The Climactic Chivalric Charge (Chap 22, Disc 3)

[Alavaria]

Aragon was originally a Frankish county in Spain before declaring itself independent at the end of the 10th century. Aragon is surrounded by other Spanish Kingdoms which you will need to gain control of. Your territories take up most of north-eastern Spain. Portugal and the Moors are the the south, to the north the might and rich French lands are located. The Moors are your mortal enemy, but France may become one if you are not careful.

Knights are a feature of Aragon's military and so are good light scout cavalry on very swift horses. Militia are one of the keys to Christian Spain's success at holding the ground it takes and will most likely form the bulk of your army.

You may also be lucky enough to have adventuring Crusaders hire their services to you at little cost.

Aragon hired Muslims serving as Mercenaries or Muslim Auxiliaries. These include units such as Berber Light Cavalry which gave their name to the Spanish version called 'Jinetes'.

Aragon expanded south into Muslim held Spain during this era, gaining other territories through marriage. Expand south and east to match the historical gains of Aragon.

Introduction: The Climactic Chivalric Charge

Let's have fun playing Chivalry.

I'll explain how I'll be approaching this as we get to relevant parts; there may be specific sections where we will look at specific game mechanics and the system of their interactions.

Story Chapters:

• Chapter 1: Against Insane Odds
• Chapter 2: To The Victor...
• Chapter 3: Gather Your Party
• Chapter 4: It Was For A Cruise Liner
• Chapter 5: Not Enough Knights
• Chapter 6: The Morning After
• Chapter 7: Rest For The Wicked
• Chapter 8: A Rebellion?
• Chapter 9: Don't Cross The Conversion Energy Streams
• Chapter 10: Granada Falls ... Again
• Chapter 11: Ibera Burns
• Chapter 12: Swords
• Chapter 13: History Time
• Chapter 14: Betrayed! Revenge Is Our!
• Chapter 15: Homeland Defense
• Chapter 16: The Reason
• Chapter 17: Living Saint
• Chapter 18: Invasion
• Chapter 19: Invasion Intermission
• Chapter 20: Western Civilization
• Chapter 21: The Sack of Roma
• Chapter 22: Circle of the Savior

Chivalric Chats:

• Discussion 1: Knights!
• Discussion 2: Spearmen
• Discussion 3: Religion System (and Governor's Buildings)

[Alavaria]

Chapter 1: Against Insane Odds

Aragon, one of the "Door to Spain" kingdoms.

A revolution was about to appear, as an ancient entity returns to create battlefields.

Flowers of bleached bone and their aroma of decaying flesh were about to blossom across the known world.

Sancho Navarra: "Shall we indeed prevail?"


The King of Aragon looked out over his small force. Was it in a moment of madness that he gathered all he had - a few mere huddled spear militia - and set out on a mad quest?


Sancho Navarra: What do you think?

Garcia Navarra: I saw, and heard, the same as you.
Garcia Navarra: Either we are both insane, or...


The next in line for the throne fell silent at the possibility. There was no time for anything but preparations for battle.


Garcia: Soon enough, we will see our prayers answered, or be beyond the cares of this world. I think.


Sancho nodded and drew his sword, sitting upright in his saddle.


Sancho: Men, to arms! Today we write history with our swords, using the blood of the faithless!

Besides Aragon's trusted knights, he had only a mere three units of Spear Militia. Battle would soon be upon them...

The enemy crossed the bridge separating the two forces and confidently attacked en masse. The men of Aragon, not willing to give up the initiative that easily, confidently charged them as well.

In a dense formation of shields and spears, the Muslim infantry ferociously attacked Aragon's infantry line. There was no way they could hold against such a force.


However, the Navarras had not only come with men on foot!

These Feudal Knights have the honor to campaign on the local lords or even the high king as their personal household knights, and function as bodyguards. They are often from the royal family or other wealthy loyal retinues from the highest nobility.

These knights are best equipped and armoured. Honorable, brave, ready to fight and die at their leader's command. Few men can match these highly trained and skilled nobles. Despite their loyal and brave status, they aren't always far better fighters than other knights.

Sancho watched as his knights lined up in practiced order. Off to the side, he could see one of his spear units breaking under the stress of heavy casualties.

However, they had served well and the enemy was perfectly positioned. He brought down his helmet and raised his sword.

Sancho: Men, send them to hell!


The knights of Aragon gladly carried out this command. The Muslim infantry were torn apart and began to flee in a panic as the heavy horse slammed into them.

Sancho's knights began pulling back as more enemy infantry and even horse were stepping off the bridge.

The sound of a horn pulled his attention to the side as Garcia's knights performed the same charge maneuver his had. They hit the enemy before they could even reform, sending them scattering like so much dust.

The light horse of the enemy fared little better, sending a fairly ineffective shower of javelins before being caught and killed in the confusion.

Definitely, one of Aragon's finer hours!

Garcia returned along with the last few surviving infantry, who trailed behind his horsemen.


Garcia: That was surprisingly easy. Wait, what is that?


The two nobles watched as the approaching figures resolved into a mighty Muslim noble and his own armored knights.


Garcia: My King, if you will be so kind, I will lead my men and take this Saracen head on.
Sancho: Then I will hold your flank. Go!

Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the enemy's elite could not hope to stand before the righteous fury that assailed them with lance and sword.

It was all over, except the last bit of killing. These cowardly crossbowmen had hardly done anything in the battle, but nevertheless they would pay. For something...

