[M2TW AAR] Jolly good: An English Succession game AAR [56k oh no]

[zarg]

I'm currently playing a succession game of Medieval on another forum I frequent, and I figured it would make a good AAR. For those of you that dont know, a succession game is basically turn based co-op Total War.

The first player starts a game, picks a faction to play, and plays like they normally would until their faction leader dies in battle/from old age/gets assassinated/whatever. That player then sends the save file to the next person in line, who plays the game as the former users heir. They play until their leader dies, and then pass the save along. This way everyone plays out the life of their leader, and together we can try and take over the entire map.

Forgive me if the intro is a little brief, but heres the first go, written by me to let everyone know our starting point. I'll post updates as they are finished by our team in the second post of this thread. Some will be image heavy and others will be text heavy, since we have a few different authors. We are playing on medium campaign, very hard battle.

Our Faction:

We are playing as jolly old England. We exceed at shooting things from a long way away, and hitting them with bent sticks up close. Heres our starting towns.



As you can see by the mini map, we have very little of the known world, so we have a ways to go. Since our leader is pretty old I wont have long to play. I plan to try and take the British Isles before he dies, and leave the next person with a solid base to attack Europe from. So without further ado, our family. (Leaders and direct heirs only please)

Family Tree:

Came to power turn 1 - Died on turn 23


Came to power turn 23


Heir to the Throne

[zarg]

Updates! This first one is written by me. I only had 23 turns, as William was old when we started, but heres a brief update.

The beginning of Empire: William the Pretty-Mean

Williams first priority was the capture of York to the north. With the aid of his son Rufus to head up the army, this was completed in record time. York was taken and occupied on the second turn of the game.



With York no longer a threat, Rufus moved north immediately, his existing forces bolstered by 4 groups of mailed knights that Williams Nobel's awarded him for the capture of York. The next people to feel England's steel were the Scotts. Rufus sieged Edinburgh, and began to prepare to assault the city.

However his plans were halted by a marauding army of several hundred Scotts, who attempted to break the siege by assaulting Rufus and his men, while their king lead an attack on Rufus' unguarded flank. Even though Rufus was out numbered more than two to one, the battle did not end well for Malcom, or any of his men.



With Malcom slain in battle, Rufus and his few remaining knights were faced with three hundred angry Scotts. This proved to be a surmountable challange for Rufus, who handily dispached the remaining horde of infantry and cavalry with less than 50 men.



With the battle won Rufus gained a short reprieve to asses the spoils. Well over a hundred prisoners were his, but not a one was allowed to leave the English camp alive.



With this battle, the Scotts were eliminated, never to be seen again. However the remaining men that retreated from our spears have dug in in Ediburgh, and are too powerful for what is left of the English army. Rufus retreats to York to retrain and re-enforce his men.

With the North pacified and only a few rebles left, William turns his attention to the French Coastline. His Castle at Caen will serve well enough as a staging point for an invasion of the mainland, and he soon takes the rebel settlements along the coast. Rennes is the first to fall, and is sacked by our men.



A husband is taken into our family, but he quickly develops into something other than what we had expected. Utterly insane? Thats fantastic...



With our men to the north at full force once again, Rufus assaults Edinburgh and wins will few losses. The rebels that now live there have their city ransacked for their gold before order is restored.



With only a few small settlements left in rebel hands on the Isles, William seizes another town along the coast. This time Bruges is taken, and quickly ransacked.



However, William never receives the news, as he died within the year. England is perched on the edge of Europe, with a solid foothold. Who knows what Rufus can bring our people as the new crowned king?





Heres a quick rundown of how we did. Taken the last turn I was in power.



Land control before:



Land control after:



So we stand as the single most powerful nation in the world, with a profit of over 5000 bucks a turn, and we own much of the French coast and the British Isles. We also have huge garrisons in all our vulnerable towns, and 2 large standing armys for invading north and south. Not bad for 20 turns I'd say 8)

And just a quick note, I'm pretty sure France is about to siege Caen, so be careful. They are allied with a large amount of people, so its going to be a hard fight if they attack you. We are allied with the Danes, but if memory serves France is allied with Milan, Venice, Sicily, Portugal, the Moors, and a few other people if you factor in alliance chains.

