.
Roads for the subcapital. It'll be an important hub for activities on the eastern side when we get there.
Remember that town that had all the armored spearmen in it that I got chased away from? I sieged it, and they sallied.
6 units of armored spearmen, 2 of armor piercing swordsmen, 1 family member and 1 unit of knights. The knights will be the top priority, of course.
This battle will be continued in part 2, which I'll be writing right after this, but is posted separately because there are already 86 pictures in this *one* post.
Broken Axes ~ OR ~ Blitz Bohemia Challenge (BBC AAR)
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Congratulations, you are indeed the Master of Bohemia!
however ... as said i do not like to play in such a style, i never would come to that idea to go with the leader and heir bg's forming the sole army to conquering the first regions ... but it's a good tip for anybody who likes to blitz.
: I don't care if you're the king of France, you still gotta pay your taxes!