Sancho: Well Garcia, it seems the day is won. What say you?
Garcia: It seems salvation, not insanity, is our lot.

Officer: My lords, it seems while the foot suffered heavy casualties, many knights also have suffered wounds.
Officer: Losses are quite heavy, though of course the enemy had it much worse.

Garcia: A glorious victory, against insane odds!
Sancho: If this is the hardest battle we must fight, I will be most thankful.

Sancho: Come, let us take possession of this settlement.
Garcia: Indeed, more serfs to add to our workforce.


As they neared the walls of the Zaragoza's small castle on the outskirts of a cluster of farms, someone was waiting for them...


(I will talk a bit about knights, both in-game and out-of-game, in my next post. They have evolved somewhat since my first encounter with them in Chivalry.

[Alavaria]

Chivalrous Chat 1: Knights

Serious talk first. Let's see how knights can be used.

Knights are a feature of Aragon's military

No kidding. Knights are very powerful in Chivalry, they pretty much blow though light infantry, and even heavier infantry (like armored spearmen) will go down very fast. We'll talk about spearmen later as we begin using them...

Knights are very capable of killing anything they can hit. Thus, they will fufill an important role as our "arm of decision" that kills or routs the enemy army, leading to victory. As a side note, other forces like infantry will primarily play a role of occupying the enemy and setting them up for a Climactic Chivalric Charge (in the rear, ideally).

Let's take a look at the stats of the knight. First of all, they are a very small unit. This unit belongs to a character (not the faction leader or heir) and numbers 16 soldiers to a spear unit's 70, or a light cavalry's 50. You may be able to get some larger units with more developed characters, but they will also cost more. As a note, you are paying 175 for 14 soldiers (12.5 each) with 2 officers attached for free. In battle the unit will also have another soldier model, the character attached to the unit. If the character dies in battle, the unit will go poof on the strategy map.

This one unit compares rather decently in cost, until you factor in the price of the character attached to it who is paid a wage of 200. These 16 men essentially cost 375 per turn to keep.

The stats speak for themselves, knights have a crushing charge statistic. A light spearmen has at best maybe 13 defense. A heavier one might manage 20... slamming lances with attack+charge of 38 (and this is before experience or upgrades) is very deadly. Deferring the discussion to later, I will simply state here that almost all infantry in Chivalry behave more like swordsmen when taking a charge. Spearmen are *not* better at taking a charge than swordsmen with the same stats.


Some of the other bonuses can be seen. They're really hard to kill, they have a banner to raise morale of nearby troops, they frighten enemy infantry, and also are "effective against armor". For this I will pull out the EDU entry on these units.

stat_pri 6, 32, no, 0, 0, melee, blade, piercing, spear, 10 ,0.4
stat_pri_attr ap
stat_sec 5, 16, no, 0, 0, melee, blade, piercing, sword, 10 ,0.6
stat_sec_attr ap

This unit uses a lance and sword. Both pierce armor. This means they can ignore half of the target's armor (rounded down). AP is very important when facing enemy knights. A target with 15 armor, like our knights here, will effectively lose 7 points of defense.


Now earlier I mentioned these knights have changed since earlier Chivalry versions. I played this really way back, and they used to have much better stats than the trainable knights. Now only that, they also had 2 hitpoints!

Right now, you see their description states that "Despite their loyal and brave status, they aren't always far better fighters than other knights." Yeah, this wasn't always the case. They were nerfed twice when it was obvious you could grab a few family members and grind through a full stack of nicely rounded out AI units. (First they lost the 2 hp. They were still too good, so they were nerfed down to just being equivalent to standard trainable knights.


Some other ancillary benefits are that you need no special "teching" or otherwise to obtain more characters (with their knightly unit). You only need settlements, the game will try to give you a character for each settlement, on average. After a little expanding, you will easily have more units than you really need.

Also, these knight units will automatically reinforce, even in the field in the middle of nowhere, provided their head character survives. This logistical advantage becomes larger as you use more units (spreading casualties out among them) though of course the associated costs can become very high!

The upkeep+wages of this one small unit will cover the upkeep for two units of spearmen at 70 per unit. Now, in-period force estimates treat a mounted knight as worth something like 10 infantrymen, though it's up to the player to make their 10 footsoldiers worth more than a knight, or conversely make your knight worth more than 10 AI infantryman...


---------------------------------


Ok, in-world now. I will only be using Household knights (none of the trainable ones, or mercenary ones). Knights are ranked as follows:

• Royal Knights ("High Noble" Knights)
• Noble Knights
• Knights
• Mounted Sergeants/Men-at-Arms

Each unit (called Household Knights) is led and paid by a landed noble, either a Royal Knight (part of the Royal line) or a Noble knight (landed - they have a settlement in their name). This is the character you see.

The rest of the unit are their household knights, as well as a mix of mounted soldiers they gather to make up the numbers. As is (I think) appropriate for the time, we refer to this force as "knights" though a majority of the soldiers are not actually knighted. It is also assumed that most casualties are the non-knighted horsemen. The loss of their landed leader (the character owning the unit) is of course a great disaster.

I'm keeping a small spreadsheet of settlements. Just to amuse myself, each Royal or Noble knight must have a settlement to their name. And settlements are passed down in the family as long as it has at least one Noble knight in active service (otherwise it reverts to the crown). Currently, we have two Royal Knights only.