Another update should be avalible soon.

[Faelan]

That is a pretty neat idea for playing a campaign. Being a TW noob (and mostly RTS noob) I've never heard of 'Succession' games.

[zarg]

That is a pretty neat idea for playing a campaign. Being a TW noob (and mostly RTS noob) I've never heard of 'Succession' games.

Its a ton of fun. Its not something that eats up your whole week, and its kinda-sorta like TW multiplayer campaigns, which we all know we want. I'd compare it to e-mail chess. You play briefly, then send your progress off to a friend, who plays briefly, then sends it to another friend.

In this game 3 of us are playing, so you should see updates from all of us fairly regularly. I was speaking with the guy who took over for me today, and Rufus is dead, so he will be sending off the save to the third player today or tomorrow. His update should be up by tomorrow, or at the latest Thursday.

[Faelan]

In this game 3 of us are playing, so you should see updates from all of us fairly regularly. I was speaking with the guy who took over for me today, and Rufus is dead, so he will be sending off the save to the third player today or tomorrow. His update should be up by tomorrow, or at the latest Thursday.

Sweet, I'll definately be paying attention to this thread.

[Pjoo]

Pissing off pope and such would be nice :

[zarg]

Second and third update are up. The second guy wasnt aware he was supposed to actually put some effort into this, so forgive his update being lackluster. I'm up next so I should have something interesting for you by early next week.

Alright so the condition given in.

We have 15 territories, and should be able to eliminate France shortly. We need to watch the East, as Portugal seems pretty aggressive right now.

We are in a strong position with 8,500 profit per turn, but no standing armies. We have the facilitys and money to muster some state of the art troops quickly should we need to. All our cities currently have very strong garrisons to make up for the lack of relief troops.

We were recently excommunicated due to our attacks on France, but the Pope died very shortly after denouncing us, so we are back in the good graces of the papacy.

We are allies with Poland and the Holy Roman Empire, and together they hold six of the cardinal college seats and are reasonably strong, but nothing compared to England. Right now we are the strongest overall compared to anyone. The Mongols blow compared to us, bring that **** on.

Our army generals are veterans from many battles, however they fall easily to assassins and spies as we have little amount of agents trained in subterfuge.

However never fear, soon an age that will benefit our sea power well and will ensure our domination of land.

I'll have some pictures for his update soon, (land control, faction summary) but he cant convert the .tga's himself so I'll have to do it for him later. I'll edit this post once I get them.

An update! With pictures!

All was well when the pope died (I swear it wasn't me). The new pope looks favorably on us. However, he's a bit pissed at the Danes. I am too.

The bastards decided to build up a ...well, alright army, I guess. I didn't want to move anyone out of Antwerp, as those guys are pissy as is, so I assembled an entirely cavalry army from Bruges and moved on the Danes.

I don't have any before shots, so I'll show you the after.

The Danish army consisted of four teams of trebuchet, a squad of crossbowmen, four squads of spearmen, and their general amongst 20 heavy cavalry.

The English army consisted of their General mounted alongside 20 other mounted knights (I think) and another... 8 or 9 squads of heavy cavalry.

The computer seemed to think the forces were evenly matched.

The Danes deployed on top of a hill with all trebuchets aimed down into the valley.

The English deployed entirely to the right hand side.

While the trebuchets struggled to realign themselves the heavy cavalry moved up the hill, while the general stayed behind. Once the first flaming rock went flying overhead (****! the trebuchets can move in this game?) the cavalry broke into a sprint and charged headfirst into the poor crew manning the closest trebuchet. They died.

So did the crossbowmen. And the spearmen behind them. The general, seeing this, decided to try a tactical retreat. He died. The next three trebuchet crews routed and were mopped up.


(I'll give you a hint, we're the guys on horses.)


In fact, the only squad to make it out with more than half their men remaining was the generals bodyguard, who left their general to die.



A very bloody battle all told.


Thirsty for more, our commander noticed a group of rebels near Paris. Quick! Scrape together an army to take them on!

