[SS AAR] Taking Back Oslo, a Norway AAR For the New SSv.5
This is to promote the new stainless steel (despite its obvious bugs thus far, hopefully will be patched soon) and to work on my AAR skills. BTW: Here is a link to the parent post of this AAR series http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=130748
Going back to an Early Era campaign since facing a double naval invasion from Scotland and England AT THE SAME TIME was futile in the Late Era campaign, I found that our beloved capital Oslo belongs to Norse Rebels aka Evil Cousin Gotfred. Forces consist of 1- rookie viking raiders, mercenary spearmen, mercenary crossbowmen, mercenary axemen, merceneary vikings, crossbow militia and 2- spear militia. Gotfred's 4- experienced viking raiders and 3- groups of peasants they "persuaded" to use crossbows.
"My Prince, a letter from your father the great mauler King Haakon has arrived.", says a man trying to look civilized by viking standards.
"Ehugh, flamrhtyio, daehweewhtrrt hutqwehsa relyukkk!", demands a rather drunk Prince Magnus with a flushed face mead in hand.
With thoughts of disgust but not a sign upon his face the messenger recites the letter.
"Son, this is your father. Your Evil Cousin Gotfred has held our beloved drink and women of Oslo for far too long in his beardless clutches. I am too busy mauling the spies we have captured to lead our forces in taking back our home. Please go to Oslo and show him the business end of your axe. Love, Dad"
Taking his force by longboat, the now sober Prince meets with the forces of his father outside of Oslo and begins the siege.
A winter's night, the Prince decides to attack in the dark to lower the pointy stick casualty rate since they have the advantage of walls and towers. Look at that beautiful sky! Too bad snow didn't show up in the screen.
Ah there we go, take a lok at the "feasting hall" and moon in the background. Upon the left wall the Prince sends his fathers viking raiders and his own merry band of drunken mercenaries.
"Oh my Odin if we hadn't recently become Catholic! Put him out Put him out!"
"I'm tryin but im all outta juice!"
And with the sound of sizzling snow, the spear militia watch as the ram catches afire from Murundur's flaming corpse.
Berserker cries of rage take Gotfred's men by surprise on the right wall as the axemen chop them into little bits.
"Sire, the burly axemen seem to be assaulted on both sides, I am not sure they can hold out once the enemy get their footing." Warns the mentor.
"Signal them to defend position and pray the other side fares better. If those coward militiamen hadn't ran away we wouldn't....speaking of which send those men back home to my father with this letter, we will not tolerate cowards and I do love seeing their faces when they think they are coming home war heroes only to be viciously mauled. Now order the ram team to climb the ladders and aid the mercs." Don't mind the prince's English accent, thats how he sounds when he's sober....FIX THE SOUND!
Things were going better for the vikings on the left wall, here you also see the ram destroyed and no sign of the spear militia who were supposed to aid the axemen, because they fled as well. Then upon hearing the Prince's horn they went back up the walls....only to run away again.
"Curse Gotfred stealing our finest warriors when he took Oslo. Our own men are doing worse than the mercenaries! Crossbowmen, save them and if some get hit in the crossfire, well they have shields."
"My lord look! The Norwegian flag flies over the gates! The viking warriors are going to rescue the axemen!" Indeed, when you say guardmode they guard, those axemen would not budge and flee, by the time the viking mercs reached them there were 31 left, by the time the right wall caved there were 11. They stayed there alone for almost 20 mins.
Sending the spears for hire to aid the raiders who were getting royally whooped I sent the crossbowmen upon the battlements to fight with another group of crossbows. How do they like pointy stick death from above?
Magnus and the Svenners (also a rock band) here to charge through the gates! In the back you can see the last group of spear militia fleeing.
The peasents get what they deserve for serving Gotfred. Seeing a fresh group of the baddest viking warriors defending the square of flags, We do a 180 and assault the vikings fleeing the walls.
First the right side.....
Now the left side....look closly and you can see a man getting trampled. Our forces are now inside the city and Gotfred's personal guard are left with a few rag tag survivors left, so they must fight themself.
Gotfred leads the charge with his fully rested men, our men are exhausted and getting slaughtered by the more experienced foe. Guard this area!
Flanking......
queue silly British comedy music
"Grr just because I have a crossbow bolt lodged in ma shoulder doesn't mean i canna fight!"
"Oh sh!!!......"
"How do you like being surronded on both sides with no escape Gotfred! Maybe you can cry to the eleven axemen still breathing!" Roars Magnus as he leads the charge.
Screaming like a little lass Gotfred tries to run away.
"Gotfred!" Bellows Magnus with red eyes and spittle flying in a berserk fury. "It is time to pay for that bet, and yes my father did reach the northern castle before I reached the coastal town! Now then, time for long winded justice to be...."
Suddenly the Svenners rush and a orchestra of snapping bones erupts.
"Feasting halls!!!!!!! RAWWWWWWRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!"
After Action Report: The forces were actually about even since they were defending and had more experienced troops, plus my fleeing pansy militia. They could have won if the axemen failed to defend their part of the wall and those men could have attacked my other forces. I lost many men, with the exception of the mercenary spearmen who fought brilliantly losing only about 40 men.
With the right moves and a bit of luck we were able to take the walls opening up the castle for my archers and horsemen. After that it was simply a matter rounding up the enemy and not leaving the tired infantry to fight the last full unit that had been sitting in the square the whole battle....speaking of which if they were on the walls it might of been different for us....
If you enjoyed this AAR, then throw some rep my way! This battle was fun and felt like a real accomplishment. I honestly thought we would lose this battle as it was on VH difficulty, but I have been in worse situations. And this was only a rebel battle after all! The setting was beautiful, a perfect winter siege and the units actually acted like they should with militia not being too eager to fight and professional units fighting til the end. I did not expect my ram to get destroyed before the gate was broken and overall the fighting lasted the perfect amount of time for a good melee brawl.
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