About Royal Knights, for reasons that will be explained, only Royal Knights born as such will be used to lead offensive actions (marrying into the Royal Family does not count, their children might). The mod does track who is a High Noble (ie: Royal) as opposed to a noble (who has some land).

Most of the standard Knights are nobles, but not of the stature of a noble knight who is from a high-noble family as well as owning a settlement. You can take it (storywise) that if we suffer 12 losses, 2 are knights and 10 are mounted men-at-arms.

By the way, I really like the black horses they use in battle more than the brown one shown in the info screen.

[demagogos nicator]

Glad to see some life here, I will follow this Btw. Dont you want to use Granto submod which adds RS2 battle map enviroments and FO strat map enviroments to the game?

[Alavaria]

Indeed, not bad.

Though it'll be a while until it shows up, quite nice. You'd think I'd have gotten overly used to the RS2 environments but I didn't really notice the difference until I added them back in.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 2: 

Chapter 2: To The Victor...

As Sancho Navarra led his knights towards Zaragoza, they found the gates to the castle open and unguarded. Not that the Muslims had left their post; there were corpses everywhere.

Garcia: Did they kill one another?
Sancho: Odd. You would think they had all come out to fight us, given the numbers before.
Garcia: Indeed. We should be on our guard for some vile trick.


Knights and spearmen began fanning out through the fortifications, too alert for enemies to begin looting. Some of the fallen appeared to have been nearly cut through.


Garcia: Follow the King and I into the keep. Something is amiss.


As the chosen knights followed the two lords towards the towering stone structure that dominated the castle, Sancho spotted a small figure standing in the middle of the road, apparently unconcerned with both the carnage around her and heavily armed soldiers dispersing throughout.

He motioned to Garcia, who raised a hand to stop the knights behind them. The pair dismounted before approaching their mysterious patron and bowing.


???: Stand. Ah, there's no need for that.


She stopped Garcia as he was about to order his men to dismount.


???: I have a some plans to pass to you. Meet me inside the keep. Don't bring the men.
Sancho: As you say.


Sancho and Garcia returned to their horses and remounted as one of the officers rode up to them.


Offier: My lord, ah, my King. Where are the enemy?
Sancho: A false alarm soldier. Come.


The small group rode up to the keep without incident. The drawbridge was down, its sturdy chains broken. Beyond that, the large reinforced wooden doors had apparently been smashed apart, though there was no evidence of a battering ram, only a pair of shattered polearms. Which probably belonged to the bisected corpses of two armored guards.


Sancho: We will go in, guard these gates.
Officer: My King, it has been clear thus far, but please let us check the keep before you go in to take possession.
Sancho: A pair of you guard these gates. We will tell you when it is safe to enter.
Officer: Y-yes my King, as you command.

Officer: You! Cover this gate with me, the rest of you check around the outer walls and return!


Garcia glanced at Sancho, who nodded. A few men wouldn't do anything if it came to it. Besides, they had won that battle, as promised...

Drawing swords, they entered the keep. It paid to be safe; there were more corpses lying here and there in the corridor. Not all of these were soldiers, either.


They encountered nothing on the way to the throne room, where the fallen Muslim lord would have held court just a day ago. Sitting in the lord's seat was their patron, who did not respond as they walked up.

Sancho and Garcia sheathed their swords and bowed. The smell of blood was strong, this far in, probably coming from a heaped up pile of what were probably the remains of court attendants.


Sancho: My Lady.
???: Ah good. Tell me - how went your battle?
Sancho: A great victory, as you ordered. Though we lost many infantry in the battle, the survivors are ready for the next fight.


She shook her head gently.
???: Your faith is noted. Raw numbers will be useful, if not necessary. Begin raising an army immediately.
Garcia: We have begun mustering the Apellidos, my Lady.
???: Yes, they will do.

Apellidos - deduced from apellitum - are a form of rapid emergency defensive forces to deal with an unexpected raid or even with full scale invasions. They were used by all the Christian Iberian powers. The use of militias was very strong in the Kingdoms of christian Spain, where the only way to not totally be pushed out of the Iberian peninsula initially was developing strong military cultures. Most of these troops would have had experience before, so would be far better than the average feudal levy.

???: Garcia, you may have your soldiers come in now. I will speak briefly with Sancho, he will brief you afterwards.
Garcia: By your leave...


Garcia left them and returned to his worrying solders.


Officer: My lord?
Garcia: It's... clear. We need to clean up all these cadavers, though.

Officer: Well, after that great victory, it would be amazing if any were left to oppose us...
Garcia: Yes, but who killed all these men?
Officer: As long as we do not meet them, I will be glad.

Sancho: Hmm... hmm?
Garcia: Something wrong with that wall?
Sancho: Apparently this castle has some kind of negative energy that causes people to go pagan.
Garcia: How so?
Sancho: Apparently it radiates 10% Paganism, but also 5% Christianity. This region will be officially pagan.
Garcia: ... how does that work? Er, can anything be done about it?

Sancho: Yes, apparently there are some local "holy places" nearby.
Sancho: The Lady said if we find and neutralize them, the strengths will balance out.

Garcia: I'll order some of the men to find these places.
Sancho: Yes, then we must press on! Our next target is... the west of the kingdom?

(Some time later)

Sancho: You damn rebels, what's gotten into you!!

Apellidos: Salvation descends upon us!
Apellidos: Command us onto victory!

Apellidos: Wait, something else is descending upon us as well!
Apellidos: Aaaaa knights!