The general and his army of 6 squads of heavy cavalry, four dismounted knights (or three squads of them and one other... I can't remember. Look at the collection of unit cards I post at the bottom), and a squad of the crowns finest archers (seriously, these guys were awesome) challenged to rebel brigand.

They retreated. To another of my territories.

Our general pressed on and we entered battle (with a 5:2 power ratio).

Opposing our army we had one squad of peasant archers (they actually killed one guy), four of spearmen, and one of heavy cavalry.


The attackers (that's us) deployed looking down a hill in a very basic archers, footmen, cavalry ranked formation. The cavalry squads split into two groups of three while the general stayed put. One group went west, fast, the other went east, fast. Set up to flank the enemy, and our opponents were struck with indecision.

Our archers moved up and opened fire on the peasant archers who were too busy taunting us to fire back.

The battle was on. The opposing spearmen started to charge our archers, but were met with a counter charge by our knights. The cavalry swooped in from both sides and surrounded the rebels.

The battle was over very quickly as the rebels fled and were mopped up by our esteemed cavalry (God I love those guys).



Our losses?

That's 4 cavalry, 6 melee infantry, and 1 archer who was shot by the peasant archers.


As for the state of the kingdom? Well I'm trying hard as hell to build as much as I can while keeping the population happy, which is turning out to be rather hard. I prefer the military side anyway.

So sorry if this update was a bit lackluster. I'll be playing a bit this weekend and aim to have an update ready next week. My current plan to is to see if Portugal pulls any funny business, and if they do wipe them out, then move through Spain into Africa. Should be fun

[Angmar_nite]

It has battle screens unlike yours!!!

JK

It wasn't that bad though. Better than me whos to lazy to do this shiz

[zarg]

Update #4: **** the Pope

With a much larger kingdom now ours, Aelfgar begins to muster his forces to move east and south. Several years pass, and soon English armies are knocking at the gates of their neighbors.

Among the first to fall is the Danish Castle of Hamburg. Our troops are fresh, and state of the art. Without bothering to stop to build siege equipment, our general pushes forward into battle.

The English deploy to the far south of the Castle, catching the Danes off guard. The English Trebuchets and Bombards smash through the enemy walls before the Danes have a chance to reorient.

As the Danish defensive force comes into position to plug the gap, the English load their Trebuchets with festering cows, to destroy the effectiveness of the defenders.



Once the way is cleared by artillery, our men march in and occupy the outer keep, allowing our artillery to reposition to assault the inner walls. Soon enough these too fall, and our men make quick work of the plagued defenders that hide within.



With the Danes now largely confined to the north, a second English army begins sweeping south towards one of the last French territory's, while a second drives past them to attack Milan at Dijon. The French castle is taken quickly, forcing the entire French population to hide in fear of our men in Frankfurt.

As our third army moves on Dijon, they spot a full stack defending the town. This poses little problem for our men, as the Milanese are notorious for their large, yet unwieldy armies. Our men continue forward, and soon are within striking range of the town. However, in a surprise move the Milanese move their full stack from the city, and assault our troops, while a second full stack attacks us from the forest nearby. Our men are now outnumbered 2:1 and must take to the field, with no chance of retreat from the ambush.



The English general knows he must rout the first army before the second fully joins the battle, or weight of numbers will turn the tide. To accomplish this our troops take a position high on the hill, and run our cavalry into the nearby forest to hide. Our longbows take aim and begin to slaughter the Milanese as they make their way up the muddy slope.



By the time the enemy reaches our line their numbers have been thinned enough for our infantry to charge and hold the whole of the first force.



Our cavalry quickly wheels around behind their men, and cuts them to ribbons. With one army broken with almost no losses, the second poses no challenge and is similarly routed and run down.



With the Milanese defense destroyed, Dijon is taken almost without a fight. As impressive a victory as this is, the Pope is not impressed.



Aelfgar decides to change targets to the French once more, in an effort to appease the pope. He quickly sends his army down from the now pacified Hamburg, to begin the siege of Frances last colony, Frankfurt.

Before our men arrive however, the French prince sends a messenger to our king. "Eliminate my father and we can lead our people to victory together!"