Hernando Navarra: Aaaaa knights!

Rebel Feudal Men-at-arms: Aaaaa knights!

(They don't have any special defenses against knights other than their stats indicate.
RTW is bugged, by the way, the defense skill works on the left of the unit, while apparently shield works partially on both sides (at least against missiles).
Charge into their right, shoot into either side. If you can't get in right at the back...)

Rebel Feudal Men-at-arms: We shouldn't have declared independence from the King!

(Your melee troops have issues killing routers if the routers will pathfind though a gate.
Fortunately, you can run to the gate, wait for it to open (to let routers though) and then issue an attack order.
As a bonus, all the enemies will try to funnel through the gate, so rush your men half-way through, then you can easily kill everyone right at the door.

Next we will talk a bit about how spearmen work in Chivalry, since we've seen the two main "types". Religion will come up again later on...

[Alavaria]

Chivalric Chat 2: Penetration Coefficient of a Spear Against A Mailed Knight

There are, broadly speaking, two types of spearmen to encounter (barring the phalanx-formation users). Light spearmen and heavy spearmen. There are some spearmen in between the two extremes I show here, though if I upgrade my light spearmen, it will have stats like the "medium" ones so anyway...

Below is a unit we will see a lot of. And will see a lot. The Apellidos is not only cheap, with a large unit size and cheapest per-soldier cost (great for garrisons). They can also be trained all over Iberia, in most settlements. Just takes three turns to set up a Tavern for them.

soldier apellidos, 35, 0, 0.6
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, hardy
formation 1.3, 1.6, 1.5, 1.6, 4, square
stat_pri 1, 6, no, 0, 0, melee, other, piercing, spear, 10 ,0.4
stat_pri_attr no
stat_pri_armour 3, 3, 5, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_ground 1, 0, 1, 0
stat_mental 6, normal, untrained

They aren't very good. But will serve.


If you check stat_pri_attr, you will see that it does not have "spear", "light_spear" or the like. There's nothing. This means your spearmen don't have some magic defense against charging cavalry, anymore than vanilla RTW swordsmen do.

But wait, let's check a better unit, the Vassal Men-at-arms. They're a good bit harder to train, but how do they perform...

soldier armoured_spearman_aor, 35, 0, 0.8
officer feudal_foot_knight_aor
mount_effect horse +3
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, very_hardy, mercenary_unit
formation 1.1, 1.6, 1.5, 1.6, 4, square
stat_pri 1, 8, no, 0, 0, melee, blade, piercing, spear, 10 ,0.4
stat_pri_attr no
stat_pri_armour 8, 4, 6, metal
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_ground 0, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 10, normal, trained

They have a mount_effect. That +3 means they essentially get +3 attack against horsemen. You can also see they have better morale, which can be handy.


Let's compare how they do against a knight. Some of the most dangerous enemies we will face are the AI's family members' bodyguards, which should be almost always heavy elite knights.

Apellidos: Attack of 1, Defense of 10
It loses 1 point of armor to the knight's AP

Vasall MAA: Attack of 5, Defense of 15
It has +3 mount effect. Starts off with XP 1, instead of 0
Potentially it could also be upgraded for another +1 attack. (Apellidos cannot have their attack upgraded.)
It loses 4 points of armor to the knight's AP, starts with XP 1


When fighting non-AP infantry, attack is 1 to 2, but defensewise it is 11 to 19. (But Defenses are back to 11 vs 15 against a AP footmen). Not so great...



What can we see from this? If an enemy knight is charging your lines with an attack+charge of value 38 or something, both units will be pretty wrecked. Unfortunately even after that, life continues to hurt for our footmen, because they have somewhere from 1 to 4 or 5 attack, but the knight can have 30+ defense. In comparison, the infantry have 10 to 15 defense against knights with attack of 6 to 12 (for the AI's really elite knights).
==This is before any AI bonus, the AI has +8 attack on all units as I am using Very Hard battle difficulty.
==Our knights will have attack from 6 to 10+ (yes, we will have XP 5+ knights). They will also gain the equivalent of 7 attack (the amount of armor they bypass with AP). This is much better.


The best way to deal with an enemy's knightly charge is basically to sacrifice something. After that, you really want to get AP weapons on them, or simply a very high value attack. Our own knights have both of these, charging the enemy in the back especially helps bypass even more of their defenses. But those poor infantry...


As a note, the Apellidos will tend to run away if you just let them get wasted. To prevent this, ideally you have a general with high command and a bunch of +morale traits/ancillaries. As well, I use what I call the "assault column", where you meet a unit of horse with two or three units that are very deep, with narrow frontage. This way, only a small fraction of each unit is destroyed in the charge, making life much easier for them. You can also "double/triple stack" (units on top of one another) to increase soldier density, and again, distribute the knightly kills across more units, making it easier for them to stand and fight.

Here, let me show you what it looks like...

This was a siege assault (the AI will attack if it is defending one of these castles**) so I went one better and had all the rams, which obstruct the knights...

If you counted the banners, that is indeed 13 units of spearmen. And the enemy has only one unit of household knights (elite) and another of mercenary knights (only 1 XP think). This was something like 50 knights just charging into 910 infantry... (I actually of course ended up killing them with my own knights, but still, they could have won, though at pretty great cost)

This isn't like human wave attacks, don't wait for guys to start dying, it is much safer to just send in everyone. If people start routing, your "reserves" will probably do so as well. Send all the units in so that none of them take so many hits they rout.