OK



With the French king stuck wondering how a dagger ended up in his back, his son gains the reigns of power, and begins his long and profitable rule of France.

For one turn.

Frankfurt is captured, sacked, and the newly crowned king executed that same year.





As little as the Pope was pleased by our attacks on Milan, he somehow finds our adventures in the French countryside even less amusing, and Excommunicates us.



As if this wasn't bad enough, he also calls a crusade on Toulouse, one of our citadels, and is shown an outpouring of support. Hungary, Sicily, Milan, Venice, and Denmark all join the crusade, and send full stacks to attack our defenses.

Well, **** that.

The garrison is quickly bolstered to a thousand men, and a second and third thousand are quickly re routed to assist in the guarding the our land. Our most promising general engages the largest army, that of our old friends the Milanese. Our 900 men face off against over three thousand crusaders in the largest battle yet fought.



Between an advantage of terrain, our ridiculously effective Retinue Longbowmen, and a solid mix of heavy cavalry and heavy infantry, England emerges victorious. Not only is the victory stunning, but the Milanese faction leader AND heir are killed in battle.

Next up is Denmark's crusader army, which had slipped by and assaulted Toulouse. Significantly larger than the defending force, but not by much, they quickly form up under withering fire from our archers.



Their ram makes it to the gates, and quickly bashes it down. But oh, whats this? The Danish faction leader attacks to support his men? Our defenders at the gate slaughter his troops, and his bodyguard, but he refuses to rout. He literally fought to the man, and died amidst a forest of English steel.



So to summarize thus far, I'll let the standings do the talking:










I'll have more as I get time to play. Hope this tides you guys over

[baloudebeer]

It's a really nice AAR, I'd love to see some more!

[KIllerGecko]

Very nice! a funny note about crusades tho, in a campaign i was on, they put a crusade on england, before any of the people actually got there, i gave the region to france..... guess who got a whole boatload of crusades up its ***. good pics too!

[SOE digital]

Wow!. I'd never even heard of a Succession game untill I read this thread.
Awsome awsome awsome.
Really fun to read.

[Endymion21]

succesion games are great. I played a lot of civ4 and they are very common there even played a couple. Another way of playing them is to give everybody the same number of turns, this way everybody plays a couple of times

[Delexit]

Very very Cool,

keep it up m8

( i play UK as nutts )

[zarg]

Another way of playing them is to give everybody the same number of turns, this way everybody plays a couple of times

But then its not a succession game, your just taking turns


And good to hear everyones enjoying it. I should have one more fairly decent update ready soon enough, since Aelfgar is still pretty young. With any luck I can finish off Milan, Denmark, and most of the backstabbing Holy Roman Empire before my good ol king kicks the bucket.

[jaklei]

Could you post your "saved game" after each AAR?
it would be nice to play a different campaign withouth starting from scratch once in a while ^^

[zarg]

Could you post your "saved game" after each AAR?
it would be nice to play a different campaign withouth starting from scratch once in a while ^^

I'll see what I can do.

I played a bunch today. We are up to turn 147. My king is 52 years old, so I'll have a final update on his life once he croaks. Brief run down on whats up:

I eliminated Milan and the Holy Roman Empire, (they were the second most powerful nation in the world when they back stabbed me on turn 110 or so) and someone killed off Poland. Denmark is REALLY favored by the pope, so its taking me a long time to get their last few provinces on the mainland, since the damn pope keeps telling me to stop.

Speaking of the pope, hes ours The pope, as well as 6 of the cardinals are English. We have just under perfect relations with the papal states.

My next targets will be Hungary, Denmark, and Sicily all at once. If I move fast enough I can win before my king dies I doubt I will, since I need to take Jerusalem and I havnt even started on that, but I should at least have close to the 45 provinces we need, so the games almost done.

Oh, and we have about 5 very, very large standing armies, and still profit around 18k a turn

So tl;dr version: Full update coming, HRE and Milan have been crushed, we have the Papacy. We are rich and have almost won. 8)

[rawghi]

Great man! Great AAR!

[PurpleScotch]

Yea very good AAR!

[Henry v. Keiper]

That was a nice bit of backstabbing with the French you did. Funny how the real thing that brought down France was themselves.