Since your general might be fighting the enemy in the middle of a sea of spearmen, hitting the "rally" ability also helps. You can rally to increase morale before units break, it might help to hit it just after (not sure if you can use it to add morale before any is lost...) the unit absorbs a charge.


**This was due to the "new" Steam version of RTW being bugged or something. The AI should not be running out of the castle.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 3: 

Chapter 3: Gather Your Party Before You Venture Forth

Sancho: Doubtless we will need more organizational capacity, seeing as we just doubled our kingdom's lands in a single year.
Sancho: I think we need to find some "help".
Garcia: I know just the person from among my knights. I would trust him even to command my other knights.
Sancho: Well then, bring him in and let us see... oh wait, I think I know the one you are referring to.
Garcia: Yes, I speak of Lope, of the Antolinez family.
Sancho: I definitely approve.

For whatever reason, the english/grammar here is really odd, so I'll just rewrite it a bit (to fit the story)

This nobleman is a close member of the Royal Household, a vasall fit to keep his own retinue. His name is well-known and encourages men under his command in battle.

Almost always, such nobles are not of royal blood, and came into the household by marriage or for other merits. They are at somewhat of a disadvantage compared to Royal Knights when it comes to the Royal Court, and of course the most highly born ladies.

These members of the Royal Household must strive to gain influence, however securing a privileged position in the Royal Court, government or even as a commander is within reach.

Note that I think every "character" with a Household Knight unit is either a Royal Knight or such a High Noble knight.

This member is not a member of the current Royal Court, but a member of the provincial nobility. Despite this, he is a member of the Royal Household due to his family's influence or his personal service to the crown.

Although he is highborn, his chances of entering the inner circles of power are not the best, at the moment...

Sancho: While we can entrust him to watch over our homes, we will go into the enemy's!

Garcia: I'm starting to see a pattern here...
Sancho: Do tell!
Garcia: The enemy attacks the infantry, then we come in from the sides and finish them off.

Sancho: Yes, in an age ago, people strategically positioned themselves before charging in.
Garcia: And why is this "Muslim" leader wearing our style of armor?

Sancho: Who cares? I think it will fit the new member of our household though?
Garcia: If it isn't too badly damaged...

Sancho: It appears to take between 5 and 6 footmen to down a knight.
Sancho: Meanwhile, one of us can take down three enemy knights.
Garcia: This is good to know,... er, wait is something wrong with that wall.

Sancho: Apparently this building radiates anti-Christian energy. To the tune of -5% conversion.
Garcia: How does that even work?
Sancho: Something about the unhealthy eastern-style architecture. Doesn't sit right on the Spanish landscape.
Garcia: Then have it demolished and build a proper Aragonese tavern.

Garcia: Oh, and about that tactic we were discussing in the middle of heavy armored combat...

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 4: 

Chapter 4: It Was For A Cruise Liner

Garcia: We've always been at war with the Moors, why do they suddenly want peace?
Sancho: Er, look up a bit.

Garcia: Oh.
Aa: Like animals that supposedly know when an earthquake is going to arrive, they sense a Final Defeat.
Garcia: Er, yes... well it is good of you to join us.
Sancho: Our men are just about to begin the assault!

Aa: You probably know, but watch out for those imitation knights.
Sancho: We will advance with shields up, I assure you.

Garcia: Oh, she's gone.
Sancho: Well this shouldn't be too hard, then.
Garcia: Anyway, what I was saying earlier...

Sancho: Goodness man, weren't you paying attention?
Garcia: I already knew we were invading. It's been a back-and-forth war with them from before our fathers' fathers even picked up a sword.
Sancho: I wasn't talking about that.
Garcia: Then what were you talking about?

Sancho: You haven't figured it out yet? She's the difference that will break the strategic stalemate.
Garcia: Your faith is inspiring... We beat the odds in that one battle, but these things happen.

Sancho: Your thinking is too constrained, like a guard who thinks a castle is all about defending the walls.
Garcia: Then explain how exactly our Kingdom is going to... wait, you aren't actually planning to march all the way into the heart of Moorish Spain, are you?

Sancho: No, I hadn't thought of that. The Lady did.

Garcia: Did she share any other plans?
Sancho: Something about shipping lanes down the coast of Iberia, I don't really know.
Garcia: Aren't the biggest Muslim population centers down the south side of Spain?

Garcia: I'm starting to have concerns about this.
Sancho: Yeah I brought it up, but she was certain that "enough Apellidos" would be sufficient.
Garcia: How many is enough?
Sancho: She said to bring everyone.
Sancho: I don't really get it, though. Just between us.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 5: 

Chapter 5: Not Enough Knights

Garcia: And while Sancho is busy pacifying the population of Murcia, here we are pushing even further into Moor territory.
Officer: My lord, we've spotted what appears to be a force of Muslim infantry approaching!
Garcia: It seems we're lucky to have caught them off guard.

Aa: There are a number of enemy heavy cavalry approaching.
Aa: In particular, the local lord has raised a force of professional heavy cavalry; Granadine Lancers.
Garcia: Can we get away before they catch us?
Aa: What? They will take some time to get here, so you can defeat them all.

Garcia: Well, that's what she said, and it's an excellent strategy.
Officer: All infantry, into the forest!
Garcia: Knights, follow me!

Knight: Do Muslims use javelins as melee weapons?
Garcia: No, they also have swords!

Garcia: Put them to the sword, we must hurry to the infantry before the real fight begins!

The knights gallop into the forest, still ready to give battle.

Apellidos: Shh, you're going to ruin the ambush.
Garcia: They're already charging towards you, stand up and raise your shields!

Garcia: I will take down those lancers, you lead your knights and help the spears against the enemy lord.
Garcia: I will join you when I can.

Garcia: Charge!
Knight: Watch out for that tree----!


However, Garcia's charge was not sufficient. The forest disadvantaged both sides' horsemen, however Garcia's force had less mounted troops and a lot more footmen.

The fight was raging in the forest's shade, and both spearmen and knight were falling to the enemy's elite.

Apellidos1: Now, men! Surround the enemy and thrust them through!
Apellidos2: For Aragon!

When the Muslim leader realized his lancers were no where to be found, it was too late. Garcia's knights were bloodied from the ecounter but victorious, rejoining the battle with new lances.

Garcia: It's the end for you!!!

Garcia: Yearrrgggghhh!!!
Apellidos: The day is ourrrsssss!!

Officer: What now, my Lord?
Garcia: Now, it is time to...
Garcia: To...
Officer: ??

[demagogos nicator]

NIce, keep it up.

[Alavaria]

Spoiler for Chapter 6: 

Chapter 6: The Morning After

Garcia: Ugh, what happened last night. I must have been drinking too much.
Knight: My lord are you up?

Garcia: Yes, what is it?
Fernando: Some commotion outside of the city.
Garcia: Where's my squire...

As he stepped outside, the smoke from pits of burning corpses hung over the Granada like a dark cloud.

Garcia: Ugh.
Aa: Hu hu, what possessed you to do that?
Garcia: Wasn't it you?
Aa: No, though it's certainly like me.
Garcia: It's certainly not like me.
Aa: Not true. Anymore, at least.

Aa: Do you know what happens when you rely on the power of a being like me?
Garcia: No.
Aa: Your thinking is too constrained, like a guard-
Garcia: Who thinks a castle is all about defending the walls?
Aa: Hmmm, I see.
Aa: Well, anyway off with you...

Garcia: At least we can hold this settlement, if only barely maintain order...
Garcia: No, I don't think that will work, actually...
Fernando: Something the matter with the castle walls my lord?
Garcia: Tell me, have our scouts found any "holy places" nearby?
Fernando: No, they looked but could not find anything matching your description.
Garcia: *sigh* Then we have a problem.

(IE: This settlement will be either officially Muslim or Pagan, a major issue when the population turns massively Catholic over time)

Garcia: So what's the cause of the problem, did the people start rioting?
Fernando: Oh no, our public order is holding, if barely. I'd say 75%
Fernando: Rather, some dangerous extremists want to reclaim the city.
Garcia: What?! Form up the men immediately!
Fernando: Already done, we await only your order to move out.

Garcia: Oh, it's those jokers who were trying to javelin us in melee.
Fernando: Even though those shields look like the ones a bunch of levied peasants might use, those stats are pretty nasty.

The elite infantry of the Almoravid was the "Black Guard". Their 'successors' - the Almohad - used almost the same elite units, albeit under a different name. They are armed with heavy javelins and towershields, chainmail, turban helmets and swords.

Combined with good training they make up one of the most lethal infantry units on the Iberian peninsula.

They cannot stand up to western heavy cavalry, but are superior to and feared by any infantry unit the Christian kingdoms can field.

Garcia: They're throwing javelins! Men, use your shields!
Bannerknight: My banner will protect me!
Garcia: Really...?
Bannerknight: I think I have the same defensive stats as all the other knights.
Garcia: Do you also use that banner to charge?
Bannerknight: No, do you have a lance hidden somewhere?

Garcia: Er, no. Actually, why DO I only have a sword?
Bannerknight: For Aragon!!

Bannerknight: Oh look, this is in magnificent shape, well, after the lance-holes are mended.
Garcia: What have you got there?

Bannerknight: Why, it is a Captured Banner!
Garcia: I heard you like banners, why not try dual-wielding them?
Bannerknight: These are the honorable colors of our kingdom, that is the sign of a defeated enemy.
Bannerknight: They are very different!

Garcia: Fernando, here's a promotion present. A Captured Banner!
Fernando: I'm honored! One of my knights will be sure to display it prominently when we fight Muslims who might recognize it.

And thus was started a noble Aragonese tradition*.

Sancho: I'm so glad you could join me.
Garcia: Where are your men?
Sancho: What men, everyone was with you?
Garcia: You didn't get more reinforcements?
Sancho: I did, they joined you at Granada.
Garcia: So that means, that that massive force...

Garcia: You have GOT to be kidding me.


* Giving captured banners and shields was considered to be a very noble gift from one warrior to another.

[Alavaria]

Chapter 7: Rest For The Wicked

Sancho: This isn't the time for fear!
Sancho: You two, lead your knights to the left and stop that cavalry trying to flank us.

Garcia: What should my knights do?
Sancho: Hang back for a bit, I want you to be -sure- those horse are defeated before you join the front.
Sancho: And watch my back, I'm going to test their flanks.

Garcia: You spearmen, hurry to the left and attack those cavalry.
Garcia: ... the Muslims seem to have a lot of horsemen, what's going on there?

Garcia: This must've been what Sancho was planning for, in that case...
Garcia: Knights, charge those enemy horsemen!

Sancho: How come there are so many horsemen?
Sancho: If they are here, then were are all the other...

Garcia: Don't try and run away now!!
Sancho: Oh, running from Garcia's knights?
Sancho: Men, attack the enemy, we'll crush them between us!

Sancho: Run down anyone not wearing our colors!
Sancho: They mustn't be allowed to return to Toledo!

Sancho: Hey, some of them are still fighting?
Apellidos: Return of the King! Hurrah!

Bannerknight: Hopefully no one notices I lost my banner staff and just put it on a spare lance instead...
Fernando: Hey, you with the banner!
Bannerknight: Ah... what is it?
Fernando: What happened to the knight carrying the Muslim banner Lord Garcia gifted me?
Knights: ... we better go look for it. Him.

Yet another devastating victory against the unbelieving! Even as the soldiers were celebrating, Garcia considered soberly the extreme casualty rate among the infantry, which passed 50%.

Garcia: Sancho, I think we may run into some issues soon.
Sancho: Such as?
Garcia: Several of our latest -acquisitions- are unstable, and furthermore, we face a shortage of soldiers.
Sancho: The first has been planned for, the second is not actually an issue.

Garcia: We're losing hundreds of men in each major battle, how is that not an issue?
Sancho: Haven't you realized, our population is much greater than that.
Sancho: And when we take control of a major settlement, that increases our potential pool of warriors.
Garcia: How does that work?!

Sancho: It only takes a Tavern & Mercenary camp. About 18 months to set up, and then each major settlement can train and equip a fresh unit of Apellidos every 6 months.
Sancho: Right now, we lose men about as fast as their replacements arrive. But in time, this trend will swing greatly in our favor.
Garcia: I think... no, I'm sure this Aa is not an angel of our salvation.
Sancho: It took you that long to figure out?
Garcia: You said she was going to protect the Kingdom!
Sancho: No. I said she would bring us Final Victory.

Garcia: You're insane! She's taking advantage of you, somehow...

Sancho: I don't think you should say that...
Sancho: Look within yourself, have you done anything against your earlier self recently?

Garcia: You-- what's going on?

Sancho: Apparently you weren't through enough at Granada, the unbelievers have revolted.
Sancho: Perhaps you are not ready to deal with their Muslim magics...

Sancho: Go and pacify Murcia, and don't forget what I said about the taverns...

Garcia: (grumbling) How can wateringholes possibly lead to an army fit for a Kingdom?

[Alavaria]

Chapter 8: A Rebellion?

Sancho: Well, here we are. Let us put down this revolt and be done with it.
Officer: My lord, a significant Muslim force is approaching from the west!
Sancho: Oh? Well...

Sancho: Oh my, it seems I have underestimated how organized the Moors are. These was no revolt, it was a counterattack!
Officer: I only see infantry...
Sancho: Those footsoldiers with the fancy shields aren't your usual rebel scum.

Sancho: They have also brought along large contingents of these "skirmishers", who fight as wel as our Apellidos.
Sancho: We musn't make any mistakes in positioning, or their javelins will end us.

The actual "rebels" were easily put down. Garcia had done good work in ensuring that Garcia's military capability had been largely neutralized.

While this was happening, the other noble knights were seeing to the infantry's defensive lines.

Despite having somewhat of an advantage in numbers, Sancho had decided to form up his men on a gentle slope, and let them wait for the enemy to come to them.

Indeed, the enemy general, a vasall of some Moorish lord or another, saw an easy victory and charged ahead with his fanatical warriors.

When they saw that Sancho had even more knights in reserve, they were shocked.

The charge of those knights was awesome, and the enemy broke, leaving their leader on the point of a lance.

Sancho: Really, perhaps I underestimated our enemies in some ways...
Sancho: But in others I must have esteemed them too highly!

Sancho: It seems even putting everyone to the sword is not enough!
Sancho: We shall have to deal with this pernicious growth of weeds at the source.
Officer: By doing what?
Sancho: We will have to go everywhere and put everyone to the sword, of course.
Officer: Ah, right. I should've thought of that myself...

Fernando: Wait a moment, did we drop that Captured Banner again?

[Alavaria]

Chapter 9: Resistance

Sancho: You know, men...
Knights: What about?
Sancho: These mercenary "knights", it somehow seems rather backwards, you know?

Knights: Do explain.
Sancho: They fight for money, how is that knightly?
Sancho: I mean sheesh, where did these ones even come from, and now they're fighting for the Moors?

Scout: Moorish Jinetes are trying to flank us!
Sancho: Looks like you're up. Take them down and return quickly.
Sancho: Try not to engage the enemy army by yourself, too...

Sancho: Wait, those mercenary knights are on our right!
Sancho: All knights to the right flank, attack!

Sancho: What a shame, dying on some battlefield for Moorish coin they'll never see.
Sancho: It is time to loot the field, and claim our prize!

Sancho: And finally the Moorish invasion is over. Granada is ours again.
Sancho: As I was saying, being a knight is not about the weapons, armor or even horse.
Sancho: It's about loyalty and honor, and---

Scout: My lord, Granada has just...
Sancho: You have GOT to be... what the hell is with this place?!


(More on knights and mercenaries to come later)

[tomySVK]

Great to see the new ChivTW AAR! I will follow it

Also I just find out that the 1.07 Patch was released, I just played the 1.051 Patch. I must try it

[Alavaria]

Chapter 9: Don't Cross The Conversion Energy Streams

Sancho: I am beginning to suspect we may need some type of heavy spearmen.
Sancho: What am I thinking--- we have lots of elite knights here.

Soldiers: Push the ram!
Sancho: This is quite a formidable castle.

Sancho: Wait, why are the enemies attacking us?!
Sancho: That screen a while ago said "your forces attack" not "the enemy sallies forth"!!


(This is actually due to Steam versions of RTW being "patched" which made the AI behave really badly.
In some cases this helps the player, though not always.
For one, I'm pretty familiar with the siege defense AI, so having it charge out actually "got" me in one instance...
I also have a different RTW-BI.exe from a CD, so I reverted to that later on)

Sancho: Don't try and ram the enemy knights with that, use your spears!
Soldiers: Drop the ram!
Sancho: Knights, disengage and follow me, the enemy must have some tricks prepared...

They did not have tricks prepared.

Sancho: So bold and so foolish...
Sancho: Then again, they might have been intending to take me down while the men were lagging behind with the siege engines...

Sancho: But in case they had planned ahead...
Sancho: Men, take them out back and end them.

After that, they returned to Mercia, cementing the peace and quiet by ensuring that a higher fraction of the population followed the appropriate faith.

How exactly a large group of heavily armed knights did that is... undocumented.

Sancho: Of all the things, wait what?
Sancho: "shows the degree to which Islamic science has surpassed all others"?
Sancho: And how does this magical number ultimately help them to attain victory?
Garcia: I don't think that's the point of it...
Sancho: Exactly.

Pictured: Syracuse Strategic Mobile Heavy Anti-Fortress Artillery Corps (SSMHAFAC)
Archimedes brand siege engines, for all your wall-breaking needs

Sancho: Now have our people work on something like miniature artillery, that will bring us victory!!!

Sancho: And by the way Garcia, do you have any idea what is wrong with the people at Granada?
Garcia: It's probably because their Governors's Palace radiates 5% Muslim and 5% Pagan conversion.
Garcia: It seems this occurs without any Holy Places feeding these effects.
Garcia: Furthermore, there's no place to construct churches that might counteract this with Christian conversion energy.
Sancho: What the hell...
Garcia: Er, isn't that what you said?
Sancho: No, I didn't look at the palace in Granada.

Sancho: That was odd... well anyway, to the more immediate concerns.
Sancho: Just to be safe, I have begun assigning some light Jinetes to perform scout duty.
Sancho: They are less obvious, faster and also less expensive than heavily armed knights.
Jinetes: My lord, the enemy--!

Sancho: Of course. Not that being repeatedly totally defeated would ever stop these maniacs.
Sancho: Make ready for battle.

Sancho: For like the fourth time in front of Granada...

[tomySVK]

Great update, the picture of RS II Syracusans was a great suprise

[Alavaria]

Just another campaign I am playing.

The stories are linked, though it only is apparently a bit later on (the history follows from the Sparta/Syracuse campaign)

[Alavaria]

Chapter 10: Granada Falls ... Again

Sancho: We really need to do something about this.
Sancho: Where are the Moors getting all these soldiers?!

Officer: My lord, we have arrived with reinforcements!
Sancho: At least we, too, have plenty of men ready for battle.
Sancho: Get into the line and prepare!

Sancho: Really, we are fortunate that they cannot use light cavalry well against heavy cavalry.

Sancho: Of much more pressing concern is the fact they seem to have... "teched up" and are able to train standing units of heavy horse.
Sancho: Or so she says. In that area, we still hold the advantage!

Sancho: We have wasted several years on Granada, is this one damned city worth it?

Knight: Can't we just destroy the city once and for all?
Sancho: No. Actually we can't even reduce the population any more than we are about to.
Knight: But why?!
Sancho: Beats me.


(Granada is now at 413 population. You can only bring population down to 400)

Clerk: While construction and recruitment continue at maximum speed, the treasury also continues to grow!
Clerk:
Garcia: Excellent, we wouldn't want to start having shortages in the middle of a major war!
Clerk: The estimates King Sancho asked for: we should be clear for a few more years given current income and earmarked funds.

Garcia: ... will we really need all those men to fight the Moors?
Garcia: What about distributable land?
Clerk: King Sancho forbade us from trying to divide the new lands into fiefs.
Garcia: I see...

Sancho: Did you make SURE to kill all the enemies we took down?
Knight: Yes, we definitely made doubly sure to finish them off!
Sancho: Excellent. It's bad enough they seem to constantly raise more men, without anyone we defeat rejoining them.
Knight: Your ruthlessness in combating the Moorish threat greatly encourages us!

Sancho: And what is this?
Jinetes: An undamaged Muslim crossbow!
Sancho: Don't we already have crossbow technology?
Jinetes: Perhaps, but we can't yet raise units of crossbowmen?
Sancho: Why?
Jinetes: Lord Garcia said it would require a Siege Workshop?

(Yep, crossbowmen appear in Siege Workshops. Archers, not as good, appear in taverns)


Sancho: Siege engines would be useful.
Sancho: However, our new strategy will be put into play today!
Knight: What are your orders, my king?

Sancho: We are going to rush though the Moor lands and kill literally every Moor we see.
Sancho: And burn all their buildings and so on. This will cripple their ability to resist.

Sancho: Move out!


(While running back and forth in the south of Spain, my last acquisitions have completed Taverns, and are beginning to train masses of Apellidos. Spear militia take two turns, but Apellidos are slightly better on top of only taking one turn to train. Soon enough...)